The Kaefer is ready for the Little Monte proxy. 
4x4 with box motor
brass plate chassis
resin body
home made decals
missing mirrors, but they will come ....

I already I took this Home Series ScaleAuto Porsche 911 GT


And gave it the bench tune treatment. - you can read the article HERE
Now I open up the "Racing" version of the same model of car.



So what is the difference, what do you get for that extra 10 quid or so.

The front hubs are press-on plastic as before, but the rears are alloy with M2 grubs. Both pairs of hubs
measure 17.2 x 8 mm at centre, and with original tyres fitted, measure 19.65mm O.D.



This is a podded angle-winder powered by ScaleAuto's 20k standard FK-180 motor that has 285g/cm of
torque - which equates to about 14 watts power.
- As comparison the Slot.it yellow can Flat-6 fitted to their GT and LMP cars is 21k with 200 g/cm,
torque for 10.5 watts; the standard NSR King is 14.4 watts,
- (21k but slightly less torque), and the Slot.it Boxer-2 is 21.5k with 340 g/cm torque for 18.3 watts.
So it sits mid range among GT cars for overall power, and should be legal in most clubs GT classes
- do check your local rules.



I would describe the chassis as a "medium", not hard, but not super flexi like for plastic tracks.
The pod is rigid as needed for my wood track racing.

The chassis exhibited a bit of end-to end bow ex the injection molding process; so I did the usual,
giving it a hot water bath on the magnet plate.
This only needed one pour of boiling water, as it came out pancake flat once the water cooled.
Gearing is 11:27, an in similar fashion to the Home Series car, red grease had been applied to the
gears, and the motor either run, or turned manually to distribute this.



There is a fair bit of substance in the pod design where the corner of the motor mount section flows
into the drive side axle bearing holder, and the motor is fixed into the pod with screws both sides.
I am hopeful this will work well on high grip tracks without additional bracing.
I have removed the small magnet that sits at rear of the pod below the axle, as it adds more
weight at the back of the car,  and angle-winders are already more tail heavy than is optimal on most
tracks for wood racing.

On plastic, you probably want to retain the magnet, as the motor is closed-can with almost nil
down-force (5 g/cm) A light-weight stopper near right rear wheel the prevents lateral movement
and ensures the gear mesh doesn't alter once set. When unboxed, there was about 0.5mm lateral
movement. When I saw Europeans setting up cars for plastic track I was told this is normal;
preventing anything locking up, and helps with the cornering. - I don't like this arrangement for wood
tracl racing, I adjusted it to just free spinning, ie no lateral movement at all.

The guide is "stock" similar size to those fitted to most other good hobby brand cars as standard.
Unlike the Home Series car, this had no axle height inserts.
Instead, it came with grub screws already fitted as per our more common tuning conventions.
The braid was that hard stuff for plastic track, so I replaced that with soft 0.5mm braid.
This left almost a mm of naked guide out of the slot with the car viewed side on,
so I was able to raise the axle and drop the nose by adjusting the grub screws so the guide sits full depth
in the slot.
Getting your guide as deep in the slot as possible helps both with cornering stability, and to counter the
"nose lift" which occurs when these more powerful motors accelerate out of corners.
I have replaced the rear tyres with ScaleAuto SC-4728 "20 x 10" soft; which measure 20.2mm O.D.
when fitted, but after truing this dropped back to about 20.0mm even. I need to knock this diameter back,
as I want to retain as much gap as possible between the tyres and inside of the wheel arch.
They are not edge-profiled on the outside edge. I will also do this while on the tyre lathe, to enable
more body float.

I will probably need 8 or more grams of weight near the guide to counter "lift" and to adjust the front
to rear balance closer to that magic 40:60 front/rear balance that is always a good start point when tuning
a car for your track.   That weight can be added during track testing.

