New episode available wherever you get your podcasts, or links here: Episode 48

Giddy with excitement ahead of Christmas, or possibly too much Night Nurse, Scott sees strong hints of a new Carrera Ferrari and muses on the morality of modelling dead men's cars. Nick has Super Glued his specs, but paints on through the haze only to discover the much anticipated ScaleAuto Mitsubishi is too wide for Slot Rally GB.

As it's the season of giving, Nick answers the question you've all been asking (OK, one listener's question) about his NASCARs. As ever, there's a tale to be told.

Snuggle up with some mulled wine, a few mince pies and enjoy.

No problems up until today when I'm getting this message on both my tablet and desktop:

Quote:Whoops, it looks like you have an invalid PHP version.
Magento supports PHP 5.3.0 or newer. Find out how to install Magento using PHP-CGI as a work-around.

For some time I have thought I would like to have a V twin FF motor config.
Predominantly, just because ... 
The idea is the motors are matched as evenly as possible (as you can see I have 2 motors tested at 17.3K rpm at 12V), and as they are both attached to one axle, if there are any discrepancies in motor power, they will be forced to run equal.
There may (or may not) be a benefit of decent brakes due to doubling the torque ....

Anyway, this is the Proof of Concept Prototype :



Unfortunately, I already checked and its not eligible for the Proxy 

   

Scalextric C4419 Jaguar Mk1 - BUY1 - Goodwood Revival 2021. RRP £49.99. Available now.

The Scalextric Jaguar Mk1 racer and Mk2 police car have hit the shelves just before Christmas. Both deserve to sell well as they are great subjects for slot cars and have been executed pretty well by the Scalextric team and the new factory in Vietnam...

   

I was kindly loaned a pre-production model (a final signed sample, the same as the production version) over a weekend in October, which was perfect timing for a trip to Goodwood. Although Grant Williams' BUY1 Jag has great pedigree in period (it came second at the 1959 Goodwood Easter Meeting, driven by Roy Salvadori) and has been raced at Goodwood Revival from 1998 onwards, it did not appear this September. That was because of this incident at the Festival of Speed in July...




I was marshalling about a hundred yards up the hill and those spectators were extremely lucky - the wheel just clipped the top of the hay bales, the impact throwing it up and taking away much of its momentum. Without that, the wheel would have entered the crowd at full speed and at head height. It was a freak accident, but Williams needed to be seen to have his wrist firmly slapped. Hopefully, this iconic car will be back at Revival in '24.

The Scalextric team were busy at Revival in 2021 taking pictures and colour swatches of the car - and the decoration is absolutely marvellous...

       

The mould is pretty good too, my only concerns being that the sides did bow out a little too much on my sample. Racers complain about tabs connecting body to chassis, but there is a sound aesthetic reason for them! The other aspect that doesn't look quite right to me is the central door posts, which look too wide between the two side windows - although it could be the dimensions are perfect, but a lack of pronounced panel lines gives us an unbroken patch of grey. A keen modeller can use a scalpel and an ink wash to improve that. Completely missing are front and rear quarter lights - not even a moulded line. I do think historic racers need these to look 100% legit.

   

Underneath, the car has a DPR hatch for easy conversion to digital, plus a cool ‘Jaguar’ cut-out over the in-line S-can motor. The guide is just ahead of the rear axle and there’s a traction magnet in front of the rear axle. I was surprised to find five body screws – although two of those are for the cockpit, which is independent of the body. The body itself weighs in at a svelte 21.9g, which will please racers looking to use a vac-formed tray interior. However, some work will be necessary to get a decent amount of body float – everything is rather tight, including a lot of excess spaghetti in the wiring loom.

