Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! (/showthread.php?tid=1235)

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - dvd3500 - 11th-Mar-21

SPOON!
Not sure how many of you know whose battle cry that is....

FYI: The US moves its clocks ahead an hour on the weekend and the rest of the world does not... so the call may be at an earlier time for depending on where you are or an hour later if you are in winter....

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - KensRedZed - 11th-Mar-21

The Tick's breakfast battle cry. "Spoon!"

"The Tick possesses something referred to as "drama power", or basically a tendency for the Tick's powers to increase as the situation becomes more dramatic. He can also survive in space without a suit, and under water without oxygen for "at least" a long time."

Canada also joins the USA with "daylight savings time". Oh joy.  

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - BAracer - 12th-Mar-21

#47

Spoons, Shoots, 8mins, 24hrs

Brian's Show + Tell involved the full gambit of body colours. He started off with a fluorescent body, via a blue and silver example, to a masterclass in analysis of various body paints and how different undercoats affect the colour of the top coat. All done with the use of flexible plastic spoons. It had all gone well for him until he tried an orange top coat on a grey primer...however, it it was fine for his Turda Florio car.

Dennis also had a blue and silver body to show us, thankfully having survived giving us a one handed demonstration of lathe cutting whilst dangling the lead from his phone dangerously close to the rapidly rotating machinery! All done in an effort to show us the art of converting 'air hubs' to 'foam hubs'.

He then gave us a 'behind the scenes' chat on the videos he presents for a certain Californian slot car shop. Check out his Bugatti unboxing video as an example of his new acting skills...so whilst that had to be done in three takes, Greg was quick to point out that his recent '1 mile challenge' video was done in one take. One other person on the Chat admitted to watching this piece of 'slow TV' all the way through, and another one admitted to trying to predict the sequence of random coloured lights flashing in the corner of the track throughout the run. In an effort to defend his finishing time compared to the slightly faster one from a slightly older slotman, I'm sure I heard Greg say it was something to do with the way the sound waves from the car reflected off his body...

However, we did learn that Greg can't stand still for more than 8mins, which means he probably wouldn't be any good as a 'trigger monkey' for the DiSCA 24hr Le Mans slot car event that Wayne told us about during the second half of the Chat. He took us through his heartbreaking attempts to get a driving slot for one of the teams, and how, having stood outside the venue looking at the track through the window on the morning of the event, they invited him in and he got his chance. We got to see lots of pictures from the 2017 running of the event, both from his perspective and from two other competitors who just happened to be on the Chat. What I learnt, and what seemed to confuse Wayne a bit, was the fact that the car he started the race with bore little resemblance to the one that finished, e.g. different motor, different wheels, different tyres, different chassis, even a different body (i.e. the front third and rear third were missing, only the middle bit was left). But lots of very evocative memories of this unique event. 


So Summer will be arriving at different times in different parts of the world over the coming weeks, so who knows what time #48 will start and whether they will end up being 1hr early or 23hrs late...

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - MrFlippant - 15th-Mar-21

I guess we'll find out in a couple days. :)

(Deleted old links to avoid accidental clicking.)

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - BAracer - 15th-Mar-21

So that's a 6pm start in the UK this week, according to the world time calculator.

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - MrFlippant - 18th-Mar-21

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - BAracer - 18th-Mar-21

#48

The Joy of Digital...

Chasms formed amongst the Chatters this week, those with hair vs those without, digital or analogue, basic or complex, slow or fast! As JohnK noted, because you can, you do. Who knows what the argument was before the record button was pressed, but everyone's juices were flowing in an robust, but respectful, first third. So the discussion centred on digital racing and digital race management systems, and whilst Gio was able to describe the fully immersive experience you get when they talk to each other, most chat was about trying to understand why they seem to be a loggerheads on other tracks. But as always, there were people in the chat who were able to point people in the right directions.

