SCX Nascar review...Harvick Pennzoil

When there is a new release of a new livery of a slot car, you might wonder to yourself, "well is it really worth it to buy this one too?" Well in the case of the new Kevin Harvick Pennzoil Nascar you maybe want to check out this car at your local hobby shop.

This livery of the car is strikingly done by SCX. Yellow is always a color that raises a red flag with some slotters...it's tough to get that color opaque, well SCX have given us a nice thick coat of yellow paint over a yellow body... no issues here, it's a nice solid yellow.


The tail detail on this body is just as nicely done as the previous models. There are a few spots in the paint on this car, but it's more evident frankly in this photo than when you look at the car with your eye.
One issue with this car is that the wheels still stick outside the body a bit more than they should. It would be great to see SCX make a bit of an adjustment to the axle length here.
I wasn't expecting a change on the chassis treatment but here you have it. A nice flat black look to the chassis! I'm not sure if the material is different than the previous Nascars (and other recent SCX releases for that matter). But the flat black appearance of the chassis I think has a more pleasing look than a glossy paint job. After all real cars have dirty undersides that are seldom shiney.
So is the difference in this car only cosmetic? An emphatic NO! There is more motor pod movement than ANY previous SCX car I've seen...with only the exception of the Pro Audi! The pod has plenty of movement right out of the box. A nice rocking motion allows the pod to move easily. This is a very nice suprise indeed!

I did notice that the chassis fits quite tightly inside the body, it would be good to cut or sand around the edges of the chassis to make free up the stress on the body.
Here we see the RX-42B motor which will rev up to about 20k rpm according to the Slot Car News motor list.

How does this car perform? All testing was done on the my Carrera test track (photo inset here for reference).

I did 50 laps with the car in stock form. I didn't do anything other than put a drop of oil on the bushings at the corners and a drop on each end of the motor.

I got a fastest lap time of 3.0 with about 3.1 being the average.

Then I gave the magnet holder 2 full turns out to drop the magnet down lower to the track. I sanded the stock tires to make sure they had some scuffed rubber to use.

I now had a fastest lap time of 2.6 seconds! Which for reference is what the Scalextric Trans Am Jaguar will do with the stock magnet and Sloter tires in place. The Harvick car is certainly no slouch around the track!

A recommended buy...

Thanks to Distributoys for the car for review!

DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News

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