A Slot Car Driver's Log...

Body and Soul: NSR Porsche 911

2012-02-06T15:49:00.007Z

In this section I intend to show how simple things can result in quite complex achievements.

The slot car I'm presenting was bought as a plain white kit. After some painting and tuning, it resulted in one of my most enjoyable slot cars ever.

To start where it also started, here are the looks on the paintjob:

I was feeling out of ideas when I had this body at the "paintshop", but I had the Castrol decal sheet at hand and a brand new can of Tamiya "Park Green" TS-35 spray and decided to give them a shot. A simple work with Tamiya masking tape, using some spares to create a "tear" effect at the rear resulted in a simple yet very good looking Porsche. The rear wing was painted with the "Fluorescent Red" Tamiya spray paint and got a West logo on it. Only downside was that poor attempt to create a green screen on the top of the windshield. I used Vallejo Acrylics transparent green but I guess I missed the correct dilution. I used the red color equivalent to paint the rear lights and it worked fine.

This model was later used in and endurance race where it ingloriously fought a pack of NSR Corvettes. However, it still earned some praise, both on the paintwork and laptimes. So, I decided to give it a free tune-up. Cracking the nut open, here it is:

As you can see, both chassis, motor pod and guide arm are the stock parts you get from the white kit. It's better seen on the underside:

All the original screws holding body to chassis and motor pod to chassis were replaced by the metric screws available from NSR.

Free from any regulation restrictions, I gave it the mighty Slot.It Boxer2 motor. The power is transmitted to the axle by a 12 teeth nylon pinion attacking a NSR anglewinder crown, which results in a very smooth transmission. A lightweight Sloting Plus axle stopper was at hand and I used it to limit side-to-side travel on the rear axis. I kept the stock brass bushings and steel axle, they run so incredibly smooth that there's no use in changing them. I also kept the standard 17 wheels from the kit.

As I've previously mentioned, I do most of my running on Carrera tracks. Here, providing grip for this car can be a tricky thing. It is very nervous when full throttle is applied when very sticky are fitted. I found that some appropriately oiled MSC G1 19x10mm tires were a good compromise in terms of laptime and driving enjoyment.

The front axle was the biggest change from the original kit. I replaced it by a hollow Slot.It axle, with plastic Slot.It 16 wheels and "zero grip" 17x10 tires. A few spacers were used to get the adequate width and the M3 screws were used to set the appropriate height.

The arm guide had its travel greatly reduced using a thin Sloting Plus screw, which fits nicely on the arm and won't get stuck on the chassis. I replaced the original guide by a screw blade from NSR too.

So, how did this got to surprise me? Well, after running it intensely on Carrera tracks, I took it once to a Ninco track, with the setup straight from how it was for Carrera. I can tell you, I got ROCKED by the blistering performance on the Ninco track! The MSC tires worked perfectly here, as well as the chassis and guide setup. Looks like I got myself a great "hybrid" car, able to run quite respectfully on both kind of tracks...

That is it for today, stay tuned for more...

The Paintshop: A tale of 2 Moslers

2012-01-31T11:27:00.006Z

Next feature of the "Paintshop", here are a couple NSR Mosler bodies I've painted in very known liveries, the "Castrol" and "Marlboro" themes. I find that these look great on any car body, actually, but the great looks on the Mosler body match them amazingly:

I must confess I loved the results on both as well I enjoyed painting them. I've decided to present both bodies at the same time as they not only show the application of the washing technique, previously presented, as they were painted in different ways.

The Marlboro livery was painted using the Tamiya TS-36 "Fluorescent Red" spray. I find this paint very similar to the Marlboro color, which makes me believe that naming it "Fluorescent Red" was a nice way to go around licencing... Using tape mask from Tamiya again, the basic design is easily achieved.

The Castrol livery was a different process. After applying Citadel White Primer (actually, the Marlboro body was also treated this way previously), the flowing green and red sections were painted freehand. I used Vallejo Acrylics "light green" and "vermillion" and I found them to match the original Castrol colors very nicely. It was a bit of a trouble to get nice and flowing lines in freehand guise, but eventually I think I managed a good scheme and result.

The drawing of the black lines through washing was quite easy on these bodies. The cavities and details are very sharp in NSR bodies, making them great for this technique. Additional details were added throughout, to liven up the looks (I'm kind of a detail freak, maybe due to my past on miniature painting).

This is it, a post on fresh bodies, using a few of the simplest advanced painting techniques that I can achieve so far. Stay tuned for more...

The Paintshop: Do you Wash your car?

2012-01-20T11:32:00.011Z

Well, to kick off this return of mine to writing, here's an article on a few "advanced painting techniques" that I used before in miniature painting and I've been trying to apply to slot car painting.

To better explain, here is an example of two similarly painted bodies which only one has been painted with this new technique:

(left: Slot.It Sauber-Mercedes; right: Fly Racing Porsche 911 GT1)

You you look closer, you might find an additional effect to bring up the detail on the gaps where the real body parts show fit. Here's a close-up:

If you look at the Porsche, the black lines painted along the body part gaps and crevices help creating a more realistic effect, by bringing up the apparent visual depth of the model. Here's another example applied to a more lively color model, between two Nissan R390 in white/blue and white/red liveries:

So, as I said, this technique was not unknown to me, but I never tried it out on slot car painting, only in miniature painting. I've been doing Modelism since I was 12, starting with pretty much everything: cars, aeroplanes, whatever. Slots came much later, when I was 26. However, during much of the time in between, I've been playing a miniature wargame known as Warhammer Fantasy (know it better here!). It's a whole different thing to slot cars, for sure, and I'm not ashamed of that part of my past... but I keep some skeletons in the closet. When I mean I have skeletons in my closet, I literally mean I DO HAVE skeletons in my closet. See to believe:

This is only a small part of my entire army of Undead creatures (if you know Lord of The Rings you have a global idea of the fantasy theme of this wargame, don't judge me on my choice!). I have taken them out of their graves... I'm sorry, their boxes I mean, for countless battles. This time I've awakened them again to show you were I learnt the two most basic techniques in miniature painting: washing and drybrushing.

Before we get started, let me just put something pretty clear to everyone: I am by no means the most gifted of miniature painters, I really just know a few basic stuff. If you really want to get rocked by the masters, see here!

So, to demostrate the effects of washing and drybrushing, here's a close-up on one of my skeleton minions:

If it looks complicated, trust me, it isn't. The white brush was used to paint the whole miniature in a mixture of black/brown wash, which fills the holes and deep spaces. The bigger brushes were used to drybrush the miniature with a white and bone color mixture. Drybrushing lays paint on the higher areas of the miniature, leaving the holes and deeps untouched. I've already mentioned drybrush on this article.

While the washing is fairly simple in this miniature (you just need to wash the whole thing first and then the drybrush will correct the rest), doing so in slot models is not that easy as you can't or it's better not correct it after you use it. So, it's better to use a specific wash rather than just dilluting normal paint. I use these ones, which are acrylic, from Vallejo and Citadel:

These washes are different to normal acrylic paints as they are specially diluted with different mediums so that the paint can hold on to the surface tension in gaps and holes. A normal paint, very diluted, is not as easily applied as washes in these surfaces.

To apply these to a slot model, you need 3 things, basically:

- the appropriate brush (a good one is required);

- being able to hold your breath for the appropriate amount of time;

- patience.

I'll be showing you the application of a wash to a NSR Porsche 917 body I've painted and which I find the looks very bland. I'll try to liven it up by creating the depth detail. Here are the materials:

We're set, let's go. It's better to clean the brush regularly during the application of the wash. Just dip the brush into the wash, set it on the gaps you want to paint and let the pigment flow from the brush into the spaces with gentle slow movements.

The wash will flow, fill in the gaps by itself without leaking out. If that happens, you can just wipe it out while it's fresh, with a cloth or even your finger!

This picture shows a comparison. Only the right side of the model was washed. Which effect do you prefer?

Well, this is it, a simple guide to explain a technique I've implemented to my artwork on slot models.

In the next weeks I'll be presenting some models I've been painting and you'll be surely seeing this technique being applied.

See you soon...

Back in business...

2012-01-18T12:25:00.003Z

After a very long hiatus, here's a post not just so say I'm still slotistically alive, which I never left being, but also to be the first of a few post to follow on the next days.

My last post was about the Pirelli and Scaleato tires resemblance. By then, the motorsport season was about to begin. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull were defending champs in F1, Sebastian Loeb and Citroen in WRC and Audi had another Le Mans 24 Hours victory to its tally. Almost a year has passed, with the following news:

- Vettel and Red Bull hold the 2011 season F1 titles;

- Loeb and Citroen hold the 2011 season WRC titles;

- Guess what? Audi won the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours.

So, while there was not much of a change here, there was in my approach to the slot hobby. For sure I've been racing, tuning and painting cars as usual. But this time, I've spent most of my racing time, if not all of it, racing in a team we've started a year ago. Apart from the results, I'm just proud that the team started from very humble basis and grown into a 24-Hour race capable structure. That will follow, too...

On the painting side, here is just an overview of how active I've been:

This is the armada we took to the Trofa 2011 24 Hours race, eventually choosing the blue and gold Toyota 88C (this is when the cars were brand new, its painting is now pretty scratched...)

Some other cars I've been painting (the Marlboro couple are not really mine, actually...)

So, hope I can keep up with posting some news here, every now and then. Stay tuned...

Pirelli and Scaleauto...

2011-03-18T16:29:00.004Z

Just for a quick post, while new ones are being prepared (both news and cars...).

Following Autosport.com, one of the recent news

about Pirelli tyres and their return to F1 (welcome back), was the painting of the tyre side walls in different colours, to ease identification of rubber compounds. Looking at this, one question popped in my head:

Scaleauto tyres? :)

Have a nice weekend...

The Paintshop - NSR Fiat Punto Abarth

2011-02-25T11:43:00.006Z

Back to the "Paintshop" section, here's a recent work on a Fiat Punto Abarth from NSR...

I had no ideas on what color scheme I should use here, so I just ended up painting 3 stripes resembling the Italian flag (it's the same order actually...). At first I thought it was a shame I ran out of white primer, but the grey primer I used here actually ended up looking good. Plus, grey is not stranger to an Abarth car.

The stripes were brush painted using the always helpful Tamiya masking tape. The side mirror housings and wing were painted without help of tape, so it ended up with some flaws...

Here are the grid details. The top was a simple drybrushing with Tamiya Chrome Silver. The lower one was also painted by drybrushing, starting with the white (all surface) then applying either red or green on top, fitting to the lining on the hood. The green section looks a bit brighter than the rest, due to the white base it was painted on. I was about to correct it with some darker tone, but looking at it again, I thought a little contrast would look good. Strange though, the red tone actually didn't bright up that much as the green...

Also, this was the first time I tested the Vallejo brilliant varnish. I think I have applied too much, you can see the reflex on the hood. Now I'm getting more used to it and the results are better.

'Till next time...

Test Drive - MSC MG Metro 6R4 review

2011-02-16T16:28:00.007Z

Here's the start of a new section for this blog. The first guest for this Test Drive will be a long awaited release of mine: the MSC Competition MG Metro 6R4!

I have to be honest, before I start this... I love Group B cars. And I also love THIS Group B car (although not the only one). The reasons for this are not obvious: the car was not the top performer in the scene. It was also plagued with embarrassing faults. But still, it had the crazy looks most easily associated with the "pocket-rocket" image that Group B cars had. And... no turbo!? What? But relax: both chassis and powerplant have Williams Grand Prix Engineering hand on it!

The MG Metro 6R4 is based on the Austin-Rover Metro... but let's say that "based" is a bit over the top... let's say that "the car looked like the Austin-Rover Metro"! The "6R4" reference is quite straightforward: 6 cylinders, Rally car, 4 wheel drive...

This beast was released in 1985 and managed a 3rd place on its first outing, by the hands of Tony Pond in the Lombard RAC Rally. In 1986 it entered 4 rounds (Monte Carlo, Sweden, Portugal and Corsica) and retired after the Group B ban. Results were not so good, given to poor reliability that prevented the Metros to finish any rally in 1986...

Still, the car had some success in the hands of privateers and also found its place in Autocross events. Plus, most of its spare parts, specially engines, were used by Tom Walkinshaw as base for the Jaguar XJ220, only this time a turbocharger kicked in the 3.0 V6.

MSC Competition already made a name as a parts supplier. More recently, taking the versatile Monte Carlo chassis as base, it decided to launch two Group B cars, the Ford RS 200 (another must-have) and this MG Metro. The external looks are impressive! The car appears to be correctly in-scale and details are plenty. Painting is also 10/10.

Amazing little bugger, isn't it?

Another great aspect of this is the use of real rubber in the bodywork! This is found almost everywhere: under the front spoiler, by the large sidepods and behind wheel arches!

Cracking the nut open, we can see the modular Monte Carlo chassis with the fixed blade support and inline motor. Replacing parts are available, but even the "short" version of the tilting blade support won't fit, so we'll have to stick to the original. Still, it's a Ninco style spring blade, which is not that bad at all for rallying. The MSC motor drives the rear wheels through the typical pinion/crown system, and front traction is achieved by single pulleys on each axle, with a very loose feel. Not an issue for clean track rallies, but for very dirty events, it's better to fit 2 pulleys per axle...

