The Great Mini Cooper Comparison or - England and Spain Battle again.. Allan Wakefieldaka - Swissracer -
Ninco brought out their first BMW Mini Coopers in the early part of 2002, with some street liveries, followed very recently with some limited editions* consisting of country specific flags on the roof of each car. The Ninco Mini in this test is the 'English flag' version from this series. Scalextric arrived on the Mini Scene last Month giving us a couple of limited edition* 'Sport' liveries from the UK's 'John Cooper Challenge Cup 2002'. This was a special build of 28 cars all with a fixed specification, identically prepared and numbered by John Cooper Works for exclusive participation in the John Cooper Challenge. 
SO... is there space in the slot car market for more Mini Coopers ? especially as we hear more are due for release in the form of the cars from last years remake of that famous film 'The Italian Job'. | |
| | I think the answer is Yes with a BUT.. I don't believe you will see many of both in the same collection. The Scalextric ones are good.. very good.. but there is not enough difference to make owners of Nincos go out and buy them OR change over. Those who waited for the Scalextric version are unlikely to now add Ninco Minis to their stables. Take a look at the following chart to see how similar they actually are.. ( Performance data follows further down. ) | 
| | Dimensions ( mm ) | | Scalextric | Wheel base: hub to hub / effective width | 77 / 54.5 ( *56 ) *tyres have 1.5mm bulge but non functional | | | Height ( track contact to roof ) | 45 | 45 | | Width ( front arches ) | 54 | 53 | | Length ( bumper to bumper ( fender) ) | 112.5 | 113.5 | | Weight | 90 grams | 82 grams | | Configuration | Rear Inline | Sidewinder | | Motor | NC2 | 'Sport Wrap' Mabuchi style | | Gearing ( pinion / crown ) | 9 / 27 | 11 / 36 | | Wheel domensions ( width / height ) | 10 / 19 | 8 / 20 | |
| Off track the differences are not purely visual, there are hidden suprises in both. This car seems to have pushed both Companies in the design stakes, both have unique characteristics and new manufacturing elements. Though, as usual, Scalextrics attention to detail - extending the 'feel' of the car - wins out over Nincos clean but functional outlook again... Take the top and middle pictures on the right, at that distance there is no discernable difference apart from Livery - one is a street version, the other a racing car with roll cage. They COULD both be either Ninco or Scalextric right? Even though the finish on both is outstanding, with no blemishes or dust in the top coat and Nincos 'metallic finish' being the smallest grained and finest I have seen on a slot car.. there ARE differences and a winner in the looks department.. The difference shows more on closer inspection of the lower of the three pictures on the right.. Chrome bevelling round the light clusters and body / window edges, the front grille being molded with holes between the slats and cleaner, crisper tampo work just seem to finish the Scalextric car off better to my mind. | 
The apparent difference in width is mostly camera skew, although the Scalextric version tapers more in the glass area and roof dimensions are a little smaller. NB: One little problem with the Scalextric one is the exhaust pipe. It is clipped onto the chassis and both mine fell off in the first run on the track. | More of the subtle differences in the otherwise too close in scale and perception to tell cars, can be seen when viewing from the side... 
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On the way out thankfully... Scalextrics Mr Big Head is almost the only part of the car to spoil it's appearance. | Stripping the cars down reveals some vast engineering differences and two totally different approaches to design that I find fascinating. Note the front sections opposite.. | | Ninco chose to split the chassis from the bodywork along the top of the wheel arches and sills, This results in access to the axles being moved from inside the car to outside. A move I haven't seen before and quite welcome in my book... A logical extention of this would be to also make the motor accessible from the outside. I would love to see this, with connections to the motor 'Proteus style' with cable spades. As it is the motor in my vehicle was slightly loose, enough to require gluing along with the bushes. Axle slop ( side to side ) on the rear is negligable but to the front is 3mm. Too much when joined with the 2.5mm up / down play. I suggest shims to limit this. The guide is the now standard sprung loaded affair, giving good wheel / guide to track balance on all track systems. As is the norm for Ninco - this model boasts no lights as standard. | | | | Scalextrics approach was totally different and in keeping with usual style for this body type, IE: the body includes the sills and arches, making the chassis simply the underside of the car. Length of the body in this instance reducing the standard bar magnet positions to 2 and forcing the ( Sport version only ) round tweaker magnet position very close .  