   

On track, you’d hope those suitably skinny 6mm-wide slick tyres would offer up the sort of sideways action Grant Williams is famous for. With the magnet fitted, they don’t – the car is very nicely planted, but rolls when pushed too hard. However, with the magnet removed, the Jag is enormous fun! I needed to scuff up the tyres a bit to improve grip on Scalextric Sport track, but that was enough to get some great, controlled sliding action. The car is also very nippy and – with more work on the tyres and some well-placed ballast – I reckon the Jaguar will be a contender in the St Mary’s Trophy at our WHO/digital Goodwood Revival event in September. Fingers-crossed a new livery or two will appear in next year's line-up.

A big thank you to the Scalextric team for the loan of the sample. The BUY1 Jag is available from the Scalextric site here. An extended version of this review, plus a report from the 2023 WHO Goodwood Revival can be found in the November issue of Slot Car Magazine here. Merry Christmas!

   

It's too cold to paint outside in the winter in Canada. Painting with rattle cans indoors is an overspray nightmare.

After failing a few times. I finally came up with a system that uses both gravity and rapid air evacuation to reduce fumes and overspray.

I was inspired to buy a large wardrobe box from U-Haul and installed two 6" inch vents on the back. Then threw the box into the basement shower. My wife was not impressed at first.

Flexible hoses take the fumes to a plywood board that was cut to perfectly fit the window.

   

Hanging lights on both side help to see what's happening with the paint.

   
   

The vents didn't fit beside each other, so they were installed offset.

   

The plywood plate and hoses are removed from the window and sit beside the shower when the paint booth is not in use.

   
   

A 24" inch fan from the 70's sits outside the window to rapidly evacuate the fumes. A small piece of cardboard seals it to the wall. It moves a lot of air.

   

You can barely detect any fumes while painting. The overspray cloud stays in the box, and flows down to the floor. You can't smell anything outside the washroom door with it wide open. Perfect.

My wife is no longer looking for blood. Peace in the valley.  Mission accomplished.

Thank you very kindly for looking.
Ken

.......  I don't want to just throw them away, someone may be able to use them.  I'm not asking anything for them, not even the cost of the postage.  You're welcome to them, if you can use them.

2x 14k S-can motors.  1 lightly used, 1 unused.  As you can see, I bought them from slot-stop.de - but I can't remember what make they are.  The used one has a pinion on, which might be a Revell one (9z IIRC).

   


3x SRP Power16 S-can motors.  1 used lightly and has a 12z brass pinion, the other 2 are unused.

   


3 Team Slot TS7 "Titan" motors.  These came in Quattros I bought, and all have minimal use.

   


2 Chinese FK-180 motors.  Claimed by the seller to be 14k @ 12v.

   


3x S-cans, all removed from various Scalextric cars.

   


3x Ninco ProShocks.  1 used, 2 new.

   


4x Scalextric FF-050 motors.  All have had various amounts of use & all are minus the collar on the end of the shaft.

   


2x Chinese FF-050 motors.  Brass pinions (8z or 9z, I can't remember now) and no collars.  IIRC, these were sold as somewhere around 14k-16k.

   


3x Chinese FF-050 motors.  Came from the same source as the 2 above, but have had no use by me.

   


Scalextric non-DPR motor, pick-ups & light boards.  No pinion or collar on the motor.

   


Scalextric VW Beetle motor, DPR plug & light boards.  No collar on the shaft.

Hi guys, it's the last week before Christmas, what special events have you got lined up?

The week before and after, it's expected we wear Christmas jumpers and this years special event is called the Christmas Turkey Targa (Florio) where we race/Rally one car each that must have been raced in the Targa Florio between 1951 and 1972.

We'll use both Rally stages (3 minutes on each stage) plus three heats of 3 minutes racing on the main club track.

I have a Ferrari 312PB and Porsche 908-3 ready for testing. 

Should be fun and it's already pencilled in for two more similar nights in 2024.

A while ago I had a mishap with a resin shell that I wanted to repaint.  I used my usual method of dunking it a bath of meths, but the resin softened before the paint.  Result?....  One b******d car.  

Was I unlucky with this one, or should I have used a different method?

Thanks in anticipation,
Stuart.