I subscribe to Premier Sports so I can get live coverage of NASCAR races. A week ago I lost access to the channel without warning and, on checking my bank account, found they had not taken any money since January. The direct debit was still active and I definitely hadn't cancelled the subscription.

They are not easy to get hold of at the best of times but they have now shut their call centre and are just sending gibberish auto replies to emails so I haven't a clue what went wrong and can't get it sorted. Not a major problem as they are only showing Iracing at the moment and that gets repeated on FreeSports anyway.

Today....wait for it.......I got an email from them............they are really missing me and I can get the next three months free if I rejoin! Is it me that's crackers or the rest of the world?

In my initial review, (in the 1/32 section.....Oct. 2019) , I did mention a couple of things that I felt held this chassis back from being an "Elite" competition chassis. While it is very good out of the box, especially for the less experienced scratchbuilder (it has a wide range of wheelbase/guide lead / body mount options ) it does not have an adjustable front axle vertical adjustment, and it is torsionally a bit (way) too stiff, which limits ultimate rear tire grip........don't get me wrong. it is quite good, but, everything can be improved 

I have not yet remedied the adjustable front axle issue, but have done the mods. to allow for some torsional movement in the chassis...........both these mods. are being addressed on future MRSlotcar chassis releases (it may be a while) , but, in the mean time you can incorporate these if you wish..

Cheers
Chris Walker

In the first pic. you can see that on the stock chassis, that the guide mount, is part of the front axle carrier/wheelbase adjustment plate, and when bolted snug, as it has to be to secure the guide, the whole chassis becomes very (too) stiff torsionally




To remedy that the guide mount plate needs to be cut from the front axle plate and mounted separately and securely

In the next pic. you can see the guide plate has been cut and soldered to the base plate....(2 holes in the actual guide mount plate and the 2 different length guide tongue bits allow for 4 varying guide lead dimensions)

We can now have the guide solidly mounted, with the ability to add some torsional flex to the front axle/wheelbase plate.



In order to maintain perfect alignment of the front axle holes, I cross braced the front axle plate, before, cutting the guide mount section away.

Modified front axle/wheelbase plate...



To achieve some torsional flex in the front axle plate, I used some silicone washers on top of the axle plate, and under the Nylok nuts....these should be adjusted to be snug, but, not tight enough to compress the washers.

In a perfect world, it would be nice to have washers above and below the front axle plate, but, without a major re design, this is just not possible.

It is hard to see, but the washers are there 



Another little thing with the out of the box chassis......if you wish to use any front tires with less than 19mm dia. there is precious little room under the guide for even thin braid......you will be OK on tracks with a bit of braid recess, but on taped/steel rail tracks it is dodgy. So a quick fix for that is to file/grind the bottom flange of the guide tube a few thou,.....if you take too much, not to worry, as it is easy to add a guide spacer.

This pic. is upside down ........the wide flange sits on the top of the guide surface.




Modified, the chassis was just over a 1/10th quicker on my track, and more progressive/easier to drive at the limit 

You're invited to join the next World Wide Slot Car Chat!

Chats take place every Wednesday, alternating between 11am Pacific and 4pm Pacific time slots. The link to join is usually posted on Tuesday as a comment below.

For security reasons, guests will be held in a waiting room prior to joining the chat. Please be patient when joining in as it might take longer than normal.

Participants should leave their microphone muted unless they are speaking. This is to avoid accidentally interrupting someone who is talking. If you are making noise, I will mute your mic, so don't unmute until you're ready to speak. That said, don't be afraid to unmute when you want to add something to the conversation. I don't always catch every little wave. Join the chat a few minutes early to test things out and figure out where the mute button is. We are usually there 10-15 minutes early, but the recording will start on the hour.

Suggestions are welcome for talking points and questions you would like to see us answer. If you have a burning question for the group, or a subject you'd like to discuss or watch later, please post your ideas below. I'll compile them all before the chat and we'll see how many we can get to.

Come as a viewer or participant, either is fine. You can mute your mic and/or block your camera, it's up to you. There's even a text chat function that can be used if you don't or can't use a microphone.

