Hi all,

Hope to see all of you there

It pees me right off to see 'you have 5 missed calls from 123456789' and not once did they think to leave a text, if you can't be arsed sending a text you're not important enough to call back.

Another phone pain...QUEUES! waiting 25 minutes for someone at my local telecom provider to answer the bloody phone.

A local whinge - TT week petrol price hike

Who knew???


I have always known about the 6 wheel Tyrell, and the 6 wheel Williams.  But I never knew about the 1970 Alfa 33 and Porsche 917.

These photos are credited to Louis Gallianos.

   

   


   


Typical FIA - they promptly changed the rules in 1970, and all development stopped.

So, this one is really driving me round the bend. So, who decreed that every single sentence has to be started with..."So"?

So, I had to turn off the radio the other day because a politician did it for ten minutes non stop in answer to every single question.


Hanging is too good for them.

Good racing throughout the field with tonight's Slot.It cars, several races having all four drivers finishing on the same lap. Nice to welcome back Mark Grieves from his long sojourn in Norway.

I won the C final after quite a tussle with Andy Taylor, just managing to creep ahead in the final few lamps. Mark was third with Kate fourth.

It was me again in the B final. I had to come from the back after an early  mistake, although I had to fight hard to get past Peter and Paul. Ralph was fourth after several offs.

I couldn't repeat that in the A final though trailing by over a lap at the end. Jim stormed away in the lead and was never headed although Terry and Keith fought it out for second.

Next week it's Club Cars.

Jim       25

Terry     23

Keith     21

Ken       20

Peter     19

Paul       18

Ralph      17

Andy        16

Mark         15

Kate         14

Or Biased Broadcasting Corporation.
Not only does it push its own political agenda, scaremonger, and lean so far on the PC scale its embarrassing, but they can't support themselves in this day and age when all other channels manage, junk the licensce scam I say !

When I click on a thread with a recent piost it takes me to the first page.  I then have the option to jump to the next page but not to the end.

Not a problem with most threads BUT recalls popular threads that run to 10 or more pages means a lot of bottom clicking to get to the end.

Can you add an “end” button or even set it so that clicking the thread takes you to the last page?  Otherwise you end up trawling through loads of pages you have already read to get to the newest contribution at the end.

Once some threads get over 20 pages I guess most people won’t bother.  The members new cars thread will easily get massive if other forums are anything to go by.

Or am I missing something?

PS I am viewing this on IOS most of the time.

   

I do enjoy taking slot car racing out to the public, although it can be a bit of a palaver and difficult to give people a taste of what our club racing will be like - should they fancy giving it a go. To take all the club's 4-lane HO or Scalextric digital kit to another venue is not really practical, so it's finding a compromise between something that is too simple or too unwieldy.

The last couple of years, we've done a few trips with the Scalextric ARC Air system (see here) and a small-ish 3 x 8 layout. ARC Air is the analogue-only version of ARC Pro, having almost all the digital-style simulations, lap-timing and the nice wireless throttles. All the track, cars, publicity, tools, tablecloths etc fit in one of the those handy Sports Direct bags and - potentially - can be taken to a venue on the bus.

   

This weekend, we took the ARC Air track to an open day at the High Salvington Windmill, just north of Worthing. The fortnightly open days attract a good crowd, including lots of young families looking for a cheap afternoon out. Our visit was publicised widely and - thankfully - the recent rain held off as we had to set up outside. The wind was too strong for a gazebo - even a professionally erected one - so it was an unusual experience with everything exposed to the elements.

I use a cheap Amazon Fire 7 tablet for these public events, plus the original 'Legacy' version of the ARC app from the Amazon AppStore. I do enjoy playing with the various ARC app simulations and race features (see here), but usually keep it simple for public events. For this weekend, we used a Grand Prix race of 21 laps with the fuel simulation. What this meant is that a stop for fuel was necessary between laps 11 and 13 - failure to stop in time would mean a DNF. There's no time-trialing - each race is a competitive two-car battle and the winner's total race time is recorded.

