The McLaren F1 GTR really needs no introduction. Very successful in its day with a Le Mans win in 1995 (plus 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 13th) it raced in various categories over a ten year period. There are a multitude of 1:1 liveries available which is manna from heaven for slot car companies so the world and his mother have produced various versions. This MR Slotcar incarnation was released a few years ago but is still widely available and a couple of them are currently on offer at a reduced price from Pendles so time to give it a try I thought.

I purchased the Andy Wallace/Derek/Justin Bell, Harrods sponsored one in bright yellow for the simple reason that I have red and yellow lanes on my track and already have the red Revoslot car so potentially a matched pair for racing.

   

Quality control
I don't know if I am Mr Unlucky but almost every car I have bought in recent times, regardless of make, has something wrong with it and this one is no exception. They are usually small things which are easily corrected but it is annoying never the less. With the ever increasing cost of slot cars it really is time that manufacturers paid more attention to quality control.

On this one the front axle had too much up and down movement which meant the wheels jammed in the arches and refused to rotate. This is easily adjustable but, although the relevant holes are provided, no screws are fitted and the average buyer is unlikely to have a ready supply of M2 grub screws to do the job. Would it really add that much to the overall cost of the product to fit a couple as standard?

Once I had sorted that out, oiled the relevant parts and run it in for a bit, I gave it a quick initial blast and was treated to the worst case of the dreaded 'Ninco hop' I have experienced in many a day. Anything approaching full throttle and the rear end bounced so hard the whole car lifted out of the slot! A full strip down revealed the culprit to be a loose motor fixing screw so it was wobbling about and twisting the chassis when any power was applied. Soon tightened up so back on the track we go, at which point two of the wheel inserts fell out and had to be glued back in!

Performance
Apart from changing the rear tyres for ones more suitable for my wooden track and loosening the body screws I left it completely box stock. Unlike more recent issues which have Slot.It motors this is fitted with a Scaleauto 21,500 rev one which is not one of my favourites. It is a bit of a flat out or nothing motor and this one was worse than most so it took a lot of fiddling with the controller knobs to tame the thing down. Even so, the slightest over ambition with the trigger finger on corner exit meant a violent sideways lurch or a quick trip to the scenery and performance was therefore somewhat erratic.

Ultimate lap speed, on the rare occasions I got everything right, was extremely good. Fastest lap on my 50ft track was a fraction over 5 seconds which is not far off Thunderslot times and 3/10ths quicker than the Revoslot but I couldn't do it with any consistency and lap times varied wildly by over a second. The Revoslot would undoubtedly win a race between the two as it is much more predictable.

Summary
The above does look somewhat negative but I think a change of motor would transform it into a real flyer so I will have a rummage in the spares box for something suitable. It was a wise move to ditch the Scaleauto motor in favour of a Slot.It one for the current Jaguars which are better performers straight out of the box. The price was very much in its favour though, £5 cheaper than the current Scalextric/SCX/Carrera RRP for an upmarket car is not at all bad. Even adding in the price of a replacement motor it is still a good buy.

   

NSR0233SW Porsche 908/3 24h Le Mans 1974 #31 - Escudería Tibidabo. RRP £87.95. Available February 2022.

Due to arrive in the UK this month is the latest livery on NSR's highly-rated Porsche 908/3. Ever since its release in February 2018, the 908/3 has been the fastest of NSR's 'Classic' range of racing slot cars. Just like the real thing, the NSR model is light, nimble and a race winner. NSR have also given us some historically important liveries - from the '70 and '71 works cars, which capably filled in for the mighty 917k on twisty tracks like the Nürburgring and at the Targa Florio, through to the privateer cars of '72 and Escudería Montjuïch's '73 European hillclimb champion. There've been some nice 'fantasy' liveries too - a Sunoco Penske tribute and two Rothmans cars.

