RS Slot Racing.com have donated 3 gift certificates as prizes in the cash value of 10, 15, and 25 Pounds! A huge thanks goes out to them for giving such a generous gift for our race!
DaveK
Saturday, December 23, 2006
MiniAuto Slot 27 January Edition
MINIAUTO SLOT 27- JANUARY 2007
The monthly magazine MiniAuto Slot #27, corresponding to the month of January of the 2007, emphasizes in its cover the track test of the new Carrera Porsche 935/78. Also is highlighted the track test of the Scalextric Jaguar XKRS Trans-Am and the victory of the Team Spain in the Ninco World Cup celebrated in Verona. The magazine also includes the tests of Top Slot's Cunningham C4R, the new Slot.it Ferrari 312PB and the Cartrix BRM P25. In the interior, the exclusive declarations of the Tecnitoys Product Manager, Floris van Neerrijnen, can be found, the new policies and features of SCX for the 2007.
Albert Boet
Director
MiniAuto Slot
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTA DE PRENSA
MINIAUTO SLOT 27 - ENERO 2007
La revista mensual MiniAuto Slot, correspondiente al mes de Enero del 2007, destaca en su portada la prueba del nuevo Porsche 935/78 de Carrera. También se resalta el test en pista del Jaguar XKRS de la Trans-Am de Superslot y el triunfo del Team España en la Ninco World Cup celebrada en Verona.
La revista también incluye las pruebas del Cunningham C4R de Top Slot, el Ferrari 312PB de Slot.it y el BRM P25 de Cartrix.
En el interior se pueden encontrar las declaraciones exclusivas del Product Manager de Tecnitoys, F. van Neerrijnen, en las que desvela la política y novedades de Scalextric para el 2007.
Albert Boet
Director
MiniAuto Slot
Scalextric 2007 releases
Global Proxy Race sponsor MRE has put together a list of Scalextric 2007 releases, and Gary from MRE has allowed SCNews to reproduce that list here.
Scalextric 2007 releases - updated
22nd December 2006
We now have a refined list of Scalextric 2007 releases with some prices :
SETS
C1194 Inner City Speed X1, £60.00
C1195 GT Pursuit X2, £70.00
C1196 Rally Pro Championship X2, £90.00
C1198 Pole Position X3, £100.00
C1199 Street Pursuit X3, £100.00
C1200 Ultimate Endurance X4, £130.00
C1203 Scalextric Start !, £40.00
C1206 Speed Rivals, £60.00
C1197 Digital Driver (digital), £120.00
C1201 Digital Super GT (digital), £200.00
C1202 World Championship (digital), £250.00
LIMITED EDITION CAR PACKS
C2782A Ferrari 375 50th Anniversary, with book, £75.00
C2783A Mercedes McLaren &22 Edition + Mercedes 300 SLR, £60.00
STANDARD CARS, ALL £30.00
C2799 Ferrari 312T
C2800 McLaren M23
C2803 Ferrari 375 Classic F1
C2806 McLaren F1 Alonso
C2813 McLaren F1 De La Rosa
C2784 Maserati MC12
C2785 Jaguar XKRS
C2786 Porsche 911 GT3R
C2787 Ferrari P4 yellow
C2790 Aston Martin DBR9
C2795 Dodge Viper GTSR
C2798 Ford Escort MK1
C2801 Nissan Skyline
C2804 Ferrari F430 (detailed)
C2807 Mini Cooper classic
C2809 Audi R10 Diesel Le Mans
C2812 Porsche LMP2 Le Mans
C2814 Mercedes 300 SLR Fangio
C2753 Mercedes McLaren black
C2823 Ford GT midnight blue
C2762 Seat Leon
C2773 BMW Mini
C2788 Peugeot 307
C2789 Subaru Impreza WRC, The SUN
C2802 Ford Focus WRC
C2805 BMW Mini Cooper (one piece body)
C2796 Chevy Camaro
C2797 Ford Mustang
C2791 Ford Fusion NASCAR # 1
C2792 Ford Fusion NASCAR # 2
C2793 Chevrolet NASCAR # 1
C2794 Chevrolet NASCAR # 2
DIGITAL CARS, ALL £40.00
C2665D Porsche 911
C2715D BAR Honda F1
C2806D McLaren F1
DIGITAL PLUG CARS, ALL £30.00
C2774 Ford Mustang
C2804 Ferrari F430 GTR
C2808 Range Rover Police (drift)
C2809 Audi R10 Diesel Le Mans
C2811 Chaparral 2F
C2812 Porsche LMP2 Le Mans
C2819 Range Rover street version
DIGITAL PLUG CARS, ALL £17.00
C2810 Lamborghini Gallardo
C2822 Ferrari F430 GTR (drift)
More details to follow when available !