The original interior seems very light, almost as an usual lexan tray, but with great detail.

Although small, it's not a very light car. The scale accused a total weight exceeding 80g, divided as below:

I assure you the paint pot is not adding weight! It was zeroed before weighting the chassis. This is only to prevent any magnetic interference on the scale...

The real fun begins with the track tests. Tested in Ninco environment, this car is surely one of the best ever "out-of-the-box" cars I ever drove lately... and a smile on the face is inevitable as you see that the price you paid gave a nice return! The stock gear ratio is 10/28, may seem loose at first, specially as this motor seems to lack braking power. However, after you get used to it, it's amazing how the car curves so fast, just with a bit of loosening on the body fixing screws! Stock tires may seem hard at first, will need some running-in...

After some laps, I decided to do simple mods: replaced front tires for Slot.Its 17x10 Z0, replaced rear wheels by Slot.It 15.9x8mm aluminium wheels with MSC 18x10 G1 slick tires. The blade guide was sharpened a bit and the paper covering the motor was cut open to allow proper "breathing". I replaced the original screws for the smaller SCX Pro screws, but even so, there's some "clicking" remaining in the body roll. A slight loosening of the rear and front axle chassis screws, oiling up, and here we go again!

I can say the car improved a lot, but even so, some strange roll-overs occur which I could trace back to the rubber underside of the front spoiler. Here's the evidence on the rubber's wear in the corners:

Maybe only varnishing it?

Still, the car is dead fast around corners! Not the smoothest ride, though - I already nicknamed mine as the "atomic ant"!

Here ends the Test Drive, but I can assure you I intend to run this car as much as I can! It's a real treat and now I look forward to get my hands on the Ford RS 200 "cousin" - but will wait for the 1986 Swedish rally livery.

Taxi !!! (an update...)

2011-02-15T12:12:00.007Z

In a previous entry on the "Slot car madness" section I presented you my project of turning a Revell's Mercedes 300 SE from the Argentinian Rally into a Portuguese taxi!

A long time has passed and progress on this project has been slow so far. So, here's a short update on how things went so far, something light to resume publishing on this blog...

The original bodywork paint was stripped with ethyl alcohol... I thought it would be an easy task, only to be wrong! The paintwork from Revell is very resistant to the alcohol I used, had a tough time stripping it and could only manage to sand paper it in several bursts, after long alcohol baths (2 or 3 days, sometimes...). Details like the race numbers and letters were quite easy to remove, at least.

I then applied grey primer from Tamiya and already painted the black sections. Here's the looks on it by now:

As you can see I covered the roof section before applying the black paint, otherwise I would have a tough time painting it green over glossy black. The plate in the rooftop was applied as a model, it's not final yet... will need some extra trimming and side lights, in order to look like this:

The choice of green will be tough... it's really a unusual tone, but guess that with some nice Emerald green from Citadel paint and some mixing of white, I may get this. Taxi badges have been ordered to a decal specialist (Pedro), and will surely bring up the looks on the final model. Then I will have to make a "civilian looking" interior for the model... and I also wish to set the driver with the arm over the sidewindow!

I really need to push on this one... it's a "non-racing" project, so it looses a bit on priority.

Stay tuned for more...

Back in business...

2011-02-14T11:16:00.002Z

Well, this blog underwent a long hiatus, due to having many things going on at once in my life, and the consequent time constraints prevented me from a more frequent writing... but the passion for sloting has not decreased, that's for sure! ;)

So, stay tuned and I'll promise you guys some more news on slot madness, car tests and weird painting schemes!

New aquisitions: Slot.It Mazda 787B

2009-11-30T16:42:00.004Z

I finally got my hands on one of these! The long awaited Mazda 787B "Renown", limited edition from the "Le Mans Winners" Slot.It series.

Actually, it's the first one of this series that I purchased. I was never much into the other models, even the Rothmans Porsche 956. Somehow, I liked the unique nature of this Mazda: the only Japanese model to win the Le Mans 24 Hours and also the first time a rotary engine powered car did it. Also, one of my favorite cars to drive in "Gran Turismo 2" on my Playstation! :)

The orange box could mean I got another Jagermeister model for my collection, but this time it's a one of a kind car. It won't fit into any of the categories I have in display at my shelves - again, a unique model indeed. A numbered card with the certificate of being a limited edition is present with every model.

Opening the box, everyone gets that "WOW" feeling. It's a beauty in itself and although not 100% error-free, it's a slot car, so one can forgive that! Unlike the previous images that Slot.It issued prior to release, the colors are now faithful to the real car. The previous choice of the green color seemed too dark.

Rear detail is neat and nice, although those intending to run it will be crossing their fingers so that the wing won't hit anything, being so fragile. The box fits a replacement wing too, in case anyone will dare to roll this model. Interesting is the fact that Slot.It fitted the spare wing in the same orange color, but it's the same material seen on the spare wing of the previous "Effini" release.

The front section seems to be the dislike of the scale experts. To my humble opinion, it does good justice to the real model. The minor issues are the absence of an antenna and the fact that the rear rims detail sits too far outside on the model, the rear ones are more "deep" - but again, this is due to the intrinsic nature of slot cars.

Another model that will surely shine in my shelves...

New aquisitions: 1:24 Porsche 962 "FromA", by BRM Models

2009-11-26T11:00:00.002Z

My early races in the slot car world were quite varied, since I didn't have the material to race with, I was always borrowing stuff from others. One of the the categories I tried was 1:24 Plafit models, with a Porsche 962 from IMSA, fitted with the required chassis. I kind of liked the racing feel of these cars: they were heavy, very stable but lacking power, so I needed to be on the limits all the time. This is the model I raced with:

Since then, I moved away from 1:24 but the memory remained. I searched for some Plafit chassis but the assembly seemed a bit too complicated for my skills... even 1:32 HRS chassis are troublesome to me, so I put my 1:24 plans on hold. Until one day, I found this car on Cric-Crac, with 40% discount:

Actually, there were two liveries available for the same price, this one and the black & red "Kenwood" 962... but I had to grab the yellow one, for the reason I started this post with.

I knew about the existence of the BRM Models range for some time. Reading some American foruns, it seems they found a place there, which is not strange since BRM produces IMSA-spec models. After seeing some photos, my conclusion was that this is the same chassis and body philosophy I'm used to in 1:32 models, so I thought it as a good and easy to start way into 1:24 scale. I was not disappointed. This model is as easy to assemble as it can be. It features the always useful instructions, but looking at the parts, the assembly is quite intuitive. In a few minutes, you'll get this:

The model is nicely painted and really looks awesome. I left it lying about in the track, and it was an eye-catcher for everyone. As I said before, assembling it was no significant issue, although fitting the tires to the rims was quite a fight! BRM recommends heating up the rubber with a hairdryer before fitting it, but I managed to do it without heating (I only warmed up the tires on my hands for a while).

Opening the model, this is how it looks like:

As I told, it's the same look on a 1:32 plastic chassis, only bigger! Here's a closer look at the chassis:

The mechanical side brought some good news, as all the axles, gear and rims are scaled to the 3 mm range. The motor is a standard "boxer" type (FK-130), so one can already start imagining the possibilities... The guide blade and braids are Plafit type, so not a real issue to find replacement parts here.

The black sheep on this car: First, the almost 180g of total weight. It may be useful on the stability side, but for running this car on 15 Volt tracks, I won't be much happy with that. Secondly, the front wheels hit the underside of the bodywork and the track, so it acts as a permanent front brake (when it's locked...). So far I'm already considering some replacement parts all around (tires, axles, bushings), but that will be stuff for another post.

Until next time...

Slot Series Review - Group C Championship 09

2009-11-24T13:17:00.006Z

Some time ago I posted the paintwork on a Porsche 956 LH (here's the shortcut), which was prepared to contest the 4 rounds of the 2009 Group C Championship. Now that the season is finished, and since I got back to finishing on the podium (3rd place), I think it's time to honor one of my rare well-born slot cars.

Being a Ferrari fan, driving a Porsche may sound like sheer heresy. Maybe not. I'm a global motor sport fan, and even the most hardcore Tiffosi must recognize Porsche as a fierce rival - why? Because they DO know what racing is all about. No one can contest that the Porsche 956 has earned its place on the "all-time greatest sports cars of them all".

As I said in the painting article, this car was being prepared in two fronts (some dedication, huh?). While all the paintwork was being carried out, I was losing precious track time, so in order to make up for that, I fitted all the mechanical parts I was intending to use on the most comparable machinery I had at hand: a Slot.It Porsche 956 KH, "Warsteiner" livery.

The machinery testbed... much of the black and silver 956 LH success started here.

Since the 956 KH is a proven less efficient Porsche, I was more interested it getting to grips with the mandatory Slot.It silicone tires, which proved quite tricky in Carrera tracks. Still, I liked the "loose rear" feel. I spent many laps with low-grip tires in my learning days and even to my best efforts, I never managed to produce extra-grip "vintage" rubber tires as many of our local racers do. So, one point in my favour, I was hoping...

First race, at the CSB track:

With many of us in the dark about the real capacities of each car, I got a surprising 2nd place amongst 15 drivers! And the greatest surprise was seeing my car lapping the track 2 tenths fastest than my best times in practice. I had and still have no clues on that sudden performance increase, but I would like it to happen more regularly!

The "parc fermé" after the race, with the podium finishers standing out. Mine is the silver and black.

Second race, GT Team track:

The evolution of the car was not significant during the week, but I knew I had a reliable, easy to drive car. That was important for this track, but not critical. In a race where the Porsche "gang" were racing on a class of their own, I was a bit off pace to a couple 956 "cousins". This is the race where I first used my new electronic controller, a NSR clone. After turning 5 lanes without any incident of de-slot, it seems I saved them for the last one, when the car behaved absolutely unstable! Luckily I was able to keep 3rd place, but I only secured it by meters!

Here I am, pointing at my new electronic controller. It was the first time I raced with it...

Another podium finish, 2 out of 2 races. This time, a 3rd place...

Third race: CSB track

The return to the CSB track proved a more closer fight. My car was quite fast on the middle lanes, but lost some performance on the outside ones. With a couple of stability issues left to solve, I was hoping for the best, despite my motor proving to be one of the best around. With similar gear rations, I was leaving everybody behind on the main straight - but not seeming to lose acceleration on the narrower sections. To my best efforts, I had to concede a podium finish here but managed a 4th place, by a couple of meters to the 5th placed driver. Still, the odds of finishing 3rd in the Championship were good - unlike the odds of finishing 2nd or even 1st (the mathematical chances were there, though...)

My car, standing 4th on the starting grid. This was the only race this car failed to finish on the podium.

Fourth and final race, GT Team track

While attempting to solve the stability issues that marred my performance on last race, I opted for some bigger 16,5mm magnesium Slot.It rims at the front (I was fitting 15,9mm plastic Slot.It rims), and now I had a more stable "nose", which was a gladly welcome improvement. My rivals for 3rd place did not show up, so all I had to do was keeping my head cool to secure the last step on the championship podium. I did it securing 3rd place in the race, behind the guys that dominated this season.

Another 3rd place for my car's final race...

A proud owner (to the right). At the center, the young Luís was champion for the first time ever. Congratulations!

Pioneer "Bullitt" Mustang

2009-11-24T10:44:00.002Z

I'm really looking forward to get my hands on one of this. According to Slot Car Illustrated, the first model from the Pioneer range should be out very soon.

A review with some interesting photos is already out.

Maybe a X-mas gift?

The Jagermeister Files... Fly BMW M1 DRT

2009-11-12T12:19:00.004Z

Next on the Jagermeister Files, one of the great "mean machines", the BMW M1!

This is a model brought by Fly. At the first look, it is another great looking reproduction that this supplier has already got us used to. This machine was driven by Kurt Konig in the 1982 DRT Championship under the Gr.4 rules ("Deutsche Rennsport Trophae").

The usual orange looks from the sponsor fits the great M1 nicely:

This time I found a picture from the real car, and even featuring the driver (who even signed the photo!):

From what is possible to compare, it seems that the front round air inlets seem small on the Fly model. Also, the rear wing's side supports seem to be out of proportion when compared to the photo. The top of the wheel arches seem rounder on the real car, opposed to the flat cut look on the model. The sponsor logos seem to be all in place, in good justice to the real car. Overall, a very good reproduction by Fly.

Although I never track-tested this model, I did some races with the "Fly Racing" version and it is a great car to race. Although this regular version lacks motor pod and all the remaining evolutions, the bodywork and chassis should make for a competent racer, specially since this car has a sidewinder configuration.

The Paintshop - Slot.It Audi R8C "paintball"

2009-11-04T14:35:00.008Z

Well, having been "slot-busy" for a while, I'll be trying to catch up with posting some articles, and for the time being, I'll show you another recent paintwork of mine.

