£8 collected from the Tyco US1 display at Gaydon, or £10 posted.

   

Just bought a nice Carrera 1/32 #14 Cheetah. Love it - but it's suffering from both extremes of Carrera tyre syndrome. Fronts are rock hard and rears like mush.

Any recommendations for original or aftermarket replacements (not silicones) available in the UK please?

I'm wanting to keep the standard wheels and will be using it magless on Scalextric Sport track.  

Thanks.

In my latest video you can follow my adventures in the Netherlands for the Suzuka Double Digital race weekend held at SRC Eindhoven on their fantastic Ninco Suzuka replica.

Video contains;
Cats
Coffee
Boats
Planes
Windmills
Bicycles

And slot cars I guess

 

The countdown is underway, less than a week to go until UKSF 2022, and I'm sure you wont be surprised to find that the NSCC will be there with a selection of NSCC branded merchandise; mugs, pens, fleeces, polos, key rings and track barriers.

We'll also have some of our dwindling stock of past cars, so drop by, you may be able to fill a hole in your collection.

does anyone else use this for their guide braids ?
it is a very soft braid and seems to work well 
it is far cheaper than the after market braids from the major companies 
i try to use the un-fluxed type , but it seems to be getting more difficult to find 
is there a reason why 'fluxed' or 'no clean' wick shouldn't be used ?
does it not make much difference ?
is it worth trying to remove the flux from fluxed wick ?
is there even a way to do this ?

Kev

Our next race is May 29. Racing is free and loaner cars are available. Hot dogs are on the house. Call 603-826-4242 for details.






https://www.slotcarhotrod.com/racedivisions

The club cars are all the same so the class provides an even playing field and means that driver skill is tested more than ever.  There was an average turn out for this event with most of the regulars turning up.  Paul had brought along 4 of the Legends race cars for us to use.  The first two heat races were raced using the Legends cars and although they proved to be fast they were also very unstable, coming out of the slot upon acceleration and flying off the track in the corners, even with a few tweaks by James after the first couple of races he couldn’t get them to become easier t drive. 

It was decided that those cars were to be given to James to work his magic on for round 4 and that the trusty McLaren P1’s on the track for the remainder of the heats.  Once these cars were on the track the racing settled down and started to flow.  Racing was very even over the heats with everyone putting in some good lap times and a few close races.

C final was Tom in green Elijah in blue and Evie in yellow.  These three are some of our youngest drivers but that doesn’t mean that the racing was any less competitive though.  Tom got off to a good start pulling out a good gap over Evie but a couple of off meant that Evie pulled into the lead and Tom was at the back with Elijah in second.  Evie was going well with a steady pace at the front but Tom having got passed Elijah was quickly catching up with her. Evie came off just after the start/finish line which meant that Tom could pass her and pull out a commanding lead.  Across the line it was Tom in first Evie in second and Elijah came in a steady third.  Tom progressing to the B final.
 
B final lined up like this: Paul in green, Andy in blue, Jason in red and Tom in yellow.  Paul and Andy got off to a quick start from the line leaving Jason and Tom to fight out for third and forth position.    The fight for first place was tight between Paul and Andy but Andy managed to pull away from Paul and maintained the lead to the end of the race. Towards the back of the pack Jason was battling with Tom for third place, Jason got away from Tom after Tom came off in the corner to take third place, tome came home in fourth.

Main final, Ken in green, Heather in blue, Andy in red, James in yellow.  With the fastest drivers of the night now competing for the top 4 everyone was in for a treat with the main final.  A good start was made by all the drivers off the line and racing was close for the first half of the lap.  Heather and James started to pull away from Ken and Andy at the front; soon they had a good lead.  Meanwhile there was a good battle developing at the back between Ken and Andy, Ken able to pull away down the straights but Andy managed to catch up in the corners. This battle went on for most of the race until on the last lap Andy overcooked it on the hairpin and came off.  At the front James maintained the lead over heather to win the final, Heather came in second Ken in third and Andy coming in fourth.

   

Slot.it CA51a Ferrari 512M #16 - 24h Le Mans 1971 - Chris Craft and David Weir. RRP £64.95. Available June/July 2022

I admit to having gone weak at the knees looking at these images when they were sent through by Slot.it - so please make yourself comfortable and turn off any heart-monitoring devices before continuing. Long-awaited, but most definitely worth waiting for, this is the first Ferrari to appear with Slot.it branding since the original 312PB - and it's an absolute stunner...

