Toronto has a highway going through it called the 401 - Trans-Canada Highway. It has 6 lanes going east, and 6-lanes going west. I bought this bumper sticker for certain drivers that cut everyone off, etc. Then took into consideration how I might talk my way out of a speeding ticket with this on my bumper. So it never made it on the car. The 1992 Chevy Cavalier wagon is long gone. But the bumper sticker lives on.

   

So today in my infinite wisdom while working on the track, I broke all of the alignment tabs off of the center joint of a left switch. Since I am cheap, I decided to try to repair the switch. I 3d printed 4 alignment tabs and a drill guide to be able to accurately drill the track to be able to install the tabs. I attached the tabs with 2- 2.5mm x 10mm hex bolts. Here are some pics of the repaired switch. 

   
   

I think this turned out pretty well.

 I also learned something that I probably should have known already about Carrera track. The little spring clips that connect the rails to one another are a separate piece from the actual rail. The reason I now know this is in the process of snapping the tabs off it also loosened the clips in the rails. So I printed up a 3.5mm x 3.5mm x 15mm piece to install in the clip to tighten them up. With them installed when the track pieces are assembled the rail connections are nice and sung and should have a very good connection. I will be trying these in the spots on the track where I have been having issues and am to lazy to add a power tap. If it works in those spots I might start installing them in all of the track as I have a reason  to take it apart. The pieces I installed in the rails can be seen in the above pics.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Kevin

Link to a youtube video of a test on the Sport World Pacer.  




Analogue Porsche 911 GT3, I would say the car is running at about 95% and you can see it is turning 3.6 second laps.

Needless to say there is a fault with the Sport World Control now, still good fun whilst it lasted.

Baz

I've read sometime back now about running in motors in a mix of water and IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol).

Since I gave this a try some months back I was surprised to see how much garbage came out of the motor, including tyre rubber.

So today I spent quite a few hours cleaning and preparing the track cars ready for the Enduro race in six days. I was even more surprised after the preparation of running the motors in the IPA water bath.

Directions that I've followed are:

Queue up some music tunes, get the coffee happening and settle in for some relaxing work. You can also do this in complete silence.

a. 50% IPAS and 50% water, e.g. a 200ml bottle will be 100ml IPA and 100ml water 50%/50%
b. turn voltage down to 5volts, attach cable, I use alligator clipped cable, simple and quick either clip to the braids or directly to the motor wires, 
c. completely immerse motor in the 50/50 mix IPA/water and turn on the PS and let run for 5minutes at 5volts, randomly, I will give it a spurt of power from 5v-15v which does work, 
d. after 5 minutes remove from the 50/50 IPA/water bath, 
e. place motor still attached above into a 100% IPA bath for 20-60seconds, 
f. remove from the 100% bath, while still connected to PS, I blow the motor out with compressed air (low PSI) turning motor to different sides to allow any excess 100% IPA to drain out, using the air compressor helps as the IPA will evaporate entirely, and Yes, I do have a small portable air compressor in the kitchen cupboard 
g. I place a small drop of Inox MX3 oil to the end bell and pinion end (less is more so use oil sparingly), 
h. during the five minute bath, I get to work on cleaning the chassis and body, 
i. install motor back into chassis, apply oil to bearings (I also use 100% IPA to clean the bearings, axles, bushings etc) grease to the gearing, don't forget some oil on the front axle as well, 
j. put on test bench for five seconds to run oil and grease around bearings, bushings, axles etc, 
k. clean the rear tyres, apply clear nail polish to the front wheels set aside to dry, get to work on next motor and car, 
l. screw body to chassis and onto the next car I go.

A nice relaxing way to spend five hours performing maintenance on the track cars. Remember to check your braids and eyelets, if need be install new braids and make sure the eyelets are pushed firmly in the guide.

The attached image shows the glass jars used for the IPA/water bath and 100% IPA bath. The left is what the 50/50 bath looked like at the end, around the top near the lid you can the scum mark (oil, rubber, dirt etc) and at the top of the jar near the bulge you can see more garbage that came out of the motors, the jar on the right is what the 50/50 bath looks like fresh ready to go for next time.

   
Left 50%/50% IPA / water at end of cleaning motors while Right is fresh 50%/50% IPA/water ready for next clean

         

Racer Sideways SW72 BMW 320 GR.5 No.50 Le Mans 1977 - Roy Lichtenstein Art Car. RRP £74.94. Available now

The BMW Art Car Project was an incredible mix of brutish saloon cars and high culture. Begun by auctioneer and gentleman driver Hervé Poulain, the first two cars were 3.0 CSLs - decorated by American artists Alexander Calder (1975) and Frank Stella (1976). The third Art Car is this one - a Group 5 BMW 320 - designed by Pop Art legend Roy Lichtenstein, presented at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and then driven by Poulain and Marcel Mignot to ninth place (second in the IMSA class) at the 1977 Le Mans 24 hours...

