Spirit BMW 2002 review

Publishers note: There's been a lot of talk on the message boards about the quality issues with the latest Spirit release, the 2002 (or is it 1600?) BMW Alpina. I received a car for review weeks ago but there were issues with the finish and a few mechanical issues (a damaged motor pod being the primary issue) that lead me to discuss with Spirit and Kimrey Enterprises (the US distributor of Spirit) those issues. The recent production shift to China by Spirit is what I believe is the cause of some of these issues with quality control. The response from both Spirit and Kimrey Enterprises was great. All the concerns I had were addressed and there is an honest effort to address not only the problems with Spirit cars, but be open and quick to respond to problems. They're showing good customer service to what might have been a larger problem had they not addressed the concerns of customers. I was sent a second car and that car presented none of the problems the first car had.

The finish on the car:
The body finish was good on the reviewed car. The orange paint was even and bright and the flat black accents were also executed well.

The fine details that were printed on were exceptional, the highlight being the BMW logo and the hood Martini number field. This car comes from just before the era of sponsor decals hiding the beauty of the car itself, which is great because this is a very pleasing little model to admire. Square body lines and a high greenhouse are what this car is all about and it's nicely done here by Spirit.

Running gear:
The Spirit BMW packs a lot of punch in a small package. The decision to use the high torque S3X motor was certainly one that might be a surprise to some. This is the same motor used in much larger cars and it might be too much motor for some slotters.

There are small holes in the motor pod that you could put 2mm screws in to better hold the motor in place. I personally feel that if Spirit took the time to include these screw holes in the design of the car it would be appropriate that they also included the screws for those holes. It would lead to a much stronger hold on a very torquey motor and would help cure what I believe to be just a bit of "high torque hop" that I've seen with the car while testing it on my track. Under heavy acceleration, especially out of the corners, there is a bit of what has been referred to in the past as "Ninco hop". This problem I believe is made worse (if not caused) by high torque motors mounted in pods that aren't sufficiently braced and stiff. This problem is lessened (if not fixed) but gluing the motor into the pod and screwing those 2mm screws into the pod just on either side of the end of the can, next to the pinion.

The 9 tooth pinion and 27 tooth crown have a good feel, high torque motors do like a bit less reduction so a change to a 23 tooth crown might give a bit more speed down the straight, but then this car is already a little rocket...so more speed might be a something completely unneeded.

There is very little clearance for the tires inside the fenders and if you do a combination of a very loose motor pod and a loose body there is a tendency to the to contact the tires, a bit corner sanding on the tires will help this. After the sanding the car actually stuck quite well to my wood track, yes with the stock tires! The compound on these tires feels quite different from other recent releases by Spirit like the Peugeot 406 coupes (though I have no idea if it actually is or not, it's just a guess on my part). The tires on the Reynards and Dallaras I found to be totally unsandable, the compound on this car was very sandable...a very pleasant surprise!

If you look closely the front axle is a long and the front wheels hang outside the fenders a little. It's an easy fix to cut down the axle and glue the front wheels back in place.

The strong magnet which is nearly touching the track holds the car to plastitrack like glue. During a recent test at my local hobby shop, the car would scrape the track on an uphill turn because of the minimal clearance under the little car.

The front axle has small set screws so you can adjust height of the axle. The car does not have enough play to allow much adjustment. In fact I had to shave out a bit of flash inside those axle loops to allow free rotation of the axle. After I did that small bit of shaving, the screws did allow more adjustment. If you've got one of these cars give it a try, there may be just a touch of flash that's not allowing the axle to travel as it should.

Performance:
Plastitrack testing was a bit of a mixed bag. The magnet really held the car down very tightly and it gave the already stop-on-a-dime brakes of the S3X motor even more stopping ability. But because of the magnet being so low the car was quite fast down the straights but not as fast as I'd expect in the corners. This testing was done before I'd sanded the tires so I' expect that now the car would corner better with a smoother transition from tire bottom to tire sidewall. And it's worth repeating, these are very sandable tires.

