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Digest 22
Published by JasonB on May 28, 2023
All the news from week 22. Read all about it!
This week we report on a busy week of Scalextric arrivals, the UKSCF limited edition cars, two new Transits, a new stock car, three new cars from Avant Slot, and three from Revoslot, plus a big feature on Le Mans, the latest events, our photo of the week and the latest videos.
Slot Cars
- Avant Slot Opel Manta 400 The new liveries for the Avant Slot Opel Manta have arrived. Two of the new cars represent Salvador Servià’s cars at the Monte Carlo and Catalunya Rallies of 1984, and the third is Jimmy McRae’s car from the Costa Blanca Rally also in 1984.
- UKSCF Limited Edition Cars For those of you who missed out on the UK Slot Car Festival limited edition cars they are still available from Scale Models and Pendle Slot Racing.
- Pendle F2 Stock Car Pendle Slot Racing unveiled samples of a forthcoming F2 Stock Car kit at the UK Slot Car Festival. The kit will be available as a Slotstox version for racing, or a Modelstox version with extra details for display.
- More Pendle Kits Also previewed by Pendle Slot Racing at UKSCF were a wide range of new kits, which included a Ford Transit Mk1 in race support or Police versions, a Land Rover Series 2, a March 721, an Auto Union, a Mercedes W196 Streamliner, and two updated Penelope Pitlane Lotus 18s.
- Revoslot BMW 2002 Ti Revoslot have announced three new liveries for their BMW 2002 Ti. The first, #692 is a historic racer driven by Bruno Hügli, #48 is Jörg Denzel’s car which raced at Norisring in 1976, and the Jägermeister #45 is the car driven by Helmut Kelleners at Nuremberg in 1974.
The Library
Feature
Le Mans 1923-2023
- With the centenary edition of the greatest endurance race of them all less than a fortnight away, we whet your appetite for the “24 Heures du Mans 2023”, with a look at some Le Mans slot car content, and some history.
- 24 Days of Le Mans The Historic Racing News Facebook page is running an interesting series of short articles on the history of Le Mans, right from the very first race.
- The Mulsanne Straight The signature straight of the world’s greatest race track was held in both reverence and fear by those who faced it. Even cut in three, the Mulsanne Straight still defines Le Mans today. Gary Watkins gets straight to the point.
- The First Le Mans Winners The first Le Mans 24 Hours was held a century ago in 1923, with much of the early success going to French teams who dominated the grid. It would be a short-lived period of superiority however, writes Paul Fearnley.
- Le Mans Tribute Track A brilliantly detailed layout which pays tribute to the Le Mans races of the 1950s and 1960s.
- The Circuit at Le Mans From the pages of Model Car & Track comes a series of track plans for Circuit de la Sarthe.
- Ninco Le Mans Plan A massive recreation of the Le Mans circuit and the story of the 1966 24Hrs of Le Mans.
- MMK 1933 Alfa Romeo Le Mans Winner Going onto the last lap, the superior speed of Nuvolari’s Alfa allowed him to pass on the back straight, only to lose it again under braking at the Mulsanne corner. When Chinetti was baulked by slow traffic coming out of White House it gave Nuvolari a clear run to the flag, to win by just 400 metres.
- Le Mans Miniatures Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa Le Mans 1960 Ferrari dominated Le Mans between ’58 and ’65 – achieving seven victories in eight years. The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa won three – in ’58, ’60 and ’61 – and Le Mans Miniatures’ latest adventure in 1:32 slot car modelling is to recreate those fabulous red cars from the 1960 Le Mans 24 hours.
- NSR Porsche 917k Le Mans 1971 This is a stunning new release from NSR. The original car is low and hugs the ground, with sleek lines and a relatively low rear – to my eye, the NSR model captures that and delivers a highly-competitive car on track.
- Slot.it Ferrari 512M Le Mans 1971 Long-awaited, but most definitely worth waiting for, this is the first Ferrari to appear with Slot.it branding since the original 312PB – and it’s an absolute stunner.
- Le Mans Miniatures Inaltéra Le Mans 1976 French artisan model makers Le Mans Miniatures have just a released a new car to add to a growing 1976 Le Mans 24-hour grid. The Inaltéra was the first car produced by Jean Rondeau to race at Le Mans.
- Team Slot Alpine A310 Le Mans 1978 There have been some very nice Alpines in the Team Slot line-up over the years – mostly rally versions – but this car promises to be a perfect partner to the previous A310 Le Mans GTP release.
- Slot.it Porsche 956C Le Mans 1983 1983 was the height of Porsche’s powers at La Sarthe – the 956 was now a customer car and despite Lancia’s best efforts with their new LC2, Porsches dominated the entry list for Group C and would dominate the race. Slot.it built their reputation with these truly exceptional Group C models – and they still look and perform wonderfully.
- RevoSlot Porsche 911 GT1 Le Mans 1996 The RevoSlot Porsche 911 GT1 model has just been launched with this Le Mans 1996 limited edition twin pack. The two Mobil 1 cars are very sharp and come in a nicely-produced collectors box.
- Racer Sideways Aston Martin Le Mans 2019 The choice of 2019 and Le Mans is a very good one – marking the sixtieth anniversary of Aston Martin’s only overall win at La Sarthe, but the results were not what Aston Martin were hoping for.
