Slot Car Magazine – January 2019

ISSUE 47

Super Shells JS Chassis Design brings classic F1s back to life

Not Fade Away Hub Habets studies a very powerful but unsuccessful rally car – the BMW M1

Cobra Daytona 1965 Bonneville Andy Player reviews the AFX Distance Record Car

Scalextric Figures History of the spectator at your track by Adrian Norman Ric Woods tries his hand at modern F1 and GT

McLaren M23 Chrono Beyond

Super-detail 1:24 scale

Ferrari 350 CanAm

by Michael Niemas H TO RACE OR PRESERVE • SRC UPDATE • MUSTANG IN A WHIRL • TIME OUT WITH GARY CANNELL • SCALEXTRIC COLLECTIBLES H

Januray 2019 • www.slotcarmagazine.co.uk

Carrera Reviews

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LET’S GO RACING! FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE EVENT, CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE:

www.ukslotcarfestival.co.uk British Motor Museum, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwickshire CV35 0BJ For more information, interviews and photo opportunities please contact:

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General show and media enquiries: julie@scalemodels.co.uk / 01625 876325

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www.slotcarmagazine.co.uk

Hello Everyone Here we are again, peering expectantly into the abyss of another new year.

Looking back, one of the positives to come out of the last year has been the continuing resurgence in Classic F1 interest. The Policar range has been a hit to the point where racing series are being put together for the cars and this year we can surely look forward to the arrival of at least the Ferrari 312B to swell the ranks. In the meantime, the 3D-printed chassis manufacturers have been giving new life to older cars – indeed, one new such venture is featured in this very issue. SRC is set to make its McLaren M23 ever more raceable too, so it really does seem that we are entering a period – perhaps for the first time ever? – when readily-available F1 slot cars are looking wonderful and going well too.

Away from F1, the Thunderslot McLaren M6B was one of my favourite drives of the year (as well as being one of the challenges, to build it…) and the company with the best attitude must surely be SRC, whose honesty and determination to get things right has been a revelation. We tested our first Carrera cars too and I must admit that these exceeded my expectations – very closely matched (important with home set cars), good fun without magnets and for the price the standard of finish and presentation is amazing.

I’m also going to give a word of thanks to our contributors. Without these people, we wouldn’t have a magazine, it’s as simple as that. The way these fine articles just keep coming in just blows me away and we can never thank them enough. Please don’t stop!

So bring on 2019. Let’s have some fun.

Ric

On The Grid...

ISSUE 47 – January 2019 02 RACE OR PRESERVE

The Ultimate Dilemma – Tony Di Pastena asks whether the ultrarare Ferrari that’s worth three figures should ever be raced.

Well, of course it should... or maybe it shouldn’t....

05 LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Carrera Track Testing – Our man in the North feels the force as he takes two of the latest F1 cars for a run. They also let him loose on a BMW M6 GT3...

08 YOU SPIN ME ROUND Sooper Dooper

22

Pioneer Mustang Gets Street-Wise – Well I never! Graham Pritchard is a boy racer! It’s all smoke, lights and spinning wheels with his rather down-wid-da-kidz upgrades.

11 FLAT OUT ON THE SALT

A Last Hurrah For The Shelby Daytona – After seeing the real car in the flesh, Andy Player shares the fascinating story of the recent AFX release.

14 DON’T STOP

Thinking About Tomorrow – Dovile Stonaityte tells us about the past year at SRC and why she and the rest of the company are excited about what’s coming along in 2019.

17 FERRARI 350 CAN AM Life In The Fast Lane

05

Build by Michael Niemas – Whether your “thing” is a different scale, this fantastic build of a beautiful car in 1:24 will surely grab your attention.

22 SOOPER DOOPER

Super Shells Reborn – Marc Abbott found himself smiling somewhat when he learned that JS Chassis Design had produced a chassis for those lovely 1960s kits.

27 SCALEXTRIC FIGURES

Part 1 – Adrian Norman studies some still life and tells us just how many different spectators, mechanics, marshals and team owners have graced our tracks over the years.

31 WIN, WIN, WIN

McLaren M23 Kit – SRC have very kindly donated another four Chrono kits. It’s not really a competition, simply send us an email... who knows, one might be on its way to you!

Not Fade Away

37

32 SCALEXTRIC COLLECTIBLES

Book Review – Ric Woods donned his spectacles to find out what’s between the covers of this latest paper-style release

by Jonathan Mountford.

34 GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME

Part 2 – Gary Cannell is now all wired up, and seems to be working fine. His timing system is counting accurately too.

Here, in part 2, he concludes his lap-counting sojourn.

37 NOT FADE AWAY

FLY Slot BMW M1 – Hub Habets looks at a very powerful car that dabbled in rally. It wasn’t really that successful in reallife, but was this 1:32 cousin a winner?

IBC DILWORTH Scalextric Figures

Slot Car Magazine is an independent magazine for the Slot Car enthusiast. It is produced bi-monthly and available to purchase from either: www.pendleslotracing.co.uk (hard-copy, hi res digital) www.lulu.com (hi res digital pdf version) www.slotcarmagazine.co.uk (all links to above sites listed) For further information, please contact the publishers via email. Addresses opposite.

27

Last But Not Least – “Gentleman Jim”, the last of the true gentleman racers. Jim Bird was destined to go down in history for actually trying not to win.

EDITORIAL: Ric Woods: RicWoods@aol.com ART & DESIGN: Marc Abbott: slotcarmagazine@virginmedia.com Regular copies of Slot Car Magazine are printed digitally and also available as a downloads in PDF format.

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to accurately compile the information contained herein, Slot Car Magazine or any of its contributors or advertisers accepts no liability for any errors and omissions or any inadvertent disclosure of any information not meant for publication. Slot Car Magazine neither endorses or accepts responsibility for the reproduction of material supplied that is of sub-standard quality, such as photocopies, laser prints, pre-printed photographs, low resolution digital images etc, and reserve the right to refuse the use of such material, products or services of advertisers in this publication. Opinions expressed shall not necessarily be that of the Slot Car Magazine. All information should be verified before being acted upon. It is assumed that all permissions have been obtained by contributors prior to submission to Slot Car Magazine. Whilst every effort is made to comply with copyright legislation, Slot Car Magazine cannot be held responsible for infringements that are beyond our control.

Copyright: Contents of this magazine or our web site, cannot be reproduced in any way, shape or form without the written permission of the publishers.

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To race Or Preserve

by Tony Di Pastena

It was hard enough to get the first one, but persistence paid off. These Carrera Evolution Series 1952 Ferrari 166/212 MM Series released in 2001 are just magnificent. The red one is in mint condition and never used. The silver (two-tone) version is very rare. New tyres and a little Parma grease is all that it needed. Beautiful to watch and run around the track. They are commendably smooth and the motors have a fair bit of torque.

M

y brother Rob and I have vivid memories when we were kids of Dad clunking our heads together in anger for smashing up a couple of new slot cars he had recently bought for us. The two new Escorts didn’t stand a chance at the end of the banked turns as they speared off and took out a substantial chunk of plaster off the wall. From that day on, we had to save our money and buy our own cars.

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Perhaps this was the turning point for us, as we began to respect the laws of physics and start salvaging the broken bits as spares for future restorations. The first twenty or so cars in our collection were crashed and burned – some beyond repair. We had a lot of fun though, but when one or two favourite cars cracked a chassis, blew a motor or stripped a gear, that sinking feeling hit hard and the slot car scrap yard just grew a little bigger.

Even today, that kick in the guts feeling still manages to wipe the smile off our faces when a Limited Edition model gets taken out or slammed. I liken it to driving a brand-new car out of the show room and nudging the gate post when you get home. The brittle crunch of a broken headlight or crumpled bumper is enough to send one into a fit of rage.

Lucky for us, age and semiretirement has mellowed our style of racing. We have a substantial

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

To race Or Preserve

So, I’ve just managed to add another rare slot car to the glass cabinet now bulging with an assortment of collectable relics, some going back over fifty years. I’ve spent hundreds of hours painstakingly repairing and restoring these cars, often cannibalising parts from several broken cars to complete one. Regardless what they are worth today, we just enjoy running them around the track… these days with a greater appreciation, ensuring we keep them intact and preserve their authentic design.

number of cars, many of which are collectables and are paraded carefully over several laps…and those that we race seriously with focus and precision. So, this presents an interesting question: Should vintage collectables and limited-edition models be preserved and left untouched, boxed and for display only in glass cabinets?

