[Kevan]

Group 5 racing



Small Sports/Saloon racing

[Kevan]

Manx Slot Car Club - NSR Mosler ‘Club Challenge’ #5

   
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** NO MAGNETS IN ANY OF OUR CARS! ** ...Track set at 11v…Club controllers
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A good turnout tonight as six drivers meant plenty of marshals…but we had to modify the heats in the computer timing program to add the 6th driver…another lesson learned, easy enough…DON’T PANIC…DON’T PANIC!!!
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The track seemed very grippy tonight, slowing the cars down a little…that is except Chris’s car during his second race that couldn’t have had less grip if it only had 3 tyres!...the race was halted for investigation…nothing obvious was found, which is very strange, but one tyre looked…tired…
Despite that, he did manage to get into the 6.2’s earlier in the evening.
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Four of us got round the track very quickly nonetheless, a shed load of sub-six second laps by Kev, Brian, Andy & Mike.
At times when two or more of these were on track together it was hard to get onto proper race pace when another car was going round at the same pace.  You have to try and ignore the other car.
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A fast lap for Ed is 6.4 seconds, he did plenty of those tonight so he was on his quick pace.
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…one off could mean losing an overall position, two off’s and there’s a lap gone.
There was some very enjoyable racing with these and they never fail to disappoint on the performance side of things..

   

Championship standings

   

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The race report for Grand Prix & prewing F1 will follow once the race video has been uploaded.
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Next week is Slot Rally
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[Kevan]

The racing

[Kevan]

Manx Slot Car Club - Grand Prix & prewing F1 - 19th June 2025

   
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** NO MAGNETS IN ANY OF OUR CARS! ** ...Track set at 12v
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After racing the NSR Moslers, a few of us were still in ‘Mosler mode’ which is only going to end up with one thing when first driving these narrow cars…deslots in the first few laps.
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These aren’t the easiest cars to drive but we still enjoyed racing them and some were good to watch when we should have been marshalling…
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One good thing about this event is there’s plenty of classes to win and tonight we had Ed in ‘Back2Basics’ class, Kev & Brian in ‘Modified Grand Prix’ class, Mike & Chris in ‘Open Grand Prix’ class and Andy in ‘Open prewing F1’ class.
This means it’s not all about the fastest car, it’s racing a car you enjoy.

   
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Next week is Slot Rally
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[Kevan]

Race video

[Kevan]

Manx Slot Car Club - Saloons followed by Sports - 3rd July 2025
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Saloons

   
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SlotIt Opel Calibras would seem an obvious choice for this class as they go well, thankfully we see a wild and varied selection of cars and classes.

• Ed’s Back2Basics Ninco Opel looks easy to drive, is consistent and so gets plenty of track time.
  
• Brian & Kev raced aforementioned SlotIt Opels but do have alternatives for this class. As expected, both cars went very well indeed.
  
• Chris’s Honda Civic is somewhere inbetween the B2B and Standard Class cars and is always his first choice for this class and has been a great race car since he put it together.
  
• Andy & Mike usually race Open Class cars, tonight Andy chose one of his Peugeot 406’s whilst Mike raced a Capri (which the scrutineer failed to realise was a Group 5 as they have their own race series).
  

   
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Sports

   
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Moslers, Moslers everywhere…well that used to be the case but not everyone’s first choice any more as personal favourites seem to be the norm.

• No Back2Basics cars this week but a trio of Standard Class cars headed by Brian’s NSR Mosler, from Chris’s Revoslot Mercedes GT1 which has turned into a smooth runner then Ed’s borrowed NSR Ford GT40 which is ‘on loan with option-to-buy’ and was warned the price would go up a fiver every time it was touched by a marshal (it got expensive by the end of the night).
  
• Kev’s Modified Class Thunderslot Mclaren M6A was rescued from the scrap merchants and now turned into a race rocket.
  
• Andy & Mike again opting for Open Class cars, Mike with his resin bodied UOP Shadow DN4 (which seems to go better every time he brings it to race) with Andy choosing to race his proxy Corvette C3 which for a car with a 22k motor limit and 10mm wide tyres is a great race car.
  