The model is the Slot.It Audi R8C, which was allowed for a LMP championship that took place back in June. I could only contest 3 races of this championship and was intending to use 3 different Audis: this one, the Avant Slot R10 and the fabulous SCX Pro Audi R8. Well, in the end I could only take part on two races and I took the SCX model only (which was already commented on the "X-files" section here).

Still, the intentions of racing the Slot.It model forced me to paint the model hastily. I bought the orange hard-tuned version from Slot.It, with the Flat 6R motor in Anglewinder configuration. I had only applied the white primer by the time I decided I wanted to race this car, but was undecided on starting the series with the Slot.It or the SCX model. So, what happens when you have little time to paint the car and don't have a clue on what color scheme you want to apply? Well, you might get this:
This is what I named "Audi Paintball LMP", which actually never raced. But the hastily painted color scheme was enough for some good laughs from the chaps, and I wouldn't definitly say no to racing this car somewhere in the future...

The Paintshop - Slot.It Porsche 956 for the Group C Championship

2009-10-25T12:14:00.007Z

The next feature on the "Paintshop" is the car which replaced the Porsche 956 "Marlboro" that I painted considering a future participation in racing (as I told here). However, I kind of felt bad about racing that model, so I decided to paint a brand new model (the Marlboro had some woes, ias the chassis and body were used).

While searching for a different livery for the Porsche 956, I was browsing the Racing Sports Cars Archive when I found a nice looking and mostly unknown Porsche 956 that contested the 1984 Le Mans 24 Hours, the #21 "Rollei Cameras" from Charles Ivey Racing, this one:
Since this is also a quite simple color scheme (and I had the silver and black spray cans!), I decided to paint my model based on this car. So, here's the result:
The black section was painted in first place, since the silver paint never dries completely and for that reason, I prefer not to use mask on silver painted sections. I missed the masking on the mid body air outlets and some black "smoke" entered (better seen on the top-down view). If this was a model for the shelves or if I had some extra time to paint the car, I would have corrected this. Since it's a racing car - what the heck, no one will notice it when I blast around the track with it!

After painting the black rear, I allowed it to dry overnight before masking it and apply the silver section. Then it was time to remove the masking tape and apply decals. I chose the #7 in detriment of the original #21, I have this belief that 7 is my lucky number and all my racing models bear this number (well, I was born on a day 7, maybe that's where this superstition comes from). Decals were chosen from assorted letfovers of 1:43 decal sheets I have laying around. I do need some big logos to fit the wings and wide sections of my models, as it brings up the looks on the model quite considerably.

After applying the decals, I painted the black sections (this time with brush...), mainly the dashboard under the front windshield and the headlights housing. The details like fuel inlets ad exhausts were painted in silver. The pilot was also painted on this occasion (I used the replacement Porsche interior from Slot.It). After all dried up, I started covering the body with thin layers of clear varnish and allowed it to dry overnight after some 3 or 4 very thin layers were applied. Then, on the next day I applied a couple "normal" layers of varnish, and allowed it to dry again overnight.

After applying all plastic detail parts, the car was ready to hit the track - only 2 days before the scheduled 1st race! Since this was a very long painting process, I had to resort to a "T-car" I had, the less performing Porsche 956 KH, just to get the mechanical side working. In the end, this car had an astonishing 1st race result, scoring an unexpected 2nd place. But that will be stuff for a next article...

Until next time...

Slot Car Madness - The Revell Mercedes... Taxi!

2009-10-20T11:16:00.005+01:00

After some absent time (my writing is being directed to somewhere else...), time to present you another ongoing project on Slot Car Madness. This is not a true Slot Car Madness project in itself, it's more of a "painting madness" project.

I recently purchased a Revell Mercedes 300 SE, rally version, a model I was looking for some time. Not that I want to race it... it's an idea that poped into my head soon as I saw this model on the shops.

This is a nice looking "car-bomber". The robust and powerful looks show exactly what this car was: a Mercedes. Revell did a nice work with this model, it's full of nice details. But I won't bet on the track capacities of this huge trucker... I'll show you why:

The tires are so narrow! If they are up to scale, I wonder how did these guys manage to race this 2-ton car with such a small patch of rubber underneath. One good thing that Revell did: place the motor right before the rear axle, instead of their usual choice for cars of this size (ahead).

Some more nice looking details:

Shame that the idea I told you about requires that I strip this car's paintwork. I kinda like this one, but the other choice was the grey Monte Carlo winner model - and there's no way I'm going to change the paintwork on a Monte Carlo winner !!!

This is what I want this car to look like afterwards:

Well, wish me luck... see you next time!

The Paintshop - Porsche 956 "Marlboro"

2009-10-11T13:56:00.009+01:00

"The Paintshop" is another new section to the blog. In this section, I'll present some of my painted slot cars, either from scratch or just modified. In fact, this is not a 100% new section, as I've already shown you some paintwork before, with the "Liqui Moly" BMW 320i (here). So, to officially start this section, I'll present you my Slot.It Porsche 956 painted with the color scheme of the Marlboro brand.

The color scheme was based on the #8 car that contested the 1983 Le Mans 24 Hours race, driven by Klaus Ludwig, Stefan Johansson and Bob Wollek. The trio brought the car home in 6th place, on a race where the legendary "Rothamans Porsche" team scored 1-2 (check the results and photos here). The #8 Marlboro Porsche paintjob suffered a bit throughout the race, as can be seen from the pictures:

So, this is my interpretation of the model:

This was a "leftover" bodywork that lied around in the GT Team box of spares. It was exclusively used for testing for the annual National 24 Hours Race, that used the Group C cars a couple years ago. The respective clear parts and exhausts, fuel caps and radiators were lost, so I had to resort to another model that was left behind, a "Kenwood" Porsche 956 that ended its days in the spares box (that's why the windshield bears the "Sonauto" logo).

The bodywork was fairly simple to paint. The usual Tamiya Spray white primer was applied before the next steps. Using Tamiya masking tape, I covered all the white areas you see on the model, and then passed some thin layers of Tamiya TS-36 "Fluorescent Red" Spray, which is the color that best matches the Marlboro red from the whole Tamiya catalog. After passing some layers and a thorough pause for drying (a whole weekend), I removed the masking tape and applied the decals from some old sheets I had for 1:43 models. Then, I applied gentle layers of Tamiya Clear Spray (TS-13). After passing 3 or 4 very thin layers and allowing them to dry, I finished the model with a normal passing of Clear Spray again. The black details (headlight housing, window borders and radiators) were brush painted before the final assembly of the bodywork.

The final look could be better if I had the adequate Marlboro decals, this is the best I could do with my 1:43 sheet. The Dunlop and #8 numbers were also available from old sheets too, and that's what I used mostly.

Still, in the end it's a very easy to replicate color scheme that should look great on any model, not just the Porsche 956. To finish this post, just a small addition: this model was actually painted to race, but now it sits very well on the shelves - so I bought another "white body" Porsche 956 to attack the incoming Group C series. I've already checked for some easy-and-good-looking color schemes and I assure you that painting is in progress. So, keep an eye out for news...

Race Review - 3rd round of the Le Mans Classics Championships

2009-10-09T15:56:00.008+01:00

The 3rd round of this series brought us back to the GT Team track, where I managed to score my last race win. Prospects of repeating this feat looked dim, as the competition from the Fly models looked stronger now - and somewhat to my own fault, there were some fast-paced Scalextric Ferrari P4s now, all fitted with "super-sticky" tires, the way that only those guys know how to!

Tires were just the key issue here. I spent all week trying to revive a couple of old P1 I had, since the ones I started this series with swollen so much, that the rear of the car sat too high - and that was the reason of the poor behavior I had to deal with last race. These new P1 were just 18 mm in diameter, but unfortunately now the car sat too low! Only noticed that on race day, when the car was showing its bad temper again. With no time left to prepare new P1s, I had to resort to a couple of used P6 tires with a lot of mileage on them, but no race distance ever done. At least they were the exact diameter I needed.

After quite some laps (and some treatment with lighter fuel), tires were beginning to grip quite well, dispite the "tail-happy" behavior always present. Nothing that some extra driving care wouldn't deal with. My only concern was on the performance of these tires on the exterior "blue" and "black" lanes...

With another "full house" (18 drivers) and a track cleaner than last race, I still knew that I had to do well on quali, so that I could join the last heat. That's what I did, and just narrow, with 6th place!

(top) Me with the rest of the "big guys", 1st on the left. (below) My car waiting for the green lights way back there! Another thing of notice: 4 Scalextric Ferrari P4s here!

The 2nd heat runners scored some impressive results, so we were all "on alert" on our turn. I had no choice but to start on the blue lane, which was the dirtiest at the start. Fortunately, it was good enough when I started the race. With a low-key result (which is expected when starting from this lane), I was last by the end of the lane, but 5th and 4th placed drivers were not far away. One of the drivers was having issues with a tire that decided to "unglue" from the rim, so his car was de-sloting considerably. That was my only chance of beating other car, since all the others were running too fast. Moving from lane to lane, I was running something between 2 or 3 tenths of second slower than the leader, but close to 4th place. Some mistakes on the penultimate lane, the fast "red" cost me a bit, but I was able to recover on the last lane - the yellow one proved the fastest lane to drive, and that's where I scored my best lap result and fastest laptime too. That was not enough to challenge for 4th, but I kept 5th in the heat and also overall, as every driver from this lane performed better than the guys from heat 2.

Overall, I scored 205 laps and 27 meters, which improved my last race here by some meters but this time it was not enough to claim the win, as I needed an impressive 211 laps. The Fly Ford GT40 was too fast for the Ferrari P4 horde..

The paddock picture and podium:
Today it's time to deal with the CSB track for the series final round. My chances of finishing this series on the top3 are small... I will do my best there...

The story of my unluckiest slot car

2009-10-06T10:46:00.024+01:00

"And now, for something completely different..."

Today I'll be showing you my GT-HRS2 that contested the championship with the same name. This series were launched to prepare the assault on the annual Porto 24 Hours race. Not that this model earned its place in my heart as bringing good racing memories - actually it was the opposite case: this car never had a good race, all due to some sort of bad luck involved. So, this is the story of my unluckiest slot car ever!

From the whole choice of models and brands, I bought the Corvette from SCX, the "Jos Menten" paintwork. Not that I liked it particularly, it was just a case of availability... and having seen the Corvettes performing damn well before, in HRS2 configuration.

So, this was my 3rd attempt to build a HRS car on myself, and 2nd time with the newer HRS2 system (the 1st one, I've already shown you here). Here are the looks of both "body and soul":

The hub inserts at the front are from the Slot.It Ferrari F40 - the regulations obliged all models to fit Slot.It 17mm diameter wheels both front and rear, so I took the front wheels from the F40. As you can see this is a "simple" anglewinder configuration with all-Slot.It material. I actually spent more time fitting this chassis to the car that actually preparing it for racing. I'm always afraid to glue it the wrong way, so I spend more time than really needed when fitting an HRS chassis to any body.

Still, this car had a very promising start, even without that much needed practice time. The series consisted of just 4 races and I already knew from the start that I would have to miss the 3rd. This car couldn't start the 1st race any way better: it scored pole! However, since qualifying took place on the "blue" lane of the CSB track, one couldn't jump to any conclusions on the real race pace of the models.

The joy of pole lasted 6 laps into the race, when the first "gremlin" decided to attack. I was having that feel of a loose crown gear, and a quick stop and check showed that there was nothing wrong with it - but the car behaved the same. So, off to the pits for a general check: it was the rear axle stopper's screw that came loose and couldn't be screwed again! Luckily I had a spare axle stopper at hand, but lost too much time on the pits - I had to remove the whole rear axle almost piece by piece. The problem was that "pre-race check": I tightened the screw too much and it gave way after some laps. So much for being careful... I don't quite remember the rest of the race, but I still had to visit the pits again for some reason. Anyhow, all these mishaps put me dead last from 10 runners - not even a lowly point to start the season.

The rear axle stopper was the first "traitor" that I had to deal with, on this car...

Well, so much for my first race, despite the pole. For the second round, I had progressed the car quite a bit, but so did others. I still eyed a good race, when all of the sudden, something new to me occurred. Since it was a cold rainy day, I decided to bring the car with me for work, but left it on my (real) car's glove compartment. It only took 15 minutes of odd sunshine for that day, to get the cockpit's temperature high enough for the chassis bending up! I only noticed it the first time I took it to the track: it was hitting the ground everywhere! In such short time left, I was forced to skip the race, as the chassis was still being leveled up again on a Slotcars Italia chassis bench (see here).

As I told before, I had to miss the 3rd race... so, while preparing for the last race of the season, having the chassis leveled up again allowed me to check that the motor pod was also bent up! Nothing that a new pod would fix - but there was not much time to adjust it properly to the chassis, so my Corvette was suffering a bit from rigidity.

To hell and back - the Slotcars Italia bench did wonders with this chassis...It is not very noticeable, but I assure you that this pod is quite bent!

For the last race, only 7 contestants appeared, but I was aiming for a podium finish. Alas, the rock-hard feel on the car didn't allow me to do any better than 4th, but hooray for a clean race (at least clean from any mechanical issues).

