AutoArt News for January

All these will arrive in February.



A huge thanks to AutoArt/GlobalGateway for providing the news!
DK

Dakar update

After 5 stages Carlos Sainz is still in the lead with a 3 minute lead.

(c)Red Bull Photofiles,no reuse of their image without their permission.

H & R Racing 1/24 chassis

H&R is producing a 1/24 brass chassis. The axles are 1/8". The tires that come with the chassis are foam tires, the fronts are a harder compound than the rears. Natural rubber tires will be available as an accessory. The chassis comes with a 40k FK type motor. The wheel base will be about 3 5/8" to 4 7/8". H&R hopes to have the chassis available soon, when the chassis is released I'll update the news and where it will be available.









DaveK

GPR-GT results yellow lane at Iowa race.

Terry just put up the results on SCI from the first part of his stop in Newton Iowa, and I'm reposting them here. Terry is running the cars by himself for this race. Each car will be run on each lane (Terry's got a 3-lane wood track) for a total of three heets. The results for this heet (the first heet), in inverse order are:

20. TR3, #53 Lancia Beta Montecarlo (photos below). 6 laps 42', 3 deslots. Fast lap #4, 12.619 sec. Epoxy holding guideholder to chassis let go.(car repaired and ready for green lane race)


19. Abie321, #423 Jaguar XK-E Coupe. 16 laps 76', 6 deslots. Fast lap #9, 13.436 sec. Hard to go fast with out of round tires.

18. SpiritRacer, #11 Greenwood Corvette. 18 laps 23', 2 deslots. Fast lap #16, 11.552 sec. Tippy on right hand curves. Fast.

17. Kazooracer, #68 Jagermeister Porsche 911. 18 laps 71', 3 deslots. Fast lap #9, 11.948 sec. Nice little driver.

16. Atticracer, #59 Martini Porsche 911. 19 laps 16', 2 deslots. Fast lap #3, 12.245 sec. Tires lacked bite in the curves. Nice acceleration.

15. Gascarnut, #24 Cobra Roadster (photos below). 19 laps 85', 3 deslots. Fast lap #8, 11.713 sec. Car deslotted either entering the long straight or exiting it. Fun car to drive.


14. PeteN95, #95 Capri RS Turbo. 20 laps 12', 2 deslots. Fast lap #5, 12.035 sec. Fly Evo2 pulls hard and fast down the straight but car lacks traction through the S curves.

14. Austin, #49 Cobra Roadster. 20 laps 12', 1 deslot. Fast lap #14, 11.912 sec. Fun little car to drive. Handles the S curves great.

13. Phil Kalbfell, #83 BMW M1. 20 laps 49', 1 deslot. Fast lap #8, 11.708 sec. Very loud car. Spectators and track marshalls ran out of the shop and I put on ear muffs.

12. WPSOKO1, #26 Lancia Beta Montecarlo. 20 laps 54', 1 deslot. Fast lap #17, 11.916 sec. Had trouble spinning out in the S curves.

11. Davols, #7 Capri RS Turbo. 20 laps 70', 2 deslots. Fast lap #8, 11.709 sec. Smooth car.

10. Smokeio, #16 Capri Rs Turbo. 21 laps 24', 2 deslots. Fast lap #9, 11.276 sec. Started out gunning for the lead and it seemed like tires faded just after the halfway mark.

9. Dr.Vanski, #1 Porsche 911. 21 laps 34', Zero deslots. Fast lap #18, 11.618 sec. NC-6 Crusher is hauling down the straights. Tires chatter in curves but car stays in the slot.

8. SpiritRacer Club, #34 Ferrari 365 GTB/4. 21 laps 43', 1 deslot. Fast lap #21, 11.286 sec. Fast and somewhat smooth. Loosened pod screws would settle this car down a bit and probably run more laps.

7. Robert Livingston, #1 Toyota LB Turbo. 21 laps 45', 1 deslot. Fast lap #16, 11.690 sec. S curves plagued Ortman tires with spin outs. It was tough to drive this round. I need more redbull or something.