Wood track testing on my small wood track was actually more pleasing since the magnet wasn't in play and brakes weren't quite as strong. As I said there was a bit of "high torque hop" if I put too much acceleration into my effort to get this little car to go fast.

Conclusion:
All in all the reviewed car was a nice little car if not somewhat overpowered. I'll grant you that's a personal opinion, but I like under 2-liter cars to have a motor that more closely represents the actual motor the real car had...I know that many might not share that opinion.

As I said in the beginning of the review some of the cars have quality control issues and some appear to have none of these problems. If you do have a car with issues, contact your hobby shop or Kimrey Enterprises. Customer service is VERY important to Cal. Many other brands have issues and we've all gotten used to having to cut a motor shaft here and do a bit of tire sanding there...any manufacturing problems are being addressed by Spirit a bit of patience may be needed. But Spirit is going there own way with some interesting cars upcoming... Porsche 936 anyone?!?

This car has proven to be a popular car for Spirit and in fact sold out in many retail outlets. There will be another shipment of cars arriving in the US soon so if you missed the chance to buy this car during initial sales you've got another chance to pick this car up soon.

Recently Spirit reorganized and the sales success of recent releases I'm sure will be good news to not only the company but to fans that would like to see Spirit thrive as they move forward with more unique releases.


A huge thanks to Spirit and Kimrey Enterprises for providing the review samples!

Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News

Exclusive Revell news here on SCNews!

A recent phonecall with Revell was very interesting. They're going to focus on 60's era nascars and maybe 70's era nascars... and ...are you sitting down? CanAm's! So all those who've been waiting for someone to pay attention to this genre, you've gotten what you've been waiting for. This I think will be a very popular move especially with the age demographic of many slotters (ie over 50ish). Which is another thing that was interesting, Revell is aiming products at that demographic, older slotters. I'm going to be 37 on the 13th of this month, and I'm actually one of the younger slot racers I know. Most slotters are from back in the first golden age of slot cars in the 60's...or gasp...even earlier! By going after that age group, I think Revell will have a good deal of success.

And now for the releases that had been previously announced...

Upcoming releases from Revell USA are the David Hobbs IMSA BMW which should be available in June.

Not a Revell photo
Upcoming releases from Revell Germany are another Cortina in August, a BMW "Fruit of Loom" livery due in July, an E-Type Jag (the '63 Sebring winner) due sometime around June or July, and a Uniroyal VW Beetle at the end of year, maybe November.

Thanks to Revell for the news.
DaveK

Malaysian GP Race report & Bahrain look ahead

Hamilton celebrates second place finish
Photo www.McLaren.com
1 Fernando Alonso Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1h32.14.930
2 Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +17.5 secs
3 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari +18.3 secs
4 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber +33.7 secs
5 Felipe Massa Scuderia Ferrari +36.7 secs
6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +65.6 secs
7 Jarno Trulli Toyota +70.1 secs
8 Heikki Kovalainen Renault +72.0 secs
9 Alex Wurz Williams F1 +89.9 secs
10 Mark Webber Williams F1 +93.5 secs
11 Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing +1 Lap
12 Jenson Button Honda Racing +1 Lap
13 Takuma Sato Super Aguri +1 Lap
14 Scott Speed Toro Rosso +1 Lap
15 Ralf Schumacher Toyota +1 Lap
16 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri +1 Lap
17 Tonio Luizzi Toro Rosso +1 Lap
18 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber +1 Lap

Alonso and Hamilton celebrate their 1-2 finish
Photo www.McLaren.com
In the sauna-like conditions Alonso never put a foot wrong after taking the lead on the run down to the first corner. Lewis Hamilton drove another brilliant race to take second place despite being under extreme pressure from Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari in the closing laps. Into fourth came Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber, who also had to fight off Massa in the second Ferrari. Fisichella came home sixth after starting from twelfth place on the grid and Heikki Kovalainen saw the flag in eighth spot.