       

"I pondered on it for a long time and put as much into it as I possibly could" said Lichtenstein of his Art Car design. "I wanted the lines I painted to be a depiction the road showing the car where to go. The design also shows the countryside through which the car has travelled. One could call it an enumeration of everything a car experiences – only that this car reflects all of these things before actually having been on a road."

       

Looking at the design, it's easy to see the lines of the passing landscape and the sun rising or setting. The Ben-Day dots are a hallmark of Lichtenstein's Pop Art creations of the 1960s, where he exaggerates the artwork of comic strips - derived from the traditional twentieth century technique of  printing drawings and photographs in newspapers. Here's Lichtenstein's car up close in a German documentary...



The Sideways model is a faithful reproduction of the Art Car and is a ready-to-race performance slot car...

       


Ready for Classic Group 5 competition, the BMW is fitted with quality Slot.it racing parts - including aluminium rear wheels, adjustable front axle ride height and a five point motor mount.

The Racer Sideways BMW 320 Roy Lichtenstein Art Car is available now. Thanks to Racer Slot Cars for the photographs.

   

   

PCS-B016 Citroën 2CV Van Kit - 1/32 scale slot car kit. RRP £35.00. Available now from Pendle Slot Racing here

This wonderful new kit from Pendle Slot Racing's resin kit range is taken from an original master by Nicolas Bortfeldt and adapted to fit the PCS 32 chassis. It is a beautiful model of the Citroën 2CV Mini-Van, of which 1.25 million were produced in various guises between 1951 and 1978...

   

The original 2CV AU, which is modelled here, was unusual at the time for a delivery van as it was front-wheel-drive. It shared the same reputation as the 2CV for reliability and versatility and became a ubiquitous sight in France, its colonies and neighbouring countries. The PCS kit will be ideal as a slot car or a static model on many different layouts. These fabulous pictures are of a kit built and decorated by Dave Wisdom as a standard van...

       

       

       

The kit has been adapted to utilise the PCS adjustable chassis and is available either as a body kit or a full kit with chassis and running gear...

   
Kit Option 1 (Body Kit) £35.00
Just the Body Kit.

Unpainted 1/32 lightweight precision resin body
Unpainted front bumper resin
Lexan windscreen
Lexan interior
Driver resin head
Headlamps
Headlamp bracket
PCS headlight lenses

Dimensions
Bodyshell weight: 32g
Body wheelbase: 82mm
Body length: 116mm
Body width: 50mm

   
Kit Option 2 (Complete Kit) £65.00
Body Kit and all the parts to assemble into a complete slot car.

Unpainted 1/32 lightweight precision resin body
Unpainted front bumper resin
Lexan windscreen
Lexan interior
Driver resin head
Headlamps
Headlamp bracket
PCS headlight lenses
PCS 32 chassis
PCS aluminium wheels PCS-3216145
Wheel inserts
Tyres
Gear and Pinion
S-Can motor
Bearings
Axles
Guide
Motor wire
Screws

A very big thanks to Sean at Pendles for sending us the details of this new kit and the awesome pictures of Dave's finished model. The kit is available from Pendles here.

   

   

Scalextric C1421M Scalextric Drift 360 Race Set. RRP £129.99. Scheduled May/June 2021

Arriving very soon is the re-launch of Scalextric's popular Drift 360 system. We haven't seen a drift set in the catalogue since 2011 with the Nissan GT-R Drift Kings and Drift 360 sets. Although a bit of a fun 'outlier' from traditional Scalextric fare, second-hand drift sets were much sought after during the Covid lockdown last year, so this new release is well-timed...



The set isn't a spur-of-the-moment release. The Mustang GT4 was designed with both standard and Drift 360 underpan options. I am a big fan of the Mustang - it's a really fun Scalextric car to drive, with plenty of oversteer, but reassuringly stable. The Drift underpan is similar, but has a 360-degree guide fitted (with the necessary electronics to make that work) and the traction magnet is moved forward of the motor for some - but not much - downforce. The rear tyres are relatively low grip too - all-round a great platform for a drift slot car.

