It seems like I am building a lot of Lola T70 kits at the moment,....this one from AMT.  This kit came out in 1965, and despite it being powered by a "chunky" 36D it was one of the better performing/handling kits of the time. largely because of its fairly heavy brass chassis. They made a complete slot car kit, and a static model kit......mine is the Static kit, but I do have an original chassis/motor, and all the other bits.

This is the original Static kit box......I unfortunately, did not buy it for $1.12.  ............the kit came with the slot car body mounts, slot car interior, and all the other bits to make this into a slot version.



The body is of the very early T70 Spyder, and is very well molded, but, still needs a bit of work and a good clean up/prep.
 




The chassis while quite good out of the box, really benefits from a few mods.,..............the guide tongue used a single nut bolt to attach it to the main chassis plate, and by sliding the guide tongue back/forth it was wheelbase adjustable, so it was universal for all the AMT releases in the series. (Lola T70, McLaren Elva, Chaparral, and the Hussein).

Unfortunately, only bolting the guide tongue made it prone to slipping, and also not sitting perfectly square, so soldering it in was a big improvement, and this has been done. There is also a piano wire gusset soldered under the step in the front of the guide mount, which helps considerably in strengthening this area.

The chassis was also prone to bending under/behind the motor. so some .047 wire has been soldered lengthwise to the chassis plate along the bottom of the motor........this helps.

Both the front and rear axle uprights were somewhat flimsy, and tended to bend, which invariably bound up the axles, so  a wire brace was made for the rear uprights, and a front axle tube was made from 2 diameters of brass tubing   which hold 3/16 x 1/8 sintered bushings,...................better performance, and, much more durable.......priceless  

The motor is an original AMT 36D but has been fairly heavily reworked, by John H.......Arco 33 magnets, shims, bushings replaced, better quality comm, bulletproofed endbell, brushes, springs, and a rewound/balanced 55/30 wind armature ( a good step up from stock but, not crazy)
 

 
 

 
I have had some really nice cast aluminum T70 wheels (5/40 fronts, set screw rear) sitting around for ages,..........they will look great on the car .
 


Cheers
Chris Walker

PS Will post updates

What is with this growing trend of some manufacturers making ridiculous wheel arches ?
If you are putting a wheel that totals 20mm diameter on a car stock, make the arch suitable for that. If tuners want to use larger wheels or have more room for body/pod movement it isn't difficult to open them out.
I mean how ridiculous does this look ?

   

I installed a 1mm offset pod with 21mm OD tyres and still had a gap at the top, so I will need to put 1mm spacers to lift the pod up to get the look right.
I am less fussed for cars I will race, but not on this, put the race sized wheels in there and it looks even more crazy bad.
Nope its going to be made to look right and run at home.

And while I am at it, a common method I use to buy axles for cars is to go 10-12mm shorter than the width to the outside edges of the tyre. So this car at the front, is around 63mm, why the heck have they supplied 45mm axles ? By the time you space them to the right position there is hardly anything left of the wheel on the axle. The  Sideways group 5 cars now cost the same as the better spec'd GT3 cars from Sideways so why the heck are they cutting corners ?

Don't even get me started on the UK importers inability to order in a reasonable timescale, and then only get some of the stuff that's been released ( no white kits of this car, no body only kit, no chassis, no spare wings in either stock or flexy flavour … grrrrrrr 

Please join me as I detail some figures for our track!



Any and all comments are more than welcomed!

Thanks

John

Hosted at Silverstone this was the first ever race run to F1 rules.

Leo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/formula1/52641917

No Motorsport on TV, no football, cricket, tennis, golf or anything else. Don't worry folks, the BBC have the answer and are bringing us The World Stone Skimming Championships next Wednesday. I can't wait.

New car announcement from Team-Slot.   Lancia Delta HF 4WD, Lombard RAC Rally 1987.
Photo via MRE but I think it is 1:43 diecast.

   

Not Star Wars - but Car Wars.

I checked 'The Manual' but haven't spotted anything on how to set up pod racers - slot cars with motor pods.

Too much adjustment. Where do I start?

With more basic cars you loosen the body screws to let the body move a bit. 

Do you do the same for a motor pod chassis, or do you keep the body screws tight and loosen the pod, or have both loose?

For the pod, which of the three (or five now!) pod screws should be loose and which tight?

Are such adjustments the same for an AW, SW or inline pod? 

I know there will be tons of variables but as a starter for ten please?

 Hi, I'm a new member who had the idea of building a permanent layout in the loft before COVID after finding some old Scalextric from when the kids were young as it made me reminisce about playing with Scalextric as a youngster.

Since lockdown, I've managed to get some bits done and sorted a track layout but now have pulled it all up so I can do the scenery etc. Hopefully, I will get to a point where I can actually do some more racing .

Maybe I will put some pictures up if I get there one day.

   

Scalextric C4092B VW T1B Ambulance - UK Slot Car Festival 2020 Limited edition of 100

This limited edition VW ambulance was commissioned for the 2020 UK Slot Car Festival at the British Motor Museum by the organisers Pendle Slot Racing, Roger Barker and Scale Models. With the event cancelled, the cars will go on sale this weekend.

Quote:Part of our plans for the 2020 UK Slot Car Festival was to produce a Limited Edition VW T1B Ambulance. Little did we know two years ago when we started to plan, how relevant this model would be and we would be releasing it amidst the awful coronavirus worldwide pandemic. With this in mind we have listed the Limited Edition Number 1 of 175 Ambulance on Ebay with all proceeds being donated to NHS charities.

The charity auction link is here.

The remaining models will be available from Pendle Slot Racing, Roger Barker and Scale Models - going on sale at 10am this Saturday, when the festival was due to open to the public. The price is £125.

I just love this car. It is such a brute. 

It was one of 3 originally built by Lola cars between 1962 and 1963. It is rated as the fist sports car to be mid- engined. It had a 289ci Ford v8. Eric Briadley managed to make this spec of car when the  transverse colotti gearbox was made. It also had an aluminium monocoque, although lgt 2 with a steel tub was produced first and raced by Tony Maggs at Silverstone and Nurburgring, while the aluminium tub was finished for Le Mans. This car was Lgt2 which was sold to the American Mecom racing team. The Ford mayor broke on lap 4 in its first race and was replaced by the Traco tuned 6 litre Chevy v8 and it became a fatty to take the motor. 

This is the Ghostmodels version of that cat
I have used PSR chassis and a set of BWA wheels that I gave had for years in the spares box. 

   

   

   

   

   

This is the story so far.