Note that these tyres are very low shore - less than A-shore 20 according to ScaleAuto, and the compound is
similar to Slot.it F15 or NSR "Extreme".
That means if you overheat them by applying too much force resistance doing truing, they WILL ball up,
and WILL turn to a sticky mess, proceed carefully.
The fronts themselves are reduced to about 19.4mm diameter after the glue and true process.
The splitter has only 0.5mm clearance.



Setting up one of these podded cars to go well without magnets is initially less work than a Home
Series car, but with the much higher powered motor, they need to be done well, as higher motor power
exposes tuning faults very quickly.
Below is Circuito Bahia Vista; the same technical 20 metre layout as used in the article for testing the
ScaleAuto  Home Series Porsche which achieved a respectable 6.8 lap.
This track is not as easy as it might look, a few home builder "tolerances" and some awkward reversals
of angle, mean the balance corner to corner is quite challenging.



The all-comers lap record on this track is a 6.1, so keep that in mind as you read on.
I was keen to see how this "R" series car performed. But first I ran some fully tuned  Group 5 cars
from my own racing stable, which I know to be well set up and fast on all tracks to warm myself up.



With the lower powered Group 5 (Slot.it orange bell), I eventually knocked over a high 6.5,
and for the other two, which both have easy handling sidewinder setups with Slot.it "red-Bell" 29k motors,
I managed 6.4s and 6.3s One of these cars placed 2nd overall in the New Zealand Group 5 proxy series
four or five years back.
That BMW has since been further "improved" and was dominant in club racing just three weeks ago,
so how does our little Porsche fare first up?



I came away from home without any lead for weight tuning, so I had to improvise with just
2 grams of blu-tak I found in my mobile "kit".  Well it was pretty quiet, and seemed stable,
so I gave it some curry. Within five laps I laid down a low 6.3 WOW ! I didn't expect that.

In the end, despite my belief it had a 6.2 in it, I never went below this 6.32 time, but I managed
quite a lot of 6.3s and 6.4s That is better than 3 metres per second average lap speed, for a very
technical circuit; and surprised me; having done no live tuning. I could easily run this in our GT3
class at club without any further development. With that bit more weight in the nose, I think a 6.2
would have been easily achieved.

So my verdict is: These ScaleAuto "R" series cars can foot it against any of the other top makers
with just the usual tuning. Most pleasing was that it showed no signs at all of shudder under heavy
load coming out of all the tight turns with a torquey FK-180 boxer type motor in angle-winder setup.
The pod stiffness with the motor screwed in to make a bracing element seems fine for high grip situations

I think ScaleAuto have done a very good job developing their new chassis and pods. Thank you Ivan.

As one customer put it after tuning his first ScaleAuto GT, which has the same pod and
running gear as this Porsche 911
“ Very pleased with Viper. Performance on par with NSR C6 Corvette.”

I'm fed up with hex keys and grub screws that round off. 

Is it me? (I think it must be. At least, I have a certain sense of Deja Vu! This this was a big bugbear first time around, as a 1/32 racer in the '60's!)

I 'invested', I thought, in a Pendle's set (Gaugemaster supplied?) that came with three keys and a pinion puller/pusher. The latter is fine. The former? Humph! 

Fail there then, so ...

I bought a different set - six different sizes, black, yellow and orange handles. Probably twice the price, from a different supplier - and they are no better.

Anyone point me at some that will WORK please? 

To be used on Ninco Lightning, NSR, Racer Sideways and ScaleAuto predominantly - and yes, I know I'll need several keys.  

If I ever manage to remove these different sized grub screws are there any decent replacements that won't round off either please?

Greetings all:

Former HO-scale slot fan, who was bit by the bug in 2nd Grade in 1977 when I got my first set, an Aurora A/FX Magna-Traction layout.  Lost interest as a teen as girls, sports, and real cars took over.  Re-discovered my slots again in my late 20's when I stumbled across a small store in Scotch Plains, NJ, called NJ Nostalgia.  Was big into collecting, had about 500 or so...up until about 13 years ago or so, when I discovered digital 1/32 slots.

