Ninco Lotus Exige GT3

As for the appearance of the Ninco Exige itself, the body shape is not really a problem. In fact, I find it rather charming. However, the wheel and tire dimensions ― along with the track width ― are completely wrong. The tires have an excessively large outer diameter, and the shoulders are too square and too wide, making the compact little Exige look more like a sand buggy.

To improve that, I narrowed both front and rear track widths and lowered the ride height slightly. I think this helped restore at least some of the compact, tightly packed proportions the real car should have.

As for the driving itself, it remains exactly as I described at the beginning: somehow simply uninspiring. I never get the sense that it is on the verge of becoming a truly excellent car, yet the charming bodywork prevents me from giving up on it.

In any case, I believe the real weakness lies in the rear half of the chassis design. In order to reproduce the Exige’s adorable coke-bottle waistline, the chassis width was heavily constrained, leaving virtually no way to secure sufficient rigidity between the motor mount and the rear axle bracket.

On top of that, Ninco’s traditional two-post body mounting system ― one at the front and one at the rear ― is fundamentally unsuitable for proper roll control.

I always think the same thing about body posts: every car should use a four-point mounting system with two posts at the front and two at the rear. Otherwise there is barely any meaningful room for chassis tuning at all.

If I were truly serious about improving the handling, I would probably need to cut away the diffuser at the rear of the chassis and glue it directly to the body, fabricate an entirely new aluminum chassis plate from scratch, and at the very least convert the rear body mounting to a proper two-post arrangement.

But originally, all I really wanted was the chance to tinker with one of Ninco’s charming little Lotus models with their cute, compact proportions.

And really, this tendency is not limited to this particular car. Whenever I come across a slot car whose stock form somehow completely fails to capture the appeal of the real machine, I instinctively feel the urge to tweak it a little and see whether I can bring out the attractiveness that should have been there in the first place.

That is really all there is to it.