Tuesday, February 17, 2009

New Slot It Group C Jag's and chassis piece

A new chassis suspension piece to show today form Slot It. This is a very cool little sprung suspension piece that will fit any Slot It car. This is not a magnetic system, rather only springs and small adjustable bump-stops.
A pair of prototype Jaguar's shown at Nurnberg's Toyfair.




Monday, February 16, 2009

New BRM Porsche 917 prototype photos

Photos of the new BRM 1/24 Porsche 917k.




Friday, February 13, 2009

Slot It Chaparral 2E prototype photos

A bunch of photos I shot during the recent toyfair in Nurnberg of the Slot It Chaparral 2E. Notice the big fat tires on the rear of this car. Slot It will have another winner on their hands I think with this car.







Thursday, February 12, 2009

DS Test Bench and new controller

DS is coming out with a revolutionary controller. It's based on the new MRRC controller and is quite a surprising thing that DS has done. The features are listed in the photo but something that struck me was that it's probably the next step in this hobby being a solid sport. You can adjust the sensitivity, braking, everything that you've come to expect in a high end controller for serious competition. But most importantly...telemetry, it keeps a record of all the settings on the controller and the braking and throttle position for each lap. So if you're someone that either needs a starting point to know where to start to set up your controller (the system and software provided with the controller give you that info) or whether you're fine tuning your lap times and need to see exactly where you might be able to pick up a bit of time on the track. Is this information needed for slot racing? Strictly speaking, no. But, if you're serious about racing, this controller can give you that extra bit of information that could make a difference. It's a progression, an evolution.

The controller is connected to a laptop via a wifi connection that connects to both a PC and MAC (thank goodness for a MAC too!) via a USB antenna. The controller will connect to the USB antenna and the antenna will support many controllers so a club (or individual) will only have to buy 1 antenna to support use of up to 20 (I'm pretty sure that's the number) controllers.

The DS Testing Bench does just about everything that you could want it to do to help you set up a car for racing. Magnetic downforce, rpm testing, a bench for setting up your car. A prototype was on display at the toyfair in Nurnberg and hopefully soon we'll see this unique bench for sale.

New Sloting Plus wheels


New Sloting Plus blue wheels to show today. Ref# 45015, #45016 and #45017

  • 45015 Europa Wheel 15x8.5mm Blue Alloy with 2.5mm grub screw 1.2gm to fit 3/32 axles
  • 45016 Europa Wheel 16x8.5mm Blue Alloy with 2.5mm grub screw 1.2gm to fit 3/32 axles
  • 45017 Europa Wheel 17x8.5mm Blue Alloy with 2.5mm grub screw 1.2gm to fit 3/32 axles


Thanks to Sloting Plus for the news.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

NSR news from Germany

Photos of some new NSR Porsche's and a GT40 kit to show today from the Toyfair in Nurnberg. The Martini twin pack will be available near Christmas and surely will be popular with Porsche and Martini deco collectors.

The GT40 kit was on display in the NSR booth and should give fans of that classic body a great chance to create their own unique NSR GT40 decorated car.

This was the first time I got to really eyeball the NSR Porsches (though I saw them at IHobby in Chicago a while ago) and these are really quite nicely detailed models.


Monday, February 09, 2009

Friday, February 06, 2009

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Spirit pricing for 2009

Spirit pricing for 2009 will not increase in the North American market, this official word this morning in a meeting here at toyfair in Nurnberg.

Nurnberg SCX gallery link


Welcome to Nurnberg!

View a gallery of SCX's latest on this link to SCXWorldWide.com.


Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Sideways Daytona Prototype-review


Publishers note: This review was done by Dave Kennedy, an employee of SCX North America and Tommy Pintchuck who is a slot racer from Nanticoke, Pennsylvania.

Detail, speed, versatility, the Sideways Daytona Prototype's have it all.

If you're a fan of the Rolex Series and Grand American Series racing these highly detailed Daytona Prototypes will be the slot car for you. The models offer the solid performance offered by Slot It's running gear. These are the first injection molded cars made by the collaboration between Slot It and Racer and they have picked an interesting, American-specific car to reproduce. When you think about it, it's sort of surprising that this is the series they have chosen to make, but it is very welcome and is currently a hot ticket in the slotting world.

The cars come with the Orange Endbell Slot It 21.5k motor mounted inline with offset gearing. The recognizable Slot It style chassis design is as adjustable and as easy to tune as you could hope for in a chassis for a slot car. Simple to tune, easy to understand, tested by racing... a proven winner.





The front axle is adjustable with both up and down fine adjustment coming from small grub screws in towers above and positions below the front axle.

As I've said the detail is superb, as you might expect from a collaboration between Slot It and Racer. The first two decorations of the Riley DP are the first of many planned and since there are several years of this body style that could be done with no changes to the mold this is a car that we can assume slotters will have to look forward to for many years to come. Since the body's of the DP's are so close to a standard body, slot racers will be able to look forward to a VERY matched field of DP's. Printing on both the cars is very good and the colors are solid and bright. Even upon very close examination the fine printing on the logo's holds up to scrutiny.

