C4316 Aston Martin DBR9 - Gulf Edition - ROFGO 'Dirty Girl'. RRP £49.99. Scheduled autumn 2022.

Scalextric's DBR9 first appeared way back in 2006. It has been well used in the past sixteen years, updated to a Digital Plug ready (DPR) chassis and recently gained a new lease of life in the ROFGO Collection Gulf special edition releases. Scalextric have a good relationship with ROFGO - which houses a magnificent collection of mostly Gulf-sponsored racing cars. This latest addition to the Scalextric Gulf series is a replica of one of the DBR9s in the ROFGO collection, one that has been left with the muck and racing scars that adorned the car after finishing the 2008 Le Mans 24 hours - its final race. These pictures are of the ROFGO car...

       

The GT1 DBR9 - developed by Prodrive from the DB9 road car - returned Aston Martin to the top step of the podium at Le Mans. Carol Shelby and Roy Salvadori's 1959 overall win in the DBR1 was followed 48 years later by a GT1 class win for David Brabham, Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell in a DBR9 painted in the same metallic British Racing Green. For 2008, the factory DBR9s were painted in Gulf colours...

       

Chassis #8 - which was carried the 009 number at Le Mans in 2008 - had been built in 2006 and was raced in that year's American Le Mans Series by Stéphane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy, picking up four class wins. The car then returned to Europe where it was driven by Fabio Babini and Jamie Davies in the 2007 FIA GT Championship. Rebuilt  for Le Mans in 2008, chassis #8 finished top GT1 car in the official test day at La Sarthe...

       

Driven by Antonio García, David Brabham and Darren Turner, the 009 Aston qualified behind the two works Corvette C6Rs and the Larbre Saleen S7-R in the GT1 class. It would be a very close race between the Corvettes and the Astons for the GT1 honours...

       

The 2008 Le Mans 24 hours is remembered for a remarkable underdog victory by Audi against the much faster Peugeot 908, in what was probably the best race of the turbo diesel era. Alan McNish was simply outstanding in the ageing R10 TDI - a combination of aggressive driving, perfect team strategy and a bit of luck with the weather giving a hat-trick of wins for the R10. Peugeot would finally get their win in 2009, with David Brabham in the victorious car.

Staying in 2008, Brabham would grab a second GT1 class win in the DBR9 009. Here's Aston's film of the event...



The 009 led the two works Corvettes away from the start, with the 007 Aston tucked behind in fourth. At twelve hours, the 009 and the #63 'Vette were separated by seconds, the 007 and #64 a lap behind. In the early hours of Sunday morning, the 007 and #64 developed alternator faults - leaving the GT1 battle to the 009 and #63. Both teams managed the rain perfectly and the fans were treated to a spectacular run to the chequered flag... the 009 Aston holding on to cross the line in thirteenth overall and first in class. David Richards said “For me, Le Mans is the greatest motor race in the world and to win it for the second consecutive year is a brilliant endorsement of a fantastic team effort – particularly in the iconic colours of Gulf.”

       

It's great to see the DBR9 back in the Scalextric catalogue with such a special decoration. If the 'weathered' Gulf GT40s of a couple of years back are anything to go by, this release will be a must for all Aston Martin, Le Mans and Gulf fans. As soon as there are pictures of pre-production samples, I'll post them here.

   

         

Another LMP1 car will be joining the Toyota TS-050 - a few images of the CAD design have been released by SRC over the past few weeks. Although brilliant to see modern Le Mans Prototypes produced as slot cars, this weekend's 24 hours will be the end of the LMP1 era at La Sarthe - the future is full-fat Hypercar and no ex-LMP1 compromises. SRC have chosen the 2017 Porsche 919 Hybrid LDF (low downforce) version that won at Le Mans and also raced to podium finishes at Silverstone and Spa...



The 2017 Le Mans 24 hours is remembered as the race when all the LMP1 cars had big problems - almost handing the win to the LMP2 Jackie Chan Racing Oreca for what would have been a miraculous win. Instead the #2 Porsche - which had recovered from a 65 minute pit stop on the Saturday evening - played the role of party-pooper, leading for only the final 20 laps of the race. It was Porsche's third win in a row with the 919 Hybrid - and the second for Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber. The 2017-spec 919 retained the same chassis as the 2016, but had extensive aerodynamic modifications - especially at the front. How does the CAD modelling by SRC match up?

