The Roger Albert Clark historic rally recreates the spirit of the original RAC rallies, and that definitely makes it a special event for me.

I've been along to several of the events, and they were magnificent, and brought back so many childhood memories, with stages in the North York Moors and at Olivers Mount in Scarborough. Unfortunately the route hasn't come anywhere near us in years but I've just been watching some of the coverage of this year's event, and I think it's fair to say that the bar has been raised in many ways.

First of all the rally is the longest for 30 years, with 350 stage miles, it features an impressive list of drivers with three time winner Martin McCormack, Kris Meeke, Oliver Solberg, Osian Pryce, and Chris Harris, amongst others. There was an entry list of 174 cars, and although the event does tend to be a bit of an Escort fest, there are plenty of other cars taking part, including Seb Perez's fantastic Stratos, Steve Graham's lovely Lancia Fulvia, Triumph TR7s, Porsche 911s, and Hillman Avengers, plus there is a Datsun 240z, a Saab 96, an Opel Ascona and a Kadett, an Alfa Romeo Guilietta, a Vauxhall Chevette, a Ford Anglia, and a Volvo PV544.

When I first started going to watch this rally, you would get back home from the stages to find that the only coverage was the leader board, that was it. But now, they have expanded the coverage massively, with live video coverage of the stages and a nightly round up of the day's action. Below is a catch up on days 1 & 2. It's not exactly F1 levels of production, but for anybody who is a fan of 1970s rallying, it's magnificent to see a proper marathon rally, with those historic cars being driven in a gruelling, competitive rally. The 20th anniversary Roger Albert Clark Rally runs for three more days, ending in Carlisle on Monday.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this one: A new development of 226 houses in my local town of King's Lynn was passed by the council despite the Environment Agency objecting because it was in a high risk flood zone.

Unfortunately they have been unable to start construction because the site is - wait for it - currently under 2ft of water! You really couldn't make it up. Flood plain, the clue is in the name.

While researching this project i came across this forum and thought this may be of interest to people. Hopefully some far more knowledgeable people may be able to give me some advice along the way

I run a semi temporary 2 lane Scalextric sport track  with an arc one for timing along with a basic base and 2 power supplies. My plan is to build the following 


Single power base 
Single power supply
Photo-sensors for timing 
Blu tooth connection to PC
Plug in booster cables
Start lights
Call button/buttons

The plan is a base plate glued or screwed to the under side of a half straight , with a box on the side for all the electronics . An overhead gantry will house the IR emitter along with 16 addressable RGB LEDS. I'll be going along the well trodden route on an Arduino Uno for the PC connection along with a relay box to turn power on and off to  the circuit. This is largely unnecessary, but i like techy things and the relay boxs aren't expensive.  Ill be sticking with the sport controller 3.5mm jack plugs as there small and readily available. 

The main parts will be 3d printed for now. But i do run a CNC machine shop so may be from aluminium eventually. Picture below is first model files that are currently on the printer. They will no doubt get a complete re-design as i compact the electric down and hopefully make them a bit more visually appealing 



   

I'm slowly working my way through all the content here.  Already I have seen plenty of posts with stuff in that's of interest to me - to a greater or lesser extent.

One type of thread I have yet to come across is showing-off your latest repaints.  Is it just that I haven't come across any yet, or isn't anyone bothered, or is there some other reason?

Now that I'm retired, I have quite a number of slot car projects (as well as household DIY..........) I need to catch-up on.  I'd like to be able to share images with you all, continuing from where I left off on SFI.  I wouldn't want to re-post the stuff I posted there, but if anyone hasn't seen those and is interested, drop me a PM and I will reply with a link - if I can find it since I deleted all my SFI links.

I don't seek validation or praise, just like to share the fruits of my very slow labours.

Series of photos of a recent decoder design which has four variants - two are DPR and two are F1. In each case one is for control via track packets (SSD and D132) and the other is for radio/track packets.

The Rover SD1s have the DPR track packet variant.

Sorry the photos are rotated - room for editorial improvement!

c


   
   
   

Given that many Black Fridays deals aren't always the cheapest prices, it's always worth comparing prices... but what slot car Black Friday deals have you seen? This is what I've spotted so far...

In the UK...

Scalextric have four heavily-discounted sets - two 1:32 scale and two Micro - that would make very nice Christmas presents. There are also some cars, some of which I've seen even cheaper elsewhere. Their Black Friday page is: https://uk.scalextric.com/catalogue/black-friday

Wonderland Models have the same sets, plus some more - including the new ARC Pro and ARC Air ones - track packs and spares, Not massive reductions, but worth a look: https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/sale/bl...calextric/

John Lewis have an exclusive 'John Lewis vs Waitrose' Scalextric set with a pair of Ginettas in unique liveries, reduced by 20% to £103.99 here: https://www.johnlewis.com/scalextric-joh...p110938618

Pendles don't have a Black Friday promotion, although they do have another Slot Car Market sale of new and lightly-used cars, which is definitely worth a look: https://www.pendleslotracing.co.uk/speci...arket.html

Jadlams haven't announced a Black Friday promotion yet, but they have the new ARC Pro Platinum set reduced this week to £559.99 - the cheapest I've seen: https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/scale...-platinum/

Weevils hint that they will have deals on Friday and to keep an eye on their website: https://weevilsslotcars.co.uk/

I searched Amazon UK for 'Scalextric' and got these Black Friday deals.

In North America...

SlotCarCorner have a page of get-them-while-you-can offers: https://slotcarcorner.com/collections/bl...y-specials

BRS Hobbies have a page of early-bird HO offers - suggesting more is to come - available online: https://brshobbies.com/brs-hobbies-hot-deals/

Many US and Canadian vendors seem to hang on until Friday.

Nothing in mainland Europe, but Black Friday is definitely much less of a thing there.

So far, I have kept my wallet tightly closed 

I always thought 'Jenks' invented pace notes, first used in the 1955 Mille Miglia in a Mercedes 300SLR driven by Stirling Moss

   


...it seems they were actually first used by Hans Klenk in the 1952 La Carrera Panamericana in a Mercedes 300SL driven by Karl Kling

Klenk was temporarily knocked unconscious by a vulture that crashed through the windscreen...Kling & Klenk won

   

Not interested in 'open wheel' or Nascar though.

All closed wheel - saloons, sports, GT particularly historic motorsport. Aussie V8's, BTCC, Goodwood, Silverstone and Classic Le Mans. That sort of thing.

Is there such an offering in the UK?

Link to listening options : Episode 45

All great quests start somewhere and The Search For The Green Morgan is no different: it starts today.  

Not to be left out, Nick's quest to repaint as many Scalextric Subraus as he can find on eBay continues despite, checks notes, 'rampant profiteering' by the spray paint makers. 

Elsewhere we discuss the merits of a pig-whale hybrid and conclude that, while it is unwelcome as a slot car (think Porsche liveries), it could produce epic bacon rashers if such a Chimera were ever achieved in reality.  

Amazon UK have some Scalextric cars at reasonable prices ATM. if you have prime or can get a free/cheap trial ...
There are:

C4432 Blues Brothers Car £36.49 
C4301 Lotus Esprit Bond "For your Eyes only" £38.93
C4301 Rover SD1 Police £42.00
Etc

Not all cheap but worth a look to see if there is anything you may like: Amazon.co.uk: Scalextric - £15 To £50 / Scalextric: Toys & Games