More New Cars - 2020

 Alrighty, the second wave of cars has arrived, so let's get on to it. 

From world renown slot car manufacturer NSR come two wicked hot rods:

Porsche 908/3 Escuderia Montjuich Champion Montana 1973

Look at that thing. Will you just look at it?

Of all the cars I picked up this year [we're not done yet], this was the first pick and the inspiration for my decision to branch out among other slot car brands. I have wanted a few cars in particular ever since I can remember, one of them being a Porsche 908. There's something about that short, snappy design that makes me nuts. The Alfa Romeo 33/3 shares a similar design, which makes for a very nimble, extremely quick slot car.

Before going any further, let me explain my line of thinking before buying any of these cars. I was planning on expanding further my Slot.it Classics line, as well as getting a few more Group C cars. Problem was, of the 5 or 6 online companies I frequent, there was very little stock to choose from. Originally I was looking at the McLaren M8D, but just couldn't convince myself to pull the trigger on it. I really wanted a 908, and started looking at other brands. NSR was naturally first as I had read so much about them. I couldn't resist. They had a couple of versions and I picked this one. 

This car is a superb challenger to the Alfa Romeo 3/33. They're very similar. The difference is in the straights, which the 908 belies its size and acts more like the Matra. I definitely want to race them together. I might do this after this post.

I've run the car now about 1000 or so laps, and it's getting nicely settled in. This car loves the Carrera track. 

NOTE: I would recommend an adjustable controller or power supply when running higher performance cars. They respond much differently to a standard analog controller. To truly get the best out of them, consider getting something that lets you adjust power. And it's not like I needed to turn the power down on this thing. On the contrary. I turned the power UP because it could handle so much more juice before going grazing in the fields.

This car, as well as the other cars I have coming, will be covered in more depth as we go. 

Of course, I'm a believer that one is the loneliest number that will ever be, so this beauty needs a running partner. Enter trouble:

Porsche 917K Rothmans Limited Edition

Dude...

The other car that I needed in my collection was the 917K. In my opinion the most iconic race car in all of racing. I've had dreams of a 917K since I was a kid. It seemed like a no-brainer to pick this car up. It just looks so good!

If you read about NSR slot cars, you'll see some opinions of people that their cars aren't to realistic scale specifications. Okay. So what? Does it look weirdly mutated? No. Do I measure everything using a micrometer? No. So do I care? No. Besides, if someone were to point out what wasn't right about this car, I probably wouldn't remember and wouldn't really care.  These are toys, and if you're going to hand me a slot car, I'm not going to be particularly interested in whether the gas cap was chrome or not. And that goes with all slot cars. Unless a huge transgression was made, I think companies should be cut a little slack. That's my opinion about that. 

This car drives like I wish the 962C did. It's just got great balance and absolutely flies down the track. It doesn't suffer from wobbly butt syndrome, and can handle itself with aplomb through the twisty parts. When I was shopping for a 917K, I saw this one in a bunch of about 4 of them. It was the most interesting, so I picked it. To be honest, I wasn't all that stoked about having any kind of white car, although it had enough going on that I could get over myself. Once it came and I got it out of the box I was blown away by how much better it looked in real life compared to the pictures. Holy crap it looks good. So between that and the driving experience, I'll say this one's looking best right out of the gate. I haven't had to do anything other than lube/oil. I haven't even done a complete tire sanding yet. The tires STILL HAVE TREADS! 

The early word on these two cars is yes yes yes. I recommend them to anyone with a home track that has an adjustable power supply or adjustable controller. They are insanely good cars and totally worth the money. For the record, I paid 72euros a piece for them.