[woodcote]

The folks at Pendle Slot Racing have been busy over the past few months. Not only have slot cars and parts been flying off the shelves during lockdown, the Pendle team have been making huge progress with a number of exciting in-house projects. Probably the biggest of these is the development of a plastic chassis alternative for the RevoSlot cars...

       

Pendles are the UK distributor for RevoSlot. Although the new range of 1990s GT and prototype sports cars has impressed enthusiasts, the metal chassis and 3mm axles seem to have been off-putting to many potential customers. To try and bridge that gap, Pendles have developed their own 3D printed plastic chassis for the RevoSlot bodies - chassis that take the same motor pods and components as other high-performance 1/32 scale brands...

       

The chassis are printed by TA71 Modelcars, using state-of-the-art Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) printing with carbon composite compound treatment. This gives a very robust and lightweight chassis, ideal for racing.

The first four models available in the PSR 3D Print Shop are the Dodge Viper, Marcos LM600, Porsche 911 GT2 and Toyota Supra - each with a different chassis - and  available in a total of eleven different liveries...

   

Each model can be purchased in two kit versions or a ready-to-run (RTR) car...

Option 1 Basic Kit - (Body & Chassis) Price: £45.00
Fully decorated RevoSlot Bodyshell and 3D printed chassis.
1x RevoSlot Bodyshell
1x PSR MJF 3D Printed Chassis

Option 2 Complete Kit - (Body & Complete Chassis) Price: £85.00
Body Kit and all the parts supplied so you can assemble into a complete slot car.

   

1x RevoSlot  Bodyshell
1x PSR MJF 3D Printed Chassis
2x STAFFS01 15.8x10mm 5 Spoke Air Wheels (Rear)
2x STAFFS12 15.8x8mm 5 Spoke Solid Wheels (Front)
2x SIPA01-54 54mm Axles
3x SIPA25 Axle Stoppers
1x SIGA1828pl Nylon AW Contrate Gear
1x SIPS11 11t 6.5mm Brass Pinion
2x BRM102sr 18x10mm Rear Tyres
2x SIPT1159-C1 17.2x9.5mm Front Tyres
1x SICH60b 0.5mm Offset AW Motor Mount
1x SICH85 Screw in Guide
1x PSR E17a Braid
2x W8111 Eyelets
1x AS001 22k Long-Can Motor
2x PSR E25 Motor Screws
4x SICH54b Motor Mount Screws
4x PSR Body Screws
4x PSR E19a M2x6mm Grub Screws for Front Axle

Option 3 RTR - (Body & Complete Chassis) Price: £125.00
Tuned in house by our experts - supplied race prepared and ready to run with trued tyres.

   

1x RevoSlot Bodyshell
1x PSR MJF 3D Printed Chassis
2x STAFFS01 15.8x10mm 5 Spoke Air wheels (Rear)
2x STAFFS12 15.8x8mm 5 Spoke Solid Wheels (Front)
2x SIPA01-54 54mm Axles
3x SIPA25 Axle Stoppers
1x SIGA1828pl Nylon AW Contrate Gear
1x SIPS11 11t 6.5mm Brass Pinion
2x BRM102sr 18x10mm Rear Tyres
2x SIPT1159-C1 17.2x9.5mm Front Tyres
1x SICH60b 0.5mm off Set AW Motor Mount
1x SICH85 Screw in Guide
1x PSR E17a Braid
2x W8111 Eyelets
1x AS001 22k Long-Can Motor
2x PSR E25 Motor Screws
4x SICH54b Motor Mount Screws
4x PSR Body Screws
4x PSR E19a M2x6mm Grub Screws for Front Axle

   

Anyone who has dipped into builds with quality 3D printed chassis will know those prices are par for the course. The RevoSlot bodies retail for £25 and £20 for a printed chassis is pretty standard. For most racers, that 'Option 1' will be exactly what is needed. The rest of the parts will be a personal choice - or dictated by club rules - and may already be sitting in the parts box. However, the full 'Option 2' kit may appeal to home racers and those building a car for the first time - the kit includes everything you need.

One observation is that the chassis could have been designed to take a digital chip, such as the tiny Slot.it Type-C decoder - which is cross-compatible with the Scalextric, Carrera and Slot.it oXigen digital systems. Sadly, the chassis does not make fitting a digital chip easy at all. I suspect the plastic chassis option will be particularly interesting for digital racers, so this is a shame. However, the joy of 3D printing is that revisions can be made for future print runs.

