Hi all, long time no post 

Brian managed to track down some NASCAR Truck kits from Slot Wagen and I have been tasked with the building and painting of these.
He thought a little mini build log/review would be nice, so here we go!

Here are the component as supplied in the "full kit" (other options are available).

   

Basically everything required to build a working slot car, or nearly as we shall see in a bit.
I have run through a dry run of the build and already have discovered its a little more work than just assembling the kit.

As you can see we have a podded chassis, giving us an inline configuration.
Unfortunately the pods are not quite the same as Slot.It pods, and TBH if you are not designing a pod with any Special purposes, why would you not make the mounting points the same as one of the leaders in the field ? Maybe its just the way I think. 

Like wise these are inline only, I feel with a little more thought they could have been made to accommodate any of the common trio of motor mount configurations. Again just my opinion but that's what I would have done (I may even be tempted to design and print my own chassis for these, but I digress 

A view showing the slight difference in mounting holes spacing between these and Slot.It pods.

   

Then there is another "quirk". The kit is supplied with a "Mabuchi" style motor, yet the pod supplied is almost designed for a long can NC5 style motor.
I say almost because it would have fitted had they thought about the wiring tabs, you could bend the tabs upright but its not something I would be happy doing. Again it seem odd that you would nearly have the option to use a long can, but for the lack of foresight to tweak the design to allow this. You could makes some cut outs yourself to allow this, but I won't go that route as I am aiming to build the kit as supplied.

   

   

Instead, what we have is some adaptors to make the supplied motor fit. I did need to open out the holes to get the motor shaft through.

   

what a I failed to do is photograph the other side of these adaptors, but you can see the recess one one where a little locating peg is on the other side, both have this peg on the other side. one side of the pod has a slot to accommodate this, meaning the motor can only correctly sit one way.

   

If it had been reversed, the longer motor shaft on the plastic end would have acted as a self centre for the rear axle, but this way does not. This means we have to buy/make spacers or stoppers to keep the rear axle centred. Some may say this is how it should be rather than relying on the motor shaft, but that's another debate.

It does mean we can't complete the kit as supplied. We could grind off the peg  to reverse the motor, and then drill holes so we can secure the motor from twisting under load, but for the purposes of this build I will find or make some spacers in due course.

The supplied bearings are a loose fit in the pod, so will require gluing in. When I prepare a slot car, I would do this anyway so I shouldn't grumble.

The front axle holder has supplied grub screws, holes and slots to enable a height adjustable front axle, but again the slots need opening up as they are a bit tight of the supplied axle.

The supplied guides (one 5.8mm deep and one 7.6mm) also require you to open up the chassis hole to ensure free movement. These are supplied with tinned 0.7mm braids (they seem quite thick when you are used to dealing with 0.2-0.4 braids!).

To fit the body to the chassis, you are given some nuts and bolts. The nuts should be fixed in the body with some adhesive, allowing you to insert the bolts through the chassis - if you could ! The problem is the heads of the bolts are slightly to large to go in the chassis recess. There does look to be enough material that I can use a drill to open these out a little, but again, one would expect supplied fittings to go in without needing to alter anything.

Once this has been addressed, the front of the chassis won't seat fully home because there is a recess that is perhaps 0.5mm at most, and a 1.6mm thick chassis. Rather than grind back the 3DP resin body, I will opt to cut off part of the chassis in this area as it is non structural here.

   

   

The fitment of the front wheels only just has enough clearance to keep the supplied tyres under the aches with very minimal lateral movement, for any club racing rules regarding keeping the tyres inside the arches, you may need to use narrower tyres or slice the supplied ones down a little. As these are for home use they may be ok, assuming that body float and my preferred lateral play does not cause any issue when ride height is set-up. 
Likewise, the rears will probably need a bit of narrowing to sit inside the arches as they do on the real thing.

The full kit supplies some staff "bullet hole" wheels, 15.8 x 10mm rear and 15.8 x 8.5mm front with what looks to be urethane tyres that are approx. 21.3 mm diameter and  just over 12mm wide rear and just over 10mm wide fronts once mounted on the wheels.

