Part 2 The seeds begin to sprout
As mentioned in part 1 no major events were held in 2007/8 but Pendle Slot Racing had a trade stall at the NSCC events and had been very impressed by them so Sean's mind started to turn to organising one himself. In 2009 he put together a one day event at Brooklands Motor Museum in Surrey. Like the NSCC shows it would include trade stands, lots of tracks to race on plus the the superb historic racing surroundings of the museum itself.

16th August 2009 Brooklands Museum Slot Racing Festival
This one included:
Drag Racing strip under Concorde    
Brooklands era scratch built slot race in the historic chequered flag room        
Phil Smith's concours winning Morgan 3 wheeler       

Scalextric hillclimb up the actual Brooklands one            

Lots of other race tracks and attractions.             

The NSCC organised a large swapmeet with the trade stands in the original pit buildings while Pendle's and Scalextric looked after the other attractions.

Totally unexpected though was a phone call from a TV company who were producing a series called Toy Stories. It was going to be presented by BBC Top Gear’s James May with each episode focusing on different toys with a set challenge. They wanted to re-create the original Brooklands circuit on the same day as the Slot Car Festival. In the process of doing this, it would also be the longest ever Scalextric track in the world.

Inevitably the event was a huge success with enormous crowds and Weybridge almost gridlocked with the queue of cars waiting to get in, largely down to the lure of the TV Cameras and James May.


23rd May 2010 Donington Park Slot Car Festival
Things really started to take off in 2010. Mark and Julie of Scale Models had also been present at the previous events and teamed up with Roger Barker to run one at the Donington F1 car museum. It used a similar formula and again was successful in attracting a large crowd around the 2000 mark.
The Scalextric roadshow was again in attendance    
A crowded swapmeet    
Bicycle powered slot cars were a novel addition    
The NSCC had their own marquee        
First appearance of a slot car auction    
Slot Track Scenics with their new fencing kit    
All the attractions of the F1 museum as a bonus    



10th/11th July 2010 Haynes Motor Museum International Model Motor Show
Not strictly a slot car festival and largely forgotten but this was another small step towards the modern UKSF. It covered all forms of model car racing - slots, die-cast, R/C etc at the Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset.

The slot car content consisted of:
A 24 hour team race using 1/24 BRM cars        
A round of the BSCRA National Championship    
A classic retro race
Drag strip
H:O race
Diesel powered rail racing
Swapmeet

Unfortunately, despite support from Pendle and MRE, attendance was very low because Haynes made a major cock up with the date. It clashed with the soccer World Cup Final, the British Grand Prix and, most importantly, the Yeovilton air show very nearby which attracted 40,000 visitors. The surrounding roads were gridlocked and many people just gave up trying to get to the show and went home. Very few photos of this event survive but the August 2010 issue of the NSCC Journal has a small report on it.

8th August 2010 Brooklands Museum Slot Racing Festival
Pendle's returned to Brooklands in 2010 with a similar event to the previous year and even without the lure of James May, the event attracted around 2000 visitors and it was considered a success.
Scalextric in attendance as usual    
Swapmeet as usual       
Diesel rail cars first seen at the Haynes show        
Plenty of tracks to play on                
SCX off road layout    
Pioneer showcase layout    

All photos courtesy of the NSCC who retain the copyright. Further information can be found in back issues of their journal:  September 2009, June 2010 and September 2010.

As 2010 drew to a close most of the elements were now in place for the birth of the full blown UKSF in 2011 which I will cover in part 3.

I've been trawling through hundred of fonts, so far without success. I thought I recognised the script but although I have something close, it ain't exact.
 
If anyone knows what Cummins used or just recognises the font I would be very pleased to know what it is
   

I appreciate that it will have been signwritten but I would expect them to use the company font. Theproblem is finding that as the modern one is very different.

Anyone know a source for a rear crash bar/tail light unit for a Fly Sisu truck, or have a spare to sell please?

Hello all.