This is a bold and exciting venture into new territory for Pendles. Along with the RevoSlot compatible chassis, the PSR 3D Print Shop will be producing chassis for resin body kits and some useful parts for using the Policar F1 gearbox with Penelope Pitlane bodies.

   

[Savage GT]

Good idea, but £20 for a 3DP Chassis sounds steep to me ….

[Nonfractal]

A good offering from pendle with a  clear and defined market.
For those who'd like one of the Revo bodies and liveries but just won't go with the alloy chassis and large axles of the Revo, this has a lot going for it.

Comprising mainly SlotIT components apart from (noteably) the AllSlotCar yellow can motor. 
Nothing bad about the AS motor but I'm guessing that Pendle must have more of these in stock than they could ever sell as a separate discounted component, especially since AllSlotCar appears to be a discontinued Brand with ith ever decreasing availabiliy of spares.

Pendle started with making their own lightweight interiors and have been slowly progressing in a direction which leads to the logical conclusion that they will, one day, manufacture a car from scratch under their own brand. 
This offering is another clear step toward pendle becoming a manufacturer.

AlanW

[Beejay7]

Very nice and probably perform well but the price of the chassis does seem excessive. Most aftermarket 3D chassis are in the £6 to £12 range and even via Shapeway with their premium add on is around the £14/£15 mark...My price point would be £15 for the bodyshell and £10 for the chassis, but I guess this doesn't allow a decent enough profit margin for the manufacturers/retailers, so I'l just have to pass on these good looking items.
I wish them well with their new endeavour.

[autoavia]

Having had a look on Shapeways Olifer chassis are around £12 to £15 and other makers are anything up to £22 so by the time you have added Shapeways shipping cost £20 for a good quality 3D chassis isn't so bad. 

 They look like a good idea but I do baulk a bit at the price. £85 for the complete kit makes them a fair bit dearer than Slotit and NSR rtr cars.
  A 22K motor would be way too slow for our modified GT class and I suspect other racers would prefer to use a different motor so the body and chassis option will probably be the most popular.

[woodcote]

I think 3D printing has been fabulous for our hobby and there's still plenty of scope for producing spares on demand that I don't think has been tapped yet.

However, there are different levels of 3D design and production.

When people talk about 3D printed chassis costing £6 to £12 - for example the JS Chassis Design and Amato products - these are chassis designed to convert mostly old cars to use modern parts. At that price point, they are produced on a decent home printer using bog-standard filament. What you get is relatively bulky and heavy - and a little rough. That is not to take away from what is a superb innovation and something that is good value (even adding in the cost of the parts to build up the chassis). Absolutely ideal for a home or club racing class specifically using these chassis. However, club racers I've spoken to who have tried out these chassis have been disappointed - but I think their expectations of getting a top-notch racing chassis for £10 were unrealistic. This isn't what they are designed to be. We gave an Amato chassis a good test for a possible new class at WHO/digital - and loved it. We didn't go ahead in the end, as it didn't quite fit with our plans for the club at the time. Using very cheap parts and a job lot of £1 bodies, we were looking at a basic kit that we could offer to racers for £25. After the chassis, the most expensive component was the Slot.it motor pod.

   

The likes of Slot.it, Olifer, CG Slotcars - all of whom I have bought chassis from - use Shapeways for their printing. The cost is between £13 (for unfinished white plastic) and £22 - plus £9 shipping per order. The Shapeways industrial printers are state-of-the art and produce slot car chassis that can be thin, strong and very light. The printing is incredibly accurate and offers a choice of stiffness (depending on additives). You get what you pay for... a chassis that is as good - if not better - than any injection-moulded chassis. We've built and raced an Audi R10 at the DiSCA Le Mans 24 hours using the Olifer chassis. We decided not to add up exactly how much we spent per car, but it must have been getting on for £100, including the £20 body. This isn't budget slot car racing!

   

Another avenue of 3D printing I've used is Andi Rowland's 'ARCO' chassis to convert Scalextric, SRC, Fly and scratch-built classic F1s to use the Policar drivetrain. These small chassis attach to the Policar motor pod. They are produced via Shapeways and cost £16 (plus shipping) or £13 for the unfinished white plastic. Not cheap, but a fabulous option to produce a grid of F1 cars that will race against each other with the same Policar drive train. Again, a Lotus 78 I built to race did cost more than a RTR Policar F1 - and that was including a budget £15 Fly donor car. I did it because I really wanted to, not because it was a cheap option. Great fun to drive and it is competitive...