Sold off all my HO stuff, jumped on the SCX Digital train, and loaded up...until they sort faded into oblivion, then I made the switch to Scalextric Digital about 5 years ago, and then to ARC-PRO about 2 years ago.  Have been busy collecting all of my favorite cars from that great age of racing from ~1965 through 1995 or so.  Lots of FLY, Scalextric, Carrera, MRRC, Spirit, Slot.It, etc. in my collection which is around 850 cars or so.  

My basement is currently being finished, and upon completion, I am going to build my layout, an 8X36 foot surface area that will be landscaped.  

Really like the clean look of this site, and all the great info.  I'll start posting pictures of my track build once I begin it.

We now have a new forum for slot car reviews.

The reviews are a great addition to the site, so many thanks to those who have posted them. We hope that having a dedicated forum will make it easier to find them.

Hi Guys, this may be helpful for people wanting to wire after market controllers for Policar Power base.

On another site, a slot car fan "ChrisH" posted a note about using 5,400 rpm motors to slow down slot-cars. The motors are available via Ebay sellers and I got a bunch via the linky below. Turned out great and the motor drives my test car at about a quarter of the speed of a normal Scalextric Mabuchi S-can. 
I tested one in my 1:32 Range Rover that sits on a Tamiya Mini 4WD chassis that has gearing of approximately 34 to 1. I have used this a few times as a camera car as it runs very slowly. With the new motor it goes very very very very slowly and has enough torque to run at a crawl. 

Video available below showing it starting off at about half-throttle on 12 volts and then on full throttle. I added some music part way through to prevent it getting too boring though!

 Ebay Linky

Leo

https://youtu.be/MLO4fBQ5Waw
[url=https://youtu.be/MLO4fBQ5Waw][/url]
[video=youtube]http://youtu.be/MLO4fBQ5Waw [/video]

   

The Nuremberg Toy Fair - Spielwarenmesse - starts on Wednesday morning and ends on Saturday. Nuremberg is the largest and most important international event for the toy industry and hosts 2,886 exhibitors from 68 different countries, showing off over one million products - 120,000 of which will be unveiled this week.

Important manufacturers from the slot car world will have stands at Spielwarenmesse - Carrera, Scalextric, SCX, Galileo Engineering (Slot.it & Policar) and NSR. Carrera will be part of the giant Revell exhibition for the first time, following their take-over last year. Scalextric will be alongside the other Hornby Hobbies brands.

Although over 30,000 people attend the toy fair, we won't be there this time. However there should be plenty of snippets to be gleaned from social media - and there are at least a couple of SlotRacer Online members in Nuremberg.  Already, Carrera have shared pictures of new cars at Spielwarenmesse in their Instagram feed...

       

With Carrera publishing there 2020 catalogue today, we do know a lot about this year's slot car releases. And there has been plenty of detailed coverage on SlotRacer Online...

• Scalextric 2020 range at Margate: slotracer.online/community/showthread.php?tid=994
  
• Micro Scalextric range at Margate: slotracer.online/community/showthread.php?tid=995
  
• Carrera 2020 Catalogue dissected: slotracer.online/community/showthread.php?tid=1036
  
• Slot.it & Policar 2020 brochures: slotracer.online/community/showthread.php?tid=1011
  
• London Toy Fair coverage: slotracer.online/community/showthread.php?tid=1019
  

Let's see what slot car surprises might pop up over the next few days

Health Warning: Epistle follows

I took two examples of the ScaleAuto models of Porsche 991 GT cars for a tune and test comparison.
This is for wood track racing, so obviously non-magnet, and some priorities will be different to racing on plastic.
First I am opening up this "Home Series" car, to see what you get for about what a basic Scalextric will cost you. **
I used this particular livery, because it was from a ScaleAuto/IBB event I attended, the Campeonato de Espana de Slot.
A huge event with over 500 entrants, hosted at their complex in Iguelada in Spain - about 90 minutes inland from Barcelona.
Lots of fun, even as a spectator.

