Question The SlotRacer's Manual

Question The SlotRacer's Manual - Printable Version

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RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - JasonB - 21st-Feb-20

Well perhaps you could suggest some less "local" terms.

Regarding scratch building, I'm not sure I see your point.

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - woodcote - 21st-Feb-20

Sure, there are people scratch-building and kit-bashing to race to specific rules, but I'd hazard a guess that most people building cars aren't building them for organised racing. Like with most collectors, home-racers, scenic track builders etc, I suspect we never see 95% of what happens in our hobby because it's not shared on the few slot car forums or on social media - or certainly not where we're looking.

Perhaps a broad stroke - outlining all the various flavours and extremes of scratch-building and kit-bashing - works best, perhaps linking to some of the great examples here on SlotRacer. A concise introduction might be something like...

To scratch-build or kit-bash a slot car, there needs to be a body, a chassis and the necessary running gear. That's the case for any scale of slot car and whether the aim is to race the car competitively or not.
The body can be crafted from scratch in many different ways - or it can be adapted from a plastic kit or bought off-the-shelf as a resin, fibreglass or lexan shell. A body usually requires painting and detailing to produce a slot car model that is unique and personal to the builder. Decals for thousands of cars are available to buy or can be designed and printed at home.
Sometimes a chassis is supplied with a kit (eg George Turner's kits), but there are also many adjustable 'universal' chassis that can be used (eg Pendle's PCS32, Penelope Pitlane, Slot.it HRS2, MRRC Sebring, numerous metal racing chassis etc etc). Some builders will find a chassis from another slot car model that will fit or can be adapted. And there is always the option to make your own chassis from scratch - using metal, fibreglass board, plastic sheet or 3D printing.
There's an enormous variety of running gear available to scratch builders and kit-bashers, although most of the adjustable chassis can be bought with all the necessary components included.

Any good?

A few related links I use often are...

Classic Slot Car Association www.cscra.co.uk
Pendle Slot Racing www.pendleslotracing.co.uk
George Turner Models www.georgeturnermodels.com
Pattos Place Decals www.pattosplace.com
IndyCals www.indycals.net
Shapeways www.shapeways.com

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - john roche - 21st-Feb-20

Here are a couple of useful links for wood track building:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101201061920fw_/http://slotcar.com/articals/track_building_and_repairing.htm

http://www.slotcarracing.org.uk/trackbuild/

Cheers

John

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - JasonB - 21st-Feb-20

Thanks Andy, that's the intro sorted. Thumbup

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - dvd3500 - 24th-Feb-20

Woodcote more eloquently stated what I was trying to say.
Scratchbuilding has to remain very general and basic.
It also helps you to tweak and tune your "ready to run" cars as the skills can be the same.

Once you get past the basics though class rules kick in if you want to compete. Here in Germany 1/24 scale scratchbuilt racing is so prominent that even trying to get something in other scale off the ground is met with blank stares and rolled eyes.

Personally I think the the scratchbuilt scene here is the poorer for it.... (even though the cars do look amazing)

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - Mr Modifier - 24th-Feb-20

I agree that a section on building cars would be good - kits or from scratch.

The other things that I would like to see (seeing as we are catering for newbies as well as seasoned racers) is a section looking at the different TYPES of race that you could participate in. I guess it could be part of race control but actually it might be good in a section of its own.

I am talking specifically about race formats:
Rally (single person against the clock)
Qualifying
Grand Prix (fixed number of laps)
Endurance (fixed time)
Round robin heats and finals
Drag racing

We could also explore the more frivolous (but still fun) formats e.g.:
Crash and burn
Race of Champions
Rallycross (digital joker loop)

And whilst we are at it maybe include a section on marshalling and options for race etiquette

You could argue that if you race at a club then the formats are self-evident BUT people who occasionally race with friends might benefit and some clubs might not even have considered some of the options.

For example the other evening we had a track maintenance night at our club doing some much needed repairs and track fettling. We found ourselves with 30 minutes at the end so I suggested some rounds of crash and burn. Some of our members had never come across it and it was a good laugh (apart from the guy who came off on the first bend from pole who was less impressed!)

Variety is the spice of life and all that...

Oh yes and one other suggestion - could we have a glossary of terms so that newbies can get to grips with the language of slots? For example I might throw "glued and trued" into a conversation without feeling the need to explain it because most of us know what it is - but a newbie might feel less awkward if they could find what it means easily without needing to ask. AND you could hyperlink from the glossary to a relevant guide to explain it in more detail.

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - JasonB - 24th-Feb-20

Good ideas Mr Modifier. Thumbup

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - JasonB - 1st-Mar-20

I've added more stuff to the manaul now.

Any more thoughts or suggestions?

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - Johnno - 2nd-Mar-20

Not to assume anything however I will Bigsmile

is this thread an ongoing compilation or is it completed?

RE: The SlotRacer's Manual - JasonB - 2nd-Mar-20

It's all in the first post in this thread Johnno, so yes, it's ongoing.