Scalextric C4229 James Bond Lotus Esprit S1 - The Spy Who Loved Me. RRP £53.99. Scheduled July 2022

The Spy Who Loved Me - released in 1977 - was Roger Moore's personal favourite of the seven Bond movies he appeared in as 007. The film had everything a Bond fan could wish for - it's suave and sophisticated, introduces two fabulous new baddies in Stromberg and his henchman 'Jaws', there's a beautiful KGB agent, stunning locations in Egypt and Italy, plus an iconic 1970s car in this unforgettable chase...



There's something refreshingly understated about the Giorgetto Giugiaro designed Series 1 Lotus Esprit, unveiled at the 1975 Paris Motor Show. It's a beautiful car - almost delicate - and without the 80s musculature that is perhaps more familiar when we think of an Esprit...

   

The Scalextric model is almost there. From the side, it looks great - perhaps a little bit too much rear tyre and the black window surround stops too soon at the front. We could also do with that vent at the top of the bonnet to stand out more - the front is a little feature-less in the photo. The Wolfrace-style alloy wheels are accurate, but the chrome is a little overpowering. It's certainly a pretty model - and a very good reproduction of the second-best Bond car - but maybe it could all be a fraction lower to the ground. The Scalextric Esprit has a standard short-can motor in sidewinder orientation and is Digital Plug Ready (DPR) for easy conversion for digital racing.

       

In the film, Q had adapted the Esprit road car to include some crucial gadgets to keep 007 alive and entertain the audience...

• Cement Jet Sprayer - Concealed behind the rear license plate are four nozzles, two of which spray cement in order to blind pursuers. The effect was achieved using gray oatmeal.
  
• Submersible Mode - The car's most notable feature - and the one for which it is best remembered - was it's ability to transform into a two-man submersible. The underwater car was portrayed by a combination of an empty Esprit body shell with two divers inside and scale miniatures.
  
• Surface-to-Air Missiles - While underwater, the Esprit could employ surface-to-air missiles to deal with enemy aircraft overhead. It is unknown if they were also usable while the vehicle was on land. Bond fired a SAM at the pilot of the chopper to "say goodbye to an uninvited guest."
  
• Black Dye Slick - Comparable to the cement jets it could use on land, the Esprit was capable of dispensing a think black dye to blind underwater pursuers similar to an octopus. 
  
• Mines - Another exclusively submarine weapon, contact mines could be released from a small port beneath the car.
  
• Torpedoes - The car could fire small, highly explosive torpedoes from a flip-up array located between the car's headlights.
  

Lotus delivered two street-legal vehicles to the production, one of which was converted to a camera car. There were also six bodyshells, which were used for various shots, including dummy cars for entering and exiting the sea. The submarine car - christened 'Wet Nellie' - was built by Perry Oceanographic in Florida, using another Esprit S1 bodyshell. Wet Nellie is currently owned by Elon Musk. Although it would require a fair bit of new tooling, I'd love to see Scalextric produce a model of Wet Nellie. Like the recent Aston Martin Vantage V8 with skis, the submarine would be rather wide for racing, but I'm sure it would be a hit with collectors! One more time...




The Scalextric James Bond Lotus Esprit S1 'The Spy Who Loved Me' is expected soon and will be followed by a pair of Series 2 Esprits - the World Championship Commemorative Edition car and the red 'For Your Eyes Only' ski resort car. All the delayed 2021 and new 2022 cars are available to pre-order from the Scalextric website and your favourite Scalextric retailers.

   

Racer Sideways SWCAR05A ASV GTE No.95 Le Mans 2019 - Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen & Darren Turner. RRP £74.95
Racer Sideways SWCAR05B ASV GTE No.97 Le Mans 2019 - Alex Lynn, Jonny Adam & Maxime Martin. RRP £74.95
Racer Sideways SWCAR05K ASV GT3/E White Kit. RRP £62.95

The new Racer Sideways Aston Martin Vantage (or 'ASV') is due to arrive soon. The first two liveries are the pair of Aston Martin Racing GTE Pro cars that raced at the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours. There'll also be a white kit released at the same time, confirming that the Racer Sideways Aston model will represent both the GTE and GT3 versions of the Vantage. In real life, the GTE can be converted to GT3 specs relatively easily - a feature that has been exploited by privateers such as TF Sport to run their Astons in the World Endurance Championship, ELMS, IMSA GTLM as well as numerous GT3 championships.