   

Back to the Pendle chassis... These are racing chassis produced by Area 71 Slotcars in Milan. The Area 71 1/32 scale car kits are 70 Euros for chassis and body and are squarely aimed at serious racers with a comfortable budget. That's the area of the market Pendles have decided to pitch their Revoslot plastic option. That won't be the only market they are looking at for the PSR 3D print shop. Pendles also produce 3D printed parts to convert the Penelope Pitlane F1 bodies to use the Policar drivetrain and - I suspect - will be producing 3D printed chassis for some of their other resin bodies. I'm very much looking forward to see how the PSR 3D Print Shop develops.

[CMOTD]

Interesting that The Area 71 is supplying Pendle. They got an extremely bad reputation (Area 71 not Pendle's) a while back for non-existent/very late deliveries and there were complaints all over the forums and Facebook. It was a year or so ago, have they improved since then? Anybody got recent experience with them?

[Johnno]

Having had a look on Shapeways Olifer chassis are around £12 to £15 and other makers are anything up to £22 so by the time you have added Shapeways shipping cost £20 for a good quality 3D chassis isn't so bad. 

 They look like a good idea but I do baulk a bit at the price. £85 for the complete kit makes them a fair bit dearer than Slotit and NSR rtr cars.
  A 22K motor would be way too slow for our modified GT class and I suspect other racers would prefer to use a different motor so the body and chassis option will probably be the most popular.

I looked into this as a host class (RTR £125.00) and at that price for four including currency conversion is $950 Australian, that makes each car $224.95 AUD.... OUCH!!! four will be just shy of $900 plus freight


I will consider these though for this price I expect them to be Race ready out of the box, wheels and tyres trued, motor oiled and greased, gearing oiled and greased, no rattle or vibration throughout the chassis or body, decent racing tyres, decent crown and pinion including decent teeth on each for speed, wood guide the complete kit and kaboodle... 

I've been caught once paying $215 AUD for one car that was an absolute dog, still runs a little noisy and I am sure most people will shy away from these very expensive cars until certain guarantees can be given.

   
Ref# PSR-3D-CT04 - RevoSlot Toyota Supra No.39 & PSR 3D Chassis

Recently I've bought four Revo metal chassis cars for a new class in our group racing and out of the box the Dodge Viper has so far been the absolute best, requiring only front and rear tyre truing.

One other required front and rear tyre truing, chassis isolation (using Gorilla Tape) and adjustment of the motor, the others required motor adjustment and front and rear tyre truing. All fairly easy to do and at a reasonable cost.

As mentioned for $225 AUD I'd be expecting and demanding these are perfect out of the box.

[autoavia]

I think 3D printing has been fabulous for our hobby and there's still plenty of scope for producing spares on demand that I don't think has been tapped yet.

Another avenue of 3D printing I've used is Andi Rowland's 'ARCO' chassis to convert Scalextric, SRC, Fly and scratch-built classic F1s to use the Policar drivetrain. These small chassis attach to the Policar motor pod. They are produced via Shapeways and cost £16 (plus shipping) or £13 for the unfinished white plastic. Not cheap, but a fabulous option to produce a grid of F1 cars that will race against each other with the same Policar drive train. Again, a Lotus 78 I built to race did cost more than a RTR Policar F1 - and that was including a budget £15 Fly donor car. I did it because I really wanted to, not because it was a cheap option. Great fun to drive and it is competitive...

Back to the Pendle chassis... These are racing chassis produced by Area 71 Slotcars in Milan. The Area 71 1/32 scale car kits are 70 Euros for chassis and body and are squarely aimed at serious racers with a comfortable budget. That's the area of the market Pendles have decided to pitch their Revoslot plastic option. That won't be the only market they are looking at for the PSR 3D print shop. Pendles also produce 3D printed parts to convert the Penelope Pitlane F1 bodies to use the Policar drivetrain and - I suspect - will be producing 3D printed chassis for some of their other resin bodies. I'm very much looking forward to see how the PSR 3D Print Shop develops.

 I completely agree that there is a lot more potential in 3D printing. I have used Amato chassis and been very pleased with them.
I have also used Andi Rowlands chassis for Policar F1 conversions and have been pleased with those as well. A Policar conversion for a Fly F1 is expensive mainly because you have to buy a complete Fly car and I have been happy to put my hand in my pocket when I have wanted a particular car.
I hadn't realised that the various plastic colours on the Shapeways site offer different levels of hardness. I just assumed that you paid extra money for dyeing the plastic and some colours were easier to dye than others. I did notice today that there is a link at the bottom of the page that explains the different types of plastic and I will have a read before I order anything else.

