These reviews are done on my custom Carrera 1/24 Exclusiv road course layout.  

Test Drive Results - Ten Lap Sprint:

* Data does include some minor wrecks during the course of the trial run...

Test Drive Observations:

I think there is a need for more current street cars to come out as 1/32 slot cars.  We did get some from Carrera in 1/32 and more are coming from Carrera and others like MRRC.  This Ninco VW Golf is a good starting point coming from them along with the AC Cobra they did.  I will give Ninco some credit to come out with this model.  Although it is considered a racing "rally" car you can easily strip it down or consider it as-is for some street racing.  The main body unit us very well detailed and the markings are very clear.  I like the way they did the VW emblems front and back in a chrome type finish.  The car has good proportions and looks great overall.  Ninco gave us a surprise with this car by giving it an all-wheel-drive or car 4x4 system for the slot car track.

This car would be great to try on Dana Marsden's or anyone else's "rally track" but racing on a stock street layout like mine will put it through it's paces as well.  They used their own unique 4x4 or all-wheel-drive system for this chassis layout.  I think it works great.  From looking at the SCX versions, I think a 4wd system on a slot car needs some way of slippage between the front and rear wheels or it will cause it to bind up thus slowing down the car.  Ninco took away most of this system by using a pulley and belt type system.  The rear wheels have the standard crown gear inline arrangement but has a pulley added to it.  The front axle assembly is the same as most other Ninco cars except for the pulley added to it.  The system works surprisingly good and allows for some slippage between the front and rear.   The front wheels will not turn when held with the car getting full power but the rear wheels will still move so you will see a performance increase over the SCX 4wd cars in this department.  Unless you are climbing steep hills or rocks with your slot car, this type of all-wheel-drive has it's advantages.  You can even disconnect the drive belt to run it by the rear only.

With looking at the short wheelbase of this car and the Ninco NC2 motor, you will expect it to act like one hell of a pocket rocket 1/32 slot car.  This inline chassis set-up with neodymium traction magnet and 4wd provides to be a great combination.  The car will take the turns pretty well and handling is great for the car.  The magnet will keep it in the slot most of the time but aging does not cause it to stick like glue like some FLY cars.  The car will oversteer / fishtail at it's top limit while traveling around the bends or pushing it to the max before straightening out but the car will hold it's own pretty well on the course.  It leaves you drive the car without forcing you to drive it every second.  This car is easy to control and fun but the oversteering at or near it's high speed will cause the car to flip sometimes.  I am pretty certain the high power of the NC2 motor and the short wheelbase of the car causes it to flip sometimes at high speeds but until you reach that high of a speed, the car drives very nicely without any troubles.  It will slide a bit but the all-wheel-drive keeps it on track for the most part.

I found the NC2 motor to be pretty powerful for the track and I am happy they decided to put this motor in their new releases.  It really gives it some great power and I find it pulling through most of it's power band.   The car stops very well with it's 4wd system so I suspect this helps too in the handling department.  It is a great car if you are looking for a Rally version of the Ninco VW Golf but it looks nice as-is for a street car too.  You can always remove the markings but I hope Ninco would wise up and produce a decked out street version with street racing markings.  They can even get by with leaving the rear wing there for a custom look, might get some more kids and adults into the 1/32 slot car hobby.

This 1/32 Ninco VW Golf is getting 5 out of 5 tires rating because of the excellent and fun handling of the car, a greatly done 4wd system for the car, and great performance for the price.  This one comes highly recommended so grab one for your race track to run against the Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla, etc.  A future test drive might be to compare running the car stock as I did above to running it with the belt off thus running only rear-wheel drive.  This is a good car for your 1/32 slot car collection, grab one today.

Slot Car Garage Review Rating:  5 out of 5 tires - SCG Best Buy

Head to the main reviews section for many more reviews of slot cars and related slot car items...

Some Other Past Reviews:

1. Proteus 1/32 Heuliez PREGUNTA

2. 1/32 GBtrack Porsche 917 Spyder #1 Shell

3. Carrera 1/32 Mercedes 300 SLR - 1955

4. 1/32 FLY Panoz LMP-1 Roadster
5. 1/32 Ninco Go-Kart

Other Reviews Features:

1. Return to Main Reviews Section - Read more of my personal reviews and others of related slot car items including cars, sets, parts, etc. regarding all the scales (1/24, 1/32, HO)

2. Slot Car Test Drive Results - Current data from testing on my Carrera 1/24 Exclusiv track.  Includes results from 1/24 and 1/32 scale slot cars.  This is a run-down of the various slot cars I tested with their average, best lap times and the total time it took the car to complete the ten lap run.

3. Old Slot Car Test Drive Results - This is an archive of the various slot cars I tested with their average, best lap times and the total time it took the car to complete the ten lap run listed from when I had my Riggen 1/32 layout.

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