       

Like the 2018 Toyota, the Porsche 919 isn't the most beautiful of cars. The bulbous headlights and front wheel covers are again a little too pronounced in the SRC model. Neither am I convinced by the rear - too much material - and I'm concerned the cockpit roof is a bit squished. Together, it's uglier that the original in its bare CAD curves...

       

From the front, the SRC 919 has a pleasant face - but it doesn't have the pertness of a late 2010-s LMP car. It's all too wide and the cockpit looks flattened because it's stretched. The width of the 2017 LMP1 car should be 59.375mm - but I imagine it's the full 64mm. It certainly looks 7-8% stretched.

       

This third angle provided by SRC suggests there's too much body to the front of the wheel arch and also too much to the rear.

Of course these are just CAD files - although social media posts infer that moulds will be tooled from these designs quite soon. At the end of the day, it looks like the car will be on a par with the Toyota - a fast, stretched, slot racer, but not a great scale model. Because I am a big fan of SRC's rally and classic F1 cars - superb racing cars and scale models - I am rather underwhelmed by the LMP range. They will be raced against each other (I don't see the Toyota on multi-brand grids), so they could have been fabulous 59.5mm wide replicas of two multiple-Le Mans winning cars and ticked all the usual SRC boxes.

Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing the progress of this project and will add updates to this thread. It's not every day a new, modern Le Mans Prototype is produced as a slot car!

I am undecided what to do with these, so I thought I would list them and if no interest I will put them to use on my track 
Basically these 2 have never been run and are boxed with original limited edition card.
I want to sell them as a pair so I am looking for £110 the pair including postage to the UK, other destinations would need to be calculated.
As stock they were supplied with deeper (wood track)  guides, so if you have shallow depth plastic track you may need to modify or replace these.

CMOTD (Brian) reviewed the Castrol one here: MR Slotcar Jaguar XJ220C (slotracer.online)

Hi all, we at Four Lane Blacktop are giving serious consideration to adding Mini Saloons as a class in our regular calendar or possibly an additional night. 

Six of us took the plunge over the Gaydon weekend, including mine and my sons cars pictured, and initial testing has been fun. 

Really just wondering if anyone else races them as a serious class and if so what have you learned, what size track works well etc. (we have the luxury of a routed layout of multiple configuration.) T.I.A. Marc

If there is one thing worse than Scalextric tyres then it has to be Carrera. They frequently go rock hard or turn to mush and it is virtually impossible to source replacements in the UK. Nearly all their wheels are non standard sizes as well.

I currently have these four cars in dire need of replacements:

Paul Gage does urethanes for the hotrod but not the others, the postage costs from Canada are in the stratosphere and his UK agent can't get them. He doesn't make them for the other three cars and I can't find any of the cottage industry urethane people who make them.

If anybody has any ideas for a UK supplier I would love to hear from you.

I have been watching several new tracks rise up from the sawdust. I'm down for the count with chemo, and have no energy. But happen to know a fantastic and experienced track builder that is willing to do most of the work for a fair price. I should have done this years ago, but thought my basement was too small. Another fellow racer just finished a 5' foot by 10' foot 2-lane routed track and it's a blast!

It will also end up on a 5' foot by 10' foot base, and have only 2-lanes. More than enough for 5 or 6-people to race several classes in an evening.

This is the basic layout. It's a custom "one of a kind" track well suited for my basement. Wish me luck.

   

Another new series for Viking SCC came this April in the form of Scaleauto GT3 (Home Series).

   

   

The Scaleauto GT3 cars are incredibly detailed and fantastic to look at, and the opening round saw a mixed field with a variety of liveries.  But the Home Series chassis setup threw some curve-balls with reliability from the off.  Chassis cracks, broken guides and unbalanced wheels were commonplace and led to some frustrations, as the series is intended to be box-stock and no like for like replacement parts were available.  The Stuttgart marque was well represented; but it was quickly discovered that the Porsche's don't take kindly to the Scalextric sport barriers; their rear fenders perfectly angled to catch the joints in the fences leading to some entertaining (for others) rear-bumper explosions.