The last race this car contested was a 4 hours endurance, again for preparation of the 24 Hours race. For this last race, this time on the GT Team's track, the pace was fairly better, but still a bit away from the faster cars. Nothing that caused any big concerns on an Endurance race, but we could do with more pace, that's for sure... The car started very well, at the end of lane #1 we were 2nd overall from 6 teams. Unfortunately, the other teams started to show their real power and we had to concede 2nd place and we faced serious opposition for 3rd, which we lost on the very last lane - the mechanics letting us down again! This time, a very unusual problem: the whole front assembly unscrewed! Nothing that ever happened to time on the huge amount of practice laps this car did - and even so, I had the screws fixing reinforced with superglue, so that they wouldn't (hopefully) unscrew! That ended up our chances of finishing on the podium, so this car said farewell to racing with a low-profile 4th place, 22 laps behind 3rd place.

The front mounting that let me down on this car's last race...

So, the sad story of a car built with care. I'm sure my next HRS will do better, if the "mech-gods" don't throw any more issues on the car's way... Until then, see you next time!

Race Review - 2nd round of the Le Mans Classics Championships

2009-10-01T14:24:00.013+01:00

A quite late race review since the race took place a week ago, but here is my review of the 2nd round of the Le Mans Classics Championship. Moving the "paddock" from the inaugural event at the GT Team track to the longer straights of the CSB track, organizers were again pleased with another "full house" - 18 drivers, with some of them being new to the series! Imagine if we got them all reunited!

You would have to return to the 60's or 70's to see a race like this!

Preparing cars for the CSB track was quite a challenge. My car was completely unstable on this track, although managing to be just shy on the pace of the fastest guys around. I did what I could to try to solve this, but despite my best efforts the P4 had a strange eagerness for jumping around the track! The only option was fitting the car with a bit more ballast at the front (5 g) and fitting a shorter-than-ideal gear ratio to better deal with the external lanes.

Although this track was not as dirty as GT Team was last week, I knew that I would have to qualify for the last heat, which would not be easy since many drivers made an amazing job in preparing their cars for the unique demands from this track. So, being the championship leader, at least I had the advantage of being the last one to qualify. I had seen some drivers scoring impressive laptimes, but other favourites had some issues, so I could have a shot at the 3rd heat. So, after a quite nervous and nail-bitting qualifying minute, I did good enough to see me sitting on 4th place overall, and the spot for the 3rd heat was taken. "Phew!" was the expression...

My P4 sitting 4th place on the grid (top) and me (2nd from right) bracing myself for the inevitable (below)

The 2nd heat saw some amazing performances, with 2 drivers scoring an impressive 182 laps total. That was my main objective so far, since I would not risk chasing the other guys from my heat - all I could do was keeping my car on track and hope for the best.

That was actually took place - a nerve-wrecking race indeed. A couple of consistent performances on the first two lanes was good enough for 5th and 30 laps scored on each was a good mark. But then came my worst lane, the fast "green". Can't really explain what happened here, but my car was very unstable - I had different response at the same sections from lap to lap! I guess I had 4 or 5 errors here, what cost my a full lap or even more. 30 laps scored again, but I needed a good mark here, so it was a poor result. The move to the tricky "white" lane saw me driving for the 1st time on the "tight" side of the "Big Bend", and my nerves got even more punished here. But it went down OK, scored a much needed 32 laps to make up the loss in the "green" one. Moving to the "black" lane, some issues appeared again, but the final mark of 30 laps again was somewhat positive, given the demands of this lane. Finishing on the fast "red" lane, I needed to score 30 laps to move ahead of the 2nd heat results, and eventually scored 31. The end of the race was very well received (and even needed for my fingers - fighting my car and my adrenaline at the same time is exhausting), but I could only finish 6th, 4 laps behind the winner. Still, my fastest laptimes are very close to the fastest guys on the middle lanes, but the outside lanes were horrible.

To my help, some of the drivers that fared less better on the 1st race were present on the podium, so that mixed up the standings a bit. I'm now 4 points behind the leader (who finished 2nd twice) and tied ex-aequo in 2nd place with 2 other drivers (including the winner from this round).

So, some homework left to do before the next round at this track, but now it's the GT Team's turn. I hope for a better showing here, but having to prepare new tires hurt a bit my aspirations. Let's wait and see...

Well, this is it for this review. I'll leave you with some more pictures from the event. See you all around soon...

The podium from the race - another Ferrari beating the GT40 and 917, this time the honours were taken by a Ferrari 512 on an all-Fly models podium

Here I am, controlling the race managing system... that didn't help me much on getting a better finish! :)

Looking at these great looking Codalungas, one has to believe we're looking by the rear-view mirror on the "Gulf" Porsche 917 of Steve McQueen on the "Le Mans" movie!

Newcomers to the scene...

2009-10-01T10:18:00.005+01:00

Wow, amid this global crisis that hit hard the slot world and after the sad news that some slot car brands are facing bankruptcy, there are now news that some new brands want to join the scene.

I was surprised reading the Slot Car Illustrated forum last week, where there was a post about a producer from Czech Republic, Faro Slot Cars. They developed a couple of mostly unknown Tatra cars (check them here).

Now, although it has been announced quite some time ago, Pioneer Slot Cars seem to have their models up and running finally. The great green Mustang from Steve McQueen's "Bullitt" has now passed the project phase to the finished model. The "Slot Car News" blog features news pictures from the model that are also available from the manufacturer's website (go there!)

Finally, the cherry: a new slot car brand comes to the scene: Mr Slotcar, from Canada! Their website is still under construction, but if you like to keep track of their news, bookmark this. However, their choice for initial model is quite surprising: the Le Mans winner Mazda 787B, the same model that Slot.It is just about to release to the market. Hope this won't be an issue for them. Check the pictures at Slot Car Illustrated here. The machinery looks nice and can feature something amazing for a 1/32 car: FF-type motor in sidewinder configuration. They also have plans for another model, the Toyota 88C, although I guess this model will please the american public more than the europeans... BRM has had some success with that model, but on 1/24 scale.

Good news from the front. New blood is coming into the slot, so let's hope it turns out for the best to all brands.

New aquisitions - Jagermeister Porsche 935 K3 by Fly

2009-09-30T11:12:00.012+01:00

Well, after some time away from any blogish activities, time to catch up with the writing... and to mark this occasion, I decided to show my most recent aquisition for the Jagermeister/Porsche ranks of my colection: the limited edition Fly Porsche 935 K3!This is also my very first item purchased in eBay. I registered my username on the very same day the auction ended! Frenetic last 3 hours, I must say. Even when I asked other eBay users to buy me some items, I always opted for the "Buy it now" guise, so I didn't knew quite much about bidding.

Gladly, all ended well, and so this pretty looking "mean machine" landed on my hands:

I can assure you there is no Jagermeister bottle inside :)

Tah-dah! I told you, no bottle...

This is the beast that the great John Fitzpatrick raced at the Spa round of the 1980 DRM, finishing 2nd, according to "Racing Sports Cars Archive" (see here). That was the year I was born, and at that time (1st June 1980), I was yet to be 2 months old! Here's the photo taken from the Archives, that also decorates the box from this car:
I'm not sure if it is a recurrence in all Jagermeister models from Fly, but the color on the model seems too saturated to match the real orange color. I think the color from the box does more justice to the real Jagermeister logo.

A quick look at the car details show that the model represents quite well the 935 K3, except for the metal-looking piece just under the main front air intake (seems like duct tape) that Fly missed... since this is a special and limited edition, I think they could have inserted it on their model.

As I mentioned above, I had to quickly register for eBay and grab this car. So , I kind of lost my head a bit with this car... well, I guess that it wasn't just me, even the poor driver lost his head too! Just check:

Fortunately, the helmet is not lost, it just dropped to the passenger's side... so if you are reading this, don't worry, Mr. Fitzpatrick! I'll get the head fixed as soon as I open this one... :)

Well, one more special boxed edition Jagermeister model to add to the collection... this is the 4th Porsche entering the shelve, to join its "cousins" 917/20, 934 and 956 KH. I'll leave you with some more pictures... see you soon!

Race Review - 1st round of the Le Mans Classics Championships

2009-09-22T22:36:00.012+01:00

I've been waiting for the start of the new championships since summertime break to have something to write about in this blog. The long awaited Le Mans Classics Championship finally kicked off last Friday, the 18th - and when I say awaited, I really mean it was awaited by everyone: 19 drivers took part of the race! I have never seen so many drivers on an "one car-one driver" race format! But what will also go down in history for this first post about race reviews, is that this race marked my return to the podium - and straight to the top step! Really, I can't remember my last visit to the podium, I'm more used to battle for the places "right under the podium spots".

Classic cars seem to find many enthusiasts in Braga. Take a look at the great lineup for this race:

Porsche 917s, 908s, even a Carrera 6... My Ferrari P4 (and another white and blue one), a couple of 512S Codalunga... Ford GT40s and even a Lola T70!

This race took place at the GT Team track, which has seen competition for the last time back in June! The track was used intensively for the preparation of the Porto 24 Hours race, but unfortunately the outside lanes were very dirty, and the ones on the middle still suffered from lower-than-average grip. So, qualifying was the key for this race. I got lucky here, I admit: being 18th from 19 on the track gave an heck of an advantage: not only I would know the region of the best laptimes, I would also have a clean lane.

Well, a scare hit me right at the start. The best laptime so far was a 8.44 s, and I knew my car could deliver a laptime close to that - if the tires started to work straight from the start. On the 1st lap, even being extra careful, I couldn't avoid an exit into a very dirty section of the track (I like to call it "gravel trap"). I thought my chances were gone, but on the very next lap, I was able to record a high 8.5s, so now I started to push. Feeling the car delivering the performance helped me to push constantly and I managed to grab pole by the 4th attempt, but feeling I could do better, I managed to break it back-to-back: a high 8.3s and a great 8.325s at the end! The 19th driver failed to improve, so the very needed pole was mine!

Since we would have 3 heats (starting from the slower drivers), when it would be my time to race, the "dirty factor" would be less felt on the outside lanes. Still, no chances taken, and I've chosen my starting lane so that I would end on the dirtiest, hoping it would be clean by then.

"Gentlemen... Start your engines!"... my car leading the pack for the start of Heat 3.

The starting lane was actually one of the fastest to drive... but here came another scare. My car couldn't do better that 8.7 on this one, when I would expect laptimes similar to the pole. I had to submit to my opponents faster pace, and I was struggling for 3rd with other drivers starting to "bite" hard on my heels! But the following lane was much better: out of the middle lanes and I was now on the right pace. Strange thing, indeed. My only explanation was that most people carried dirt from the outside lanes into the middle ones (according to this track's lane rotation rule, every driver on an outside lane will move to a middle lane). Now I was able to recover 2nd place, as the previous owner was having a hard time on the dirty "blue" lane. My pace was now the fastest, but the gap to the leader was on more than one full lap. Moving to the 3rd lane, the dreaded and dirty "blue", I was surprised to see that my car fared much better than anyone that passed there before... and now, while not being fast enough to fend off the opposition from the back, I was able to pass the leader who was struggling for grip on the dirtiest lane of them all, the "black" one. Moving to the middle and fast "green" lane, I was able to drive side-by-side with the former leader and confirm that the "red" lane was not as fast as before: this time I was able to pull away on this lane, as their laptimes fell a bit. Getting closer to the end, I still had to face the fast and tricky "white" lane and the dreadful "black". I had a couple of errors on the "white" lane but at the end I had a lead of almost 3 full laps that I would have to defend on the "black" lane. Starting this final lane, I was very relieved to see again that my car did good here, better than anyone else. At the end, I managed to secure the win by a full 2 laps margin - and I even stopped alongside the 2nd and 3rd place on a rare occasion when 4 cars ended at the same section!

A rare occurrence: 1st (my P4...), 2nd (white 917) and 3rd (Ford GT40) placed drivers side-by-side. The great looking 917 Gulf was caught in the middle here, but finish a honorable 5th.

Both 2nd and 3rd drivers were tied at the end, and even though the 2nd placed car was some inches ahead, the race organizers decided to attribute an ex-aequo 2nd place for both. So, this was the podium, for cars and drivers:

"Feels good to be back..." Me, with both 2nd placed drivers side-by-side.

The awesome list of models ordered by finishing position, with the podium placed cars separated...

Curious fact: 3 different models on the podium, and mine was the only one that, historically, failed to win at Le Mans...

Well, so this marked my 5th race win in slot cars races. My last one in July 2008! Also, from the 5 wins, it's the 3rd with Ferrari. Even more curious, this #21 Ferrari P4 is my second model of this car: the first won the only race it took part, although unofficial, but this "2nd" one also won at its first outing... the P4 is a true Ferrari pure-blood, it seems!

So, time to starting tuning the car for the next round, at the CSB slot track. I'm sure the opposition will do their homework, and I am short of ideas to extract more from my car. This is what made the difference, I knew how to set this car from top to bottom, while others had to test different solutions on cars that we're not very used to race. Still, I had the upper hand on the outside lanes (that was the key for this victory), maybe it will be likewise on the CSB track.

