| December 15 2005 Review |
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 Ninco ProRace GT ProDriver Kit Review By Shawn Smith [Click here to chat about this item on our Forum] Because there is so much to cover of this new NINCO ProDriver Kit I'm going to try and break down the material over the course of a couple of days and in total there will be three parts to this review. Part 1 will be about the kit and the components contained within, Part 2 will be about assembly of the parts and car and Part 3 will cover on track performance and other technical apsects. We have a whole lot to discuss and look at so without further delay: Part 1 / The Parts and Pieces:  The most logical place to start this review would be to first give you a look at how the new NINCO Pro-Driver kit comes packaged. At first some might mistake this new kit as the latest power-drill from the local hardware store as the hard, red plastic, NINCO case does look like one many power tools come in.  Open the case though and you can quickly see that this is no drill, power-saw or the like. Nicely tucked inside of the foam liner we get the first look at both bodies that come with the Pro-Driver kit, the chassis and a great little locking plastic box containing all of the separate components that will make up our Pro-Driver Supra.  Of the two Supra bodies that come with the kit one is completely pre-painted and assembled while the other is plain white plastic and devoid of its detail parts. Having an unfinished body like this is perfect for those looking to create their own racing masterpiece and gives everyone a chance to create a car that is unique to their own creative abilities.   Items that come in the Pro-Driver kit for the white body include such items as the interior glass, headlamp buckets and lenses, the GT-styled rear wing and its upright support as well as other details like the tail lights, side view mirrors, windshield wiper and fuel filler pieces.  Interestingly enough the interior sections provided to finish with white bodied Supra are different from the one that comes secured inside of the silver body. Where as the silver car has a traditional harder plastic interior the kit provides for two 'lexan-type' light weight interiors that provide a slight weight reduction to the completed silver body. Having two of these interiors I guess you could keep the second unused in case the first is accidentally damaged or the alternative would be to remove the fractionally heavier interior of the silver body to provide both with the same weight and reduced center of gravity benefits.  No interior would be complete without its own details and for the light weight interiors NINCO has included several pieces to complete at least one of the interiors with a drivers body, head, helmet visor, steering wheel and bucket racing seat that need to be applied separately. If you plan to use light weight interior number two on the silver body my assumption is that you will need to remove these details from the standard interior before completing.   As cool as having two bodies may be a body is near useless unless there is a chassis under it to bring the body to life. With the NINCO Pro-Driver kit the Supra's chassis comes stripped of everything except for NINCO's current top of the line NC-6 Crusher motor and the two wire leads that come pre-soldered on to the motor contacts.  For those who may not know the NC-6 is rated by NINCO to produce around 23,500 RPMs and has proven itself to have very nice torque and provide very crisp braking characteristics. While some will consider this motor to be 'too hot' for home use it is the obvious choice to be used in a kit such as this as one of the main points of this kit is to create a car that the 'Pro-Driver' will find competitive for racing. To have the best chance of winning you need to have good speed and NINCO gives you the best they currently offer in this kit.  Having already mentioned how the motor comes pre-wired I think its also important to point out that the wires themselves are different from NINCO's traditional offerings in that they are covered in a clear casing and would appear to be a larger guage of wire than the traditional black NINCO wires.  Before getting to the really good stuff of the Pro-Driver kit it is also important to see the screws provided for the kit as they too are different from other NINCO offerings with the exception of the NINCO Pro-Race line of cars. Only two of the screws shown above are provided in the kit and they will require the use of a small flat-tip screw driver to install and remove them. Their benefit however is in their design as the lack of threads near the head of the screw offers a certain amount of 'freedom of movement' between the body and the chassis when the screws are slightly turned backwards after installation.  