Car ID 1/32, can someone identity this car ?

   

Slot.it CA55a Oreca 07 LMP2 #3 DKR Engineering - 2022 Le Mans 24 hours. RRP £69.95. Available soon.

This long-awaited new model from Slot.it is scheduled to arrive with distributors very soon. Parent company Galileo Engineering have kindly shared some preview images with us and the car does look rather wonderful!

   

The Oreca 07 has become the workhorse of the post-2017 LMP2 world, dominating prototype grids across the globe - in Europe, Asia and North America.

   

Although designed as an LMP2 car, powered by the Gibson V8 engine, the chassis has also seen action as an LMP1 and 'grandfathered' Hypercar entrant as the  Rebellion Racing R13 and Alpine A480. In these alternative guises, the Oreca 07 won outright the WEC 2018 six hours of Silverstone, 2019 four hours of Shanghai, 2020 Lone Star Le Mans, 2022 1,000 Miles of Sebring and 2022 six hours of Monza - clocking up four consecutive runners-up spots in the World Endurance Championship.

   

However, The Oreca 07 is most loved for providing close and exciting racing for LMP2 honours, especially during the time Toyota put a dampener on excitement in LMP1. The car has also been the training ground for many teams stepping up to the top class as the new age of Le Mans Hypercars and IMSA LMDh prototype has dawned.

   

The first livery on the Slot.it model is that of the Luxembourg-based DKR Engineering team that raced the #3 car in the LMP2 Pro-Am class at the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours...

   

Driven by German Laurents Hörr, Belgian Jean Glorieux and Frenchman Alexandre Cougnaud, the DKR team grabbed third place on their class podium and twenty-second overall. It was the sort of performance expected of the 2021 European Le Mans Series LMP3 champions. Their first season in LMP2 also saw them bag third in the ELMS championship, followed up this year by a championship-winning Asian Le Mans Series campaign. That should give them a return trip to La Sarthe in 2024.

Functionally, the Slot.it Oreca 07 builds on a pedigree of over a decade of modern-day Le Mans Prototype models...

       

For starters, there's an offset anglewinder motor mount with a Flat6 long can motor to fit under the nicely sculpted, perfectly-scaled body. Because Slot.it produce scale models and not stretched and squished approximations, the track of that alloy-shod rear axle will be the 2017-regulation 1900mm divided by 32 - approximately 59.5mm. At the front is a traditional guide - the ingenious, but unpopular LMP guide is long gone. There's also the new wiring set-up that allows easy motor changes and the insertion of a digital chip.

DiSCA have announced that their WEC LMP2 class will be a Slot.it Oreca 07 one-chassis class from 2024. I think that's a great move. There are scores of authentic Le Mans 24h liveries to choose from - Slot.it will produce a fair few, I suspect. However, also arriving soon is the CA55z white kit (RRP £49.00), which is blank canvass for the dozens of 2017-2023 decal sets already produced by Pattos Place and other decal manufacturers - or you could always make your own...

   

LMP2 cars - mostly the Oreca 07 - will continue in their present guise until at least the end of the 2025 season, so the Slot.it Oreca remains current and can draw on a vast array of liveries from across the world over nine year career of racing. It should prove a fabulous one-make class and a big hit with collectors of Le Mans slot cars.

Many thanks to the Slot.it sale team for sending us these awesome images.

   

 
Hi Enthusiasts,
    Well it’s been 17 years since I first bought Scalextric Sport Digital and 45 years since I first enjoyed Scalextric.
Lots has changed. The fun hasn’t. But the technology has.
I first converted my Scaley digital system to wireless in 2006 by converting an existing controller to 2.4GHz wireless and making my own wireless car chip. Eventually I developed my own lane changing and lap counting protocols and increased 6 cars to 24. The system became known as Scorpius Wireless and a company was started. 

Fast forward to 2019 and I’ve was looking at ways to increase the Scalextric digital experience. The market doesn’t need another Scalextric compatible chip. Or does it? After a couple of versions and Covid we designed a new version Sept and received prototypes in October. 
I won’t go into all the features and functions just now. The chip is multi functional. It’s not just a car chip, it’s also a lane change chip, a lap count chip, a light board, a pit locator and a sector locator and not just for one brand. All or most of these functions will be compatible or to 4 brands including Scalextric Sport Digital.

So what are points of difference?
1. Size. Smallest on market when it arrives just 23x13.3x1.7mm. 
2. Power. Motor drive rated at 10A. This will handle most 50K motors all day long.
3. Adjustable brakes 0-100% in 1% increments by bypassing the power base and programming the chip itself. Lap times can drop by as much as 0.5 sec a lap friending in your set up. Drivability is improved significantly.
4. Throttle mapping. Write your own throttle maps on your laptop and upload to the car directly. Again lap times can drop by tenths. Drivability is improved also significantly.
5. Lights. Full lights, headlights, with hi beam, tail lights with brake lights. 
As Scalextric does not have brakes we can use the brake button. Instead of operating button braking the MPD can do functions by receiving a message via the brake button for turning on/off and flash high beam.
6. Brake flame LED output with plug in orange LED/wire to mini JST plug into car chip.
7. Flashing light output for Police and Safety cars.
8. Compatible to Carrera and Scorpius systems.
9. Real time tacho using laptop and Scorpius dongle.
10. Free firmware updates using your phone.
11. Lane change driver for SSD custom timber track construction. 
12.Lane change anti collision chip. 