To recap, some fettling required. Nothing major but I can't help thinking a lot of it could have been resolved before production. Maybe thats just me, but I would expect it should all fit and work straight out of the box, being an "artisan" product is not an excuse in my book.
Likewise a little more thought with the design could have made the product more versatile for no extra cost.

But at the end of the day, at least we have some NASCAR Trucks to race. 

There will be further updates once I have built the rolling chassis and am happy with that, and further again down the road when I get to painting.

I will leave it to Brian to furnish you with information of where to buy these kits and anything else he wants to add. 

       

Hello chaps!

I recently procured this GMA T.50, for the bargain price of just 29.99 Sterlings.
And it's an absolute *beast* - check it out! 

Just returned from a great weekend of Vintage Slot car racing at the Trelawney Slot Car Club.
A small group of local and "not so local" enthusiasts get together once a year to run these slot cars of the 60's against each other.

I took a selection of my favourite ones with me which is probably the only chance they get to compete.

   

SLOTFORGE TIMING

Right down to business: So, not to get in the way of RaceCoordinator or anything, but I just like having what I want ? I don't really like that 90's look and feel of pretty much all Slotcar Timing apps so I set out to make one with a modern UI, which not only looks good but works intuitively as well. I'm not one to gatekeep and I think the app turned out fine so why not share it.. I think RCAI is more powerful simply because it supports more Timing Hardware and its creator can actually write code. I cannot code, only bug Claude with ideas and things I want. Fuel is pretty simple for example, and I have no clue if the Heat or Round Robin settings work as they should because I don't use those features, I just asked what the AI thought it should be. I just like racing slotcars in my little wooden shed with a few mates chasing fastest laps and because I'm a bit of a tidy nerd who loves data, I'd like it if I had all that information in 1 spot. Hence, a central Database which records all Race Results, linked to a driver, car and all lapdata. I've prompted Claude AI to death and told it what I wanted out of a slotcar timing app, while keeping some points you guys raised for RCAI and tried to incorporate those too. Right now, it only works with Trackmate Timing hardware (the latest one with the blue box) because that's the only hardware I have.

If you're interested, you can download it here:
SlotForge Timing App - Direct Download from Google Drive
GitHub - Work in Progress

Key Features of SlotForge Timing:
Fully and extremely customizable Timing Page - Lots of widgets to choose from with lots of customization options on how it it presented on screen.
Powerful Leaderboard Style Editor - linked to a widget but also a live leaderboard page. Saveable as a 'setup', make as many as you want for multiple boards.)
Database for your Tracks, Drivers, Slotcars and Race Results - Extra fields can be added, Race Results can be reviewed and exported to PDF.
The info contained in the PDF can be chosen to your liking.
Race Results and Records Database - Are linked to Driver, Car, Track, and time. Can display more info.
Setting up races of different Session Types with its own rules - Indefinite Free Practice, Qualifying with carry-over results, Race, Round Robin, Heats
Customizable Audio settings - A big list of Audio calls with different {variables}, all Text-to-Speech which whatever you have installed on your computer. Can upload custom audio files. Can add custom Calls and build your own using the {variables}.
Customizable Image Settings - Set standard images for the Race Flags, Start Lights or Fuel States, can be applied per race.
Basic Fuel Settings - Tank size, Fuel consumption, variance of fuel usage linked to laptimes, Pitstop refuel speed. All customizable.
Basic Penalty System - Add Penalty Points, or Special Penalties like a Stop and Go penalty which 'forces' the driver to stop on the sensor for a set amount of time.
Basic Time Token System - Do you sell Track Time on your Racetrack? There's a simple manual system in place for that which all kinds of visual cues.
General App Settings - for a Club Logo or Header Image, custom colours for the whole app look and feel.
Live Race Page / Multiple Screens - Want to connect to the Timing Page, Leaderboard or Driver specific statistics? Connect through localhost or QR-code to land on a landing page with several viewing options. Clicking the Live Race tab opens a second window on your second screen (if present, otherwise on main).
Import and Export of Race Layouts, Widgets, Audio Sets etc 
.. and some more small tidbits

Note: It only works with recent TrackMate Hardware! You can fully test it and use it without running a race though.
Works on Windows, untested on Linux or macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) - Installers are provided though.