This is where things really start to get good as what really makes this kit stand out is the addition, and application, of NINCO's all-new line of Pro-Race components for this special release. One of the biggest highlights has to be the three different levels of 'tuning' options provided by the interchangeable set-screw aluminum gears provided for this car. Where as most cars come equipped with one pinion and one axle gear this new Pro-Driver kit gives each racer a total of three different pinion gears and three different angle-winder axle gears to customize how your car performs on the track. In the pinion department NINCO supplies an 11-tooth, a 12-tooth and a 13-tooth brass pinion gear as well as a 33-tooth (blue), a 32-tooth (silver) and a 31-tooth (red) axle gear. We'll discuss more of these in greater detail in parts two and three of this review but each different gear combination means different performances on the track and to have a variety of options is one fantastic benefit of this kit.  The axles these new aluminum gears get mounted on are also included in the kit as are brass axle bushings and the new set-screw axle-collar that assures minimum side to side axle play when installed correctly. Interesting to note here the absence of NINCO's Pro-Race ball-bearing bushings, as used on cars such as the NINCO Pro-Race Subaru, since the goal here seems to be to provide the top of the line NINCO Pro-Race components to make the most competitive NINCO cars to date however to exclude the arguable performance benefit of NINCO's own ball-bearing bushings seems odd to me.  The next highlight of Pro-Driver kit has to be the first-time release of the new NINCO aluminum wheels. Eight in total come with the kit, four to be used for the front wheels and four to be used as the rear wheels, and like the gears and aluminum axle collar are set-screw in design for quick changes and quick adjusments while racing.  Being a first for NINCO I have to commend them for making what amounts to be a fantastic looking as well as fantastic performing wheel. The rims are of course very light weight with three open areas in the back of each wheel as well as manufactured with raised 'spines' on each wheel meaning an even seating for the tires while reducing even more weight than would be had from a solid spun metal wheel.  Of the eight total wheels in the kit you'll want to be aware that the size of the front and rear wheels are different with the rears being noticably wider than the front wheels. Not only are they wider but NINCO's information on these wheels shows a 1:1 replicated size for the front wheels being a scale 17-inch rim while the rear wheels size out to be an 18-inch rim.  Yet another fantastic feature of the kit; two sets of four metal wheel-inserts come with each Pro-Driver kit as do two sets of simulated brake rotor detail parts. This is just another nice touch as not only can you complete a wheel package to provide a finished look but you can also change the wheels between the two visually different designs to, much like decorating the plain white unfinished body, allow for a unique look to suit your tastes.  The two different designs that come with the Pro-Driver Supra are a traditional looking BBS-style insert and a nice simple six-spoke design that NINCO has been using in their standard GT plastic wheel offerings for most of 2005.  Made in a brass-look the brake rotor inserts are nicely photo-etched to accomplish a directional slotted or 'grooved' look and while a nice touch you can always choose not to install these when the time comes if you truly believe the added weight and detail isn't needed. I however love the look so will be using them on all eight of my wheels during assembly.  Now, since its already been determined that the front and rear wheels are a different size it should be a given that the tires would also be size distinguishable. The rear tires are not only visably wider but they also have a slightly taller profile than the thin sticky low-profile tires provided to fit the front wheels. And speaking of 'sticky' these Pro-Race tires have to be the best NINCO tires yet for running on track types other than NINCO's own as they provide really nice grip on smooth track types.  Getting near the end of the 'Parts' section I must mention the NINCO sprung guide blade that must be installed although it does come out of the box with the braids already in place and it simply snaps right in to the guide post hole in the chassis so for simplicity sake it doesn't get a whole lot easier than that.  And all of the included set-screws, eight in all, will of course need a special wrench and here again NINCO has provided one in the Pro-Driver kit for you. This is essential for the assembly of the car coming up in Part 2 of this review and I'm very happy NINCO chose not to make their customers find or buy the required tool to make this all come together. So there we have it... all the parts and pieces that come in the new NINCO Pro-Driver Supra Pro-Race kit. Coming up in Part 2 we will focus on assembly of the many components and in Part 3 we will put the completed project on the track to test the various gear combinations and on track performance. All updates will be added on to this text so expect to see a lot more images as well as descriptions in the days to come right here! Part 2 / Kit Assembly:  Time to take all of these great parts and start putting them together to make a working slot car. Inside of each Pro-Driver kit NINCO has included a small black and white tri-fold booklet to assist you in the assembly process.  