       

The Ferrari 512 was created to take on Porsche's 917 in the Group 5 sports car category - something Enzo Ferrari was determined to do and he sold half the company to Fiat to free up funds for the project. The new Ferraris were made available to customer teams, but none of the original 512S could match the 917k. The tally in 1970 was one victory to Ferrari (Sebring) and nine to Porsche. By the end of the year, the modified 'fast circuit' spec 512M version showed promise and won the non-championship Kyalami 9-hour race, but Ferrari abandoned their factory involvement in 1971 to concentrate on developing what would become an all-conquering 3-litre prototype programme for 1972. However, the 512M would continue in the hands of private teams...

       

The story of Ferrari 512 chassis #1028 begins as a 512S Spyder built for NART and delivered to Luigi Chinetti in January 1971. The car was immediately sold to New York entrepreneur and gentleman-driver David Weir, which he raced at Sebring in March, alongside Chuck Parsons. They failed to finish. NART rebuilt the engine and the car was entered in the Monza 1000kms, where Weir had hired Alain de Cadenet to co-drive, but the car didn't make the start. The car was then converted to the 'M' spec by Ferrari - under the supervision of David Piper - and was made ready for Le Mans...

       

That's where de Cadenet's pal and top British saloon and sports car driver  Chris Craft comes in. I'll let him take up the story...

Quote:Alain ran me in '71 in a 512M that was a truck - very heavy steering - but I pulled 230mph and more on the Mulsanne once the motor loosened up. We had something like 560bhp, a real stonker. I was down to drive with car owner David Weir, a wealthy American playboy who went on to write for Road & Track. I admit that I was not at all keen.

David was a party animal and an erratic driver, but Le Mans was his dream. We got him down to Dave Prowse's gym in the East End - Dave being the old Green Cross Code man who played Darth Vader - and got him in shape. Weir knuckled down and drove well, while the car was fantastic. You have to keep in mind that we were a potless privateer team up against manufacturers and well-funded semi-works teams.

Remarkably, the car finished fourth - behind two Porsches and one of the NART Ferraris. It fulfilled Weir's dream, although Craft went one better five years later - sharing Alain de Cadenet's Lola to third place in 1976. It's difficult to do Chris Craft's racing and engineering career justice - but it's probably fair to say that he's one of those dozens of highly-talented drivers who really should have hit the big time...

       

The '71 race set a record for distance covered that would stand for over forty years. The #16 Ferrari finished 42 laps behind the winners, but outlasted seven other Ferrari 512 entries of various S, M and F guises - all of which would make fabulous Slot.it models. Here are some of them up close in a restored ACO film of the event - great pictures, not so great sound...



Weir sold his Ferrari to another American Ferrari enthusiast in May 1972. It was sold again in 1989 to Jeffrey and Marge Lewis, who began to show and race the car at historic events in North America. The car returned to Europe in 1996 and has remained on the historic racing circuit ever since. If you wanted to buy a 512M today, you're looking at upwards of $15-20 million. Thankfully, Slot.it's version has a much more affordable price-tag...

       

The chassis is just as we'd expect for a Slot.it or Policar classic sports car model - a 0.5mm offset sidewinder motor pod with the MX16 23k S-Can motor and 32-tooth plastic crown gear, paired with an 11-tooth brass pinion. The car is fitted with the SP45 cables to allow for easy, non-solder conversion to digital, using the latest Carrera and Scalextric compatible Slot.it chips.

If Maurizio makes it over to Gaydon next weekend, I'm sure he'll have samples of this car with him. It should be arriving with the next batch of Slot.it and Policar models, alongside the CA33d Audi R8 LMP and the CAR02g JPS Lotus 72. Many thanks to Jo and the sales team at Galileo Engineering for the fabulous images - here's one more to finish...

   

4 cars stay in lane, each driver has to drive each lane/car. 1 spare car available as you can see. 

   

Nico

The Bentley Continental certainly stands out on a GT grid. Scalextric made a version of the 2013-17 GT3 Bentley and now Racer Sideways have added the big car to their ever-expanding GT range...

         

This looks to me like the current 2018 version of the car, based on the third-generation road car - very much a status symbol car for footballers, actors and business people. Despite legendary British heritage, Bentley are now part of the Volkswagen Group - whose roster of GT3 cars include the Continental, Audi R8, Lamborghini Huracán and Porsche 911. Racer Sideways started their GT range with the Huracán, but none of the models are licensed - hence the Bentley's official name is "Bent UK GT3"...

       

I'm quite partial to muscular looks of the latest Continental - and Racer Sideways have kept the boxy shape and the height. That might not make a perfect racer, but a squished Bentley would have looked awful...

       

I suspect the white kit isn't too far away, but I'll be waiting in anticipation to see the liveries. There's a Bentley Continental or two in most GT championships around the world - not huge numbers, but there are some nice liveries. However, my favourite  - and the most historically significant so far - is the 2020 Bathurst 12 Hours winning car...



Now, if Racer produced that race-winning car and included a 1:32 scale kangaroo in the box, they'd have my money straight away...