6. BeeJay, #64 Ferarri 512. 21 laps 48', Zero deslots. Fast lap #13, 11.529 sec. Not the smoothest but fast.

5. RecklessRacer, #48 Gulf Capri RS Turbo. 21 laps 49', Zero deslots. Fast lap #13, 11.392 sec. Very smooth and steady. Hairpin gave car the fits for three laps, no deslots just spin outs.

4. Terry Noe, #76 Greenwood Corvette. 21 laps 87', Zero deslots. Fast lap #14, 11.271 sec. 23k and short gears work well here.

3. JT Previa, #57 Corvette L-88 (photos below). 21 laps 95', Zero deslots. Fast lap #12, 11.273 sec. 2.91 ratio tames 21.5 k enough to turn many laps. Nice looking, nice driving car.


2. Dave Kennedy, #59 Canon Porsche 911(photos below). 22 laps 7', Zero deslots. Fast lap #19, 11.194 sec. Car performed great despite two wheel stunt on deadmans curve. Car landed back in slot and continued its otherwise flawless run. Amazing!


1. Tony Kuljis, #7a Capri RS Turbo (photos below). 22 laps 10', Zero deslots. Fast lap #11, 11.100 sec. A few slides here and there but car is a strong runner and easily corrects itself. Very nice.


A link to the Global Proxy Race gallery on Slot Car Illustrated.com.

GPR Iowa track.

A friend pointed out to me that maybe it would be a good idea to show the track that in Newton Iowa that this stop of the Global Proxy Race is being run on. So here you go.



- Longest straight is 11'.
- Slot depth is 9/32"
- Supertire's, S1's and S2's are the tire of choice to win here.
- Ortmann tires suffered miserably here, two months ago, for the "Slot It Shootout" race.
- Trakmate software for lap counting with sensor harness.
- All track calls will be done with a call button.
- Voltage is set at 10.0 volts.
- PM 2048 controller will be used for all cars.
- GT cars will be qualified first then Proto-type cars.
- Qualifying will determine starting order from slowest to fastest.
- All tires will be cleaned with 3M masking tape before each 4 minute heat.
- Fast laps are mid to low 10 second lap times
- Track record - 10.220, Slot.it Nissan Clarion SW 21.5k, 11/34, S2's, 78g; 10.227, Slot.it Rothmans Porsche 956 SW 23k, 10/32, PPR's, 71g.

SCX Digital Video!!!!!!!!!!

Well this has got to be the definative video....and all without a word being spoken. On this video you'll see every digital car that SCX makes and how the digital system works.

DaveK

GPR Iowa race-prototype qualifying final

The following is updated final prototype qualifying results written by Terry Noe:

10.871 sec. #3 Porsche 936, Dr.Vanski. 1 deslot. This car is scary fast and very challenging to drive. Acceleration is unreal and the brakes work great. Actually, I tried to ride the brakes most of the time. Did I mention this car was scary fast? This one is not for the faint of heart. This car craves a 30' straight. I'm still shaking.

10.992 sec. #67 Porsche 908/2, WCR. 1 deslot on deadmans curve (see pics in separate post). Car is boogying no doubt about it. PPR's are working great. Guide is tighter than most other GPR cars.

11.020 sec. #55 Ferrari 512S Spyder, R.Livingston. 1 deslot. Oh, how I'd love to drive this car with PPR's. The "Widow Maker" which is the curve in front of the green and red drivers stations gave this car some trouble. Ortmans would let go causing the cars rear end to kick out. Car is well balanced and likes to go fast.

11.035 sec. #5 Ferrari 330 P3, Abie321. 1 deslot. Right tires for this track. Car doesn't seem to flinch any where except for slight chattering. This is mainly b/c the motor pod is tight in the HRS chassis. S1's work great here and the weight of the car helped even more.

11.093 sec. #85 Ferrari 312, Big Dog. Zero deslots. Slot.it kit car with Ortmans and added weight makes for a fast smooth ride. Car weighs 81g's and handles the track nice. This car easily repeated 11.(teens) second lap times during qualifying if you drive within the "window" of the tires. Too much acceleration out of the curves and it will get tail happy.

11.185 sec. #69 Porsche 917k Flower Power, Terry Noe. 1 deslot. S1's have trouble in some of the curves. PPR's would of been the hot ticket. What was I thinking? For a 21.5k car, it really needs a 12/34 instead of a 11/36. This car can be a handful at times.

