Looking to complete my stable of 'Regulation' rally cars with this Modern example... 

Where I am... 
   


Where I hope to get to... 
   



Just got to paint and add water slide decals. Things I've not done for 45 years!

   

This year's 24 Hours of Spa takes place this weekend and all the important info - plus live coverage - is on the official website: https://www.totalenergies24hours.com/

As part of the GT World Challenge Europe series, the 58-car entry list features all the best GT3 teams and drivers from Europe and a few more from further afield.

   

The schedule started today with a test session for the Bronze-graded drivers - Rob Collard was driving the RAM Racing AMG GT3 (above). The four classes are all based on driver classifications - Pro, Silver Cup, Pro-Am and Am Cup. All you need to know about the event is here: https://www.totalenergies24hours.com/new...urs-of-spa

The weekend's action begins properly on Thursday with qualifying and night practice. Friday sees the super-pole knock-out at 7:50pm local time - and the race starts at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. Live coverage will be on the website, The GT World YouTube Channel and on Facebook.

Here's a  preview...




I'll be cheering on the RAM Racing quartet of Ricky and Rob Collard, Sam De Haan and Fabian Schiller. They are posting news and pics on the RAM Racing Facebook page.

Full write up here: https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-euro...dium/44465

   

A competitive offshoot of the fabulous 'Triumph TR7 Refurbs' thread here, the first TR7 proxy will take place over the weekend of 20, 21 & 22 August 2021. Let's see what those Leyland legends can do!

1. Rules & Regs. Are very simple, as per Alan's suggestions here...

• Scalextric or George Turner TR7 body. No chopping the roof off (ie making it into a cabrio) 
  
• 58mm max width
  
• Any chassis and side skirts from any material
  
• Any weight can be added internally to the car
  
• Any interior - but there must be an interior with a discernable driver with full head/helmet
  
• Four wheels are mandatory, all four with face detail or inserts
  
• No traction magnets
  
• No rare earth motor magnets
  
• Car must have transparent windows 
  
• Suspension is permitted 
  
• Guide must not protrude beyond the front of the car when viewed from above.
  

2. The format. Cars will face three tests...

• Driving test: Pavilion Ice Rink (routed foamboard)
  
• Stability test: Scalextric Sport skid pan
  
• Climbing test: Scalextric Sport hillclimb
  

'Best in Show' will be voted for by forum members.

I shall be the 'Racemaster' and - as such - don't have a TR7 in this race. With a bit of luck, there will be some live coverage of at least some of the action. All coverage will be shared on this SlotRacer Online thread.

3. How to enter. Send me a private message or add a reply below. One TR7 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.

4. Sending cars. Aim for your cars to arrive in Brighton by Wednesday 18 August,  so they can be quarantined, registered, scrutineered and photographed. Please also pack in a small box - max height 16cm - so they can be posted in a parcel box. This event is designed to be Covid-safe. Overseas entrants must talk to me about customs forms on their parcels to avoid any unnecessary fees.

5. Prizes. All participants will receive a commemorative sticker, plus the first 15 to sign up get a Scalextric body for another Leyland legend - the MG Metro. There'll be a SlotRacer Proxy sticker too. Winners will receive something to remember their triumphant exploits.

Entries: TR7 Proxy - August 2021

1. Gpa113 - received
2. OXO cube - received
3. BARacer - received
4. AdeC
5. 964rh - received
6. Nonfractal - received
7. classicchrisk - received
8. Graham - received

Reports: TR7 Proxy

Presentation - 5pm Thursday - click here
Test One - 7.30pm Friday - click here
Test Two - 10am Saturday - click here
Test Three - 5pm Sunday - click here
Final Results - 6pm Sunday - click here

The track room I have available is not ideal with the leaning „walls“. I have tried to make the best out of it.
It is impossible to catch the track in one shot.I  wish I had a Spiderman outfit! You will have to merge these three together yourself.

           

The plan might be helpful. Red marked pieces are banked. The long straight is almost 4m, total length is around 19m, it is Carerra track.

   


I did plan the track design for a long time, testing this and that. I wanted it to have some flow and as much variation as possible.
I have left out many R1-curves and used R2,3 and 4 in different combinations. It features a nice S-curve, fun to drive in both directions.

I intend to keep it basic, with no lighting, no interior detailing, no static grass. It must be easily vacuum-cleaned, there are dusty activities in this house.
A lot of landscaping is to be done outside the track. The strip beside the short start/finish straight will be widened to store a small pit stop.
The concept for scenery is a small, low-profiled local racetrack that has seen better days. I'm hoping this will match my scratch-built wooden cars, mostly from the '50s and '60s.
No grandstands or huge crowds, only a few spectators.

I have started making some buildings and scenic objects using simple materials, mainly cardboard and other things I have at hand, to suit the concept.

       

       

       

More pics soon.

Btw: „Nya Racerbanan“ means of course The New Racetrack, but I'm sure you knew that all along!
A glamorous track must have a fancy name...

Carver

       
      
PCS-B017 Brabham Herald Coupé Road Car - 1/32 scale slot car kit. £32 - Available here.
PCS-B018 Brabham Herald Coupé Road / Rally Car - 1/32 scale slot car kit. £35 - Available here.

       

Available now from Pendle Slot Racing are two slightly different Triumph Herald Coupé slot car kits. Originally produced by Traffic Models, the rights have been purchased and the body has been substantially lightened and modified to fit the PCS 32 chassis. The PCS Brabham Herald Coupé is available as a body only kit or a complete kit.

