Montech Nazda 4 190mm Touring shell Review

Its new shell time so lets take a look at the Montech Nazda 4

There are a lot of shells available for Touring car racers in the marketplace at the moment. Shells are one of the most important tuning aids for your car other than Tyres and suspension. The aerodynamic's can really play a large part in determining the handling of your car and can radically change steering and stability.

Montech are new to the UK and now have an official supplier (Schumacher). They are now on to version 4 of their Nazda shell. I was after a new shell to try after my LTC-R was more tape than lexan.

I decided to go for a gamble and try the shell, I like a shell that provides steering and this shell looked suitably aggressive so it wasn't soon before this arrived to my door.

Initial impressions

The shell looked thin, it is made of 0.75 lightweight lexan and to be honest it looked like it. The shell seemed flexible in my hands and I was a little concerned if it wouldn't last. 

The package includes:

• Lightweight lexan shell
• Window masks
• Decals on white vinyl

It doesn't include any fittings for the wing so you will have to use your own screws / bolts. Personally this is not a problem for me as these are usually terrible in most shell kits.

Closer inspection and fitting

The shell was soon painted up, and it looked amazing! I cut it out ready to try out on the race track. When cutting the shell out I was a little concerned again by some parts of the lexan, the cut lines were quite non-descript in places compared to Protoform or Blitz shells.

The shell once fitted does look really handsome, the overall width is thinner than some shells, and the aggressive arches only just cover the wheels. The shell is also very light, even though I have a mild fetish for stickers the painted stickered shell was less than 100g! 

Next up lets see how it handles on the track!

Hitting the track

I was racing at my local club on a tight indoor carpet circuit. Due to the nature of the track you want steering but as it also has quite a lot of switchbacks you want stability to keep the rear in check.

The shell attracted attention, it really does look great sitting there in the pits. So lets take it out for the first race.

I was a little nervous at first as I always am with a new shell, but instantly the car felt good on the corners, although it was rubbing. So I pulled off early and raised the shell a little with my Tamiya Adjustable body posts.(Review here)

For the next race the shell was rubbing less and I was able to carry a lot of speed into the corners and power out early. As my confidence came up I was soon able to really push the car and the shell was ensuring I felt planted, ensuring I was able to be really consistent. The steering was also good, allowing me hit the apex. 

Chasing Woody into the corner

In the end I was lapping really well, I won the final and I was only 2 seconds of FTD with my 17.5 blinky car against the field of 10.5 and 13.5 cars. This is partly down to the small track, but also down to the feel of the car, allowing me to feel relaxed and to carry a lot of corner speed.

As is normal in an evenings racing there was the occasional crash, and the lightweight shell held up well with no splitting or cracks.

Overall

I'm really impressed with this shell, more weeks running will see how the durability stands up, but for now this might replace the LTC-R for me as it seems to give me just a little more stability whilst still providing the steering I like on carpet. Top stuff

You can get the Nazda 4 and other Montech shells from Demon Racing here