NINCO Lancia 037 Rally

By Michael Ashton

THE 1:1 CAR 

I have always had a place in my heart for the more "down to earth" Italian cars made by Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia. You know, the one's that aren't Ferraris. It was best not to pull out of the driveway without a full set of tools in the trunk, but even if these cars were mechanically temperamental, they had real character. And they did perform well, especially on rally circuits.

The Lancia 037 is a classic representative of this breed of automobile. In the early to mid 1980's it left an enduring mark on the FIA Group B World Rally Championship circuit, for which it was specifically designed by Abarth and built by Lancia. The 037 had two good years of racing in 1982 and 1983, culminating with the WRC Constructors' title in 1983. The historical significance of the 037 is that it was the last 2-wheel drive car to dominate Group B WRC competition. By 1984 a transition to 4-wheel drive vehicles led by the Audi Quattro, Peugeot 205 and others had rendered 2WD vehicles all but obsolete. The 037 continued in works competition through the 1985 season, but could manage only one win against formidable 4WD competitors during that two year period.

I find the appearance of the 037 to be unique and intriguing. Depending on where it's being viewed from, it has the look of a family sedan, a "pocket rocket" sports car, or a thundering CanAm racer. How can you not love this car?

THE MODEL

I enjoy running rally cars of all types. So, I for one, am quite pleased that NINCO decided to produce this model. FLY did a nice job with it a few years back, but they are very rare now. NINCO's initial release of the Lancia 037 includes two decorations: the #11 OLIO FIAT being reviewed here, and the #1 Martini Racing, which collected three of the 037's six victories.

 

The car's detail and Tampo printing are generally above average. The white Pirelli logo on the rear (black) panel did not cover well, most likely because of the underlying mesh surface. Paint is also good with one notable exception: the yellow on the lower body panels is very poor. The edges are ragged and there is significant bleed through from the underlying blue. It looks like it was applied during a shift change. Although this is clearly evident in the photos — especially the following detail photo — the car's overall appearance from normal distance and perspective is basically good. However, this would most likely not be acceptable to the critical scale enthusiast.

 

NINCO took care to provide the engine detail visible through the rear glass panel.

Now to the wheels. Ah yes, once again, the wheels. But wait! These wheels don't look like wheels from a Porsche Classic. They actually look like the Lancia 037 wheels! They aren't perfect, but they are obviously purpose-designed wheels for this model. Hallelujah! Well, they look fine to me, but it's possible that the critical scale enthusiast may disagree.

MECHANICAL

Removing the car's body reveals the typical NINCO Sport chassis marked by a relatively simple but clean, utilitarian design. Power is provided by the NC-9 "Sparker" motor, rated at 20.0 K rpm and 145 gcm torque @ 14.8 volts. This motor originally debuted in the Lotus Exige but was not seen for a long period after that. It has recently been installed in a number of NINCO 1 PLUS models and now appears in the Ford Sierra and Lancia 037. The running gear is NINCO's reliable standard in-line 9 tooth brass pinion and 27 tooth crown gear. The guide is the standard spring suspension type and braids are standard, relatively stiff, copper. A quite powerful narrow, but thick, removable bar magnet is secured in a chamber just in front of the motor.

As with most NINCO rally cars, this model includes the "ProShock" spring-loaded suspension on all four wheels. The blue color shock absorbers represent the medium stiffness in a range that also includes soft and hard. Note the double bushings, required to mount the shock absorbers to the axle. Rather than being locked tight in position when snapped into the bushing cradle, these bushings have a few mm of vertical travel to allow the axles to move up and down under the tension of the shock absorbers. Many slot enthusiasts hold this type of set up in disdain. However, I have found it to be effective, especially when the goal is to obtain more realistic rally performance as opposed to raw speed around the track. One characteristic of this suspension is the de-coupling of the rear axle from the motor/pinion. This happens because the rear axle moves independently of the motor mount, requiring the crown gear to pivot (within a very limited range) around the axis of the armature shaft/pinion. This could possibly sub-optimize gear mesh, especially under hard running. However, in my experience it has not adversely affected performance or gear wear.

The interior is a "half tray" type. That is, not a full interior but featuring more depth and detail (such as driver torso, seat bottoms, gear shift, etc) than a true lightweight tray. This still provides plenty of room internally for things like a digital decoder chip. The 037 has both a driver and navigator, the latter holding a map, or perhaps a copy of the Wall Street Journal.

Below are both head-on and side views of the chassis. These photos highlight the suspension system and wheels. The tires are the same used by the Porsche 911 SC/934 series: 19 x 10 mm ribbed in front; 20 x 11 mm ribbed high-profile in the rear.

