The Aston Martin DBR9 was purchased in early October 2008 because I liked the look and the colour scheme. The car, finished in matt black and grey, brightened by orange flashes on both rear quarters in addition to red wheels.

The chassis follows SCX’s usual practice for GT cars, with the motor, an in line RX-42B, driving the rear wheels only, through a gear ratio of 12:36. The guide blade is self centring making contact with SCX’s slightly sprung copper strips. There is a solid front axle.

The chassis has an adjustable magnet between the motor and the rear axle. For the purpose of this test the magnet was left untouched and unadjusted.

Before putting the car on track the motor was run both loaded and unloaded for about two hours after oiling and greasing the moving parts.

The Aston was first run at our recent exhibition stand at the DISC in Dundee, where it was found to be quite controllable though rather slow compared to the Scalextric Porsche GT3 used for the event. The Aston circulated our exhibition track in a time of 6 seconds compared to the 4.8 seconds of the Porsche GT3. This can partly be explained by the GT3’s larger magnets, its trued tyres and the fact that they were well run in.

A fairer test was carried out on the clubs home track during the next meeting on the 29^th October 2008. For comparison purposes we ran a Scalextric Aston Martin DBR9 and an SCX Corvette CGR (ref: 62520) along with the SCX DBR9. Each car was given ten laps on the same lane running in an anti clockwise direction. It was expected that the Scalextric Aston would record the fastest time, primarily because of the larger magnet. Alas, the car tested was well run and having extensively travelled tyres. What we wanted to show was the comparison between the SCX Aston compared to its Scalextric equivalent, while testing a dark horse of the Corvette.

The result of the test was as follows;

Scalextric Aston Martin DBR9       fastest lap          7.012 seconds

SCX Aston Martin DBR9               fastest lap          7.529 seconds

SCX Corvette CGR                       fastest lap          7.529 seconds

As suspected, the Scalextric Aston was the fastest. What was surprising was how close the SCX car times were. The Corvette had been well run in and had had its tyres trued, while no work had been done on the Aston. With a bit of time spent on the Aston, more running, magnet adjustment and true tyres, it would become more competitive. Our tester observed that the SCX Aston did not seem as firmly planted at the rear as the Corvette and it was felt that by conducting the afore mentioned work that this would improve this. SCX don’t make the fastest slot cars around, but they make good, reliable cars with consistent handling.

Overall the Aston confirms this opinion on the track and is a lot of fun, and it is suspected that lap times would improve, the more the car is used.

Car review supplied by AB