NINCO Ford GT Slot Car Tuning

My fastest no mag slot car is the NINCO Ford GT Bel slot car.

The car is basically stock with the following changes -

1) The main chassis had a slight twist so I straightened the chassis using the procedure found on the Slot It website - The Fine Art of Straightening a Slot Car Chassis.

2) I changed the stock guide and braid to the NINCO #80112 Suspension guide with ProRace braid.

3) The longest straight on my track is about 12 feet long so I switched to 32/12 gearing using ProRace gears.

4) I have an N-Digital track with an over pass, so my cars seem to run the best using the ride height that comes on the regular NINCO slot cars. For this reason, I switched to NINCO #80754 17” ProRace V.03 wheels in the front using the front tires that came on the car. On the rear, I switched to the NINCO #80520 20.5 x 11.5 Laprene tires.

5) I then tightened the motor pod screws and set the rolling chassis on a NINCO XLOT set up board. The rear bushings fit kind of loose in the motor pod, so I turned each rear axle bushings so the oil hole is straight up. I noticed that as I turned the bushings, the front axle holders of the chassis wouldn’t have equal pressure on the front axle. I continued to turn each rear bushing (making sure the oil hole is accessible), until the front axle was just touching both front axle holders. I then glued the rear axle bushings in place using a small amount of super glue.

6) I loosened the body screws about a ½ turn so the body has a small amount of float on the chassis.

I tried running the car with the motor pod screws loose about a ¼ to a ½ turn but noticed some chatter under hard braking. I then tried the car with the pod screws tight, the car runs great and is easily the fastest car on my track.

I am hoping this information will help others with tuning a NINCO slot car. It’s amazing how much better my car runs with some tuning and a few aftermarket parts compared to how the car ran out of the box.

by Brian of BRS Hobbies