 My only reservation with the Pendle Revoslot cars is just how much faster will they be than a well prepared standard Slotit or NSR car which can be bought for considerably less than the kit price for the Pendle cars. I wish Pendle's all the luck in the World but until I have seen one racing and can gauge just how good they are I won't be parting with my cash to buy one.

[PSR-Pendle Slot Racing]

Firstly i'd like to thank Andy for posting the above news and for the team at SlotRacer Online for providing this platform.
If i can, i'd like to explain our position re this project and what we hope to learn from it.
We see 3D printing as a natural progression in the developement of our own range of kits and scratch building accessories.
Many of our kits are now modelled from scratch or updated from our range of existing models in house.
We have several body kits which have been in the range for a number of years which there is still a demand for but would benefit from updating.
For example we recently updated several of our Penelope Pitlane bodies to accept Policar mounts with a 3D printed chassis. They have been well recieved and customers have asked if we will do more with similar conversions. These are relatively simple to do and the 3D prints could be done in house. However, we want to push the boundries further and develope chassis which would cater for another significant part of our business - Racers.
Thats when Revoslot came to mind. It offered us the opportunity to design a series of chassis which would be totally different to the box stock releases but more in keeping with what club racers (in the UK) are used to.
We haven't tried to be too clever, the chassis have been designed so that they are easy to build with readily available parts and will fit the standard bodies without any modifications. The aim was to learn the intricasies of chassis designs along the way. We started with the Toyota Supra as its a car that appeals to me, we binned 15 different chassis designs for this body alone, each one rejected, updated and reviewed again. We now have a chassis which we are happy with and which sets a standard for the other chassis in the range to follow.
It was important to choose a 3D print partner that we could use who would help us along this road. Thats why we chose TA71 as they are providing market leading print services and have a vast experience of 3D printing for the slot car market.
To respond to some of the comments raised in your replies, i understand that pricing was always going to be an issue. However i do believe we have pitched the prices appropriately. The body & chassis only option offers the opportunity to build a car to your own spec with common parts out of your pit box. Its difficult to make like for like comparisons on pricing with the Revolot Painted body kit at £25 as most manufaturers only release unpainted kit bodies which retail around £17-£25. As many have already commented £20 for the chassis may seem steep but when compared with other Shapeways offerings its pretty much par for the course.
I did work out the cost of purchasing all the parts for the running gear separately, it came out at over £50 (using our own already discounted prices) so to offer it for £40 would seem reasonable. 
The above 2 options are probably where we will see most sales, RTR cars are always going to be subjective and we have possibly put ourselves in the firing line, as any experienced racer knows, one car set up doesn't suit all tracks. However, anyone purchasing an RTR will be guarenteed a well set up car built by Nick, who has over 20 years experience of building and racing cars. Each car will be tested on our own club track to make sure they are silky smooth before being posted out.

To reply directly to some of your comments:

I looked into this as a host class (RTR £125.00) and at that price for four including currency conversion is $950 Australian, that makes each car $224.95 AUD.... OUCH!!! four will be just shy of $900 plus freight

We do deduct VAT for export sales reducing the cost of an RTR from £125 to £104.16.

A 22K motor would be way too slow for our modified GT class and I suspect other racers would prefer to use a different motor so the body and chassis option will probably be the most popular.

I'd be happy to swap out the motor for the quicker Allslot red motor at no additional cost.

Good idea, but £20 for a 3DP Chassis sounds steep to me ….

Already covered above but i think its inportant to stress the difference in quality between a home printed PLA chassis which typically sells around £10-12 and one that has been printed using the lastest MJF printers.

Interesting that The Area 71 is supplying Pendle. They got an extremely bad reputation (Area 71 not Pendle's) a while back for non-existent/very late deliveries and there were complaints all over the forums and Facebook. It was a year or so ago, have they improved since then? Anybody got recent experience with them?

We have entered into this relationship with our eyes open. Hopefully it will be good for both - we have some interesting news concerning this agreement which we'll be releasing soon.

One observation is that the chassis could have been designed to take a digital chip, such as the tiny Slot.it Type-C decoder - which is cross-compatible with the Scalextric, Carrera and Slot.it oXigen digital systems. Sadly, the chassis does not make fitting a digital chip easy at all. I suspect the plastic chassis option will be particularly interesting for digital racers, so this is a shame. However, the joy of 3D printing is that revisions can be made for future print runs.

This is in my mind for future additions to the range. However, on step at a time!

Sean