NINCO Gulf McLaren F1 GTR & "Formula Black"

[HomeRacingWorld]

[Junior]

Nice honest review Harry. Good to see the pricing back down to were you can think about buying them.

I have a 27 tooth 48mm Ninco rear axle, if you want it, its yours.

Tom

[TuscoTodd]

Harry - Thank you for the detailed review noting both the positives and the negatives. I got back into slots after the Ninco pricing was already elevated - so I haven't messed with them - but the F1 car sounds like it might be fun to play with without a magnet in it, which is how I have been messing with my Scalextric versions. :)
Thanks again!

[chappyman66]

Nice review, Harry.
I wouldn't mind having some new wheels......the original orange wheels on my original McLaren are pretty well shot and spinning on the axle. So spares would be a welcome thing.
Gotta agree on the motor thing though. I have three McLarens - two NC-1s and an NC-2 and I won't get a new one because of the NC-5 motor (got one in my Mosler, and hate it). The tire thing is more of the same. I run smaller tires on my McLarens because I think it improves the handling, but yes - they don't fill out the wheel wells very well. And putting a different gear and different wheels in the car.....that's just poor control, period.
But I like the body, and the livery has certainly improved a LOT since the 90s. I find that a little weight just in front of the rear wheels make it easy to drive in no-mag trim although the original was a weak ceramic magnet up front so not much downforce in the first place.
I like these and the F-50s....a couple of nice easy driving cars and the lower price does make the McLaren more attractive.

[legrandnormand]

I really like all of your tests, for the + and - of any kind of cars. After reading this test, for the same type of cars and same price, I'd prefer the Carrera's.

Thanks for the test.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Appreciate the feedback. Thanks for chiming in guys.

Norman, If Carrera made them I would. Funny, back when these first came out, Carrera models were no where near the models they are today. They improved over time.

Thanks Junior. I might take you up on that. I have some wheels and might just rebuild it for the heck of it.

Feedback from you folks is priceless.

[Fast Co.]

Good honest review Harry. Interesting to see the side by side comparisons of these cars to the older models.

I'm a long-term Ninco fan. I have been since 1997 when I first got into 1/32 scale slot cars. A year later, after an early disappointment with a Scalextric set, I purchased my first Ninco circuit - the Formula 1 set. The Ninco F1 set came with an excellent assortment of track pieces including turns of different radii. And it came with the yellow Jordan you have pictured next to the "new" F1 release and a red Ferrari.

The Ninco F1 set was great and got me hooked into 1/32. I had hours of fun with it. The track was easy to assemble and disassemble, it laid perfectly flat, it had ample lane spacing, insulated slots, excellent electrical connectivity and good grip - qualities that were sadly lacking in the Scalextric track. There was also a good variety of track pieces (including, over time, ice and off-road sections) and plenty of accessories that even owners of other maker's tracks find useful.

The F1 cars included in that early set came with the venerable NC-1 motor - a perfect match for the cars and the circuit. F1 cars bought separately came with the NC-2 - also a good motor in the F1 cars and some others but too much motor for taller, narrower cars (such as the Cobra) on a tight, twisty track with little magnetic downforce.

Back in the '90s Ninco slot cars retailed for around $42 - $45 each - on par with the cost of other manufacturers products. And at the time, Ninco was the best game in town - much better than either Scalextric or Carrera of the day. (Carrera, in recent years have shown the most improvement - I love those DTM cars!). And remember, this was years before Slot.It, NSR and ScaleAuto got into the game with their 1/32 scale RTR slot cars.

It's a bit of a disappointment that the tires on the McLaren are undersized. But let me say this about Ninco rubber - Ninco is the only stock rubber I run on my 80' routed track. It hooks up great and is very durable. I have never replaced any of the rubber on any of my Ninco cars and after 16 years, the tires still hook up. Other brands of tires have become chalky, dried out and cracked, or leached puddles of oil in their display cases. So kudos to Ninco for providing good quality rubber.

Like everyone else, I'm bewildered by Ninco's motor choices in recent years. It's not that any of the motors are bad. It's just that they appear randomly in different models without, it seems, much thought to the class of car they're being installed in.

I love the NC-1 and NC-8 motors. They're perfect for the Ninco Classics (my favorite Ninco class and still one of my favorite all-around classes to run). The NC-2 motor is also a good motor. I like them in the GT cars. And my Lotus Exige screams around my routed track with it's NC-9 Sparker (another good motor) and stock Ninco rubber. I love that little car. The NC-5 works well in the JGTC cars (another of my favorites). But the downside of the more powerful Ninco motors though, is they cause the infamous "Ninco Hop" in cars with flexible chassis'. The NC-5 also reveals the poor gear mesh in some models, making some of them sound like blenders crushing ice. These are problems though that are easy to fix and are more to do with chassis design and gear set up than with the motors themselves. I have enough cars that it's easy enough to swap motors out - matching the motors to the cars.

I'm glad to see that Ninco, after all these years, has finally moved production to China. Ninco tried for a long time to keep production in Spain but the higher labor costs meant a more expensive product as compared with other manufacturers who moved to China. When you consider inflation over the past 15 - 20 years $43.99 is actually far less than what these cars originally sold for back in 1993. Ninco will undoubtedly have to iron out some early quality control issues but even so, I think these cars are a good value. I think it will only get better and I wish Ninco much success.

Now, can I get that AM DBR-3 I've been quietly asking about for the past 16 years?

Steve

[dge467]

Nice review! Pretty neat cars, but my Ninco money will be spent on their classic offerings. :)

[HomeRacingWorld]

None taken.

Looking at the price difference and the fact that MR Slotcar will make a car suited to the club/commercial racer rather than simple old home racers like myself, I'll work with this one.

But if you are going to have to rebuild one in order to race, then the MR Slotcar release would be a smart move. Are they going to make actual liveries or just base color ones? All I see is what is on Facebook.

[Harry Slotter]

Thanks for the review Harry, and thanks to Professor Motor too for taking on the distribution, and it's great that the US prices are now being set at realistic levels. I'm very happy to see Ninco getting cars back on the track, their Alfa 155 DTM has been one of my all time favourites since it was first released 20 years ago (such an improvement on the dreadful Scalextric cars of the era).

But I digress... one question on the new models - is the display case the original compact size or the later gigantic style? Personally I prefer the first type (less storage space), and I'd have thought it would be more economic to the company for manufacturing, warehousing and shipping (and similarly for retailers) too.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Thank you.

Bases are the larger type as they have been for many years.

[ElSecundo]

[HomeRacingWorld]

I know, what's next? Installing Cartrix axles on purpose?

Just finished tuning it. Went a little overboard, but with Tom around he has this effect.

[ElSecundo]

[HomeRacingWorld]

Almost, he pulled some nails out of the deck board and used those.