Several months ago, I was down at the local slot car centre thrashing an all-original 1967 Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4 on a circuit known as the Sling Shot designed by Peter Van

Horssen (Mr. Slot Car). It didn’t take long to catch the eyes of a couple of veteran racers as they scowled expressions of discontent. “Do you realise that’s a rare collectable?!” they exclaimed. I felt like responding that I was becoming a rare collectable as well. What they didn’t know, I had several Ferrari 330s in the collection and used all the good parts to make a complete one.

Perhaps if I was twenty or thirty years younger, I’d reconsider the temptation to run the rare models and limited editions. But whilst I

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

still have reasonable eyesight, good reflexes and a competitive streak, I find it both challenging and exciting to push the envelope running our collectables for a series of laps. My brother and I have always been resourceful, worked hard and saved our pennies to building up our slot car collection over the years. Whether new or a vintage collectable, many veteran racers out there would agree, slot cars are there for us to admire, tinker and most of all, racing enjoyment.

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To race Or Preserve

Top Left: Fully restored with all original parts, the 1967 Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4 in its matching jewel case. It still goes exceptionally well!

Above: Limited Edition James Bond 007 Ford Mustang by Carrera.

Left: This rare Aston Martin DB3 (left) has come back to life thanks to the recent supply of suitable pinions from Carrera wholesale importers Zimbler Australia.

The gear also needed replacement to mesh correctly with the new pinion on the extended drive shaft. It’s a well balanced roadster and handles extremely well. Did they actually race these things without a roll bar? Better have the super-glue handy for those heads.

Main Pic: A trio of 1956 & 1952 Ford Thunderbirds Evolution Series fully refurbished and in great running order – the ‘Honest Ernie’s Garage’ (far left) model is quite rare. The motors are mounted at the front with a long shaft running through to the crown on the back axle.

Once again, they run surprisingly well and handle the corners very smoothly.

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FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

Life In The Fast Lane

By Ric Woods

L

ooking back, I think this might be the very first time we have tested a modern Formula One car in these pages. Of recent times, there has been a welcome upsurge in high quality, raceable replicas of ‘classic’ F1 cars (or, as we used to call them, “F1 cars”) but manufacturers willing to dance in the minefield of copyright, permissions and rights that come as part of the modern F1 package are few and far between.

Carrera is one such company and we have been looking at two cars from the 2017 season, the Mercedes W08 as driven by Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull RB13 of Daniel Ricciardo.

Both models come in a sizeable display box with a card sleeve, the Red Bull having the correct trendy matt finish to its bodywork. It’s worth pointing out that both drivers’ helmets have been neatly replicated, though the rest of the cockpit detail is minimal. The tyres carry ‘Pirelli’ lettering in yellow, rather than the ‘Carrera’ logos seen on the rest of the range. These (surprisingly large) models look impressive in their boxes, but what happens when they hit the track?

Despite all the wings, vanes, bargeboards and other worrisome paraphernalia, the Carrera F1s do feel

quite robust, so there was a good chance that I would complete the testing with the same amount of car as I began. Removing the body to have a look at the innards isn’t the work of a few moments, however.

From the test we did a few issues ago, I was expecting the ‘never knowingly under-engineered’ approach and this proved to be the case. Four selftapping screws do the bulk of the work, but you then have to push up the rear rain/harvesting light to release a clip, then pull it through the rear wing to finally separate the body from the chassis. There’s rather more force required to achieve this than I would normally be happy with, so I would recommend some gentle filing around the rear light moulding, so that it simply sits in place rather than

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

clips. The four screws are perfectly up to the task and loosening them a little could well help the car’s handling.

Having finally gained admittance, we see that the motor is a ‘slimline’ type, driving through 8/27 plastic gears, with the rear bodywork having a small ‘hump’ to accommodate the contrate. There is the usual Carrera circuit board, which carries the switch to enable easy changes of running direction. Wheels are plastic all round and yes, they were all round on our examples. Now to the really interesting bit: the guide. It’s behind the front wheels. Yes, I know. Narrow, pointed noses do not lend themselves to slot guides and associated wiring, so the Carrera engineers have boldly gone where very few people have dared to put a guide before. A spring gives it quite a strong self-centring action as well – great for those of us who marshal with more enthusiasm than skill, but perhaps not the best

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Life In The Fast Lane

for ultimate handling. Let’s see, shall we?

At this point I would usually come up with disparaging comment about magnets. “I’ve never seen a Ford Escort that cornered like a modern F1 car, so I threw the magnet at the ‘fridge door” – that sort of thing. We have a problem here, because a modern F1 car should corner like…a modern F1 car. There are two bar

magnets fitted, one under the rear axle and one pretty much in the middle of the chassis. With two magnets in place, on our Carrera test track, the cars were very stuck down, but not outrageously so. The fact that Carrera track has stainless steel rails with less magnetic attraction than the ordinary steel of, say, Ninco track will have a lot to do with this. The twomag versions were quite good fun,

because of the fear that as you go faster and faster, the likelihood is that any ‘off’ will be quite a major event. Fortunately, I ran out of nerve before the cars ran out of magnet.

The next step was the removal of the rear magnet. Back in my comfort zone, this felt better. The tail would step out if provoked, like a real car, but there was still a good level of grip and any shortcomings in the guide placement were still mostly overcome. Once or twice the track’s quick left/right became a left/straight on, but that might well be down to the spring assistance not keeping up.

Complete magnet removal was, I think, a step too far. Not enough grip, too much Bambi-on-ice for my liking.

To sum up, these two were considerably more fun than I thought

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

To

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Life In The Fast Lane they might be and, at £37.99 each, they are very good value. In the interests of science, I passed them to my esteemed colleague, so he could try them on Ninco track. I was sorry to see them go.

Additionally, we were sent an example of the Falken BMW M6 GT3, the car which won the fourth round of the VLN championship at the Nordschleife, with Müller and Dusseldorp at the wheel. The M6 is a compelling brute of a thing, the model having the tried-and-tested Carrera mechanicals (see our test last July for details), impeccable tampo printing and good detail in the pan interior. I did hike the magnet out of this one and enjoyed pounding round the test track for a few hundred laps.

I wasn’t quite able to match July’s BMW M1 and Capri times – one tenth adrift, dammit – but that may be down to the M6 being a little heavier and also the colder temperatures at the track in December. Again, another great home racing car. Ditch the magnet and enjoy.

To add to Ric’s testing abilities, Marc Abbott tried the three cars on his home Ninco track. Whilst the cars obviously performed OK, they did required a switch to the (included) smaller guide. The tight hairpins provided a challenge, as the thick guide would stall where the inner plastic sleeve between the rails, impeded motion. The motor also lacked the punch of Marc’s usual cars, but... rest assured with some minor fiddling these robust models will stand you in good stead.

Finally (see below), we have some details of the latest Carrera sets.

These are both analogue and aimed

at the ‘starter’ end of the market, which is where most of us began, no?

For sports car fans there’s the ‘Ferrari Trophy’ set, with two 488 GT3 cars, over twenty feet of track and all the barriers and controllers you need to start you off on your wonderful journey into our world. If F1 is more your thing, you’ll want the ‘Lap Contest’ set, with Vettel’s Ferrari and Verstappen’s Red Bull for those inevitable thrills, spills and arguments afterwards. There’s a bit less track with this one – 14.76feet – but that’s easily extended, of course. Our thanks to The Hobby Company for generously supplying the test cars.

Ferrari Trophy

№ 20025230

Package contents: Ferrari 488 GT3 Scuderia Corsa “No.68” Ferrari 488 GT3 “Black Bull Racing, No.46” EVOLUTION connecting section, 2 speed controllers, straights, curves, guardrails, supports

Lap Contest

№ 20025233

Package contents: Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer RB13 “M.Verstappen, No.33” Ferrari SF70H “S.Vettel, No.5” EVOLUTION connecting section, 2 speed controllers, straights, curves, guadrails, supports

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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YOU SPIN ME ROUND

by Graham Pritchard

Well, as one of the primary objectives of this build was to make it just like “The Real Thing”, then it just had to spin around, didn’t it?

W

ell, as one of the primary objectives of this build was to make it just like “The Real Thing”, then it just had to spin around, didn’t it?

