I've bought a bunch of cars which I'll list below (along with a brief 'review') - this is roughly the order of purchase.... Bear in mind that the local track is probably considered a 'technical' rather than a 'speed' track - there are several places with hairpins and corners that make cornering ability as important as straight-line speed.
- Nissan 'Xanavi' Skyline (C2910) - This was actually reasonable as a first car. Not the quickest in a straight-line, but reasonable grip. It seemed competitive against an Aston Gulf DBR9 and Maserati MC12, but I wouldn't rate it as a top contender...
- Lamborghini Gallardo (C2810) - These light-weights 'high-impact' cars are quick and very competitive. They are one of the cheapest cars to buy and are usually right up there in terms of racing competition. One car (I ended up buying a second) seemed to have problems after a while with the power leads to the motor being damaged (the Skyline also suffered from this) and the rear tyres also started to get too soft / loose and actually fell off during a race (hence the second purchase). Overall, a great choice for racing...
- Ford GT40 (C2917) - this remains one of my favourite cars that I've probably raced the most with. Very consistent and quick, about the equal of the Gallardo. It is very low (which helps a lot) and reasonably quick straight-line. It's weakness tends to be a light front-end which de-slots if you're too early out of the corners. Watch for the rain of parts when it crashes - headlights, grilles, windows - they'll all fall off ;/
- Chaparral 2F (C2811) - One word - grippy! These aren't the quickest straight-line, but hold oooon around corners - you can go flat through a lot turns other cars fly off at. I suspect I cooked the motor in mine (over-heating motors seem to be an issue in this car) and it just isn't competitive due to a lack of straight-line poke. However a couple of friends have ones with decent (uncooked) motors and they are ridiculously quick. One in particular is a freak that is 2/10ths quicker than anything else I've seen. These are a relatively popular choice for racing (along with the Gallardo and GT40).
- Ford Mustang (C2890) - Awesome. I bought this to compete in the 'Muscle Car' series on the recommendation of a friend. As it turns out, these seem to be the quickest of the Muscle cars (it's virtually a one-make series, nearly everyone uses this model). Pretty decent speed and great cornering - overall a very good, very quick car. The Camaro (C2891) is supposed to also be reasonable (seems fairly comparable when I've seen them), but I suspect is probably not quite as good as the 'Stang.
- Jaguar XKRS - Redline (C2785) - awful. This is a horrific car that I wish I'd never bought. If I ever feel rich enough I'll sacrifice it to make a PlaFit car out of the shell. This car seems to have the widest and hardest tyres I've ever seen on Scalextric. Combine this with a long body and this car spins out at every corner on the way in and way out (if you add power). You can get it round the track, but you have take it slow - very slow.
- Porsche GTR3 (C2665) - smoooooth. This is a really quiet and smooth car. Reasonably quick, but not in the top league. Has pretty good grip but doesn't seem to have the straight-line to match it. This car also seems to suffer from (motor) heat build up. Looks great though, especially with the yellow lights (looked great in a twilight race).
- Seat Leon - the turtle. Grippy, quick in a straight-line and will roll-over and play dead at the first corner. Being relatively tall hurts this car a lot, it just seems to want to roll all the time. To be honest I haven't given it a huge amount of running, the constant rolling at normal speeds (speeds which other cars will happily corner at) just drove me nuts (I got tired of going to collect it).
- Ford Escort (C2920) - zippy but tippy. This one uses a FF style motor (formula 1 inline) and it is faaasssst in a straight-line. Unfortunately it's height and relatively narrow width means that it does tend to roll on the corners. Not as badly as the Leon, but still a little unpredictable. With practice on the right track this could probably be a devastatingly quick little car, but with too many corners things get a little wobbly. And when things do come unstuck, it's a big one.
- Dodge Viper (C3018) - slightly disappointed. I've only just bought this car and it's a little weird. A lot noisier than I expected and doesn't feel super quick. I've seen a few of them run fairly well, so I'll need to have a closer look and see what's going wrong.
Anyway, the top 3 cars (imo) are: GT40, Gallardo and Mustang - with the Chaparral and Porsche possibilities as well.
