NINCO HUMMER H2
     
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Over the last year or so we have seen growing interest in 'Rally Raid' vehicles, the sort of monster 4WD you see tackling impossible-looking obstacles at high speed on the Dakar rally. Often they seem to spend almost as much time in the air as they do on the ground!

A big part of the interest in these vehicles as slot cars is down to Ninco, who have produced a superb range including the Pajero, X5, Touareg and Schlesser. Other makes including SCX and Powerslot have joined the fray, Powerslot's Hummer H1 creating particular interest.

So Ninco have responded with their own Hummer, this time the 'civilianised' H2 version. 

Two liveries have been released, this yellow 'road car' and a black Police version. I would expect to see at least one or two more liveries during the year.

It's a big vehicle, for once Ninco's usual oversized display box looks appropriate. At approximately 145mm long, 65mm high and 63mm wide the H2 is one of the biggest cars in my collection. Only the Powerslot H1 and Fly racing trucks are bigger.

As it's a road car the H2 has minimal tampo-printing, but is nicely finished in yellow paint. There's almost a hint of metallic gold, though that could just be the effect of the lacquer. Either way, it looks good. Details like the side and roof lights, door handles etc are neatly painted, as are (oddly) the side mirrors. At first glance it almost looks like they're on backwards! The mirrors are fairly rigid and could be early casualties if your Hummer ventures off-road. 

The interior is only visible at the front as the rear door and load area windows are darkly tinted. A three-quarter length driver figure sits in one of two race-style seats. The driver has no crash helmet but is otherwise a standard figure (you can see the moulded race harness even though it's not painted). The dashboard and centre console are nicely moulded and a full set of instruments are visible.

The chassis, as you would expect, is a huge chunky affair. Initially I wondered how I was going to get at anything as covers are fitted over both axles. But these just lift out and then you can access all the working parts.

The Hummer has a NC7 Raider motor, rated at 19,300 rpm @14.8volts and plenty of torque. The motor is mounted inline and drives the rear axle, power is taken to the front axle via a single belt. A small bar magnet sits in a holder clipped to the underside of the chassis.

The guide is attached to a drop arm to enable the Hummer to negotiate 'terrain'. The drop arm is sprung, but the spring on my car wasn't strong enough to keep the guide firmly in the slot even with some additional weight on the drop arm. I replaced the spring with a piece cut out of a spring from a cheap pen. Spring suspension units are fitted, allowing each wheel 8-9mm of travel between full drop and full compression. There is some side-to-side and forward/backward movement of both axles, but it's minimal.

Running the Hummer on my small Scalextric Sport track proved that the magnet doesn't have much effect! Despite that, the four wheel drive allows the Hummer to accelerate strongly and braking is effective. Cornering needs a 'slow in, fast out' approach, if you enter a turn too quickly the H2 will either plough straight on or fall over. But if you brake early and then feed in the power as you come through the corner the Hummer accelerates briskly and powers out of the corners with a hint of controllable power slide. 

My routed track with its longer straights and wider corners gives the Hummer more chance to express itself. It can be hustled round with remarkable speed, the motor's torque and 4WD system combine well to power this large model around. The car isn't always as smooth as it could be, the back can skip and bounce when accelerating, but this doesn't seem to slow it down at all. Maybe softer springs would help? But whatever the cause, the Hummer remains controllable and it's a lot of fun.

I couldn't test a big off-roader without putting a few obstacles in its way, could I? My track isn't a rally or raid track, so I just placed or stuck things on the track. Small obstacles like pebbles and twigs are dealt with easily, though trying to tackle them at higher speeds can end up with the car bouncing out of the slot. The H2's ability to tackle larger obstacles is limited by the travel of the drop arm. Anything more than 10-11mm will lift the guide out of the slot and stop the car. 

Judging by how fast some shops are selling these, the Ninco Hummer seems popular - and it deserves to be. It's nicely modelled car, great fun on a smooth track and able to tackle the rough stuff. Maybe not such an extreme off-roader as some of the opposition but a very capable all-rounder.