Forum
Join the discussion
Welcome
Lost & Found
Absent friends?
Track Plans
All types, sizes & scales
Graphics
Banners & logos
The Chronicle
The history of our hobby
Manual
A guide to slot racing
Library
Magazines & catalogues
ARC Pro Guide
Using the Scalextric app
Grand Prix
The unseen shots
Artomotive
Classic car art
Racing Greens
Britain's airfield tracks
Clubs
Club Directory
Digest 32
Published by woodcote on Aug 8, 2022
Here’s your bite-sized catch-up of the latest slot car and motorsport news…
We have a feast of new releases and pre-production images, a magnificent track build, proxy and club racing updates, plus a fabulous feature about Snetterton – the BTCC is visiting Norfolk next weekend.
Slot Cars
- Velasor Bugatti T13 Box Set This stunning set is now available from artisan slot car manufacturer Velasor. The five-car set features reproduces the Bugatti team that made history by taking the first four places in the 1921 Brescia GP. Also included is the back-up car of Monés Maury.
- RevoSlot Ford Escort Mk1 The first look at the new RevoSlot Ford Escort Mk1 cars. Available for Pre-Order at Pendle Slot Racing are the first three liveries and white kit. Due August/September.
- SRC Porsche 914/6 GT Monte Carlo Rally 1971 This could be your last chance to buy an SRC 914/6 GT slot rally car. The new limited edition run of Björn Waldegård’s 1971 Porsche in ‘night edition’ and ‘Chrono’ spec is only available on the SRC website and will ship on 19th August.
- Avant Slot Mitsubishi Evo X New Releases There’s more sought-after slot rally cars just arrived from Spain. Avant Slot have produced a cracking Red Bull livery, plus another Repsol car from the 2016 Spanish championship – this one driven by Alberto Monarri and Rodrigo Sanjuan to first place at the Rallye La Nucía-Mediterráneo.
- Chevron B16 RS Slot Racing’s Chevron B16 kit has been two years in the making and is sadly, Martin Field’s last ever master. The first livery represents the Levi’s International Racing Team entry in the 1970 Le Mans 24 hour, driven by Julian Vernaeve & Yves Deprez. Other liveries are expected.
- Fly / Gaugemaster Le Mans Collection Three Ford GT40 models have been announced as additions to the Gaugemaster Le Mans Collection series. The #63 and #15 are from 1966 – Dick Holqvist wrecked the silver Scuderia Bear car in practice and the well-known Ford France car retired in the sixteenth hour. The #12 Mike Salmon/Eric Liddell ‘Strathaven’ Mk1 raced in 1968, breaking its gearbox with four hours to go.
- AFX Ford MkIV Le Mans 1967 Just arrived from AFX is this sensational Le Mans winning Ford in 1:64 scale. It’s the second ’67 Le Mans livery, following on from the original Sebring car. HO slot cars don’t come much better than this!
- AutoWorld Pro Stock Tribute Available only from the AutoWorld Store website are a pair of modern 4-Gear Pro Stock dragsters featuring throwback liveries that are tributes to Pro Stock legends – ‘Dyno’ Don Nicholson and Bill ‘Grumpy’ Jenkins. Perfect for any HO scale drag strip.
- Robert Schleicher’s Model Car Racing The latest edition of Robert Schleicher’s Model Car Racing magazine has just been published. With a mix of news, track plans and features, this legendary title is still essential reading for slot car enthusiasts worldwide. You can find out how to read a free trial version in ePilot’s magazine thread.
- DP Slot UOP Shadow DN3 Anthony has a thing for Shadow race cars – and he has shared images of this lovely DN3 kit in the 1:32 scale forum, with a DN2 Can-Am build to follow.
Tracks & Scenery
- Infinity Motorsport Park Ken’s custom track in Toronto is a fantastic, compact layout, and you can follow the whole build in our Tracks & Scenery forum.
- These Slot Car Tracks Are Functional Works of Art Road & Track magazine talk to David Beattie about his company, Slot Mods, and the incredible slot tracks he builds.
- Slot Track Scenics Diorama Rallyhub walks us through another figure-painting masterclass to create a new picnic area for a brand new layout he’s working on. Three Slot Track Scenics kits are used.
Slot Car Racing
- 2022 GT3 Proxy – Round 7 This high-profile international proxy returned to Canada last week – you can catch all the qualifying news, plus full video coverage of the race over in the Proxy Racing forum.
