For our one and only May 2011 review we're going to take a look at a recent addition to the slot car manufacturing arena, the MRSlotcar Mazda 787B 'Test car'. Now before I even get to the car let me clear up the name issue as I have heard the car referred to may times as the Mr. (Mister) Slotcar Mazda and I have been told that 'Mister' is incorrect. MR actually stands for Mossetti Racing, created by multi-time World Champion racer, now builder, Ernie Mossetti and his first release is in our hands for review. 

Now while the Mazda 787B might not be new to the slot racing community some of Mr. Mossetti's design ideas might be so without delay lets get a closer look at his creation and put it through it's paces!

When the MRSlotCar Mazda was first handed to me all I could think of is how lucky we are in this slot car hobby. Only a year or so ago I was one asking why no manufacturers have produced this car to current production standards and today we now have more than one. Some may ask if the timing of this release makes sense, what with a well know manufacturer already having this car available in multiple liveries, but for me I love that there are other options on the market and especially one that looks as if it has some serious technical potential. 

Taking the car out of the case requires turning a very 'NINCO-like' T-shaped holder. Sure this is a quick and easy release method although I have had these types of holders break in the past, sometimes even during shipping causing damage to a car inside of the case before it arrives to my house. Hopefully the material proves strong enough to avoid this but only time will tell.

The base itself is grayish in color and printed with the MRSlotcar.ca logo as well as a tiny printed Mazda 787B - 1991 'Test Car' graphic. Oddly I felt this to be very conservative, maybe humble, almost understated for a companies first slot car release with the writing not fully using all of the available space on the bases flat surface area.

What was sitting 'on' the base however seemed far more important to me so of course I was eager to get it a closer look before hitting the track.

My initial impression was favorable, the car looks ominous in all flat black with its bright red and contrasting white accents. The gold wheels, detailed tires and a plethora of hand applied parts keep the eyes busy for several moments looking at each and every detail. 



Of course with so much scrutiny comes finding slight flaws and with each little thing I discovered I had to remind myself to relax, this is a first time effort and I needed to keep that in mind as I considered how much and what to mention for this review. With that said here are the biggest issues I had with this particular test subject.

The first area of concern was a fit and finish matter, as the front windshield was not well fit in to the body. The images above and below are actually after I tried to correct it, as the bottom edge of the 'glass' has two small molded clear plastic 'pins' that are meant to fit in to tiny holes under the part yet both of these were not in the holes when it came out of the case. 



I did manage to reseat the right side above, popping off the wiper arm at one point attempting to get the raised left side in place however I was not able to get the left side to sit flush. Part of me wanted to keep trying but for fear of breaking it, or something else, I figured it was better than it was and under casual observation no one is really going to point it out.... it was strictly a product of checking it out as closely as I was.



The next area that caught my attention was the gold painted accenting on the lower body panels. Considering how simple of a paint job this is it was a little troubling to see a lack of crispness to the paint lines (below). The inside edge is jagged, less than opaque in a couple of very tiny areas so while it helps pull off the effect it does beg the question of will a more intricate body be tougher to produce? In any case some may not even care about this small detail but it stood out against the flat black to myself and others who were checking the car out for the first time like I was.



The next area, and this one was perhaps the most obvious, and that is that the rear wing on the car was no where close to being flat or even. The image below shows the car from the rear and clearly the wing leans heavily to one side. 



Of course trying to 'bend' it back to where it should be works for a minute or two but the one wing support is bowed and the wing did eventually go back to its original crooked position. 



Wheels and tires look reasonably good. The yellow Dunlop letting have held up wonderfully during handling and removal from the wheels (more on that to come) and the inserts have very tiny decorations that do simulate the wheels used on several images of the 1:1 I found. I also like that the rear inserts are seated deeper in to the rims than the front inserts, something that I took issue with on other models from another manufacturer. From replication standpoint they are still not perfect, in my opinion only LMM (LeMans Minatures) have captured the true size and visual appeal of the 1:1 car's rims but here again it might be being too picky on something that was made to fit a functioning design and parts already created.



One nice 'added feature' are the inserts below, front wheel discs included in a separately supplied plastic bag under the base. Having seen images of the 1:1 both with and without these brake cooling discs I like that MRSlotcar took the time to include these for those wishing the replicate the look of their favorite version. They are undecorated, here again I have seen deferent versions of these discs as well but I like that they have been provided even if plain white.



With the outside pretty well covered its time we move on to the really good stuff and that is the chassis and working parts of this MRSlotcar initial release. Flipping the car over the pod is certainly the thing that first gained my attention but there are other elements that also got me to raise an eyebrow once the body came off and the engineering was more obvious.



