REVIEW: Slot.it FINA McLaren

SICA10B Slot.it McLaren FI GTR

FINA #43, 3rd Le Mans 1997

Firstly, I'd like to thank Cathy from Armchair Racer who got this car to me a little early so I could complete this review by the FINA McLaren's release date - Thanks Cathy!

HISTORY

The FINA McLaren F1 GTR competed in the GT1 class and finished in 3rd, (3 laps behind the winner) at Le Mans in 1997. The number 43 McLaren completed 358 laps and was driven by P.Kox, R.Ravaglia and E.Halary. The FINA sponsored car was beaten by another McLaren F1 GTR sponsored by the Gulf Team. The winning car was a Joest Racing Porsche 935/76 F6 although this car was in the LMP class. Interestingly, the FINA McLaren also competed against the Nissan Motorsports R390s in the GT1 class. These cars have also been released by Slot.it making them a great running mate for the FINA McLaren.

You can read some more information about the evolution of the McLaren F1 GTR "Longtail" at Great Racing Cars:

http://www.geocities.com/simontmallett/mcf1-3.html

PRESENTATION

I'll for warn you that I almost ran out of superlatives to describe this slot car. Slot.it really have produced a model worthy of the 1:1 McLaren F1 GTR that is such an icon of motor sport. This is the second McLaren F1 GTR released by Slot.it, the first being the Goodwood 2005 orange car, CA10A. The Goodwood McLaren was the most popular Slot.it sold in Australia in 2007 and there is a good chance the FINA McLaren will be the most popular for 2008. The car comes with an extra set of Slot.it S1 rear tires.

The FINA McLaren comes in Slot.it's standard packaging of which I'm a big fan. Although the car is firmly secured to the box base, Slot.it ship their cars with a clear plastic spacer which protects the car from damage should it come away from the base. If you've ever experienced what I term a 'slot car milkshake', (where a slot comes away from its base during transit) you'll also appreciate Slot.its packaging efforts.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Crown Gear: SIGI26
• Pinion Gear: SIPI09
• Motor Pod: SICH24 - Reverse offset mount
• Tires: SIPT02 (comes with an additional rear set of S1 rubber)
• Motor: Inline 21500 V12/3 with 170g.cm
• Magnatraction: Dual position, (magnet supplied in rear position)
• Side-winder or Boxer (Long Can inline) motor pod compatible

For additional model detail, head over to Slot.it's website;

http://www.slot.it/index.html

QUALITY & DETAIL

As I've come to expect from Slot.it, it's very hard to find any flaws regarding their build quality and attention to detail. Slot.it continue to produce slot cars built to very high standards and their attention to detail is excellent. The paint and decal finish of this model is absolutely top-shelf. Slot.it obviously enjoy a real challenge as the decals on this car are very good considering the amount of raised body detail this model has.

The front of the McLaren looks absolutely striking, of particular note are the front lights which look great. I'm very tempted to order a Slot.it lighting kit for this car as I think it would really look great with lights. The front of the car has plenty of detail including; vents, intakes and a tow hook. The wheel inserts look fantastic on the car and are a little darker than those on the Goodwood McLaren.

One thing I did notice about the front of the car was that the nose section proportions don't look quite right. If you look at the 1:1 side profile photo and the similar slot photo directly below it you'll notice that Slot.it hasn't moulded it long enough.

I'm pleased to report that the issue with the wheels inserts on the Goodwood car not being completely flush has been fixed, at least on the FINA McLaren I have. This was a small problem with the Goodwood car but it was visually unattractive so I'm glad Slot.it has fixed it.

Rear detail is also excellent with exhaust pipes, vents, clear rear lights, rear grill and McLaren logo. Decal detail is excellent, it seems every time I examine the car I find another decal previously not seen. The rear tail is glued in place and has little flexibility about it, it does however seems strong enough to withstand heavy impacts.