The air and track temperatures at the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix were 34°C and 54°C respectively. When the lights went out Alonso blasted through from second place to pass Massa’s Ferrari as the cars barrelled into the first corner. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton did likewise from fourth on the grid. At the end of the first lap the 2 McLarens led the 2 Ferrari and the 2 BMWs with Heidfeld ahead of Kubica. They were all on soft rubber.

Heidfeld holds off Massa.
Photo from BMW
The first of the ING Renault F1 Team drivers was Giancarlo Fisichella in eighth spot who had made a brilliant start gaining 4 places. The Italian quickly set about pulling in Nico Rosberg’s Williams while Heikki had moved up a position to tenth just behind Jarno Trulli’s Toyota.

On lap 4, Massa lunged inside Hamilton in the first corner but failed to overtake the young Brit. A little further on it looked like he was through but Lewis wasn’t having any. Up front, Alonso had already opened up a gap of 5s. A lap later Massa tried to pass Hamilton again, went wide onto the grass and rejoined in fifth behind Heidfeld.

On lap 11, Rosberg got past Kubica’s BMW to take sixth. The Pole then dived into the pits to refuel allowing Fisichella and Kovalainen to move up a place. Alonso was now 10s ahead of Hamilton, who, in turn, was only 1s in front of Raïkkönen in the leading Ferrari.

At the end of lap 17 Massa came in for his first refuelling stop followed a lap later by the leader and Raïkkönen. Rosberg in sixth pitted on lap 19 and Hamilton on lap 20. This allowed Heidfeld into the provisional lead. He came in at the end of lap 22 soon followed by both Renaults. At that moment the order was: Alonso, Hamilton (+10.9s), Raïkkönen (+21.1s), Heidfeld (+25.5s), Massa (+28.6s), Rosberg (+34.1s) while Fisichella was in eighth place and Kovalainen in tenth. Once again the leaders all shod soft tyres.

There were no changes up front until Hamilton initiated the second round of stops on lap 38. He was followed by Rosberg (6th, +42s) and Trulli (8th, +59s). Kovalainen came in a lap later and Alonso and Massa on lap 40. Raïkkönen pitted on lap 41 and next time round both Heidfeld and Fisichella made their final stops. This time the leaders had no choice and they all rejoined on hard rubber.

On lap 43, Nico Rosberg’s Williams slowed and he parked it on the grass, the end of a sterling drive by the young German. The order was now: Alonso, Hamilton (+16.4s), Raïkkönen (+23.3s), Heidfeld (+36.3s), Massa (+ 37.6s) while both Renault drivers were now in the points with Fisichella sixth and Kovalainen eighth.

With 5 laps to go to the finish the Ferraris seemed to be quicker on hard rubber than their rivals, and Raïkkönen was back to within 2.8s of Hamilton while Massa was now only 1s behind the fourth-placed Heidfeld.

But it was too late for the Scuderia and after 56 laps Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag after dominating his rivals. Hamilton hung on to second with RaÏkkönen only 0.7s behind. The two Renaults came home in sixth and eighth positions giving Kovalainen his first points-scoring finish in only his second grand prix.


On to Bahrain...
The Honda Racing F1 Team heads from Malaysia to similarly hot and sunny climes in the Middle East this week for Round Three of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

With just one week between races and no opportunity for testing, the trackside team will continue to focus on extracting as much performance as possible from the RA107 for the next race, whilst back at Honda’s three bases of operation at Tochigi in Japan, and Brackley and Bracknell in the UK, development work continues apace in preparation for the start of the European season.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“With no time to develop the car for the next race, our focus will be on doing the best job possible with what we have right now. Despite the problems we have with the car, we can still do better, particularly in terms of our qualifying performance. If we can work on that it is possible to get both cars in the top ten and closer to the points so there is progress to be made whilst we’re working on the bigger developments back at the factory.”

BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
Race Distance: 57 laps
Circuit Length: 3.381 miles (5.417 kms)

Located in Sakhir in the south of Bahrain, the Bahrain International Circuit opened in 2004 and hosted its first Formula One Grand Prix in April of the same year. The development of the circuit was funded by the Bahrain Government and firmly supported by the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, a lifelong motor sport enthusiast.