11.262 sec. #49 ferrari 330 P4 Coupe, Nick49. Zero deslots. Wow. This car was fun to drive. Very forgiving car if you overdrive it in the curves. Hard to make mistakes with this one.

11.283 sec. #1 Porsche 908/3, Tony Kuljis. Zero deslots. Drives nice and smooth. NSR's not really hooking as well as they should. 3M tape not the best for cleaning NSR's. Tends to get tail happy in the S curves but stays in the slot.

11.389 sec. #36 Porsche 908/3, RecklessRacer. Zero deslots. So easy to drive, I was tempted to tape the trigger wide open and go in the house. Very good car IMO. Very difficult to make the car get out of shape.

11.529 sec. #8 Chevron, DaVols. 3 deslots. S curves weren't friendly to the Chevron as the car gets tippy and deslots. For a P3 rubber tire car, I give this guy a thumbs up. Car accelerates like it needs another 15' on the straight.

11.549 sec. #9 Ferrari 330 P4, PeteN95. Zero deslots. Fast to the point of being on the verge of losing control and corrects itself. NSR tires lack the needed grip.

11.573 sec. #30 Lola T70, Gascarnut. 1 deslot. Nicely built car that runs good. I really feel bad about this...my controller sensitivity and the Pro-Slot motor weren't matched close at all. I had to keep the trigger pulled 90-100% to make the car go. Very touchy with that much sensitivity and it shows with the lap times. This car will complete many laps on race day, just shooting for low et is impossible.

11.590 sec. #24 Porsche 908, Bluetoes 591. 3 deslots....more actually but the car would get back into the slot after it came out. Did that about 6 times, never seen a car do that so well. This one had all the components of a lap killer but something was amiss. Almost like the PPR's were gripping too much making the car get tippy and come out of the slot. Very quick but had troubles with the curves here.

11.630 sec. #18 Ferrari 312P Coupe, BeeJay. 3 deslots. Same story as Gascarnut. The Pro-Slot motor and my controller sensitivity were way off and lap times suffered.

11.722 sec. #16 Ferrari 612P Spyder, Phil Kalbfell. 1 deslot. This car likes to be driven deep into the curves before braking. Heavy weighted car helps keep the car in the slot and helps forgive driver errors. nice.

11.825 sec. #28 Porsche 917k, Spiritracer. Zero deslots. This TSRF chassis car needs an additional 25-30grams of weight to settle it down in the curves. At 97g the car is light for a TSRF chassis car. B/c of the light weight, the car will sometimes spin out in the curves and the fixed braids will lose contact with the copper tape. It also appears the steel chassis pan is twisted b/c of the left front wheel sitting off the track compared to the right wheel. Gobs of acceleration and the brakes are very good.

11.985 sec. #6 Porsche 917k Spyder, BigDSonic. 4 deslots. Unique chassis design lets the body roll to much bringing the opposite front wheel up and causing the guide to come out of the slot. This car flies down the straight sections but needs limiters to keep from lifting guide out of slot.

12.052 sec. #64 Chevron, kazooracer. 2 deslots. Car has tremendous speed and acceleration but the out of round Ortmans let the car bounce all over track.

12.436 sec. #7 Chaparral, Austin. 3 deslots. The second squeeze on the track deslotted this one every time. I had to slow way down to make it through here. Car is tipsy in the tight curves. The car handles the S curves very nice.

12.445 sec. #54 Porsche 908, Triggerhappy. Zero deslots. Car weighs about right for a TSRF chassis car. Ortman tires plagued this car bad. The tires would let the rear spin out causing the fixed braid s to lose contact with the copper tape. This can be over come by not pushing the car hard through the curves on race day.

Montoya will race Rolex 24 at Daytona

Juan Pablo Montoya’s participation in the 45th anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona is now official. Owner Chip Ganassi announced his two-car effort for the Rolex 24 and will have Montoya team with Scott Pruett and Salvador Duran in the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Daytona Lexus Riley.

Defending Rolex 24 at Daytona champions Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon—both Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champions—will return to the driver’s seat of the No. 02 Target/TELMEX Lexus Riley, the winner of the 2006 Rolex 24, with Pruett’s full-time 2007 Rolex Series teammate Memo Rojas. Montoya, who has previously visited Daytona International Speedway during go-karts events with his brother, is enjoying his first laps at “The World Center of Racing.”