So, hope it all turns well for the next one... see you then ;)

The Jagermeister Files... Fly BMW M3 E30 DTM

2009-09-20T13:47:00.010+01:00

Today I'll start another new section on this blog. This will also be the first topic about my collection of slot cars that belong to a unique theme.

Back in late 2007 I purchased two models that would be the "founding fathers" of my collection of Jagermeister decorated models. They were the Slot.It Porsche 956 KH and the Revell-Monogram BMW 320 Gr.5.

In this topic, I'll comment a bit on the only model that appears twice in my collection: the BMW E30 M3 that contested the DTM... but at the hands of two different drivers. Both of them are brought to us by Fly, a brand that has dedicated some attention towards Jagermeister decorated cars. No wonder it's the slot car brand that is most represented in my collection. These are the cars that I will talk about today:

Being two models that look really alike, I'm glad to see that Fly did not take the easy way around this, the "copy-paste" strategy. Although they share much in common, as one could expect since the models come from the same mould, there are subtle differences between them. I guess that Fly wanted a better looking approach to the 1992 model, which belongs to the "Bikers in Cars" series.

The 1988 model was driven by Mario Ketterer, which managed 2 points during the same season. The 1992 model was driven by Wayne Gardner, which contested both the Hockenheim (this model) and Nurburgring rounds of that season.

The basic differences between the models, when identical parts are concerned, is the different color scheme. The roll cages are painted in blue for the 1988 car, whereas the 1992 models features an all-orange look. Side rear-view mirrors are identical, but painted in black for the 1988 model, and orange again for the 1992 car. The placement of some Jagermeister logos is different, specially on the doors. Even the ones that are placed on the hood and roof seem to have subtle differences. The 1992 model's windscreen and rear window present the green stripe similar to the same green banner from the Jagermeister bottles. This is just the single detail that misses on the 1988 car.

So, what exactly is structurally different between these models?

Although a quite easy route, Fly featured each car with distinct wheels (I can't find photos of the real cars to confirm they are correct), as can be seen here:

Next stop: the rear wings. The 1988 model features a simple wing design, which seems to have been evolved to the looks on the rear wing on the1992 version:

Fly seems to have payed more attention to the detail of Wayne's helmet than on the looks of Ketterer:

So, here ends the first showing of my Jagermeister models. The BMW M3 E30 is one of my all-time BMW favorites indeed, that also contributed for the acquisition of this model "in double" - I wasn't that impressed about the 1992 M3 being part of the "Bikers in Cars" series, but it always sits well next to the other orange Jagermeister "cousins".

Until next time, for more Jagermeister Files...

More Slot Car Madness: A Fly Ferrari 512S Codalunga with HRS2 chassis...

2009-09-16T22:45:00.008+01:00

Next on "Slot Car Madness", I present one of my longest running projects so far that is yet to be concluded. I'm really fond of Classic Cars, really. Specially the Le Mans legends, even the ones that failed to win. The Ferrari 512S "Codalunga" is one of my favorites: the looks on this car mix both the oddity and the need for speed. Plus, it's a Ferrari, a true prancing horse, no doubt.

A few months ago, when I visited a private club's track in Braga, I was almost knocked out from my feet when I saw for the first time a slot track with permanent scale lighting... I imagined the kind of races you could get there, specially since the track was built on the living room of an unused apartment: you can run "night races" even if the sun is at high noon!

So, the idea that popped into my head was re-enacting the great night racing from the Le Mans 24 Hours, but in old-fashion 60's or 70's cars! Every time I see the Steve McQueen's "Le Mans", the thing that strikes me on the night scenes, is that you can't see anything else apart from the headlights that seem to move on nowhere! I really admire those guys that had to do the full 5km Hunadieres straight without seeing anything that was a couple of inches away from their own noses...

Luckily for slot car enthusiasts, many slot car brands have dedicated some of their efforts to bring us those kind of legends. I saw the Fly's Ferrari 512S Codalunga "#5 1970 Test Car" on sale with reduced price, so I decided to grab it. I knew some of the flaws of this car, so I decided for something not too common with classic slot cars: fitting it a HRS2 chassis.

As you can see, the project is still far from finished, but the chassis is already assembled. What took most of my dedicated time on this car was the fitting of the lights kit. I purchased some very affordable kits from Amoslot (www.amoslot.de), these are very simple to build if you have some basic notions on electronic components and soldering skills (they are sold with very easy to follow instructions, by the way).

Fitting some lights to this car proved more difficult than initially imagined. The huge headlights from the 512S are big enough to house a 5mm LED. The light kits come with 3mm LED, but I replaced with the bigger ones. Another of the striking features from the 512S are the small lights at the center, and I decided to light'em up too with some small LEDs (I don't know the type, it's the ones used on cell phones). As for the rear section, I was not willing to spoil the small rear lights, so I placed the red LED a bit to the inside, with some rubber insulation from electric cabling to limit the spreading of the light.

Here are the views from the front and rear:

And this is the messy look from the wiring under the body, with the detail on the front section:

Although I don't show on the photos, I can assure you that the lights are functional. I still have to decide a couple things on the mechanical side, so that I can solder the system onto the motor and it the track with this red beast...

So far I managed to convince some other enthusiast to build their own HRS-Classics, so that we can have enough ones for that special night race - the track only has 4 lanes, so we don't need many cars!

To finish another report on odd things in my world of slot cars, I present you the next project in line... not hard to guess what I will do from this:

Fly BMW 320i - "Liqui Moly" decoration (by me...)

2009-09-14T21:31:00.008+01:00

To open a new feature on this blog, where I put some photos of free paint schemes, I decided to show you one of my very first paintings - my Fly BMW 320i. Why not starting by the very first one? Well, for some reasons:

- Firstly, it's nothing that great and I am quite embarrassed to show,
- Secondly, this is one of my oldest paint jobs that now resides on the shelves, having earned a more that welcome retirement from racing. So why not bringing it out of its retirement for a quick photo session?

I painted this car for the "Liqui Moly Championship" that took place late in 2008 and early this year. It was one of the most participated series, specially due to its unusual format. To start with, we had the sponsorship from Liqui Moly, which contributed with some nice gifts for every participant, plus merchandising prizes for the top 3 drivers. The low cost involved in racing these cars was also a key factor: for less than 20 €, one could buy the plain white bodywork and chassis from Fly: (the only cars that were allowed were the touring versions of the BMW 320i and Alfa Romeo 156). This series took place in two separate tracks, with an unofficial exhibition race at a local Tuning Show - this too helped raising local drivers wish to take part in the series.

Mechanically-wise, the power unit should be the Ninco NC-5 motor with fixed gear ratio of 9:27, plus mandatory Ninco rear tires (any reference). This made for some close racing, with lots of duels taking place at once, discussing every small fraction of inch while braking, exploring curve speeds to the limit... I think you can get the picture.

Another strange thing about this series, was that some racers took more time painting their cars than actually preparing them to race! That's what you get by choosing models that are sold plain white! So that you can get the idea, here's a sample of the colorful "paddock" at the end of the 1st official race:

Mine is the 2nd from the left on the middle row...

As you can see, every car shows Liqui Moly stickers, as part of the requirements from the sponsor (which we gladly agree...). Here I present the looks on the car, taken specially from its retirement at my shelves for some photos:

As you can see, the car has an asymmetric paint scheme, being white and red at the front and right side, whereas the rear and left side are white and blue. This creates a strange effect: you actually have the feeling that the car changes color while taking on the track, according to the angle it turns to the viewer's eye...

This car ended up 5th in the Liqui Moly Championship. It did a couple extra races on the Touring Series and ended up on a 6 Hours Endurance race for Touring Cars. One of my most raced models and the one that raced on more tracks: a total 5 different tracks! Now, a quiet retired model, standing alongside many other good-looking models at my shelve...

So, to conclude this post, some more pictures of this car's past:

The full driver's grid for the first race - the unofficial exhibition race held at a Tuning Show event turned out a hit among the drivers, with a record number of starters - 15...

The car standing in 2nd place at the starting grid for the 2nd heat of 4 in total at the exhibition race - it would end up winning this heat and finishing 8th overall from 15 drivers

The starting grid for the last race - the 6 Hours Touring Car Endurance. It started last, and finished last...

F1 Slot Car Madness - My SCX Arrows F1

2009-09-12T11:51:00.011+01:00

F1 is still the motorsport category that I pay more attention, despite the ever-growing lack of interest that this series has suffered from the mid 90's forth. For me, we're talking about the fastest ever circuit-going pieces of machinery that one can lay eyes on... how about bringing them to slot cars as the fastest pieces of machinery too? Complicated? Maybe...

SCX has a regular line of F1 models. I found a 2002 Arrows F1 with discount, so I grabbed it. Why this Arrows? Well, since the team has ceased F1 activity in years, it's a way of driving a kind of "neutral" F1 team (neutral to me - neither disliked or favorite). This model features the wide F1 chassis type from SCX, which was in accordance to that year set of rules.

My first impressions from the car were not that positive. It was fun to drive in Ninco tracks, but for the longer Carrera, this car was painfully underpowered - the 15.000 rpm standard SCX F1 motor simply is out of place on a F1 model! It had to go! But this originated another problem: I browsed the SCX motor choices and the best was the Pro Turbo, but the electric contacts won't fit here - so, if one has to change them, why not changing everything, starting from the blade guide? This way, the options were in larger number...

So, starting from setting the blade guide, my choice was the Scaleauto "Universal Club Racing". I had to cut the end of the metal linings that used to contact with the standard guide, but I left some metal bits behind that point, so that the chassis wouldn't lose rigidity. Here's how it ended up:

Now, it's time to fit a motor. Looking at the options, RX-type motors performances were not very appealing to me, so I decided to fit short-can Mabuchi type motors, with the RX-fit accessories from Slot.It. I had a spare 25.000 rpm motor (yellow can) from the same producer, so I decided that it was a big enough "revver" for a F1 (well, some day I will upgrade it to the 29.000 rpm cousin - this is a F1, right?)

Fitting it was very easy, the Mabuchi-to-RX parts from Slot.It fit very well indeed. Now, it was the time to set the rear axle. I replaced all the parts for Slot.It material, as usual: hollow 54 mm axle, F1 rims and 24 teeth crown. The latest had to be trimmed on the back side, to fit under the bodywork - or the other option would be the 23 "sister". The motor axle is not long enough to reach the inside section of the crown, so I had to place a stopper for anglewinder cars. Here is the looks of the rear powertrain:

Grip is provided by the very trimmed Ninco F1 tires. So far they seem hard, but some more running (and oiling) will make them more able to withstand the grunt from this motor.

All this underside section fitted nicely to the bodywork, apart from the electric cables - there was simply no hole or space that allowed them to pass through the inside! The only option was cutting some plastic from the radiators and fitting them through the outside... This is how the chassis was trimmed:

Notice that not only the radiators were trimmed. The front triangular section suffered some cuts. Fitting this section to the chassis subframe and the bodywork, results in this:

And I admit, the visible wires make this a very odd-looking F1 - I used to joke about this: it's a special KERS system that needs wide section cabling! Here's another view:

I removed the front tires so that I could replace them with smaller diameter ones - but the fitting on the front rims is complicated, they use some strange dimensions, and most aftermarket front tires won't fit here. I am still looking for some that fit, but for the time being I run this car without tires - as it is so low, the rims already touch the track!

Taking it to the track, one can stop noticing some heads turning to see this orange rocket - while not the fastest thing around, it is amazing to see the incredible straight line speed one can extract from this motor! Acceleration is not that poor too, but cornering is still an issue to solve, as this car bottoms out quite a bit. I had to trim the underside of the chassis, since the screw hole for screwing this car to the display case was constantly hitting the track!

Even with that "plastic-on-plastic" noise from the front rims and the constant bumping on the track, it's a quite enjoyable ride if we consider it a F1 car - they never feel smooth to F1 drivers, do they?

The Slot Car Madness Ongoing projects...

2009-09-10T13:52:00.004+01:00

Well, I do write a bit about posting some slot car madness in this blog... but so far, where is it?

Time to show you one of my ongoing projects in that section. You know that old saying, "the bigger, the better"? Well, here's something big:

The great Fly / GB Track Mercedes truck! This one is not actually mine. Another "aficionado" owned this one and another of its "cousins". This model in particular was in quite bad shape: one of the front screw holes that lock the chassis into the body is broken, the bodywork comes in several pieces... plus it's in stock configuration.

So far, work has been carried out repairing the bodywork, but the screw hole is still a problem to solve. Chassis has been trimmed in some sections, to make way for some "small enough" foam tires - the bottom not sits really low on track. Power for these kind of beasts should be plenty: so now I've fitted the Spirit SxXx motor!

So far, track tests prove this car is a headache to set... but as more progress come in, I'll show you the final outcome. Until then, "stay tuned"...

Preparing a Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4

2009-09-09T13:44:00.010+01:00

The greatly awaited Le Mans Classics Championship is about to start soon, so one can already see some great glories of the past being tuned up, raring to go!