The model comes with a rubber aerial which is great for longevity. However, Slot.it is still producing plastic rear-vision mirrors, which is a bit of a pet hate of mine. They do seem pretty secure and the mirror posts have some strength but wouldn't survive a heavy knock.

The driver figure is impressively painted and decaled as can be seen from the below photo. I didn't want to pull my McLaren's body apart so I'm not too sure about dash detail as the side windows are heavily tinted. This heavy side window tint gives the car a really cool appearance on the track.

The body is removed from the chassis via 2 screws which is standard for all Slot.it cars, body removal and reassembly is very easy. As you can see this chassis is side-winder motor pod compatible and comes with the SICH24 reverse offset motor pod. The McLaren comes with a Slot.it standard magnet in the rear position although it's not shown in the below photo. You can also see that this chassis can be upgraded to SSD Sport Digital system.

One of the first things I do to any Slot.it I drive is to loosen the motor pod screws half to one full turn thus allowing a degree of chassis/body role. You'll find that you can hold more speed through corners if you do this although be careful not to loosen the screws too much, as the rear rubber can rub on body work.

PERFORMANCE

As with the recent AEG Mercedes Sauber C9, I found the FINA McLaren's guide to be very tight. As with my AEG Sauber, I removed the guide from the chassis by carefully levering it out from underneath the chassis using a small flat head screw driver. To fix the tight guide post issue, I used a low RPM cordless drill and a 9/64 drill bit. After removing the guide, slowly drill the guide hole, (make sure you're drilling perpendicular to the chassis). You won't need to drill very much, just a few seconds at very low RPM to remove a little excess plastic. Reinsert your guide and test, you should find that the small issue is fixed.

The McLaren has very strong acceleration and braking and is damn quick in a straight line. In fact it's very quick through even the most testing of corners too! One of the reasons the McLaren can really travel through corners is its brilliant chassis setup and weight distribution. Another factor is that the McLaren, like a lot of other Slot.its (Porsche 956 & 962, Nissan R390, Audi R8c) has heaps of magnetic down-force making them VERY fast racers.

On my Carrera track, the McLaren seemed to get on and off the power as the magnet down-force kicks in and out depending on chassis/track clearance. I tried moving the magnet to the forward position and although the car became a bit more playful in the rear, the magnetic down-force was still too high. I decided to remove the magnet all together and see how the car would run. I also decided to install S1 rubber to improve rear grip now I was running non-mag.

WOW!!!! Let me just say that the McLaren is probably the best 'from-the-box', non-magnetic slots I have ever driven. To put that statement in context, I'm comparing it with Proslot Toyota GT-one, Slot.it Audi R8C and Porsche 956, Spirit Racing Raynard and Dallara and Fly Racing 911 GT1 Evo 3 but not the NSX Mosler as I haven't had the pleasure of owning one yet.

The McLaren instantly became a transformed slot car. Driving was as smooth as silk, the big car effortlessly gliding around the track. Acceleration and running was now consistent and the annoying feeling that the car was on and off the power was completely gone. The McLaren still handles corners elegantly non-mag and it seemed the more I drove it, the better it was getting and the more I wanted to drive. This is one special slot car, congratulations Slot.it.

Now that I was running non-mag I was having a little trouble with sudden changes in elevation on my track. As you can see in the below photo, I added a little extra weight up front which stopped the nose deslotting. I haven't experimented a great deal with weight and this car but I get the feeling that the performance in this chassis is no where near at its full potential.

Once again Slot.it has stuck to their 'magic slot formula' and produce a slot car that is destined to be fiercely raced and highly sort after once it sells out. As I've commented before, Slot.it continue to produce slots cars that have a high level of engineering, are as fun to drive as they are stunning to look at and are without doubt very collectible. I predict that the FINA McLaren will be one of Slot.its greatest releases.