   

The liveries are also pretty cool - a long way away from the rather plain drift cars of ten years ago. Drifting as a sport has evolved since then and big sponsorship has come into play. The two Scalextric Mustangs feature fictional liveries, but the sponsors are real - an interesting move by Scalextric that gives the cars a serious, authentic look compared with the fun of the made-up sponsors on some of the recent set cars and low-price individual models. I understand the Mustangs will have the typical blacked-out set car windows and no lights, which always disappoints me a little...

As you can see from the video, the figure of eight track is fitted with grey borders and the new-style powerbase has been set back from the track - new tooling to update the Drift 360 sets. The recently-updated analogue controllers are included, using the ARC-style handle and featuring a four-position power-limiting switch. In my opinion, it's the best analogue controller Scalextric have produced for a very long time.

With a price point of £117 - £130, this a good value stand-alone set that will serve as an entry-point to Scalextric or be an additional track for Drift fans. Especially with those lovely Mustangs, I'm tempted.


The Scalextric Drift 360 set will be available any week now and is available for pre-order at all your regular Scalextric retailers.

Thanks to the Scalextric team for great video and additional information about this set.

Hey all, I am thinking about setting up a 1/32 1/8th mile drag strip. Where can I go to find out all the things I will need and the info to set everything up. Length, run off, lights, all of it.

Thanks

Hi. Trying to gain some room under the body. There is only one connection for the taillights, there are two for the headlights. Do I need both? Can I clip one off? Does it matter which one if yes?

Thanks!


   

To Track Call (TC) / Yellow Flag (YF) during racing or not?

I've never given this any thought as my track came with the Track Call Button therefor I thought it was a natural part of racing and this is utilised in two tracks in our group, therefor I have learnt and been taught to use this by the veterans in the small group I am in, however recently I've found out that this is a contentious topic/issue.

I hand it over to you for a friendly discussion, not looking for cranky debates or nasty comments, just an interesting discussion about this and if you do or don't utilise this on your home or commercial track and how you do or don't utilise this during your race meets.


What do you utilise on your tracks and race events?
All four tracks we race on, we utilise Race Coordinator (RC) and the Track Call / Yellow Flag feature (on the 4-lane tracks more so) to pause the racing when a car deslots, which are getting fewer every week as us rookies learn to race correctly, well some weeks there are less but some weeks it seems we just go out to cause chaos 

Our small group is extremely lucky, we have two small 2-Lane tracks very similar to each other and two large 4-Lane tracks much different, each week we rotate the racing on the tracks, we race small, large, small, large.

We don't always utilise the TCB when a car deslots, if the car deslots in front of us and we can reslot it fast without interrupting the racing then we do, even on the 4LT's we do this, so the TCB doesn't need to be used all the time, though the TCB can save a pileup collision of four cars, that has occurred a handful of times and is rare to happen, this is where the TCB comes into play.

We currently have six people in our group and at times we may have four, five or six (full attendance) racers, so this dictates some weeks where and how we race. There have been many weeks where we ran on the two small tracks due to only having four people in attendance, two racing and two marshals.

On the 4-lane tracks we can and do race with a minimum of five, we do this by knocking one lane out of the four (feature of RC, thanks Dave) giving us three racing, two marshals and Track Call button.
With a full attendance we race four lanes with two marshals. Having and utilising the Track Call buttons on the 4-lane tracks is absolutely crucial, my track there is a 2 second delay (adjustable) from the time the track call button is pressed to the time the track power is cut, this delay is your penalty for deslotting, this 2 second delay is enough where you can gain a lap under yellow by coasting under the S/F gantry or at least make a considerable distance on the track, especially on straights.

I agree deslotting can be frustrating for the veterans but we all have to learn somewhere and somehow, even the veterans had to learn to race somewhere and somehow. I think I have personally come a long way since really getting into racing scene with our small group, even veterans deslot when they are pushing too hard.

We have, what I would call, veteran racers, two guys and they are in a race with each other, Best Lap Times etc. so they do have each other to race against while us rookies race the four of us, though past few months the rookies have been grabbing the leaderboards and podiums over the veteran racers.

The track call and yellow flag are necessary as they reduce car (and finger) damage especially the faster cars such as Revo's and BRM's, though as in 1:1 racing a yellow flag can and usually does cause more yellow flags. I am aware every race to back off and to not deslot if I can so the veterans can have an uninterrupted race, which they deserve, everyone deserves that also, but this is life and life isn't perfect.

Thank you to the guys (and their partners) for being so welcoming and inviting me into their homes and race group. I know I have come a long way with racing and car repair which would not have been possible without you all and I know that I still have a long way to go.


Cheers for now
Johnno