That all said, gremlins aside, the class made for some fast and close racing for the majority of the field. Darren's WES liveried Porsche proved itself to be a regular podium contender, showing the rest of the Porsche field how it is done.  My red Viper was an absolute joy to drive and also regularly frequented the podiums.  Pat's Audi provided a break from the norm and also performed very well around the twisty Viking track. And Antony's Mercedes was also a refreshing sight in the field of Vipers and Porsches.

In need of inspiration for color of the outside of fences/walls, inside will be white and as the track is dark it needs to be lighter than that, any suggestions? Pics?

Hi
I am planning on Proxy Drag Racing in the US at Deville Speed Park. Organized via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/29365122...?ref=share

Classes to be raced:

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, JUNE 26TH 2022.

Deville Speed Park will kick off the 2022 Summer Shoot Out.
All proxy racers are invited to enter this event.

Registration is Now Open for the Deville Speed Park Shootout!!! Racing will start June 26th Weekend, so all cars need to be here No Later Than June 24th!

3 classes, Magnatraction Muscle Cars, Inline Brass Jets, and 4 Gear Stock Drag Cars. 32 car maximum in each class.
All cars must have hard bodies, Custom resin casted and painted bodies are allowed.
All bodies must be drag racing type, Pro Stock, Legends F/C or street muscle cars. No rail dragsters or Top Fuel Funny Cars.
No sports type or road race bodies.

No Charge To Enter, Donations are welcome.
Entrants are responsible for return shipping.
32 Spots are open for each class!
Drivers can enter up to 3 cars per class.
Return postage should be included with your cars or
Dave Deville De can accept your payment through PayPal f&f.
Message Dave Deville for payment info.

We will do 8 weeks of Racing
16 Rounds for each class
8 Rounds on the Street (Tomy)
8 Rounds on the Track (Bowman)
Both Tracks are True Quarter Mile Dragways! We have the "Street" which is a Tomy Dragstrip with Dynamic Braking in the Shutdown, and The "Track" is a Bowman Routed Dragway. All Classes will compete on Both!

Cars will launch on a switch together, 1st to the line will win!
When we are ready to race, I'll tag all racers in the Class we are running, and all finishes will be posted in the comments.
We will do 32 car Double Elimination series.

Heres the rules for all 3 classes:

Magnatraction Muscle Cars:
Magnatraction or Xtraction Chassis
Level 7 HCS (Harden Creek) Magnets or we are now allowing the Dash Level 6 magnets.
Mean Green arms, either green/green or green/gold. We are now allowing the Dash 5.5 ohm arm and can consider the tfx 5.5 ohm arm as well. 
Stock Cluster and Crown Gears
Slip on Rear Tires, any brand, any hubs, and axles
American muscle car or funny car body
Wheelie bars are optional 
Front weights are Optional 
Open Front tires 
Pick up shoes, no braids
Must use electrical tape between shoes and magnets to prevent shorts
Complete body w/ glass, but can be trimmed for weight loss
Magnets can be shimmed
Any brushes you prefer.

Inline Brass Drag Cars:
Viper, BSRT, and Wizard Fusion Chassis
6 Ohm "Stock" arms, no lower than 5.5 ohms. No Balanced Arms!
C4 or Level 4 Motor Magnets 
7/23 Gears from any manufacturer, preferably hardened gears, no metal!
Slip on rear tires, no Foam Silicone tires!
Any Hard Body w/ any clip.
No Modifying the Chassis 
No Braids!
Any Front tires, weighted fronts optional.
Glue Dots can be used to hold bodies.
20 Gram Minimum Total Car Weight!
Any Brass Weight Kit, must have weights on front and rear!
Silver Electrical Components Allowed, shoes, springs, hangers, endbell...
No Ball Bearings!!!

Stock 4 Gears:
Stock Autoworld 4 Gear Chassis
You can cut body mounts to fit customs and older Aurora Bodies
Any 4 Gear bodies or Resins
No Top Fuel Funny Cars or Dragsters!
Only stock Auto World 4 gear 16 ohm armatures may be used.
Rims and Tires and axles can be swapped. Pro Track wheels can be used.
21 grams minimum total car weight. 

As I'm still on the road testing will start end of the coming week with a late entry of my cars.

Anyone intrested please let me know!


Nico

Our friends from Munich strike another race classics again: 

https://www.srcp3.de/news/15-05-2022-akt...-jam-2022/

I'll be there again with my dear friend Stefan!
17.6. and 18.6. are the days of the 5ltr classic cars!

Nico