Since the 4 Hours Classic Cars Endurance last July, where I took the Racer Ferrari 312 P, models have been left to relax. Now that they are called up again, it's time to choose our "weapons" for the fight: will I take the Racer again, or take the risk on the Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4?

The choice was not obvious by that time, but now my heart looks to be set on the P4. It proved faster than the Racer, but consistency was a key issue to solve, as the car had some teething stability problems to solve. Now, I think I might have sorted out most of them, so here are my considerations about how to prepare this lovely looking 60's Le Mans classic.

As the regulations allow replacing the interior of the vehicle, I took advantage of it, building an interior with light plastic sheet, with an old driver and dashboard lexan glued to it. This is the look of the regular interior detail that Scalextric fits to the model:

And this is the underside look of the plastic interior I built:

The driver and dashboard were made from an old lexan board I had, glued to some clear light plastic sheet (from the packaging of SCX Pro parts, by the way), spray painted in black. The engine cover was made from the plastic cover that Spirit fits inside their boxes, to hold the models in place (this was from the Porsche 936). The P4 does not present that shape, on its engine cover, but this one looks good in the end. All these plastic additions were glued to the bodywork with contact glue. Here's how the front and rear look like:

This interior not only presents the benefit of the weight loss, as it also allows more freedom to set things around in the chassis. One example is the positioning of the wires, which is rather complicated with the regular interior. Also, there is enough room to fit some ballast weight now, which is precious to this very nervous car.

Mechanical parts were replaced by Slot.It material, as can be seen here:

To take advantage of the magnetic downforce from the car, low rear tires must be used, so I opted for the 19x10 size, fitted to Slot.It's 15'' rims. The only problem to overcome is that 18 mm crowns must be used, as the larger 19 mm hit the track. The 6.5 mm sidewinder pinions won't fit with the smaller crowns, so one has to get creative: I decided to used the large 7.5 mm pinions that NSR uses for their anglewinder cars... only problem is: the smaller one has 12 teeth, which will make up for a very long gear ratio. This is why I chosen the purple crown, has it is the one bearing more teeth.

Tuning the front section is quite a challenge too. The smaller 14'' front rims seem to be the best option, as they fit correctly to the car's width. Smaller 15mm tires leave the car bottoming on the chassis, and the larger 16 mm tires leave the car a bit too high - compromise is key here, but it must be balanced with the blade guide option. Standard clip-on blade guides from Slot.It fit very well to the chassis, but they sit rather much on the inside of the chassis - that's why the car bottoms out a lot. I decided to use the bigger wooden track blade guide from Slot.It, as it's bigger size leaves the braids at the correct height. But many other options are available.

Front section detail. Before you ask - Yes, all that ballast is really needed!

So, now it's time to start preparing some sticky tires for the rear, and get all that running into the car to make for a smooth 1st race. Let's see what happens then...

X-Files from Slot Cars: A slot car tire puncture!

2009-09-07T21:23:00.002+01:00

I remembered to start a section about the strange oddities that come about to any other slot car racer. To start this kind of "Slot Car X-Files" section, I'll present the strange happening that almost ruined my chance of scoring in my last race of the LMP championship.

Although the regulations allowed foam tires, I decided to use my best-ever pair of Slot.It P1 tires, trimmed to a very small 17.5 mm diameter (they were 19.0 in stock form) and treated with several kinds of oils (Blue Factor bushing oil mostly). The swelling promoted the formation of a "bubble" all along the tire middle section, and grip greatly improved since then. Eventually, they get used up, hardening a bit.

This is the car which I contested 2 races of the LMP championship, which consisted of 4. I took the Audi R8 Pro from SCX, a very light and incredibly fast model, fitted with the powerful Slot.It Boxer-2 motor.

Coupled to the sticky P1s, I could face the foam-tires shod competitors knowing that, while not reaching laptimes like the fastests around, at least I could do fairly well - and the 1st race proved that: 5th place from 15, being the only one fitting rubber tires!

Alas, the next race I was surprised by a rare - if not unlikely - occurance: a tire puncture on a slot car! That occured somewhere from the middle of the race forth. I decided my starting lane so that I would end on the fastest, and that was where I noticed that the car was not as fast as I expected... until track assistants started to comment on the strange leveling on my car - it looked like the rear was bottoming on the right side. This is what I found after the race:

A closer look, with the assistance of a finger, clearly showing the rim:

Luckily I was able to score, being the only one to bring rubber tires - again!

Presenting: The CSB slot track!

2009-08-15T17:08:00.029+01:00

The CSB slot track is my next presentation in respect to the slot tracks in Braga. CSB stands for "Clube Slot de Braga" - Braga Slot Club, and has been in activity from late 70's, which makes this club older than me! I joined the club only recently as a member, but I've raced on their actual and previous tracks before joining.

The current CSB track has been placed in April, after a change in the location of the CSB headquarters. Basically, the previous shape was kept largely unchanged, with additions made to the lenght of some straights and a change of the final turn. The track consists of a 40 meter 6 lanes Carrera 1:24 track, holding a total of 8 turns. Voltage is set to 15 V, and power comes from 6 individual DS power supply. Timing and lap counting are the "responsability of a DS-300 system.

Like I did previously for the GT Team track, here's the diagram of the CSB track:

(click image for larger resolution)

A lap around the CSB track:

The CSB holds the longest straight section from all tracks in Braga, with the main straight being 9.25 meter in length. Cars are usually fitted with a somewhat long gear ratio to take advantage of the long straight, specially since the track's braking strength is high.

Drivers are met with Turn 1 after the main straight, where speeds are at their highest. It's a simple 90 degrees left turn with tight radius on the left sided lanes. Cars running on the external white and black lanes need only slight braking, depending on the magnetic downforce - some hard-tuned beasts only need "flash braking". The left sided blue and yellow lanes require more solid braking.

Turn 1

Exiting Turn 1, drivers enter the pits straight, a short 2 meter section, until they reach the most important section of the track, in terms of laptime. Turn 2 and Turn 3 form the "Esses". These are two wide radius turns. Turn 2 is a 240 degrees left turn, attached to a 150 degrees right turn. The middle lanes can be done at consistent speed, but the outside lanes are quite a challenge, changing from wide to narrow angle - the wider angle sections need high speeds, and correctly balancing the speed through the "Esses" can make a difference in laptime.

The "Esses", coming after the pits straight.

After leaving the Esses, cars go through the back straight, parallel to the main straight, but run on the opposite direction. This is the second longest straight section of the track, with almost 4 meter in length. This makes the approach to Turn 4 needing more attention, since this is a tricky narrow right turn, with 120 degrees radius. While not being demanding in terms of technique, it needs a stable car and solid braking, specially on the tighter black and white lanes.

Turn 4

After dealing with Turn 4, drivers take on another short launch through a 2 meter straight until reaching Turn 5, the only 180 degrees hairpin on this track. This is not a very complicated section - most de-slots are caused by exaggeration from drivers. The exit of this turn needs to be taken cleanly, as the only sloped section of the track awaits the drivers.

Turn 5

After climbing the slope, cars face other tricky section, Turn 6. This is set after the change from slope to plain section, which promotes tendency for lifting the front. This bend has a 120 degrees radius and is narrow for the black and white lanes - these are the ones requiring heavier braking. De-slotting here is very punishing in terms of lost time, since track assistants are placed a bit far away from this section, for the sake of the driver's visibility of the track.

The tricky Turn 6...

The next straight section leads to the more technically demanding section, Turn 7, or the "Big Curve". This is the only sloped turn, continuously descending through its 270 degree radius. The main issue to deal with in this section is the change in turn radius - it starts wide, then narrows sharply, to have a wider exit section. Cars not only feel the radius change to narrow, but also a "vertical" change in slope - it almost resembles descending a staircase.

Turn 7, the "Big Turn", as seen from the opposite direction from driver's point of view.

After Turn 7, cars go through a short tunnel and head to Turn 8, or "Final Turn" (the almost 3 meter long straight section allows great visibility of braking points after the tunnel). This turn has a variable radius, with a wider entrance and narrow exit. Aproaching from the outside lanes, cars need very sharp braking to enter the turn, and then a slight decrease in speed for the exit, without braking. The innermost lanes face quite a challenge, but since they are not very grippy, cars can "power slide" through the exit to achieve better laptimes (not sliding too much, though).

Tunnel exit section and Turn 8, the Final Turn

So, this concludes our tour of the CSB slot track. In sum-up, this is a somewhat long track in perimeter, with few bends, but each one has a nature of its own, and the key to achieve good laptimes is understanding each turn requirements. Cars need a longer gear ratio since straight sections demand for it. Balance is also important, specially with some curves changing direction or radius, and even height as in the case of Turn 7.

Hope you enjoyed the visit to the CSB track. Until next time, see you soon...

NSR Mosler MT900 - Anglewinder

2009-08-14T15:45:00.011+01:00

Today I'll present the car that I contested the last year's GT Open, the NSR Mosler. Much has been said about the extraordinary performances of this model on Ninco tracks, but on Carrera, things get more balanced and it faced serious competition from the Ninco Mosler, the Spirit Peugeot 406 Silhouette (also a great racer for Ninco tracks), and a couple of well prepared Ninco GTs too.

This is the looks on my Mosler, which I bought way back in 2007. I bought it for Xmas, and eventually raced it almost a year later.

A racing car should also look cool...

I purchased this car in sidewinder guise, with the astonishing (and brutal) 25.000 rpm Shark motor. The car was much too violent to drive in Carrera tracks in this configuration. This photo shows the original chassis and motor configuration:

The OpenGT regulations required that all cars should present an anglewinder configuration. So, I changed the whole car, only kept the bodywork and NSR wheels from the original car. Here's how it ended up:

Notice that the photo presents the NSR Evo 21.500 rpm motor, which is the one that the car bears today, but the OpenGT was run with Ninco NC6 motors, to comply with the regulations (the NSR motor makes the car one to two tenths of second faster).

As you can see, the car received the all-new Evo-2 chassis, which lower the centre of gravity in comparison to the original chassis. Also, the harder material makes it more rigid, but still suffers from some undesired flex. The front wheels were a nightmare to set, but in the end I used 17'' Slot.It wheels with the 17x10 mm "Z0" tires. Setting the blade guide was also troublesome, and my best configuration was the Slot.It guide for wooden tracks, trimed to fit the Carrera slot depth.

The chassis front detail - the great looking rims come from the Racer Sideways Riley

NSR has its own gear dimensions, and no other slot car brand produces gears that fit this car. Still, the odd 7,5 mm pinions fit really well on the special NSR anglewinder crowns, and the first thing that strikes you when you take the car to the track, it's the great smoothness of the whole system! The car runs smoothly and best yet, silently! I used to joke with the other guys: "Hey people! I'm taking my car to the track, ok?" - just in case they didn't hear it! Also, I used to tell that this must be the only slot car that complied to the European Euro-4 standards for noise and emissions from vehicles!

Grip came from the usual Slot.It P1 compound, smaller 19x10 mm tires. NSR fits the "air system" wheels at the rear, which I find unsuitable - I actually prefer the solid front wheels:

The rear (left) and front (right) wheels that NSR fits to their cars.

I really appreciate the NSR mechanical parts, but it's a shame that they're not "true" 3/32'' standard - there's almost no compatibility with other Slot.It parts. But the larger M3 screws are great, I never had to change one as they are much more resistant than the M2s that most brands fit. I even had to trim the screw that holds the crown in place, as it hit the chassis while rotating - and trimming it worked! Try doing that with an M2...

In the end, the car proved its worth, although most people antecipated it as being THE car to beat in the OpenGT, it failed to live to that expectation. A very competent racer indeed, which may be a killer in Ninco tracks. This configuration was tested on a rally track (Ninco "tarmac" only) and it scored laptimes faster than some rally-preped cars! Imagine it if set up for Ninco!

Have a nice weekend... see you soon ;)

Track test of the new Slot.It F30 tires

2009-08-13T11:52:00.012+01:00

One thing that surprised me was the release of the new Slot.It tires, using three different compounds, the F22, F25 and F30. The surprise was more on the fact that these were not an announced release, they came to the market rather quietly, and no information on the suitability of these tires was given.

Since we race on Carrera tracks, tire performance is crucial. We have long been using Slot.It P1 tires, treated with several oils (and other things that might be hazardous to health...). Slot.It has ceased production of this product, and they are hard to find on any shop throughout the world nowadays.

So, looking for other options seems to be on the order of the day. I was interested in trying these new compounds. The P1 was the harder compound of them, so I opted for the F30, which is he hardest of the three. They are sold in some quite odd dimensions. We were used to the small 19x10 mm or the bigger 20x11 mm, but these are sold on... 20x10 mm.

The lettering on the side of the tires appear to be a new style for Slot.It. And, in a very welcome adition, they refer the compound used. In the photo below you can see the "30" reference on the side:

The tires appear to have a little more mould flash than the "P" series. Dispite that fact, glueing them to a couple NSR hubs was quite easy and straightforward (for example, the newer P6 tires require more time and patience to glue). The surface come with some slight imperfections, but we know that at our scale, these are felt...