“It was pretty exciting to be out here,” Montoya said. “It’s great. I didn’t even know where the road course went. It was nice. I took a ride in the car this morning. It’s nice that we’re using both banks. It’s pretty good, actually helps me a little bit when I come back in the Cup car. It’s quite bumpy. You kind of find where the bumps are.

“The car is a lot of fun to drive. As everybody said, I think we’ve got a winning package, but a lot of people do as well. We need to work hard and keep the car in one piece to bring it to the end. I think if we do a good job, there is definitely a decent chance of winning.”

Montoya has a busy testing schedule at Daytona International Speedway. As he prepares for his rookie season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, the Colombian driver is slated to test his No. 42 Texaco Havoline Dodge in the second session of NASCAR Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder and will also participate in NASCAR Busch Series testing. He is hoping to kick off the 2007 racing season with a Rolex 24 victory on Jan. 27-28.

“It’s nice to know coming here with a car that you know you can win with and that won last year,” Montoya said. “It makes it really exciting. Yes, I’ve won big races and everything but Daytona, especially in America, is a big deal. You can’t really say you’re going to win it before you even start it, but so far everything looks pretty good.”

All news/photos used with permission of the Grand American Series. No reuse without their permission.

Fly Audi Quattro

Guido from Slotmagazin has sent along some photos of the new Fly Audi Quattro 4wd car. I'd be interested to hear how this car works, it sure looks nice.

A little Sunday eyecandy

When I got these photos of the new Scalextric Williams BMW from Guido at Slotmagazin I just stared at it for a while. Photoshopped to be sure...but what a nice photo. More photos follow of the cool new F1 car.

Slotmagazin #14

Slotmagazin #14 is ready for your viewing pleasure, so take a trip over to Guido's site and give it a download. There are some fantastic photos of the new Carrera 935/78...and a few photos taken by me in there as well! Also some great photos of some scenery furniture kits. And a step by step build up of a Fly 917 kit.

Global Proxy Race-Prototype qualifying

Terry's still at it! Now he's qualifying the prototype cars for his leg of the Global Proxy Race.




Text and photos by Terry, taken from thread on SCI.
10.992 sec. #67 Porsche 908/2 (photo below), WCR. 1 deslot on deadmans curve (see pics in separate post). Car is boogying no doubt about it. PPR's are working great. Guide is tighter than most other GPR cars.

11.020 sec. #55 Ferrari 512S Spyder, R.Livingston. 1 deslot. Oh, how I'd love to drive this car with PPR's. The "Widow Maker" which is the curve in front of the green and red drivers stations gave this car some trouble. Ortmans would let go causing the cars rear end to kick out. Car is well balanced and likes to go fast.

11.035 sec. #5 Ferrari330 P3, Abie321. 1 deslot. Right tires for this track. Car doesn't seem to flinch any where except for slight chattering. This is mainly b/c the motor pod is tight in the HRS chassis. S1's work great here and the weight of the car helped even more.

11.283 sec. #1 Porsche 908/3, Tony Kuljis. Zero deslots. Drives nice and smooth. NSR's not really hooking as well as they should. 3M tape not the best for cleaning NSR's. Tends to get tail happy in the S curves but stays in the slot.

11.389 sec. #36 Porsche 908/3, RecklessRacer. Zero deslots. So easy to drive, I was tempted to tape the trigger wide open and go in the house. Very good car IMO. Very difficult to make the car get out of shape.

11.529 sec. #8 Chevron, DaVols. 3 deslots. S curves weren't friendly to the Chevron as the car gets tippy and deslots. For a P3 rubber tire car, I give this guy a thumbs up. Car accelerates like it needs another 15' on the straight.

11.549 sec. #9 Ferrari 330 P4, PeteN95. Zero deslots. Fast to the point of being on the verge of losing control and corrects itself. NSR tires lack the needed grip.

11.590 sec. #24 Porsche 908, Bluetoes 591. 3 deslots....more actually but the car would get back into the slot after it came out. Did that about 6 times, never seen a car do that so well. This one had all the components of a lap killer but something was amiss. Almost like the PPR's were gripping too much making the car get tip and come out of the slot. Very quick but had troubles with the curves here.

