THE 2003 VISTEON LOLA PRESENTED BY SCX
Car Owner: U.
E. "Pat" Patrick
Driver: Oriol
Servia
An Ongoing Review1
by Daniel J. Dyke
(ddyke)
Go to Part 2 of the Review: Installing a
Slot.it Motor
Go to Part 3 of the
Review: Installing a Falcon Type Motor
THERE IS A REASON FOR EVERYTHING UNDER HEAVEN
One wonders at times why a manufacturer chooses to make a car. Was it because it was raced by a great driver like Paul Tracy or Helio Castroneves? Was it because the owner was a legend in his own right. In the case of the latest SCX car one might be tempted to say it was because the car was owned by Pat Patrick, who is an absolute legend in open wheel racing circles. The truth of the matter is that the car was driven by a good, but not stellar driver who happens to be a Spaniard from Catalonia and since SCX is a Spanish company they produced the car driven in 2003 by their national hero Oriol Servia.
It is not to be implied that Oriol is a bad driver because he has had his moments in the limelight, but he is not a name that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of Champ Car racing. Last year at the Milwaukee mile he finished second and was only beaten by an flawless run by Michel Jourdain, who is the driver of the Gigante car that is currently made by Ninco. Oriol was also the 1999 Indy Lights champion beating out Casey Mears, the nephew of the legendary Rick Mears, for the title. Casey has since gone on to a good NASCAR drive, but Oriol has gone to a third rate team.
That SCX produced the car is a good thing because most cars that ran in the last years of the now defunct CART series were Lolas and the same is true of the new CCWS series that picked up the pieces of CART. What this means is that there are plenty of liveries that are available for SCX to produce. Hopefully they will do this, but my bet is that Oriol's 2004 car (Dale Coyne Racing) will be the next livery in that it is also a Lola. Actually I am looking forward to such a possibility in that Coyne's cars change liveries often as he loses and gets new sponsors on a regular basis. The best webpage to read about the driver is found at www.oriolservia.homestead.com. At this last site is an interview with the driver in which he reveals he does not own a street car or even a truck.
The general look of the SCX car is a lot better than the Ninco. The tampo printing is crisp and fairly accurate. They put their own name on the car in small letters, but I have yet to find a picture of the car where they were sponsors for any race. The Bridgestone logos are missing from in front of the mirrors and the words Patrick Racing is missing from the side view. The top element of the front wing is black on the real car, but white on the SCX. These may reflect race to race variants of the real car and are of a minor nature. The general effect is a car that looks like the real car.
One usually can determine the quality of the car by looking at what broke. Usually what breaks on my cars are the fine details. Some things broke on this car and some things became undone. The driver popped off the two little pegs that held him in place and had to be glued back on. The front suspension came apart on a major crash, but it was just a matter of snapping it back together. The only real break was the upper element on the rear wing snapped when I catapulted the thing off the end of the track and it hit the handle of the compound miter saw. If the wife would not make me do remodelling such things would not be on the floor. In general this is a very tough car.
THE BODY: PRETTY PLASTIC OR BLOATED BLOCK
The 2003 Lola that SCX has modeled is also produced in three liveries by Ninco. All the cars made by both companies are driven by Hispanic drivers. The course which will be followed in this review will be to compare the two cars. From the perspective of appearance this is more than a matter of taking out the calipers and making sure the shape is exact on each car since concessions are always made to get the mechanical bits inside.
The question is about the look of the car and one's opinion should be formed by comparing the slot cars to the real car. there are two versions of the real car, superspeedway and road course trims. The two trims can be differentiated by looking at the front wing; the road course car has a four element wing and the speedway car has a single element wing. Both companies have chosen to represent the road course car in their presentations but Ninco left the small fourth element off. One can see pictures of the real car in action at www.actionshotsusa.com/servia_o.htm. Compare the front of the two slot cars with the "face to face" shot at Action Shots. To me, the SCX car looks more like the real car to me than the Ninco as its shape and proportions are better. The Ninco car looks fat especially in the smaller details. The SCX gets the Pretty Plastic award hands down.
SCALE ISSUE
The full specs for a champ car are given at the sanctioning body's site
on their tech
page. What you do with this issue is a very sensitive and personal
matter and so I will report the stats and let the user form his own conclusions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wheelbase according to the Lola website. |
|
|
|
|
| Wheelbase according the CCWS (CART) website. |
|
|
|
|
| Maximum Width2 |
|
|
|
|
| Front Wing Width |
|
|
|
|
| Rear Wing Width |
|
|
|
|
| Front Tire Width |
|
|
|
|
| Rear Tire Width |
|
|
|
|
| Front Tire Diameter |
|
|
|
|
| Rear Tire Diameter |
|
|
|
|
The problem the chart reveals is that of wheelbase. This can be explained in that the cars are modified by each team and reconfigured over time and from track to track. Scale is a nasty problem isn't it? Ninco is scale according to Lola and the SCX according to CCWS.
