Black Arrow Aston Martin - Home Racing World & The Slot Car Garage

01/08/2013

1/32nd Scale – Black Arrow - #AM DBR9 #009 2007

The Aston Martin DBR9 is a car that has been modeled by various manufacturers, but there is a new 'kid' in town so let's see what Black Arrow has to offer us with their newly released slot car.

The slot car world has been abuzz since news of a new slot car manufacturer was released. CAD drawing started trickling onto the internet and forums quickly filled up with questions of who, what, and when. I, like others, have been keeping up with the latest news out of Spain regarding this much anticipated car and after a few delays here it is! So let's get started and see what this little green emerald is made of!

The Aston arrived in a classy black pressed board box printed in white complete with the company name as well as the auto manufacturers logo. The box lid is secured to the base with a sticker at each end that bears the Black Arrow name and 'Official Product'. I like the box even though you can't see the car from the outside. It is a great teaser to the beauty that is tucked within.

The bottom of the box is printed with the same information with the addition of the cars name that is inside as well as copyright, age minimum information as well as the address for Black Arrow.

Once you take the lid off of the base, you'll find the car nicely protected with a custom fit foam filler. The car itself is not secured to the base but the foam fits snugly and holds the car in place very well. You will find four extra grub screws, or set screws, under the base that the car rests on. A nice touch especially since they are so tiny and could easily be lost.

Speaking of grub screws, you will need T5 and T6 Torx drivers, and a 0.9mm hex key for disassembling and adjusting this car. The hex key is used for adjusting the motor pod and axle height. The T6 is used for the body screws, spring adjustments, and motor and guide removal. The T5 is used for the wheels and gears. The springs pictured above, while not included, are also offered by Black Arrow but we'll get to those later.

The finish on the car is a satin look and although not the gloss finish we are used to, it is pleasing to the eye and looks very nice.

The sponsor logos are very crisp with no bleeding or smudges. I wish that my camera would pick up some of the smaller logos as it is really impressive how crisp they are executed.

The wheels and tires are exceptional as well. The sidewall of each tire has 'Black Arrow' molded into it as well as the tire part name. The front tires are stock zero grips and thus the sidewall reads, “Black Arrow Grip Zero”. The rear tires read “Black Arrow R1”, which are a shore 35 compound tire. The rear wheels are aluminum and the fronts are Delrin. Both use inserts as well as a disc brake and caliper. We'll have a look at both later in this review.

The mirrors as well as both antennas and the wiper blade are made of a soft plastic, vinyl I believe, so that they are less prone to breaking. During my track tests, on more occasions than I care to admit, I can say that they hold up very well and all are still intact. While the rear wing and it's support struts are made of the typical plastic we see on most RTR cars, they also have held up well in some pretty severe collisions and roll overs. The front chin spoiler is also the standard plastic and is welded to the body. During my testing this spoiler did come a bit loose but I hit a foam wall head on at what was probably a scale 400mph! I was happy to see that the spoiler itself did not break but rather the welds. It could easily be fixed but I chose to go ahead and remove it.

Box Stock Track Testing
Routed MDF (Veteran's Memorial Speedway) with a Semigloss Latex Finish
Aftermarket Power @ 10 Volts and PARMA 45 OHM Controller
Oval Lap Length: 34' – Road-course Lap Length: 61'

There is only one word to describe how this car runs...Smooth. I honestly did nothing to this car prior to putting it on the track. With a few test laps under my belt, it was time for a closer look. The rims were nice and true on the front and rear and the tires had no issues. One thing that I particularly would like to point out about the tires is that they injection point is on the inner sidewall of the tire. To me, this is just brilliant! We don't have to worry about the mold mark having any affect on the cars performance. I big kudos to Black Arrow for thinking that one up.

Acceleration was quick, but braking was a little less than desired as it took approximately 6' at full power to come to a complete stop. For the racer with an adjustable controller this can easily be remedied. For folks like myself though, it's just another part of learning to drive the car. For those of you that are familiar with the older MonoRev cars, the breaking is comparable. But because the car was smooth and predictable, after a handful of laps, I was able to compensate for the longer breaking period.

Lap times were initially not real impressive with a car of this stature compared to other cars I own, however I knew that with all those adjustment points it could be made to run well, and boy does it ever! I found that tightening up the rear springs and setting the front springs so the end of the screw was flush with the spring stop, the car handled much better than it did right from the box. The lap times while a bit better were still not where I thought they could be. After a few more laps and a bit of observation, it became obvious that the torque and RPM's of the motor were causing the tires to spin. While these tires, to the touch, are very grippy, they just wouldn't hook up on my track. What to do? Well, I typically install Paul Gage aftermarket urethane tires, but I didn't have any that would fit. So, I did the next best thing, I installed some stock Slot.it tires from a Mazda 787b that I had. To say the grip level improved would be an understatement to say the least. “Okay, okay, give us the numbers already!” Here you go...

