Slot Car News

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

SCX Nascar-The Intimidator!

Nascar...no one currently does more Nascar slot cars than SCX. And to add the Dale Earnhardt car to the mix really is a bonus for fans of Dale. This body is a newer body style than Dale actually ever raced. This is a 2005 Monte Carlo, Dale died in 2001 in a crash at Daytona. The nose is a bit more elongated and the areas that the "headlights" are on is concave, the car Dale drove had a more blunt nose and the headlight areas weren't as sunken. All of this is probably lost on most slotters (me too BTW, I had to look up photos to try and compare the cars). I don't think most will care that the body is slightly "off" from being technically correct. Does it matter? Well, if you look at it as a tribute car (as a friend online pointed out) then I don't think that it's a big issue really.

It's a well executed model, and a solid slot car, that's really what matters.

The plinth of each car, as well as the chassis itself, is marked with the serial number. In this case mine is #3644.

There is a paint issue on the back deck of this car. It might be hard to see here in the photo but there's a thin spot in the printing on the letters "R" & "M" and a thin area on the checkered flag just below those letters. There are 2 other areas of small bubbles (about 5 bubbles in all) on the car which didn't really show up in the photos but are clear enough to see when you're looking at the car. I've seen a fair number of SCX cars and they don't usually have any paint issues so I'd expect these minor flaws to be isolated.

There really aren't any surprises under the hood of this car. SCX seems to have gone to the new, flat-tone plastic for all new Nascars. The RX-42B is the standard motor as it has been since the SCX Nascar rollout.

So this is usually the point in the photo shoot when I think to myself..."should I take the interior out of the car? Or should I leave well enough alone on a car that most will think of as only a shelf queen?"... with a trickle of nervous sweat rolling down my forehead I reached for the small screwdriver...POP, POP, POP, POP...out came the interior!

The tires on this car were a bit better than most of the SCX Nascar's. I did some trueing on the tires and there really didn't seem to be much wobble or many high spots on the tires.

I did 200 laps with the car and I got an average lap of about 2.6 seconds with one, and only one, 2.4 second lap. The fastest lap came after I'd turned the screws out about 2 full turns on the magnet. It did seems to stick the car down a bit better. Also I'd scuff the tires with sand paper (just like if I'd true them) about every 50 laps or so just to see if I was able to get a bit more performance. I didn't notice very much difference. Still all in all the car was quick, but not blindingly fast.

SCX is really using the Chevy license to the fullest, they've produced a number of Bowtied slot cars recently...

So is the car worth the extra money because of being a special edition? Well it all depends on how big a fan of the Intimidator you are.

I'm wondering how the Car of Tomorrow roll out will effect the sales of this "old body" since next year the COT will be the only body used in Nascar. Probably iconic drivers will sell no matter what, and there's no bigger icon than #3.

Nascar

nextel cup

daytona

dei

Chevy

Earnhardt

Monday, September 03, 2007

Carrera BMW Z4-review

Carrera has given slotters a pair of "night and day" liveries with the new BMW Z4's the Red Bull car is as loud as the BMW Motorsport livery is subtle. Both cars represent themselves very well.

The blue on the Red Bull car is on the money and the printing on the car is perfect.

The white BMW Motorsport car is simple and plain when you sit it next to the Red Bull car but with the plain livery you can admire the body lines and details that stand out more.

One detail that does stand out in fact is the rear end treatment. I've pulled many photos from BMW Motorsports (used with permission BTW) and the photos of the real car you can see the outlets for the tailpipes as well as the vents on the back bumper are very different as well. I haven't done too much searching on the internet to see if the Carrera car is actually incorrect in it's treatment on the rear end, but I actually like the details on the Carrera car better in anycase.

One aspect that jumps out at you when you look at the cars is the rear wing that seems to hang behind the car about a hundred feet. It's a good model of the actual car (and I'm very pleased that it's modeled correctly by Carrera) but I'm thinking it won't be long before there is a run on orders for replacement wings for these cars...there's no way it will last long out there...but wow it looks nice, eh?

There is one aspect of the design of the car that I will point out as incorrect, the wheels on the real cars are concave, the slot car's wheels are convex...I'd prefer that Carrera had give us the concave wheels. And the tires do hang outside the wheel wells a bit too much, a bit more on the Red Bull car than the white car.

Flip the car over and you see the now standard new 2 magnet design. As well as the new motor pod. I think the pod that Carrera has developed has got to be the best single improvement to the Carrera line. A few turns of just one screw and out comes nearly everything that you need to lube...and all without having to remove the body. Maybe it's just me but EVERYTIME I turn the last screw tight on the body of a slot car I remember that I forgot to put a drop of oil on something. The pod on the white car was a very tight snap fit and didn't want to seat easily, but a slice with a knife and that was fixed.