   

The 20-foot track had a racing crossover curve at each end, making the lanes as equal as possible, but introducing a significant hazard. The Scalextric Mini Coopers had magnets and stock tyres, making them great fun round the little track. No digital chips are necessary - ARC Air is a purely analogue system. I did reduce the Max Power setting in the ARC app to 75%, helping new and younger racers to master the track and have maximum fun. It was still a challenge for better racers - especially mastering the strategy of the simulation - the key to the fastest overall race time was to drive perfectly, avoid any collisions, stop on lap 12 and short-pit by re-fuelling to about 75%. Easier said than done!

The gate was open at 2.30pm and we were busy immediately. With a warm-up, followed by the 21 lap race, we rattled through seven races in the first 30 minutes. The quickest time was 1:36.890 by 12-year-old Alex, just beating five-year-old Charlotte's 1:39.430. Alex was presented with a copy of Slot Car Magazine...

   

The cars and track were probably at their best in the hour between 3 and 4pm - that's when we got most of the best times. During the ten races, three winners got into the 1 minute 20s. Top of the list was 12-year-old Ollie with 1:23.630, followed by 'grown-up' James with 1:23.820 and 19-year-old Charlie with 1:24.430. Ollie got a Slot Car Magazine and was in pole position for taking home the grand prize - a Micro Scalextric Dirt Rally Racers set.

The final hour crammed in fourteen races. I do think the track was losing a bit of grip and no-one got into the 1m 20s. Fastest again was Alex with 1:31.330, ahead of ten-year-old Harry with 1:31.840. After 32 races over the two and a half hours, Ollie was delighted with his prizes - as were his sisters and parents who had also enjoyed their racing...

   

I think ARC Air ticks all the boxes for an event like this - and for a fabulous home track on a table or on the floor. It is simple to set up, reliable, has the wireless throttles and the exciting 'gameplay' that both youngsters and grown-ups get the hang of pretty quickly. Our winners included five, six and seven-year-olds and some of the racers were as young as three. Only a couple of slightly older kids (seven and eight) had more fun crashing the cars than racing them...

We will see if anyone comes along and tries out our club racing - we have a club car team race this Wednesday - but we did hand out plenty of fliers, took a few email addresses and had at least four families tell us they would come along to the club. One mum and son had a good look at our club website, pictures and videos while they enjoyed afternoon tea and cake.

I also suspect Father Christmas will be busy delivering Scalextric sets this year. The 2019 Scalextric catalogue we had on the table was well-browsed by parents. ARC Air seemed to tempt the dads, especially as it will fit into any old Scalextric 'Classic' sets that might be lying around in attics. The addition of a C8222 Sport-to-Classic converter at either end of the powerbase does the job. There's also the new C1403 ARC Air World GT set due out very soon for those starting from scratch.

Morning,

I would like some feedback on a track I’m planing to have permanently set up. 

Most likely I would be me and my kids that are using the track. Scenery is important and so is the flow. Don’t like the “lets put all the track we can fit in the area” thing. 

I have 420cm x 120cm to work with.

I think this could be a great and ongoing thread. Lets show all our detailing - on any aspect of slotcars and if you have a technique, lets show that as well....

Looking forward to this,

This first one is an easy one really. That is thanks to George Turner producing an unbelieveable kit. SO pick out painting does the trick:

Maserati 300S

   

   


Then another masterful kit - the Ferrari 612 Can Am by maxi models. Not a kit to race but awesome to build and potter around the track with....

I added the plug wires by using 25G wire I have and then painting it flat red.

   


   


Back in 2002 I bought some cars from Derek Cooper - upcycled Airfix F1's - and have wanted to do some myself ever since.

In this car, I used the rear suspension from the scaley cooper to increase the rear detail, as well as the exhaust.