Spirit release dates

OK, everyone got a pen handy? Good, here are the dates for US release of the latest Spirit cars.
December 19 for all three blister pack releases and the red and yellow Peugeot's.




December 31 for the 406 Motul and Esso and BMW.



DaveK

Weekend Edition

Global Proxy Race Sponsor Slot Car World is having a sale on Artin Stockers Sets.


54032 4 Lane Stocker oval set R3/R4 ...$179.00 ....GIANT SALE $149 for this big set
4 new stockers NEW
Red/White/Black/Blue
Dimentions: 8' x 5'4"
TRACK SYSTEM IS EXPANDABLE AND BANKABLE
(using templates provided)
ARTIN HAS THE ONLY 4 LANE ON THE MARKET
THAT CAN BE MADE INTO 8 LANES BY ADDING CURVES
AND BY ADDING STRAIGHTS AS BIG AS YOU WANT
ALSO CAN BE MADE IN FIGURE 8 BY ADDING CURVES
AND STRAIGHTS
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Global Proxy Race Prototype qualifying top 4 cars-at least 2 entries still unaccounted for.

#1, Porsche 908/3, Tony Kuljis, 119 laps, GPR Race Record
Best Lap Time: 4.917 sec.
Offs: 0. Easy to drive, smooth, nice gear noise. No one can beat oil soaked NSR tires, but the grip level seems not as high as when the car first arrived. Could not match its qualifying time. I wonder how the tires will be a month from now, and nine months from now, as the oil evaporates. Still, a well balanced car, a pleasure to drive fast, should be a front runner everywhere.

#55 Ferrari 512S, Robert Livingston, 118 laps.
Best Lap Time: 4.951 sec.
Offs: 0. Smooth, predictable handler, loose suspension components rattle. V12/2b 25k has nice power curve, not too much torque at the low end. Drives like a good 23k.

#69 Porsche 917K, Terry Noe, 115 laps.
Best Lap Time: 5.070 sec.
Offs: 0. Smooth runner, easy, Slot.It S1 tires, Orange Endbell Slot.It V12/3 sidewinder, HRS chassis, a good combination. Easy to go fast and stay in the slot. I wore the good luck necklace Terry sent with the car. Spare tire in the rear, fairly narrow rear track, but Terry built a fast one. Every car should be this good.

#3 Porsche 936, Dr Vanski, 113 laps.
Best Lap Time: 4.977 sec.
Offs: 2. This car is really hard to drive fast. Ortmann tires not quite up to the job of harnessing the enormous power of the NSR King motor (30k, 310 g-cm). Lots of time spent sideways, but a light touch on the throttle kept the car moving forward. Maybe the magnet it carries can tame the beast.

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Oschersleben Motorsport Arena 2006
SCNews Wire-Today in Monaco, the FIA World Motor Sport Council confirmed the 2007 FIA World Touring Car Championship's calendar, with only one change.

The German event at the Oschersleben Motorsport Arena has been moved one week forward, from the 2nd of September to the 26th of August.

2007 FIA World Touring Car Championship

11 March Brazil Curitiba **
15 April Mexico Puebla **
20 May Spain Valencia
3 June France Pau *
17 June Czech Rep. Brno
8 July Portugal Porto *
29 July Turkey Istanbul
26 August Germany Oschersleben
23 September Gr.Britain Brands Hatch
7 October Italy Monza
18 November Macau Macau

* Pending the homologation of the circuit

** Pending the homologation of the circuit prior to 31 December 2006
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Indycar star Marco Andretti to drive Honda RA106 in Jerez

IndyCar Series ‘Rookie of the Year’ Marco Andretti will experience a Formula One car for the first time courtesy of the Honda Racing F1 Team when he joins the team’s test in Jerez next week.

The team has invited Marco to drive its 2006 RA106 race car on Friday 15 December, the final day of its scheduled test, in recognition of his achievements in the Honda-powered IndyCar Series this year. The 19 year old recently completed his first season in the IndyCar Series, driving the #26 NYSE car for Andretti Green Racing. A superb ‘rookie’ year saw Marco finish second in the 2006 Indianapolis 500, capture his first career victory at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma and finish the season in seventh position overall in the drivers’ standings. Marco was further honoured with the Bombardier Rookie of the Year Award and the Rising Star Award.

Marco is the son of two-time IndyCar Series championship-winning team owner and former CART champion Michael Andretti, and the grandson of racing legend Mario Andretti. He is also team-mates at Andretti Green Racing with Brazilian Tony Kanaan, who also experienced a drive in a Honda F1 car in December 2005, Scotsman Dario Franchitti and Danica Patrick.