I will do the setup on the "R" series car in a separate review.

Take the paper protector off the underside of the box, you can then remove the clear top, and remove the 2 screws securing the car to the
base. Don't throw them away. These are the same screws as used to secure the body to the chassis, and they are "half-smooth shaft",
to eliminate "catching" of the chassis when setting up the body for "float". - what a useful idea. Point the first +1 to ScaleAuto

The car sits nice and low, and has great detail in the photo etched parts. +1


Look at those two part body latches. They look like they swivel to open. The body is nice and light, keeping the COG low. +1

The body is a 2-screw mount, using those smooth half shaft screws, and rocks nicely, with no apparent obstructions. No need for chassis sanding.
Under the lid we have a sidewinder setup with a 20,500rpm S-can. It is a regular FC-130, with a bell at one end - BUT, it is a "Can-end" drive.
Driving from the Can end where you have a brass bush set into the metal gives a more robust structure for taking the load. It is much
preferable to my thinking than the bell-end drive we see so often. +1
The ScaleAuto S-Can motors have very high torque, and it is as least as quick as a Slot.it MX16 or Shark 22k, and robably too high powered for small
home tracks.
ScaleAuto have altered their plastics composition in the past two years, and the result is more rigid chassis which are better for wood racing.
They also seem much less prone to cracking, which was a past failing on some past models.
Almost hidden under the rear of the motor is a small magnet, which gives medium down-force, but not as much as a Scaley, similar to Slot.it magnets.
There is a matching pocket forward of the motor. Then I noticed another almost hidden item.

There is a screw securing the motor into the pod, turning it into a bracing element for the chassis. +1 Mr ScaleAuto
Now to the things that propel it forward. Above you can see the simple nylon pinion and spur, they mesh nicely, but there is also a small dob
of red grease smeared on the chassis right where the gears meet, and as I started the car up at 3 volts, the white pinion turned pink at the
contact point. +1 for this.
The wheels are press fit plastic, I tried turning them, but they felt very tight and I was fortunate I didn't snap one as I applied a lot of force
trying to move it. Then I pulled - AHA. Off it came.

The rear wheels have an axle with a large "flat" keyed into it, as has the wheel. This prevents the wheel ever slipping on the smooth shaft,
and I think is a better alternative than knurled axle ends. +1 In this case it is also absolutely necessary, as there is ZERO slop where the axle
passes through the bush in the chassis.
I see "claws" - you know, claws, like on a Slot.it pod. And yes, inside those claws, guess what we find.

Yep. self aligning bushes, just like the Slot.it ones. +1 hhmmm... I wonder. Into my war chest, out with a Slot.it axle and a selection of the
older brass and new version sintered bronze bushes by Slot.it. Yes, they slide exactly onto the ScaleAuto axle, as does the ScaleAuto one onto a Slot.it
axle. No slop, equal fit. CLICK, and yes, the Slot.it ones fit perfectly into the claws in the chassis. That's handy. We now know the axles, and these
bushes are interchangeable with Slot.it parts. +1
Therefore so are both brands of wheels. Note that the axle has a reduced diameter through the centre section to provide sidewinder motor
clearance and make it lighter +1
The wee red things are 1.5mm nylon spacers to set the drive train width and eliminate sideways movement of the axle. It is the same as we
go up front, more spacers to set the track width there. +1