Yes, you can rename the app's name top left to whatever you like.
   

Possibilities of building your own Race Timing Page .. I just stuck a bunch of possible widgets in, still, there is more
   

So this is just an example. It doesn't have to have a background image or transparancy, be ordered in this way, and have the widgets where they are or even have those widgets at all.

Everything is easily customizable, scaleable, freely moveable and with a somewhat smart duplication button for the next lane. You can select multiple widgets and hit duplicate which automatically assigns the next lane to them, you can them drag and drop the copied widgets to where you want it.
Horizontally or Vertically, no problem. Magnetically on a grid, to other widgets, or to guidelines both horizontal or vertical, number definabe. Uniform for the whole layout, or per widget override.
Text size, Colour Options for text, widget background (lane color, something you choose, or inherited from the theme), Corner Radius, Transparancy, Screen Background Colour or Image, with Image Effect Sliders.
Widgets taking information from the database, lane, or override per widget, really.. whatever you want.

Sorry for this messy list, there's just so much you can do. This level of customization is also available for Leaderboard Editor and Leaderboard widget, with some nifty sliders to get things displayed exactly on the widget as you want.


Some Screenshots (might be somewhat outdated): (the theme can be changed to presets if you dont like the colors, or make your own.)
                                       


Claude's summary of what this app does:
SlotForge Timing is a Windows (Linux  and macOS soon™, installers included though) app for running slot car races. It counts laps and times, keeps your data, and shows the race on screens.

• Timing: it connects to a Trackmate interface for lap counting. It handles yellow and red flags and track power, and there are simulated cars for testing.
  
• Race types: race, timed race, qualifying and practice, plus heats and round robin with championship points.
  
• Database: drivers (with flags), slot cars with pictures, tracks (lanes, length and speed calculators, lap time limits) and race setups. It also keeps personal bests and track records.
  
• Timing page: you build it yourself from widgets, such as lap time, leaderboard, gaps, fuel and penalty points. You can also design the leaderboard rows.
  
• Rules: penalty points that turn into time, drivethrough and stop-and-go penalties, fuel rules, and a Race Director page. After each race there is a review to correct laps and penalties before anything is saved.
  
• Sound: spoken announcements and sound sets that you can edit.
  
• Live Race: a second-screen window, plus read-only pages for tablets and phones that follow the race.
  
• Paperwork: PDF reports of sessions and of your Racing Rules (formatted text), a full backup and restore, and export and import of single items.
  
• Look: your own app name and Home header picture, ready-made colour themes, and your own custom colours.
  

I got the .ZIP, now what?
Unzip it. There is 'build-windows.bat' file. Run that for a minute or two, (this pulls and builds all the things it need to make this an app. It also does a ton of checks, no clue why, but checks are a good thing though right?), then run the Portable .exe so it doesn't have to install to any folders on your computer. If you do want it installed, go with the other one but portable is easy to just check the app out. It'll ask for local network access because there is an extra, second display which you can connect to through localhost IP (e.g: 192.1.68.85:8080) or QR (the QR code and IP can be printed on A4), if you choose to turn it on. (This is the Live Race tab)

How do I get started?
There are default settings for everything, so you could dive right in by clicking 'Open the Session' on the Home tab. Make sure to setup your TrackMate interface first, under the App Settings tab. Approach the App like you would a physical track. you start out with a track , so add one on Database tab under Tracks.

0. Add Trackmate Timing Interface
1. Add a track under Database, Tracks. You are presented with a bunch of options you can skip for now, only lane number is really necessary. Track length might useful.
2. Then add a Driver and a Slotcar, skip all options.
3. Set up a race under Race Setup. Pick a Session Type. Skip Options, or not.
4. Go back to Home, Pick your race and hit Start Race/Open the Session.