       

The Herald was styled by Giovanni Michelotti, giving Standard-Triumph an immediate head-turner in the highly-competitive small car market of the late 1950s. A road test report of the new Coupé in July 1959's Motorsport was extremely positive - "Splendid road-holding and cornering, ideal driving position, fantastic manoeuvrability and an 80 m.p.h. maximum speed are outstanding features of this brilliant new Coventry-built small car."

       

With the Mini Cooper S and Lotus Cortina on the market, the Herald was begging for a power upgrade. Enter Jack Brabham... As the November 1960 issue of Sporting Motorist reported "Away from the circuits Jack is a Standard-Triumph dealer at his garage in Hook Road, Chessington, Surrey, and soon after the announcement of the Triumph Herald he hit upon the idea of fitting a 1216cc Climax engine in a Herald coupe for his own use. The results were so successful he has now decided to put his conversion on the market." For an extra £345.00 on top of the basic price, you could order a Jack Brabham Herald Climax. With the 1220cc, 83bhp Climax, the Coupé could muster 0-60 mph in 10.8 secs and top speed 102.2mph.

       

The Brabham Herald Climax - and other similarly upgraded Coupés - were popular road, race and rally cars. In 1959, motor trader Ian "Tiny" Lewis worked closely with Triumph's Ken Richardson to turn one of the first Heralds manufactured into a modest, yet instantly successful rally car. "Tiny" Lewis and Tony Nash pushed the little Herald through 2400 gruelling miles to win a prestigious Coupe des Alpes and take third in class and ninth overall on that year's Alpine Rally. Nine Heralds entered the Monte Carlo Rally in 1960, four of them finishing. Probably the pinnacle of the Herald's motorsport career was an overall win on the 1961 Tulip Rally, driven by Geoff Mabbs and Leslie Griffiths. The privately-entered car - albeit with full factory support - benefited from a new points system favouring the small Herald running in a class with little competition. Nonetheless, it was a famous victory celebrated at the Standard Triumph rally department in Allesley. The #121 car was painted in the characteristic red and white seen on the built PCS model.

       

The PCS Herald Coupé is designed to fit the PCS32 chassis and can be supplied with the full components required to build a working slot car. There are two option for the basic body kit - one road car only and the other with extras to build a rally car...

       

The full kits - costing an additional £30 - include aluminium hubs and a choice of three wheel inserts...

       

The PCS Brabham Herald Coupé kits are available now from Pendle Slot Racing. Many thanks to Neil at Pendles for sending us the pictures of the two built and finished cars.

   

We've been keeping an eye on the range of alloy wheels produced by Staffs Slot Cars UK (see here). They come in a variety of styles and colours - designed to look sensational without the need for inserts. Although the images of the bare wheels look cool, they look best fitted to a car - in this case modelled by the SCX version of Ken Block's WRC Fiesta...

   

   

   

   

   

   

These are the new 'Classic' model of wheels, available as 15.8 x 8.5mm hubs at Pendles here.

Coming soon are white and pastel blue versions of the popular 5-spoke wheels - in both 15.8 x 8.5mm standard and 15.8 x 10mm air hubs...

   

       

All the Staffs wheels - plus a range of slot car tools, bearings and screws - are available at Pendle Slot Racing: https://www.pendleslotracing.co.uk/brand...-cars.html


A big thanks to Steve at Staffs Slot Cars UK for the images.

Hello everybody,
I just watched a YouTube video that included a segment on removing tampo printing from a model railway locomotive. The medium used is the above "Airbrush Flow Improver".  It looked really effective and without harming the plastic body.
Essentially it is a type of paint thinner and is sold in that context.

Would like to hear from anyone who has tried this on a slot-car body.

Leo

A while back I ordered motors from China, including one that was 6-12 volt, high revving and small. 

Issue was diameter of armature shaft. 1mm .  Where to get pinions. 

Alexis very kindly offered to print some for me. They are awesome and with some widening of the hole they fitted perfectly. 

Many thanks!!

   

   

Now I need to organise motor mounts.

   

SCX U10397 Ford Escort Cosworth 'Ken Block'. RRP £42.50. Expected late August

SCX have just released these photographs showing a pre-production sample of the Ken Block Cossie. The official word is the cars will be available in Spain at the end of August, although we'll probably have to wait a few weeks after that for them to arrive in the UK. The Escort is the first 2021 SCX model to break cover - and their social media platforms have been very quiet about any new stuff - so this is good news...

       

The Escort Cosworth is a very popular model, so this is a great choice. The livery looks sharp, although some of the white overprints are showing the patterns underneath. The latest SCX configuration isn't 4WD - the front is taken up by the 'Advance' digital socket - and there's a Mabuchi S-can rather than the much admired RX motors. Neither will be too much concern to the Ford fans who will snap up these cars.

   

This is Block's second Cossie - the first one burned out in 2018. Again, this has been developed from a 1991 Group A Ford Escort Cosworth - and still has the original engine installed...



The Ken Block livery won't thrill the rally purists, but Block's 'Cossie v2' has competed in numerous rallies over the past couple of years - including the 2020 WRC Rally Mexico. In this DirtFish interview Block explains why that particular outing didn't last long - and then describes his love for the car...



You can watch plenty more of the Escort Cosworth in a full 40 episode 'Ken Block's Cossie World Tour' series here: https://www.hoonigan.com/blogs/shows/ken...world-tour

Block has switched to Subaru for his 2021 American Rally Association (ARA) campaign, but the Cossie will be driven by 16-year-old Jax Redline.

The SCX model is available for pre-order now at Pendle Slot Racing and Top Slots & Trains. Hopefully SCX distributor Gaugemaster have plenty on order, because I think this one is going to sell very well in the UK.