The circuit and its facilities are extremely impressive with the track actually consisting of five separate circuits, including a 2.5km oval and a 1.2km drag strip. The 5.417km clockwise Formula One circuit features a 1km pit straight, 12 turns including several low-speed corners which increases the technical emphasis on aerodynamic efficiency and traction, and a relief that ranges between 0 and 18 metres to create an undulating track.

The hot weather usually experienced over the grand prix weekend poses a challenge for both car and driver, and although the humidity is generally lower than in the Far East, track temperatures will be high.

Bahrain photo used from HondaRacingF1.com no reuse of any photo without permission of the above media outlets.

Happy Easter from SCX

Happy Easter from SCX and Slot Car News.

New AutoArt Mustang's

New photos from AutoArt via Global Gateway to show of the new Grand Am Cup Mustang's.




These should be at retailers soon and are already for sale on AutoArt Collection.com

DaveK

Granada Boss Body

Chalk up another one of a kind slot body for Smith Scale Speedway's Boss Bodies!

From their website..."Thick, tough, PVC clear slot car body in 1/32 scale... well... almost. This body is actually slightly larger than 1/32, but it looks good next to our Nova, so its close enough. This car is well proportioned, and will make a great addition to your street rods or Saturday Night specials. The car is shown here on an Artin chassis with Cartrix wheels."

SLOT.IT McLaren F1 GTR Goodwood-review

Review courtesy of Armchair Racer review written by Vince Rothemund. Please visit their site....

There are many cars on slotter’s wish lists but this particular model would have to be the one I have read the most requests for over the years. This particular version of the Long tail McLaren F1 GTR is a replica of the car paraded at the Good wood Festival of Speed in 2005. This particular car is a race car converted to a street car.

The Long Tail McLaren was a race car first, built to answer the growing list of manufacturers with purpose built race cars like the Mercedes CLK GTR and Porsche 911 GT1. The short tail version, first raced in 1995, was conceived after Gordon Murray was convinced that the McLaren Road Car would make an excellent race car. It raced in the newly formed “BPR Global GT Series”. The series became the “FIA GT Championship” in 1997 and major changes to the premier GT1 class resulted. McLaren had to react to stay competitive and the Long Tail was born. A total of ten Long Tail GTRs were built, with none of the previous cars being upgraded to the 1997-spec. McLaren was forced to build three production cars using the GTR '97's bodywork. These cars became known as the F1 GT, of which only three were built. The 1997-spec cars are commonly referred to as the "Long Tail" version due to their stretched bodywork, most noticeably in the rear. From the information I have been able to find, it is unclear which of the chassis this particular car originated from.

The Slot.it version is a faithful rendition minus two black ducts on the sides of the nose in front of the front wheels. The proportions of the car look spot on. The McLaren Orange if faithfully reproduced although it does not show up as well in the photographs I have taken.

The body of the car is made up of a one piece nose and roof section with the sides between the wheel arches and rear bar under the rear wing being separate pieces attached by tabs and plastic welded together. As is expected of Slot.it the detail is very fine, the pictures not doing the car justice. Due to the length of the car a full cockpit is fitted even though the motor is fitted inline.

The wheels are the larger diameter 17mm X 10mm aluminium rears and 17mm X 8mm plastic fronts. This gives the car an accurate look along with the new inserts replicating the 1 to 1 car. The tyres appear to be a P series compound as they have considerably better traction than the generic tyres fitted to recent releases.


So how does she run? A quick lube and check to make sure all was tight and onto the track. Once the track was clean the car quickly became the quickest runner. Being a wood track, the car was run minus magnetic down force which is the way these Slot.it’s have been designed. I cannot recall a better balanced slot car out of the box. Bo’s new Warwick Farm track has some great left right esses and this car just flowed through them. Very little tail out action and it launched rapidly to the next corner. It really looked great the way it cornered and was surprising considering the fact weight is normally required to get the best from a car non magnet.