This sets up a basic race. There is a default one in place as well, but this would get you started on customization later on, when you are comfortable with that.


Now, If you like this app great. Missing Hardware interfaces? Tough luck because again, I cannot code, only annoy AI. If you write up a detailed explanation of what's missing or what needs changing I can jam it in the AI and hope it does a good job of what you want. I will only implement things if I think it helps the app's look and feel and usage because I mainly designed this for myself, but it turned out pretty well and I just kept adding features and now it is what it is. Some features might not be fleshed out enough but perhaps one of you has a great idea about how it should work so feel free to let me know. Structural changes to how certain systems within the app work are fairly easy to be honest.


If you're interested, you can download it here:
SlotForge Timing App - Direct Download from Google Drive
GitHub - Work in Progress

Note: It only works with recent TrackMate Hardware!
I think you need to install the TrackMate Driver as well, you do this by installing their own app. People who have used their TrackMate Hardware before and got it working will most likely have this driver installed already.

If you want support for other hardware, I'd suggest dumping the entire folder which contains this app on your own AI agent (I'd suggest Claude, it made this and it's done a great job if you ask me), and see if you can add a page to Timing Hardware tab under 'Other' (I've told Claude to prepare that) and get the software to work with the hardware. I only have the latest TrackMate 2-lane timing system, thus, it's the only one I can add with certainty that it actually works, because I can test it personally. Do you want to help out in getting your hardware to work with this app? Reach out and we'll try to figure it out and get it working!

Feedback? Questions? Yes please! But remember I can only test this with Trackmate Hardware, so if it's about app functionality I can adjust or add things!

It works for me, I hope it works for you :) 

Most Recent App Version: 0.99

This app is FREE - use and abuse it as you like.

   

The fourth running of our WHO Birkett Relay (and third as a full six-hour race) takes place on Saturday 17 October, a week before the real thing.

The real-life Birkett Six Hour Relay is a quirky, but quite magnificent format that has run since 1951. Its current home is Silverstone and is organised by the 750 Motor Club.



The basic idea of the relay is that each team runs several cars during the event - a handicap system meaning a vast array of cars appear on the track at the same time and no-one quite knows who has won until after the chequered flag has fallen.

Our WHO version of the Birkett Relay simplifies things a bit. Over six hours, each team races cars from six different WHO classes - a mix that changes a little each year.

In 2026, we are sticking with these six WHO Digital favourites to make car preparation as easy as possible…

●    WHO BTCC
●    Euro Saloons
●    WHO GT Championship, including Carrera & SCX models
●    Pioneer Legends
●    Whitsun Trophy, plus 1967-69 sports prototypes
●    Slot.it Group C

Teams can run their cars in any order they want - as long as each car runs for the full hour. An important heads-up: the final hour will be run in twilight, with just the up-lighters on.

Each ‘hour’ will be a separate event in the RCS64 software, with a 57-minute race time and a two-minute turn-around when the new car replaces the previous one on the track - exactly where the previous one has stopped.

Birkett Relay Teams from 2025 had first dibs on places for 2026. These were: Gearzilla, Fuller-Beans, Écurie Escargot, Days of Blunder, Maximus Gastropodus and Brake ‘til Tyre. With Ned deciding to get married (congratulations!) next weekend, Mike's 'Maximus Gastropodus' will be replaced by Terry's 'Laps in Concentration'.

Teams have a looser line-up compared to our other team races. Although there are no restrictions on driver gradings, teams must have equal driving time across the six hours. 20-minute driving stints will apply, with double or triple stints allowed. The total of 18 stints must be shared equally between a team’s drivers.

There are two prizes up for grabs. The team with the most laps wins the Scratch Race. The team with the highest total after adjustments wins the Handicap Race. Teams get a +50 lap adjustment for each bronze driver +20 laps for each Silver driver +25 laps for each racer under 16 years old and +5 laps for over-65s. One team cannot win both prizes, so the Scratch Race winners are not eligible for the Handicap Race win.

Simon is working on a brand new track layout based on Snetterton, so this should be a rather excellent day of racing at the Barn!