Ninco McLaren GTR F1 'Jacadi' Slot Car Review by Shawn Smith

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October 29 2005 Review

Ninco McLaren GTR F1 'Jacadi'
By Shawn Smith

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Every now and then a slot car model gets released that becomes so popular that racers and collectors alike can’t seem to get enough of them. A great example of this is the longevity and popularity shown by the NINCO McLaren F1 GTR, a car having been produced at least 13 times by NINCO since 1996, and no matter how many of these cars NINCO makes it seems most get sold almost as soon as they arrive. I have very little doubt that these NINCO McLarens remain popular and NINCO obviously agrees releasing their latest edition to the line in the McLaren F1 GTR Jacadi.

Appearance:

It’s been seven long months since the release of NINCO’s previous McLaren GTR, the orange and metallic-gray ‘Lack’ edition, and now with the Holidays fast approaching NINCO is making certain that F1 GTR fans have yet another edition of the car to play with before the end of the year. This time around the colors are a light blue and metallic gray, similar to if not the exact same gray used on the Lack version as well.

Styling wise the changes made on this McLaren GTR Jacadi are few if perhaps even only one. I’m assuming that the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ applies here seeing as how the cars remain as popular as they do with very little deviation from past versions of the car. From the front I found no deviations from the older models I own however that is no complaint by any means.

The same can be said for the rear of the car as everything in this area appears unchanged as well. A slight bit of flashing can be seen protruding off of the red taillight lenses but in fairness it is very minor.

Interior wise the Jacadi McLaren continues with the shallow pan-style NINCO utilizes on most of its cars with a driver figure positioned, as he should be, directly in the center of the cockpit although only from under each arm upwards. Thankfully the interior is so small that’s really all you have room to see anyway and I, like so many others, seem to actually prefer the shallow interior detail to allow for more room for tuning inside of the car.

Rims on this latest Jacadi GTR are classic McLaren styling with a nice thick five-star rim pattern although I’m not familiar enough with the wheel styling to tell you if the four-bolt lug nut pattern is accurate. With these rims NINCO has wrapped the wheels in their self-labeled NINCO grooved racing tire, which is a slight change from the two latest Lack and SOK cars that we’ll touch on again in the ‘performance’ section.

One other difference between this Jacadi car and the Lack model is found in the clear rear engine bay glass allowing you to see some semi-detailed engine bay accents. In the Lack car these engine bay windows were painted a solid black and on cars like the NINCO McLaren SOK the windows were painted in a scheme mirroring the paintwork on the body. I realize this seems to change from model to model although I figured I would mention it none-the-less.

Performance:

Four screws hold the body of the NINCO McLaren to it’s chassis, two found in the rear of the car on either side of the crown gear and two more in the front on opposite sides of the guide. Once removed the car comes apart easily looking just like;

Here once again we can see the bottom of the shallow tray-style interior as well as the basic design of the chassis. Much like the exterior the chassis has changed little over the years except for perhaps the motor NINCO has used in the most recent models.

The NC-5 ‘Speeder’ is again the motor of choice for this release and like previous cars is fitted with a brass pinion that spins a black plastic crown gear. The rear axle is held in the chassis by two brass bushings and while the interior is molded with posts designed to keep the bushings in place when the car is reassembled you might opt to add a drop or two of your favorite glue on them to assure they are secure in their mounts.

One more ‘unchanged’ feature of the NINCO McLaren continues to be the amount of side-to-side and up-and-down play found in the front axle. As you can see in this image, and with the wheel on the right side pushed in toward the chassis, the amount of room left over near the left wheel is enough to make many NINCO users trim off, or shim, the excess to remove much of that extra axle.

As with much of the McLaren the magnet is yet another unchanged area of the car and like it or not provides for very light magnetic down force compared to the magnets provided by most of NINCO’s competitors. Being a single button magnet, placed almost exactly mid-chassis, you can expect lots of tail sliding through the turns and some abundant wheel slip on track surfaces with less grip than NINCO track.

Revisiting the wheels and tires I was thankful to find these wheels free from any flashing and spinning about as true as you could hope to find for a mass-produced plastic wheel. This meant truing the tires was about all that was needed to assure a smooth runner and with very little effort I achieved that goal.

Admittedly though, I was a bit surprised to see NINCO’s grooved tires show up on this model as both the SOK McLaren and Lack McLaren found their way in to racer’s hands wearing racing slicks instead of these treaded rubber tires. Somewhat of a disappointment you really can’t even swap the tires as the tires for the Jacadi car are NINCO’s 19x10 tires compared to the 20.8x11.5 tires of the six-spoke wheel equipped Lack car.

Even with the difference in tires I was more than pleased with the performance of the car on my home layout and as odd as it may sound to some the treaded tires felt to get even better grip on NINCO’s track surface than their slicks. Handling wise everything was exactly as I expected with the Jacadi McLaren being both fast and ‘tail-happy’ and like most other NINCO NC-5 equipped cars I found the Jacadi GTR to both accelerate well and brake briskly.

The Final Verdict:

As eluded to, several times already, this NINCO F1 GTR Jacadi is certain to be another sought after GTR in NINCO F1 GTR line. If you’re a fan of these cars you already know what you need to know to like this car as well. If you haven’t had the chance to pick one up in the past NINCO is thankfully making sure that you aren’t left out although I can’t suggest strongly enough that you get one soon to avoid them being gobbled up by the NINCO faithful. Fans of strong magnet cars should be clear that these NINCO McLarens are lots of things besides ‘too stuck down’ yet love them for the fast and smooth light magnet cars that they are and the Jacadi McLaren should keep you happy!

Thanks go to the folks at MRC – Model Rectifier Corp for providing the new Ninco McLaren GTR F1 'Jacadi' 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

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