Here is a review from
Slot Car Garage on the Ninco Cobra, seems like a quality product!
Welcome to our second Ninco review in as many days where this time the review subject is, for some, a familiar old favorite in the slot racing arena. It was the year 2000 when Ninco first brought to market the silver road car, the red 64’ Goodwood and the black racing #51 versions of the AC Cobra and it wasn’t again touched until 2003 when the blue Le Mans version was released. Now in 2004 yet another Ninco AC Cobra surfaces but don’t be fooled in to thinking that this is just ‘another Cobra’. Where as the 2003 release brought about a change from the 2000 versions the 2004 ‘white racing’ version brings yet another change to the adaptive Ninco Cobra.
Appearance:
Nothing is new to speak of in the packaging category. The white #38 AC Cobra comes screwed to its black plastic base rather than secured by the plastic thumb turn fastener Ninco utilizes for most releases. While the screw does seem to secure the Cobra well it can result in, which it did on this model, an over tightening that could work the rear axle out of the chassis mounts. That will require you to remove the body before the car can be run yet for most of us that was going to be done anyway.
Now on the track the white racing Ninco AC Cobra looks very striking in contrast to the track. The high gloss white paint trimmed in red and blue really looks great and is about as perfect a finish as you could ask for.
Sponsorship logos aren’t plentiful but what is there is very crisp with razor sharp lines and vivid colors. One of the red fender stripes on the right side of the Cobra didn’t quite make it all the way to the fender opening however and while I’m not sure if that was intentional or not it seems less noticeable on the left side of the car.
Detail wise the Ninco AC Cobra continues to maintain enough scale details to help pull off a great looking slot car. Separately applied headlamps are surrounded by chrome bezels, the tiny amber turn lamps haven’t been painted on and the black jacking supports are applied through the body to add that signature AC Cobra flavor.
At the rear of the car the rear jacking supports are here as well as is the license plate frame, the chrome driver’s side roll bar, chrome fuel filler cap and the separately applied taillight details. Other chrome pieces include the windshield frame and windshield wipers as well as the side view mirror, side mounted exhaust pipes and the chrome lips of the rims and the wheel knock-offs.
Interior wise the Ninco Cobra continues with a shallow pan style interior that results in the driver figure loosing the use of both legs below the knees. The dash is painted with all gauges and controls and the glove box is also represented although I’m not so sure how authentic that blue interior is. Our driver figure doesn’t seem to mind however as you can see by the look on his face that he’s intent on going fast!
While this recent AC Cobra might not have the level of detail found in the previous Le Mans blue Cobra, with its simulated snap-on cockpit boot and hood scoop rivets it still has plenty of detail to enjoy.
Performance:
To remove the body of the AC Cobra you must make sure to remove the four equal length screws as highlighted above by the green dots. For those of you familiar with the Ninco Cobra can you see the difference between this new Cobra version and the old ones? Yep… that’s right, an NC-5 now takes the place of the previously used NC-2 power plant and that change means a suggested 2000RPM increase for those of you who are counting.
Now with the body removed we can see that the Ninco button style magnet makes its appearance here as it did in the 2003 Le Mans blue Cobra. That now makes two of the five liveries to come with a magnet so if you have one of the original 2000 releases you’ll either need to add a magnet to those to level the playing field or do what I suspect most of you will do and take the magnet out all together.
Luckily that’s an easy task to accomplish as the round magnet pops out using any sharp instrument poked through the magnet pocket hole found in the bottom of the chassis. For those of you who like your magnets though you will find the AC Cobra to still be on the ‘light’ side of the magnetic attraction scale as the magnet is placed ahead of the motor and almost near the very front of the chassis.
Helping you lose traction even more is that the new NC-5 equipped rear end supplying its rated 20,000 RPMs to the inline drive configuration spinning inside brass axle bushings.
Making another reappearance from the 2003 version this 2004 Cobra also comes with the sprung front guide assembly. This is a feature not previously included with the 2000 versions and the effects can be seen on the track. During my testing another racer pulled out his 2000 black racing Cobra and taking the banks and bridge non-magnet the newer Cobra, with the dropping guide, clearly had the advantage. Running over the bridge in particular saw the sprung guide equipped car being able to catch a bit of air with less fear of a de-slot than the fixed guide version. You can imagine the reaction I got when I showed the ‘improvement’ on the white racing version over the older black racing Cobra.
I also got a look of surprise when the power hit the pavement as the magnet-less 2000 version got walked all over by the magnet equipped white #38 version. Running the 118-foot road course, on stock tires and 15 volts, the new AC Cobra managed some slippery laps around the thirteen seconds mark. Fastest stock magnet time turned out to be a 12.91 or almost two and half seconds slower than the recently reviewed Ninco NSX in stock trim. Taking the magnet out made it even more interesting as it made an already light car even lighter and lap times reflected the change. Best non-magnet lap in stock trim turned out to be a 14.24 second lap or pretty much in line with the non-magnet runs put down by the Ninco Raid BMW X5. Figuring though that the Cobra should be able to carry a bit more ‘scale speed’ than a Raid all-wheel-drive truck I decided to up the stakes and make a change.
Adding a pair of Professor Motor Indy Grips Super Tires, part number 2009, the Ninco Cobra became a whole new car. Non-magnet laps improved to a fast lap of 12.87 or almost a second and a half faster and, believe it or not, magnet times dropped as well as putting the missing magnet back in yielded an 11.67 lap, still a second faster than run on stock tires.
Taking the Ninco AC Cobra over to the new drag strip it was time to see about its straight-line speed. Running with the magnet in, for that extra grip during acceleration, the stock tire equipped Cobra made the quarter mile trip running at 20 volts in 1.799 seconds which is a pretty respectable effort what with the new Ninco angle-winder NSX making the trip in 1.55 seconds. Keeping in mind that both the NSX and this AC Cobra share the same RPM rated NC-5 I went back to the silicones over the stock ribbed tires of the Cobra and as you might guess the drag time fell even more to a nice 1.65 second pass. I’ll take a .139 improvement in drag results anytime!
The Final Verdict
The latest Ninco AC Cobra is just another great addition to an already popular line of slot cars. Some of you might not prefer the change in the motor department, and for those of you running these in a club environment you might be forced to change it, yet for the home user that little extra advantage could come in handy when racing your buddy from up the street. Having the option to keep the magnet in and running it as it comes stock as well as having the ability to remove the magnet to bring the car a little closer to the older Ninco Cobra versions also makes the latest release one of the more versatile versions in the line up. For my money though you can take the magnet out and slap on some silicone tires and run the wheels off of it! It’s a great looking car with a high fun factor no matter how you like to run them… so how can you go wrong?
Thanks go to the folks at Model Rectifier Corporation for providing me this new Ninco ‘White Racing’ AC Cobra slot car . As always, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions and I will be happy to answer anything that I can. Happy Slotting!
Shawn Smith
SJSlots@hotmail.com
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