- Extreme Slotting 2022 – Round 2 The Rally-Raid cars have been put through their paces this weekend in the harsh surroundings of Norfolk. You can follow their progress in the event thread.
- Your Club News This week in our ‘Your Club’ forum, there’s the latest race reports from Norwich, New South Wales and Worthing HO slot car clubs.
- Scalextric Margate Race Weekend Looking for something to do next weekend? How about combining a trip to the Kent seaside with some Scalextric racing at the Hornby Visitors Centre! There’s a Formula-E Spark Plug set to be won for the fastest lap time over the two days. The cost is £2.00 per go, per person. No need to book – just turn up and have some fun. There’s also the museum, shop and café to enjoy. More details on the Visitor Centre website.
Feature
Snetterton
- With the best will in the world, we can’t claim that Snetterton has quite the charisma or history of legendary tracks like Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps or the Nürburgring. But since it opened as a circuit in 1953, the Norfolk track has been a popular venue for top level national racing, with headline events for the BTCC, British Superbikes and British GT/F3.
- Snetterton The British Touring Car Championship returns to Snetterton next weekend for rounds 19, 20 & 21 of the championship, with Colin Turkington leading by a slender five points from Tom Ingram, with Ash Sutton just one point further back.
- BTCC Track Plan Obviously we’ve got a Scalextric layout plan for the Snetterton 300. Well, you wouldn’t expect any less, would you?
- BTCC Track Posters We’ve also got BTCC track plan posters, not just of Snetterton, but for all the BTCC tracks, and they’re all free to download in A4, A3, and A2 sizes.
- Model Roads & Racing The July 1964 issue of Model Roads and Racing has an article about Snetterton, plus track plans for Scalectric, Airfix, Wrenn and SRM.
- British Racing Greens But wait, there’s even more, because our section on the airfield circuits of Great Britain has a short history of the track – along with aerial photos highlighting both the original and the modern layouts.
- I think it would be fair to say we’ve got Snetterton covered.
Video
- Keep Off The Grass! Not Snetterton, but Goodwood – and there’s always plenty of little vs large shenanigans in the St Mary’s Trophy. With just over a month until the 2022 Revival, we need no excuse to share this great footage from last year’s event. Tickets are still available – or you’ll be able to watch the weekend unfold via a live stream.
Motorsport
- Nascar at Michigan You can watch the June 1971 race from Michigan in the Carrera Classic Nascar thread – but to find out what happened this weekend, head over to the Nascar YouTube Channel for the highlights.
- Brands Hatch Mini Festival Who doesn’t love a Mini? Brands Hatch hosted pocket-sized racing all day Sunday on the circuit, with huge Mini-themed displays and attractions off it. An event to inspire some 1:32 scale Mini racing at home – or even a new club class!
- Rally Finland In may ways the spiritual home of world rallying, Finland hosted round eight of the 2022 WRC over the weekend. A hugely exciting battle went down to the wire on Sunday afternoon. You can find out what happened – and watch plenty of the highlights – on the WRC website.
- Max Piastri and the F1 Silly Season There might not be any Grand Prix until the end of the month, but F1 has been in spotlight this past week after Sebastian Vettel’s retirement plans triggered an entertaining start to the annual game of musical chairs. Sky F1 journalist Matt Morlidge explains all.
- IndyCar on the Streets of Nashville Enjoy the backdrop of Music City and some eventful street circuit racing in the latest instalment of the 2022 IndyCar season. Six minutes of highlights are waiting for you on the IndyCar YouTube Channel now.
More Issues
Updates
Lost & Found
Jul 20, 2022
Scalextric 2022
Jan 8, 2022
Carrera 2022
Jan 3, 2022
Members’ Tracks
Oct 17, 2021
Latest Threads
Features
Lost & Found
Published by JasonB on Jul 20, 2022 in Features, Slot Cars, Updates
Slot car racing has a fairly long history now, having been around for over 60 years. During that time many manufacturers have come and gone, and many products have been presented, only to disappear.
Of course, some of those manufacturers and products fully deserved to fall by the wayside. But then there were the others that perhaps deserved more, the ones that are fondly remembered, sorely missed, and still collected to this day.
Lost & Found is the story of the enterprises that, with a little good fortune, a fair wind, and following seas, might just have had greater, or more prolonged success. We’ve even included one famous manufacturer from the past, that has bucked the general trend and been successfully relaunched.
