New Teamslot Quattro

As we say farewell to the class for another year, anyone feeling the need for a new ’80s rally car could probably do a lot worse than the new Teamslot Quattro, which is packing more than a smart new livery on its return.

For years Teamslot got by making resin-bodied rally cars that nobody else did, then they produced the Lancia Stratos in plastic-bodied form and a lot of slotters took notice. They were always fairly wild, with the mighty long can motor that made Ninco’s efforts look a bit puny, and needed a lot of fettling to run smooth and true. But today’s Teamslot models are much closer to the top of the field in terms of performance.

Recent releases like the Alpine-Renault have consistently been at the top of the table in the classic rally classes at Farnham and in open competition. There is now a new chassis design with podded motor that debuted on the most recent Renault 5 Turbo and which has now been applied to the Quattro, along with the following enhanced parts:

Plastic Crown with Aluminium Insert.

HRC60 Steel Axle – 0.002

Rear Aluminium Rims

The Quattro has belt-driven 4WD and this helps to tame the mad motor to a degree. I finished third in 80s on Slot Rally GB at Scale Models using the original Quattro, and if this one is a bit smoother and better balanced out of the box it should have serious potential.

The most obvious question is whether it is an OSC Peugeot tamer. At the moment the Peugeot is clearly the car to beat. Certainly the Quattro will have a lot more get-up-and-go… but most of the ’80s cars do – the Peugeot makes up all its time in the corners. At less than half the price, though, the Audi could well be worth investigating: it’ll certainly blow the doors off any other Quattro on the market.