So, having bought a couple of the Hornby Nissan 350Z Drift cars, I had the chassis. The next step was to make the body and so it was finally time to butcher the very early white Pioneer Mustang that I had previously set aside a while ago to use as the basis for the build…

However, I’m going to have to be a bit brief with the “how it was made” story unfortunately, as we’ve not got a lot of space left in this issue Marc tells me, but “as a picture says a thousand words” then hopefully you’ll get the gist of it fairly easily

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should you want to try making one yourself, or you could track me down and get one of the resin castings that I’ve also done of it, as that way you can save a load of time and not have to wreck any of those rather nice Mustangs that mine started out as!

So, having doodled a few guide lines onto the donor car then I eventually plucked up the courage to take it all apart and start cutting bits off!

Next it was a case of lining up the rather garish 3D-printed wheel arches that Angelo Amato had made especially for this project and we were in business… The not-soprofessional phrase of ‘it fits where it touches’ was especially applicable to this build as the new wheel arches were flat whereas the body was most

certainly not, so after the initial “tacking” with superglue then more and more was added bit by bit, together with bicarbonate of soda to slowly fill the gaps with this mixture until all of the gaps were totally filled and the wheel arches were now firmly attached.

(NB – By the way, the top tip here is to make sure that you use full width axles at the start of the build rather than at the end as then you will be sure that everything lines up.)

I then added the side skirts by using right angled Plasticard sections that were kept at the correct angle by the use of a cocktail stick sandwiched between the sections, together with an additional section on the bottom of the doors to simulate more body kit; these also had the panel lines

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

YOU SPIN ME ROUND gouged in with a razor saw and a pointed needle file.

Next up was the front spoiler, which was made from Milliput initially, together with the splitter from a Scalextric MG Lola that I had found in my bits box.

I also made some air duct covers for the side from some hollow 8mm square plastic tube, but getting all of the angles correct was a bit of a pain though I must admit, so it took several attempts and a couple of hours or so to get them to fit satisfactorily!

Next up was the rear wing, which is simply just a flat piece of Plasticard, but I left it loose as I knew that it

would be tricky to cast the body with it in place, so the logic was that it would be added afterwards.

Then it was a case of making all of the bits join up with each other whilst also leaving gaps where there should be, of course… so it was out with the Plasto filler and more Milliput to try and blend it all in – but at least it was now starting to look like it should do, although at 74mm wide you are certainly getting your money’s worth if you want to drive like you own the road!

I also had to pluck up the courage to do the side vents, so after marking the shape that I wanted and drilling a few small holes within the space, I filed it

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

all out very carefully in order to create the holes. I then made the vertical bits and the side vents were done.

The next and equally as brave “plastic surgery” was to cut the hole in the bonnet, but after marking the shape and drilling some smaller holes in order to remove a lot of it in a few easy moves, I discovered that the required width was exactly the same size as one of my files and therefore it would be a lot easier to keep it all symmetrical for a change!

I also decided to make the air intakes /top of the engine detail separately, so if it all went wrong it could be attempted again…and it did, so I eventually settled on using

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YOU SPIN ME ROUND

The finished car, Monster decals by Patto

pieces of small Plasticard rod set into a “pre-engraved grid of squares” piece of Plasticard, as when I tried to do it all freehand it was miles out!

Making the airbox bit on the top was a lot easier fortunately, as that was just two pieces of Plasticard with some Milliput added along the “step” and then sanded down to create the desired shape.

The side exhausts are just large eyelets basically and were added once the body had been painted, but as I was struggling to get the vertical part

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of the front air dam smooth, I cheated slightly and overlaid it with a small piece of Plasticard and the problem was then solved rather easily.

Then it was the usual ‘spray it with primer and then add filler’ in order to rectify all of the “dings” etc. and then it was ready for casting, which we don’t have the space to go into here, unfortunately. After all of that, then it was done, albeit in several pieces rather than just one piece as you normally/probably would do it.

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

I call it a “Hooligan Mustang”, by the way, because it sounds and looks rather like the genuine one, but the wheelbase has actually ended up being very slightly longer than the original body, to be honest. That actually means that you can now use a Hornby START Rally car chassis in it instead if you don’t want to do doughnuts, whereas you will need to extend the Nissan chassis by a few mm if you do want to spin it round, ‘like a record baby’ as Dead or Alive once said. The choice is yours…

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

FLAT OUT ON THE SALT

A Last Hurrah For The Shelby Daytona Probably the most intriguing HO scale release of 2018 was an AFX Shelby Daytona Coupe. It may have been the fifteenth Cobra Daytona release since 2002, but it was a particularly unusual choice of livery with a fascinating history. I also got to see the real car last year, so that might just sway my judgement.

I

am a huge fan of Carroll Shelby and the transatlantic Cobra saga, a story stuffed full of passion, horsepower and wonderful personalities. The highly modified Cobra Daytona Coupes took on and beat the Ferrari GTOs at Le Mans in 1964 and won the World Sportscar Championship in 1965. The latest AFX car depicts the first prototype chassis CSX2287, the only Coupe to be built entirely at Shelby’s Venice headquarters in California and one of only six cars ever made.

At first glance, the AFX car resembles CSX2287 at the 1965 Le Mans 24 hours – they carry the same number and are the same shade of Guardsman blue. Although a very similar livery, the slot car represents the final competitive appearance for the first Cobra Daytona – a recordbreaking twelve hours on the salt flats at Bonneville.

The trip to Utah in November 1965 wasn’t planned. Goodyear had booked Bonneville for testing, prior to giving Craig Breedlove a crack at the land speed record in his jetengined Spirit of America. At the last minute, Goodyear realised they needed a side-show to keep possession of the flats while the jet

car was being prepared for its test runs. On the evening of Tuesday 2nd November, a call came from Goodyear’s director of racing to Carroll Shelby asking him to send a car to Bonneville. The Cobra Daytona was sitting in the workshop, not having turned a wheel in anger since Le Mans. That made it a perfect choice, as it was already set up for top speed down the Mulsanne straight. The car was swiftly prepared and then towed 700 miles overnight to the salt flats.

World land speed records were set on a ten mile straight run at Bonneville. However, there is also space for a huge oval for endurance records. In the autumn of 1965, the United States Auto Club (USAC) had measured out a twelve mile oval.

That was the course where Craig Breedlove and fellow speed-freak Bobby Tatroe aimed to break some records with the Cobra Daytona.

Goodyear offered little in terms of assistance. There was no refuelling rig and no petrol available on site, so the Shelby mechanics had to drive to nearby Wendover to collect several fifty gallon drums of fuel and a hand pump. There were also only two spare Goodyear rear tyres available,

by Andy Player

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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FLAT OUT ON THE SALT

the two that were loaded on the truck that had driven from California the night before. Observing the woeful lack of preparation, the USAC officials did not expect to verify any records during the next four days. But they were wrong.

As dusk approached on 6th November, the final twelve hour marathon came to a close. Despite painfully slow refuelling stops, Tatroe and Breedlove had averaged just over 150 mph, adding 200 miles to the previous twelve hour record set by a Bugatti 37S at Montlhéry in 1936. In total, sixteen national and seven international land speed endurance records were broken by the Daytona Coupe. After this brief return to action, a tired, shaken and saltencrusted CSX2287 was formally retired from racing, being sold in 1966 for $4,500. The new owner was Jim Russell of slot car company Russkit – the same man who would, thirty-two years later, be hired by Tomy to revive the fortunes of their AFX slot car brand.

It is perhaps no surprise that Jim chose the Shelby Daytona Coupe to be the first ‘Collector Series’ car produced by AFX Racemasters. The Cobra Daytona, together with the later Ford MkII and Chaparral 2D, set a new standard in high-detail mouldings and authentic liveries that had been lacking in HO slot cars for some years. The bulky nature of an HO chassis means that creating a good slot car that is also a decent

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scale model involves compromise. The Cobra Daytona is not a perfect scale model, but it is a very fine HO slot car that still looks good seventeen years after its first release.

An important evolution of the Collector Series was the introduction in 2008 of a ‘Clear’ version of the single-piece body shell, which leaves glass areas transparent after painting.

Although adding greatly to the look of an HO car, the risk of painting over a clear shell is that the body can look a little translucent, which this Cobra does under bright lights. My favourite of the six ‘Clear’ Cobra Daytonas is CSX2287 from the 1964 Le Mans 24 hours. The minutelydetailed number plate on the rear panel is breathtaking. Pictures of the Cobra at Bonneville in November 1965 show no number plate, so

although the new AFX model looks a little plain at the back, it is correct.

