[BAracer]

#70

"Round the World in 80 Clubs"

The Other Jeremy started off the Show + Tell with his latest car buying strategy...he buys cars in damaged cases to get the best deals. Mike has a completely different approach...he buys the wrong cars in order to then have to buy the right one. A sort of "buy one, get another one later" deal where he always has two matched car to race against each other, e.g. the Porsche 917 shown off in the chat. Nick has an even more contrived buying strategy...he buys the car he wants, then another one with the number he needs to go on the first one. All good methods where you basically end up buying loads of slot cars.

Dennis showed off a beautifully painted and decalled Aston Martin F1 which was a spitting image for the original, and Brian showed off his thingy, which are whatever shape and colour you want it to be. 

Big Den told us a story about a slot race meet he had just been to where he suffered two mechanical occurrences in one evening that any other slot car driver could only ever dream about happening to them once in a lifetime. Henri in the Netherlands has found some very rapid Imola F1 type cars to tempt beginners into the hobby. Not sure how long they let them play with the good stuff before snatching them away and bursting their 'fun' bubble and starting them off down the miserable road of tuning tips and tyre choices and body float, and stories from down under about a bloke who has the worst slot car luck in the world.

Greg then gave airing to a discussion around the oXigen controller design. It seems he might have triggered a thought process at Slot.it that has unlocked a method whereby other manufacturers can integrate one Slot.it SCP component into their controller and off they go with alternatives to SCP. Importantly Slot.it don't have to give away any trade secrets. You heard it here first...

And then Greg introduced 'Club Corner', this week, a little round robin chat about which slot car clubs all the people on the chat go; tips on how to set up a club, where is it based, what type of racing they do etc. so anyone watching who wants to give the hobby a try might have a possible place to start. We all did our little pieces, hopefully a useful regular items that will help ease that first step into the hobby.

And finally, one of those subjects that crops up on a regular basis was discussed in a bit more depth...silicone washers. Useful for lots of things, but particularly good to assist with body and pod float. Following numerous mentions on these World Wide Chats, there is a World Wide shortage of the little blighters. So a number of people showed off some alternative 'equivalent' products that can do the job just as well. If you are desperate, people have found small rubber O rings will do the same job. If you are really desperate, there is one on the floor of Nick's lounge, just in front of his computer desk somewhere.

[MrFlippant]

[BAracer]

#70

"What's that you say Frank?"

Straight down to business this week, Neil had an update on his Carrera car that was deslotting at the hint of any pressure on the trigger. He had follow the advice received a couple of weeks ago on a chat and, voila, it had turned into a bit of a performer. But more to the point, Neil had experienced that moment when you tell a car who's the boss...and the car actually listens.

John showed us how he had incorporated the wonderful model house he gave us a tour round a couple of weeks ago. It looked great, the only down side being the anti-ram raid bollards erected round it to prevent it getting damaged by errant slot cars.

Greg showed us round his two nes cars, the increasingly popular Pioneer Legends. First off was the inevitable blue and yellow version, followed by the more radical yellow and blue version. Lots of tuning tips for those interested.

In response to a number of requests from viewers, Greg then gave us a quick run through of the features of the various digital racing systems on the market; what they are, what you need, what they add to the slotting experience. A great primer if you are looking to get into digital.

Dennis had nothing to show us...so that couldn't happen. Off he went to see what he could find...oh yeah, here's a Sideways M6, but with a brass chassis by Dennis. Not an obvious combination, but what the heck, it looked cool. Dennis than gave us a run down on the race afternoon he had rushed off to after last week's Chat. And prompted by a question from the floor, the Chat went into a run down of the different race classes clube run, which are the popular ones and which ones have historically never really caught on.

And to finish off, the Chat returned to the ever popular topic of tyre choice. With NSR bringing out the Evo version of their race tyres and immediately turning the remaining non-Evo stock into collectors items, and Slot.it ending F22 & N22 production, where should racers go to get their grip fix? Some suggestions, and one possible future classic!

Not quite the end though, what's that you say Frank...?

[MrFlippant]

(Deleted old links to avoid accidental clicking.)

[MrFlippant]

[BAracer]

#72

"Protect us from what we want!"

Lots of newcomers on the chat...Everyone seems to know Jim from his YouTube channel, Dennis thinks he might have met him years ago at an RC event. Graham is from the UK and brings enthusiasm and a massive 'track shed' in his garden; videos to follow. Larry is the first WWSCC love child of Greg and John, having got enthused in the hobby by watching the Chats. He brings a history of model making and scenery/figure painting with him. John brings a decal printer and Greg without realising might have a set printed by him already. Matt comes from a T-Jet background, as did Jim, which brought us full circle.

