POWERSLOT HUMMER H1

It's not often that a small company causes a stir with its first major release, but that's what relative newcomers PowerSlot seem to be achieving. PowerSlot are a small company based in Spain (where else?) and have released a couple of limited edition models previously, but the Hummer really seems to be generating a lot of interest. In the UK, PowerSlot are distributed exclusively by Pendle Slot Racing.

The car comes in the usual 'crystal' case, about the same size as an SCX box. And it pretty much fills the box - this is a large model! At nearly 15cm long and 7cm wide it's likely to be the biggest 'car' in your collection, certainly the widest.

The body is quite a tidy moulding, no evidence of flash or mould lines. The roof, rear windows and rear doors are formed from a separate piece, presumably so the company can use the same basic body for a pickup version of the car at a later date. The Hummer's distinctive 'face' and bonnet-mounted radiator are accurately reproduced. Despite its size, the Hummer has a shallow tray interior with very basic detail and figures.

The Hummer looks accurate from a scale perspective, height and width seem spot on though it's perhaps a little low. Then again, given that the real car was a support vehicle on the Dakar rally, it probably wasn't a standard production model!

But the Hummer isn't perfect. If you're looking at the pictures and thinking that the colour looks rather 'plasticky' you'd be right, because the body (at least on the yellow version) is coloured plastic, not painted. The finish is quite dull and just doesn't look 'right'. On my car, some details like door handles and bumpers have been painted black, but the paintwork is uneven and scruffy. The roof panel doesn't fit as neatly as it should on my car, with noticeable gaps above the windscreen and along the sides. 

These aren't huge issues but we've come to expect better from modern slotcars.

The motor is mounted inline and drives the rear axle. Power is transferred to the front axle via twin rubber belts.

The guide is sprung and mounted on a long drop-arm. The drop arm has 30mm of travel and is spring-loaded to help keep the guide in the slot. This, along with the torquey motor and suspension, allows the Hummer to deal with all sorts of rough terrain and obstacles. The Hummer has no magnet, but there is a mount for a Ninco-style button magnet on the drop-arm.

But I'm not convinced that this chassis works as well as it could. The rear 'dampers' don't really do anything - they're mounted at an angle that restricts their movement, the lower damper mount just slides along the axle and the dampers are loose in the top mounts. The result is that the dampers move around on their mounts, but rarely actually compress, so any movement of the axle is basically uncontrolled. Both axles move not only vertically but backwards and forwards too. This means that the axles can twist in the chassis, so the wheels aren't always pointing in the same direction as the car! It's only a small angle of movement, but I'm not sure it's a good idea, especially at the rear because of the effect on the gear mesh. 

A couple of photos show the Hummer tackling some makeshift obstacles. In each case the car still had power and could be driven away!!

On the track the Hummer is impressively fast for such a big vehicle. It accelerates well and the brakes are reasonably strong. 

The H1 corners surprisingly well, but it's not going to worry your LMP or GT cars. The car's bulk is of course a factor, but also the tyres seem hard and grip is rather limited. You notice it most in corners, the Hummer does 'sideways' very well! But even in a straight line if you accelerate hard you can see the car twitch and shimmy as it fights for grip. Lightly sanding the rear tyres helped a little. I also added some weight to the drop arm and removed the spring from the guide to get the guide seated better in the slot. 

My track isn't set up for raid, so it was a case of making temporary obstacles to put in the Hummer's path. Tyres, tools, bits of wood, my fingers(!) whatever I could find. Tackling things at speed unsurprisingly bounced the car out of the slot, but at low to medium speeds it dealt with just about everything. Grip was the only limitation - some things I used were too smooth and the Hummer just spun its wheels. But wherever it could get any grip the H1 powered its way up, over or through! 

I hope this all doesn't sound too negative. The PowerSlot Hummer is without doubt an impressive model - it's big, it's tough, and the performance is certainly adequate. It's fun to drive, especially when you throw a few obstacles in the way, and of course PowerSlot are the only company to produce the Hummer H1.

PS: Ninco have also announced a Hummer, the H2 version, which will hopefully be available before Christmas.

Important News: PowerSlot have announced that there is a fault with the tyres on their Hummer models, and that free replacement tyres will be available in January 2008. Contact your dealer for more details. Good news and excellent customer service!

	Many thanks to Pendle Slot Racing  for supplying the review model

Bigger pics in the Gallery