One aspect of the latest livery that is not quite right is the absence of a Goodyear logo just in front of the Autolite and Castrol decals on the front quarter panels.

There is always a debate about shades of blue. The 1964 Le Mans car was painted in Viking blue and some might think the colour used by AFX is too light. Likewise, some might argue the Bonneville car is a little dark. It is difficult to judge from contemporary photographs, as various film stocks represented colours very differently.

However, I did get to see the actual car at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia last year. It is a wonderful museum of racing sports cars, where new acquisitions are restored as

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

FLAT OUT ON THE SALT

conservatively as possible. For the CSX2287 Cobra Daytona – now worth in the region of $20 million – the paintwork was taken back to the layers of factory-applied Guardsman blue still on the car. Comparing the real car to the AFX car – which I bought on the same trip – the colour match is very close indeed.

Some of the small details of the AFX car are also very good, albeit fortuitously. HO cars are generally too small to have realistic wing mirrors and AFX have simply left them off their Cobra Daytonas, which is handy as they were removed from the real car for the Bonneville runs. So too was the rear spoiler – at least to begin with. When Tatroe and Breedlove struggled with the car’s stability at

speed, the spoiler was replaced – as it is on the AFX model. With these countless tweaks and modifications, the preparation for the record attempt was gruelling for the small

Shelby team. One thing that made them chuckle was that Breedlove had never driven a car with a four-speed manual gearbox, so he required instruction on gear selection before going out to help set the 23 records and – most importantly – occupying the salt for Goodyear. Nine days later, on November 15, Breedlove broke the 600mph barrier in Spirit of America and set a World Land Speed Record that would stand until 1970.

Goodyear had asked Carroll Shelby for a favour and it had all worked out perfectly. The AFX model reminds us of this episode of the Shelby Daytona story and whole lot more.

The Simone Foundation Automotive Museum website is: www.simeonemuseum.org

Above – Alongside the 1964 Le Mans car driven by Chris Amon and Jochen Neerpasch Below – CSX2287 at the Simeone Foundation Museum in Philadelphia

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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SRC - DON’T STOP THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW

by

Dovile Stonaityte

2018

was a difficult year for Slot Racing Company, S.L. The changes in the company have been very drastic and to recover the rhythm of work and to start the manufacture and production in Europe from scratch was very laborious. But the important thing is that SRC continues with strength and with enthusiasm for doing interesting projects and work in 2019.

During 2018 the injection moulds of the McLaren-Ford M23 were rebuilt and executed and the second model of the car will be finished in February 2019. This second model, as driven by Dave Charlton in the 1973 South African GP, takes one of the liveries most valued by collectors: ‘Lucky Strike’.

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We will continue with the evolution of the SRC cars, with the following main objectives:

1 – FORD CAPRI 2600 RS and LW: Completely new chassis with the project of interchangeable mechanical parts in both plastic and metal.

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

SRC - DON’T STOP THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW

2 – PORSCHE 914/6 GT: Completely new chassis with an in-line motor position, with damping system and exclusive parts to enable its use in competition.

3 – M23: Revised parts to improve the performance in competition.

Aluminium wheels, new guide, front axle, new motor.

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

4 – Thanks to all these reforms SRC will be able to present special cars to our clients and users, exclusively prepared, such as: Ford Capri ‘Edicion Countries’, where all those who trust SRC can acquire any of the cars we have revised.

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SRC - DON’T STOP THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW Following on from these, SRC will continue with its completely new car releases for 2019:

1 – HESKETH 308 & 308B 2 – LANCIA DELTA S4 GROUP B 3 – BMW 2.8CS 4 – BMW3.0CS 5 – SURPRISE RELEASE

SRC will boost the competition spare parts in the Chrono range and it will be one of the main objectives of the company to make its cars good in competition for the tracks around the world, as well as being beautiful models.

In another section of the company, the online store will have great strength in 2019, where it will reach all countries in the world with our promotions and our products. SRC will have the online store as a first point of sale, giving customer discount offers and free shipping deals, at the same time

FUCHS

MNT-SRC

BRT-SRC

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committed to the prompt answering of any queries and fast, safe delivery.

A very important part of SRC will be allocated to the projects of ‘Test Drivers’ and ‘Clubs and Associations’, where we will try to have people and groups in whom we have total confidence to both test our products and to organise races and create competitions. These two projects will be the future of the company for tests, events and sales. SRC will open its doors to clubs and associations and will have an important team of people who will oversee the testing of important new products in the competition sector. Our test drivers will be the ambassadors of the brand in each country and will form an internal team led by a trusted person from the company.

SRC says goodbye to 2018 in trying to make YOU understand that we are open to ideas, listening and taking advantage of the information we receive from our customers.

All this is to make the better cars and parts that help the hobby to stay at the highest level and to continue for many years.

We love what we do, so we never stop working hard and always wanting to improve everything we do.

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

Ferrari 350 Canam

Build Up of a Ferrari 350 Can-Am in 1/24 scale for the 2018 Fein-Design Slotcar Meeting

by Michael Niemas

I

t was a cold winter day when I thought about the build of a slot car for the 2018 Fein-Design Slotcar Meeting. Deep in the orbit of my head I had had the idea (for years) of an ultimate slot car, which should be up to a very high standard of realism, with openable doors and filler caps and removable front and rear covers. In the very first instance I had a Lola T70 Coupé in mind, but then I switched to one of the most beautiful racing cars of all time – the Ferrari 350, entered in Can-Am in 1967 by Jonathan Williams.

The basis for all of this was a FeinDesign-Modell slot body kit of the Italian beauty and in the beginning I didn´t anticipate the amount of work that would be required for the realisation of the completed model, as most of the parts under hood were made from scratch because a ‘display’ kit of that car doesn’t exist.

After a couple of weeks of looking for archive material, a four-month-long building process started in May 2018.

I started with a very rare glass fibre body and created a kind of monocoque centre, from which I engineered and developed firstly in the direction of the rear and then towards the front. Always as the very last step I cut off the separate body parts, as the structure underneath had to fit very exactly to the skin.

When the main chassis plate was shaped, welded and bent to the correct form, the complicated rear chassis structure was developed. The engine had a structural function and the rear

Above – Michael's completed car.

Right – It started with a kit.

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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Ferrari 350 Canam

chassis frame, which holds the rear cover, is connected to the power unit and gearbox. Under this structure I added a FOX 13D motor, which has good driving parameters. The hubs were also designed like the real ones and are fitted with brake discs.

When this work was done after a few weeks I worked up to all the air inlet trumpets, which had to fit 100% within the rear body cover – believe me, I was going nuts as many readjustments had to be done. The creating of the exhaust system is easy to describe. Ten hours for the left and ten hours for the right side, excluding painting. The valve covers also took also one day for shaping and polishing.

The fitting of the front section was next and with a lot of brass, white metal, plastic, carbon and copper I created the front with ‘theoretical’

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wheel hubs and brake discs. All from scratch! It was challenging to create the inner front body cover and the removable front cover, as the many fitting modifications required a lot of shaping and filling work. Once the two front coolers were fitted, I knew that the cockpit fitting came last before painting. Here I had to make a few aluminum plates and had to add rivets.

Generally it was impractical or impossible to use the parts from the original slot body kit, as this chassis was much more precise.

For the driver, I wanted to do something special and discovered a little bit about Mr. Williams and his character.

I decided to put him into the car in a relaxed ‘pit stop’ position. I took a ‘selfie’ of myself in that position and started to shape the figure afterwards.

The helmet would be separate, so I paid

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

special attention to the hair and face structure.

When I started to dismount all the fitted parts and to prepare them for painting, it was like a great liberation for myself and I felt very good. All parts under the hood were painted in a slightly ‘used’ look and the body was finished to a maximum shine, as the restored real car. Now I could also add many details, such as 32 ignition wires and 12 fuel tubes, switches, knobs, valves, cooling tubes, rivets, lockers and many more. This took me three weeks and I also did the final assembly of the units. Everything fitted perfectly!

The choice of the tyres was easy as I wanted the maximum realism from a visual aspect, so I used rubber scale profile ones from the Fujimi Ferrari 330P4.

Anyhow the performance aspect was not important here. Specially-turned rims and

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

Ferrari 350 Canam

inserts brought the wheels to a realistic finish.

