Cartronic Jordan 197

Reviewed by Lawrence

picture of carThe Jordan 197 was the Benson & Hedges Jordan entry to the FIA F-1 championship for 1997. The team only had three podium finishes in the year, ending 5th in the constructors championship with the #12 car of Giancarlo Fisichella collecting most of the points. #11 was piloted by Ralf Schumacher, and his best result of the year was in Argentina, where he placed third.

Cartronic is now the third manufacturer to have produced the #11 Jordan 197, the other two being Scalextric (C2079) and Ninco (50172). Once the parcel arrived I immediately reached for the other 2 Jordans, so that I could compare all three together. It would be fair to say that this car is priced for the budget market, so it was a surprise that the car comes in a nice compact plastic box, which has a cardboard sleeve. Getting the car out of the packaging reminded me of earlier Ninco cars, and this deja-vu was confirmed by the use of the 'T' retaining peg used to hold the car in place! So far nothing smacked of 'being cheap'.

First impressions

So all 3 cars side by side - first impressions? I'll be frank, in that knowing that this car is £15, I wasn't expecting too much. So I was surprised that the car body wasn't out of scale when compared to either the Ninco or Scalextic versions, although it's 'heavy look' can be attributed to being a couple of millimetres higher than the Scalextric version, which itself is higher than the Ninco version. The wheel diameters aren't too bad either, although the wheel track is somewhat wide compared to the Ninco car, although not notably different to the Scalextric version, and wheelbase is near enough the same for all three cars. Tampo printing isn't fantastic, but they have made an effort, and placement and sizing is about right. One of the consequences of the extra height is that the engine cover hasn't got the bumps and lumps found in the other manufacturer's cars to accommodate their motors and wiring.
image of guide
The Cartronic Guide

Turning the car over, Catronic have departed from using traditional braids to pickup power, and uses a guide with two strips of copper, suitably shaped, for power. The guide for Scalextric/Ninco track is black, and the spare guide under the box base is grey, but it is designed to run with the Cartronic track, so is pretty useless as a spare. The guides use the traditional motor wire with eyelet to get power to the motor, and to keep the guide on the track, there are two very thin button magnets in the rear of the guide (see inset). Most importantly during the track tests I'm pleased to say that this new guide system didn't lose power once.

Before I headed off for the club night I just had to have a peek inside. I undid all five screws on the base, and prised the underpan and body apart. Well almost - the rear wing is a one piece affair, and clips into the rear of the underpan, with the classic Jordan leading edge extensions locating into recesses on the upper bodywork. This should improve the crash worthiness of this bit of the car, but only time will tell. Unclipping the rear wing let me separate the two major pieces.

picture of tail
Brass rear axle bearings come as standard!
Marketing gurus call good selling points 'points of delight' - and this car has a few. The Mabuchi engine is heavily suppressed, and drives through the bell end of the can. However the pinion is a nice nine tooth brass pinion, driving to a plastic contrate. Rear axle bearings are brass, and there is a neat contrate cover, rather like the Ninco F-1s. The motor itself is housed in it's own detachable mount, and two of the screws I had removed to seperate the car were screws for the motor mount - not a feature usually found in budget slot cars. The bar magnet is located under the motor, and you'll need to remove the motor to get to it, Sadly this car doesn't have a variable magnet position - then I had to remind myself that this was a budget car!

engine & mount
The bar magnet is hidden under the engine

Test - part I

Before taking to the track I checked the rear axle, and the axle hubs and tyres looked true. I then lightly sanded the tyres, enough to get rid of the shine, and with a quick rev of the motor we were running on the first of a few practice laps. The first couple of laps were just getting used to the car, and trying to find the adhesion limits of the tyres. Onto the long straight for the third time, on the throttle 100%, and the car motored along at a very modest speed, obviously being 'dragged' by the magnet. Leaving the throttle at near maximum, the car then proceeded to take all the bends bar the 180° without sliding, and so proved to be very stable and vice free. Fellow club racers raised questions about the power of the motor, so in the following week I swapped the OEM motor for a new Ninco NC1. The quality of the Cartronics car is such that the NC1 fitted in without any adjustment necessary, and the contrate and pinion gears are perfectly matched. Rotating the axle didn't reveal any 'tight spots' so the car was ready for Test Part 2 without any extra effort required.

Test - part II

was expecting that the Ninco NC1 would give this car the power boost it feels it needs. Once on the track, and a couple of warmups laps later, it was time to find out how much of a boost there was. Or not. It's sad to report that the new motor didn't make one bits of difference to the speed or acceleration of the car. However the flip side of the test did reveal that the OEM motor is indeed up to par with the power we would expect with it's more costly cousins, so again budget price doesn't mean to say budget components. The tyres have also proved to be on par with the regular manufacturers.

Race winner contender? - Maybe!

'll be running this in the 'F-1 with Magnet' class next time it is run at the club. This may seem madness, as I've already mentioned the lack of speed, but the track has only a few straights, with plenty of twisty bits. I'm hoping that the Cartronic Jordan's superior cornering will be able to swing the balance against the older Scalextric F-1s, and introduce some new blood into the class which is currently dominated by the Scalextric Jordan 197. But what about the home racers? The lower top speed and greater cornering ability makes this car a better bet for the less experienced drivers on shorter twisty tracks, and should mean longer running between 'offs', making it more suitable for the novice and junior racers alike. The lack of braids, and the inherent problems of braids falling out, or being too dirty to pass power, should also make it more junior friendly.

Summing up

artronics have produced a car that on balance, exceeds expectations. Brass bearings on the rear axle, a brass pinion gear and separate motor mount are all features of cars you would expect to pay £25 or more for. The upper body work may not have the most accurate lines, or indeed the tampo printing may not be the best, but whereas these cosmetic areas say 'budget', the actual drive components, including wheels doesn't. All in all a surprisingly good buy, and I won't be surprised if Santa shifts a few units before xmas!

Gallery
plan view of car Cars side by side
Scalextric and Cartronic Jordans side by side
The lack of details
 
nose to nose
Scalextric J197 v Cartronics J197
 
nose closeup tail to tail
Wheel details ok - Tyres provide sufficent grip Scalextric J197 v Cartronics J197