Honda Testing news
The Honda Racing F1 Team completed its second test of the close season at the Jerez circuit in Spain today. The main focus of this week’s test was the continued evaluation of the Bridgestone Potenza tyres with Rubens Barrichello, Christian Klien and James Rossiter fulfilling the driving duties.

Christian and James began the test on Wednesday with cold and damp conditions meaning that both drivers went out on Bridgestone wet weather tyres for the first time. Emerging sunny weather ensured that the track was dry by lunchtime, allowing the planned test programme to begin. Christian continued his acclimatisation to the car as he spent the afternoon working to find a consistent balance, completing 90 laps. James also focused on car set-up work, running for 104 laps.

Rubens joined the team on Thursday, taking over from James. He spent his early laps finding a good balance before running through a suspension evaluation, alongside general car set-up work, covering 105 laps. Christian spent most of the day concentrating on an intensive aero programme before finishing with some electronics set-up work, completing 99 laps.

Heavy overnight rain in Jerez meant that the start of running was slightly delayed on the final morning. Rubens and James went out initially on extreme wets before switching to wet tyres as the circuit dried out. Rubens completed a couple of short set-up runs to look at engine control settings, whilst James worked through a longer tyre evaluation run. During the afternoon, both drivers continued with set-up work and longer tyre runs on the Bridgestone dry tyres.
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All WTCC and Honda F1 news used with permission of those sources. No reuse without their permission.
DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News

SCX US website!

In case there was any lingering doubt about if the slot company's care about the US market...well this is what greets you when you go to SCX's new site

After a frenetic intro you then get to the rest of the site...

Take a look, there's a lot there to see.

DK

Third generation slotter

You turn your back for a second and see what happens... my son, all of 22 months I might add, was putting together his slot track yesterday. He got tired of waiting for me to put it together, or more probably, got bored with the oval I usually make with the Artin 1/43 track. So he started piecing track together. Then he plugged the battery powered controllers in...he's a genius! Yeah, that's it, a slot car genius! ....must take after his mom, eh?

Tyler's dad, DaveK

A1 GP on Speed TV

A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has significantly expanded its global television reach, signing an exclusive broadcast deal with America’s SPEED channel and a terrestrial highlights package with Channel Five in the UK.

More than 68 million homes across the US and another five million in Canada will now have access to A1GP through the nation’s foremost cable network dedicated solely to motorsport. A1GP will join the ranks of Formula One, NASCAR, Champ Car World Series and MotoGP on SPEED, one of the fastest growing cable networks in the US.

‘SPEED is intrigued by the competitive patriotism in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport,’ said Hunter Nickell, SPEED Executive VP and General Manager. ‘It adds a unique twist to high-level racing and we believe it is something SPEED viewers will support and enjoy.’

Across the UK, Sky Sports’ live race coverage will now be supported by a Channel Five highlights package, scheduled to be shown mid-week after each event. The partnership with the free-to-air terrestrial channel will mean that over 90 per cent of UK households can now support their national race team in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

Commenting on the new deals, A1GP’s Executive Director and Head of Broadcast, Richard Dorfman said: ‘A1GP’s unique nation versus nation race format has fast developed a strong fan base and these two new deals, taking the sport to even more homes, will give a wider variety of fans access to the series. Close racing, tight overtaking manoeuvres and the competitiveness of the 23 national teams delivers an exciting broadcast package that lets the fans experience the thrill of A1GP from the comfort of their own home.’

News and photo used with permission from the A1 Grand Prix.

New Scalextric website design

Scalextric have really improved not only the design of the website but the functionality of it as well. Give it a look.

Magnet Marshal weighs in!

Magnet Marshal is going to provide SCNews with one of its fine products so that all future reviews will have magnetic downforce and weights recorded and provided for readers. This will allow us here at SCNews to provide a more complete picture of new releases. This is exciting news for us here and we hope that readers will find there way to the Magnet Marshal site and purchase this very useful tool.

DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News

SCX Nascars Newsletter, Digital and Analog

I've uploaded these pages very large so you can click on them and see the details easily. First the Digital System newsletter:





And the Original System:

Spirit Peugeot 406 Silhouette

Some great photos from Spirit of the new cars. With the S3X motor these should really scream around the track.

DaveK

GPR-drivers practice laps

There was some racing today at ENYR in preparation for the first race of the Global Proxy Race 2006 season. Mike and Wayne did some laps around the track with Rob as I took some photos. Most of the cars have arrived now, but there are still a few entrants who've not yet gotten their cars to the track.

Above photo:Global Proxy Race Technical Director and Scrutineer Rob Livingston on the left and Race Across America Tech Inspector 2007 Mike Chiocchio aka Smokeio on the right do some racing.

Above photo:Smokeio shows us how it's done.