A welcome addition to this model is the inclusion of rear lights at last and very in place on the track they look too. Above left you can see the very SCX style rear LEDs and circuit board. The front lights are well fitted too and there is no bodyshell glow as in their recent Astra release. The motor is a tight fit and axle play both front and rear is a minimal 1mm with no up / down slop. More on this aspect later. The guide is the common sprung loaded one and again I will add coment later. | The next design difference is in the construction of the body shell, both are completely different and both are new to their own usual style. Scalextric ( right ) have an all in one shell, consisting of body and roof combined. Window glass is however fitted with a total of 4 glass sections rather than the usual 1 piece. Ninco on the other hand have gone for a seperate body and roof design ( below ) with the glass in 1 piece. The roof being welded to that in four places. | | | | This gives the the unique ( ? ) situation where the glass and roof are added to the body from the outside ! I thought this might cause crash problems but so far it has not at all. It also opens up some easy possibilites for all you convertable lovers out there ! | The last remaining 'based on looks' difference is perhaps the least impacting but most visually appealing aspect. It is just a shame that as is nearly always the case.. interiors can hardly be seen. In Nincos case we have a basic minimum for the half depth interior detail which can be justified with the adage that ' you can't see it when it is running so what does it matter ?' Valid for sure but, to me at least, detail is what drew me back to the hobby and how can my preference be better expressed than in this 'dare I say..' perfect full depth interior from Scalextric ! Even down to the two tone seating and CD player. | | | | WHAT ???? Party hats ? ha! long story...... | So... at last we get down to the performance specifics. I have given data for from two systems of 'off track' performance measurement - First is a gearing measurement system used, I understand, by the R/C crowd and also valid for slot cars. It was first explained to me by Rob Wessling of Australias Millennium Raceway. It becomes important to read the article mentioned to understand the whys and wherefores of this system. Second comes the results given by the Kelvin Light Test bench along with a 'Volts to Start the car rolling' and 'Volts at stop' measurement. This gives an idea of motor torque and friction of the drive set up and finally comes the results of the track tests. | This system gives the distance the car will travel, in millimetres, per 1 revolution of the motor. Formula is thus: Number of pinion teeth X 3.141 ( pie ) X tyre diameter all divided by the number of crown teeth. | | Ninco: 9 X 3.141 X 19 divided by 27 = 19.89 millimeters per revolution. ( 0.78 Inches ) Scalextric: 11 X 3.141 X 20 divided by 36 = 19.19 millimeters per revolution. ( 0.75 Inches ) | | | | Ninco on Kelvin Light bench: V 14.8 - mA 164 - RPM 6150 - M/s ( Feet/s ) 0.61 ( 2.00 ) | | Scalextric on Kelvin Light bench: V - 14.8 mA 208 - RPM 8130 - M/s ( Feet/s ) 0.85 ( 2.78 ) | | | | Track Tests on Scalextric Sport Track with one crossover, giving a total lap length of 35.14M ( 115.28 Feet ). Power: 14.8 Volts with 2.5 Amps maximum. Controller: Professor Motor Electronic 2044. Best single lap time for 30 driven laps recorded. Timing to 1 tenth of a second. For the tests ( and for all my Scalextric sprung guide cars ) I removed the spring return on the Scalextric Mini as I feel it does little to help the car and, without magnet at least, detracts from the handling and feel. Along with Mr Big Head, this sprung guide is also on the way out as a new guide will be introduced with the release of the 'TVR Tuscan 400R' later this month. I also added no weight to either car. Weight placement is very subjective and has many factors involved, from persoanl taste to track type and power delivery. Adding weight can aid performance when done right so take these times as a guide to be worked on. I would also consider reducing the diameter of or replacing the front tyres on the Scalextric if you intend to run without magnet for the following reason... I mentioned earlier that the Scalextric Mini has no 'up / down' play on the front axle. This contributed to many of the 'offs' ( crashes ) as the car tended to tip rather than slide, worth bearing in mind is the belief of some that a tripod set up ( guide and both rear wheels ) is the perfect one for a slot car as opposed to a 4 or 5 point ( all wheels and guide ). | Ninco | weight: 77grams | Scalextric | weight: 79grams | | with Magnet | 'Offs' ( crashes ) | with magnet | 'Offs' | | 16.4 sec | 5 | 15.3 sec | 6 | | without magnet | 'Offs' | without magnet | 'Offs' | | 17.1 sec | 6 | 17.8 sec | 10 | | So we have two exceedingly fine cars. What would I say if asked which one to buy given the choice of only one from the two? The Scalextric has to tip the scales by a fair way this time. Both average out at the same price ( around € 41 / $ 45 ) but value wise the Scalextric version offers alot more in the realism department with performance trailing only when running without magnets, a style not on the top of the list for this English manufacturer anyway. A definate improvement on their last Sport release - the Astra DTM and right up there with their best to date - The Mercedes CLK DTM. * - To me, use of the phrase 'Limited Edition' is a very dubious thing these days as I find it hard to reconcile the word 'Limited' with numbers as high as 10,000. I am sure most manufacturers normal runs are not alot higher, depending on the popularity of the car in question. In this way, could not ALL cars then, be seen as limited editions as once the run is finished, that livery is seldom re-issued. Discuss Slot Cars |
