[woodcote]

Oli's car has been retrieved! The line-up is complete


Class C - UK Slot Rally

C1 Clive Mills - SCX Alpine A110 #60
C2 Leo Capaldi - SRC Lancia S4 #7
C3 Phil Barry - SRC Porsche 914/6 #53
C4 Simon Coombes - SCX BMW M1 #3
C5 Duncan Skelt - SCX Ford RS200 #14
C6 Paul Cooper - SCX Lancia Delta Integrale #1
C7 Graham Edwards - NSR Renault Clio #3
C8 Gill Child - Scalextric Ford Escort RS Cosworth #4 (JS Chassis Design)
C9 Ade Child - Scaleauto Ford RS200 #3
C10 Alan Wilkinson - Ninco Renault Mégane #4 (Slot.it HSR chassis)
C11 Kevin Veitch - PowerSlot Nissan 350Z #19
C12 Alan Birchmore - Ninco Citroën C4 #2
C13 Andy Player - Ninco Subaru Impreza #5
C14 Sebastian Birchmore - Ninco Mitsubishi Lancer #8
C15 Phil Field - Ninco Citroën C4 #5
C16 Mike Scott - SCX Toyota Celica #36
C17 Rebecca Shtasel - Policar Subaru BRZ #26
C18 Pete Burley / Jerome Burley - SRC Ford Capri RS2600 #72
C19 Simon Kendall - Carrera Mini Countryman WRC #14
C20 Craig Jones - SCX Citroën DS3 #1 (Red Dragon chassis)
C21 Steve Jones - SCX Fiat 131 #1 (Red Dragon chassis)
C22 Doug Passell - Scalextric Ferrari F40 #84
C23 David Passell - Scalextric Lancia 037 #7
C24 Noah Passell - SCX Ford Escort RS1800 #11
C25 Dylan Passell - SCX Seat Ibiza Kit Car #1

You'll be able to see all the cars at the presentation on Wednesday

[woodcote]

The event report thread has begun: https://slotracer.online/community/showt...p?tid=1853

Also a pic of Simon's "Martyrs' Mile" stage...

   

Seen some video too

[BAracer]

Woodcote

Could you describe what you were seeing when the cars raced over the 'textured' sections of track?

How do the fast cars manage to go fast?

What is slowing down the slower cars?

Thank you

(Just asking for a friend...)

[woodcote]

This is a pic of one of the Scalextric cars on the Ninco off-road track...

   

You can see how the surface is both textured and - in places - raised by 1-2 mm.

The guide still sits on the flat rails, so it's mostly the front tyres and also the bottom of chassis (and any low-slung body-work) that will be worked by the bumps.

Some cars simply had their guides bounced out of the slot. 'Good' cars responded predictably - ie getting through fine at a slower speed. 'Bad' cars were completely unpredictable - sometimes getting through, sometimes not - even at crawling pace. Like with real-life off-road driving, going too slow can accentuate the bumps - so cars that couldn't get through really couldn't get through. It was a case of sitting on the floor and marshaling an off almost every lap. Thankfully, that was only 3-4 cars out of the 46.

Even if they didn't de-slot, a lot of cars were bumped about, with less-than-perfect power, rubbing the chassis etc. The overall experience hitting the off-road section was of suddenly slowing - like wading through treacle - and then jerky power and very noisy!

The faster cars skipped over the rough stuff and didn't come off. There was a little more noise and a slight sensation of being held back.

The Ninco and SRC cars did well - they have a sprung guide, independent suspension on all 4 wheels and a long can motor with some magnetic traction. All these factors keep the cars more stable. They also have decent ground clearance. The more modern SCX cars also have a sprung guide - so consistent power, even if the front wheels are being bounced up and down. Some of the older SCX and Scalextric cars also ran well over the off-road section - probably the extra ground clearance and loose front axle helping?

On the Scalextric Class A & B cars, there wasn't much to do to make things better - lower-profile front tyres maybe. For the Class C cars - a sprung guide is recommended.

[BAracer]

Thank you.

Painful.

I can just imagine the smell of braids arcing on the track, over-revving motors on beached cars and the sound of plastic being gouged on cobblestones...

[Top Down]

Bit embarrassing that the Juniors in Rally Team Chesterfield are well ahead of their adult team mates   . 

I guess we're more risk averse 

[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

[AdeC]

That all makes sense. My cars were kind of cobbled together with what I had rather than what my ideal setup would have been, so this was always going to be a steep learning curve for me. My RS 200 was previously a super low riding, anglewindered, high rpm and mag motor’d club racing tarmac terrorist; but to fit in with the regs I had to make some adjustments with what I had available.  As a result I’ve still ended up very punchy on the motor front, and a car that really benefits on having good braking from the controller (which probably isn’t ideal). But I am thoroughly enjoying being part of this rally and am looking forward to the next round! And maybe I’m already planning what I’d change for the next proxy!

[OXO cube]

am looking forward to the next round! And maybe I’m already planning what I’d change for the next proxy!

my exact thoughts 
just change the 'maybe' to 'definitely'

[woodcote]

If you're on Facebook, there are a couple of UK slot rally groups to join

• the original SlotRally GB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/293869950672061
  
• the newer Slot Rally UK group which co-ordinates slot rallies in the UK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1492189347712138
  

The latest 2021 version of the Slotrally Rules & Classes has just been posted on the Slot Rally UK group. It's similar to the 2020 Rules we are using for our Class C at the Rally-Sprint, but with a re-working of the class structure (Eighties is now "Eighties and Nineties") plus some small changes to clarify the regs. Definitely worth downloading for all of us looking at future events.

There were some dates mentioned - both live and proxy - for this year, but that might have to be looked at again with the Covid situation. If there's space in the calendar, I think we're pretty keen to try another proxy in 2021 and definitely a repeat of the Winter Rally-Sprint in January/Feb 2022.