Opening up the booklet the image on the left hand side breaks down the many parts that come in the kit and while I found almost everything to be accounted for the booklet does list three (3) of the silver set-screw axle collars however in the kit I received only one is present. I'm willing to bet that this is a misprint problem on the instructions rather than an oversite during packaging as why would three of these axle parts be needed when only one rear axle is offered in the kit? The center page of the instruction booklet begins the assembly stage of the kit and the instructions are provided as pictures of each step along with a line near the top of each image that instructs you on which labeled part letter to be looking for. In some ways these instructions are slightly confusing as step one shows a pinion seated on the end of the motor shaft yet the labeled part letters display the pinion (part letter 'C') being joined with a part letter 'K' although by referring back to the parts list to the left the part letter K appears to be on the front axle and not the motor. The page shown on the far right of the booklet demonstrates instruction numbers 9 through 15 that covers the installation of the front guide and how to run the wiring to the guide as well as the beginning of the body assembly for the unfinished white body and its associated parts.  Flipping the instruction pamphlet over page four of the instructions addresses the cutting and detailing of the light-weight racing interior and the final page shows the final steps of the assembly and lists information about tire and wheels sizes as well as tips on which gear ratio to use and how to properly set up your braids in preparation for driving.  Before you begin to put your chassis parts together it might be worth while to decide on which gear ratio will work best for your needs before you start the assembly. As shown in the image above NINCO recommends using the 33-tooth (blue) axle gear paired with the 11-tooth pinion gear for tracks made up of mostly tight turns, the 32-tooth (silver) gear paired with the 12-tooth pinion for a track with a good combination of tight turns and high speed sections and the 31-tooth (red) axle gear matched with the 13-tooth pinion for tracks with an abundance of higher speed sections and fewer tight turns.  Using the gearing tips provided I figured the best place to start was to use the 'middle' gearing combination or the 32 and 12-tooth gears for combination tracks. Step 1 of the instructions shows the installation of the brass pinion on to the motor shaft however it fails to really show exactly 'how' to do this. Having installed and removed my fair share of pinion gears over the years I knew precisely how I was going to accomplish this however for any 'newbie' who might pick one of these kits up getting the pinion properly placed on the motor shaft could be a serious chore without the proper tools.  Without such a device as the NINCO gear pull/press tool I can see some newer racers being creative in their ways of installing this pinion gear and that troubles me. Having to try things like needles nose pliers and/or a hammer to get the pinion in place means the potential for damage to both the pinion and the motor and I just don't know that not explaining this better is good idea. At the very least I would think a disclaimer suggesting the use of the NINCO gear tool would be beneficial to buyers and in the long run could spare a few headaches.  With the pinion now installed and the motor snapped back in the chassis its time to start putting the rear axle parts together as shown in step 2 of the instructions. In step 2 two tips are conveyed again through graphic images, the first being NINCO's recommendation to not tighten down any of the set screws during this step and the second tip being to seat the rear rim on the axle with the tip of the axle lining up flush with the center hub of the rim.   Having all parts placed on the axle Step 3 shows what parts we have now snapped in place in the chassis. Again the instructions indicate not to tighten down any of the set-screws.  Now with the partially completed axle in the chassis Step 4 shows the addition of the second rear rim as well as indicates this is the time to start securing the set screws to hold the parts in place. Again, for the second rim be sure to remember to mount the rim with the end of the axle flush with the inside of the wheel as its easily possible to end up with too much axle poking through the wheel.   Interesting enough the instructions demonstrate the tightening of all the axle set-screws with every one of the screws in the upright position. Just a personal tip a fellow racer shared with me once it might actually be a better idea to tighten certain screws in opposing directions to make sure that a proper balance is acheived between the parts.  