A NEW DEPARTURE FOR SCX: DETAILS AND DESIGN
Recently SCX has, to put it mildly, cleaned up their act by not only bringing more detail to their car's bodies, but also by bringing new internal technology to their chassis design. The body has better tampo printing and sharper detail than before. With that said, it is imperative to note that the chassis is a total revision of design philosophy and most of the technology is new for them. I have three recent SCX releases, two Dome Judd's and of course the Patrick Lola, and they all share in this new design standard. Note that SCX has included all three antennas found on the 1:1 car and they are in the correct positions.
The clearcoat on my machine has no noticeable imperfections and is of such a high quality that it reflects the logo in this picture. The color is close to the correct shade of orange.
THE MECHANICAL WORKINGS
The chassis itself has what they call a "tilting chassis," but others would refer to as a central-pivot chassis. The drivetrain is mounted in a pod which pivots on the center line of the chassis which gives the tires better contact with the road. It is a simplistic, but effective attempt at a suspension system because it allows the front wheels and the rear wheels to pivot in opposite directions and the body and the chassis to remain somewhat unaffected by the movement. Later I am going to play with adding some torsion bars to make the stiffness adjustable.
The front suspension is the typical SCX steering front end for F1 cars. One front wheel did pop off during the hit that broke the rear wing, but it popped right back on.
GEARING
The gearing is the standard SCX ratio of 9/27 (3:1). The crown gear (the big one) is small in diameter and is not easily replaced without surgery to the car's underpan or by finding a replacement of similar size. It would be easier to replace the pinion.
MOTOR
The
motor is a standard SCX shape, but has RX-42 printed on it, but I am unable
to document with certainty what that means. Their English site does
not list this motor specifically and a Google search netted no results.
What I am assuming is that it is the new version of the RX-41 listed in
the following chart. Their description of the car says it is the
F1 motor, but the F1 motors say F1 on them. I also have their Pro
Turbo motor which is rated at 21,510 rpm at 14.8 V.
The engine was put through a tachometer test. This test measures the revolutions the rear tires make under no load. This is much more accurate test than testing the RPMs at the shaft because it takes into account the friction from all the intervening moving parts. The number recorded is then multiplied by 3 (the gear ratio). The RX-42 gave a revised reading of around 12,300 RPMs at 12 volts.
A motor change was in order as this seemed anemic, but better than the standard RX-41. The problem was that motor itself was harder than usual to remove. This is done by moving the two tabs at the front of the engine forward and lifting the front of the engine up until the thing releases. With the Pro Turbo motor installed a reading of 16,800 RPMs was obtained. My plan is to get a the SlotIt replacement motor for SCX cars as it is cheaper than the SCX motor. When mine comes in I will give an update on this. There was no change in performance on my test track as the longest straight I have is 18" or about 1.5 straight sections of Sport track..
The electrical connections are the standard SCX design, but the two "fingers" that reach down to the chassis now act as a torsion bar for the pod and motor assembly.
AXLE
The rear axle is held in place by a new type of bearing that is like the spherical bushings for the SlotIt HRS chassis. These are the most difficult bearings that I have had to remove in my life and were harder to get back in, but that is good because they will not pop out during a race and end your day. Why did I remove them? Because they were there! The male ego takes over too often does it not?
REAR WHEELS
Both the SCX and Ninco Lolas had loose rear wheels and so these were
glued on with my favorite adhesive.
I like the looks of the Ninco wheel better than the SCX. One
of the SCX wheels bent with all the tire changing, but I was able to straighten
it with no ill affects. The wheels and tires put the power down with
no rear hop on both cars. Sanding only had a minor effect. The lettering
on the tire has endured very well has survived over 1500 laps on the car.
In the following picture you can see the condition of the tire.
MAGNETS
Magnetic attraction is an issue to many people. The technology in this area has not been changed by SCX as the magnet is the same one I have seen in most of their cars from recent years and is mounted in the usual position between the motor and the rear axle. If you are running in a box stock group this could be a detriment as the most you can do is lower the mounting bracket. This is the biggest negative on the car. The power supply could be turned down to 9 volts and the car would not stall which means the magnet is not a monster.