       

If I look beyond the rather naff painted-on headlights, I think this latest livery is one of the best on the NSR 908/3. Although the NSR body is very much the non-lighted version, they carried off a suitable compromise with the Escudería Montjuïch '72 Le Mans car by creating what appeared to be foil taped over the headlight lenses - a very common 'look' at an endurance race in the 70s. That fix was certainly good enough for me - and they should have done it with this Escudería Tibidabo car too. However, do try and look beyond those lights...

       

Francisco Torredemer's Escuderia Tibidabo entered the Porsche into the rather depleted 1974 Le Mans 24 hours. A fuel crisis triggered by the previous year's Yom Kippur war had already decimated the motor sport calendar. Nonetheless, this was Le Mans... 81 cars entered, with 49 starting - the most notable absentees being the Autodelta Alfa Romeo squad. The battle for the win would be between Matra and Mirage. The red and white Porsche from Spain was the only 908/3 on the grid - and you see it briefly at around 4m20s in this fantastic 70's film of the event...



Francisco Torredemer was a driver with the Escudería Montjuïch gang - a bunch of young Spanish rich kids who bought and ran exotic machinery to drag Spanish motor sport back onto the European stage. By 1974, their Porsche 908/3 (chassis #013) was extremely long in the tooth. Torredemer bought the car and gave it a final shot at glory. Like Montjuïch, Tibidabo is a hill overlooking Barcelona. Sharing the car with fellow-Spaniard and Montjuïch driver Juan Fernández - plus French-born rally driver Bernard Tramont - Torredemer had to be satisfied with a qualifying time towards the back of the midfield. Then in the race, the #31 908/3 retired after 3 hours with a cooked gearbox. Tramont - who'd come out of retirement for the 24 hours - didn't even get to drive. The team packed up, went home - and that was the last seen of Escudería Tibidabo at an international event...

   

Thanks to NSR for bringing the team back to life - and I am sure there will be long-overdue success on the slot car track.

   

I thought it might be a bit of fun to run a Formula Junior as a Pacer car with Sport World in anticipation of some old school races.

Apologies for the poor quality video but I was driving the Renault and filming the BRM Formula Junior at the same time. The Formula Junior has a small mod to the guide post, it is extended to trigger the optical sensor better.

I think it is pretty neat that a car from a bygone era can still be made to work on a relatively modern system.

Has anyone done a digital conversion on a Formula Junior?

B.

This weekend sees the finale of the globe-trotting Intercontinental GT Challenge - the pinnacle of the SRO GT competition pyramid. The 2021 season is just three races - 24 Hours of Spa, Indianapolis 8 Hour and the Joburg Kyalami 9 Hour. The Bathurst 12 hours was postponed and now opens the 2022 four-race schedule. This weekend is a showdown between Ferrari and Audi for the manufacturers' title - plus five crews are competing for the drivers' championship. The website is here: https://www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com/

Kyalami celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021 - so this weekend carries over festivities into the new year. The race starts at 1pm local time on Saturday and runs through to - you guessed it - 10pm. Joburg is two hours ahead of GMT at the moment, so UK viewers will be watching from 11am to 8pm.

There will be live coverage from qualifying and the race on the GTWorld YouTube Channel, but here's your pitlane preview...



This should be another great GT endurance race

I’ve revived 2 older, but with Sport track, box sets and added a few pieces to make a decent temporary spare room floor circuit. Added a few new cars. 

Now I’m considering going digital with an Arc Pro either via the upgrade kit or a set like the Le Mans 24h. 

It looks like the Arc Pro tech is pretty old and has not been updated. 

What do you know about further development, an Arc Pro 2 perhaps?

Your thoughts about my upgrade plan?

I’ll post photos of the circuit when it’s sorted. 

Gentlemen. WOW. Great news this proxy is now full and a Shoot Out will be necessary as we have hit the limit of 36 entries in less than 24 hours. Of those 36 entries, 26 will be moving forward after our Round 0 Shoot Out. 

The 26 cars with the fastest median times will be moving on to Round 1 of the series. 

Thanks for your interest.