   
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Next week is Club GT40 followed by F1
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[Kevan]

Saloon racing

[Kevan]

Sports racing

[Kevan]

Race report and results - Club GT40 followed by F1 - 10th July 2025
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Five club members for the last race night before we hosted a round of the Global GT Challenge Proxy 2025.
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Club GT40

   
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Heats were two drivers with three marshals.
Not the best cars to race, they’re bashed and battered with bits missing but tonight seemed to have really good grip and they went well apart from the Blue car which kicked the rear end out on left handers.
The tyres are starting to polish which means reduced wear and increased grip.
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Surprisingly enjoyable racing.

   
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F1

   
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Time for the fast machines, four Standard Class NSR F1’s and one Open Class MB/Allslot.
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Ed managed his fastest ever lap tonight, a 6.3” lap is only hundredth’s of a second behind Brian!
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Gav seemed to struggle to find a consistent controller setting hence inconsistent laps.
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Brian’s NSR F1 is one of his most consistent cars, it just works!
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Kev’s MB/Allslot was as fast as ever, making it look easy to do a 5.6” lap.
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Andy was using a voltage reduction box and his NSR F1 definitely looked smoother coming out of corners which made the lap times much more consistent.

   
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…a long Saturday to follow with 40 cars to race twice.


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Next week is a special event, the ‘Mike Dove Memorial Classic Grand Prix’ for pre-1961 Grand Prix cars only…It’s the 5th anniversary of this event.

[Kevan]

Race report and results - 24th July 2025 - Group 5 followed by NSR Mosler ‘Club Challenge’ #6
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Group 5

   
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A great turnout tonight, 7 racers which meant plenty of marshals and a couple of cars not raced before.
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Kev racing a blue MRRC Toyota prepared for Back2Basics Class which has NSR Z-grips with about 300 laps running-in during practice (they only work well once polished like this).
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Andy raced a red version but on one of his brass chassis and a full-fat Falcon motor which had a few tyre changes in testing but is now fully race-ready.
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Alongside Andy’s Toyota in the Open Class were a pair of Capris, Mike’s on a Mack/Eurosport chassis with a low-fat Falcon motor and Gav’s with a standard chassis and SlotIt pod but a NSR Shark 32k motor.
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Mike’s Capri looks better each time, again probably tyres getting polished.
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Gav’s Capri really needs a slower motor so he can control it more consistently.
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Modified Class was dominated by Chris racing the club BMW 320i’s (which went very well).
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Brian’s Capri with a new set of NSR Alan Mann Ultragrips was definitely off the pace tonight but will improve as those tyres get polished.
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Ed’s Porsche is a nice runner, he drove it well and didn’t throw it over the barrier like Brian’s Capri (although it jumped lanes so totally out of Brian’s control).  It’s been a good car for Ed.

   
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NSR Mosler ‘Club Challenge’ #6

   
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Track turned down to 11V prompted by the sign in the cupboard, lest we forget…
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These are always a little skittish during their first race, as we saw with one or two cars, it’s as though the tyres need the surface top skin removing because they always go much better on their 2nd and especially 3rd runs.
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• Mike was quick again, not quite as fast as last time but did win at least one heat.
  
• Kev started in Blue lane and not quite as quick as normal, the ‘first race’ syndrome showing the tyres needed a race.
  
• Andy also suffered in his first race but made up for it later on setting the fastest lap of all and at least one heat win.
  
• Brian mainly losing out in Yellow lane but definitely on heat winning pace at least once.
  
• With the top four cars not really that far off each other, luck and consistency come into it.  Chris was the one chasing the top four cars but strange drifting in left hand corners ruined his racing rhythm, hopefully down to one of the pod side screws found to be tight when it should be loose (post race test definitely looked better).
  
• Gav & Ed were really close at the end, Gav only getting good controller settings by accident as he picked up the club controller used by the previous person…”full brakes and sensitivity at 2 O’clock”...it seemed to suit his driving well.
  
• Looking at his other scores it looks like Ed lost a couple of laps in Red lane but was consistent in the other lanes.
  

   

Series data

   
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Next week is a special theme night, an Italian Cars ‘Proxy’ event…it’s an expanded version of our recent ‘Le Manx’ night which was absolutely brilliant!