NINCO PRORACE FERRARI 360
     
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The Ninco Ferrari 360 is not a new car, but they have recently re-released the car in ProRace guise, which seems like a good excuse for another look.

The ProRace sets come in a nice sturdy carry case with a box of parts and room for three cars, though you actually get about one and a half cars in the kit. 

The kit contains-

2 bodies (1 complete, 1 in kit form)

1 chassis

1 NC6 motor

1 guide with braids

1 button magnet

2 axles

2 bearings

3 gear sets (11/33, 12/32, 13/31)

4 17mm wheels (with inserts & brake discs)

4 18mm wheels (with inserts & brake discs)

8 tyres (4 front, 4 rear)

 

To complete a second car you would need chassis, motor, axles, bearings, guide, braids and body screws, so despite appearances it's not a 2-car set.

There isn't too much work to do to assemble a running car. The chassis is the same as the earlier kit versions, so you may wish to add some bracing to the rear before or during assembly, and it's worth gluing the motor in place to prevent it turning/twisting in its mount.

You will need a gear press/puller to fit your chosen pinion onto the motor. Once that's done the matching spur gear is fitted to the axle using the Allen key provided. It's worth taking the time to sort the wheels into their respective sizes, otherwise it's very easy to end up with a car with odd-sized wheels! The wheel inserts and brake discs need careful trimming and it's probably best to secure them with a couple of drops of superglue. The wheels are also secured with grub screws. With axles assembled and the guide in place you're ready to fit the body, which is accomplished with two long 'metric' screws.

The second body shell is unassembled and painted plain white. Instructions are included to guide you through its assembly, though it's fairly straightforward. Several sets of decals are available from DMC, Patto's etc if required. The bodies are quite a tight fit on the chassis, care and patience are required. On my cars the gear-side rear wheel arch needed opening up slightly because it was touching the wheel, but some light sanding of the arch soon cured it.

The Ferrari has been reviewed before so I won't bore you by repeating myself! Suffice it to say that the car's performance is certainly adequate, it's light, fast and fun to drive on just about any surface. The NC6 motor has plenty of torque and copes well with any of the supplied gear ratios, though it's worth experimenting to see which suits your track best. As usual with Ninco tyres, they need a light sanding to get rid of the shiny surface to perform at their best.

The ProRace set is relatively expensive (RRP in the UK is around £75) and the high price could put people off. But when you examine what you get for your money it starts to look like good value. If you were buying all these parts separately the cost would exceed the price of the ProRace kit. In fact it works out that you're getting the two bodies, motor and carry-case free! 

So the kit, although quite quite a large outlay, still represents good value for money.

What more can I say. The Ferraris are good cars, even if they're not generally quite as quick as the Mosler or Ascari. The ProRace set is good value and, in my opinion, worth the extra outlay. Though the previous ProRace sets seem to have sold out quite rapidly so you may need to be quick to get one.