Policar track has stainless steel type rails and is therefore difficult to join wiring to with soldering.  This difficulty has long been a challenge for users of Carrera track who want to use club-style controller wiring in lieu of the standard powerbase.  The work-around typically comes in two forms and these work for Policar as well:
1 - Stuff bared wire in underneath the rails
2 - Use DS wiring clips (DS-0092)

Leo

Pictures tell a thousand words:

Bared end folded back on itself - use a substantial thickness of wire
   

Inserted under the rail
   

DS Clip details
   

Recently completed a routed MDF track of Watkins Glen using original engineering drawings when the track was modified in the early 1970's for the US Grand Prix.  All the routed turn radius and elevations are taken directly from the drawings and scaled down to fit my basement space.  I race with the Interstate Home Slot Racing (IHSR) club.

   

Most of mainland Europe usually goes easy during August, making the most of the hot weather and putting on hold all but the most essential work. This has been a strange year, but the August break gives a sense of normality. NSR have just announced some new cars and parts for the early-September return that are definitely worth waiting for...

       

The NSR Formula 86/89 cars have certainly proved very popular, lockdown seeing some fabulous liveries added to the plain shells that were available at the start of the year. A couple of factory-liveried cars have appeared, but these two "Red Italia" models are what many people have been waiting for...

   

Supposedly a generic body design, emulating the style of F1 cars from the mid to late 1980s, these look just like the Ferrari 1/87 that was raced in the '87 and '88 F1 seasons - Michele Alboreto driving the #27 car and Gerhard Berger in the #28.

Like all the NSR 86/89 cars, the internals are truly high performance...

   

The King 21 EVO/3 motor is mounted in the F1 inline motor pod, which has the option of five fixing points. The gear ratio is 10:27. The front of the chassis acts as protection to the front wing. Aluminium F1 wheels all round, with air hubs at the back. The cars are supplied with F1 Supergrips on the rear wheels.

NSR 0164 NSR Formula 86/89 Red Italia #27 RRP £79.95
NSR 0146 NSR Formula 86/89 Red Italia #28 RRP £79.95

There is a full range of NSR Formula 86/89 spares and tune-up parts, including chassis and motor pods in Medium, Soft, Hard and Extra Hard compounds.

New F1 parts available after the summer break are options for the rear wheels...

   

First are the NSR 5027 Aluminium rear 'Spanish' wheels, which are non-air-system hubs.

   

Then there are three compounds of trued F1 tyres fixed on the 5026 F1 air hub. The part numbers are:

• NSR 9047 F1 Trued Rear Race Tyre 19 x 13: 5284 Supergrip on 5026 wheel
  
• NSR 9048 F1 Trued Rear Race Tyre 19 x 13: 5284 Ultragrip on 5026 wheel
  
• NSR 9049 F1 Trued Rear Race Tyre 19 x 13: 5220 Extreme on 5026 wheel
  

The two cars and the spares will be available from Pendle Slot Racing, MRE and other NSR retailers in September.

The UK Slot Car Festival held at Gaydon since 2011 is now a well established annual event but people may not know how it all started so I think it worthwhile to document its origins and history which date back to 2005 when the NSCC put on the UK's first ever large scale show devoted entirely to slot cars at the Toyota HQ in Epsom, Surrey.
Part 1 - In the Beginning

21st/22nd May 2005 - NSCC 25th Anniversary Event
The National Scalextric Collectors Club has been running small scale swapmeets ever since its formation in 1981 but in 2004 it was decided to try and run an ambitious large scale event showcasing all forms of slot cars to celebrate the 25th anniversary which was coming up the following year.

At the time Gareth Jex was in charge of promotions for the club and he was a director of a worldwide exhibitions organiser based in Surrey. He therefore had the experience, resources and contacts to bring the project to fruition. Finding suitable premises at a price the club could afford initially proved difficult but Scott Brownlee (PR executive for Toyota GB) happened to race at the same slot club as Gareth and a conversation between them led to the offer of Toyota's Headquarters in Epsom for two days totally free of charge with the  full support of their in-house staff. Without their invaluable support it is unlikely that the show would have gone ahead.