Exin STS
STS – Super Track System was an exciting and possibly unique slot car and track system, based on the Paris-Dakar rally, with rough, sand coloured track, and an impressive range of inclines, obstacles, and hazards.
Manufactured by the Spanish Scalextric company Exin from 1985-89, the combination of the smaller scale track and 4×4 cars was unlike any other slot car system before, posing a huge range of unusual challenges, making it great fun to play with.
Victory Industries
Victory Industries, or VIP, may not have been quite the household name that Scalextric became, but the company was at the vanguard of commercial slot car production, beating it’s more famous rival to the basic idea, and going on to make products that many considered to be superior.
It was 1956 when Victory presented their first prototype of a commercially viable slot car set, and it is the journey from those early days, through to being one of the best slot car manufacturers around, which we will be detailing here, with Malcolm Parker’s definitive history.
Maxi Models
The fine detail, finish and exclusivity of a hand built model, plus all the fun of a slot car
If you should Google Maxi-Models today then an awful lot of sites promoting the modelling services of fuller figure ladies will predominate, but delve a little deeper and you should come across some references to a range of slot cars. This is their story…
Vanquish MG
Vanquish surpassed even Fly with the interior detailing and the cars were about as close to a static diecast display piece as a slot car could get. This level of interior detail certainly made them stand out from the competition and that wasn’t all as each car had a fully functional rear differential!
Despite their deficiencies they were a star in the firmament which burned brightly for far too short a time. We take a look at the short lived Spanish manufacturer who produced some very innovative slot cars in their brief period of existence.
Wrenn
G. & R. Wrenn Limited were already well established as a model railway specialist when they turned their attentions to slot cars in 1959.
Their were several totally unique features of the Formula 152 system which they presented to great acclaim at the Brighton Toy Fair in 1960. First, it was produced in the unusually small scale of 1/52, hence the name. Secondly it allowed three cars to be independently controlled on each lane. And finally it allowed cars to actually change lanes.
We’ll point you in the direction of several sources where you can read more.
Policar
In Italy, Policar was the brand which defined slot cars in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, much like Scalextric in the UK. To the general Italian public, a slot car is simply a Policar, and a slot track is still often referred to as a pista Policar.
Policar was the brand name for a range of slot cars and track produced from 1963 to 1993, which has now been resurrected by Slot.it.
So Policar are one brand here that are no longer lost. With Maurizio Ferrari leading the way, and a range of fantastic products on offer, it’s difficult to imagine the company being in safer hands. Just for once in this section, we can say that the future looks bright for this famous old brand.
Members’ Tracks
Published by JasonB on Oct 17, 2021 in Features, Updates
If you are looking for ideas and inspiration for your track build, or if like me, you just like seeing what others have done with their layouts, then perhaps we could guide you towards our Members’ Tracks section.
You’ll find a hand picked showcase of forum members’ tracks there, with details, photos and links to the full forum threads should you wish to see more, ask a question, or make a comment.
Each one of these tracks is fantastic in it’s own right, but when you put them all together, when you see the range and diversity of ideas, and the talent of the makers, I think it makes a fantastic advert for our hobby. If you ever wanted to explain slot car racing to someone, you could do a lot worse than show them these tracks.
Software
Published by JasonB on Jun 27, 2021 in Features, Updates
If you’re feeling a little adventurous, and if you have a modicum of patience, then you might be interested in our retro software packages. They’re all free, and they’re all useful in their own way.
We have a track designer, a slot car inventory, a race management sytem, and even an advanced combination of all three for Scalextric.
Scalextric Sport World
Sport World offers a 3d Scalextric track designer, a comprehensive car library and technical manual, a driver database, and a wide range of race types and features. We’ve got the files for you to recreate the original software CD.
Slot Man
SlotMan, short for Slot Car Manager, is a track designer and track timing software originally developed by Wolfgang Krech. It may be a little outdated but it still does the job, and it also allows editing of track sections to make new pieces, so it’s very flexible.
Lap Timer 2000 & Slot Cars 2000
Gregory Braun may have sadly passed away, but he’s left his legacy in the form of two useful bits of kit…
Lap Timer 2000 is a lightweight and easy to use race management system for home use, and Slot Cars 2000 is a comprehensive slot car inventory. You can check out both for free.
It costs absolutely nothing to check out these applications, and who knows, you might just find one that floats your boat. Just click below to grab your downloads.