Sean at Pendle Slot Racing recently started a thread on Slotforum.com asking for people to give feedback on the new range of motors from Scaleauto, and I was one of the volunteers.

Sean was kind enough to send me a SC09 yellow-can motor, which I've fitted in a Carrera Ferrari 575.

The technical stuff - the motor is rated at 25000rpm @ 12v, draws 0.22amps produces 90gm/cm of torque. 

I had lots of fun playing with car. Oops, I mean 'compiling a detailed comparison'!!

The car has standard wheels, tyres and gears. I've changed the guide for a Ninco one, and removed the sliding mag and polarity switch. My track is Scalextric Sport, standard power supplies, Red Fox 40 ohm controllers.

First of all I timed some laps with the car fitted with the standard motor. On my 18m Sport track I was getting times of 7.5 - 7.6 seconds. A standard Scalextric Viper laps consistently at 7.3 sec. The Carrera car handles quite nicely, but really lacks grunt on the longer straights where the Scalextric car always has an advantage.

I decided not to change the gear ratio because I wanted to see what difference the motor alone makes. I had to trim the end of the armature to clear the circuit board for the lights. 

With the new motor fitted the Ferrari definitely feels livelier. Acceleration seems stronger and it's definitely faster along the straights. The motor doesn't seem to have any sudden power bands, it feels smooth and consistent. Braking seems a little sharper too.

Laptimes dropped, but not massively. Now I'm getting 7.3's and 7.4's, with the occasional 7.2. It seems to stutter slightly in the slower corners, not picking up cleanly from low revs. I will emphasise that it's a slight stutter, but I noticed it because my track has two slow, downhill corners, and I felt like the car was losing time here.

I think I'll try an 8t pinion to try and keep the revs up a little.

The final 'test' was a couple of straight drag races against the Scalextric Viper. The Viper trounced the standard car, so I wanted to see how much difference the SC09 makes. This wasn't very technical, just lining the two cars up at the start of an 8-foot straight and mashing the throttles! But I did it a few times and swapped lanes to try to get some reasonable conclusions.

But the result was the same each time, the Viper by about half a car length. My guess is that the larger rear tyres of the 575 hinder acceleration slightly, just enough for the Viper to get it's nose in front. The other point worth noting was that the 575 stopped quicker than the Viper, so the motor seems to have pretty good braking power.

I tried the car with a 8-tooth pinion, and this seems to really suit it and my track. Laptimes have come down to regular 7.1s and 7.0s and even (once!) 6.9sec.

Part of the improvement is down to me getting more used to a relatively new track, because I'm now getting identical times with the Viper. The cars are now very evenly matched even in a straight line (neck and neck in the drag race now!)

I'm quite impressed with the little yellow beastie. It's made a real difference to the car, which used to be a bit under-powered. Now it's got real zip, without turning it into a twitchy, over-powered rocket.
I'm well pleased with the result - thanks Sean!