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Spirit BMW 635 500km Monza 1984

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wixwacing
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Posts: 1871
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:22 am

Spirit BMW 635 500km Monza 1984

Post by wixwacing »

Spirit BMW 635


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One of the racers at a recent Slotcar Legends race meeting was proud to show off one of his latest acquisitions and rightly so. A beautiful rendition of the Jagermeister BMW 635 from the mid eighties. Spirit will have already captured a corner of the market with its livery alone. But for the rest of us, how does it shape up.



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Well, unfortunately I only had a short while to admire this model and as it wasn’t destined for the track I refrained from giving it a fang around the local Ninco circuit at which we were meeting. Nonetheless, it is a very attractive model and Spirit have captured its features well. First thing that strikes you is the boldness of the colour and the crispness of the tampo. Nearly all its features were well represented and as mentioned, from the outside a very attractive model.



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The bumpers are faithfully reproduced and the rubber inserts in the chrome bars look good. The rear lights are a little shaky in finish but don’t detract from the model and a nice touch was the inclusion of the heated rear window element on the rear screen. Something I can only remember seeing in an AUTOart model to date! The front wheels carry the stylised extractor caps which were a feature of a lot of racing cars at this time. The inside of the caps have radial partitions which when turning at speed, act as an extractor and draw cool air across the brake discs and callipers.



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The front of the model is appealing too if a little out of square but the crooked tampo on the headlights is its only real fault. Tyres and wheels are concentric and feel soft to the touch. I can't imagine them needing too much work for the track. The driver looks a bit rigid and to be honest, underneath its paint could easily be a Fly driver.


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Nothing wrong with that but the drivers are a bit dated now and look a little stiff in their pose. Chrome channel mouldings finish the model exterior off and when viewed from above I would expect Spirit to be very pleased with this model.



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Underneath the model, Spirit move back a little in time. There is a Boxer motor rated at 24,000 rpm @ 14.8 volts. A good motor, but not really matched to the magnet position and strength.



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As it stands it wouldn’t be a contender in the open race and could well be hard to keep on in a fray but I suspect it could score well as a non magnet racer, especially on board or painted surfaces. One thing that did amuse me was the addition to the obligatory ‘place of origin’ mark which many OECD countries insist on.



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Designed in Spain
Crafted in China


Well done Spirit



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Looking still closer to the business end of the model I note that the guide mounting hole is fairly poorly supported. Not a big deal as such, but again, as a serious racing model, I would rate this as a weak link. After all, I have already repaired upwards of a dozen or more models in the last few years where the guide mounting holes have snapped clean off the chassis. And they were more substantial mounts than this little baby!



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It would have been nice to have this model on the track and working. But as the owner openly admits, this one is for the collection. I don’t blame him either. A nice well balanced model in appearance and a good rendition of the real thing. Well done Mr Spirit, keep ‘em coming!


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Many thanks to the `Eggmeister' for the photo opportunity
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When I'm not racing slotcars,
I'm out in the back yard, burning food!!

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eagleby flyer
Posts: 0
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:17 am

Re: Spirit BMW 635 500km Monza 1984

Post by eagleby flyer »

I got mine a couple of weeks ago, and straight out of the box it was garbage. Very noisy but after a oil and grease it ran a lot quieter, but it bounced all over the track. I sanded the rims but they weren't that bad, put the same tyres back on and it still bunny hopped everywhere. On the inner rim of the tyres, I think it's a moulding line, were serveral large lumps of flashing, I cut these off and after that it ran quite well. It will never keep up with a scalextric car on a mag track but as a non-mag car might be worth playing with. I like to collect the Jagermeister cars so it will never be a race car, but at least now it's good for a couple of laps every now and then.
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