The choice of 2019 and Le Mans is a very good one - marking the sixtieth anniversary of Aston Martin's only overall win at La Sarthe...



The '59' anniversary decals are prominent on the Sideways model...

       

The works Aston Martin Racing team entered three Aston Martin Vantages in the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours - two of the new 2018 models in GTE Pro and one older car in GTE Am. The lead car was the #95 driven by Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørensen and Darren Turner. Sørensen qualified the #95 in pole position for the LMGTE Pro class with a 3:48.000 lap. The early stages of the race saw Thiim lead the GTE Pro train...



Somewhat hampered by a post-qualifying Balance of Performance tweak, the Aston Martins struggled to keep on terms with the class leading Porsche and Ferrari as the race progressed into the evening and darkness. Pushing hard during the ninth hour, Sørensen crashed out of twelfth place in class on the entry to Indianapolis...



That was the end of their race, leaving the #97 car to carry Aston Martin's hopes in LMGTE Pro...

       

The less-experienced trio of Maxime Martin, Alexander Lynn and Jonny Adam hadn't had the best of weeks. Lynn qualified two seconds off the pole-sitting #95 car, enough for only 42nd place overall and 14th in LMGTE Pro. Alex Lynn was driving at just after midnight when he lost control of the car in the Porsche Curves, hitting the barrier and damaging the car. He limped the short distance back to the pits and fifty minutes of repairs - dropping the car from 39th place overall to 54th. It was a devastating hour for Aston Martin Racing, who'd already lost their GTE Am car in the sixth hour. A reasonably trouble-free run through the second half of the race saw the #97 car finish in 44th place overall and 13th place in GTE Pro - hardly the result Aston Martin were hoping for in the anniversary year of their 1959 victory.

       

The Sideways mould looks pretty good - and much more convincing than the undecorated prototype images - capturing the lines of the car and including that massive rear diffuser. The base colour of the AMR livery is the correct yellow of 2019, as opposed to the pale green of the new car's debut in 2018. It may just be the photographs, but I would like to see the yellows, reds and greens far more vivid. The red stripes along the bottom side edges of both cars are correct, but should be a little thinner.

   

The chassis layout is the same as the other Racer Sideways GT cars - the 17k Baby Raptor motor in an anglewinder pod. The 17.3mm wheels are plastic at the front and aluminium at the back.

This is an exciting release from Racer Sideways - a great choice of livery to start the ball rolling. There's huge scope for more stunning liveries on GT3 and GTE cars, but I wonder if the sheer volume of new GT models in the pipeline might distract the company from fully developing the Aston Martin range?

The two ASV models and white kit are available to pre-order at Pendle Slot Racing now.

I may have been transported to a  parallel universe, I may be living in cloud cuckoo land, and this may be a flight of fancy, or pie in the sky, but......

I had a mad idea for a digital track design that could do everything; that could in effect be a different track every time you raced on it. The track below is the first version, or iteration of a multi purpose slot track concept.

It could obviously be a traditional two lane circuit, with a choice of pit lanes, it would also offer multiple different rally tracks, or perhaps rallycross tracks with joker laps, and it could also work as a SlotNav track.

   

Is it bonkers or is it brilliant? I think it's both, but I'll let you decide for yourselves.

     

I have just received a couple of decals from Slot car fever. They have an impressive choice of Nascar decals, including older ones.
These are for 1959 Thunderbird cars, I have not found them anywhere else.

Sending for decals from the USA is rather complicated and expensive from here, so I don't want to spoil them.
Having heard somewhere that their decals are not that easy to apply, I wonder if there is anything I can do to improve them?
 Like giving them a layer of Tamyia clear? Or anything else? Anyone out there who has used them?

Any advice would be much appreciated...

Cheers
Carver

   

WHO/Digital Nascar Team Race & Legends Pairs Race - Wednesday 20 July 2022

Our WHO Digital format and regulations can be found here: https://www.whoracing.org.uk/who_digital.html 

Doors open at 6.30pm - please don’t arrive earlier… unless you’re part of the set-up crew, of course! As always, we ask that all racers aged 12 or younger bring a responsible adult with them.