Manic Score Breakdown

• Sex Appeal: 7th Gear
• Collectibility: 7th Gear
• Build Quality: 7th Gear
• Attention to Detail: 7th Gear
• 'RTR' Performance: 6th Gear

Overall Manic Score: 6.8 Gears - The highest review score to date!

The Slot.it FINA McLaren F1 GTR goes straight into 'Manic's collectible slotcars' list.

So if you want to get your hands on one of these beautiful slots and lets face it, you NEED to get your hands on one of these! Head straight over to Armchair Racer who currently have them in stock;

http://www.armchairracer.com.au/SlotitCars/Slotitcars.htm

If you'd like a FINA McLaren F1 GTR wallpaper for your desktop, you can download one below. Just click on the image that suits your desktop size.

Head over to the McLaren Automotive gallery for some great photos; http://www.mclarenautomotive.com/cars/f1gtr_gallery.htm

For more information about the 1997 Le Mans race, see Racing Sports Cars;
http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Le_Mans-1997-06-15-photo.html

YouTube has a great movie of the 1:1 FINA McLaren, listen to that engine!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ZyvlM-FMM

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NEWS: Slot.it McLaren FINA

Slot.it McLaren F1 GTR FINA Review

Be sure to log onto ManicSlots on January 3rd - 12:01am, (Midnight) for the first published review of Slot.it's new FINA liveried McLaren F1 GTR - This ones sure to be a cracker!

Happy New Year all!

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REVIEW: Scalex McLaren SLR

Mercedes-Benz Mille Miglia

50th Anniversary Twin Set

Scalextric have released a special limited edition box set of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR and the 2005 Mercedes McLaren SLR. The production run is limited to 8,000 units. There are two cars in this set and I have reviewed them separately so I can go into a little more detail. This is the second review on the 2005 Mercedes McLaren SLR. You can find the review on the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR at the below link.

PART II: 2005 Mercedes SLR McLaren 72250

HISTORY

In 2005 Mercedes teamed up with McLaren to produce a new 722. The carbon fibre grand tourismo body design and the classical styling elements from the legendary SLR racing car of 1955 were blended to bring us the fantastic Mercedes SLR McLaren 722. Its high performance 5.5 litre V8 supercharged engine can accelerate the car to 62 mph in 3.8 seconds, reach 180 mph in just 28.8 seconds and go on to a top speed of 207mph. Taking much of its aerodynamic design and cutting edge technology from Formula One, the SLR is one of the fastest road going sports cars.

SPECIFICATIONS

2005 Mercedes SLR McLaren 72250:

• Motor Mabuchi SP 18k rpm
• Overall length 146 mm
• Car Weight 84 gm
• In-Line Mid Mounted 2 wheel drive
• Wheelbase 83 mm
• Gear ratio 9:27
• Rear Magnet Rectangular stepped 2 mm
• Down-force 161-194 gm

PRESENTATION

The first thing you will notice about this set is how stunning it looks in its silver presentation box. As this set is homage to the legendary Silver Arrows, what other colour could Scalextric use? The Scalextric presentation box is very nice and removing the cars from the box's base is easy. The base section of the box simply lifts up exposing the slots metal screws which are tight and firmly secure the models in place.

The set comes with the usual Scalextric limited edition collector's plastic card. A nice touch is that the cars are printed in colour on the card. There is also a brief history of the cars on the inside of the boxes lid.

QUALITY and DETAIL

Like the 300 SLR, the McLaren SLR has been finished to a high standard. The front of the model is particularly impressive and detailed. The entire front part of the nose is attached to the chassis via 2 internal screws. You can see the body join line either side the Mercedes emblem and down the side of the hear lights, (you can see the disassembled slot in one of the bottom photos). It must have been quite a challenge for the Scalextric modelers to accurately capture the complicated shape McLaren Mercedes designed.

One detail that Scalextric have missed is the colour of the front grill which is bright silver in colour. From the pictures I've researched it's much darker, (almost black) but this is a small thing and could be fixed is so desired.