The ground clearance is also not down to the lowest point as usual, but to exactly that height as seen on historical pictures and then calculated down.

All in all I put more than 500 individual parts together and after 250 to 300 hours of practical work and much more time for research and engineering, the 1/24 Ferrari 350 was ready to go to the Fein-Design-Slotcar-Meeting in Heiligenhaus, with more than 160 cars entering the Can-Am and Le Mans event.

The Fein-Design-Slotcar-Meeting 2018 I started to head off to the meeting in the very early morning of that sunshiny Saturday and had the Ferrari in my box.

I didn´t realize how nervous I would

get about entering that slot car later in the event!

Because of the time spent in intensive talks about the model with several entrants and journalists before the official part, I decided not to do a test run in free practice. The race result wasn´t important to me anyhow, as I just wanted to fulfil my dream to enter that car in a race.

Traditionally, there was the ‘Best of Show’ contest before the race, which the Ferrari emphatically won. I was happy to see that the jury and entrants were really satisfied by this little machine. The appreciation was generally impressive.

Now there was the big moment when I was behind the controller and the Italian prancing horse was at the starting line. I had no idea what the handling would be like or what the grip

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

level would be. But after doing a silly jump start, after a few laps I knew that the car drove very smoothly and was also fun with those scale profile tires. I enjoyed cruising and drifting the car around the track and after half of the distance I stopped and stripped the body off. The look was a little bit like a formula car of that era. When the raced stopped I was just happy that all worked well and I didn´t crash. Afterwards I drove the car for some media people and then it went into the garage.

I am sure that this is one of the most detailed models or slot cars of a Ferrari 350 Can-Am worldwide and I enjoyed every moment working on this model. I am looking forward to my next superdetailed slot car and hope you enjoyed my little building report. If you like to, feel free to follow me on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

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Ferrari 350 Canam

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FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

Ferrari 350 Canam

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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sooper dooper

with JS Chassis Design by Marc Abbott There used to be a range of slot car kits that were readily available, with a good chassis, where you could build, paint and then race a competitive model...

W

ell, believe it or not, you can still buy the cars, wrapped in the original packaging, for a fairly good price.

Yet, what’s more exciting, is that someone has decided to produce a modern-style chassis to go with them.

The original slot car manufacturer was a company called Super Shells and they were readily available at your local model shop in the High Street. I bought a few of their Grand Prix models over the years and raced them around my home circuit, recreating races from the early ’60s.

The “shells” themselves, are actually quite basic, but very well designed. In the pack you would find the main body, an exhaust system, wing mirrors, driver and screen... and that’s about it. A detailed printed sheet also listed their other products and contained a brief history of the car itself. It sounds basic and yes, it was. However, these little gems are so

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well crafted that it only takes a little effort to make them look the business!

Excited? Yes, I certainly am. I have purchased two more of the cars via eBay and will concentrate on the Ferrari for this build.

So, who is this chassis designer?

Well, if you search on Facebook, you’ll find a page devoted to their wares entitled “JS Chassis Design”.

There you be pleased to find that their range is growing steadily, featuring chassis for all types of cars, modern and old.

The chassis sent to me seems to be quite a high resolution print, with only a couple of “flashes” that needed to be cut off. There are basically two types of chassis for the Super Shells F1 cars. One is a singlepiece and the other is what I’ll be showing you here: 2-piece.

Back to the bodyshells. On opening the packet I was pleased to see that

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

Top pic – Unopened kits are still available on eBay. Middle pic – The parts laid out before construction.

Bottom – The Ferrari and a Brabham. The Ferrari has been built and primed before full painting commences.

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

sooper dooper Right – Computer renders, showing the two types of chassis available for F1 Super Shells cars.

Above, the single-piece and below, the two-piece.

1 – The 3D printed chassis straight from the press.

2 – The same chassis separated into the four parts.

3 – Wheels and inserts by PCS (Pendle Slot) 4 – Completed body and wheels, now ready for final construction and some decals.

5 – For the Ferrari, a small amount of the chassis sides had to be skimmed in order for it to fit easily inside the body.

6 – The inner section of the exhaust needed to be trimmed back (I carefully melted it) in order for the gear to fit in without fouling the body. Once it has been tidied up, it will be invisible from the outside.

7 – I decided to change the original driver head that came with the car. This old Scalextric Formula Junior version (I believe) looks a little like John Surtees!

everything was just how it should be, only age rendering the Ferrari decals next to useless and also some brown “gunk” from the sticky tape that held the plastic bag under the car, leaving residue on the outer body. Don’t worry, it’s easily cleaned off with some lighter fluid. If you want to put on the exact decals for a certain race, there are plenty to choose from on the ’net. I already had the necessary decals for the Ferrari, so didn’t need to worry there.

The wing mirrors and exhaust system can be easily attached with superglue... just make sure that you offer the chassis up to the body and make sure everything will be free to turn etc. before permanently gluing anything in place.

Paint is a personal choice – I prefer car paint rattle cans. There’s no excuse nowadays to paint things with a brush (except tiny or hard-to-get-to areas).

The wheels I chose for this car are PCS Classic 14'' Spoke Alloy Wheels 19x6mm from Pendle Slot. The tyres will probably be some brand new Ninco Classics I have in the spares box (now branded as Mitoos). The motor for these cars will be your choice of various FF-types that are available.

Again Pendle do a very good,

1

2

3

4 cheapish SRP version, ref: SR181D52500X-A – This revs to 25K, which might be too fast for these cars... so I’ll start with a standard Scalextric unit.

I discovered that Slot.it rear bushings, ref: SICH56B, fit nicely into the chassis and just need to be secured with a small amount of superglue to stop them working free.

Also, with minimal scraping away of the inside of the body, a Slot.it inline green gear ref: SIGI24BZ, coupled with a 9-tooth pinion will do the job of getting power to the wheels.

It must also be pointed out that you might need to make room for the wires that are attached to the guide.

Whilst there’s plenty of room the for the guide itself to turn left and right, thick wiring will foul the body and restrict movement. Therefore go for the thinnest wire that is practicable.

You’ll also have to dig out a small quantity of plastic just around the “gearbox” area. This will allow the gear to rotate in a nice easy kind of way – you know, the way they are supposed to. (See pic 6 – don’t worry, I cleaned it up a bit, plus it’s out of sight anyway.)

Meanwhile, I decided that I didn’t like the driver’s head that is supplied

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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sooper dooper

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with the car. It just wasn’t “John Surtees”. An old Scalextric Formula Junior head was retrieved from the parts box and painted in Big John’s colours. (Actually my fine detail painting skills aren’t that good, so I used small strips of coloured decal paper for his blue bands and black goggle strap). See pics 7 and 8.

Whilst all that’s drying, you can wire the motor up, see pic 9.

Once you are sure that everything can be fitted together and be mobile, you’ll need to affix a mounting post, so that the chassis can be secured to the body. There is a post supplied with the chassis and this will need to be cut to the correct length. It will be situated just in front of the motor.

Take an appropriately-sized screw and attach it fairly tightly to the chassis through the central hole. You should have enough room to Dremel (cut) away the excess post that you don’t require.

Take your time here and keep offering the chassis up to the body as you cut more and more away – hint: it’s virtually the same height as the motor. OK, then apply a small blob of Rapid Araldite (or similar) to the top of the post (not too much now) and join the body to the chassis. Then place on a set-up block. This will tell you whether the body is sat straight and more importantly, one of the wheels isn’t sticking up in the air! (Pic 10) If you’re happy, walk away and leave for a few hours. On your return, you can remove the screw and – hey

presto! – the mounting post will be fixed in the correct position inside the body. (Pic 11) Now, again with a small amount of glue, secure the post even more, making sure that some of it is smeared down the post slightly to give it extra strength. Remember, there’s not much room in there, so don’t overdo it and curse when you find it has run onto somewhere you didn’t want it.

You’ll also notice in pic 9 that there are holes just above the front axle that allow you to adjust the ride height. I found out later that (for me) it wasn’t necessary to add any grub screws as there is only minimal up and down movement.

So now, everything should be ready for you first test drive. Again, make sure everything is free to move and give it an exploratory test lap.

It soon became obvious that I had a very good car on my hands, which matched the characteristics of the early ’60s cars; the Scalextric 18K motor isn’t too fast. The motor braking isn’t that good... which is actually good! The Ninco tyres (on my Ninco track) give just the right amount of grip and I get the tail out in delightful drifts.

