| February 17, 2007 Review |
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 Spirit Reynard 'Nasa Max' Review By Shawn Smith Before getting to our latest review test subject I'd like to start with a 'welcome'. No the Spirit brand of slot cars is not new to the home slot racer yet the new Spirit U.S. distributor certainly will be. Here for 2007 a company by the name of Kimrey Enterprises has picked up the challenge of marketing the Spain based Spirit slot car brand and having spoken to Kimrey's owner I can tell you that the Kimrey organization is very enthusiastic about the Spirit product line and they are working over-time to spread the word about the new products. So... To Mr. Kimrey and Kimrey Enterprises I say 'welcome' and 'thank you'. Now then... with a new distributor in place we're going to see quite a few new things from the Spirit line up but with all of the 'new' there will also be several 'old favorites' to be had as well. Something that has always interested me was how certain slot cars get by 'flying under the rader' of most slot racers while to a certain percentage of us the cars have well proven themselves to be fast and competant racers and as such have become favorites. This is, for me, the case with the Spirit Reynard LMP and it has been since I first reviewed one way back in March of 2004. Wow! The Reynard LMP from Spirit has really been around that long?? Yes, but amazingly many have never tried them and shockingly some still have never heard of them. Well... we're going to have to see about changing that! Appearance:  So, here it is... one of the lastest editions of the Spirit Reynard LMP. This particular car, modeled after the 2003 Le Mans participant 'NASA' entry driven by R. Dumas, R. Stirling amd W. Lupberger, is one of the 'non-sport' editions of the current Spirit line up. 'Non-sport' you might be asking? Spirit has lately been releasing two different versions of their Reynard as well as the different 'Dallara LMP' car with 'sport' versions having features such as set-screw rear wheels and a different motor. More on that a little later.  In the looks department little has changed from the original version, which is fine with me, as I feel the car looks great and the paintwork is nice too. Feature wise the car has many of the small details that so many like about today's slot cars and thankfully they have proven themselves to be pretty durable as well.  One tiny detail piece that will be a likely 'race victim' is a small tow-hook loop of plastic directly above the front splitter of the car just to the side of the nose. Also, if after some hard racing you begin to hear a little 'chatter' from the body area the separelty applied headlamp lenses tend to be a little free in their mounts and can make some noise while running.  Interior wise there isn't a bunch of detail here to speak of. The dash is not painted or molded with any switches or knobs however the interior does have a red floor mounted fire-bottle and the driver figure does at least have shoulder belts painted on. Oddly, comparing this more recent version to the older one linked to above, the older Reynard driver also had lap belts and a silver painted buckle painted on the driver figure's lower half while this newer version does not. Also, the driver's helmet is lacking any form of decoration yet race images show all drivers had at least some coloration on their 1:1 helmets.  The side view mirrors thankfully are well protected from side impacts, being mounted close to the cockpit, and in the event the Reynard finds itself on it's roof the large 'roll-bar' behind the cockpit helps keep the mirrors on the body as well.  Car to car there are also some variances with how each model is detailed. Notice with the older silver car how the rear engine compartment has an air intake while the version that ran in the 2003 Le Mans apparently did not. Looking for prototype images on the internet I have confirmed this to be accurate although I did find that certain other aspects of the car were actually different as well. For example;  While the green and silver finish of the Spirit version looks very good the prototype images I found at www.nasamax.com showed the green of the 2003 Le Mans event to be closer to a teal color and the roll-bar behind the driver was apparently also silver/white instead of the green modeled by Spirit.  Looking at the back of the car it's hard to believe there is even a motor and an axle gear under there but their is. The car looks very low and very flat with no buldge in the body work for gear clearance. The wide rear wing looks pretty fragile yet my 2004 version of the Spirit Reynard has taken some hard knocks and the wing has never once broken.  Much like I found with some differences in the driver detailing the backs of the cars show yet another detail item that is different. Notice how on the 2004 version the bottom shows exhaust tips on either side of the wing supports. No such details are found on this latest version  Wheels used for this 2003 Le Mans Reynard are a gold colored BBS-style rim design. Behind each rim are matching gold colored brake rotor details.  