Scalextric 2007 releases - updated
22nd December 2006
We now have a refined list of Scalextric 2007 releases with some prices :
SETS
C1194 Inner City Speed X1, £60.00
C1195 GT Pursuit X2, £70.00
C1196 Rally Pro Championship X2, £90.00
C1198 Pole Position X3, £100.00
C1199 Street Pursuit X3, £100.00
C1200 Ultimate Endurance X4, £130.00
C1203 Scalextric Start !, £40.00
C1206 Speed Rivals, £60.00
C1197 Digital Driver (digital), £120.00
C1201 Digital Super GT (digital), £200.00
C1202 World Championship (digital), £250.00
LIMITED EDITION CAR PACKS
C2782A Ferrari 375 50th Anniversary, with book, £75.00
C2783A Mercedes McLaren &22 Edition + Mercedes 300 SLR, £60.00
STANDARD CARS, ALL £30.00
C2799 Ferrari 312T
C2800 McLaren M23
C2803 Ferrari 375 Classic F1
C2806 McLaren F1 Alonso
C2813 McLaren F1 De La Rosa
C2784 Maserati MC12
C2785 Jaguar XKRS
C2786 Porsche 911 GT3R
C2787 Ferrari P4 yellow
C2790 Aston Martin DBR9
C2795 Dodge Viper GTSR
C2798 Ford Escort MK1
C2801 Nissan Skyline
C2804 Ferrari F430 (detailed)
C2807 Mini Cooper classic
C2809 Audi R10 Diesel Le Mans
C2812 Porsche LMP2 Le Mans
C2814 Mercedes 300 SLR Fangio
C2753 Mercedes McLaren black
C2823 Ford GT midnight blue
C2762 Seat Leon
C2773 BMW Mini
C2788 Peugeot 307
C2789 Subaru Impreza WRC, The SUN
C2802 Ford Focus WRC
C2805 BMW Mini Cooper (one piece body)
C2796 Chevy Camaro
C2797 Ford Mustang
C2791 Ford Fusion NASCAR # 1
C2792 Ford Fusion NASCAR # 2
C2793 Chevrolet NASCAR # 1
C2794 Chevrolet NASCAR # 2
DIGITAL CARS, ALL £40.00
C2665D Porsche 911
C2715D BAR Honda F1
C2806D McLaren F1
DIGITAL PLUG CARS, ALL £30.00
C2774 Ford Mustang
C2804 Ferrari F430 GTR
C2808 Range Rover Police (drift)
C2809 Audi R10 Diesel Le Mans
C2811 Chaparral 2F
C2812 Porsche LMP2 Le Mans
C2819 Range Rover street version
DIGITAL PLUG CARS, ALL £17.00
C2810 Lamborghini Gallardo
C2822 Ferrari F430 GTR (drift)
More details to follow when available !
Friday, December 22, 2006
Carrera's 935/78's...all three.
Much to the delight of the Porsche slot car fans everywhere the Carrera Moby Dick Porsche's have arrived!
With no further delay here they are...
Now a few details before resuming the photos...don't worry I won't be long winded, the photos really sell these cars all on their own.
A few different threads have been done on these cars since their first sighting by alert members of Slot Car Illustrated. The cars are in scale, maybe about 2 scale-inches too wide. But personally I find that so minor as to be bearly worth metioning.
The slot cars weigh 98 grams and have around 313 grams of downforce as measured with a Magnet Marshal during recent tests.
With stock tires the Martini car did a lap of around 6.49 seconds around the East New York Raceway wood track (61 foot lap length). And after a change to Ortmann tires was made times dropped to a respectable 5.67. I must admit to having not yet been able to test these on my Carrera track...busy holiday season!
Much of the car hangs over the back wheels, this weight bias makes the car feel a bit tail heavy. Wait, did I just say a bit tail heavy? THESE CARS ALL ALMOST ALL TAIL and that's what makes them unique. But it doesn't take away from the driveability. I don't think they need anything added to weight them down, but then at 98 grams I'm not sure more weight is what these cars need.
The Kreepy Krauly/Momo livery:
From many photos I've seen of the Momo and Fitzpatrick cars, both the cars have wheels that are a slightly different design from the way Carrera's designers have decided to go.
And yes, inside that huge tail, painted flat black, is the rear end of the car. Working lights are there, but difficult to see unless you're pretty low when the car is driving away from you. The front lights are the typical bright Carrera lights that really are very nice and not too bright to be overpowering. Kudos to Carrera for making some rear end details that would have been easy to avoid making but do add quite a bit to the overall look of the car. And as you keep looking around on the car you'll find more details to catch your eye. For quite some time other company's have been known for making this level of detail, now Carrera (at a much more affordable price BTW) have taken their detail to the "Fly $60.00 level" without raising prices along with the details. Excellent IMHO.
The Martini Racing livery
The Fitzpatrick #79 Porsche
A word about the doors on this model. If you look closely you see that the doors are different from the other 2 models. This change really adds a lot to this model and I give Carrera credit for making something that really many company's might have avoided making this minor adjustment in design.
Overall these are some really great looking Porsche's. The only real "word on the street" is that the wheels on the Fitzpatrick and Momo cars are incorrect. Well that may be but if that's the only thing wrong, I'll take it. I'm glad Carrera have chose to make these Iconic cars and they've really gotten so much right with them that the wheels being off is a trade I'll take in exchange for getting the contours of the body so right.
