The 68th Rallye Sanremo takes place this weekend. Although merely a round of the Italian championship these days, it’s an iconic event and will host a number of current and former WRC stars this year. It looks as if local TV will be covering the opening ceremony today (Thursday) from 2pm local time and all the action from 8am Friday. 

Coverage is available from the local TV company Primocanale (https://www.primocanale.it/network/primocanale_motori/). There are already previews of all the stages on their YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCzioR9NZFjSWfM7bGDjG17A - look for the ‘Rally di Sanremo 2021’ playlist.

One person can go to club for practise after the 12th April but must pre-book and as before not Tuesdays.
 
Provisionally, racing could start 19th May, to the rule of 6. Subject to announcement from government.
 
 
email:   keith@norwichslotracing.co.uk
Phone: 01603 748 531

Following discussions elsewhere, I have checked what space is available in my garage to set up my track rather than go down the 'portable' route.

I have a space that will accommodate three 1200mm x 800mm table arranged in a U shape, something like this: -

   

My Chromebook won't run any of the usual track planning software, so does anyone have any good ideas for possible Scalextric layouts on this table arrangement? I'm thinking something like this...(not drawn to scale!)

   

Thanks in advance

   

If you’re thinking of getting involved in your local club, it’s not a bad idea to upgrade your track at home so it is wired the same as UK club tracks and has the same controller plug and socket system. That means you can get used to using whatever controller you decide to buy for club racing. Anything beyond a basic resistor controller won’t be compatible with both a UK club track and a Scalextric powerbase (‘positive’ polarity / ‘common ground’ vs ‘negative’ polarity / ‘common positive’). You do want lots of practice, but you don’t want to damage your new fancy controller!

   

Almost all UK club tracks use an old-fashioned 2-amp round 3-pin plug and socket system (you might also still find them used in caravans). The plugs and the sockets are still sold – for example at TLC Electric Supplies (https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CM1245.html). There is also a larger 5 amp round 3-pin system – that’s not the one you’re looking for.

I’ll show you how to rig up a single fused controller box that plugs into a good quality power supply (eg the Fusion models at Pendle Slot Racing: https://www.pendleslotracing.co.uk/brand/fusion.html) via banana plugs and attaches to a Scalextric straight so that it controls both lanes – ideal for solo running on a test track. If you add single crossover to the layout (to make use of both lanes in one ‘big’ lap) this power piece will act as a power tap. It isn’t compatible with turnaround loops.

The wiring diagrams I always refer to are these from the British Slot Car Association (BSCRA) website Tech section (http://www.slotcarracing.org.uk/) - specifically ‘Track Construction Part 5: Wiring & Power Supplies’ (from here: http://www.bscra.org.uk/trackbuild/index.htm)

   

And ‘How do I wire it up?’ in the Controller section here: http://www.bscra.org.uk/control/index.htm

   

These are the basic components I’ll be using…

2 Amp 1-gang round pin socket (£3.24 from TLC)
1-gang 47mm plastic surface box (£1.19 from TLC)

Pair of red & black 4mm banana plugs – 36A 60V rated (£0.95 each from Bitsbox)
20mm panel-mounted fuseholder – 250V 6.3A rated (£0.74 from Bitsbox)
20x5mm 5A quick-blow fuse (£0.22 each from Bitsbox)
2 metres twin stranded 42/0.2 speaker wire – 60V 15A rated (£0.76 from Bitsbox)
15A terminal block – aka ‘choc’ block (£1.06 for 12 way strip from Bitsbox)

   

That’s about £8 for the controller box, plus a 2-amp roundplug (eg £1.87 from TLC) for each of your controllers and a few extra fuses to have handy. You’ll also need a soldering iron, flux, solder and a few other basic tools. I will mount the track piece and controller box on some foamboard – mdf or hardboard would do just as well to keep things neat and compact. The only loose cables are the ones to the power supply. You’ll should work out how long those wires need to be and adjust your speaker wire order accordingly. The cable I’ll make will be about 5 foot long to reach a power supply under the table.

I have a spare one of these if anybody would like it for Graham's proxy event:
     

New in box. Complete, tested and working but front wheel gearing is slightly out of mesh and needs adjusting. Couple of shims on the axle should fix it.

