Well, I'm not sure what to say about today's race. I'm almost lost for words.

But it was surely one of the most dramatic, and most ridiculous F1 races ever. Absolute mayhem.

Crazy circuit, described as Silverstone with Monaco walls, lots of bad feeling between the teams, and lots of decisions to argue about. I've never heard of a situation where a race director actually negotiates with a team about a penalty. Absolutely bizarre.

But the end result is that we go into the final race with Max and Lewis equal on points, and that's the first time the two leading drivers have headed to the last race equal on points since 1974, I'm led to believe.

Whatever happens, any Max or Lewis fanboys will have plenty to complain about if it doesn't go their way, but surely any fan of motorsport will be watching next weekend.

This tutorial is very useful, when you have a 3D file that's too thin...or too thick you can modify it with the 'Displace' tool.

   

'Displace' adds or subtracts thickness, the default 'strength' is 1.000 which is 100% increase in thickness. 

0.000 'strength' would be no change, -0.100 would be 10% thinner and 0.100 would be 10% thicker.

   

Here's the Blender Thickening Tool Tutorial

   

Hornby plc have reported their half year figures up to September. You can read the pdf document here: https://wp-hornby-2020.s3.eu-west-2.amaz...-FINAL.pdf

The headline figures are:

• Group revenue of £21.8 million (2020: £21.1 million) an increase of 3% on prior year
  
• Operating Group loss before tax of £0.3 million (2020: profit of £0.2 million)
  
• Statutory loss before taxation for the period of £0.7 million (2020: profit of £17,000)
  
• Net cash £0.2 million (2020: Net cash £4.0 million)
  

Chief Executive Lyndon Davies is quoted in the document,

Quote:Revenues have marginally increased in the first half, despite being held back by supply disruption. Container shipping costs have soared, requiring us to raise our selling prices in August to cover this. Shipping times from our overseas factories have nearly doubled to circa 70 days, whereas pre-covid this was around 35-40 days. We have now taken the pain for those lost sales.

Demand for our products is higher than ever, therefore it is disappointing to have experienced the supply chain problems which seem to be easing but remain volatile. We are heading into our key Christmas trading period and right now it is hard to tell what the outcome will be for the full year results. However, we are as well placed as we can be with our order book 35% higher than it was a year ago.

The full report gives an interesting insight into the problems impacting on pretty much all manufacturing supply chains worldwide - and particularly the issues of labour and power shortages in China.

The Andros Trophy is a great way to fill the winter motorsport void. It's essentially Rally-Cross on ice - featuring some top drivers from across various disciplines, plus celebrities and manufacturer-prepared cars. The venues are in France and Andorra - stretching across from the Alps to the Pyrénées - and the series starts this weekend at the Val Thorens ski resort.

You can follow all the action live via the official website: http://www.tropheeandros.com/index.php/r...ndros.html

   

The cars went all-electric in 2019 and the various manufacturers install their own powertrains to a standard chassis. You can read more about the series (in English) at Dirtfish here: https://dirtfish.com/rallycross/why-you-...is-winter/

These are the dates for your calendar:

December 4-5: Val Thorens
December 17-18: Andorra
January 7-8: Isola 2000
January 21-22: Lans en Vercors
January 29: Super Besse

There will be plenty of news and updates on the Trophée Andros Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tropheeandros

SRC announced their Porsche 914/6 set, winners of the Marathon de la Route 1970; a 86 hours race held on the Nürburgring.
Porsche scored a dominating 1-2-3 finish on the "green hell", the nick name of the German circuit.

This is what SRC reported about their new set:
* Note to the car:
We present the reference 900112 with the winners of the 86h of the Nürburgring of 1970 in the Marathon de la Route.
SRC models with details of the replica in a different version with a different detail for this occasion. With these 3 cars people can have fun on their circuits.
For our clients there will be 400 units available with their numbers in each GLASSPACK that identifies the limited and numbered edition.
The small book that it includes has been summarized with the best intention that the client also knows a little about us and our passion for what we do.
Release date: December 8, 2021.

Here are some pictures of the set:

Hub

       

       

Gentlemen it turns out I need to work this weekend so without wanting to delay Round 0 and moving forward I ran Round 0 this afternoon and recorded the video. While I’m at work the video will Premier at 12PM Saturday…..3PM Eastern. Hopefully this time helps all of our Australian and European friends.

There is 14 qualified cars in Round 0 so this won’t be as long of a watch vs the 3 hour shootout. How do the 14 qualified cars stack up against the 13 shootout winners……watch and find out!!  It’s going to be a heck of a series!

Watch this thread for the YouTube link.

Good Luck All!

Rob

   

Slot.it CA39e Lola B12/80 #70 - 12 Hours of Sebring 2014 - Sylvain Tremblay, Tom Long and Ben Devlin. RRP £64.95. Available 7 December 2021


The LMP2 Lola B12/80 has proved an excellent model for Slot.it. The early-to-mid 2010s LMP2 regs gave wider cars than the current crop - so Slot.it can create a perfect 1:32 scale car with a big 64mm rear track. There are plenty of liveries for Slot.it to choose from - thanks to Mazda extending the life of the car in the US - and many of them are rather special, including this latest one...