DPR compatible. 100% plug n play. 
Firmware development continues.
Here’s a pic of our prototype and DPR hatch.


Rick

Back in the summer, a local care home contacted the WHO Racing email address to ask if we could bring a Scalextric track and put on an afternoon session for some of the residents. It is quite a fancy care home, so a donation to club funds was on offer... I said yes - particularly as the home is a very short stone's throw from where I live.

It took a while to find a suitable space in our schedules, but the visit eventually happened yesterday...

   

Being a paid event, I'd been planning the show carefully for some time. The residents are all old and frail, but I'd been told they like to try new activities and also listen to talks. Beyond that I didn't know what to expect, so I took along various bits and bobs to cover most eventualities - but the focus of the session was a modern Sport track with ARC Air and some late-70s F1 cars...

   

I wanted to use those cars as they'd been an important part of my Scalextric story as a kid. The Ligier and Tyrrell 008 are original, the Renault and Ferrari picked up at swapmeets over the past 10 years or so. There's a March six-wheeler and a Williams FW07 too, but they stayed home this time. All have new grippy rear tyres and new braids, but still have those glorious Johnson motors - after a few races, that glorious ozone smell took me right back to the 1980s and my childhood...

   

In terns of reminiscence, it was just me. Any gentlemen residents had chosen not to attend my session, so the group in the lounge was ten ladies, a visiting daughter and a young careworker. Only one of the residents yelped with recognition when she first saw the track set up, but when asked for a show of hands of who had raced Scalextric, only my hand went up... "Oh, I wasn't allowed to race!" said the only lady from a Scalextric family...

However, after a slow and quiet start, we all had a whale of a time! A few residents just watched, but most got stuck in - no-one having to leave their seats thanks to the wireless ARC controllers. I set up 10 lap races in the ARC app - the first 10 laps practice and then a proper race - offering everyone their choice of the four cars. The red Ferrari saw the most action! I'd limited power to 50% in the app - standard practice for our ARC Air roadshows - but the standard of driving was really rather good... more on the slow and careful side of the spectrum. I had told them these were were my treasured childhood cars...

   

To give those 40-year-old motors a break, I interspersed the racing with brief episodes from my Scalextric story, which sort of parallels the history of Scalextric as a brand. Starting with my dad and older siblings getting a rubber track set in 1959, adding buildings (the same ones that were in action yesterday), plastic track and plenty of cars. Then I came along - and family legend has it that my dad, brother and sister were holding the traditional August bank holiday meet on the day I was born. I was handed the Scalextric baton when I was around 8 or 9 and started to add what I could save up for or get for my birthday or Christmas. Despite not sharing a Scalextric past, those recollections of the 60s, 70s and 80s triggered memories for the residents that they shared and we all enjoyed. And then I brought my story up to date with WHO Racing...

   

Although my knees just about lasted the allotted 45 minutes, many of the residents insisted on more races! So we kept going until those knees could stand it no more... The feedback I received today was that the talk at dinner last night and breakfast this morning was all about Scalextric - so it looks like there will be more sessions in the New Year. I hope too that other care homes might do similar things. Scalextric shared the care home's post on their Facebook page today and it got a great response. Afterall, that could be us one day!

Many thanks to Martha and the Greystoke Manor residents for sending me the photos and encouraging me to share them.

Due to ongoing serious health problems which I won't bore you with I have been largely inactive as regards actual slot cars since early June. So, as I have been spending a fair amount of time in bed with only crap daytime telly to stave off the boredom what is there to do? Anything is preferable to 'Bargain Hunt' and 'Homes under the Hammer' so step forward the 'Talking Utter Slot' podcast!

 Being a child of the mid 20th century I wasn't actually sure what a podcast was so asked Mr Google and, after reading the answer, I came to the conclusion that it is what we used to call an audio cassette tape of some people talking! Nowadays of course you just download the thing from t'interweb rather than pressing buttons on a tape machine.

When is a podcast not a podcast?
When it morphs into a YouTube video which happened around episode 28. A podcast is essentially sound only so the series probably needs renaming but the addition of moving images is never a bad thing.

Having sorted that I fired up the tablet, plugged in the earphones and listened to/watched some episodes, most of them in fact, so are they any good or just 'utter slot'?

Mine host
The originator and lead voice is Scott Brownlee, retired Toyota PR executive, long time Slotforum member and former moderator. He also played a pivotal role in the history of the UK Slot Festival. He has been absent from the slot scene for some time but returned to the fold in late 2022 and started the podcast in question.

