SlotCarMAG issue 3

www.slotcarmag.co.uk

ISSUE 3 • VOLUME 1 • AUGUST 2011

FOR RACERS, COLLECTORS AND BUILDERS

Slots on TV:

1960s – Tom Tom and the Grands Prix!

Cartrix:

1950s – F1 cars that your dad loved to watch and race

G.T. Models:

Incredible resin slot car models by George Turner

Kastleburg:

Fantastic-looking scenery at HO scale

WIN!

ONE OF THE FANTASTIC RESIN KITS FROM GEORGE TURNER MODELS

Mag SLOT CAR

FOR RACERS, COLLECTORS AND BUILDERS

Contents In This Issue: 2

Pit Board:

3

Tom Tom remembered:

8

George Turner Models:

11

A Charm Offensive:

14

Kastleburg Raceway:

Hello to the nostalgia issue!

Issue 3 goes retro! 1960s kids’ TV, a focus on the Cartrix Grand Prix cars... AND George Turner Models and a chance to win a model kit – Wow!

If you’re around 50 years old, prepare yourself!

Imagine a kids’ TV programme that did re-runs of the real-life Grand Prix season with slot cars. Well there was such a programme – Tom Tom!

Highly-detailed kits by the Resin Meister It seems George has been around for years...

SlotCarMAG had a very nice chat and a delved into this great man’s past and present.

Jim McNeill is rather chuffed with his 910 MRRC are steeped in history and so to are Porsche. Our review here looks at the 910 and why this little car is a delight to own.

The beautiful track of Tom Druckenmiller HO guru Andy Player talks to Tom Druckenmiller about how his vision came to life on the astounding Kastleburg Raceway.

SlotCarMAG is an independent magazine for the Slot Car enthusiast. It is produced bi-monthly and available for purchase via our on-line store at www.lulu.com/uk and printed in hi- resolution digital format. It is also available to purchase as a pdf download from the SlotCarMAG web site.

ISSUE 3 • VOLUME 1 • AUGUST 2011

visit: www.slotcarmag.co.uk

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Priming:

19

Cartrix Aston Martin DBR4:

22

Club Focus:

24

Dilworth’s World:

BC

ProSlot Motors:

Graymalkin continues his Nascar revamp The car has been assessed and stripped back to its bare bones. Now comes perhaps the most important stage – how to prime the body.

New addition to the Grand Prix Legends A car that in real life was behind the times when it raced, but is more than welcome to the evergrowing grid of yesteryear from Cartrix.

East Devon Slot Racing Club Daniel Puddicombe relates the history of this long-established club, through its various track layouts and builds.

More weirdness from Ilfracombe If you really can understand where the professor is coming from, and more importantly can actually read his notes...

Hi revs and top speed are the key Ric Woods delves into the windings and turns of the ProSlot motor and poses the ulimate question... for you to answer!

PUBLISHING / WEB: Wayne Tooke: info@slotcarmag.co.uk EDITORIAL: Ric Woods: ric-woods@slotcarmag.co.uk ART & DESIGN: Marc Abbott: marc-abbott@slotcarmag.co.uk

For further information, please contact the publisher via email. Address opposite.

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to accurately compile the information contained herein, SlotCarMAG 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. SlotCarMAG 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 SlotCarMAG. All information should be verified before being acted upon.

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.

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

1

Tom Tom

remembered

and we’re NOT talking SAT NAV...

Y

ou only have one television in the house, it’s all in black and white and every time you change channel you spend valuable seconds, or even minutes, adjusting the aerial trying to get a decent picture.

Surely programmes were much better in those days, weren’t they? Well, there wasn’t anything on in the middle of the day and there were only two channels to choose from, BUT the presenters wore proper clothes and spoke the Queen’s English!

One programme went all out to give slot car fans a real treat. It was called TOM TOM and it re-ran the real-life Grands Prix in 1/32 scale...

Imagine not being able to see the Grand Prix broadcast live to your living room every other Sunday, unless the Beeb deemed it a good thing to do so! (Oh, the irony! - Ed.) Intrigued? Then read on to enter the world of crackling sound and variable horizontal hold...

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

3

George Turner

Models The Resin Meister

ave you ever considered producing your very own slot cars from scratch? It’s probably something that we all dream about, and maybe a small group of us try our hand at it and fail miserably. An even smaller percentage of us do manage to do it with good results. However, for those of us who can only keep wishing to replicate that elusive car or figure, we can only dream on.

Then you visit a slot car meeting and you are confronted with beautiful machinery that at first glance seems to be something made by a major manufacturer. On closer inspection you note that it’s made of resin and the friendly face behind the table tells you that it’s rather limited edition – only 25 to 30 units made. Phew, so it’s going to be expensive then, right? Well, actually no. For the detail, clarity and fine finish on these particular cars, you will only dent your wallet slightly.

These are the models of George Turner and as well as

H

this insight into the production line of beautiful cars, it should also be noted that George also turns out boats, airplanes, figures and even kiddies pre-school items.