The middle third was a belated Show+Tell session where Dennis showed an example of a Fly Sport car, where the series seems to be the perfect blend of detailed Fly body, but with a tuneable Sports chassis...what could be better? There was a technical lesson on the reasoning behind the Iso-Fulcrum chassis design concept which opened up into a discussion on floating guides. Up and down good, side to side bad. And then there was a fast moving section where the art of white kit building morphed into a dream segment on what niche slot car market would we would fill if we won the pools. Formula 5000 Can-Am cars anyone? Everyone! And did I hear right that first timer Courtney used to race them in real life? I did hear him say that he has a lane on his home track for each of his children. If he had gone digital, he could have saved a fortune.

Gio popped up again to tail the chat with a presentation on how he prepared his latest digital Aston Martin GT3. Light body, less light chassis, and lots of lights. Plenty of information there relevant to DiSCA race series. But even within the Digital tribe, there are sub-groups, e.g. those who incorporate modular wiring into their cars, and those who wire once and sulk if it goes wrong in a race.


And finally, I was surprised no one mentioned Greg's new hair cut. The last time I saw something like it was at primary school when we had an infestation of nits.

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - MrFlippant - 20th-Mar-21

Sussed it! I didn't realize social distancing included hat-sharing. Boy am I sorry! ;-)
(all the bald jokes were at the beginning of the chat)

(Deleted old links to avoid accidental clicking.)

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - MrFlippant - 25th-Mar-21

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RE: Worldwide slot car chat on Zoom! - BAracer - 25th-Mar-21

#49

Key_Issues_from_this_week's_Chat.ppt

It looks like everyone on the thread has worked out how to read Brian's face. So when it came to his Show + Tell, they all managed to guess what he had bought before he got to show them. If his partner works out how to do it as well, he's going to be in real trouble...

"Was that the postman, Brian" 
"Yeah, nothing special"
"Are you sure...look at me...in the eyes...Fly triple Viper box set!"
"How do you do that!"

There then followed a love-in for Fly Vipers. Everyone seemed to have bought them to look at. Most people seemed to struggle to turn them into racers...unless you got the Sport/Racing version with the trick chassis, in which case they, literally, flew. And if they have wonky front wheels, lots of tips on how to sort them out.

There then followed a love-in for the Dukes of Hazard. Who'd have thought that the makers of the TV series had followed Rule 1 of the slot car racers handbook...buy 350 General Lee cars just in case the odd one or two (hundred) get damaged whilst in use. 

We then had a quick fire word association round. I noted down the following sequence...Pat Boone/Didgeridoo/Smoke on the Water/prison santa/drive it like you stole it.

You could here a pin drop when Dennis announced that 'peel & stick' decals weren't that bad. He backed it up with some examples of some immaculate F1 cars using that technique. But you have to pick the right sticker supplier, and top coat them with some Pledge (yes that's what he said...but it's probably not the UK version). This then got everyone's juices flowing and we were given a Decal Masterclass by Those Who Know. So how to apply decals to difficult curved surfaces (clue...it involves a hair dryer), how not to apply them (clue...it involves a heat gun), how to treat them before you apply them, and what to do once you have applied them. Greg then gave us his tip for a good decal job; "give it to a friend to do".

A simple question regarding Inox led to a handy "Dos and Don'ts" guide on it's best use. This brought out the 'inner oil' in many and everyone's favourite lubricating products were brought out in the open, literally in Dennis' case. In the end, it came down to Inox vs Marvel Mystery Oil vs Wahl Hair Clipper Oil. 

Everyone was able to relax for Big Den's masterful Powerpoint presentation on the slot car scene in Tasmania. It was all well prepared, with some follow up information on recent topics, some great photos of historical race cars that haven't yet made to transition to 1:32 scale. Most importantly, no more than six bullet points on each slide, and a clear conclusion at the end "In Tasmanian slot car racing, lead is your friend".

And to finish the Chat off, a very very funny joke regarding Interlagos Miniatures...listen carefully or you'll miss it!

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