As you can see in the image above all screws are sticking straight up as the instructions recommend. From what I have been told this is actually not the way to set up the axle as the added weight of the set screws, however minor it may seem, causes an imbalance in the axles rotational mass and in turn can inhibit some performance.  What I have been told is the correct way to set up the axle is to alternate the set-screw alignment so that one points up and one points down as demonstrated in the image above. This provides for a better balance as weight is evenly distributed on both sides of the axle. Since there is an even number of screws in this set up it makes it very simple to accomplish by making sure one rim has a screw point down while the other has the screw pointing up as well as doing the same with the axle collar and axle gear as shown.  The rear axle now completed and installed its time to move on to putting together the front axle assembly as shown in Step 5 and here again NINCO offers a tip on how far to seat each rim on the front axle. According to the instructions the graphic says to place the wheel on the axle and tighten the screws where each of the front rims have what amounts to be roughly 1.5 mm. of space, or gap, meaning the front axle will appear 'sunken' more in the wheel hub.  Again while this is NINCO's recommendation I found this set up to demonstrate a similar amount of excess side to side free play commonly found on most NINCO RTR models and I know from listening to a variety of racers on the message forums that most choose to remove as much of this 'freeplay' as possible.  Tightening up the amount of side to side movement in this type of system is much more simple than on a traditional RTR as you no longer need to remove a wheel comepletely to either shim or cut an axle down to a desired length. Thanks to the set-screw front wheels simply loosen a set screw and slide the wheels further on to the axle until the desired result is achieved.  Getting even closer to having our chassis in running order the next logical step would be to install the snap in guide blade although the instructions show Step 6 to be the decorating of the rims with the included brake details and inserts. I however chose to install the guide and hook up the high-performance silicone lead wires as I felt it more important to have the 'functional' parts completed before moving on to the more 'cosmetic' features of the car.  Going backwards from Step 9 (the guide) its time to return to Step 6 and work on the cool detail parts of the wheel inserts and the rotor details. Here the instructions show the removal of these pieces using a hobby knife however I found that attempting this did nothing more than damage the parts rather than free them from each other.  Instead what I found worked better was to use a pair of sharp sissors or better yet a rotary tool with a metal cutting disc attached worked like a charm to free the parts.  The brake rotor details, if you chose to use them, get pressed on to the hub inside of each rim. Because of tiny little burs inside the circular inner hole of the rotors you can press these in place and they seem to fit very firmly. A quick trick I might recommend is to remove the plastic end cap of a Bic pen and use the round end of the tube to push the rotor in to place. This was much more simple than attempting to apply sufficient pressure with my fingers and thumbs and after fighting with the first wheel for nearly ten minutes the pen trick has the remaining seven wheels done in less than a minute.  Installing the inserts was by far the more simple task to accomplish as assuming you have filed away the excess flashing from the parts the inserts simply drop in each wheel and rest against a lip built in to the design. Depending on how good of a job you did filing down the spru-flashing you might find it needed to use a little glue to secure the inserts in place. I had to on the majority of my eight wheels so I applied some glue to all of them just to make sure they all will stay in place.  Ok... Everything has been completed just as the instructions indicate so its time to test fit the body and check everything out before sending it off on its maiden voyage. What's this? Oops I might have done something a little wrong as look at that wheel sticking out of the body. Even though the concept of 'wider is better' comes to mind I happen to like a more scale look for my cars so a simple loosening of the rim and a readjustment of its placement and everything is back in place and looking good!  