The last thing to do is finish off the decals, give it a couple of coats of Alclad Varnish (or Klear) and then... start on the Brabham and then resurrect all my original F1 bodies!

Well done to all involved with these chassis. They certainly get the thumbs up from me!

8 – That looks a bit more like John Surtees.

9 – Motor wired up.

10 – Keep checking that nothing is fouling and that the body is sitting straight.

11 – The mounting post in place, just need to add a bit more glue.

12 – Remember these from your young Scalextric days? The centre “spacer” is good to use on the front of our Ferrari.

13 – Axle spacer in place (It did need to be shortened, hence the cut-off piece).

14 – Finished car from the underside.

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

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sooper dooper

JS Chassis Design

JS Chassis design was set by Lee Thorndike and John Shorter in March 2018 to provide 3D printed chassis for a range of Scalextric cars.

Lee provided the contacts, ideas and requirements, while John designed the chassis and ran the printers.

Early efforts were focused around the Australian V8 cars with Slot.it pods, to support Lee’s Falcon Raceway digital club. From this, the ‘flexi’ option evolved, where the pod is connected to the main chassis rails via torsion arms that allow the pod to twist and for the rear of the pod to move up and down providing suspension.

The range has expanded to include a greater selection of Scalextric cars from Group C to BTCC and Muscle cars and it now also encompasses Carrera, Fly, Ninco, Proslot, Teamslot and, recently, Supershells F1s from the 1960s. The Supershells range was developed with Tony Condon (who owns the Supershells bodyshell tooling) to provide a chassis that will take modern ‘slimline’ motors.

In recent months Danny Condon joined the team to develop the race options – notably the recent introduction of the anglewinder chassis – and he is also setting up a ‘works’ team to campaign these cars

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

in the south-west of England. The chassis range will continue to be expanded (Supertourers and rally cars next) and we will continue the race development, plus the adjustable chassis range.

To complement the chassis, a range of screws, suspension parts and various other items are available, together with resin wheel inserts. It should be noted that Lee has also been casting resin bodies, starting with Australian V8 Supercars and a Gen 6 NASCAR. In the pipeline are a Camaro NASCAR, Australian ‘Utes’, Nastrucks and… a racing Metro.

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sooper dooper

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FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

scalextric figures

Scalextric Figures Officials, Marshals, Pit Crew, Drivers, Spectators & Grid Girls The Ascent of Scalextric Man: An entire ‘family’ have existed in the Scalextric range for the past sixty years. Unfortunately, the individuals concerned didn’t age a day for over forty years or change their dress sense. They were stuck in time! From the ’60s through to the turn of the century, Hornby Hobbies Ltd, the owners of the Scalextric brand, had managed to use the same steel tooling to produce the Scalextric figures. Quite a feat in itself, but a little disappointing that different figures weren’t introduced during that period. However, with the figures adorning Scalextric layouts throughout the land, each individual became an instantly recognisable ‘person’ for the racing fan who liked

PART 1

to add scenery, buildings and figures to their layouts. Any sign of evolution didn’t arrive until the 21st century when, in 2004, ‘new age’ pit crews and mechanics arrived.

The Dawn of Scalextric Man: The first Scalextric figures were introduced in 1961 in small boxed sets and the family completed by 1963. The figures were moulded in pink plastic and remained in the official range throughout the ’60s until 1971. Seated figures for the grandstands were offered in the range as plain unpainted pink plastic figures for the enthusiast to decorate.

The boxed sets of figures were issued

in 1961 as F300 Track Officials & Pit Crews (6 figures), F301 Spectators & Press Photographers (6 figures), F302 TV/Camera Tower (2 figures), F303 Starter on Rostrum (1 figure). In 1962, F304 Mechanics & Drivers and F305 Press & Vendors (6 figures) were released. Finally, in 1963, F306A Grandstand figures kit (5 figures as one piece and unpainted) and F306B Grandstand figures kit (5 figures as Left – In the 1960s photography was not yet used in Scalextric catalogues! This is an artist’s drawing of how they envisaged a typical scene might look

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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scalextric figures

01

07

08 02

03

05

06

04 one piece and unpainted) entered the range. The boxes for F300-301-302303-304-305 came with blue or yellow inner card platforms in which each figure was captured by a card flap around the ankles of the figures so that they all posed very presentably.

The ‘F’ series figures were produced in pink plastic. The soft plastic didn’t help the paint last too long. When the applied paint eventually lost its natural elasticity when relatively new cracks would appear and it wouldn’t be too long before a figure would soon be displaying bare ‘skin’ as the paint flaked off. It is quite usual to find pink plastic models with only a few small areas still painted. ‘Mint-InBox’ examples of the figures and their presentation boxes are very rare.

Rarest of all are the figures in pack F305 including the press photographer, green lady and icecream vendor.

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09

10 In 1971, if one only referred to the Scalextric catalogues, there was an apparent complete extinction of ‘Scalextric man’! This was because so many packs of figures had been made that sales had, one would imagine, slowed down so much that repeat orders had dried up. This version of early Scalextric man remained as slowmoving stock in the retail world for a further 25 years with the manufacturer having no desire to make any more.

Further releases of the above figures in rebranded packaging did, however, appear during the next 25 years to ‘top up’ thinning retail stocks. Easily confused with the earlier soft pink plastic characters, the later range was produced in a harder cream-coloured plastic but painted in the same colours! The seated grandstand figures appeared in both painted and unpainted forms as did the standing spectators.

1 Track figures, top left MM/F305 vendors, top right MM/F304 mechanics/drivers, bottom left MM/F300 race officials/pit crew and bottom MM/F301 spectators.

2 F300 Track Officials & Pit Crews boxed.

3 F300 Track Officials & Pit Crews yellow inner card.

4 F300 pit crew figure’s pink plastic base has no markings to show maker’s name or origin.

5 F300 artist’s drawing.

6 F300 box end label.

7 F301 Spectators yellow inner card.

8 F301 Spectators.

9 F301 artist’s drawing.

10 F301 box end label.

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

scalextric figures

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14 17

18 The Evolution of Scalextric Man:

11 TV Tower and camera crew, MM/F302, showing how typically the paint cracked and peeled off.

12 TV Tower and camera crew, MM/F302, came with rubber base with integral straw bales and, later, with a simpler plastic base.

13 TV Tower and camera crew, MM/F302, pink-plastic figures are hard to find.

14 F303 Starter on Rostrum. ‘SCALEXTRIC’ in red indicates that this was made in the Scalextric factory in Calais, France.

15 F303 Starter on Rostrum with box and card insert. UK version.

16 F304 Spectators boxed – blue inner card version.

17 F304 Spectators blue inner card.

18 F304 Spectators yellow inner card.

Just as the early figures had remained unchanged for 40 years, so had the trackside buildings such as grandstands and pit buildings, which, incidentally, were all modelled on the buildings at the famous Goodwood race circuit close to where Fred Francis, the inventor of Scalextric, resided. By the 21st century, demand for figures to adorn a scenic Scalextric layout was growing with the recent introduction of modern trackside buildings and in 2004 the next evolution of Scalextric man appeared.

Only pit crews were introduced and dressed in the style of modern F1 overalls and helmets in silver, blue and, for only two years, red crew liveries. The boxed sets included all of the necessary crew positions to complete a fully staffed crew to include air-gun and jack men,

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

refuelling team, wheel/tyre crews and a pit ‘lollipop’ man. These were closely followed by grid girls which were only produced under licence by Takara in Japan along with their Japanese GT C car range. The cars were produced under licence from Scalextric and sold principally in Japan, with their home market product having a grid girl posed next to the car in its presentation case.

Imported by Scalextric to the UK market, these versions didn’t have the grid girl figurines as it was seen as non-PC for the UK home toy market!

Consequently, the grid girls are very rare.

Please refer to the Scalextric Ultimate Guide Edition 8 book, available from Pendle Slot Racing and Scale Models and the accompanying website slotcarportal.com for more information.

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scalextric figures

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FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

F304 Spectators yellow inner card.

F304 artist’s drawing.

F304 box end label.

MM/F305 vendors. Six of the rarest figures.

F305 artist’s drawing.

Track Extension Pack, HP1, also contains figure packs F304 & F305.

F306A Grandstand Figures Kit A’ in plain pink. Decorate as required!

F306B Five Seated Figures’ in plain pink for painting as desired.

F306A & F306B hobbyist painted figures sat in grandstand.

