Slot It McLaren anglewinder conversion test

Slot Car News has recently tested the new Slot.It McLaren; today we examine the change from inline motor configuration to anglewinder set up. The original motor is the V12/3 orange endbell, rated 21.5k RPM, and 170 gcm; the new motor is the Boxer 2, rated 20k, and a whopping 340 gcm torque.

The stock McLaren was as stable and as easy to drive as you'd like it to be. So why monkey with a good thing? Well why not?

We removed the stock pod and tried to fit the angle winder pod into the hole in the chassis . . . well, it doesn't fit. It's a tight press-fit. This surprised us a bit, but when we contacted Maurizio of Slot.It, he knew about the problem, and said that a revision of the design is already under way.

Undaunted, we sanded and cut a bit of the chassis away, and filed the edges of the pod. It wasn't long before the pod fit fine.

With the pod in place, we were impressed with the heavier feel of the McLaren. A trip onto the scale revealed the car now weighed a stout 86 grams! Which might not sound like much of a gain from the original 73 grams, but you can really feel the added weight, and you don't need a scale to feel it BTW. The new Boxer motor is nearly twice the weight of the orange endbell motor. And, those 13 grams of extra weight are concentrated in the tail, due to the anglewinder configuration.

In the original inline form the car was a handling dream, no vices were evident even if you pushed the car to its limit, a smooth and agile car. But with the long-can anglewinder the car felt less agile, and the lap times proved it. The slower cornering allowed only a fastest lap time of 4.920 seconds, nearly 3/10ths slower than the stock configuration (4.652). The down-the-straight feel of the car wasn't all that different, given the extra power and "grunt" of the Boxer, but deterioration of cornering speed was obvious. The best time we could achieve was with a full 20 grams of lead added to the chassis pan, just forward of the pod, bringing overall car weight over 100 grams. On our wood track, the best bet for the McLaren is to leave it with the original inline motor, which provides the best combination of power and weight balance.

Thanks to Fantasy World Hobbies for sending the motors and parts for review.
DaveK & RL