Quickly, something that got a smirk out of me, was the method used to secure the driver figure to the cockpit. No heat welds or glue used here... the driver is firmly secure using a good, old fashioned screw to the interior tray. Notice though that the interior is very much open, notice in this image below how the interior basically has no sides to it allowing you to see the light bouncing through from the glass of the canopy. This very much feels like a weight saving measure and we have much more of that to show you.



Back to the pod for a moment the image below should indicate the amount of clearance between the pod itself and the chassis pan. I did have some very slight flashing at the read of the pod that I trimmed away with a hobby blade but even before then, with all screws slightly backed off the pod had a decent amount of available movement. 



Here from the top side you get a look at the chassis screw housing themselves. These are very sturdy and offer a good amount of adjustment and while this car did not come with pod springs I would be tempted to install some to feel the handling differences. 



Getting a good look at the rear axle here is where some of the interesting engineering begins to show. Notice the beveling of the metal hub on the set screw crown gear as well as the same reduction of mass on each of the four wheel hubs.

 

Also notice the very tiny bushings used on the rear axle. These have to be the smallest I have seen of their type and for those who might consider a swap of these it stands to reason that the only way to do so will require careful reworking of the bushing mounts themselves. 

 

My camera did me no favors here focusing on the wheel rather than the magnet I intended however you should still be able to see the rather unique machining done on the magnet in this car. Oddly, as we looked at this we began to wonder 'why?' as the gear doesn't look like it would have any trouble clearing a traditional bar magnet and I'm sure there was some additional cost to the machining of such an odd shape. In any case the magnet, for those that race with them, does a great job of creating the artificial downforce and it helps to overcome the only real performance issue I found... the tires!! 

 

My initial run with this car was on a routed wood track, where the magnet is obviously useless and I hate to say it but the tires proved equally as useless. This sounds harsh but even after sanding and chemically treating these tires I could get minimal at best grip out of them and it was very frustrating. Everything to this point had me anticipating speed from this car and yet with the stock tires I sadly could get no good usable speed. Prior to testing this car numerous laps were taken on the same track with several of my cars all fitted with S2's. Thankfully S2 tires also fit the MRSlotcar rims so knowing what times my other cars were running I slapped on the S2 silicone tires and suddenly the car went from a 'pig on skates' to something more resembling the athlete I expected. 

 

That said, as I got more and more laps in on the car I struggled with getting a fast lap close to my other cars wearing the same rear tires. Granted I was within two or three tenths of a second but nothing I tried shortened that gap. My first adjustments were with the pod, loosening all but the front screw, all but the rear screw, loosening front and back but not the sides, both sides but not the front or back and finally loosing all four pod screws. None of the combinations I tried offered any substantial 'feelable' difference. Ultimately I found myself running with the two sides and the back screw 'free' with more tension on the forward pod screw and the car felt good and stable. Still I could not keep the pace on the smaller routed track and it was suggested that the car's strength might better be suited for a larger track than a smaller one. As much as I want to believe that the cars I was comparing it too have all also been run on 155-foot routed King tracks so knowing what they were able to do on the largest of tracks, and knowing what times there were also capable of on the routed HRW road course I still scratched my head a little at the speed I felt like I was missing from this MR Slotcar Mazda.

Back on my home track, a painted plastic surface, the stock rear rubber alone continued to disappoint. The rear tires are something I would have to take off and toss in the empty case in favor of something with more bite, that is... unless I put the magnet back in. With the magnet in the car is everything is should be. It's fast and stable and a blast to drive at the ragged edge. Unfortunately non-magnet is my current method of running my cars so for those that race non-mag you'll likely find that the stock tires must be replaced in order to get a decent runner out of this particular test car and hopefully you find the speed that I seemed unable to get. This isn't to say the MRSlotcar Mazda 787B is not a capable car, two to three tenths off is still within striking distance of a really good lap time so maybe I just had too high of hopes when my testing began.

 

So... our initial look at the MRSlotcar Mazda 787B leaves me with some mixed feelings. The body looks great to the casual observer, yes there were some fit and finish issues with this particular example but overall its a good looking model. As for performance it doesn't seem as fast as the sum of its parts and that has me scratching my head. The weight reduction, the rotational mass reduction etc and yet I couldn't find the speed I get out of cars without all of the unique engineering that went in to this model. It's still fast, just not THE fastest... at least not for this tester on either wood or plastic. That said it shows promise from a brand new manufacturer and in that regard its a huge win. Time will prove if MRSlotcar follows the path of product improvement and for all of our sake I hope they do as the obvious potential is there. Congratulations Ernie Mossetti on your first product released and I wish you success. I'll be eagerly awaiting to see what comes next and what it can do on the track.





Please stop by the HomeRacingWorld.com Message Board to talk about this and all other models of slot cars. Happy Slotting!

Shawn Smith - SJSlots
Shawn@HomeRacingWorld.com

Special Thanks to MR SlotCar for sending the Mazda 787B for review!

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