The Ultimate Hillclimb?
Goodwood Festival of Speed
In 2006 the NSCC was asked to provide a slot car exhibit for the Toyota stand at that year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. Over a period of four weekends a team of NSCC members led by Gareth Jex built what must surely be one of the largest slot hillclimbs ever constructed.
The finished article was 3mtrs wide, 2.5mtrs deep and 1.8mtrs high. It was constructed in three parts and needed a 7.5 tonne truck to transport it.
The track and timing pieces were Ninco, donated by Peter Binger of the Hobby Company and the cars used were nine Toyota Celica GT rally cars by Topslot. They had their magnets removed and some modifications to the front axle to improve handling, otherwise box stock.
In Action
Around 1000 people had a run up the hill over the three days with prizes for fastest times being awarded on each day. A decent time was in the 25-28 second bracket with the fastest time overall being set by Alan Proud of the Woking slot club at 23.9 seconds.
Conclusion
The Toyota Celicas survived the many inevitable trips to the floor with one stripped pinion the only mechanical breakdown all weekend.
The hillclimb was also used at the Slot Rally event held at Toyota HQ in Epsom later that year and then put into storage. It was never used again and was eventually broken up because we couldn't find anybody with enough space to take it off our hands.