All the good stuff from week 9, plus a special feature on a dramatic change in car design
Proxy Racing
There was some discussion initially about whether we needed a Proxy Racing section on the SlotRacer forum… but then the Coronavirus pandemic struck. Suddenly, proxy racing became the only reliable and safe way for people to ‘meet up’ and race slot cars. It certainly looks as if plenty of first-time competitors and hosts have caught the proxy bug!
We obviously now have a dedicated proxy forum, we have several proxy racing series either onging, or being arranged, we can offer practical advice and assistance, and we also have some exclusive glossy vinyl stickers available to event organisers. So why not drop by and check it out, or better still join in?
- Proxy Racing Forum
- WHO Winter Rally-Sprint Proxy 2021 REPORT
- HO Drag Proxy Winter Series 2020-1 Finale SIGN-UP
- UK HO Drag Proxy Series 2021-22 Preview
- HO Drag Proxy 9-10 February 2021 RACE REPORT
- Electric Vehicle Triathlon Proxy Event – Official Thread
- Brighton to John O’Groats Road Race -Proxy Event
- Advice, support and stickers
- Streaming Software
Scratch Building
- Ferrari 612 Can Am Anthony’s 1/24 DDP kit build of a Ferrari 612 Can Am
- Amato Universal Chassis For all those interested in using plastic chassis on various bodies or replacing the stock chassis, this may be of interest.
- Winter lockdown 3d prints and builds – Alexis has made quite an array of 3d printed chassis
Slot Cars
- Scalextric Lotus 25 + Penelope Pitlane Driver – The latest livery on the little Scalextric Lotus 25 is a particularly lovely one.
- SCX new releases for 2021 – SCX will be announcing their 2021 range any time soon… but we’ve had a tip-off of three new rally releases
- HO cars bought in 2021 Who has bought what in the smaller scale?
Accessories
- NSR personalised work mat NSR offers a personalised work mat customised with the name of the pilot.
Tracks & Scenery
- Whichwood QuarryA video from Whichwood Quarry track using a number of techniques, including stop motion animation and compositing.
Media
- Slot Magazine #44 – March / April 2021 – The latest edition of Slot Magazine – #44 March/April 2021 – has just been published. The 67 page full colour glossy magazine is on sale from selected WH Smiths stores and from Pendle Slot Racing.
Design Feature
In our special feature this week, we take a look at how a complete paradigm shift in the design language of the automobile changed how cars look forever.
In 1971 Marcello Gandini sent out an edict to car makers the world over, insisting that they must stop designing their cars with the soft, sensuous curves that they’d been used to over the last couple of decades, and instead turn to sharper, more angular forms.
Or at least that’s what it must have felt like to anybody with their finger on the pulse of future trends when Lamborghini unveiled Gandini’s astonishing LP500 prototype at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. This was a concept car, of course, but three years later it actually went into production as the Countach, a word aptly expressing astonishment in the Piedmontese language.
The flood gates had been opened. In quick order the auto makers flocked to Gandini and Giugiaro’s studios to investigate the possibilities of this new language, and before long everyone wanted a sharp lined, angular design in their portfolio.
Of course this is a huge over simplification of the story, and as we’ll see below, the search for this new language began many years before. The question is why?
Why did the Italian design houses believe we needed to change the shape of the car? After all you could quite easily argue that the quintessential grace of a Jaguar E-Type, or an Alfa Romeo Tipo33 Stradale were as close to perfection as it is possible to achieve.
- Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 StradaleThe beauty of the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale is more than skin-deep
- Jaguar E‑Type Jaguar E‑Type – The most beautiful car ever made. Reborn.
Perhaps it was simply a change in fashion, a desire for something new. Or perhaps it was the dawning realisation that the forms of the day had gone as far as they could, they’d reached their zenith, and the only way to move forwards was to effect a complete change in direction.
- Alfa Romeo Tipo 33How the curvaceous Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 gave rise to the wedges of the 1970s
- Alfa Romeo Iguana The Alfa Romeo Iguana: An intriguing, influential concept from a definitive Italian designer
- Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale PininfarinaThe Alfa Romeo 33/2 Coupé Speciale Pininfarina – an alternate vision of the 1970s
- Autobianchi Runabout 1969 Autobianchi Runabout concept for the future X1/9
- Alfa Romeo Carabo Alfa Romeo Carabo 1968 – a milestone in Supercar design
- Ferrari 512S ModuloWhat’s the deal with the Ferrari 512S everyone’s talking about?
- Lamborghini Countach The Lamborghini Countach is a concept car come true
- Lamborghini CountachThe Posterless Child
- BMW Turbo1972 BMW Turbo, one of the greatest cars in the BMW stable
- Bertone Jaguar AscotConcepts and prototypes
- Vauxhall’s space-age SRVInside Vauxhall’s space-age concept
But it wasn’t just exotic Italian concepts and supercars that were drawn to the origami school of car design. Even mainstream manufacturers took the ideas on board. The original VW Golf was a classic example, as were the FIAT X1/9, Citroen BX, Austin Princess and many, many others.
So was this new way of thinking a success? Well, to a degree it certainly was.
Though it might not have been as classically beautiful as the best of the older, aero influenced style, it certainly became popular and fashionable. It was almost de-rigeur in 1970s and 80s and its influence has carried through to this day.