TRACK TESTS: MECHANICAL GRIP
Back in 1993 I remember Roger Penske's car really working well at a race and a commentator asked what they did in the off season to get an advantage. The answer was simple, they worked on mechanical grip. On real cars there are two ways to get higher turn speed; aerodynamic pressure and mechanical grip. On slot cars if you increase your mechanical grip two things happen. The first is that your magnets work better. The second is the car does not break away as easily because the magnet is not the only source of traction. When the magnet can't grab the tire still does.
To test mechanical grip one removes the magnets from the car and does not add them back in until there is nothing to be gained from the tires or the chassis. The magnets mask many problems a car has and when they are removed the problems become obvious. There is little that is as satisfying as identifying a problem or weakness and removing it and watching your performance shoot up. This car had no real problems when the magnets were removed.
Skidpad Tests
What is a skidpad? It is an oval that you run a car around at
constant speed to test its ability to take a particular type of curve.
My Scalextric skidpad is down as I am chasing a power connection problem,
but my Ninco skidpad revealed some
interesting stats.
|
|
|
|
| Visteon Lola | 1.406 | Stock |
| SCX Minardi F1 | 1.487 | Stock |
| SCX Minardi F1 | 1.507 | SlotIt Wheels and PPR Super Tires - The tires don't seem to like Ninco track. |
| Ninco Lola Gigante-Rahal Car | 1.535 | Stock - The car seemed to have a problem on the really tight curve with too much grip at the rear |
| Ninco F1 Ferrari | 1.575 | Stock |
| Ninco F1 Ferrari | 1.580 | Used the Ninco Lola Tires |
Transitions
My main test track is a small road course
that emphasizes all sorts of transitions. It has very short straights
so power plays no part in the test. The results of this test were much
different. The comments section in the following chart will note
general observations about the car and any modifications that were made.
One must remember that tracks vary and that a tire that works best on one
track may not work on another.
|
|
|
|
| Visteon Lola |
|
The rear tires for the Ninco Gigante Lola were installed. |
| Ninco Lola Gigante-Rahal Car |
|
Stock |
| Visteon Lola |
|
Stock |
| SCX Minardi F1 |
|
SlotIt large hub wheels and the new P3 compound tires |
| Ninco F1 Ferrari |
|
The rear tires for the Ninco Gigante Lola were installed. I think there was more in this car, if the rear tires were cut down to give better balance. This car was by far the fastest on the hairpin corner. |
| Ninco Lola Gigante-Rahal Car |
|
This was using the tires from the Visteon Lola. Note this time is very close to the Visteon car using the same tires. |
| SCX Minardi F1 |
|
Stock tires |
| SCX Minardi F1 |
|
The rear tires for the Ninco Gigante Lola were installed. They made the rear of the car too high and the car lacked good balance. |
| Ninco Lola Gigante-Rahal Car |
|
PPR Super Tires3 |
| SCX Minardi F1 |
|
PPR Super Tires3 |
| Visteon Lola |
|
PPR Super Tires3 |
| Scalextric F1 Renault |
|
Indy Grips - New Compound |
| Scalextric F1 Renault |
|
Stock Tires |
| Scalextric F1 Renault |
|
The rear tires for the Ninco Gigante Lola were installed. They made the rear of the car too high and the car lacked good balance. |
| Scalextric F1 Renault |
|
The rear tires for the Visteon Lola were installed. They made the rear of the car too high and the car lacked good balance. |
CONCLUSIONS
My overall conclusion is that anyone who likes open wheel cars should buy it. My wish list is for SCX to do two things. The first is a more powerful motor and the second is to make many more liveries including a plain white one.
The car needs tested and refined more. I think there is a lot more in the car than what I have gotten from it. The weakest point is the motor, but that can be fixed, if you are not running a box stock class.
Go to Part 2 of the Review: Installing a
Slot.it Motor
Go to Part 3 of the
Review: Installing a Falcon Type Motor
Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware!): The views expressed are solely those of Daniel J. Dyke, who can be reached at dan.dyke@goodnews.net.
1The intent is to continue the evaluation
of the car over the long term and note problems that develop and changes
that make the car better. [RETURN]
2Track is measured from wheel center to
wheel center.[RETURN]
3The tires were off in diamter as they were
the ones designed for the Ninco F1 wheel. They are an extremely low
profile tire that allows the magnet to get very close to the track.
They seemed to upset the balance of the car. It always felt like
there was more there, but I could never get a good lap. [RETURN]