| June 28, 2007 Review |
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 NINCO ASCARI KZ1 10th Aniversary Review By Shawn Smith Appearance:  If you're a long time reader of SlotCarGarage you know by now that I love reviewing slot cars [i]almost[/i] as much as I like racing them. What makes it even better is when the review subject is more than just a simple repaint and comes in the way of a totally new car. This time is one of those times as about a week ago this bright and shiney yellow Ascari KZ1 showed up, thanks to MRC – Model Rectifier Corp, and I knew in an instant I would like this car.  How did I know I would like it just by looking at it? It wasn't really the cars looks that sold me, although its a beautifully done car with a great shape and a highly glossy paint job, no it was because of how I knew the car would run and yes I could tell that just by looking at it.  Before we get in to the details of how well it runs we need to take the usual tour of the outer details. Being a representation of the '10th Aniversary' Ascari show car I'll admit the livery is a bit more 'road car' than something I would normally buy. NINCO does also have out s race painted version, as shown in the Harry Wise review found over at HomeRacingWorld.com, so if you lean more towards race painted versions you do have the option.  Race version or not the car is a stunning looker. Details are not plentiful but what is there is certainly well done. The overall paint job is perfect, the yellow is deep and rich (don't think my pictures really do it justice) and the clear coat is so shiney I can see the reflection of my face on almost every flat body panel. Aside from two large black racing stripes, these are painted by the way where as pre-release images showed the car to have decal stripes applied, other notable details such as the side marker lights, fuel filler locations and headlight details are all also painted on. Rear tail light details are instead separately added red plastic pieces that in my opinion make this car [i]scream[/i] for a light kit with a working brake light feature. For front lights you will have to drill out one of the openings in the headlamp bucket however something like that is a piece of cake.  A couple other visual items worth mentioning is the rear-engine motor detail being placed under the rear window, a rear spoiler that is moulded with small 'humps' to accomodate for the Ascari's rounded rear quarter-panel tops, a driver painted in orange and red seated next to a red fire bottle tucked in under a dark grey roll cage in the cabin.  Touching back again on the HRW review I linked you to earlier Harry mentioned how his Ascari had some rather pronounced mold lines on the body. Part of mw wonders if that is due to NINCO taping off the body sections during paint or graphics application because on my more solid painted yellow Ascari those mold lines do not appear. All edges are smooth and shiney and I think NINCO did a great job on this model.  Rims for the new Ascari are NINCO's BBS style 'ole reliables' and behind each rim are small chrome accented brake rotor details. Images of the real Ascari Aniversary car do confirm a very similar rim design and from those same prototype images about the only discrepancy I could find was NINCO's model is sporting black side view mirrors and the show car had matching body colored versions.  Enough about the outside... lets have a look at the inside. Taking the body off requires removing three screws. Two are found in the front on either side of the guide and the one screw in the back is right in the center.  Getting back to my comment about how well I had a feeling this car would run... having the body off doesn't reflect anything too unusual for NINCO, a flat chassis with cross-bracing, angle-winder motor set up etc... I already know all of that has made for nice running models in the NINCO line up, think Supra, NSX, Megane, 350Z, BMW M3 and Mosler, but something about this model made me a little more excited. More on that in a minute.  Motor is the NINCO rated NC-5 Speeder motor, labeled as having 20,000 RPMs at 14.8 volts, and has proven at least to me to be a fun and capable motor.  The rear axle is mounted in brass bushings and the gearing is set up, when looking at the back of the car, with the gearing on the left side. Just for those curious NINCO does make certain cars differently. This Ascari, the Megane, the Mosler and the BMW M3 all have the gearing on the left side while the 350Z, Supra and NSX all have the gearing flipped on the right side.  The front axle in this Ascari actually displays a possible improvement by NINCO. In just about every NINCO review you'll find that I comment on how much side to side play NINCO has in their front ends. Such was not the case with this Ascari and in fact it has nearly no side to side movement at all. No cutting, grinding or spacers required... YES!  Magnet is again standard NINCO single button magnet, non-adjustable, mounted slightly behind mid chassis thanks to the room provided by the angled motor configuration. Having the magnet slightly closer to the rear axle helps give the Ascari more magnetic grip at the rear wheels say over the NINCO McLaren F1 GTR.  The Ascari also has the spring loaded NINCO guide flag, found on all of the GT cars with the exception of the Mosler, and I like this spring assisted guide for helping to keep the guide in the slot.  Revisiting the wheels there may be a slight amount of flashing that would be a benefit to remove. Nothing obnoxious in this case but I wanted to point it out.  So what was it that made me believe this car would be a good runner? Well... keeping in mind that I review, and tend to race, all of my cars box-stock this Ascari simply had the 'look' of what would be a fast car. It wasn't the color and it wasn't the shape of the body but rather the Ascari's small size and how low the chassis sits to the track. Weighing in at a light 86-grams the Ascari is 2 grams lighter than the considerably longer Mosler, the Mosler being the car that until this Ascari was the track record holder for a stock NINCO GT-style car.   Lighter weight than the Mosler, shorter than the Mosler and very low to the track this little yellow Ascari crushed the Mosler's track times in a matter of 3 laps. The Mosler, with a best lap time around my 60 foot test track averaging around the 5.6 and 5.7 range proved to be a strong runner in the GT line... however this Ascari cranked off lap after lap in the 5.4 range and managed a quickest lap of 5.358. Doesn't sound like a lot however on a 60 foot track it means a car length or more per lap on my track and what made the Ascari a real killer was how easy it was to maintain that 5.4 second range. The last seven laps of my test were: 5.405/5.459/5.358/5.379/5.488/5.426/5.422. Nice and consistent as far as I'm concerned.* The Final Verdict:  Plain and simple I found the Acari KZ1 to be one of the more fun NINCO cars I've tested. Saying that in itself means lot as I love all of the other cars in the NINCO GT-range and being a fan of lighter downforce I enjoy driving almost everything NINCO makes. Don't be fooled however in thinking my comments imply that this car is strong in the magnet department... it 'feels' to have better grip based on my assumptions of the items mentioned however this car, being held down by the single button magnet and being powered by 20,000 RPMs, is still a lighter downforce car that will need to be driven. Of the NINCO line up I simply found my test subject easier to drive and it showed in the lap times. Long story short the car ran much like I expected, looks good in addition, so I like it... I like it a lot!! Special thanks to MRC – Model Rectifier Corp for providing the new NINCO ASCARI KZ1 10th Aniversary for review. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions and I will be happy to answer anything that I can. Happy Slotting! Shawn Smith SJSlots@hotmail.com *'Individual results' may vary based on track type, power supply etc. Testing comments are specific to NINCO related items and similar NINCO models and are not meant to compare to non-NINCO models. |
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