We asked George where it all started: “Well, I left art college in 1972, I think, and joined the Matchbox firm, you know, Lesneys. I had a title of model maker and designer working mainly on Yesteryear, Kingsize and Matchbox 1.75 ranges. However, the late seventies saw the emergence of different sorts of toys and by 1980 large parts of Lesneys were closing which resulted in redundancy. I had a few options, but really a freelance career beckoned and I built my reputation as a prototype model maker and designer. I worked through the ’80s for many toy firms including Merit, where I became involved in the production of many prototype pre-school toys like Thomas the Tank Engine and Postman Pat. I also continued with my old contacts at Matchbox until the Mattel buy-out and eventual move of company to the USA in the late 1990s.”

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The magazine for racers, collectors and builders – Slot Car MAG

MRRC

PORSCHE 910

A CHARM OFFENSIVE F

by Jim McNeill

irstly, I have to confess that I am a big fan of what might be termed the ‘white period’ Porsches – the racing cars from the mid-sixties until 1970. I was very quick to purchase the first MRRC Porsche 910 release a few years back, the car in the ‘roll-out’ livery of the prototype. Since then, of course, the MRRC story has been a rollercoaster of emotion, from the untimely death of John Robinson (who virtually was MRRC) last September to the rescue of the name from seemingly inevitable oblivion by Germany’s H&T Motor Racing GmbH in January 2011. H&T have, so far at least, shown that they are committed to more frequent releases than we had come to expect from this long-established name, and I for one am delighted by that. It is heartening to see that the name of MRRC lives on, even in these very different circumstances.

The car we have modelled here is the one driven by Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann in the 1967 Nürburgring 1000

km, which retired whilst running in second place. A slightly unusual choice, perhaps, given that another 910 actually won the race (in fact they filled the first four places), and that they had a 1-2-3 at the Targa Florio that year. We are used these days to getting some information about the 1:1 car with our toy ones, but sadly this isn’t the case with MRRC, at least not at the moment, so those of us who need to know these things have to go delving and

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

11

The beauty that is

Kastleburg Raceway

by Andy Player

T

here is something quite breathtaking about a slot car layout that is beautifully landscaped. Tom Druckenmiller’s Kastleburg Raceway in Las Vegas is one of the finest examples.

Amazingly, this fifty foot long, twolane circuit was built on just a four by ten foot table.

I spoke to Tom to find out more about the Kastleburg build.

Q. Many of us have dreams of our own landscaped track, but how did you turn ideas into reality with the Kastleburg?

My favourite racing venues are the European tracks from the late sixties through the mid seventies, especially the Nürburgring and SpaFrancorchamps. These set the tone for

the birth of Kastleburg. I really didn't produce any drawings or plans, I just started laying the track out on the platform knowing that I wanted certain showcase landscape features like rocks, water, trees and elevation changes. I mainly just went from day to day, making changes over three and a half years. As the landscaping developed other aspects and features evolved. Would I do more planning the next time? You bet!

I built and landscaped model railroad and slot car tracks in my early teens and I have acquired basic carpentry skills over the years. I wanted to see just how much I could do with all the new products on the

market in comparison to what I worked with forty years ago. I primarily used Woodland Scenics products.

The biggest hurdle was patience.

You can plan all you want, but as the layout evolves, other features and ideas come into play. It's good to take a step back once in a while, view your work, and make sure you have included everything you had intended to, before you have gone too far with the landscaping. Not having a plan

Main Picture: Kastleburg is a real castle near the town of Waldkirch in Germany (credit: Tom Druckenmiller)

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The magazine for racers, collectors and builders – Slot Car MAG

NASCAR relivery, part three:

Priming

by Richard Bennett

16

The magazine for racers, collectors and builders – Slot Car MAG

Cartrix: making cars your dad liked, and now, you can drive them too!

by Mark Slade

You can almost smell the burning rubber and feel the hot exhausts on these 1950s monster Formula 1 cars

F

ormula 1 has its roots embedded deep in the past, way before the 1950s. However, for most people alive today who can remember, the cars that raced during that 10 year span produced some epic battles; skinny tyres, huge engines and drivers wearing a short-sleeved cotton shirt and a simple leather “helmet” and goggles. Names such as Fangio, Hawthorn and Moss rode in exciting machines produced by Mercedes, Ferrari, BRM and the like.

The clinically-clean corporate Grand Prix circus of today would be horrified if it had to endure the pleasure of races which lasted three hours and spectators who stood right by the track side, only separated by a flimsy wooden fence; trees or concrete posts that lined most of the non-existent run-off areas, or, at Monaco, proper kerb-stones that would rip your

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

suspension to pieces if you made a simple error.

In fact Stirling Moss was thoroughly impressed when at a test session for the Mercedes team, a man appeared with some warm water so that he could have a wash after a few laps!

Now, if you can try and imagine that kind of race track and real wheel-to-wheel racing, shrink yourself down to 1/32 scale and drift away into the choking exhaust fumes and screeching of tyres of the 1950s…

It seems like they’ve been around for many years, but in fact Cartrix have only been producing their Grand Prix Legends series since 2004. Their first release was the Mercedes W196 as driven by Juan Manuel Fangio, and to this day it remains perhaps the “best” performing car of the entire 1950s collection – just like real life!

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