This was a massive undertaking for a small enthusiasts club and it was a major challenge to transform the building into an event space. Nothing could happen till Toyota closed at 5PM on the Friday and the work had to be completed ready to open the following day. The committee and a small band of helpers under Gareth's direction were working till 2AM Saturday to get it done.

Publicising the show was not easy at that time, even with the help of Toyota's PR department, as t'internet was not as all powerful as it is today. Facebook was restricted to a few college students and the slot forums were still in their infancy. Local press and radio were the main mediums for promotion with Radio 2's Johnny Walker providing a welcome boost. Nevertheless the event was very successful with over 1600 paying visitors and it contained many aspects of the the later events at Gaydon:

• Exhibition displays from the Slot Car manufacturers including:Scalextric, SCX, Ninco, Carrera, Vanquish MG, MRRC, Slot It.        
  

• Slot swapmeet on both days with NSCC members and traders tables
         
  

• Finals of the NSCC International Race Championship on 5 massive tracks    
  Overall winner Mike Thompson from the Rockingham club    
  

• Free to play/race slot car tracks    
  

• NSCC Rally track fastest lap competition    
  

• Real Toyota F1, Rally, GT and Le Mans cars on display    
         
  

• Toyota Sit in F1 Race simulator    
  
• Limited edition event cars    
  

• Excellent facilities with cafe, restaurant    
  

• Preserved double decker bus running between local train station and event    
  

Also included were:

• NSCC Exhibition display of some of the rarest slot cars
  

• Scratch build and kit conversion competition display and racing
  

• The latest Digital tracks displayed in one area
  

• Technical tuning and advice areas
  

23rd/24th September 2006 NSCC Slot Rally GB event
Although the 2005 show was intended to be a one off Gareth was a glutton for punishment and decided to do it again the following year. This time it had a Slot Rally theme and Toyota generously allowed the NSCC to use their headquarters again. Most of the elements were similar to the previous year but, instead of a race competition, a Slot Rally championship was organised with 100 competitors taking part. All told there were 20 rally tracks, 3 public race circuits, 62 trade/charity tables and 3 large manufacturers exhibits.

Overall attendance was slightly down on the previous year but it was another successful show and spawned the National Slot Rally GB Championship which ran at various clubs throughout the UK in subsequent years.

• Rally cars lined up outside the Toyota HQ    
  

• Scale Models giant stand at the swapmeet    
  

• The late, much missed, Derek Cooper shows off his wares    
  

• Display of rally slot cars    
  

• The Giant hillclimb which was originally built for the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The full story of its construction can be found HERE.
         
  

• A slot drag-strip was a new addition    
  
• The first public appearance in the UK of the Ninco Digital system    
  
• A selection of the rally tracks available          
  

• One track even contained a real water splash        
  
• Some familiar faces among the many prize winners                    
  

The NSCC never organised a similar event after these two although they have had a significant presence at all later ones. A further show was briefly discussed in 2007/8 with Gaydon mentioned as a possible venue but Gareth, quite rightly, felt that he had "done his bit for the club" and a suitable replacement could not be found within the ranks so there was nobody with the relevant skills to take the idea forward.There was therefore a complete absence of a major show between 2006 and 2009 but the seed had been sown and I will look at the next phase in part 2 of this thread.


Further information on these first two events can be found in the June 2005 and October 2006 back issues of the NSCC Journal.They were both run on a 'non profit' basis with surplus funds being donated to Toyota's chosen charity, The Children's Trust.  All photos above kindly provided by Gareth who retains the copyright.

Part 2 HERE with a look at subsequent events held at Brooklands and Donington Park.

When we brought you our SlotRacer Online coverage of the big 2020 Scalextric range unveiling in January (here), a fair few of the cars were just 3D rendered images or photographs of the original full size cars. Scalextric have recently given us a glimpse of images of some more production and pre-production models that will be available over the next couple of months...