11.985 sec. #6 Porsche 917k Spyder, BigDSonic. 4 deslots. Unique chassis design lets the body roll to far bringing the opposite front wheel up and causing the guide to come out of the slot. This car flies down the straight sections but needs limiters to keep from lifting guide out of slot.

12.436 sec. #7 Chaparral, Austin. 3 deslots. The second squeeze on the track deslotted this one every time. I had to slow way down to make it through here. Car is tipsy in the tight curves. The car handles the S curves very nice.

Global Proxy Race-Iowa qualifying

So the Global Proxy Race cars have arrived and are already qualifying on Terry Noe's track in Newton Iowa, USA. Terry will run the entire race stop solo.
The GT field waiting to qualify.

The entire field after being unboxed.

Terry's reportage of qualifying (below) is taken from his thread on Slot Car Illustrated.com. This is the complete GT qualifying account.

11.231 sec. #59 Canon Porsche 911, Dave K. Zero deslots. No flaws with this car. Easily handles ever portion of this track. Fastest lap happened second from last lap. This is one of those "keep the throttle pinned for the whole lap" cars. Its that easy to drive.

11.239 sec. #7a Capri RS Turbo, Tony Kuljis. Zero deslots. Nice smooth runner. Car shows no signs of fading with the NSR tires. Well set-up.

11.265 sec. #57 Corvette L88, JT Previa. Zero deslots. This is no trailer queen! This car plain and simple made a statement here. This one does it all. The car gets a bit bouncy and loose at spots and is easily corrected. Never once did it feel like I was loosing control. Wow!

11.275 sec. #76 Greenwood Corvette, Redbull Noe. 3 deslots. This car is a one hit wonder. Achieved fast lap early then faded into the sunset. Chatters in and out of the corners. Lowest geared (11/36) of the 23k blackcan cars and the lap times show it. Car was built for this track @ 10 volts.

11.327 sec. #34 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, SpiritRacer Club. Zero deslots. This one rocked from start to finish. Kick butt Boxer power with PPR's and great brakes. The plastic front wheels really wobble and make this car very jumpy in the corners. BWA or Slot.it hubless wheels up front would of made this HRS car a run away favorite. Nice.

11.334 sec. #48 Gulf Capri RS Turbo, RecklessRacer. 2 deslots. Very challenging to drive, I like it. Smooth driver that needs to be pushed to make go fast. Car is geared too high for this track and seems to leave the car lacking punch coming out of the corners. Ortman tires let the rear drift in unpredictable places. Both deslots occurred down the hill in front of the Mausoleum. Very early braking will prevent deslots in that area come race day.

11.340 sec. #64 Ferrari 512, BJ. 2 deslots. My scale shows 127g. This car is a tank that is stuck down to the track. Car tended to suddenly let loose in some of the curves which caused the deslots. This one should challenge the leaders.

11.349 sec. #16 Capri RS Turbo, Smokeio. 2 deslots. Another Ortman tire, high geared car makes for a challenging driver. 23k blackcan loves this track even with the 2.67 ratio. Smokeio's Capri was the first (so far) to deslot after the straight and once in the S curves. Ortman tires let rear drift too much in corners.

11.387 sec. #1 Toyota LB Turbo, Robert Livingston. Zero deslots. So freaking smooth its kinda spooky. Well balanced car that is very easy to drive. Best 21.5k car I've driven so far.

11.419 sec. #1 Porsche 911, Dr.Vanski. Zero deslots. Nice driver here too. The car chatters in the curves but holds the track instead of deslotting.

11.424 sec. #26 Lancia Beta Montecarlo, WPSOKO1. Zero deslots. Very smooth and easy to drive. This 23k is geared closer to what this track likes. It feels like the car is flying on the track. I'll be taking notes from this one.

11.464 sec. #83 BMW M1, Phil Kalbfell. 2 deslots. The loudest GT car of the group. NSR tires are getting great traction. Very well put together.

11.487 sec. #24 Cobra Roadster, Gascarnut. Zero deslots. This car works great and is very consistent. Really smooth too. The narrow width of this car was intimidating at first but it likes to go fast.

