NINCO BMW M3 ‘Tuning Style’

By Shawn Smith

NINCO has no doubt been full of surprises this year. I was both shocked and pleased when NINCO announced the release of JGTC styled cars and was again very happy when I heard NINCO would offer even more cars than they were showing in their 2005 product catalogue by bringing to market these ‘Tuning Style’ series of street racing inspired models.

Appearance:

Introducing the second of NINCOs ‘Tuning Style’ line with the release of this bright orange BMW M3. The first release, a silver and black Mitsubishi Lancer, seemingly hit store shelves without notice and without the usual attention a new line of cars often draws. Hoping to change all of that MRC has provided this Tuning M3 to generate some well deserved attention.

The new Tuning Style cars from NINCO capture the feel of Friday night street racing made popular by young import and domestic car owners, often referred to as ‘tuners’, who create their own works of automotive art by combining high performance aftermarket parts with popular and relatively inexpensive cars. From that concept NINCO is bringing slot enthusiasts road versions of NINCO rally and race models adding ‘street style’ to NINCO slot racing and touching on a market long neglected.

Following the ‘tuner’ theme NINCO has taken a BMW M3 sedan body and painted it in a bright orange color then trimmed the car in both black plastic pieces and flat-black painted details. One of the most common ‘tuner’ trick is to lighten a car by removing anything that adds too much weight and often the stock hood is one of the first things to be removed. NINCO has modeled this technique by painting the hood of their Tuning M3 in a flat black as if to simulate the finish of a lighter carbon fiber replacement hood.

This hood, like other areas of the car, becomes a tribute to the various manufacturers of aftermarket parts found within the car. In the case of this M3 such company names as Eibach, Sparco, Alpine and others decorate the hood in a neat row between vented hood louvers. Details such as the front end tow hook have been modeled in chrome for this releasing giving the car some added ‘bling’ factor and other items like the side view mirrors and fuel filler openings are molded in basic black.

Manufacturer graphics are again painted on the lower half of each door on the BMW M3 and a wide flat black stripe has been applied beginning after each wheel opening of the front fenders and ending at the rear tail light details of the car. Of course being a street version you can see that our ‘tuner’ is piloting his street racer without protective headgear and such items as a race inspired roll cage are missing as well.

As for the rest of the interior: what you see is what you get as the shallow orange painted tray interior of the M3 has limited details. Aside from the driver figure, missing both of his legs below the knees, the Tuning M3 has a simple black plastic gear shift and a chromed bottle that you can imagine is an extinguisher or a bottle of nitrous oxide for added ‘boost’. The windows, being partially tinted, has warranted a lack of dash board detailing although the glass does get trimmed in more flat black and simulated rivets accomplished through small dots of clear in the black window framing.

In the rear of the NINCO Tuning M3 the car gets a black NINCO Tuning Series logo, one that matches a silver logo on the front windshield, painted red plastic tail lens’ and a giant black rear wing that is identical to previous racing versions of the NINCO BMW.

Rims for the Tuning M3 are the same used by NINCO lately on such cars as their NSX, McLaren GTR and Toyota Supra although these too have been modeled in chrome to give this Tuning Style M3 added street appeal. Behind each rim are slotted silver painted brake rotor details and each rim is fitted with low profile NINCO racing slicks.

 Performance:

Two screws hold the body of the NINCO Tuning BMW to the chassis, one located at the very rear of the chassis and another partially hidden by the guide blade, however once the two screws are removed you will find that the BMW’s exhaust detail may try and keep the two parts together. A simple tug on the body will take care of it and also keep this in mind when putting the car back together.

With the body now removed from the chassis you easily can see the shallow tray-style interior as well as the popular NINCO angle-winder drive train set up. While previous fans and owners of the NINCO BMW M3 will be no strangers to the angle-winder gearing they will be introduced to the new red gearing found in earlier-mentioned NINCO Supra and NSX releases.

In addition to the change of gearing this Tuner edition of the M3 comes packing some additional punch thanks to the higher RPMs of the NC-6 ‘Crusher’ motor that NINCO claims creates 23,500 RPMs at 14.8 volts. This same NC-6 was used in NINCO’s second edition of the Club Car NSX and is also the motor of choice for NINCO’s self-proclaimed ‘Pro-Race’ line of slot cars placing these ‘tuner style’ cars with some already fast company. This choice of motor by NINCO came as a surprise to me considering NC-5 motors (20K RPM) come standard in NINCO racing livery Supra and NSX models and placing higher RPM NC-6 motors in street cars seems a little backwards.

Up front NINCO’s solid front axle is left unchanged from earlier NINCO M3 releases still possessing an amount of up and down axle movement as well as an amount of side to side play that many choose to reduce. This can typically be done with the installation of small washers between the rims and the chassis although I know many who opt to cut the axle length down using a cut off wheel and their favorite rotary tool.

Rims on this Tuner M3 were found to be true and free from excessive flashing and only a light sanding was given to the rear rubber to make certain of an adequate contact patch. Everything trued and glued and off to testing we went.

Being a direct descendant of NINCO’s previous BMW M3 it should be no shock that this Tuning M3 drives and handles in the exact same fashion as older versions. Aside from the higher RPM motor giving this ‘tuner’ more top end speed the driving characteristics are the same with nice acceleration and crisp braking mixed with a light magnetic set up that allows for easy power sliding and a need to watch your corner entrance speeds to avoid the back end coming around to try and meet the front. The red gearing sings a similar ‘song’ to the older black gear-equipped cars although for what its worth these gears felt as broken in as other M3s I have with countless more laps on them.

The Final Verdict:

In the looks department the BMW Tuning Style M3 is a believable replication of something you might expect to find cruising the city streets looking for an illegal street race. Styling is certainly street inspired and designers at NINCO have obviously been thumbing through popular tuner magazines to gather their ideas. In terms of performance the Tuning Style M3 is the fastest, motor wise, of NINCO’s BMW M3s so far although having unchanged magnetic handling you’ll find that driving’ is still required. I have little doubt that most will love the straight line speed of this Tuning M3 on their plastic home tracks but just remember to back it off for the sharp upcoming turn and everything should be fine.

Special thanks go to NINCO and Model Rectifier Corporation for providing the new Tuner Style BMW M3 for review.

As always, please feel free to email me with any comments or questions about this or any other review and I’ll be happy to answer any questions that I can. Happy slotting!

Shawn Smith