How did Ninco develop in designing slot cars?

What has changed over the years?

After the release of the Mercedes CLK DTM "Original-Teile" in 2001 the moment has come to compare this car to the Ninco Mercedes C-class, that has been released in 1994.

First slot cars

At the end of December 1993 Ninco released the first slot car (Renault Clio) soon followed by the two cars from the German Touring Car Championship, the Alfa Romeo 155 and the Mercedes C-Class. In 2001 Ninco has released about 240 slot cars in just eight years. Of course, not all slot cars are unique models, but all are different printed.

Show box

The difference of dimension of the show boxes is the first thing you noticed when you take the cars from the shelf. The old boxes are about half the size of the new boxes.
Some people prefer the old size because it takes less storage space, but the big box is more suitable to display the beauty of the new generation slot cars.

Decals and Tampo-printing

The modern slot car is a very good copy of the original. Ninco has reached a high level in detailing slot cars. The designers of Ninco have taken a closer look to the original and are able to use better techniques.
Nowadays the slot car manufacturers are able to produce realistic looking scale models because of tampo-printing (printing directly on the bodywork). Formerly decals (transfers) were used to get the names of the sponsors on the car. The tampo-printing of the Mercedes of 2001 is astonishing. If you compare painted model to the original car you get great respect for the designers of Ninco.

NC1-NC2

Ninco set cars all come nowadays with the NC-1 motor. The cars in the Ninco GT and Formula One sets, when sold separately, are equipped with the more powerful NC-2 motor. Off course, the Mercedes C-Series of 1994 is equipped with the standard (NC-1) motor because the race motor (NC2) is introduced in 1998. The NC2 is faster and more aggressive than the NC1.

Other changes

The standard of the motor has been changed. With the modern cars it is easier to change from NC1 to NC2 motors.
With the NC1 comes a small plastic adapter and that equals the sizes of the standard and the race motor.
The quality of the tires has been increased. The detailing of the rims and other parts of the car are better.
Not on the DTM Mercedes, but new Ninco slot cars comes with a guide that is equipped with a small spring.
The size of the magnet has been changed form shape. Circular magnets have replaced rectangular magnets.

Handling of the cars

The handling of the cars are changed because of the impressive development of the design techniques over the years. Ninco's slot cars have always been competitive to the models of other manufacturers and they always will be!

More information

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Catalunya models Part 1
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