A box came today from Kimrey Enterprises and a pair of the new Spirit Peugeot 406 coupe's were inside. Both the British Team livery and the Mardi Gras liveries were there. While I was looking the cars over something struck me, both bodies are very, very thin. They brought to mind some models of ProSlot cars. These cars appear to be purpose built with the racer in mind, the light weight bodies made that clear before I got any further.
Both cars are mechanically identical, both have the new angle winder pod. And both, oddly come with a motor that appears to be the SX3 long can motor. But this motor doesn't come with a wrapping. And yes you do see a small bar magnet in there. There didn't feel like much of a pull on the Carrera track...
A view of the label on the motor, viewed upside down, with the body off the car.
I must admit to have not seen this model of Peugeot before. The Peugeot marque isn't terribly popular in the US, but even so these car have very pleasing curves to them.
The red car especially is a fine model. The shade of red is very nice and rich, and suits the car well. Both cars paint is well done and totally opaque.
These cars have something going for them that many slot cars don't, it's something that the ProSlot cars had, and these seem to have inherited. There's a certain built-for-the-racer feel to them. They have fairly limited extra details on the body. No photo etched grilles fall off after a few good hits into a wall. No heavy body to have to pull around. They really feel like they're ready to be tuned and heavily raced.
The front axle has a set-screw adjustment. A nice touch for those that like to be able to control the amount of travel of the front axle.
The collar for gear lash is easily adjusted with a standard Slot It wrench.
The pod is adjusted with 3 screws, 1 on the outside of the car on the bottom of the chassis, and 2 screws at the back of the chassis (on these small screws are 2 very small springs). There is a good deal of chassis flex here too, so you could tighten up the screws on the pod and the chassis might flex enough without the pod itself moving much.
The gears feel really nice on both these cars. The crown is a nylon 32 toother and the pinion is a brass 12 toother.
Also like the old (and now out of business) ProSlot, the glass is relatively thin on these cars, and Spirit has chosen to leave out the unneeded piece of glass under the roof, which saves a bit of weight. A nice touch that every company should try and do.
There is a full interior here. It's well detailed but not overly detailed. And it still feels quite light weight.
So how do these cars run? Well, I'm not able to do a full road test at this point, that will come within the next week or so. But on a few initial laps it became clear that the SX3 motor is too much motor for my small wood track, let alone my small plastic Carrera track (Fast & Furious starter set).
I tried the stock tires, which don't work very well on my wood track. I slipped on a pair of SuperTires. While I don't have the exact size needed for the car, it was clear that even the ill fitting tires made this car show its rocket-like side...much like the other recent Spirit cars powered by the SX3 motor. This is a big, powerful motor that begs to be on a big track...wood or plastic. Even though the motor is rated at 24k, the torque on this motor is tremendous!
PartII on these cars in about a week.
Thanks again to Kimrey Enterprises and Spirit for the cars.
DaveK
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