       

First are the two versions of the new-for-2020 Ford Mustang GT4 - the C4173 Multimatic Motorsports and C4182 RACE Performance cars - both from the 2019 British GT Championship. These are scheduled for release in the autumn.

           

Another brand new GT car will be arriving in the autumn. The C4100 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 is modelled on the car that raced in the 2019 Blancpain GT series. It is the first release on the new Vantage shape - a second TF Sport livery will be out in the winter. The Garage 59 car will also be one of the four cars in the ARC Pro Platinum GT set, which is also scheduled for the autumn. We hope to have some pictures of the set-exclusive AMG GT3 and Bentley Continental soon.

   

A fourth GT release coming soon is the C4151 Castrol-liveried Ford GTE from the 2019 Daytona 24 hours.

And two older Fords that a lot of people are excited about...

       

The Mk3 Capri is one of the stars of the 2020 range. All three cars - the C4101 Stuart Graham racing car, the C4153 Greater Manchester Police car and the green road car in the C4179A Only Fools & Horses twin pack - will be out in the autumn.

   

Another tasty new car is the C4203 James Bond 'No Time to Die' Aston Martin Vantage V8 - due to arrive before you can see the new Bond film. The perfect partner for the  'No Time to Die' DB5.

   

This cheeky Came-1st Ford Sierra RS500 won the 1988 Rallycross Europe Championship, driven by Bjørn Skogstad. The Came-1st logo is original to Skogstad's car and faithfully reproduced by Scalextric on the C4155 model, due this autumn.

   

The C4176 Ford Mustang 302 isn't scheduled for release until the winter, but this image shows that Scalextric have captured Martin Birrane's 1972 British Saloon Car Championship car rather nicely.

   

It's great to see an image of the new Holden Torana A9X - the 3-door hatchback is new tooling for 2020. The C4158 livery is the Bob Morris / John Fitzpatrick car that raced at the 1978 Bathurst 1000. Yet another John Fitzpatrick car from Scalextric  

       

Two of the three 2020 Andrew Jordan cars are coming soon - the C4177 Cortina driven by Howard Donald and Andrew at the 2018 Goodwood Members' Meeting and the C4154 Mini Cooper S prepared by Mike and Andrew for the 2019 Mini Celebration Trophy. Both are scheduled for an autumn release, but don't be surprised if you see the Mini in the next few weeks.

       

There are no images yet of the new BMW 3301 M-Sport cars scheduled for the winter, but the Michael Crees Team Hard VW CC will be available in the autumn and looks rather tempting.

       

The final two pictures from Scalextric are of the C4156 Castrol racing truck - the design team have had fun with another cool fantasy livery on a  super-resistant model. And the C3933 DC Comics VW T1B panel van - the livery on this one is rather different to the design shown at the launch. The truck is scheduled for an autumn release, the VW van not until the winter.

We'll bring you more pictures and details of the remaining 2020 releases when we have them.

Two things....
 
1) I would like one to run in a race in September
2) Why should I have to take out a second mortgage to get one?
 
I mean really......pin guide, fixed pickups, not very accurate, probably not a very good slot car but the organiser of the above race seems to think they are the bees knees so a special race just for some anaemic old Scalex tat! Oh good grief!
 
If anyone has one that isn't their pride and joy or are saving it to pay for their retirement, maybe you could take pity and let me buy it for sensible money - and I don't mean Thunderslot territory

Postage to France!

Another pre- announcement of upcoming releases from Revoslot

The next new RevoSlot F40 1/32 models.

RevoSlot Ferrari F40 Pilot No.34 - Ref : RS0066
RevoSlot Ferrari F40 Shell No.59 - Ref : RS0067
RevoSlot Ferrari F40 Totip No.29 - Ref : RS0068
RevoSlot Ferrari F40 White Kit  -Ref : RS0069

   

Thank you to Neil Hurst from Pendle for the advance notice and pics!

As we get more info and pics - they will be added here.