Slot Car Corner New CBD Wheels - Home Racing World & Slot Car Garage

Tuesday July 14, 2009

These new wheels by Slot Car Corner caught my eye when the first images of them were posted on the web. So after some begging and pleading, some samples arrived here safe and sound for us to thrash around!

Now, some might say it is just another aluminum wheel. It is that, but not all wheels are created equal. I have tested wheels that were not as accurate as they could (should) have been. But I had high hopes the gang at SCC created some winners. These wheels were created using feedback from YOU. They used this feedback and came up with these 2 designs. The main thing for me was the appearance. I liked this design personally and wanted to get some in my hands!

We received 3 sets of wheels and 2 sets of Super Tires (Tootsie Pop sold separately!) I was pleased that they sent the tires that are designed to fit the wheel. We use several different brand tires, but we had none of these on hand. It always helps testing a new product when you have everything you need right?

They have a hubless design. This will make setting the width easy enough for most.

The screw access hole is off center so you don't have to peel back your tire all the way to get to it.

The wheels were constructed using state-of-the-art CNC machine tools which ensure they are perfectly round and the axle bore is concentric with both the outer wheel surface and longitudinal axis of the axle.

Wheel weights:

CBD F1 Wheels - 1.4g

CBD 15x8mm Wheels - 1.4g

So far they look and sound impressive. So let us get right to it shall we?

Our first set was to match the 15x8 mm wheels with the supplied ST-1403 Super Tire.

These would go on my SCX Car Edwards NASCAR.

The second set would be matched with the F114.5x12 mm wheels using the ST-1425 Super Tire.

These were destined for my SCX Formula 1.

AXLE CHOICE

Slot.it (tm) part number SIPA01. CBD Wheels were designed specifically to fit this axle.

Ok, sounds like good advice to me.

But I had to try a couple others.

NASCAR - SCX PRO AXLE Part# 50350

F1 - NSR Extreme Race Axle Part# 4802

I can tell you that both these axles fit these wheels as cleanly as you could ask for, at least it sure felt that way to me. The proof would be in testing of course.

I chose the 15x8 for the NASCAR as I liked the looks of it and once the tire was installed it looked good enough to me.

Now we come to the part of these wheels I like the best: Appearance. The slots cut in this wheel look better to me than most any other wheel I have seen. They are a very close match to the stock NASCAR wheel, so if you do not want or care about using inserts, these play the role very closely.

Is this a big deal? It is to me. Not everyone cares about scale detail and some racers like the looks of some wheels just the way they are. I respect everyone's personal preference but I like to have scale authenticity when I can. Since I do not have these inserts, the appearance of this wheel on the car was acceptable.

It was easily painted too. The wheels on this model should be black. I used Testors black spray and this worked fine. Once painted the wheel looked even better to me. In fact, I see no reason to add an insert.

Time for the F1. I looked forward to this test as I have really not paid much attention to this car. It has had the unmodified wheels on it since I did the review. It ran well enough before, but there was room for improvement.

It only took one lap to know we had quality wheels on our wood tracks. The tires gripped ok, but our surface is not ideal for them. Still they gripped better than I thought. It was the overall performance change due to the wheels that was the key. VERY smooth acceleration compared to before. This performance combined with the appearance makes them a great overall product.

In fairness, there are many brands of after-market wheels I like as well. They all seem to work well for certain applications. These wheels just look better to me and fit the models I enjoy the most. They list at $12.99 per set which seems fair enough. There are some that are more expensive, some less. These fall right there in the middle.

All I can say is that SCC has created some winners. They are what they claim to be and that makes them worth your time if you are looking to start upgrading some of your models.

- 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 Slot Car Corner For Sponsoring This Review!

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