Ahh, the assembly portion is now complete and I have to say I feel quite proud of myself. The next step will be to oil the bushings and take it for a test drive before really giving the Pro-Driver Supra a work out. Coming up is Part 3 of the review where we'll put the rubber to the road and the 'thingy to the floor' (Smokey and the Bandit reference for those curious) and really find out what this Pro-Race Supra can accomplish. Stay Tuned! Part 3 / Performance  After applying some oil to the axle bushings I reinstalled the body and made certain to tighten down the chassis screws then back them off about a turn and half. According to the back of the Pro-Driver instruction booklet about a half turn is best for high grip tracks and a turn and a quarter is recommended for low grip tracks however I was curious how much of a difference it would make between the two and wanted to check both so we'll start with the 'low grip' recommendation and tune things from there.  With my gearing set up to match NINCO's standard RTR Toyota Supras I set off with some high expectations of performance. The very first thing I noticed as I gave the car a few low speed warm up laps was that the sound of the car was far different than any standard version. It's really a great sound that the metal gears make under power and it by far nothing like the sound more standard plastic gears make.  Getting more and more courageous with the power the Pro-Driver Supra was soon ticking off what felt like really impressive laps as the NC-6 Crusher motor rocketed the car out of the turns and sent it flying down the straights. Right about this time in the testing I began to wonder what the different gear ratios would do to performance as the 12/32 combination was great however I noticed that the motor could easily over power the rear wheels and if you weren't careful in a turn you were sure to whip the back end around to wind up facing the wrong way.  Because my track is only 60 feet with the highest speed section being a 14-foot front straight I decided to stop and swap out the gearing for the 11/33 option listed as being recommended for tight and twisty circuits. Turning the car on its back and removing the wheel it instantly became obvious that getting the anglewinder gear off would require removing the body too.  The problem with trying to take the gear off without removing the body stems from the design of the gearing and how the two gears taper to meat each other meaning you can tighten the gear mesh the further out on the axle you push the angled axle gear. At a point where the mesh became almost too tight to even turn the axle I decided I was going to have to remove the body and take the axle out of the chassis to effectively make angle-winder gear change.  Of course you need to take the body off anyway to change the pinion gear but in a case where you wanted to try just a tooth change on the axle gear this is where a sidewinder configuration could be an advantage over the anglewinder gearing. After popping the both the axle and motor out of the car I went about making my changes and believe me the NINCO gear puller was life saver getting the pinion off of the motor shaft quickly. Again, if I had to try this using non-conventional methods I probably would have taken the lazy route and left the pinion alone.  Now with the 11-tooth pinion on the motor and the 33-tooth (blue) gear on the axle I reassembled everything and replaced the body for the second time. Once again giving myself a handfull of warm up laps I couldn't immediately tell a difference in the gear changes but once I started giving it more power the changes could be felt.  What I needed to keep in mind here was that the NC-6 motor is a very high RPM as well as very high torque motor and by changint the gearing out to even higher torque gearing I was in essence making myself a real handfull. Now it seemed the Supra was roasting the wheels off the back with very little provocation around the turns and on more than one occasion I kicked the back end out entering a straight section and had very little time to recover. Speeds were very crisp as was the braking and I soon figured out that I didn't care as much for this combination as I did the first pair of gears.   Taking the car apart for the second time I figured now was as good of a time as any to also give the other rims and inserts a shot and unlike my alternating set-screw placement on the axle I went ahead and lined everything up on the same side of the axle like the instructions suggested just to see if I could feel any difference.  Equipped with new wheels and a new 13/31 (red) gearing combination I set back out to break some track records. Acceleration and braking was indeed less 'twitchy' and I loved the way the car smoothly rolled out of most of the turns yet the NC-6 could still over power the wheels if too much throttle was applied in the corners. Top end speed 'potential' did seem to be improved although having only a 14-foot straight I really never felt the top end of any of the three combinations.  After running the high speed gearing for around 50 laps I decided that while I liked that combination I was never going to see its full potential on my home track so I decided to take everything apart once again and see the car back to the RTR standard ratio of 12/32 (silver). Hopefully in the next week or two I can take the Pro-Driver Supra with me to my local commercial track where I can see what difference the gearing makes on a 118-foot track with 20-foot straights and high speed banked corners. For more on that... stay tuned.  