It's worth noting the detailing on the model of the engine on this car. With a large rear window to highlight the fine detail on the model, this feature really grabs your attention when you first look at the car.

The running gear on these cars provides the slot car racer nearly endless combinations of possible configurations. The chassis, comes with an offset, inline (end bell driven) motor and there are the cut outs for a Slot It angle winder pod.
By DaveK


The new Racer Daytona prototype is a truly outstanding car. This car is made between Racer and Slot It and there was no short cuts that where taken with this car. They are redesigned a new chassis that is adjustable in the front end with grub screws and it seems to allow for a digital chip with a removable cross bracing in the chassis.

The drive train of this car is the tried and true Slot It orange end bell and hypoid gearing. The performance of the prototype is what you would expect from a slot it car, which means you expect the car to run and handle and you get both of these with this car. Also the chassis will let you run many different configurations from sidewinders to anglewinders, from orange end bells to boxer motors. The stock configuration gives the car plenty of speed right out of the box and the handling aspects of the car are very good.

The car seems to stick to the track very well with very little work. We played with one on our club track the only things that we did was remove the magnets and added S2’s and the car was running 6.5 second laps. The car had plenty of straightaway speed and did well accelerating out of the corners. We did a little tuning to the car with a minor gear change and dropped the times down to the 6.2 second range. In my opinion I feel that this car is well worth the money and is a great edition to add to any racing collection of cars. I think Racer and Slot It did an excellent job producing this car and can’t wait till next ones are available.
By Tommy Pintchuck

IHSR club race-video coverage

TommyP, Len, and I visited the IHSR club last weekend. We had a great time racin with the guys there and I shot this video.

DaveK

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Slot Car Corner Now in Canada!

You probably already know about the high quality products and excellent service available from Slot Car Corner. Steve and Dickie do a marvelous job designing and selling unique tuning and performance products for slot car enthusiasts like us. Their Super Wheels SS are also very popular, and of course, they carry the complete line of Classic Super Tires (R) and Yellow Dog Super Tires (R).


I have known Dickie and Steve for some time now, as our respective clubs get together as often as possible to participate in a variety of racing events. No matter what we race or the outcome, we always have a lot of fun. That's why I'm very excited to announce that I will be working very closely with them to bring the high quality Slot Car Corner products to this side of the border and getting them to Canadian customers without the hassles of an international order: the shipping delays, the Customs' «surprises» (you know what I mean!), currency conversion, taxes, etc..


The Slot Car Corner reputation for superior service is well known in the slot car community and I'll do what I need to do to maintain this reputation "north of the border". Steve and Dickie have always stood by their products - rest assured this will continue with Slot Car Corner Canada.


In the last few weeks, we've been very busy getting organized, building an inventory and setting up a website for Slot Car Corner Canada. Some products are still in short supply but as we become aware of what you, our Canadian customers, need, we will adjust quickly. The Canadian branch is still brand new but we want to serve you as best as we can.


For now, Slot Car Corner Canada won't carry any SCX or made-to-order products. For those, you're still invited to deal with Slot Car Corner (USA) directly. But for anything else (tires, wheels, tuning parts, tools, etc.), we'll be there for you.


Please visit our website at www.slotcarcorner.ca to learn more about available products including payment options and shipping rates. Don't forget that all prices are in Canadian dollars. Et bien sûr, nous pouvons vous servir en français avec grand plaisir, puisque nous sommes situés dans la belle ville de Québec.


It will be a pleasure to help you get more speed (and of course, more fun!) from your preferred slot cars.


Christian Gingras
Slot Car Corner Canada
scc.canada@gmail.com
www.slotcarcorner.ca

Monday, February 02, 2009

O2Digital blog


Special mention here for a new blog out there. O2digital focuses on the Slot It Oxigen system. Check it out soon.

MJK tires

MJK tires were something of a surprise to me I think. A few years ago I was hooked on Ortmann's, recently it's been SuperTires that have been working for me, especially at my slot club. But a while back I had the good fortune to get some MJK tires sent from some slotbrothers down in Australia. On the clean track at my club SuperTires are still the tire to beat (on the club Carrera track), but recently I went to visit a friend's track and do some racing. The favored tires at that track are...a blast from the past... Ortmann's! Well I had no Ortmann's that I wanted to race on the cars I had with me. But I had some MJK's for my Renault Alpine A110.

Well those tires were just the ticket for the Alpine! Now I'm not going to tell you that I won the race, anyone that knows me knows that I'm ... well... not the fastest racer on the track. But I sure had a blast racing that car and those tires really made the day for me.

The tires have a mix of a good feel that many Ortmann's lack and all the grip that Ortmann's have. I trued up the tires a bit, the tires got more grippy as the race went on and by the end of the day's racing they were really sticking nicely and sure lacked the chatter that Ortmann's are famous for.

The tires are great and if you get the chance to check them out they're absolutely worth going the extra mile to get.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Slot Car News at ToyFair in Germany

I will be heading to the Toyfair in Germany where I will report on slot car news from the toyshow. News as soon as I can post it!

DaveK