F306A artist’s drawing.

F306B artist’s drawing.

Change of packaging, C634 Spectators and C635 Pit Crew.

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

win a mclaren m23 by src

WIN!

McLareBnEYMO2N3D CHRONO

YES... Another EASY-TO-ENTER Prize Draw. This is your chance to win a kit version of the 1973 McLaren M23 as driven by World Champion Denny Hulme, kindly brought to you by SRC!

All YOU have to do is send us an email which should include your full name and address. Please place in the title Bar “McLaren M23 Chrono Beyond”.

Send your email to slotcarmagazine@virginmedia.com Competition closes at midnight (GMT) January 30th 2019.

No entries from SCM staff or business associates or families will be eligible.

There is no cash alternative. There are 4 McLarens to give away. Each “prize” will be sent by recorded delivery, which needs to be signed on receipt.

All winners will be notified by email from SCM and also SRC. By entering, you agree to let Slot Car Magazine and SRC email you updates about release dates and latest slot car news.

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

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Scalextric Collectibles

Book Review

by Jonathan Mountfort

It takes a certain amount of courage to write a book about collecting Scalextric cars and accessories and launch it into a market that is already clearly dominated by one publication. To his great credit, Jonathan Mountford points out in his opening paragraph that he is not competing with ‘The Ultimate Guide’ by Roger Gillham and Adrian Norman, but is instead offering tips and directions to anyone wishing to begin or establish a collection of Scalextric cars...

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Thus, having got me on his side very early on, I was able to enjoy this book on its own merits. Given the concise nature of the work, there is an awful lot going on: advice as to the most cost-effective way of collecting, information on the history and development of the brand, interesting accessories, spares and limited editions, overseas production, variations – and, just to be on the safe side, I’ll add ‘etc.’

I am a very long way from being an expert on Scalextric cars, so I found myself learning (or being reminded of) many interesting facts with which to enthral anyone who is unlucky enough to be within earshot. In common with many hobbies, we have a tendency to become rather po-faced about our miniature world, so for me the author’s entertaining and lighthearted style is just the job.

As you would expect, there are a great many colour photographs throughout. Rather than always using plain white backgrounds, models are sometimes shown ‘on track’ in a diorama, which adds a bit more interest here and there. If I do have one criticism, it’s that some of the pictures that are on a white background have the appearance of being cut out with scissors and glued there, with a number of less-thanround wheels being in evidence.

That really isn’t a major issue, however; ‘Scalextric Collectibles’ is a well written and researched work, as well as being a very entertaining read. Yes, we might already have our ‘bible’, but this is a jolly good hymn book. www.amberley-books.com, price £14.99.

FOR THE RACER IN YOU –

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE

Scalextric Collectibles

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

33

Give Me Just A Little More Time – Pt2

by GARY CANNELL

In the previous issue, we looked at the main construction and thought process of putting our system together. Now we shall look at the final assembly and summing up.

FINAL ASSEMBLY Now the hut had various holes cut in it, it needed some cosmetic work.

First I used some more plastic sheet glued inside to cover the windows and skylight. I painted this black and then painted the whole hut brown. It was finished off with a red door, black roof trimming and white paintwork. I made a simple sign for TIMING HUT and stuck it in the notice board space on one side of the hut.

Then I printed out a chequered

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design and stuck it to each side of the light bridge. Job done – it looks OK!

As building the single-lane system turned out to be so easy, I decided to go ahead and build another one for a 2-lane track. The cost of the components is exactly the same, except that I doubled up on the relays and used 4-way cable and connectors to the power supply. This added about £5 to the total cost, although

there was also some saving as I had light sensors, LEDs and resistors left over from the first build, so it probably worked out around the same.

One extra expense was a second laptop, so that the tracks could be run simultaneously and independently. With plenty of choice available, I bought a refurbished Dell laptop with Windows 7 installed from a local computer fair (a sort of swapmeet for geeks) for the grand

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AND AGAIN – FOR 2 LANES

Give Me Just A Little More Time – Pt2

total of £70 with two years’ guarantee. Because of this purchase, they threw in a used 25in widescreen monitor for an extra £20, enabling me to give a much better presentation with a remote display.

The building principal is the same; using a Scalextric half-straight plus some straight borders and a hut, the additional work involved building a rigid light bridge to span across two lanes. Once again I used an old Scalextric building to hide everything in a hut, the one you will recognise from several identities over the years.

If you follow the steps to fit the track sensors, Arduino board, relays, and position the hut, you won't have any problems.

THE 2-LANE LIGHT BRIDGE I started the same way, fitting the red LEDs in a strip of plastic sheet, spaced equally across the track. Using the tower on top of the hut as a datum point, this was cut to length and temporarily supported at the other end with a pencil cut to the right height and held in place with Blu-tack.

The red LEDs were wired up in the same way as before and a hole cut in

the hut tower to pass them through. I used the same method for the white LEDs as well, miniature reflectors and hot glue to fix them together before wiring up. Next I could cut the sides of the light bridge from Plasticard and start getting everything into place.

This time I attached the side to the top with hot glue, judging the slight angle required to fit over the white LED reflectors.

Now I could start on the other end, supporting the light bridge securely to the other side of the track.

Scalextric track is impossible to glue to, so firm fixings must be used. I used a bit more plastic angle strip along the outside of the track, fixed in place with tie-grips and screws and this will help support the vertical bridge frame. To give a solid base that can't be bent over, I cut a triangular shape from thick Plasticard, aligned the bridge so it was exactly over the sensors on the slots, and attached it with hot glue. Now I strengthened it with struts of plastic channel and made sure everything was level at the bottom and supported on the angle strip. Now it could be screwed into position.

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At the hut end of the light bridge, more plastic angle strip was fixed to the roof to hold the bridge sides. The Plasticard bridge was then trimmed to size, aligned properly, and fixed down with screws. Now the bridge was securely over the sensors in the track, the white LEDs could be positioned accurately and the reflectors held in place with Blu-tack. This gives a focused light directly onto each track sensor.

Wiring up inside the hut is exactly the same as before, except that you have to use two relays to cut off the track power to each lane individually. I used 4-way plugs and sockets on the hut and on the track powerbase. The powerbase has to be opened and the wires to each lane diverted to the 4way socket and thence to the hut via a cable. Note that only one wire to each lane needs to be diverted and also returned, so needs two wires in total.

Final decoration followed the same procedure: Plasticard inside to cover the windows and then painted black. I used the same paint scheme on this hut, and the same chequered pattern stuck on the bridge sides. They look like a matching pair...

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Give Me Just A Little More Time – Pt2

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW 1. You don't need a separate power supply to the Arduino board – the cable from the laptop or PC provides all the power required, after all it only works at 5v.

2. I fitted two light sensors under the rally track for reliability. I thought this would be a good idea if one failed. It is a good idea, but the system doesn't work well with them both connected. If you do this, make sure you only connect one of them to the Arduino board and leave the other as a spare.

3. I used super-bright white LEDs above the light sensors in the track for maximum effect. This turned out to be not such a good idea as the sensors work much more reliably with

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a lower light source. In some cases, even the ambient light from room lighting is enough, although beware that passing shadows can sometime give a false count. The nature of the super-bright failure is that no count is recorded if cars go across very fast, which is not an ideal situation, so check your light levels if you build something like this.

4. The Race Coordinator software can be used for tracks from 1 - 8 lanes. Although designed for club and competition use (and using American terminology and race formats) it can be adjusted for just about anything you want to do (3lane and 5-lane tracks, different displays of laps, times, gap back to following cars, etc). It has built-in

false start facilities with optional penalties. It records laps, times, and scores, to follow results and improvements for every race, driver, and car. The support from Dave at Race Coordinator is tremendous, he is fast to respond, very knowledgeable, and can make modifications for you.

Just remember to make a donation – the software is free but deserves a lot of support.

5. Have a spare RC plug for your powerbase. If you want to use the track without the Race Coordinator system connected up you can connect across this (e.g. make a short circuit) and plug it into the powerbase instead of the RC cable. This completes the power circuit and you can use the track in the normal way.

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Not Fade Away – FlySlot BMW M1

y a w A e d a F Not

by Hub Habets

This time I want to tell you something about one of the strangest, most exciting, most powerful, but less successful rally cars that took part in the WRC: the BMW M1.

W

e all know this car from the Procar series and other race outings, but it did some rallying as well.