So, I decided that some truing of the surface with very fine grain sandpaper would do no harm. To my surprise... IT DID! The surface started to peel off the tire even sanding it lightly! I tried to correct it adding some lighter fuel, but the harm was done. Since they had a "sticky" feel to the touch, like it was covered with contact glue, I decided to fit them to the test car anyway and hope that after some laps, it might started to become more even.

This was the test car, a NSR Porsche 917 K, David Piper:

Right from the start, the car had a feel of riding on really hard tires - nothing strange on this, these are expected to be hard tires. That "riding on marbles" feel at the start started to decrease, so as laptimes, which started to encourage me. But it was pointless, look at the tires after a long series of laps (or 30 minutes, if you prefer):

After some running, tires seem to start working better, but midway through the stint they started to fade lightly. The best laptime was 8,7 s, nothing that special, given that this car can perform better than that.

So, I was rather disapointed with these new tires. Maybe I'll have to test them "right out of the bag" with no kind of treatment whatsoever. At least I discovered "what NOT TO do" - and now you know too!
I still believe that Slot.It should give their references to what compound suits which track brand better.

Until next time, see you soon...

Presenting: The GTTeam slot track!

2009-08-12T12:16:00.018+01:00

Since I already started posting some track tests, I think it would be helpful for reading analysis if I described the track first! Well, later as it may be, here is the presentation of the GT Team track.

The GT Team track is one of Braga's three permanent slot car tracks, but the only that also belongs to a slot shop (other are clubs). This configuration has been placed back in 2006 and left unchanged since. It replaced a Ninco 4 lane track.

The layout features a 34 meter Carrera 1:24 track with 6 lanes, with DS power systems and race controls. The track has a total of 9 turns and a single long straight. This is the track layout, with some detail much to the style you can see in the F1 website :)

(Click image for higher resolution)

One lap around the GT Team slot track:

The start/finish line is placed 2 meters into the 7 meter straight. It leads to Turn 1, a tight 90 degrees left hander. Since speeds are the highest at this point, it's the longest average braking distance for all lanes (inner lanes require heavy braking).

Turn 1

After Turn 1 there is a short straight (1 meter) that still requires going full throttle, with a slight braking into the "Grand Esses", a combination of a 150 degrees left turn with a 180 degrees right hander. Track parts forming these turns are the narrower ones, which makes going through these "Esses" a very technical challenge. The outside and inner lanes offer an interesting narrow to wide change, or the opposite, while going through the "Esses".

The Grand "Esses"

After the "Esses" there's a 3 meter straight heading into Turn 4, an 180 degrees narrow left turn, also known as the "Door hairpin" (it's the section of the track closest to the shop's door!). Inner tracks need heavy braking here, since they leave the previous "esses" on the wide side with higher exit speeds and reach Turn 4 on the narrow side. After Turn 4 there's a small slope to climb until Turn 5.

Turn 4 (also known as the "Door hairpin")

The small slope meets Turn 5 at its end, but Turn 5 is already on a plain section. This makes Turn 5 another highly technical section, although much more on the inner lanes (the ones that leave Turn 4 on the wider side). The small slope disappears just before the turn, which causes a tendency to lift the front of the cars, so caution must be taken here.

The dreaded Turn 5, a nightmare for the cars driving on the inside lanes.

Leaving Turn 5, there's a small descent into Turn 6 or the "Big Curve". It's the highest radius turn on the track and also the only sloped turn, it descends continuously. The exit parts are sharper than the rest of the curve, which causes complications to the nervous drivers, who hit the throttle before reaching the straight.

The Big Curve, the longest turn of the track

The straight section after the Big Curve is actually the second longest straight, after the start/finish straight. It goes through a tunnel into the Small "esses". Don't let the "Small" part elude you, because this is a complicated section that requires some practice to deal with. It's a combination of a narrow right hander with a very short straight into a wide left turn. Motion is brake - quick full throttle - brake again, and this is why most people have troubles here. Also, the entrance is very narrow on the inner side, cars have a "tail-happy" behavior here, many going sideways.

Tunnel exit and the technical small "Esses"...

After leaving the small "Esses", cars go through the pits straight (this is where cars needing repairs are taken from the track or replaced after mechanical intervention). This is a moderate straight, but since cars leave the esses on a wide turn they reach the Final Curve at quite high speeds. Also, the Final Curve is a wide 180 left turn, which is rather easy to take on, even on the inner lanes (these only require a somewhat heavier braking).

Final Curve, seen on a 90 degrees rotation.

Well, this is it... the tour of the track where I first contacted with the world of slot car racing. In the end, it's a very "start - stop" driving style, with some sections needing more atention, others needing fast trigger motion. After getting to grips with the track, it's quite a relaxed driving, even for endurance races.

In the future I'll present the other tracks in Braga. The track layout will also be placed on the bottom of this blog, for future reference.

Hope you enjoyed this tour. Until next time, see you soon...

Sloter Opel Corsa - the track test

2009-08-11T12:07:00.004+01:00

Last week I wrote the first review of this blog on the recent Sloter Opel Corsa, so now I thought it would be appropriate to write my first track test on the same model... now that I had the time to test it!

I changed some parts for this test. I fitted Slot.It aluminum 15'' wheels front and rear (fronts are "short hub" type). The front tires are 17x10 mm "Z0" Slot.It (covered with cyanoacrilate glue to remove any grip) and the rear tires are some used Ninco I had from some previous series. I think they are "regular" Ninco rubber, and trimmed down to a mere 18 mm diameter. As you can see from the photo beneath, the front tires are almost the largest diameter you can fit to the car, with the wheels almost touching the arches. For the rear ones, 18 mm still leaves a good margin for larger wheels.

Now, on the power side: I've chosen the 20.000 rpm Boxer 2 motor, fearing that it would be a bit too much for the small size Corsa. A gear ratio of 9:25 with light components (aluminium crown and axle bearings, 50 mm hollow axle). More detail on the photo below:

Sloter came up with an interesting motor pod configuration. Not only for the versatility of inline and sidewinder configurations available, but also for the different screwing procedure: rear screws lock both the pod and chassis to the bodywork. The car comes with 6 screw holes: 2 for the front chassis lock, 2 for the front pod lock to the chassis, and 2 longer screws for the rear pod and chassis lock to the body. The next couple of photos give some detail on this.

The Opel Corsa screws from their respective position in the chassis: the rear ones are longer than the others.

The rear section in detail: screw holes from the bodywork fit the chassis (top) and pod (below) holes.

I had some suspicions on whether this system would work well. Loosening the screws would promote pod motion, or both pod and chassis motion? To my surprise, the system did work well, provided that the front chassis screws were tightly locked. Loosening the 4 pod screws caused only pod motion.

Taking on the track with this Corsa proved a lot of fun! The car runs very smoothly with almost no noise at all, it's a real pleasure to drive. The car has a very "light" feel (notice that the original interior was changed to a lexan rally interior from NSR). The awesome power from the Boxer 2 motor is easily controlled, with the car really leaping out of corners with an amazing acceleration, not loosing much on braking. The strong magnetic downforce, coupled with the lowered rear tires, are a welcome help, since the front does not support too well high cornering speeds - much to blame on the fact of the front tires not touching the track, when the car stands still. This is due to the great height of the guide blade, which comes off the chassis too far. This photo explains that:

Perhaps trimming the guide blade would provide some stability to the front. Anyway, the car is easy to drive at a steady pace, with laptimes improving after some running. In the end of the test, a 8.7 s laptime was achieved on the GT Team track (I promise I will present the track layout and detail soon!), but it easily ran on 8.8s with much effort. Other drivers took on the track with this car and all them seemed to enjoy this Corsa. Some margin for progress still exists: since this is a Carrera track, maybe replacing the Ninco tires for the Slot.It P1 would give more traction. Also, replacing aluminium wheels for lighter ones would give this car even more acceleration, but I've chosen this material since I'm more interested in running this car for rally events.

And we can't forget: next test, SIDEWINDER configuration!

Hope you enjoyed this post. Until next time, see you soon...

Racer Ferrari 312 P shown... and raced!

2009-08-10T11:41:00.012+01:00

Racer cars are known for their really astonishing look and fine detail... but they're also known for their high price! No wonder we don't see them racing around too often! Well, sometimes you see great deals on Racer cars on the web, and that was the case when I found the Ferrari 312P bodywork and chassis for a more affordable 40 € sum - still a bit high, but nothing like those 150 € plus they cost!

The bodywork comes with less detail than the complete car, looks like a pre-finishing form. The parts for front and rear lights were missing, as for the exhaust pipes. I emailed Racer to know whether it was possible to buy those parts from them, and it was! A great costumer service from Racer.

So, it's time I show you my best looking classic slot so far:

Notice that the Slot.It motor pod and motor were not present when I bought it, this was after transformation for racing.

The details in black were added by me (cockpit windows rubber, front air inlets, engine cover and rear lights). The interior was left unpainted since time was short to prepare this car for racing - and even so, I wouldn't have painted it for racing if I had the time, but replacing it instead for a lighter interior. This one weights a ton, it seems!

From this picture, we can see the headlights, which were bought separately from Racer. Much better looking than the ugly black covers that came with the car.

As I told before, this car was born to race. While most Racer cars may find their places at the shelves of many slot enthusiasts, this one does not seem at ease there... So, the advent of a 4 Hours Endurance for Classic 60-70's cars seemed too great a chance to miss it! That race took place back in July the 4th.

I contacted a couple of Ferrari fans and one heeded my call, so together we formed the very appropriate "Scuderia Ferrari, SpA." Initially, we had some doubts about the added weight from the Racer car, so we were also preparing a Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4 and a Fly Ferrari 512 S Codalunga (one of my favorites). Rules for this race made cars with motor placed at level with the bottom side of the chassis forbidden, but an exception was made for Racer cars to help them be competitive despite the weight handicap - provided that no "offset" configuration of Slot.It motor pod was employed. Our fastest car was clearly the P4, but the 312 P was a tenth of a second shy on the lighter P4 - but way more stable and easy to drive! Our (tiffosi) hearts fell on the Racer, and so we went racing.

The outcome was rather disapointing for the Scuderia, 4th place from 6 teams, but we held the 3rd spot just minutes until the end. The podium was taken by the three Fly Porsche 917 Spyders enroled... still dominant in slot cars too, it seems. Our car had an evident lack of straight line speed and that caused some dificulties in holding off the opposition... a later measure of engine rpm saw that our motor - supplied randomly by the organisation - rated some poor 19.000 rpm when nominal figures should be 21.500 ! No wonder we couldn't perform better... but there was another team with an unlucky motor - they even had to replace since their's completely shut up!

Anyway, a great Saturday afternoon, like all our Endurances end up... this Racer still has something to show to the rest of the guys, at some later opportunity - looks like we'll have a series with these cars in September, but I'll have to conduct further tests to the P4 and this one.

I'll leave you with some photos of the race, even from the "Ferrari Memorial" we held at the track - we're hardcore "tiffosi", or not?

The starting lineup, with our 312 P qualifying in 4th place.

A great looking "mean machine" standing on the track.

Final cerimonies - 4th place seemed insuficient after cruising all race in 3rd place...

The Ferrari Memorial, with many classics parked in the grass of the last corner of the track. One of the P4 was actually the other option for the race (the one standing on clear plastic). The 312 P on the plastic base is NOT the one we raced...

Sunday is Sunday...

2009-08-09T13:55:00.008+01:00

Today is the first Sunday since I created this blog... I'm not a "Sunday racer", I leave that for the F1 guys. So, today I'll cut the writing short, and present you some of the many photos I've collected from the web on the "Jagermeister" theme (just Porsches, for today...). I do own some of these cars in "slot form", but that's a story for a later post.

Photos were mainly taken from the "Racing Sports Cars Archive", check the "links" section.

So, have a nice weekend and enjoy:

The legendary Porsche 956:

The Porsche 917/20:

Porsche 934 & 935:

My early days in slot cars - Part 2

2009-08-08T11:47:00.006+01:00

My introduction to the models that started me in the hobby showed my first couple of cars, the Ninco Ferrari 360 GTC and the Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4.

Today I'll present my third car. I decided to stretch the previous post to the "part 2", just because this model already earned its place in my heart - I scored my first race win with it!

The choice for third model fell on the Slot.It Ferrari 312 PB, #86, driven by the great Ronnie Peterson and Tim Schenken to 2nd at the 1972 Watkins Glen 6 Hours race, where Ferrari achieved a 1-2 finish with this model (check the Racing Sports Cars Archive in: http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Watkins_Glen-1972-07-23.html).

Here is the photo of the model, taken from the Slot.It website:

Driving this model proved an altogether different story when compared to my previous models. I was left astonished after this first contact with true Slot.It machinery! Not only was the car dead fast straight out of the box - it broke all my previous laptime records - the option to evolve it made me wonder how far it could go!

I bought this car in April 2007 but the series only started in January 2008. This was my first full series that I took part, ending in a quite honorable second place (and surprising, too!). From the six races that the series predicted, it won the 3rd and last, with a couple of podium finishes too - this must also be my most successful model to date! Here is a picture of the car standing in the track, after a race:

Amazing: I used some red tape to cover the headlights and the car ends up with a completely distinctive look!