   

The 2022 Spring Speed Nationals wraps up the 2021-22 UK HO Drag Proxy Series - and starts the four-event 2022 schedule. In March, we'll be running all the classes that have competed over the past 12 months. The regulations and format are in the 'UK HO Drag Proxy Series 2021-22 Preview' thread here.

The Track: The Rock County Eighth Mile is a seven-foot timed strip (1/8 mile in true HO scale) made from the new 2019 Micro Scalextric sectional track. Cars must be fitted with braids to run on this track. Power is set at 12 volts and 8 amps across the two lanes. Power to both lanes is triggered by a single switch firing a relay board. Timing is via Trackmate Drag Basic. After the finish line, there is a two-foot shutdown with dynamic braking and a well-padded catch box.

The Format: The events runs over the weekend, with racing through both days, usually with the elimination rounds on the same day as qualifying for each class.

Sending cars: Aim for your cars to arrive in Brighton at least 72 hours before the first day of the event,  so they can be quarantined (if necessary) and then registered for qualifying. Please also pack in a small box (max height 7.5cm if possible) and pay for your postage online so no-one needs to go near a post office. These races are designed to be Covid-safe events that are accessible to everyone and can continue whatever restrictions might be in place. You may - of course - send cars for several races or the full duration of the series  - just let me know.

How to enter: Send me a private message or add a reply below. One car per class may be entered per person. Family members and friends are very welcome to enter too. I will message you with the address to send cars to. You will need to pay for return postage. Otherwise there is no race fee.

Overseas entrants must talk to me about customs forms on their parcels! The recipient (me) will normally be charged 20% of the stated value of the parcel, plus an £8 handling fee. As cars sent to these races are not commercial goods, I need to explain how to alert UK customs to this fact and avoid the fees.

Entries Race #16 - Spring Speed Nationals - 12-13 March 2022

Micro Scalextric Street Stock: Nico, Iain, Kev, Rebecca, Andy, Bill, Jane, Jeremy, Pete, Jerome, Sue, Mary, Anna, Freddie, Clive, Rose (16)

Micro Scalextric Super Stock 6.0: Nico, Iain, Kev, Andy Phi, Rebecca, Andy Pla, Bill, Jane, Jeremy, Pete (10)

NHRA 4-Gear Funny Car, Pro Stock & Pro Mod: Nico, Rebecca, Andy, Iain, Bill, Jerome (6)

NHRA AW Top Fuel: Nico, Rebecca, Andy, Clive, Iain (5)

Nostalgia T-Jet: Nico, Iain, Rebecca, Andy, Bill , Clive (6)

Nostalgia 4-Gear Funny Car: Nico, Iain, Rebecca, Andy, Bill, Kev, Jerome, Rose (8)

Nostalgia Micro Scalextric 2019: Nico, Iain, Kev, Bill, Rebecca, Andy (6)

Nostalgia Magnatraction Pro Stock: Nico, Kev, Andy, Rebecca, Bill, Iain (6)

IFA Match Racing: Kev, Nico & Bill - 3-way match.

If anyone has a floor pan available for the Pro Performance Lola Aston Martin C3193 (Scalextric) please could you message me. Mine recently had a motor mount failure and it really is my favourite car.

If there is an equivalent that will fit then that would be good to know to

Hello slot car friends,

Just a video I made two days ago about Fleischmann. I don't know if you are familiar with this brand in the US / Canada?
In this video I show / tell you the history of the Fleischmann company in a nutshell.

And if it's allowed a little publicity for my friend Peter van der Heijden, owner of "Fleischmannparadijs".
In his webshop you find everything to keep your Fleischmann Slot Car in perfect condition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKVv3KLqI38

Link to his webshop https://www.fleischmannparadijs.nl/  

Can't find any in our area. Seems to be unheard of. Anyone found an easily sourced alternative that works please? 

I used to apply Johnsons Klear and the later 'Future' follow-on with a soft brush and being water thin it would level out and dry glass smooth.