| August 29 2004 Review |
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 Click Here To Buy This Item Now Ninco BMW X5 ‘Motor Cadi’ By Shawn Smith Click here to have Genie read this review out loud to you in Microsoft Agent AUDIO! [Click here to chat about this item on our Forum] Appearance:  It’s beautiful, it’s blue and it is an all wheel drive BMW. Sitting on its desert-simulated base, the same that came with the Pajero, I can’t help but be thankful for another RAID style offering. Sure its nice for many racers to have two of the same cars to run against one another yet for some racers having a different model over a different paint scheme of the same car is a welcome addition.  What can be said about the Ninco BMW X5? For one this is actually a car model that I can relate to. Unlike the Ninco RAID Pajero, which I can’t remember having any knowledge of prior to Ninco making it, the BMW X5 is a very recognizable car. Sure this RAID version has tons of race inspired graphics and features on it but take off those graphics and put the back windows back in and it would look like any other X5 you might spy in your local mall parking lot.  My old boss even has one of these, albeit silver instead of blue, and it makes me laugh a little to imagine his head bouncing around inside of the cabin of this X5 as the truck takes on the serious rocks. In fact, for the first few test laps I was actually pretending this was he and my human resources director inside of the Ninco X5 so when I crashed it I was almost happy! Just kidding… a little perhaps.  There they are, strapped in by their red safety belts, wearing their plain white driving suits, white helmets and red racing gloves. Mr. Co-pilot is holding his ever-important directions clipboard and is no doubt yelling at the driver to brake for the next big turn although without their legs below the knees it will be tough for him to step on the brake pedal. Should you be concerned that the interior is only a shallow pan type? No way and to be honest you’ll never notice it unless you’re really looking for it. If you are looking for it then you will no doubt also see the interior roll cage detail and the red extinguisher bottle positioned between the two red racing seats.  Looking at the back of these RAID trucks one can safely assume that needing to see out of the back window is a bit over rated. Aside from the front windshield and the door windows the rest of the glass is painted blue to match the rest of the truck. This does however offer more sponsorship room as well as make space for painted on simulated high mounted brake light details.  Are there any other interesting details to look at? Sure, beginning with yellow mud flaps, additionally applied side view mirrors, headlight and taillight pieces as well as chrome accented grill sections and of course all of the razor sharp sponsorship graphics.  Performance:  Three screws hold the body and chassis of the BMW X5 together which is the same arrangement as the previous mentioned Pajero. In fact, aside from some different molding on the rear of the chassis you might think at first that both trucks use the same chassis.  Inside the chassis is almost the same as well. Both this new BMW X5 as well as the Pajero come equipped with the NC-7 Raider motor that generates a proposed 19,300 RPMs at 14.8 volts. In addition, both come equipped with the same single-belt all wheel drive transmission and the blue/medium Ninco ProShock independent shocks.  Also the same is the use of ‘floating’ brass axle bushings that allow for up and down movement of the axle, which is absolutely necessary if you use Ninco’s Off-Road Curve track expansion set, and while we’re talking off-road who can forget Ninco’s ProArm drop-arm guide system. You can’t get over the rocks without them!  To also help get over those rocks the Ninco BMW X5 comes equipped with the same large off road knobby tires as found on the Pajero. All four tires in the case of our X5 seemed to have a little excess flashing around the inner diameter where they sit on the rim yet no performance issue is created by it.  So… we have a very similar, if not the exact same, chassis set up on this BMW X5 as the Pajero. Both trucks run the same all wheel drives system with medium firmness shocks and free floating axles and both trucks use the same motors and tires to put the power to the dirt and if that isn’t a perfect running mate situation what is?  Lets talk for a minute about how it runs though. Removing the single bar magnet by pinching in the interior tabs in the chassis that hold the magnet cover it was time for some fast laps. On the new 120 foot four lane track that opened recently in town I thought it would be the perfect time to both wind the motor out and show it off to fellow local racers at the same time.  Non-magnet laps were surprising good for an all wheel drive truck wearing larger than normal off road tires and carrying around its unusually high center of gravity. 14.60 seconds is what it took to negotiate the technical 120 feet and comparing that to another, although smaller, non magnet rally car running that night, around the 13.50 seconds mark, I felt pretty good about the trucks performance. Popping the magnet back in dropped the time by almost two and a half additional seconds for a best lap of 12.38. The interesting thing though was watching how the truck behaved in both situations. With the magnet out the truck slid through all but the tightest turns with ease. Body roll seemed almost non existent until the magnet was popped back in and then instead of firmly sliding through the turns the X5 began a very noticeable body roll that was entertaining to say the least. It was quite common to see the inside front wheel and outside rear wheels lift up depending on the turn and even when the body roll gave way to a slide you could still recover if you were anticipating the throttle needed. The Final Verdict:  Off road truck racing at it’s finest! If you own the Pejero picking up one of the Ninco BMW X5s is a no-brainer. They make great running mates even if the X5 benefits from its longer wheelbase. Aside from that the two trucks share just about everything including their fun body-rolling antics. An additional benefit is that these things are tough. Other than the side view mirrors you have no small parts to worry about breaking off. Another fun thing about these Ninco trucks is that you can tune them through the separately purchased alternative shock sets. Magnet or no magnet and soft, medium and hard shocks allow for several tuning options to suit your needs. So in the end you have an a new model to run in the unique RAID racing series from Ninco that looks good, is durable and gives you varied running options. Pick yourself up one or two of these or toss in the Ninco Pajero and have yourself some off-roading style fun! Thanks go to the folks at Model Rectifier Corporation for providing me this new Ninco BMW X5 ‘Motor Cadi’ slot car . 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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