Dennis had a Show + Tell featuring three cars where the owner had asked him to build some brass chassis. Hardly a challenge for Dennis, who agreed to base the driver of the Jensen Healey on the owner himself, along with the correct licence plates. Jeremy C was worried about following that, but then slam dunked a 3D printed billboard model that can hold a smartphone into the Chat. Everyone's eyes lit up at the prospect of having rolling ads around the circuit, or live feeds from cameras, or race position stats...they all wanted one. John gave an update on Gregs Christmas 'Cut and Shut' Porsche 935. It's taking shape and looking really good. However, the car made out of all the leftover bits is not looking so good. I hope JK doesn't get them mixed up. There was some talk about the spec, Greg's happy to go with a car that does wheelies as he powers down his main straight. Brian showed off his new track table. Forget scenery, he's put all his effort into choosing a nice carpet to lay on the table under the track. Now it's onto the curtains to hide the legs. Frank showed off a new type of body casting. It's made of boring old plastic, but was cast using a 3D printed mold, so looks like a 3D printed shell with all the layer lines that you need to rub off...brilliant! Greg showed us his 3D printed tyre razor assistant that moves the sliding pads back and forward all day until you remember to switch it off. And then showed us his blue/yellow Marlboro Porsche that he is having to put together himself due to Marlboro refusing to change their red/white branding. Mike showed off a couple of recent purchases he was able to make due to a nice windfall...his wife's paycheck. They were a Sideways Ford GT and a Ferrari. Bit of a discussion ensued as to whether the large rear wings offer a bigger advantage due to aerodynamic benefits or just due to their weight.

There was a bit of a tech chat about the performance benefits of oiling tyres. Henri doesn't oil, he just spend hours making them smooth with rounded edges. Wayne is on a mission to work out the optimum oil treatment to get his air hubs and tyres working in perfect harmony...it's still a work in progress, although suggestions did come in from Alan and a few others as to why he doesn't need to bother anymore. 

There was also a good summary of the options for painting timber tracks. Graham was looking to fill his Shed with a wooden track and had trawled all the slot forums for advice and, surprise surprise, no clear answer jumped out. Two minutes of chat with 'those who know' and he was sorted. Almost. He just has to fly over to America to go to the paint stores that were highly recommended.

Club Corner highlighted some digital Raid racing run by Henri in NL. Videos available on video streaming sites. Henri thought there were too many participants and the racing was a bit chaotic. Coming from a dutchman, that means it must have been VERY chaotic. Mike's home club is doing just fine. Three members but difficult to split them on the track, so lots of competitive racing, which is all you want at the end of the day. Jeremy has a Barracuda that's almost good enough to win, but the rules limit what he can do to find that final marginal gain he is looking for. A bit late for Jeremy, but Alan pointed out that Scalextric are looking to visit UK slot clubs to see how their cars are raced, or why they are not, and what they could offer to improve the uptake of their cars in the racing scene. Manufacturer and racers in perfect harmony...

[MrFlippant]

(Deleted old links to avoid accidental clicking.)

[MrFlippant]

[Nonfractal]

Don't miss Jim's summary on the process of oiling and rollering NSR SuperGrips. At the 43 minute mark.

[BAracer]

#73

"Please lie on the couch Mr F and tell me about your obsession with Sweden" 

First up was Dewann...
Brian got everyone excited with the new 3DP race car he had invented,and he talked through all the iterations that got him to the final version. It's based on a 50s GP car but with a modern take (restomod?). Just 50g and a lot of fun. 
...with his new scheme to buy up all the available Monogram track he can get his hands on to go with all the Revell track he has. Interestingly, they seem to be interchangeable both dimensionally and connection wise, but who came first?

Greg set us a conundrum; he has finished painting/assembling his MRSlotcar Porsche, but the body and chassis don't seem to fit together properly. He got lots of useful tips on how to work out what was causing it, but most importantly, one tip on what to wear whilst doing it. He then gave us the money shot of his blue/yellow slot car collection, and quite an impressive, and yet slightly disconcerting, picture they made. 

Jim then described his recent conversion to oiling tyres in order to achieve some sort of bulge along the centre rib. Now a lot of the slot car accessory business is focussed on helping us achieve completely flat tyres, so this all went slightly against this prevailing fashion, but he has had some good results in competitions on the track. So look away now if you like your rear tyres smooth and shiny. His, by his own admission, look rubbish, but they work. You saw it here first...

Neil had hoped to enjoy an evening of slot car racing in his basement when he recently received a tornado warning. Unfortunately, the winds were accompanied by ten inches of rain and his basement started to fill up with water. Luckily he was able to get most of his possessions off the floor and onto his track table, so he has some repair work to do to the scenery, but he was not complaining as it could have been a lot worse.

Club Corner raised a couple of issues from the underbelly of our sport. Big Dug will never be late for a race night again. Some of his 'friends' raced on his behalf when he was delayed getting to the venue, and when he did eventually arrive, he suspected they hadn't been putting their hearts and souls into getting him off the bottom the league table. Dewann raised a discussion point regarding race ethics around crashes in races. Greg had a very clear strategy to deal with the matter...video all the races and bring a lawyer with you to the race meeting to argue on your behalf on each and every incident. Mike on the other hand, runs his races at the opposite extreme. If there is a crash in one of his races, everyone stops and apologises profusely. Big Dug has outside observers to apportion blame at his meetings, but at Dennis's meetings there is independent race marshall who is responsible for restoring order to races after a crash in a 'no blame' manner. But the generally accepted rule for dealing with crashes in races was to have a rule to deal with restoring the race situation after a crash, in order to avoid the need for a discussion after each and every one on what should happen.

And to round off the Chat, a brief discussion on Revoslot cars, and the best performing ones for twisty tracks or for long sweeping tracks, or which one is the best allrounder.