Overall I give this car good marks in the appearance category although a lot could be done to elevate the model to a higher level of detail accuracy. Most of you 'racers' probably won't care very much about the 'scale-details' however I know a lot of readers who seem to love as much detail as they can get. In any case you won't miss any of it once the car gets up to speed... and speed it has.  Performance:  To get the body of the Spirit Reynard off you must first loosen four screws, two on either side of the guide and two more just in front of both of the rear wheels.  Now apart the old and the new have even more differences to check out, the first coming in the way of a decorated motor can.  'So it has a sticker on it... so what?' Fair enough. Is there a speed difference between the two though? Information recently published on SlotCarNews.blogspot.com shows all of the Spirit motors, including the 'earlier production' motor specs and there may be a difference between them. Based on the information the older Reynard had a motor rated at 26,000 RPMs that when tested at 12 volts was found to crank out closer to 28,000 RPMs. The SX-01 motor shown in this recent release is listed to have slightly less RPMs, rated at 24,000, yet from my on track testing I'm willing to bet the number is really closer to the previous release's numbers.  What is perhaps the most welcome change between the older and this recent release is the addition of a set- screw metal crown gear that replaces the red plastic gear that came on the older version. Let me be clear that my 2004 version has never had a problem with that gear failing but having an easier to remove option certainly is nice for those who use their car for racing and for those classes that allow for alterations to the gear ratios.  Up front the design is unchanged with a solid front axle running through supports that do a good job of limiting the axles range of up and down movement. The guide holder in this car also proved to hold the guide very snug and no slop was evident in this model.  Magnetically speaking this car should make magnet racers very happy. The magnet is not large however being placed close to the rear axle as well as low to the track rails the magnet in the Reynard does a great job of keeping the back end in place.  Rims on this test subject were free from any performance robbing flashing which is good. The rims are plastic, where as the rims on the 'sport' models are metal set-screw wheels, yet as plastic wheels go these were good and round. What is better is yet another difference between the old and the new as the tire compound used by Spirit feels to have changed AND the rubber did not have molding flaws in them like the older review suject showed. On the old car I quickly replaced the rear tires with a set of Indy Grips, the FLY classic tire is a perfect fit, however on this model I don't know that a replacement is needed as the tires are nice and sticky and held the track nicely even before they were sanded.  And how does it run? Well in case I haven't hinted to it sufficiently the car ran great. The SX-01 isn't going to blow anyone away with its torque but it gets to its top speed fast enough for my taste and that top speed is pretty respectable. The magnet works very well and the tires provide decent grip too so when you combine that with a decent motor you end up with a pretty fast slot car for a home track. Need some proof? Check out a quick video sample: Click here to watch 'Fast-SPIRIT'  Final Verdict:  I liked the car back in 2004 and I like the car now. It looks good, holds the track well and has really good speed. The previous verisions I have owned, three in total, were all very good models and part of me wishes I had back the two I sold or traded away. I won't make the same mistake with this version and it's certain to see a ton of track time. Word from the slot rumor mill is that these cars from Spirit are hitting stores in very limited numbers so if you see one you want my best advice is to pre-order or grab yours as soon as you can. Never know when they will be gone... and it would be a shame to have missed them. Also, for your slotting pleasure, here are images of other planned 2007 Spirit releases. A few of these you are likely to see here very soon so keep your eyes, and your wallet, open for some very nice slot cars.     Thanks go to Kimrey Enterprises for providing the new Spirit Reynard 'Nasa Max' for review. I'm very pleased to have Kimrey on board and I'm looking forward to hearing more from them on the Spirit line of slot cars. As always, feel free to contact me at the email address below with any questions or comments and as always, happy slotting! Shawn Smith sjslots@hotmail.com |
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