One thing that immediately came to my attention was that the guide was not planted. I initially attributed this to the stiffness of the stock (standard) braids. However, after replacing the stock guide with the ProRace Suspension guide and much more flexible ProRace tinned braids, the leading edge of the braids was still about 1.5 mm above the rail surface. This is the first time that I have seen this with a NINCO spring-loaded suspension guide. Most likely the front shock absorbers were contributing to this condition. So, I shimmed the guide post underneath the spring with a #6 nylon washer and the guide is now planted with a perfect tripod stance in front. This can be seen in the first series of photos of the model above, which were taken after the shimmed ProRace guide was installed.

PERFORMANCE

Because my track is normally configured for N-Digital operation, I have to perform a quick switch-over to analog mode. My analog testing configuration consists of a Pyramid PS-26KX variable power supply providing track power through a NINCO standard power base with a single NINCO 55 PLUS (55 Ohm) controller connected. When configured for analog running I do not have lap timing available so I will convey only subjective observations about speed and handling in the analog mode.

I do not perform extensive tuning such as fluid immersion motor break-in or tire/wheel sanding, so the only things done to the car were:

• Lubrication of all axle bushings, motor bushings, and the guide post (the gears were already well lubricated).
• Replacement of the standard guide and braids with ProRace equivalents.
• The aforementioned guide post shim.
• Removal of the magnet.
• Body mounting screws were loosened by one and one half turns from the tight position to provide plenty of float.

I run LMP and F1 cars with the magnet, and I enjoy running them that way. I have no desire to see a rally car circle the track looking like an LMP. So, I did not run the Lancia 037 with the magnet. I have no doubt that it will perform very well with the magnet in place, but someone else will have to do that. I run rally cars without the magnet installed.

My 62' twisty, bumpy, technical NINCO track is by no means an off-road course, and it was not designed specifically for rallying, but it does provide a pretty good test for this type of slot car. I ran the Lancia 037 at 10, 11 and finally,12 volts, rotating among the three power settings. 11 volts seemed to be a magic number on my track. At this voltage the car was able to perform every aspect of handling effortlessly. It had good, believable speed on the straights, a high level of subtle control going through corners, and very competent braking when needed. Even with the basic NINCO 55 PLUS controller I could easily sense the upper limit of throttle required for a controlled slide through the corners without lapsing into fishtailing. I'm sure that with a high-end adjustable controller and commensurate level of skill that this car could be made to perform beyond the sum of its modest components. The only problem that I was able to detect was some occasional rear wheel chatter going into a turn. But this seems to be diminishing as the ribbed tires wear in.

After about 100 or so laps of analog running which is intended to get the feel of overall handling and performance, and to provide some initial drive train break-in, it was time to install the N-Digital decoder chip. As previously stated, running in digital mode allows the recording of lap times in order to provide some objective evaluation.

As evidenced by the above photos of body and chassis, there is ample room, specifically behind the front axle, for the N-Digital decoder chip. And the forward struts for the shock absorbers are spaced ideally for the chip, contained in its protective red case, to fit snugly and securely between them, as seen in the following photo. This is another conversion to N-Digital operation that can be classified as "easy".

With the track configured for digital operation, I ran the NINCO Lancia 037 using the N-Digital 'professional' throttle profile. For those not familiar with N-Digital, the 'professional' profile would be analogous to 11-12 volts maximum on an analog track with a relatively steep response in the lower region of the throttle curve. I believe that this is the appropriate choice based on the favorable results obtained when running at 11 volts analog. At this N-Digital setting the NC-9 is turning about 16-17 K rpm and producing roughly 120 gcm of torque. For perspective: my track lane length is 62'. A very good lap time by a typical rally car equipped with a Mabuchi FC130 motor turning 17-18 K rpm and producing about 100 gcm of torque is about 8.40 seconds.

The resulting lap times for the NINCO Lancia 037 recorded over approximately 150 laps are shown in the following table:

CONCLUSION

In spite of the problem with the yellow paint — at least on the car in this review — NINCO has done a commendable workman like job in producing this model. I don't know if it measures perfectly accurate in all scale dimensions, but in comparing it to a wide range of photos available on the Internet, it certainly appears faithful to the original car. And there is no denying that when it is viewed on the track that it is simply a good looking slot car.

When it comes to performance, to me, the NINCO Lancia 037 is just where it should be. The NC-9 motor seems to provide an ideal balance between speed and control and looks to be a very good choice for this car. When running on the track without the magnet, it probably gets as close to the look and feel of a true rally car as a slot car can.

I think that the most important thing NINCO has accomplished here is to give rally enthusiasts who missed the opportunity to acquire a Lancia 037 back when they were available from Scalextric and FLY a chance to add a very competent version to their collection now. I have no doubt that this car will perform admirably with the magnet. But if you prefer more realistic rally car performance over raw speed, especially without the magnet, then the NINCO Lancia 037 Rally will surely please you. Furthermore, this should be an ideal platform for the expert no-mag slot car tuner to exploit.

Check out this short video of the NINCO Lancia 037 in action on a home N-Digital track...

_Michael Ashton