Wednesday April 19, 2006

All New NINCO
The Mosler MT900 R "Xavex"

A model that has stirred quite an amount of interest is this latest release by NINCO. The Mosler MT 900 R is a fascinating super car and having it available in 1/32nd scale is very appealing to many enthusiasts. I liked the overall looks of the model and looked forward in finally getting one here.

When it comes to styling, this model will either appeal to you or it won't. I have always enjoyed racing slot cars that have a little larger wheel base and this car seems to fall right into that category. Looking up prototype information on this model was a very easy task and I soon learned a great deal about this incredible car.

Photos of the prototype told me that NINCO has done a decent job in reproducing it in our scale. There are a few areas that do seem a little off, but nothing too glaring and there is no mistaking what this car is intended to be so for my eyes this NINCO passes my scale "test". Granted, I am not as particular on fine scale detail as some of you, so here is where photos of the model do most of the talking for me. You will either feel it is accurate enough for your tastes or it isn't.

Overall fit and finish of this model is about as nice as you could ask for. All the Tampo stampings were clean and crisp with no signs of runs or fading. I did notice some mold lines that seemed slightly on the heavy side, but on a silver base car these usually stand out. Again, I am being a little too critical as I have shown this car to several other enthusiasts and all of them felt the model was very well done.

The interior is again a half-tray type design and for me it works well enough and provides an acceptable level of scale realism. Some enthusiasts desire much more when it comes to interior detail, but for the majority of us who would rather watch our cars racing than sitting on the shelf, the effort made here should be more than enough.

However, there is a detail that I wish was included and personally think it is time NINCO started providing it: Working lights. This model, like many other Le Mans/SuperGT/Endurance and other series of cars are equipped with lights. If they really wanted to raise the bar in the scale realism department, this model would have come with both head and tail lights. Not everyone cares about this feature of course, but I have to comment on this as I have been reading many comments about it over the last year or so. NINCO has shown that they do listen to what enthusiasts have to say and perhaps in the future we will see this option.

Wheels and tires are standard NINCO fare with the soft to medium compound slick tires applied. I found the wheels and tires to be fairly round and true, but as with other models equipped with these tires, some amount of sanding will be needed to get them just right.

Our out of the box test was performed after a quick braid adjustment and the model passed with flying colors. I did notice the model had some wheel hop to it and I contributed this to tire sanding. However from the box to the track the car functioned and for many enthusiasts this is a very important item.

Looking underneath the model we see it is equipped with the now standard 20,000 RPM NC-5 Speeder motor and that it is arranged in the angle-winder configuration. 3 screws mount the body to the chassis and were easily removed to expose the rest of the chassis.

Some may not agree, but I for one am happy that NINCO continues using the small button magnet that they do. Mounted in the mid-chassis position, it provides plenty of magnetic down-force, yet still forces you to DRIVE the car. I know that some enthusiasts basically want their cars to be large HO scale magnet rockets, but a good majority of us still enjoy a model that challenges our driving skills and this model is one of them.

The motor is equipped with a 12 tooth pinion that drives the 32 tooth spur gear. The gear mesh was smoother than I expected and was unusually quiet for a NINCO model out of the box. With the body removed I tested the model to see if there was any motor flex or if the bushings would spin in the chassis. The bushings did not spin, but I added a drop of hot glue across the top of each one as a preventive measure. I did see that the motor had a good amount of flex (twisting in the mount under power) but a couple drops of hot glue as shown cured this issue quickly.

Up front I immediately inspected the axle for excess vertical and horizontal free-play. I did see that the horizontal free-play was a little more than I liked and that a slight axle trimming would be completed. However, vertically this model was nicely done and should not require my NINCO standard modifications of blocking up the front axle like we have done on the NSX and Supra.

However, instead of trimming the axle, I decided to shim it to keep the axle in it's original form. I used washer/shims from SlotCarPlace Part # SCP1 that fit the NINCO axle perfectly. I placed a washer/shim on each side of the front axle assembly as shown and this cured our free-play issue perfectly. You can of course use just about any washer or shim you may have in your tool box, or you can find them in many hardware stores or home centers.

In addition, when I was inspecting the front axle I noticed something about the front tires, or rather the wheels. Each tire had a very noticeable bump in them that was causing the wheel hop I discovered in testing. Sure enough, I removed the tire and the culprit was a large amount of excess flash molding right on the center rib of the wheel.

This problem was also found on the rear, but because the rear tires are slightly larger profile it was not visible. This issue is not really a major problem as I have been sanding wheels on all brands of cars for years. I simply used the technique that we show here to sand the rears. For the fronts you can just take fine grit sandpaper and remove the burr, or better yet you can put the wheel in a drill chuck like we show here. This technique works on NINCO models too as the hubs are just long enough to allow the drill chuck to have a firm grip.

Performance/Comparisons

The only models I chose to race this car against were the latest NSX and Supra. The Mosler does run in the GT300 class of the SuperGT (among other endurance classes) so these cars were the natural adversaries. The NSX and Supra had a slight edge on the Mosler, however one must understand this is only in my testing where my layout is not as large as others. The long wheelbase of the Mosler makes it a very stable and smooth model to operate, yet in tighter corners the NSX and Supra simply had better overall control for my driving style.

Lap times after sanding and cleaning the tires were still very impressive as I could manage a 4.4 second average. This shows how close these models really are as the averages for both the NSX and Supra are 4.3 seconds so this model makes a great match-up. Again, the braking and acceleration are very crisp and when you match this model with the Speeder motor to longer straights, you really see the strong points of this slot car. Like other releases similarly equipped in the NINCO line, it is pure top speed and power.  In my opinion this model would really be better suited for larger layouts that can allow you to open it up a little more so you can tap into it's full potential.

In the end I really like the effort NINCO has made with this slot car and look forward to adding more of them. I enjoy racing models that not only look good, but perform smoothly and reliably without a great deal of work and this car fits this mold. I think anyone in our hobby who appreciates the same qualities should seriously consider adding it to their collection.

- Harry

As always feel free to contact me about this article or just the hobby in general at harry@homeracingworld.com, or better yet drop into our Message Forum and share your thoughts with other enthusiasts!

Thanks Go To MRC For Providing Us With This Sample!