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The Final Race: Muscle Car Mondiale

This new class for 2022 brings together a vast range of classic (pre-1990) saloon cars produced by Scalextric in their modern DPR era. Although there were a fair few cars carried-over from our old Trans-Am Wednesday evening class, the eighteen-car line-up was pretty pleasing to the eye and to the tin-top connoisseur...

       

A format that prioritises enjoyment and fun, three randomly-selected heats would run for ten minutes, with the top two finishers from each heat meeting in a rapid 5-minute finale. The first six included three Trans-Am cars, Alex's sleek IROC-Z, Mark's massive Monte Carlo and Ash's lush, but rather tipsy Escort. Alex and Andy cruised away, Alex getting a lap lead at the first pit stops and then providing some entertaining duels with the Javelin, albeit a lap and eventually two laps ahead. Ryan and Oliver had their own battle in a pair of Camaros - the 2019 Trans-Am champions seeing who was best head-to-head. They finished on the same lap, with the younger Walker victorious. Mark found the big Nascar a handful, finishing just ahead of Ash, who did a remarkable job with a twitchy and tippy Escort that'd been unboxed just a few hours earlier.

       

There were also three Trans-Ams in the second heat, joined by Mike's big Aussie Falcon XB, Stephen's Corvette L88 and Simon's Spa 24-hours Mk1 Escort. A slower motor in the Escort gave a slightly easier drive - although we'll need to explore software tweaks to the power and throttle curve to make this an accessible class for these slim-can motored models. Nonetheless, Simon took drove the Chevron Escort beautifully and took advantage of a slower heat to challenge for a top-two finish! Mike brought the Falcon home first - his 32 laps only good enough for fifth in the first heat - with Matthew's orange Camaro just pipping Simon to the runner-up spot. Kevin was less than a lap behind after a great drive with his borrowed '69 Camaro, Terry was fifth with his Javelin and Stephen had a brilliant ten-minute drifting session with his Corvette, showing awesome car control on zero-grip tyres.

       

The random allocation gave us another three Trans-Am cars in the third heat, plus Gary's Corvette L88 (with grippy WASP urethanes), Jean's Falcon XY and Oli's Audi Sport Quattro Rally Cross car - a marginally controversial inclusion, but it certainly added to the spectacle. The Audi looked quick, but Dean's Brut Camaro had the better of the ten minutes, winning the heat with 34 laps. Oli was a lap back - a lap ahead of Jean and Ed. Isaac had some useful track time with his Challenger, but Gary's Corvette required plenty of TLC to get it moving. For the six laps it functioned, it was quick - second only to Ed's Camaro in this heat.

After 30 minutes of cruising those tin-tops, it was time for a 5-minute thrash to end the day. Alex pulled away with his IROC-Z, with a certain amount of carnage going on behind. Mike's Falcon XB was best of the rest, followed by Matthew's and Dean's '71 Camaros, Andy's Javelin and Oli's Quattro. A third medal for Alex and the day was done...

       

And these were the Muscle Car Mondiale results...

   

Thanks again to all nineteen racers who made it such an enjoyable day. Special thanks to the set-up team and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away. Massive thanks to Alex for acting as scrutineer and to Oliver and Ryan who ran the start line perfectly all day. Special thanks to Ash who did a brilliant job on race control - it's a very long day to stay focused and keep everything moving.

We're back for two final Digital Wednesdays in July and August - and then we have four Digital Saturdays in September, October, November and December. New racers are always very welcome. All the details are on our website here: http://www.whoracing.org.uk/who_digital.htm