Your round up of the week’s most important slot car and motorsport news…
A cracking re-release from Teamslot, 2022 1:24 scale highlights from BRM, 1:64 scale Datsuns, club exclusives from Weevils and Scalextric and a flawed masterpiece from NSR are just for starters. We also have a figure painting tutorial by a Dutch master, Brian’s review of a MRSlotcar bargain – plus magazines, club racing, automobiles and motorsport.
Slot Cars
- Teamslot Alpine A310 V6 A welcome re-release rather than a brand new model, this Carlberson-sponsored Alpine is a model of the car Guy Fréquelin and Jacques Delaval used during their victorious 1977 French rally championship campaign. You can view the rest of the delayed 2021 Teamslot cars on the forum – and we expect Teamslot’s 2022 plans to be unveiled early next month.
- BRM 1:24 Scale 2022 Italian 1:24 scale manufacturer BRM have just announced the first part of their program for 2022. It includes new liveries on all their recent models, the first two releases on the new VW Scirocco – plus rumours of a new Ford. You can read more in the News section on the forum.
- Auto World HO Datsun 240Z Auto World have just unveiled two liveries to appear on their new 1:64 scale Datsun 240Z. This will be part of an ‘Import Heat’ themed summer release on the popular X-Traction platform.
- Weevils Slot Cars 2022 Club Car UK retailer Weevils Slot Cars started out in 2020 with a plan to offer exclusive models to collectors. They started with a Henry Ford Jr Teamslot Escort RS2000 and followed it up with a red Avant Slot Subaru. Now they’re offering this yellow Fly Porsche 911 as part of their 2022 membership package.
- NSR Porsche 908/3 Escudería Tibidabo New from NSR is this Le Mans 1974 livery on their very rapid Porsche 908/3 Classic racer. An off-shoot of the the legendary Escudería Montjuïch, the trio of Francisco Torredemer, Juan Fernández and Bernard Tramont ultimately had a disappointing trip to La Sarthe. You can read the story and see more pictures of the NSR model in the News section of the forum.
- SlotRacer on Facebook Mamoru has been searching for this Fly Alfa Romeo Guilia GTAm and recently found a beautiful example. He took is for a shakedown on the wood track at Tokyo Ginza Hakuhinkan Racing Park, capturing some wonderful images he shared on the SlotRacer Facebook group.
Scratch Building
- Lotus 23 Wood Carving It is always a great pleasure to see a hand carved model gradually appear from a block of wood, and Carver’s Lotus 23 is no exception. You can follow his progress over on the forum.
Review
- MRSlotcar McLaren F1 GTR You might have seen the MRSlotcar McLaren F1 GTR on sale at Pendles. In our latest SlotRacer Review, Brian can’t resist a bargain and compares the Canadian GTR against the Revoslot version. Head over to the Review section of the forum to discover his verdict.
Tracks & Scenery
- Ron Trackside 3D Printed Figures Rallyhub has finished painting his Ron Trackside figures, and they look fabulous. The whole painting process has been explained and photographed as a tutorial for anybody looking for some hints and tips.
- French Road Signs For anybody with an interest in Northern France, these French road signs may be of interest, for your track. Coming soon from MiniArt.
Publications
- Model Car Racing #122 & Más Slot #236 The two longest-running slot car magazines – one American, one Spanish – published their latest editions last week. You can read the contents pages of both and find out how to buy them on ePilot’s awesome ‘magazines’ thread on the forum.
Clubs
- Woodland Fort Slot Car Club Woodland Fort Slot Car Club in Plymouth completed their five-round NSR Back To Race Championship this week. Congrats to Ian who won three of the five rounds. You can read a report, study the results and watch a short video over in the Your Club forum.
- The SlotRacer’s Map CM Les Franqueses is the latest club to be added to our map. With a huge, 6 lane, 60 metre club track, and several Ninco layouts, it looks ideal for any of our Spanish friends in the Barcelona area. Work on the map continues
- Wye Valley Spring Stages There’s no doubt that South Wales has become a beacon for slot rallying in the UK. There are two separate events this summer, with Wye Valley Slot Car Club hosting their Spring Stages in Abergavenny on Sunday 8 May. You can find out how to sign up for the event on the forum.
Video
- Cheetah – Chevy’s Cobra Killer Duncan Pittaway introduces his Bill Thomas Cheetah in this fabulous video from Goodwood Road & Racing. Appearing at last year’s Festival of Speed, we get to see every detail of this legendary car, hear its story and watch it in action on the Goodwood House hill climb.
Automobiles
- Aston Martin V8 Vantage Zagato In another stylish essay on the Petrolicious website, photo-journalist Will Broadhead falls in love with this boxy 1986 Zagato-styled V8 Vantage. Originally bought by Rowan Atkinson as a potential race car, the 480bhp V8 and racing upgrades make this Aston a sensational 80s GT experience.
Motorsport
- Race Of Champions 2022 In the latest weekly instalment of ‘What Sébastien Loeb did next’, the Frenchman joined a bunch of motorsport royalty on the snow and ice of Sweden for the annual Race Of Champions extravaganza. Those are certainly big trophies, but to find out which Seb finished first, you’ll need to watch some races on the ROC Facebook page. A lot of fun was had.
- Clash at the Coliseum Nascar opened their 2022 season in quite extraordinary fashion on Sunday evening – with a race at the legendary LA Coliseum. Famous for hosting two Olympic games, the LA Rams, Evel Knievel and some of the biggest names in popular music, the Coliseum was turned into a quarter-mile oval for the 2022 Nascar Clash – the prelude to the Daytona 500. Check out the action on the Nascar website.
- Galway International Rally 2022 Galway is host to one of Ireland’s toughest and most picturesque rallies. Over 150 crews took part in the 2022 edition of the Galway International Rally at the weekend, having to cope with wet and windy conditions on the west coast. You can recap some of the action via the excellent ‘This is Irish Rallying’ Facebook page.
- Joburg Kyalami 9 Hours It was also very wet in Johannesburg for the delayed final round of the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge. Thankfully the track remained fairly dry for the race – and the business of deciding drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles was wrapped up. You can find out what happened on the official website. The four-race 2022 championship starts with the Bathurst 12 Hours in May, before moving to Spa for the 24 Hours at the end of July.
- Finding The Next Rally Star Young rally drivers from across Europe gathered in Germany last week for a shot at the big time – only one would take away the first FIA Rally Star trophy. You can find out what happened on the FIA Rally Star website.
- Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award 2022 Four finalists for this prestigious award found out on Sunday evening who’d win a Formula One test and £200,000. The four had been put through a gruelling two-day test in GT3, F2 and LMP3 machinery at Silverstone last October. The winner will join a list of some of the biggest names in British motorsport. Find out more on the Autosport website.
- F1 2022 – What You Need To Know Autosport have a perfect article to get you up to speed on the new Formula season. There’s the race calendar, driver line-ups and the big 2022 rules overhaul – plus dates for each team’s car launch and pre-season testing. It’s time for F1 fans to get excited.