       

The 2014 12 Hours of Sebring was the second race in a new era of North American sportscar racing - ALMS was gone and the Grand-Am division of NASCAR had taken over to create the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. The ALMS-derived LMP2 category ran alongside the Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes in a single prototype class. At the front, the two types of car were on a similar pace - yet at the end of the gruelling 12 hour race, the Ford DP of Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti found itself in victory lane. It was Ford's first Sebring win since Ickx and Oliver back in 1969...



You'll recognise quite a few of the cars in the highlights video from their slot car models, so the new Slot.it Lola is a nice addition. The #70 Lola was never in the running - finishing 30th overall. However, it was one of the most stunning liveries on that 2014 grid. Mazda had taken the plunge and created a works team for the 2014 championship - entering two cars under the guise of SpeedSource Race Engineering. Building on the success of the production-based SkyActiv-D diesel turbo in the Grand-Am GX class Mazda 6, this was the biggest step for Mazda since their successful Le Mans programme in the early 90s. The 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel powered a Lola B12/80 chassis, rebuilt and prepared by Multimatic. Using a tried and tested platform does have its benefits - but despite Multimatic working their usual magic, the Lola was essentially a six-year-old design...

       

Results through the season were mediocre to say the least, but Mazda stuck with it - the LMP2 was raced for three seasons, before being replaced by the Riley-based and Multimatic-developed Mazda RT24-P Daytona Prototype in 2017. Run by Joest and currently Multimatic, the Mazda DP has gone on to be a real contender for IMSA SportsCar Championship wins - including at Sebring last year. Taking the long view, the Lola B12/80 was the start of that successful journey...




Underneath the sensational body shell, the layout is the standard Slot.it Lola LMP with a 20.5k Flat 6 motor in a 1mm offset anglewinder pod, 11:32 gearing, 17.3mm rims (aluminium at the rear), plus a screw-in LMP-style guide. There's also the new SP45 connector so the car can be converted to digital without soldering, using the appropriate Slot.it digital chip...

       

The Slot.it Lola is a great out-of-the-box Le Mans Prototype slot car racer. The unusual guide prevents the guide wires from fouling on the body, but can be a bit fiddly to work on. However, if you're looking to add a modern LMP to your racing stable, this would make a good choice. And there's the whole range of Slot.it parts to tune it for your track - or for club racing. If you want to see a similar car in action, check out Gary Skipp's latest video: https://slotracer.online/community/showt...p?tid=2578

The #70 SpeedSource Mazda Lola B12/80 is due to arrive with distributors next week. A big thank you to Jo at Galileo Engineering for the wonderful photographs and the release details.

   

Pictures of the 14 guaranteed entrants and technical information.   This group of 14 cars along with the top 13 shoot out entrants (27 total cars) that was determined a few days ago move onwards in the 10 race GT3 series.

Cgyracer #10
2nd 2021, 2020 Champion
dyno rpm 6800 @ 10v
92 grams


Body: Sideway Ford GTE
Chassis: Sideways Standard
Guide: Slotting Plus
Pod / Configuration: SW Slot.it 1 mm
Motor: NSR Shark 25
Gears: 11 / 34
Front Hubs: CBD 15x10
Rear Hubs: CBD 15x13
Front Tires: Slot.it
Rear Tires: NSR Supergrip 5222 For Vanquish Cars




F1Fan #7

4th 2021, 2015 Champion
dyno rpm 8000 @ 10v
87 grams

Body: Sideway Ford GTE
Chassis: Sideways Standard
Guide: Slotting Plus
Pod / Configuration: SW Slot.it 1 mm
Motor: Slot.It 29k
Gears: 11 / 34
Front Hubs: NSR
Rear Hubs: NSR
Front Tires: NSR
Rear Tires: NSR Ultragrips

Hi Folks.

Started playing Scalextric on my 8th birthday, began club racing Ten years later and still doing it. 

Have competed in some fantastic series over the years including; Merv Palmer's regional and national touring car series and the British Scalextric Grand Prix in the 90's, BRSCA National, Southern 32, Cotswold Challenge and the heyday of the EAHORC national HO series in the 00's and ended up co-administrating The HO Racing League in the 10's. Currently quietly (no laughing at the back from those who know me) enjoying weekly 1/32 hard body club racing at FLBT and our monthly HO racing group both in Wiltshire.

Reasonable triggersmith but very poor car builder so most of my success comes in endurance hand out or team events and as such am a multiple AFX 6hr winner in HO and MBR 24hr winner in 1/32.

Love full size Motorsport too and am as happy watching club racing at Castle Combe as I am attending long haul Grand Prix or Le Man's.

Those in the UK may have bumped into me running public tracks at the Gaydon Slot Festival and the Swindon Scalextric Swap meet, for those who have not, may your good fortune continue.

Definitely a lifer in the hobby and here to seek and share knowledge in all aspects of it.

Marc

At proxy events over recent days it has become evident that in order to compete, I need a little routed wood test track at home to actually run and tune my cars on the appropriate surface before sending them off. So my latest idea is to sort out a figure of eight layout. 

A couple of questions... 

1. Ignoring and board size (at this blue sky stage) what would be the optimum radius curves to have? I am looking at Scalextric charts and thinking somewhere around R2/R3?

   

2. In the World Wide Chats, everyone says use the cheapest latex paint for the track surface. What paint type does that translate to in the UK? 

Has anyone got any better idea for a little tuning test track, or can show photos of any?

Cheers