Scalextric C3509 – Lotus Exige V6 Cup-R No.15 Lotus Cup UK

This is the first of the Lotus Exiges to be released by Scalextic in August 2014 and one I have been looking forward to since seeing the 2014 line up.

Looks:

I remember back to my first supercar pack of Top Trumps and loving the Esprit Turbo and have simply loved the looks of almost every Lotus since. So when I first saw this car in the flesh I thought it looked a little big, and putting it next to my Ninco Exige it was bigger. So a little look at the Lotus website actually shocked me as Scalextric have captured the car almost perfectly from the length, width and height through to the wheels and tyres.

Now, with that said, when looking for images of this particular car that raced in the Lotus Cup at Brands Hatch on the 24^th August 2013 I just wonder why a car with so little sponsorship or simple paint design was chosen. Apart from the Lotus logo and the number 15 there are only six sponsorship decals, and that counts the side doors twice.

A bigger issue or confusion is the colour. As you can see below the car is clearly bright yellow.

However the 1:1 car was orange.

So I thought, maybe the photos I found were wrong and the colour etc had been lost due to bad light etc, however then I notice the label on the back of the display case.

That seems almost inexcusable to have the colour that wrong and know it and still release it.

Don’t get me wrong, the car is beautiful, with its curves and air intakes and big spoiler on the back. The wheels are accurately reproduced even down to the front being 17” and the rear being 18” with corresponding tyre widths. So why is the colour so wrong?

As mentioned everything is to the correct 1:32 scale, down to the wheels and tyres, with the tyres being nicely rounded off on the edges to avoid them getting stuck or causing the car to flip when sliding sideways. The car itself is a little under 13cm long and 5.5cm at its widest point. The car sits at just 3.5cm at its tallest point whilst in a slot. It weighs in at a nimble 74g including the magnet that is located under the rear axle, the perfect point if you are a mag racer, although easy to remove if you like to race magless.

The quality of this particular model is spot on, nothing is loose, no paint defects, the gears are smooth and the soldering is all excellent.

The car has a DPR socket to accept the C8515 and has full front and rear xenon effect lights. The wheels are plastic as you would expect on a Scalextric car.

The car retails at £39.99 which is considerably more than a Carrera car, but about the same as a Ninco of the same level. In my eyes, £40 is fast encroaching on the price you can buy a performance car such as a Slot.IT or NSR car for, but as these are aimed at parents to buy for their children they are unlikely to know about these manufacturers when selling to the British public.

Performance:

The car comes in a sidewinder configuration with the standard 18k Mabuchi motor found in most Scalextric cars. I do have to wonder why Scalextric stick to the sidewinder when the gears are open to any dust and fluff they may come in contact with while sliding across a carpet when they come off a corner, bearing in mind that they are primarily aimed at the toy market and will likely be used by rug racers. My other bug bear with the sidewinder configuration is the tiny amount of difference between the gear and the tyre which restricts how much you can take off the tyre when truing it. That said, the gears did at least have some lubrication on them, something other manufacturers seem to consider an option or after market option.

When testing performance I set the voltage to 14v and ran a test against a number of cars taking the fastest lap. The tracks total lane length was 25.86m as I used a single cross over to double the size of the track as shown below, unfortunately I had no borders on the track but found that would have made little difference.

NSR	Ford GT40	12.501
Scalextric	Chevrolet Camaro GT	18.896
Scalextric	Chevrolet Corvette C6R	17.195
Scalextric	Bugatti Veygrom	17.123
Scalextric	Lotuse Exige V6	13.189
Scalextric	Masseratti Toefoe	15.903
Scalextric	Lotus Evora	13.358

 

As you can see, apart from the NSR the Exige out performed all of the other GT cars. I put this down to its amazing handling due to its light weight and short body. This car will certainly be in my box when it comes to the GT class racing at the club.

Thank you for reading this review, I hope to bring more to you soon.