The car did start another Classics series later in 2008, but some damage and lots and lots of miles proved it to be ultimately uncompetitive. After the first couple of races, I decided to give him a well earned retirement and completed the series with my other "barchetta", the Alfa 33/3, and finished the season with the NSR Ford GT40 mk.IV. But I still take my Ferrari to the track. I even tried the new generation Flat-6 motors in anglewinder setup, but the gear mesh proved too noisy for my taste (at the time there were no 6,75 mm pinions available from Slot.It, I have to try these new ones). Also, the heavier motor seemed to lack power at low rpm, something the stock motor has plenty!

Until next time, have a great weekend ;)

The Gr.2 BMW 2002 from Spirit

2009-08-07T13:03:00.013+01:00

A bit of an introduction to the view of slot car madness I want to offer in this blog...

The tracks I use to drive around are also the hometracks for many other enthusiasts. Still, performance is the main objective. People seek those elusive tenths of second from their cars, or they expect their models to be able of "low flight" as top-performance beasts like the anglewinder Group C cars from Slot.It or foam tires equipped LMP prototypes.

A smaller group of enthusiasts see slot cars much more like a replica of the real cars - both visually and dynamically. You can't be reasonable to expect a Group C car being slightly quicker than an hard-tuned Le Mans classic from the 60's - they HAVE to be clearly quicker! Even if the Le Mans classics topped almost 400 km/h...

This said, some of us are enjoying a sort of "underground" racing at our tracks. There is no official Group 2 competition around, although it has been tried in the past. Still, me and other people share this passion for the great mean machines from the Group 2 era. Some slot car brands have released Group 2 cars so far, but one has caught my attention: Spirit, from its release of the BMW 1600 / 2002. I purchased the "GS Tuning" BMW 2002, in black and yellow scheme, very similar to the black and orange painting of the "Alpina BMW 1600 - Niki Lauda" edition:

Pictures of my already tuned up BMW 2002 - also with some scars, notably the left headlight and right lights at the rear.

The reproduction of the iconic BMW 2002 was greatly achieved by Spirit, this is a seriously good-looking model. The chromes are accurately reproduced, specially the rear section, with the correct rear lights housing detail.

The car is fitted with the great Spirit SxXx motor, rating at somewhere around 21.000 rpm at 12V plus an hefty ammount of torque (330 gr.cm). Coupled with a strong magnetic downforce, one could wonder if this was the best option for this lightweight and small width car. Initial tests proved that not only was the performant SxXx motor very drivable, the magnetic downforce is a very welcomed "driving aid" for this one! The only setback is the "2 gear" feel on the engine (non-linear behavior). The power output at low rpm is not great at all, but suddendly snaps out at full throttle and at top rpm, you would be amazed by the straight-line speed this car can attain! The motor pod allows for some useful balancing of the rear axle, although mine is set with minimum freedom on the screws (less than 1/4 of turn).

I replaced stock parts for Slot.It axles and transmission (pinion 9: crown 27), Scaleauto 15.0 mm rims, with Slot.It 16.0 x 8 mm front tires and Ninco 19 x 10 mm Prorace A-25 rear tires (these were trimmed on the side to fit inside the bodywork). I kept the standard axle bearings and guide blade.

Now the car is able to pull around the track more smoothly. It is still very slow compared to the top beasts, almost 2 secs per lap slower (average 8.8 - 9.2 secs vs the track record of 6.9 secs for a Group C car). Much of the time is lost when cornering, of course. The short axle width makes for a nail-bitting driving... but it is great fun seeing it turn on two wheels, when the car is driven at the (reasonable) limit. After some laps, it is easy to get the feel of the car, and when you get used to driving it you won't notice the quite high lap times you're recording.

Visually, the only flaw is the strange look on the car. after replacing stock parts. While the front wheels are way out of the bodywork, the rears are inside. That is due to two facts: first, the rear wheels arches are too small to allow the wheels moving to the outside. Second, the front section of the chassis is too wide to fit most wheels options available - the stock plastic rims fit, but they are too wide for my taste. Here's the look on the front end of the chassis:

To sum up: this is a great piece to have in any slot car enthusiast garage. For those days when you feel the need for a different ride, try this one! Other "top-fuel" sloters will find it horrible, most likely... but if all the cars behaved the same, what's the point in making different series? One would be enough...

Untill next time, for more slot car madness...

Sloter Opel Corsa - Review

2009-08-06T18:17:00.018+01:00

For my very first review article, I decided to pick the recent release from Sloter, the Opel Corsa (some countries name it Vauxhall instead of Opel).

What made me purchase not one, but two Corsas? Well, sometimes you see promotions in shops, and when you see some cars so cheap, you might lose you head about them. The versions I purchased were the "Super White" and "Team Palmer" versions.

Here's the looks on the Super White model, still in stock guise:

From a first look at the car, we can say that Sloter did a great job capturing the looks on the Corsa. And even if those wheel arches seem too wide for this scale, "experts" have confirmed me that the car is in scale. I wonder how the real car looks like!

This model features the tradicional short can Mabuchi type motor from other Sloter models, but what's interesting is the motor pod. Sloter brings us a versatile motor pod, allowing sidewinder configuration for short can motors, whereas for Boxer type motors, and inline configuration is also possible using an acessory provided with the model itself.

The "black stripe" Mabuchi motor, standard for Sloter models.

A closer look at the motor pod configuration. Removing the motor and the plastic insert on the standard pod and replacing it with the provided accessory allows fitting a boxer motor in inline configuration.

I did try to fit a Boxer motor in the car. What happened? Well, Sloter did a good job for interior detail but unfortunately the dimensions were designed for a sidewinder fit, only. Here's the problem I faced:

The chassis I tried to fit into the yellow car (Team Palmer), featuring Slot.It parts and an inline Boxer configuration.

The ill-fitting of the interior to the chassis.

Well, stuborn as I am, I NEEDED to put the car in inline configuration, so the only option was replacing the interior. I chosen the NSR rally interior for the Renault Clio, it fitted very well after some croping. Here's how it ended up:

Fitting of the NSR light interior to the Team Palmer Corsa.

The great looking interior of the Opel Corsa, with some great detail - a cell phone and a spare wheel are present. The dashboard really resembles the Corsa road car.

Now the chassis fitted to the body. It will be hard to find a competition that would allow this kind of modifications to the car. Still, I have doubts that this car will be competitive in stock guise. Not only for the standard and underperforming motor (for non-magnet events), but also for the quality glitches. Wheels came loose quite easily, so I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them coasting around the track if you take the car out of the box and into the track.

So, my final conclusions? Missing the track test, what I can say is that this is a pretty looking model from Sloter. Corsa fans shall not be disapointed by this car. Performance-wise, I guess it's a car needing work to be competitive. Stock configuration may be good for magnetic racing, keep an eye out for the weak fit of the wheels to the axles.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Hope there will be many more to come. Also, track tests will follow...

My early days in slot cars

2009-08-05T18:57:00.016+01:00

For what will be the first "real" post in this blog, after the lengthy introduction, I'll present what's left of the first couple of slot cars I purchased.

Back in February 2007, feeling rather at ease with the controls, and kind of bored of having to lend cars to drive, I decided to purchase a slot car for myself. The track is actually part of a slot shop, where many slot cars and parts are available, from different brands. Being a Ferrari fan, that helped me narrowing the choice for 1st car. So, my heart decided to go for the Ninco Ferrari 360 GTC, in red (hey, I only know one color that has the "Ferrari" name attached, and it is "Ferrari Red").

This is a picture of the model, which is available from Ninco' s website:

This nice looking car hid some flaws. Common to many other models from the brand, the bodywork fitted too tightly to the chassis, making it behave like a electric powered brick! Even loosening the body screws was helpless. Other issues with the car is the excessive height on the front wheels, the blade guide is left somewhat off the track, when the car is resting still... imagine when it powers around the track!

So, having some knowledge on polymer science, from my times at college, I decided to give the bodywork some extra width to allow the chassis to move. Fitting a spacer between body and chassis during resting times proved too slow of a process, so I decided to quicken it with a hairdryer... well, this is what happened:

Bummer... one pretty little Ferrari bodywork that ended up looking as if the driver rolled the car over... So far, that was the end of my first slot car... but it DID turn an hefty lot of laps before this ill-fated operation, allowing me to evolve my non-magnet driving skills.

My second car was by far more successful. Another Ferrari, but from Scalextric, the nice looking 330 P4 from the 1967 edition of Le Mans:

If the Ninco allowed me to evolve my skills, what to say about this one? This car enabled me to learn a different way of driving: short-can motor with almost no braking at all vs the high magnetic downforce, torquish NC5 Ferrari 360. The P4 is great looking, Hornby/Scalextric did an amazing job here. Shame that the front wheels are too wide, they must be waaayyy out of scale.

Track-wise, there were no miracles to be expected from this car. I did a lot of running with the car on stock guise (magnetless, however). Braking distances were far bigger and grip was something missing here, so I decided to upgrade the car. This was my first real contact with tunning slot cars. In the end, I fitted the orange endbell Slot.It 21.500 rpm motor, much more powerful and driveable. Fitting a screw guide blade from Slot.It, Spirit wheels back and front, GOM front tires and Slot.It axles, crown and 20.5 x 10.5 mm P2 tires, I now had a serious contender: it lapped faster than the 360 GTC !

I still own this car to this day. It's a very sturdy model, I must say... thousands of laps, some crashes, with just some scars left:

The icing on the cake: this P4 actually raced once, on a non-official event, the openning of a new slot track in my hometown. Facing competition from ill-prepared Slot.It Ferraris 312 PB and Alfas 33/3, it won the Classics race! The red sticker on the windshield represents the lane where it ended the race, so I let it untouched to remember that feat.

Hope you enjoyed this first post on the Slot Car Driver's Log... until next time!

From Braga to the world...

2009-08-04T11:00:00.001+01:00

From Braga, Portugal, to the world...

Hello everyone!

Let me allow to introduce the blog before I introduce myself... not the sequence that what one would expect, I guess, but anyway: most people will miss this message, likely.

What makes a grownup enjoy slot cars? Why do a bunch of guys decide that the best way to enjoy a Friday's night or weekend, is to grab some plastic replicas of cars from all sorts of races and eras, fitted with electric motors... and drive them around a miniature track? It's a question often placed to us, and the answers are not always consistent... but one thing is for sure: we're enthusiasts!

That enthusiasm is what made me want to start this blog: a place for expressing my joy of driving, assembling, painting, repairing (yes, unfortunately...) and evolving ever faster in the world of slot cars! I hope I'm able to express you this feeling the best I can. Slot car is not a way of life. It's not a do-or-die commitment. It's a hobby. And hobbies are to be "lived" in our way, during the time we take for them.

So, how does one get involved in the slot car world? Most people have different stories. Many enjoyed it in childhood times, in slot cars tracks in attics with other kids. Some happened to visit a slot car club later and were impressed. Well, I did have contact with slot cars when I was younger, after another Santa Claus visit that left me a slot car set. I don't remember it too well, but I believe it had a Maserati Bora and a BMW 320, maybe Gr.5, in 1:43 scale, most likely. I do remember having great times with it, and an older neighbour of mine assisted me in changing the power system: it ran on batteries !!! So we adapted it to fit an AC/DC converter with voltage regulator, and by that age I was already experimenting the consequences of riding at full 12 V (and checking the heat on the motors...). Like all things in our childhood, the joy of that came and went, switching my atentions to any other thing I can't remember. Years later, I was starting to enjoy modelism: simple plastic kits, 1:24 to 1:43 replicas of my favourite cars: Ferrari (I hope I haven't disapointed you with this schocking revelation...). From modelism, I was contacted by a slot car enthusiast that required my "services" for a trasformation he was trying for some time, building the Mercedes TT car that Ellen Lohr contested the 2006 Dakar edition.

Well, the project is still going, after 2 years ! The blame was on slot cars: I started to get more and more involved to the point I decided to buy me a car and start taking on the track ! From it, it evolved seemingly endlessly: many cars were bought, parts, etc. Many races were started: some never finished, some won, many of them were really enjoyed. And so one gets caught by slot cars...

So now, to the point were I introduce myself. But speaking of my entrance to the slot car world, haven't I done it already? Well, for those interested, I am Hugo Figueiredo, aged 29 to this date. I entered the slot car world by the end of 2006, so I am quite a newcomer still. Many people I race with started the hobby in my very hometown even before I was born!

Since I was and am a motorsport enthusiast ever since (my dad tells me I learned the car brands names shortly after I started to speak !!!), but not a very skilled driver (hey, I'm not dangerous... just not crazy behind the wheel), I found this "safe" way to go crazy around a track. Any mistake, let the car bear the consequences... glue works fine!

I am already long on this message. What I can assure you, is that I want to cover in this blog every single aspect that makes me enjoy slot cars: from hard-tuned cars built for racing, to slot car madness projects never to be raced, only to be enjoyed, passing through those slot cars I purchased to go straight to the shelves, never seeing track on their lifes.

Until then, check on the Slot Car Driver's log... see you soon ;)