£35 including UK postage. Payment by 'friends & family' PayPal or bank transfer.

Looking at The Manual, it says something in the range 25-45 ohms will do the job.

What would the different characteristics be of a 25 ohm controller compared to a 45 ohm one?

I play with cars that have standard Scalextric and Slot.it type motors in them.

Entries now open...

http://www.auslot.com/forums/index.php?/...r-entries/

21 spaces available, cars need to be in Australia by (or posted by...?) 19th July.

Nonfractal and myself have put our names down.

Hello

I have been driving slot cars on and off since about 1970, my Father was racing in the Southampton area around 1965 to 1966 on hard tracks, there were some people in the club who worked for Scalextric in Havent, lets say that there was a fairly liberal amount of track given away !!

I raced off and on through the 70's thru 90's occasionally we bought new sets, in the early 90's I raced a couple of seasons at the Netley Slot Car Club with Parma International 32's.

In 2002 I bought a GT40 set with the Sport track, I thought that the cars and smooth track were and still are great, lockdown and the threat of near permanent lock down going forwards made me dig the GT40 set out, it still ran great despite some really hard use in the past.

I also had a near new Porsche 911 GT3 (C2730) and that car was even better than the GT40's so I bought another the same to match it as a pair.

To add to the track collection I bought off of Ebay a Le Mans Sport set with Cadillac cars, only paid £50.00 for it delivered and it all runs good after a little bit of TLC.

My long term goal as I go into semi retirement is to build a permanent track using Scalextric sport as the base, I don't know if I will go digital. I race with my family and we use the old Scalextric RMS lap counter, seems to work good for us, the races we have seem to be pretty fast, not sure how we would change lanes going that quick!!

Lap record in qualifying on Sport Circuit 3 is 2 seconds dead with the Porsche 911 GT3 and the Le Mans Circuit 4 with the same car is 3.32 seconds.

I look forwards to learning some tips and tricks on car setup and track building.

Barrie

A few years ago - I bought a coule of Cox Cheetah's and these 3 cars came along.

Up until this weekend when I took all my Revell 'stuff' out to assess what I have (yes I do forget what I have stashed away   ) I saw these again. I really didnt have a good opinion of them. Clunky came to mind. They are made of polypropalene plastic and had been painted and decalled - by a youngster I guess back in the day. Like we all did

I was watching TV friday night and decided on the spur of the moment (as my Select 2D is still trying to 'unyellow' in the sun and my 'lexan' bodies are on the back burner), to clean up the cars. My trusty thumbnail and a toothpick came into play.

   

I had already cleaned up the Camaro in this pic, but you can see the other 2 as they arrived.

Why do I say clunky - look at the ride height and the amount of the chassis below the body line:

   

SO my first job on this car was to see if I could lover the ride height. Discarded the original tyre, and they have a 24mm OD. As I now have a large stock of tyres, (refer my tyre post), I had made some lower profile tyres from original Revell/Monogram tyres, as well as normal tinner type and the wider one as well.

I chopped off around 3-4mm of the chassis posts, and added the smaller tyres. Not that much smaller as The rear bearing are raised up in the chassis as the standard Mabuchi is huge, and thus track clearance becomes an issue. reas arre 22mm and fronts are 20 mm.

I had to do some judicious grinding of the driver deck to get the rear tyres cleared and free to move.

This is the view now:

   

I am now really liking these cars.   I then cleaned up the Mustang and the Cougar.

   

   

I then did the re-seating of chassis and tyres:

   

   


Like I said - I am now really liking these cars. I will stay with the original chassis/motors for the moment. I do have a later aluminium Revell chassis with the screw holes that would allow fitment to the body, and change to 16d type motors.

Here is the question - is it possible to paint these cars and for it to stick?  I have painted one of the Scalextric formula junior cars, where the paint has stuck, but has not been raced. I tend to think these will see racing action. Any help appreciated.
If anyone out there has some Revell ladder chassis they want to move on/sell - please let me know.

PS I do have all the chrome and glass work in good orrder.

MRE. 
Gary is retiring.
There is no emoji that is suitable  :o