So... testing of all three gear combinations under my belt I was a little surprised to see some inconsistency with the lap times. With the 11/33 (blue) gearing for twisty tracks installed the best time set by the Pro-Driver Supra click off at a 6.149 second lap. Again the gearing here was a little 'jumpy' for my tastes and the car felt very 'on the edge' of traction most of the time. With the gearing set at the 13/31 (red) combination recommended for higher speed tracks the best time posted here ended up being a 6.031. In this setting I personally liked the cars characteristics the best and yes the lap time was an improvement over the 11/33 combination although pushing it as hard as I could I still couldn't best the times of the middle gear ratio.  With the truth being displayed by the lap times I wasn't terribly shocked that the 12/32 (silver) gear combination set the fastest lap of the testing. With a 5.796 fastest lap the car had perhaps the best ratio of power and top speed for my track and considering as how I already liked the way NINCO's RTR 12/32 cars worked on my track it could be that I'm just more comfortable with this gearing combo.  Is the Pro-Driver Kit Supra that much faster than a NINCO RTR verison? Not much on my track, no. The best time recorded for an RTR NINCO Supra was put down by the blue and white 'Esso' Supra and that time of 5.838 was only fractionally beaten by the 5.796 Pro-Driver Kit car. Logically the two cars should be able to lay down similar if not exact times as both use indentical chassis, but are using identical gear ratios, same guide, similar tires etc. Yes the Pro-Driver Supra packs the extra punch of the NC-6 over the NC-5 but that only becomes an advantage if the chassis can handle the power effectively. What needs to be kept in mind here is that magnetically speaking the cars are identical as well. Both sporting NINCO's cylindrical button magnet the NC-6 is more likely to over power the downforce than is the NC-5. Truth be told the NC-5 can still easily break the rear end loose in a turn but 'apples to apples' and NC-6 is just a bit too much for smaller home type tracks. What would be probably the best test between this Pro-Driver and an RTR version would be to run both cars on a smooth and longer routed track where magnetic aid isn't a factor and where the slightest difference in car balance and gering will be more obvious.  Also, for those interested and slightly off topic, yes you can use these fantastic Pro-Race parts on other NINCO cars you might have in your collection. Having a NINCO Mercedes CLK DTM in my collection with a plastic wheel that broke during some hard racing I have been chomping at the bit to get my eager little hands on some of these Pro-Race wheels. Since the you can only use one set at a time for the ProDriver Supra you end up with a second set that can of course be used some place else! Ninco, my previously inactive Merc DTM now LOVES YOU!  The Final Verdict:  There is little question that the NINCO Pro-Race GT ProDriver Supra kit has a lot about it to love. It has that certain 'cool factor' of being one of the only complete kit style packages on the market, offers both a finished RTR body as well as an unfinished back-up spare body and comes loaded with an abundance of cool upgrade lightweight performance parts. For stock magnet racers having a kit like this may or may not prove its value for you as performance is great yet not much greater than NINCO's RTR versions of the car. Blame NINCO for making too good of an RTR version though as many already know NINCO makes a well balanced RTR car and the standard Supras have already gained popularity as being near the top of NINCO's current line for out of the box performance and speed. Neither the RTR versions nor this Pro-Driver kit Supra resemble anything close to a magnet rocket but if you can master the light downforce, or if you race non-magnet, this Pro-Race GT Supra is a top of the line platform with which you c an build your own speed demon out of high quality NINCO produced parts. Keep in mind that this kit retails for close to the cost of two standard release NINCO cars and the previously mentioned 'cool factor' will be enough for many to grab one of these, however I personally feel the price is fair for the quality of the parts and maybe even more so for having a certain flexibilty of tuning not offered in any other mass produced slot car on the market. All said and done this is a great new package that allows you to have fun building and tuning your own car to match your personal driving style and that alone makes it unique. I think NINCO deserves a pat on the back for offering a kit such as this and I for one am happy to see them making their own brand of quality components to improve their already well liked cars. Nice work guys... really nice work! Thanks go to the folks at MRC – Model Rectifier Corp for providing the new Ninco ProDriver Supra Kit 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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