Race fees: £3 for adults, £2 for under-16s. We now have pre-pay options, including a WHO/digital season ticket.

Digital Wednesday format: The track is open for practice from 6.30, including a digital driving school aimed at new racers and those who need a refresher course. At 7pm, we allocate racers to teams for the Nascar club car team race. We’ll run 3 x 20 minute ‘segments’, with teams swapping cars. The aim is to get the most laps in the 60 minutes. Following that - at around 8.30pm - we have our Pioneer Legends pairs race, using racers’ cars. If you don’t have a car, there’s a very good chance you’ll be offered a ride as half of a ‘pair’, but there’s no guarantee. Two qualifying heats, a semi and a final bring us to the end of the evening by 9.45pm.

Covid precautions: Covid cases are rising quite rapidly again - 1 in 25 people at the end of June. We’ll be keeping our usual common-sense precautions in place to keep vulnerable members of the extended WHO family safe. The main thing is to stay away if you have any symptoms that could be Covid. Inside the Barn, wearing a face mask, practising good hand-hygiene and giving each other space are non-negotiable requirements. We will ensure as good ventilation as possible - and also have hand sanitiser and spare masks available if you forget your own. Any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Do let us know if you’re coming: This makes the job of our race control volunteers easier.

And keep an eye on this thread for more build up - including Simon's track plan - and all the post-race coverage.

Today I received the new Slot Track Scenics Diorama Pack 3 Spectator Set.
The set includes five standing- and ten sitting figures plus some accessories like an umbrella, cold box, camera, cap, two backpacks, pack of beers and five drink bottles.
I ordered an extra Spectator accessories set (Acc. 18) and 5 Fire extinguishers (Acc.4). as well.
Here are some pictures of the unpainted sets:

       
Diorama Pack 3 Spectator Set.                                                                                                    A close-up of the fifteen metal spectator figures.

       
Spectator accessories set (Acc.18).                                                                                          5 Fire extinguishers (Acc.4).

Being an Old phart, the sixties and the seventies are far and aaway my favourite period for F1 (hate to say I dont watch it al all any more, even though I am an avid Ferrari fan).

I have started taking photo's of my cars from this period, and I still have a lot that are packed away, and will get out in coming weeks to add here.

If you have any pics for this period of car, PLEASE feel free to add them here - I personally love looking at other collections and builds.

In no special order. Most of this first batch are Betta and Classic fibreglass bodies. The shadow is a new resin body. A couple of Policars in as well.


           

The Tyrell is a wonderfully revamped Scalextric car.

                                       

I race one of these on Carrera plastic track. My tyre of choice are Slot.it N22s. 

If anyone else on here races this car, do you add any ballast, or do you run light?

FOR SALE.......

SCX BMW M3 GT2.  #42.      USED.  REF A10156X300. 

IMMACULATE USED CONDITION. VERY FEW LAPS ONLY.  AS NEW SCX DISPLAY BOX. 

SUPER LOOKING HI DETAIL MODEL, WITH  FRONT AND REAR LIGHTS. 
GREAT ADDITION TO ANY GT GRID.

£28.50 PLUS £4.20 ROYAL MAIL 2ND CLASS SIGNED FOR POSTAGE. 

PM ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED,  THANKS. 

   
   

FOR SALE.......


SCX MORGAN AERO 8 GT3.  #101  USED.    REF A10218S300.

IMMACULATE CONDITION,  VERY LITTLE USE.  
GREAT LOOKING HI DETAIL MODEL WITH EXTREMELY  BRIGHT FRONT AND REAR LIGHTS 
AS NEW CONDITION IN THE ORIGINAL SCX DISPLAY BOX.

HARD TO FIND MODEL OF A VERY DIFFERENT GT3 HOMOLOGATED RACE CAR! 

£34.00 PLUS £4.20 ROYAL MAIL 2ND CLASS SIGNED FOR POSTAGE. 
PAYMENT VIA PAYPAL FRIENDS AND FAMILY PLEASE. 

PM ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED,  THANKS.