11.599 sec. #95 Capri Rs Turbo, PeteN95. 1 deslot. With the 17k motor, this car really needs a lower gear. It drives very nice and Ortmans chattered a couple of times in the corners. I can almost hold the controller wide open the whole time. The one deslot occurred in front of the Mausoleum.

11.602 sec. #11 Greenwood Corvette, SpiritRacer. 4 deslots. I'm renaming this car "Death Ride". PPR's grip so much it causes car to lift out of slot and deslot in breathtaking fashion. The Corvette deslotted on "deadmans" curve and continued down the track on its side, riding on the two right side tires and ended up in the grass. Later it took out the large oak tree (intended for Austin) and three spectators near the Mausoleum. I had to take a 5 minute break, I was laughing so hard. Its race worthy and will go the distance. I just need to really pay attention before it starts getting loose.

11.802 sec. #59 Martini Porsche 911, AtticRacer. 1 deslot. I thought this one was going to give DaveK a run for the top spot. Silicone tires must be out of round. Every left hand turn caused this car to bounce and chatter alot. My track has more left turns than right too.

11.850 sec. #49 Cobra Roadster, Austin. 1 deslot. PPR"S grip very good. Car chatters alot in the curves. Fast lap was difficult to achieve.

11.945 sec. #68 Jagermeister Porsche 911, Kazooracer. 4 deslots. Ninco hop kept this great looking car from its potential. I can drive it with minimal hop, but lap times will suffer. The motor came loose during one of the hopping episodes. Better that than stripping the crown gear.

12.083 sec. #7 Capri RS Turbo, Davols. Zero deslots. Not sure of the brand of tire on this car, Ortmans? This car took many tire cleanings to get it to hook up. The tire contact patch looks narrow compared to cars with the same width of tire. Drives good just not very consistent in the traction department.

13.937 sec. #53 Lancia Beta Montecarlo, TR3. 8 deslots. This cars spur gear rubs the chassis while negotiating left hand turns. The tires seem to be somewhat out of round along with the axle bushings moving causing this one to deslot everywhere. Impossible to drive. The car can race with the tires being a bit out of round but the spur rubbing and the axle bushings are going to plague this car at every track.

14.257 sec. #423 Jaguar XK-E Coupe, Abie321. 3 deslots. car has plenty of acceleration but lacks traction in the curves. Pushing this car only makes it bounce out of the slot and tip over in some of the curves. I'll double check the axle bushings tomorrow to see if either are loose. Its on the verge of being impossible to drive.

Racing Grannies!

Well this one is a bit out of the norm but funny as hell! Stupid.com is selling a slot set...sort of.
"The Racing Grannies Racers Track Racing Granny Game contains everything you need to hold your own octogenarian speed competitions. You get a 26" oval racetrack with over 70" of track, two speed controllers, and two racing Grandmothers in motorized wheelchairs -- one red and one blue. (you'll need 4 AA batteries, too) There are also guardrails for the curves so the Grannies won't go tumbling to their death when you take the turn to quickly."

For much more info about the Racing Grannies set, click on the above link...


Thanks to Gary at Stupid.com for allowing reuse of his images here and Paul on the "Wet Coast" for sending this item...how appropriate that Paul be the one to bring this off the wall slot set to my attention.

DaveK

Dyson goes to Porsche! & Slot rumor....

SCNews wire-POUGHKEEPSIE, NY– Porsche and endurance sports car racing; Dyson Racing and Porsche: synonymous phrases. Dyson Racing and Porsche are back together: the Thetford/Norcold team will be running two LMP2 RS Spyders in the American Le Mans Series in 2007. The team ran Porsche 962s in IMSA GTP from 1985 through 1991, winning a dozen races with nineteen podium finishes and four consecutive Porsche Cups. They won the first race they ran with the Porsche at Lime Rock in May of 1985. In the two decades since, they have not relinquished their title as America’s premier sports car team.

“The 962 was an exquisite looking race car,” noted Rob Dyson. “And like the old air plane adage, if it looks right, it will fly right. It was a great car to drive and that is what Porsche does best, building ultimate customer race cars with their renowned engineering and support behind them. To combine that Porsche perfection with our successful tradition brings a whole new level of enthusiasm to our team for the upcoming season. This is a reuniting of old family members, building on our partnership of mutual respect and a shared winning history.”

Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport worldwide, was pleased that a team of Dyson’s caliber has decided to embrace the RS Spyder program. “When we announced our ALMS participation, it was our target to have the RS Spyder being raced by customer teams in 2007,” said Krisen. “We will continue our development work together with the Penske Motorsports team. The results of this work will be made available to our customer teams. The RS Spyders for Penske and Dyson are exactly the same 2007 models, and the engines we are providing to the teams are identical as well.”

“We will be competing next year with a proven package that has race data and advancement behind it,” Chris Dyson said. “Porsche won the ALMS championship last year and that is a strong selling point. Our team will be racing at the most competitive level in ALMS, where new teams, drivers and manufactures are going to be focusing their considerable resources. We will be able to showcase who we are as a team and concentrate on winning races and championships.”

Dyson Racing has sixteen team and driver championships and sixty-one wins since that first GTP win at Lime Rock twenty one years ago. Anchoring this new package and era for Dyson Racing will be the familiar #20 blue and white Thetford/Norcold entry driven by Chris Dyson and Guy Smith and #16 with Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace. The team will be testing their first car at the January 21 – 24 ALMS Winter Test at Sebring and racing both at the first race of the season, the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring March 17.

News/images used with permission from Dyson Racing. No reuse without their permission.
------
So how does this relate to slot cars you ask????? Well there may be yet another Porsche RS Spyder slot car announced in the not to distant future.

DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News

Change in posting

"Anonymous" post will not longer be allowed because of a lot of spam recently posted by non registered commments. Sorry

DaveK

1965 Targa Florio video

This is a must watch and it will take only 5 minutes of your time.

Car of the year and predictions for 2007

Slot Car News Car of the Year-Carrera Corvette C6.R
Why? Well it was such a good car in many ways. The detail level was exceptional as was the paint and printing on the car, but what really sold me on this car as a stand out was the high quality of the build. The mechanicals on the car all worked well. The wheels on this car were perfect and that's what did it for me. So many cars with plastic wheels can't even come close to the wheels on this car, they were concentric...actually concentric. Which is saying something when you're talking about running a slot car on a wood track. I run this car often and it's still got the original rear end, gear, axles, wheels...everything (sorry not the stock tires though). And with only a tire change the car was amazingly fast and very, very fun to drive.


Trend of the Year-kits, glorious kits!
What else can you say! This year companies came out with so many kits that you had your choice of great kits from Slot It, Fly, Artin, Spirit and don't forget all those plain white bodies from many manufacturers. We can only hope that this trend continues into the new year.


Pleasant suprise of the year-Spirit
Seemingly out of nowhere Spirit has come to the US market with force and some interesting upcoming models. And they promise more in the next year. Another reason for this is that Spirit makes some really nice parts. Hopefully the coming year will find those parts in the hands of racers that need some great set screw wheel and motors that are torquey as hell! Also there may be some new models coming that will surprise some people.


Disappointment of the year...Ortmann tires.
Finding out that most Ortmann's appear to be so out of round that they're useless...shattering, just shattering.

2007 fearless prediction...this is the year of Nascar...yes Nascar.
Believe it or not, finally the slot car hobby's focus is shifting to the US market...oh crap now what do we do? We in the US have been whining for soooooo long about getting good Nascar slot cars and now guess what, WE'VE GOT THEM! Between Scalex and SCX making current (or nearly current) liveries of our weekend heroes and Carrera making all the vintage Nascar's anyone wants to buy, and Artin making low-buck plain bodies for the scratch builders out there, there's just about enough Nascars to go around.

Soon, very soon, there will be an announcement related to this post from a major company that will make many guys very happy I think...can't say what it is yet but it's an important car that will be made.

This is the year that a largely European hobby will finally take hold in the US...or fall flat on it's face because of lack of money put into marketing it. There is so much money tied up in tooling for US-specific slot cars this year that frankly I really hope that there is actually money being put into MARKETING HERE IN THE US and not just the vague hope that somewhere someone will stumble into the quickly vanishing local hobby shop to behold the latest Nascar slot car.

DaveK

And Happy New Year!