As you see in the bottom of the picture above, there are chassis holes, which are to make it compatible for the main digital systems
- Scalextric, Slot.it and Carrera. +1 Just inside the main axle posts are two movable and removable axle holders that have axle size holes to
prevent vertical play. But look what else we have, holes for M2 grub screws either side for setting front axle ride height and eliminate axle slop.
There are matching holes underneath, so into the war chest for some M2 3mm long grub screws - it only needs 3mm ones; and so I set the
ride height with these and took out the slop. +1
I have opted to remove those small axle holders and use just the grub screws, as I prefer the way the axle spins very freely with this method.
Others may want to retain those holders, and use only lower grub screws to lift the axle enough to fully lower the guide into the slot.
You do however risk the axle holders tramping up under corner load and sticking.
The lead wires are pretty thin, similar to Scaley ones, but then the motor isn't exactly cranking amps.
They are neatly routed up the sides, secured by clips, and under the axle for safety. +1
The guide is a typical press-fit job with brass eyelets. The braid is too stiff for my liking, and a bit thick. I will swap that out. No score here.
The front wheels are not keyed. I guess as they don't have to bear the load of rotational stress.
Ah, the tyres, low profile as needed with these big 17mm wheels, the fronts look fine. The rears are a soft "rubber" but of the kind that feels
like a silicon tyre. They may be fine for plastic track racing, but will need swapping out for wood racing.

That is a score of 14 good things I consider ScaleAuto have done in the developing these "Home Series" cars
The chassis seems fairly flat, but one front wheel looks slightly high, so I will give the chassis bath to flatten it.

Oh Oh #@(&#%* and @(&#%, @#&#% and $(&#%
I took out the motor screw and just twisted and pushed. "CRACK" Snapped the chassis right where the motor screw goes through.
Lesson for all - do this bit carefully and don't twist the chassis. I haven't any spares yet, so out comes the "gel" superglue;
a quick repair is done. It should hold, this gel glue is very strong, like a welding element.
Into the hot bath it goes for a couple of hours slow cooling.

Bath done, I cracked it again refitting the motor, so re-glued with the motor in place and added a brass strap along the edge of the motor to
hold the front and back of the motor mount rigid. I have fitted Slot.it 1172 N22 tyres to the rear hubs, glued and trued.
I have kept the original front tyres, which were easy to glue and true, less than 5 minutes each.

Everything reassembled, front axle height set, about 6 grams of lead added just behind the guide as first estimate, It spins up very smoothly
on my static bench, and on the resistance board it shows no signs of anything untoward under load. Ready for a track test.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road
Thanks to Peter for the use of Circuito Bahia Vista for testing the Porsche.

Circuito Bahia Vista is a very technical 20 metre track with about 10 turns, and only two places you can open the throttle - briefly. The car
sits nice & low, and first laps told me it is easy to drive. It was pretty smooth first up, and my only fiddling was with the amount of body float.

Once I had familiarised myself with the handling on track I was able to go sub 7 seconds, ending up with a 6.8. The only things I think it
needs now, are a little more weight up front - I think another 2-3 grams behind the front axle; and I will need to add a dot of glue to one rear
wheel as all my assembling and disassembling has left it with a not very tight fit on the axle and it began to work loose under cornering load.

All in all, the car is pretty competitive with only the addition of some better rubber, weight, soft braid, and a swap to grub screws for setting the front
axle height. I am pleased with what can be achieved with a Home Series car and a bit of track tuning.

Footnote: After final tweaks, I took this wood track racing on the tracks of some of our club members, and it beat out just about everything, from Scaley,
Ninco, Scaleauto podded, and even all but one NSR GT3 cars for our power restricted (No big boxer motors, only baby kings) GT3 class.
I have now retired it to run a Sideways Huracan, but honestly, it's lap times are only 1/10th of a lap slower than the best of any brand I can throw at it.

Footnote 2:  I realised later that this chassis is based off the same chassis as the podded version. In theory, you could dremel out the middle section,
leaving space to fit a Slot.it pod - the pod mount holes all line up.

A new and imminently available car from NSR 

   

Cant wait to get my hands on one of these.

Decals in hand from an ebay seller
   

I'm planning to approximate the Ayrton Senna Lotus.
   

Anyone else getting this?
Which livery are you going for? 

AlanW