This chassis picture shows the offset motor mount and crown gear. Slot.it seem to have changed the gearing now as they have gone for the more standard 9 tooth pinion and 27 tooth crown gear as apposed to the 28 tooth used with the old 25,000 rpm V12 motor. As with all new Slot.it cars the motor fitted is the new generation 21,500 rpm high torque motor. As is usual with Slot.it cars, the motor cables are routed along the chassis. This helps to keep the guide self centering when coming off the track. The car weighed in at 77 grams.

The front axle has the height adjusting caps mounted to posts on the chassis as has been the norm for a while now. These seem better set up than recent releases as the axle play was just perfect. The front wheels spun easily as opposed to the previous tight axle mounting on some models.

As is usual now for Slot.it the car also comes with a set of Silicone tyres. These will come in handy for those who allow Silicone tyres on their tracks.

The only changes I did make to the car setup was to round off the square shoulders of the rear tyres and loosen the motor mount screws to give the car some float. I would normally loosen the body screws a half turn or so but with Slot.it’s set up on the rear end loosening the cradle is a no brainer.

As a matter of interest I photographed the car from above next to a Ninco McLaren F1 GTR. The Ninco car still looks good but is noticeably wide when compared to the Slot.it car which is more to scale.

In conclusion I recommend rushing down to your local Slot.it dealer and pick up one of these cars before they are sold out. You won’t be disappointed.

By Vince Rothemund for Armchair Racer.

F1 teams ready to tear up Malaysia...

...well at least do lots of donuts. The BMW team put on quite a show here. Look how close they are to those light weight fences with spectators behind them.

Electric Replica-The ONLY slot store in Manhattan!

Let's say you're in New York City for vacation or on business and you've got to have a slot car fix, where do you go? Well there's one place you'll feel at home and Bob "Wild Child" Pomann (remember him?) has the answer. Electric Replica is 2 West 46th St. in the Penthouse, just a short walk from Grand Central and Times Square...how convient is that! He's specializing in digital slot racing but he's got plenty of analog cars/parts/track to buy too.

I spent some time tonight enjoying the whole digital experience on Bob's Scalextric track and SCX track, which BTW is the same SCX track set up at the NY Toyfair...not the same layout...THE SAME TRACK!

Bob and I and Gustavo Remor (noted Brazilian slotter and founder of the Slot Car Racing Club of New York) seen in the photo with Bob, joined us at Electric Replica as well as Carlo..sorry not pictured. We started on the Scalextric track racing the Vintage F1's that Bob had chipped up. They were cool and lot's of fun run as digital cars. Then we got out the Boxsters and Audi TT's...well it was on then. All four of us were racing (I guess you'd call it that) for some time. I get the appeal of these low-detail cars, they're not just for kids.


We moved to the SCX track and got out the Ferrari 550's and then the Nascar's. I must admit I love the pit feature where you have to drive into the pits and refuel. I enjoyed the idea of having to watch the fuel level and go in to top off the gas before running out. I used the pitstop to my advantage during our Nascar race and won the race after timing my pits just right...sorry Gustavo! Being able to walk back and forth to the different systems you really got to compare what features each system has.

Anyway Bob's store is great because he's got 2 digital tracks set up to try and he's got lots of cars to look at too...did I mention he's the only "slot car only" store in Manhattan? There are a few stores, very few BTW, that have slot cars in New York City. So if you're into slots THIS is the place to go in Manhattan!

So the next time you're in "the city" and you feel that familiar feeling...why not give Bob Pomann a call at the store number 917-229-4333.

MRRC Toyota GT1

Ok, I admit it, I had GT1 envy. My uncle had purchased a pair of Toyota GT1's made by ProSlot a while ago. I hadn't thought much of the ProSlot car, but that was before I saw they beauty in those thin bodied, crimson rockets that now are just about impossible to find...that is unless you're willing to pay a premium price for a car that needs to be totally rebuilt to be competative. Not so with the MRRC Toyota GT1...