Events
- Bury St Edmunds club night 5-10pm – 3rd-Jun-23
- Worthing HO Wednesday – 7th-Jun-23
- Extreme Live! – 11th-Jun-23
- National GT3 – Rockingham – 18th-Jun-23
- Worthing Digital Saturday – 24th-Jun-23
- Bury St Edmunds club night 5-10pm – 1st-Jul-23
- Worthing HO Wednesday – 5th-Jul-23
- National GT3 – Molesey – 9th-Jul-23
- Worthing Digital Wednesday – 19th-Jul-23
- National Digital Championship – Rockingham – 29th-Jul-23
Video
Photo of the Week
SRC Lancia Delta S4 RAC Rally 1985
Photo by Rallyhub
More Issues
Updates
BRM, the Inside Story
May 5, 2023
Calendar
Dec 12, 2022
Clubs
Nov 30, 2022
Lost & Found
Jul 20, 2022
On This Day in History…
| 30-05-1911 | The inaugural Indianapolis 500 was won by Ray Harroun driving a Marmon Wasp for Nordyke & Marmon Company, at an average speed of 74.602 mph (120.060 km/h) |
| 30-05-1930 | Polesitter Billy Arnold takes the lead on lap 3 of the Indianapolis 500 and never gives it up. The total of 198 laps in the lead stands as an all time Indy 500 race record |
| 30-05-1941 |  |
| 30-05-1950 |  From its opening on this day in 1950, Rouen-Les-Essarts was recognized as one of Europe's finest circuits, with modern pits, a wide track, and spectator grandstands. The circuit was closed down in 1994 due to economic and safety reasons, and in 1999 all evidence of the area's racing past was sadly demolished, including grandstands, pits, Armco and track signs. Rouen track plan Rouen posters |
| 30-05-1965 |  |
| 30-05-1966 | Graham Hill the 1962 F1 World Champion wins the Indianapolis 500 after leading for a total of only 10 laps to become the first rookie winner since 1927 |
| 30-05-1967 |  
Ostorero Lotus 38 - Jim Clark - Indianapolis 1967 The Lotus 38 was purpose-built for the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and took Clark to a famous Indy win - the first by a British manufacturer, the first for a British driver and the first for a mid-engined car. A total of eight 38s were built and Team Lotus continued to use them until 1967. The car raced by Clark at the 1967 Indianapolis 500 was chassis 38/7, built in 1966 and raced by Al Unser at the 1966 Indy 500 - the #18 STP car qualified sixteenth, but crashed out on lap 161. Team mate Clark finished second to Graham Hill's Lola, but his team were convinced he'd won. Check out all the details, photos and videos |
| 30-05-1971 |  
NSR Porsche 908/3 1971 Nürburgring 1000Km - Jo Siffert / Pedro Rodriguez This is the JW Automotive car that finished runner-up to the works Martini Racing 908/3 driven by Vic Elford and Gérard Larrousse. The winning car has already been released in a Martini twin-pack by NSR, so this one completes the 1971 Nürburgring podium. The combination of Siffert and Rodriguez - two of the bravest drivers of their era - is also a sombre reflection on an extremely dangerous time in motorsport. Neither would see the end of 1971. Check out all the details, photos and videos. |
| 30-05-1993 | Emerson Fittipaldi passes reigning F1 World Champion Nigel Mansell at the Indianapolis 500 with 16 laps to go for his second race win |
| 31-05-1920 |  |
| 31-05-1965 | Jim Clark became the first foreigner in 49 years to win the Indianapolis 500, and the only driver in history to win the Indy 500 and F1 World Championship in the same year |
| 01-06-1958 | Riverside International Raceway in Southern California opens with three 500-mile races in one weekend. Eddie Gray wins the Crown America 500 for NASCAR Grand National cars |
| 01-06-1969 |  |
Features
BRM, the Inside Story
Published by JasonB on May 5, 2023 in Features, Updates
We have a new and fairly substantial motor racing history section which we’ve added to the site. It could be encapsulated by just three letters, BRM, but in truth the full story would make a decent sized book.
The inspiration for our new section came from a British Racing Motors team mechanic, Dennis ‘Sheriff’ Perkins who worked for the team for well over a decade from the mid 1950s onwards, and who took photos throughout his time with the team.
Of course Perkins wasn’t a professional photographer, he was first and foremost a BRM mechanic. In fact he was so good at his job that he was elected to membership of the BRDC, being proposed by Graham Hill and seconded by Jackie Stewart.
But he took photos of some important motor racing events, and he took his photos from a different angle to the press, or the spectators. He snapped his pics from behind the scenes, from the oil stained pit boxes, from the workshops, or even from the team transporter which he drove across the continent in his slippers.
Through his photos we will tell the story of British Racing Motors, from the disastrous and all too obvious failings in the early days, through to being world champions and one of the most consistently successful teams in Formula One at their peak, before they were brought back down to earth with a bump, as the team declined.
BRM had always set out to match and beat the best in Formula One. To do that, they absolutely insisted that they should build their own engines as well as the chassis. They wanted to take Ferrari’s approach, and when it worked, it really worked, but when it didn’t, it really didn’t.
Nowadays of course, we can expect a netflix documentary for every F1 race, no matter how insignificant. But in those days there were a very limited cohort of press reporters and photographers. So this little treasure trove of photos from the pit lanes and paddocks of the 1950s and 1960s are important.
We’ve tried our best to tell the stories of not just BRM, but of the individual races for which we have photos, many of which have their own fascinating tales to tell.
We’ve tried to tell the story of the BRM drivers and the BRM cars. We’ve used a wide variety of sources for all of the information, including contemporary reports.
We’ve also included slot track plans for every circuit, and a comprehensive list of BRM slot cars.
So there you go, that’s a rough outline of what we’ve got for you, hope you enjoy having a look and a read.
Many thanks to John Perkins, son of Dennis, for his kind permission to use these photos. Many thanks also to Dennis ‘Sheriff’ Perkins himself, not just for his sterling work with BRM, but also for recording his time with the team.