The real Peugeot 908HDi is a car that's captured the imagination of a lot of race fans because of the Group C-ness of the car. Quite a few slotters have talked about how cool the car looks largely because of the roof on the LMP1 class car. And during recent American LeMans Series testing the Peugeot was fast, really fast. This will only help the Peugeot become maybe the next "gotta have" slot car.
The flat black and white paint deco is striking. The three antenna's on top of the add a nice bit of detail. They aren't a flexible plastic type of antenna so it's good that this car is quite stable and isn't likely to end up on its room much.
The RX42B is a solid performer and the motor is held in place with the normal tilting motor pod. The motor has more than adequate power for homeset use and most racers will find if fast especially if this Peugeot is raced against its SCX sister car the Audi R10.
This Peugeot is ready for digital action as well. The car comes with stub axles up front to allow putting a digital "chip" between the wheels. The back axle is held in place with some nice spherical brass bearings. And something that we kind of take for granted in SCX's motor pod design is that the motors stay in place under heavy acceleration, there's no hop here! This is a part of SCX cars that might be overlooked. But with all the high-torque-motored cars (or low torque motored cars for that matter) that have less than solid chassis so it's worth repeating...the motors are perfectly held in place and solid!
Out of the box the rear wheels did stick out a bit, but with a gentle push on each end of the wheels snapped in place, and are now fully under the car.
On the 62-foot East New York wood track we like to race LMP cars on really let this car stretch out to the limit of it's performance. So prior to testing the car I did only some minor lubrication on the axle bearings and motor. The stock SCX tires don't do very well on wood so I swapped them out for some NSR Ultra Grips. After a bit of truing the car really worked well on the track. It's a really, really easy car to drive and lots of fun. The motor is the RX-42B which is solid performer powers this car to a fastest lap time of about 5.5 seconds. Generally "fast" begins somewhere around 5.1 seconds on this track. So with a car with NO modifications done to it, which uses a 20k motor, on a surface for which it wasn't designed...it's quite a good performer. And on a shorter track with shorter straights (which would be the majority of tracks out there) this car would hold its own nicely I think.
On my SCX test track the car performed quite well. I have fencing but no aprons around most of the track and the long tail on this car and very little slide out room isn't a great mix. The car length of this car means it has the tendency to rub the fencing if you're a bit too heavy on the throttle in the corners, and well, I'm famously not a great driver. With the magnet in the stock position the car feels stuck down and it's really easy to get the car cookin' around the track.
If you're a new slotter or if you're looking for a LMP type slot car for a younger driver this might be an excellent choice. It's far more drivable than you might believe. Give the car a look at your favorite local hobby shop.
Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Cars Blog
And for a second opinion on this car please read a review by Harry Wise of Home Racing World at this link.