...it offers slotters excellent performance in a familiar package. The ProSlot Toyota GT1 was the basis for an excellent racer, but the car had many faults with the quality of the chassis, wheels and very basic motor pod design, the MRRC version has none of these shortcomings however.

Where the MRRC GT1 does look a bit of rough around the edges is well...around the edges. The copy that Slot Car News received for review had flash around many of the edges of the body and rear wing. Some areas of the molding on the top of the body were a bit rough as well and some areas of paint had some "orange peel". And on the nose there were a few areas where the decals appeared to have small bits missing. But since this car is supposed to spend more time on the track than sitting next to it, I doubt whether serious racers will care much about a few rough areas in the finish of the car. And personally, soon I think those will be the best areas on my car since I'm thinking this slot car will see more than its share of track time.
I wasn't sure how this high-torque motored slot car would do on my short wood track because often slot cars with higher revving motors or high torque motors overpower my 21' track. But this car with the great brakes the motor has was easy to drive even with only an 8' straight. With the stock tires the car wasn't able to lap my track very quickly but when I changed to Ortmann tires the speed of the car improved drastically.

After my track I took the 82-gram car to the East New York Raceway (which is the photo included here) the car showed the qualities that you'd like to see in a fully tuned slot car, but this car did it being out-of-the-box. For testing at ENYR we used Ortmann tires for 19x10 Slot It wheels and SuperTires (#1402). The Ortmann's got the lap times down to around 5.3 seconds, which is fast but not as fast as we'd hoped. But with the Silicone SuperTires times dropped to a very speedy 5.190 lap time. And all this with nearly no tuning except a turn out each on the motor pod screws and oiling the pod where it's appropriate.


The 20k Scale Auto silver motor has fantastic acceleration and even better brakes. This car with this motor is very easy to drive, you can really get fast times out of this car very quickly mostly due to the brakes that allow you to stop immediately if you feel yourself getting into trouble... a very forgiving car. This is the type of car where you can find the speed rather than hold the speed back, a great characteristic in a slot car, especially for a newbie slotter. So yes this is a blindingly quick car that would be a good car to learn on (a rare breed indeed!). By "finding the speed" I mean that it's not so overpowered that you have to go slowly through the corners at less than half throttle or less, with this car you can keep the speed up nearly at full throttle much of the lap (or at least I could during the testing session).

By now most have seen the front axle adjustment screws, and frankly I hadn't thought that this type of front axle adjustment did much, but with a few turns of the screws the front axle as firmly planted on the track and the car did feel much more stable in the corners. This is a good feature that I'm guessing will find it's way into many upcoming releases.

A comparison of the slot car and the real car.




There are different ways of looking at different cars. I believe that this car, even with the few cosmetic blemishes it has will find it's way to being a staple car of anyone that is drawn to that distinctive flying wedge shape. MRRC has resurrected a classic slot car, they've vastly improved on the car as it was. And what they have given us a great starting point for either a highly modified car, or a serious out of the box winner.

A big thanks to John at MRRC for sending the car!

DaveK

Wonder why those 962's got faster?

Well I got an email from Maurizio of Slot It the other day about why the recent Rothman's 962 was so fast. The reason was that the 962 body, starting with the Hydro Aluminum car has had a "touch up" done to it. The body shed 3 grams of weight and it's now down to a light weight 20 grams. The next car to undergo a weight loss will be the Lancia, which according to many is nearly as fast as the 956 Porsche. According to Maurizio that's the standard by which the other car's are judged for speed. The new Martini Lancia will be lighter with a modified cockpit. Further, the Lancia's interior will be modified so it doesn't touch the chassis as it does in the first version, the Malardeau. After that the Sauber will be next on the Slot It weight loss diet.

All of this explains the delay in the production of some cars people have been waiting for....like the Martini Lancia.

It also does raise an interesting point though...let's say you're going to enter a race that's supposed to be "stock" slot it's. Let's say not everyone know that the newer 962 is a lighter body, or the newer interior that came with that body is lighter...you've got a nice little advantage, no? And aren't we all looking for that edge?

