[woodcote]

Of course, I speak here as the 'veteran' of only one whole slot rally (the proxy Wye Valley Winter Stages), plus yesterday's stage

I did do a lot of research for my Wye Valley entries - going for the safe 'tried and tested' option of two Ninco cars, the Subaru in 'Modern' and a Lancia 037 in '80s'. I had the advantage of being able to set up my cars using a simple oval of Ninco track - half tarmac, half off-road - and gave them a spin round some SCX Classic track to ensure the guides weren't too deep. Testing is important. I couldn't replicate the routed track surfaces on some of the stages but I could the Ninco and Classic track - which seem commonplace on slot rally stages.

The main change to my cars was adding Ninco alloy rear wheels to the Subaru. Ninco alloys, because the standard Ninco axle is not a standard size. Otherwise, I did what I normally do with my WHO cars - tyres trued (and in this case glued), magnet out and ballast in - a bit of weight in front of the rear wheels and a little more than usual at the front (especially for the bumpy track). Chassis sides were sanded and body tabs shaved off - and screws replaced and loosened off to allow oodles of body rock. NSR Ultragrips seemed the slot rally tyre of choice, so that's what I used - they come rather deformed and needed lots of truing on my DIY truing track.

Tweaking the suspension and spring guide was new, but fun. There is various (conflicting) advice online. I went soft at the front and medium at the rear - and made sure the movement was smooth. I removed the AWD belt on the Subaru, as permitted in the UK Slot Rally rules. I also read the Lancia suffered from excessive wheel hop and glued the motor in place to stiffen the chassis.

I remembered from my limited experience running long can motors that a lengthy run-in helps loosen it up and makes it more driveable - and in a proxy you want a car that is easy and enjoyable for the host to drive (they'll drive it quicker). So I ran-in the NC5 in the Subaru and the short can NC9 in the Lancia. It was the first time I'd used a proper short-can motor (rather than the usual S-Can) and it wasn't great during run-in, but eventually smoothed out fine. Or so I thought.

What I sent to Wales were two quite punchy cars that seemed to handle really nicely. The Subaru did well. However, the motor in Lancia had completely seized up and it failed to start the first stage...

... so, everyone who entered a car into our Rally-Sprint did a better job than I did on my Slot Rally debut