Stock out of the box:
Oval – 2.699 Fast Lap, 2.78 Average
Road-course – 7.558 Fast Lap, 8.201 Average

With adjusted springs and Slot.it tires:
Oval – 2.358 Fast Lap, 2.442
Road-course – 7.210 Fast Lap, 7.583 Average

Of course, as we know, track conditions, the driver, clean tires, spring and pod adjustments can either better or worsen the time listed above. I plan to do some more testing to see what I can get this little car to do. I would like to try and see if I can work with the stock tires and get the times down using them at some point.

Looking Closer

Let's have a look under the hood to see what gets this model around the track. The body is held in place with four (4) T6 Torx screws which have a smooth shank. You can see these in the third picture below. These screws help with allowing the body to 'float' separate from the chassis. The screws are approximately 1/2” long so just when you think you are done removing a screw...keep turning. You'll also notice that there are four other screws; these are the suspension spring adjustment screws. On two occasions I started removing the rear spring adjustment screws, so I made a mental note. If you'll notice, the four body screws are recessed in the chassis, so...recessed = remove. Simple enough, or you can mark them with a paint pen or something to help you remember.

The underside of the body reveals the four body posts and a Lexan interior tray. The driver, seat, gauge cluster, steering wheel, and roll cage are all standard plastic bits that are welded to the tray.

Below we see that the pinion is a 13 tooth and it mates up nicely to a 37 tooth crown gear. This isn't just any crown gear, the teeth are replaceable! They are held in place with three T5 screws, but to replace it, you still have to remove the rear axle assembly so it's not a quick change differential. I'm hoping this separate tooth piece translates into a lower cost crown gear replacement, assuming the teeth are sold separately from the hub. The motor is a 28,000 RPM long can and is probably too much for most home tracks due to tracks generally being smaller in size, but I'm sure it is well suited for the club track where it can stretch its legs so to speak. The drive train is very quiet and reminds me of other higher end slot cars, which for me, are Slot.it, NSR, Racer and the like.

Here you can see the two T6 screws that hold the business end of the motor in place. These can be removed with the axle assembly in place by simply putting your drivers shank between the bushing carrier and gear on the right, and the bushing carrier and gear hub on the left. The white pieces, or stops, are what holds the suspension springs in place. You can see the screws that installs from under the chassis sticking through the center of each stop. There are also two at the front pictured previously. Stock, the DBR9 comes with white (Super Hard #BASP04A) springs in the front, and green (Soft #BASP02A) springs in the rear. Also available are Super Soft, Medium, and Hard. Or you can get a complete set like pictured earlier (#BASPSET01).

As I mentioned earlier, the wheels and tires are well done. The rear wheels measure 16.5mm x 10mm with a center rib of 5mm, fronts are the same. Each rear wheel is held on with two T5 grub screws, front wheels are pressed onto a smooth axle, which measures 56mm long, front and rear. The rear wheels are notched so that the shank of your driver can easily find its way to the screw. You'll also notice that the aluminum wheels are not your typical shiny aluminum finish, but rather have a 'frosted' look to them. They appear that they are cast instead of milled, however I have no confirmation of that. Perhaps they are soda blasted or some other etching process? Either way, they look nice and the spokes on the backside of the wheel are nice and sturdy.

The front end consists of a screw in guide that uses a T6 screw and some of the softest braid that I have ever seen. A great thing about this guide; it uses T5 grub screws in the front of the guide to hold the wire and braid in the recesses. This is much cleaner, easier to install, and probably less prone to backing out than other manufacturers are doing with grub screws. The guide has a blade that measures 6.83mm deep and 20.75mm long. You will also find 0.9mm hex screws for adjusting the front axle height. There is one on the top of each axle carrier, and one just to the inside of those that is accessed from the underside of the chassis.

If you are all about a slot car that is completely adjustable for your track or the tracks you visit, then I would recommend trying one of these cars. While they are not the cheapest car out there, they are not the most expensive either. I purchases this car purely for the love of slot cars and to check out the technology behind it. I'm quite certain that you'll be pleased with this initial offering from Black Arrow and that the DBR9 will find it's way into your race box for every trip to the track!

- Jeremy

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Thanks To Black Arrow for Sponsoring This Review

Visit Black Arrow for more info on this car and their other products.