Inside the car you see the lights and circuit board and an extra plug that's unused that I feel safe in assuming is an open plug for the eagerly awaited Digital 132 system. Also you see the E500 motor, which may or may not be a misprint. I'm thinking it's a new designation for the E200 but the motor now has a lube hole in the endbell...but then I'm probably the only one thinking about this E500 vs. E200 thing as much as I am.

A number of slotters have talked about the new guide, it's large (which may be an understatment). I have only tested the car on my plastic track, not the wood track which has a very tight hairpin at one end. I have to say I like the nice solid feel to the guide, the guide has "Zero" wobble. It does have limited travel but it does have a nice self-centering "snap" that lets you marshall it quickly.

100 laps of testing on my Carrera track gave me a pretty good picture of the car's performance, in a word, "solid." Out of the box the car would easily do 2.8 second laps which put it as fast as recent AutoArt releases, the Scalextric TransAm Jaguar, which means it's in good company already. I did just a bit of sanding on the rear tires and that showed two important things. The first was the tires were pretty flat on the wheels and the second was the wheels don't wobble...I'm a huge fan of that! After the sanding the car did feel a bit faster and the times showed that. I now was able to do a fastest lap of 2.5 seconds which put it well ahead of the AutoArt cars I've tested on my track, and neck to neck with the performance of the new Carrera Corvette C6.R.

The cars are heavy, much heavier than I expected them to be. The weight seems to be low enough that it doesn't adversely effect performance. The cars don't feel top heavy, and actually feel quite agile on the track.

Overall Carrera has done a good job giving slotters a new car to race. The performance of the Z4 is solid, the design of the car is solid, the execution of the paint is solid...these are good slot cars on all accounts.

Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Porsche tries to buy majority stake in VW.

Slot cars as art!

Ken Butler, an artist and musician from Brooklyn, talks about his "Hybrid Cars"...

"... I was deeply involved with 1/32 slots as a teenager in the early sixties in Portland, Oregon (I am 59), specializing in LeMans and Can-Am cars and detailing bodies, (I am trained as an artist and have an MFA in painting) eventually building scratch cars with brass frames and working at a huge space with 3 1/24th tracks in Portland in the 60's called the Uptown Racen Hausen ......... (I was in Car Model mag a few times for endurance racing and winning concours d'elegance, etc)

I lost interest in college, and didn't become re-obsessed until around 1999, when I saw a Fly car at a model shop, bought a set, and sent for my vintage collection in my parent's basement, which I supplemented with the most choice Le Mans cars, specializing in Ferrari and Porsche .......... I do have some self-control and financial restraints and have around 100 (around 30 vintage cars chosen for the most "artistic" liveries. My focus for cars is sculptural integrity and design rather
than performance although I like to go fast of course ...... (and there is that special relationship between function and form that I love)

My motivation for the new batch of "hybrid cars" was to try to stretch the hobby into the realm of "fine art" by following the methodology of my work with sculptural musical instruments."

Text and photos used with permission from Ken

The show is open 7-9 Saturday September 8th
artMovingProjects
166 N.12th St. (Bedford and Berry) Williamsburg
(917-301-6680, 917-301-0306)
Thu-Sun, 1pm - 6pm
Subway: L to Bedford
www.artmovingprojects.com
info@artmovingprojects.com
September 8 - October 14

Art

design

sculpture

Slot Car

Saturday, September 01, 2007

I'm gonna be sick...Lizard #45 up in flames

Anyone else just see the Flying Lizard #45 just go up in flames on Speed during the ALMS race in Detroit?

My photos of the car during Lime Rock... BTW, this is the car that was run at LeMans earlier this year. It was due to be sold to a collector at the end of this season.

From the Flying Lizard Motorsports site:
"At the ninety-minute mark, things began to go seriously wrong for the Lizards. The No. 45 collided with the No. 71 Tafel Porsche on track, causing significant damage to both cars. A double yellow was called as the cars made their way around the track. The No. 45 caught fire on the track on its way back to the pits, as the result of the earlier accident. Johannes was able to pull off course and quickly exited the car and was not injured. The rear of the car was engulfed in flames and dense black smoke. The safety crews were able to extinguish the fire quickly, but the car sustained significant damage and is not repairable."

Johannes van Overbeek walks away from the fire. Photo Dan Boyd/ALMS, used with permission from the ALMS.

The final lap of the Sebring race this year....