I hope you are able to join us!

Catch up on prior meetings by reviewing the recordings in this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL..._iARSXX_zf

I admit, this may be "common" knowledge but we finally got a new track set up (ARC PRO/Scalextric Sport) and are going through every car we have seeing how they run and deciding what they need done to make them run better.

We got around to some Carrera digital cars (specifically the D132 Huracon and '77 Trans Am) and I was not surprised when we put the cars on the track and nothing happened. I flipped the switch figuring they were in digital mode and while the lights went on they faded back off fairly quickly.

So I got out my trusty variable volt power supply and connected it up directly to the blades. Strangely the wheels won't move unless I put at least 9 volts on them (the cars have been sitting in their boxes for over a year so I am guess the motor had "seized" a bit, after the initial start they started working at lower voltages).  Anyway, so I got the motor running and I put them on the track and... nothing...

I double checked with the power supply and the motor worked then I "twiigged" and put the car on the track the other way round (left to right) and it worked!

Same thing with the other Carrera digital car.

I don't remember ever hearing or reading this before.

I plan on replacing the decoder with a light board as we will never have a Carrera digital setup (these boards are somewhat easy to obtain. When people "upgraded" analog cars with lights they replaced them with a digital decoder). I am curious the light board will allow travel in both directions (as is the case for a lot of Carrera cars) or if I will have to swap the wires over on the motor.

So, like I said, probably common knowledge but new to me (I still find saran wrap/cling film exciting so I am probably weird) and if anyone has experience with the light boards and dual direction I greatly appreciate your input.

Another project completed but not well,the decals wrinkled when  lacqered.I will have to strip it sometime in future.Alfa Romeo Giulietta sprint.

 

Hang out the bunting, wave your flags, and pop open the champagne.

It's exactly a year since we officially opened our little site. So....

Happy Birthday everyone!


Many thanks to all of you, and make sure to check out the home page for new content being added throughout the rest of the week.

Here is part two of 1/32 scale Cobra Daytona Coupe, Ferrari 250 GTO build:



Any and all comments are more than welcomed!

Thanks

John

The Richmond Trophy

Was reviewing how to fit a chip to my Cartrix Ferrari F555 when I noticed that the pinion gear was jamming on the crown gear on the same spot each turn. So I took off the pinion gear to try and work out what was causing the interference. During my investigations with my modelling knife (C+H Fabrics Starter Kit) I managed to split the gear on the casting joint. So...

• Tried fitting a spare Scalextric 9t pinion, but it seems the motor has a 1.5mm shaft so the gear was too big
  
• Looked up 1.5mm 9t pinion on PSR and the only ones are brass, which is not allowed in the rules (?).
  
• Thought I would fit a spare Scalextric motor with 2mm pinion, but the Cartix motor is endbell drive, so it seems the regulation Scalextric 18k Mabuchi motor will not fit into the chassis.
  
• Went on PSR and their own brand endbell drive Mabuchi motor is listed as 16k, so too slow.
  
• The only motor on PSR that fits the shape and speed rating is a SRP S-Can Speed18 Motor 18000rpm 12v Can & Endbell-Drive 2.0mm 
  

So my query is...

Am I allowed to install a 9t brass pinion on the existing motor, and if not, which endbell drive motor can I fit?

(Or does anyone know where I can get a plastic 9t pinion to suit a 1.5mm dia shaft)

Cheers

When you get into a great novel just to come across an entire chapter or multiple pages of crap.. aka fillers, aka backstories.

Most of these fillers and backstories are not warranted and simply make the novel appear thicker and longer than it actually is. Give me the novel without all this crap. 

Am reading one now, well trying to, however this crap/filler/backstory is ruining the flow of the novel, grrr

Well this is my home track, a fully routed four lane MrTrax (Peter Van Horssen, Hallam, Victoria, Australia)

I originally started out with Scalextric ARC PRO Digital, which was great, is great, just not what I really wanted as I found out.

No track name as yet, boring I know, that's me. Excuse the single mans mess in the photos