Peugeot's latest Le Mans racer seems to be quite popular with the various slot car manufacturers, with no less than four making or announcing plans for the French diesel-powered supercar. Scalextric and Avant Slot have both announced the 908 as a future release, the Scalextric cars will undoubtedly look great but I suspect the Avant Slot car will be the racer's choice. Carrera have already released their version, but I prefer the look of this model from SCX.

It really is a nice looking model. The first photos I saw of this car made it look very glossy and toy-like, but I'm glad I didn't let them discourage me. The car is mainly finished in matt black with a gloss white central section. Tampo printing is sharp and clear, though it fades very slightly in one or two places. But overall the finish is very good and you'd need to be looking very closely to spot any defects.

The level of detail is also very good. The numerous open vents, ducts and other aero enhancements are all faithfully and neatly reproduced. The body feels light and semi-flexible, very much a Spirit Dallara or the Avant Slot Audi. 

Some thought has obviously gone into keeping the car looking good - the mirrors are flexible (rubber?) and the rear wing has a surprising amount of flex too. It's quite loosely mounted and feels like it would come off rather than break in an impact. Oddly the aerials are less flexible, but the car is so low and wide even I haven't managed to roll it yet!!

The chassis design with its 'rocking' motor pod is familiar. The guide is a 'quick-fit' type with brass contact strips taking power to the motor and the LED head- and tail-lights. The light circuit is new, with a main circuit board mounted on the chassis and the LEDs on secondary boards mounted in the body. 

The motor is labelled as a RX42B, rated at 19,000 rpm. It drives the rear axle via 9:27 gearing. The rear axle runs in spherical metal bearings which are a good fit on the axle. The front wheels are mounted on stub axles, something I haven't seen on SCX cars before. The wheels turn freely and have a small amount of vertical travel, though not enough to allow them to touch the wheel arches. The magnet is SCX's usual medium strength item, fitted in an adjustable holder. 

Out of the box the Peugeot was, to be honest, noisy and rather slow! I added a drop of oil to each axle bearing and a tiny drop on each motor bearing and put the car back on the track. The improvement was almost immediate, and the car got faster and quieter as it covered more laps.

Racing on my small Scalextric track the Peugeot couldn't quite stay with Scalextric cars with their stronger magnets but it's quick enough and handles well. It seems to slide a little more progressively, with strong-magnet cars it can be a very fine line between 'on the limit' and 'in the scenery'!! These initial runs showed the tyres needed sanding - they seem round but there were definite high spots on the outer edges of the tyres.

On the routed track the Peugeot was fairly good in a straight line but seemed to struggle a little in the corners. I think the motor pod had too much travel allowing the tyres to touch the wheel arches. I found some thin plastic sheet and cut two small pieces to fit between the chassis and the 'arms' of the motor pod (the parts that hold the axle bearings). These pieces weren't glued in, just trapped between the pod and chassis. This seems to have solved the problem, the Peugeot now corners fast and smooth.

The 908 is long, low and wide. The guide is mounted about as far forward as possible, so the car is stable and not twitchy. The tyres offer good grip on my track, and even when the grip runs out the big Peugeot slides controllably and recovers quickly.

It's hard not to be impressed with this car, it looks really good and goes very well with minimal effort on my part! It's relatively light and easily quick enough to be competitive on my routed track. The lights work well, and yes, the lights are still working after a couple of hundred laps! But most of all it's fun to drive, easy to drive quickly and controllable when things don't quite go according to plan! 

SCX prices are usually lower than Scalextric or Carrera, so this is not only a good car but great value too. Hard to go wrong...