The rear end looks pretty good although not as impressive as the front, all rear badges are decals. The detail on the rear lights is silver plastic with white decal dots. The slot comes with front, (bright) and rear lights which is something I wish more manufactures would do with their slots.

All bonnet and side vents are completely through the body, the twin side exhausts are attached to the chassis. I particularly like things like the small '722' decal on this model, Scalextric have not cut too many detail corners that I can see. One thing I would have liked to see is rubber rear vision mirrors on this model. For some reason Scalextric put them on some models, (the recent Porsche RS Spyder) but not on others. The models mirrors are exposed and sit out from the body so rubber mirrors would have been the sensible choice.

As you can see, the wheels on the 722 McLaren are a new design from the previous 3 releases. They closely resemble the special wheels McLaren designed for the 722 and I think they look excellent. They give the slot a tougher look in my opinion although I don't own one of the older McLarens. A nice touch is the Mercedes emblem in the centre of the wheel.

The internal dash and driver detail is good. For some reason the driver is driving with one hand, I have no idea what he is doing with the other. The driver would have looked better if he had been changing gears perhaps.

The body comes away from the chassis via 4 screws, (2 front and 2 back). The 2 mid outer screws remove the driver's interior section of the model, similar to Scalextric's GT40s. The motor is an in-line, mid mounted configuration which doesn't seem to affect the model's performance. Putting the model back together is very simple. This car also comes with a small 'limited' edition metal sticker under the chassis, (just in front of the magnet) of the car.

PERFORMANCE

The 722 comes standard with a stepped bar magnet placed forward of the rear axle. There are 2 alternative locations for the magnet if you wish to reduce magnetic down force on the slot's rear. I was very happy with how this slot moved along the track so didn't alter the magnets position. The rear tires are 11mm wide which suits the 722 and don't hurt rear end grip through the corners. I found I had to push the slot quite hard to get it to deslot.

Only a small amount of tire truing was necessary and this car ran straight from the box very well around my track. The 722 comes standard with Scalextrics 18K Mabuchi SP motor so straight line speed isn't as quick as I'd like it to be. Considering the 722s top speed is 344km/h, this slot would look the part going a bit faster. I'll probably be upgrading the 18K Mabuchi to a 22 or 25K in the future. However, this isn't something that should deter you from owning this slot.

The McLaren 722 is a very impressive slot both visually and on the track. Not everyone likes road cars but they can be a lot of fun to drive especially if they are stunning super cars like the 722. Overall, the Mercedes Mille Miglia box set is beautifully presented and a very impressive addition to my collection. Get your hands on one if you can.

Manic Score Breakdown - Mille Miglia Box Set

• Sex Appeal: 6th Gear
• Set Collectibility: 6th Gear
• Build Quality: 6th Gear
• Attention to Detail: 6th Gear
• 'RTR' Performance: 5th Gear

Overall Manic Score: 5.8 Gears

Let's just hope Scalextric decide to release the McLaren 722 GT

If you want to read the first part of this review on the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, you can find it at the below link.

Want to find out more about Scalextric slot cars?
Be our guest and CLICK HERE

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NEWS: Slot.it McLaren FINA

SICA10B Slot.it McLaren F1 GTR FINA

RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED!

I have some really good news for Slot.it fans in Oz. Our good friends over at Armchair Racer have just informed me that the long awaited FINA McLaren F1 GTR is expected to be released on the 3rd of January 2008.

The FINA McLaren goes straight into my 'Collectors' line-up as a must have collectible slot. I've been awaiting this livery for the best part of 2007 and the McLaren really is a 'must-have' in my opinion.

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On another little bit of interesting Slot.it news, during 2008 Slot.it will be re-producing the SICA03C Porsche Italiya n.9 3rd LeMans 1989. So for all of you that missed getting one for your wifes or girlfriend's birthday, (I know I did) here's your chance! ;)

http://www.armchairracer.com.au/SlotitCars/Slotitcars.htm

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