DaveK

New Revell vintage stock cars

The chassis will be an adjustable sidewinder chassis that will be used under both cars. And the chassis will be used in future cars as well. No exact release date yet, just later this year maybe November or December as far as I've been told.

Thanks to Revell for the news and photos!
DaveK

Fly April News

Thanks to Fly for the news.

DK

ALMS highlights from St. Pete.

MRRC trackside figures

MRRC has done everyone that's into scenery a huge favor, they've done another run of their trackside figure sets. There are 5 sets:

1. #MC-5089 Racing Figures (set of 12)
2. #MC-5090 Drivers & Pitcrew (set of 10)
3. #MC-5091 Track Officials (set of 10)
4. #MC-5092 Spectators (set of 10)
5. #MC-5093 Vendors & Newsman (set of 10)
   

Each set has an interesting collection of people doing a variety of things. And yes these are the same people that were originally made by Monogram more than 40 years ago!

They're all timeless in at least pose, if not dress.

A few selected figures.

The TV guy from the Vendors & Newsman set is very well done. He stands well and the fit of the camera into his hands is perfect. And he's got close to that "pained I've been standing here for hours shooting this stupid race" look about him too with the way he's bent over.

The Preiser figure here is wondering why he costs so much and the MRRC figures cost a fraction of the price. It's the painting obviously, but the detail on the high dollar (or is it Euro?) Preiser figure doesn't really seem to warrant $30.00 (or something close to that) for a set of 3 when you can get a whole set of 10 and paint them up for about $10.00 (which BTW is what you'll pay for only 4 of these painted as currently sold by Monogram).

Also something to consider is that the Preiser figures don't come with bases and the MRRC people obviously do. The MRRC figures are well balanced and all stand (or sit) without having to fiddle around to get them positioned just so.

So we get to scale, yes they're all around 6-feet-tall (as you can see by the official "Slot Car News paper ruler") so that's in the ball park.

Thanks to MRRC for rereleasing the figures and the buildings...now where did I put that red sable paint brush?

DaveK

"Wild Child" found!!!!!!!!!!

Bob Pomann has been a slotter most of his life. When a friend of his gave him a call saying he needed help with a commercial he was working on Bob's slot cars gave this friend the inspiration he needed... BTW this friend was the special effects director on a certain Mazda commercial (HINT, HINT).

So by now I'm assuming you've looked at the photo and get where I'm headed with this. Bob Pomann, a sound engineer who lives in Piermont, NY, helped out as "slot car consultant" and "slot car stunt driver" on the wildly popular "The Adventures of Wild Child" Mazda Speed 3 commercial.

BTW, that's Bob with Wild Child
The whole commercial boiled down to the need for the directors to pull off the final scene where Wild Child does the burnout and spells out "Awesome". They didn't know how to do this, that's where they looked to Bob for the answers...the chassis was based on the Scalextric drift cars. That gave them the trick they needed to do the commercial. Initially they thought that they'd use HO cars, but after seeing Bob's 1/32 slot cars it was decided to use that scale instead.


The commercial, which had a budget of around $250-300k, was filmed over 3 days with 3 resin bodied Wild Child's (or is that Wild Children?) in 1/32 and 1 in HO. The HO car was only used in the "aerial" shots that you see the little red Mazda being pursued by the police car. On the topic of that police car seen in the commercial, that was the ONLY CGI part of the commercial. Bob says that every shot and every trick and every "stunt" done was actually done, nothing aside from the police car in one scene was done with computers. The police car was put in after because they felt the Wildchild needed to be pursued by a cop car.

Film was the medium used on this commercial, not tape. It was shot at 120 frames per second and then slowed down to get a more realistic feel to the speed of the cars.

Almost all the cars used were 1/32 diecast cars and some slot cars repainted plain white or flat colors so they didn't stand out and had no logo's on them to distract the viewers from the little red rocket.

The commercial was never meant to be on TV, but rather it was supposed to be an online only ad, and probably meant to be spread by fans of Mazda or slotters...who knows, and who cares.

And on that note...I give you The Adventures of Wild Child.


Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News