Above photo:Wayne Sokolosky aka WPSoko1 was racing on a challenging lane and was turning very quick laps.

DaveK

SCX Digital Track System

The SCX Digital Chicane is a winding curve which makes drivers slow down but makes races even more realistic and spectacular. The Chicane creates complicated, exciting conditions for drivers who are on each other’s tail. This means that competitors need to take the Chicane as fast and skilfully as they can to have a chance of winning.

This new accessory also features a series of obstacles to make the track even more authentic and make drivers feel as if they were competing in a real race. In addition, the Chicane allows drivers to experiment with shortening their braking time in order to enter this dangerous, hair-raising curve in first place.

The new Digital Super Sliding Curve simulates the same conditions as an oil spill on the track. Enthusiasts are sure to enjoy recreating extreme situations at whatever speed they choose without taking major risks. They also have the chance to try out SCX's advanced technology under these conditions.

Drivers can experiment to improve anticipation and response performance, working on transferring weight and the effects of this on the vehicle’s response. This new accessory enables them to attain maximum driving sensitivity and tweak, lap by lap, the differentresponse factors which will help them to get the most out of this spectacular track component.


The SCX Banked Curve is a completely new item consisting of a curve at an angle of 15% which makes it possible to take the bend much faster. Banked curves, which are typical of American circuits like that at Indianapolis, pump up driver's adrenaline as they see their cars race round this sloping section at high speed.

Drivers need to watch their speed as they come into the SCX Banked Curve, as well as their acceleration as they go out of it, if they do not want to end up off the track. The banking enables enthusiasts to take the inside bend to reduce the distance they cover at higher speed, as well as being able to start accelerating earlier.

Weekend round up & special offer

Several items to report for this weekend's update.

Global Proxy Race Sponsor Resilient Resins:
A special Pre-Christmas offer for readers of Slot Car News. From now, through Dec 25, Resilient Resins will give FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING AND HANDLING on all orders... when you mention that you saw this offer in Slot Car News.
And a free desktop-wallpaper download. This is an original painting by Mr. Resilient Resins himself Douglas Haynes!


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Global Proxy Race Sponsor Gary at MRE checked in with this update:
"Between now and Xmas we are expecting Ninco Digital plus 7 new Ninco cars:Scalextric Hunt/Lauda pack, Ferrari P4 twin-pack, Honda F1 cars, Jaguar XKR8: MRRC two versions of Chaparral 2F: Slot-It Ltd Edition Silk Cut Jag & Rothmans Porsche, Hydro Aluminium Porsche, Castrol Jag: Sloter new Ferrari 312 & Gitanes Lola: Spirit Peugeot 406 Coupes, Silhouette, BMW 2002: Racer Porsche 935 and Ferrari 250/330/375 cars."

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SCX with a new livery of the 550 Ferrari:

SCX presents the Ferrari 550 GT Maranello driven by the Italian Fabio Babini and his co-driver, the Austrian Philipp Petter, in the 2003 FIA GT Championship. This model by the firm with the prancing horse emblem features a truly spectacular design, in line with this Italian manufacturer's philosophy. The generously-proportioned front of the vehicle has striking lines and a straight finish which gives it a highly sporty look.

The petrol cap is another of the eye-catching details on the side. Inside the vehicle the reinforcing bars and the driver’s clothing are worth pointing out. In general, this is a car with a wealth of air intakes, as well as a long, very wide body which adds to the feeling of sportiness and passion which characterises the vehicles of the “scuderia”. From behind, the enormous black spoiler which sticks out beyond the sides of the car is the most striking feature.

The car basically uses two colours: red, which predominates on the bonnet and the rear, and yellow, which is is used for the bumpers, sides and roof of the car. These colours are the same ones used by Ferrari to distinguish its corporate identity throughout its successful history. Among the features which stand out in the side view are the wide, low-profile tyres, the silver alloy wheels and the lowered suspension which gives the vehicle an even more predatory look.
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For those that are looking forward to the Spirit BMW, you'd be advised to get those pre-orders in. There will be limited numbers of these cars released.

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Dave Kennedy grandson of Lucille Kennedy...may she rest in peace.

New edition of Slotmagazin

The latest edition of Slotmagazin is available for download at this link.
Even if you don't read German you should check this site out. The photos are fantastic and they have lots of them to look at.

Speaking of the photos...I've gotten a few of the photos in the latest issue to repost here. These are the finest photos of the new Slot It Ferrari 312 I've seen yet.



These photos have been used here with permission of Guido at Slotmagazin. No re-use his images without his permission.

DaveK

Ferrari on the brain

I saw this linked on SCI (thanks Pete!) and I couldn't help but post it here. This is the most amazing model I've ever seen!