Supporting cast
Initially his sparring partner was Peter ??? whose surname escapes me for the moment but he is also a long time slot enthusiast based near Oxford and was one of the founding moderators on Slotforum where he goes under the pen name of Wankel Ickx. He has an off beat sense of humour which annoys some people but I quite like it. He is occasionally a bit derogatory about this site though, which is somewhat irritating as we often advertise the podcast on our front page which is a damn sight more than his beloved Slotforum does.
In more recent episodes other enthusiasts have also featured such as Gareth Jex, motorsport journalist Nick Garton, Dave Kennedy and the founding fathers of Slotforum - Doug Teggin and Alan Wakefield.

Content
Initially this was mainly confined to discussion about current events and slot car releases and they probably become less relevant as time passes. More recent episodes are much more varied though and cover a wide spectrum from slot rally via the history of forums to the disposing of collections. You can find a full list of episodes with description of content HERE. Obviously not everyone will be interested in the discussions in every episode but there is bound to be something in there  to appeal to most tastes.

Criticisms?
Not much to complain about really. The sound quality on earlier episodes was a bit rough but that was soon sorted. When talking to his friends Gareth and Nick some in jokes about their local club tend to creep in which would puzzle anybody who doesn't know them. A few things could also do with a bit of expansion such as several references to the NSCC without explaining to the unitiated what it actually is.

Worth a watch/listen?
As a pleasant way to while away the hours while I was bed bound I found it great company. I really liked the way Scott doesn't take himself or the whole subject too seriously. There are well over 40 episodes at the time of writing so it is unlikely that you would want to wade through them all but I would suggest sampling one or two of the later episodes for starters. You may well get hooked, I know I have.

Hello all,

So I have a small space of 2.51m x 1.05m (8.23ft x 3.4ft) & a decent amount of Scalextric track

I'm new to slot car racing & would love to see some track design options for this space, please see pic for my current setup

I do tend to enjoy long sweeping fast corners like I have setup currently, I don't race with other's much it's more me setting lap times & seeing which of my cars performs best

Is there any way I could improve my layout? I'd love to see! There does  seems to be a fair amount of wasted space in the middle

Thanks!

Had one...sold it, now I want one again!  What can I say, I'm weak!

Hello all, glad to be here!

So recently I got the slotcar bug, and am very happy to be rediscovering my childhood with scalextric.

I'll keep it brief & to the point as I'd like some opinions wether to stick with scalextric or invest in another track/system

- I currently have a semi-pemanent setup on the floor, it's really my only option at this moment in time.

- The space I have for a track is 2.51m x 1.05m, or 8.23ft x 3.4ft

- I currently have the Scalextric Arc Air system with plenty of track & borders

My current situation is that I REALLY want a Carrera track (or maybe policar?) As I've heard the grip is better & the grooves are deeper, allowing you to push cars faster

I am aware that Carrera takes up a lot of room relative to Scalextric

With the room I have available, is it at all possible to build a semi-decent track with Carrera (my preference) or perhaps Policar (2nd fave)

I've seen some great track designs on here, would love to see if anything can be done in the space I have with Carrera but I realise this may be a longshot

Tbh I'm even tempted to buy Carrera track to just build an simple oval Daytona-style ring lol

I mainly enjoy setting lap times and seeing witch of my cars is fastest, mostly solo or the occasional race with my daughter. I do find that Scalextric cars come off the track rather easily.

Would love some opinions 

Thanks!

   

We're back at the Barn on 18 November for the first of two Tin Top Saturdays that close out the year of Scalextric digital racing.

Our Tin Top Saturdays are jammed full of various saloon car formats, including a club car rotation, 3-race BTCC weekend simulation, Muscle Car Mondiale heats & feature, plus a new Sierra vs BMW team race.

Timings are approximate, but the schedule for the day will be something like this...

10am - Doors open & practice
10.30 - Tin Top Club Car Rotation
12noon - BTCC Qualifying & Race One
1pm - Lunch & practice
1.30 - BTCC Race Two
2.15 - Sierra vs BMW Team Race
3.00 - BTCC Race Three
3.45 - Muscle Car Mondiale
4.45 - Prizegiving

We'll be racing on a tweaked version of Simon's O'Connor layout that debuted at the test day in August.

More on the track and formats to follow...

Stewart Raceway currently consists of two custom-routed H.O. scale raceways: Stewart Raceway II is a residential 4-lane, 70′ routed track situated indoors in an air-conditioned environment; Stewart Raceway III is a 6-lane, 78′ routed track situated in a detached garage on the same premises with a bit more room for larger race meets. Both tracks convert to multiple layouts, including oval racing.


SR2: 4-lane, Viper road course convertible to oval.


SR3: 6-lane, Brad Bowman road course that also converts to an oval.

Stewart Raceway is located in the California Bay Area’s Santa Cruz Mountains, just minutes away from Highway 17 and Summit Road.

Visit our website, StewartRaceway.org for more information.