The M1 debuted in the French Rallye Du Var 1981, where tarmac specialist Bernard Darniche soon got sidelined by broken suspension. During another French event the transmission failed – not a good start for the M1. Would the fragile M1, especially prepared for

racing proposes, be strong enough to resist the strain of the bumpy rally roads on the isle of Corsica during its debut in the Word Rally Championship in May 1982? In the beginning, Darniche, who had already won the event six times before, performed very well, laying fourth overall. But it did not last for long. Before the first overnight halt he had to retire with a broken oil pipe, caused by an overstressed gearbox mounting.

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

Two months later he travelled to Germany to take part on the Vorderpfalz-Rallye. Although he finished the event, he was not a happy man. At a service halt they had forgotten to tighten a wheel nut, which resulted in only a ninth place overall.

In the same rally German Klaus Fritzinger drove another M1. He was sponsored by a jeans company and finished his blue-sprayed M1 as

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Not Fade Away – FlySlot BMW M1 second overall, behind the then unbeatable Audi Quattro of Harald Demuth.

Back in France, Darniche could only lead the Mont Blanc Rally, which he left before the last stage, as a protest against gravel stages in the French rally championship.

For 1983 he was replaced by threetime French rally champion Bernard Bequin.

At that time the BMW factory concentrated on racing, not rallying and did not want to prepare a batch of twenty evolution cars for Group B purposes. Bequin could not finish the Tour de Corse either. This time the engine failed, but he scored a fine second place in the French LyonCharbonnières Rally. Next year he got third and finished his last event with the M1, the Antibes Rally 1984, also in second place. It would also be the last event for the M1, because in the meantime the all-wheel-drive Group B cars were too strong and fast for the only rear-wheel-driven M1.

Spectators loved the M1; its highrevving 24-valve six cylinder in-line,

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3.5 litres naturally-aspirated engine delivered 430 bhp at 9000 revs/minute. Maybe it sounded even better than a BDA Escort.

Its engine was longitudinally placed behind the two seats and in front of the 5-speed gearbox, just like a Formula One car. It was quite heavy at 1150kg and big as well – its width was nearly 5cm greater than that of modern WRC cars. Combined with the lack of an effective handbrake, it is no wonder that very experienced drivers, such as Darniche and Bequin, had to reverse on tight hairpins during the Tour de Corse of 1982 and ‘83.

Before the introduction of the Tour de Corse 1983 version, Fly changed its name to Flyslot. But on the floorpan of both Tour de Corse cars of 1982 and 1983, the text ”Fly Car Model” is visible, so both BMWs were made by the same manufacturer, with the same tools.

The Spaniards scaled the M1 nearly exactly 32 times down and did a really nice job. For the purists: if you take a closer look, you will notice that the

deeper race spoiler at the front is not only used on their race versions, but also on both rally M1s. The rear lights on the 1982 version should be smaller and on the rally versions the fuel filler caps were not placed in both rear side windows. I think these are acceptable deviations from the real rally M1s.

Overall, the Fly(slot) M1s look really fine with lots of details, such as fullyshaped driver figures, sitting in their bucket seats, strapped into full harness safety belts. The beautiful BBS rims are an eye catcher too.

On the 1982 car you have to add the Rothmans decals by yourself. They are hidden in a plastic bag underneath the baseplate of the clear crystal case.

The engine of the real M1 was placed longitudinally, so an inline configuration would have been the most realistic solution for the Fly M1.

But there was not enough space behind the seats, so the Spaniards had to opt for the sidewinder configuration.

Especially for competition use, Fly produced also a “racing” chassis 05121, which was meant to be used with

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Fly and Flyslot BMW M1

Not Fade Away – FlySlot BMW M1

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1. The cables should not touch the front axle 2. Showing sidewinder configuration 3. Broken brittle floorpan after testing the older BMW M1

SLOT CAR MAGAZINE – F O R T H E R A C E R I N Y O U

4. (Main Picture) Tour de Corse 1982 Bernard Darniche and Alain Mahe 5. Tour de Corse 1983 Bernard Beguin and Jean-Jaques Lenne 6. Both Tour de Corse Rally BMW M1 in action 7. The BMW M1 is 49mm wider than the WRC cars of today 8. Braking hard before the bend 9. The navigator in the 1983 car wears a jet helmet

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Not Fade Away – FlySlot BMW M1

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19 10. Hairpin right!

11. Hairpin left (helicopter view) 12. Drifting around Ruin Bend 13. The petrol cap was not positioned in the rear side windows on the real rally M1 14. The tail of the Tour de Corse 1983 M1 15. Drifting is quite easy with the long M1 16. The mighty BMW M1 from above 17. Flat out!

18. Hairpins were a weak point for the real BMW M1 19. The big Flyslot M1 is a lot of fun to drive

Avant Slot motor-pods and longcan/Boxer/FK180 motors.

It required the modification of the original full-detailed cockpit, or the replacement with a Lexan version.

Underneath the body, the M1 is typical Fly – simple but effective. The gear ratio is 36/11. On the 1983 version, Flyslot unfortunately changed the brass pinion for plastic, which can often not resist the pressing forces by the shaft.

A Slot.it PS11 brass pinion is a good replacement. The rear axle bearings

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are plastic too. The front axle can travel in the notched holes on both sides of the floorpan. On bumpy rally tracks, a Fly B120 sprung guide, instead of the usual pickup guide, helps to keep the car in the slot. Be sure that both motor cables do not touch the front axle. This would cause friction at the front and more oversteer. The distance between the centre of the guide pivot point and the rear axle is about 100mm. This is exceptionally long for a rally car and results in very smooth and a less nervous behaviour.

Though during testing of the oldest M1, I went too sideways and broke the floorpan at the guide pivot point.

Maybe the floorpan material became brittle by ageing.

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Conclusion: The Fly(slot) BMW M1 is a very special rally car and as a slot car it is much more successful than the real car. On the other side, because of the broken floorpan, I could not finish the test either, but the M1 is a lot of fun to drive.

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We conclude our two-part drama that tells the story of the legendary West Hamley Slow Race, created in honour of ‘Gentleman Jim’ ColmanBird, one racing’s most polite and sporting competitors. You’ve read the history, so let’s get slowly down to business…

The idea, of course, was to be last across the line. But it could not be that simple to achieve.

Cars had to remain in motion at all times and special sensors on track made sure of it. Some racers at first adopted the tactic of deliberately de-slotting at every bend, but fair marshalling brought them no advantage. Soon, a whole science or rewinding motors with several thousand turns of low-conductivity fibre, Teflon-coating tyres, and casting new body shells from lead and other high-density materials developed in the true West Hamley tradition of cutting-edge competitiveness, although in an exciting and challenging new direction – minimum track speed. As race times extended towards the infinity end of the spacetime continuum, events were reduced to one or two laps, but even these dragged out, literally, with each passing year, as racers developed new ways to get round the track as slowly as possible. In 1988 steam power was officially banned and things began to head towards crisis point, firstly when in 1994 Tipp Golightly suffered a double hernia trying to bring Mike Angelo’s solid marble Hummer to the start line and then in 2003 when the combined weight of the cars, including several castconcrete stretch-Cadillacs entered by Gil ‘Vote’

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Tremaine caused the entire track to collapse.

Even after the rebuild, problems arose again in 2010, when the racers had achieved such low speeds that even a single lap race took eight months to complete and the competitors had to be hooked up to drips in order to simply stay alive.

But such is the enthusiasm in West Hamley for this unique event that the problems are always ingeniously overcome. The following year a time limit of one week was imposed and winners (or, technically speaking, losers) were determined by track position when power was cut off. Also, the original spirit of the race, honouring the kindly demeanour of ‘Gentleman’ Jim Colman-Bird and Tim TreacleMarmite, was reinforced with a dress-code of three-piece suits, umbrellas and spats and all ladies were required to wear elbow-length gloves. A small string orchestra was installed in the pit area, beer was served in dimpled mugs and a rich selection of custard, mustard, marmite and treacle canapés was made available in the canteen. The West Hamley Revival meeting was set well and truly underway again. This year, there is to be a flypast of radio controlled bees and full race commentary provided by the BBC ‘Test match Special’ team.

Sponsorship has been secured from ‘Ritch and Famous’ Gentleman’s outfitters of Chalk Street, West Hamley and there is to be a fanfare from the band of the 14th West Hamley Hussars to open proceedings. Do come, but don’t rush.

After you, chaps.