Also I know it's sort of cliche to talk about how nice the printing is on slot cars, but these really stand out. The stripes on the Martini car are perfect. They're long delicate lines that accentuate the body lines. They're opaque and unwavering down the length of the body. The red used on the Momo car really is deep and quite a pleasing shade of red. It's not an orangey red or a brick red, it's a deep rich red that needs to be seen to properly be enjoyed.
Thanks to Carrera USA for getting these cars to me Thursday afternoon. I'm impressed they made it through the crush of Christmas mailing after arriving this week here in the US via airfreight.
DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News
With no further delay here they are...
Now a few details before resuming the photos...don't worry I won't be long winded, the photos really sell these cars all on their own.
A few different threads have been done on these cars since their first sighting by alert members of Slot Car Illustrated. The cars are in scale, maybe about 2 scale-inches too wide. But personally I find that so minor as to be bearly worth metioning.
The slot cars weigh 98 grams and have around 313 grams of downforce as measured with a Magnet Marshal during recent tests.
With stock tires the Martini car did a lap of around 6.49 seconds around the East New York Raceway wood track (61 foot lap length). And after a change to Ortmann tires was made times dropped to a respectable 5.67. I must admit to having not yet been able to test these on my Carrera track...busy holiday season!
Much of the car hangs over the back wheels, this weight bias makes the car feel a bit tail heavy. Wait, did I just say a bit tail heavy? THESE CARS ALL ALMOST ALL TAIL and that's what makes them unique. But it doesn't take away from the driveability. I don't think they need anything added to weight them down, but then at 98 grams I'm not sure more weight is what these cars need.
The Kreepy Krauly/Momo livery:
From many photos I've seen of the Momo and Fitzpatrick cars, both the cars have wheels that are a slightly different design from the way Carrera's designers have decided to go.
And yes, inside that huge tail, painted flat black, is the rear end of the car. Working lights are there, but difficult to see unless you're pretty low when the car is driving away from you. The front lights are the typical bright Carrera lights that really are very nice and not too bright to be overpowering. Kudos to Carrera for making some rear end details that would have been easy to avoid making but do add quite a bit to the overall look of the car. And as you keep looking around on the car you'll find more details to catch your eye. For quite some time other company's have been known for making this level of detail, now Carrera (at a much more affordable price BTW) have taken their detail to the "Fly $60.00 level" without raising prices along with the details. Excellent IMHO.
The Martini Racing livery
The Fitzpatrick #79 Porsche
A word about the doors on this model. If you look closely you see that the doors are different from the other 2 models. This change really adds a lot to this model and I give Carrera credit for making something that really many company's might have avoided making this minor adjustment in design.
Overall these are some really great looking Porsche's. The only real "word on the street" is that the wheels on the Fitzpatrick and Momo cars are incorrect. Well that may be but if that's the only thing wrong, I'll take it. I'm glad Carrera have chose to make these Iconic cars and they've really gotten so much right with them that the wheels being off is a trade I'll take in exchange for getting the contours of the body so right.
Also I know it's sort of cliche to talk about how nice the printing is on slot cars, but these really stand out. The stripes on the Martini car are perfect. They're long delicate lines that accentuate the body lines. They're opaque and unwavering down the length of the body. The red used on the Momo car really is deep and quite a pleasing shade of red. It's not an orangey red or a brick red, it's a deep rich red that needs to be seen to properly be enjoyed.
Thanks to Carrera USA for getting these cars to me Thursday afternoon. I'm impressed they made it through the crush of Christmas mailing after arriving this week here in the US via airfreight.
DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Slotmagazin sneak preview photos
Guido from Slotmagazin has graciously sent Slot Car News a few photos of the new Danone 911 Ninco Rally Porsche.
Spirit blister pack kit prices
The Renault 5 part #500690 2&1 kit has two bodies finished and complete chassis as will the Peugeot 205 part #400590.
The Dallara part #300411 Blister Kit has an unpainted body and all the parts you need to make a killer fast slot car.
These cars will retail for $49.99.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Spirit LMP's...non-sports editions.
Spirit and Kimrey Enterprises has sent 3 of their latest offerings to Slot Car News, 2 Reynards and 1 of their Dallara's arrived in time for a pre-Christmas review. All are the non-sport versions of the car, but they don't come up short even when compared with the sport cars.
The bright blue Dallara is a striking car visually, but even more so when you get it on the track.
The testing for all these cars was done on the East New York Raceway with power set at 13.8 volts. The stock tires were first tested for a few test laps, they didn't stick well and yielded a 6.8 second lap time around the 61' lap length. Not terribly fast but then Ortmann rubber works best here so the tires were replaced. Within a few laps something was evident...this car is freakin' fast! The laps quickly got faster and faster, and before you know it there was a 5.08 lap appearing on the computer screen...we're talking about some serious speed here. The car whipped around the corners and howled down the 16' straight and was still wanting to speed up at the end of the straight. Tires on this car are everything...find a compound that works on your track and you'll have a winner.
Some testing with a Magnet Marshal yielded the following data. The hard plastic body weighs 22 grams alone, the whole slot car weighs 87 grams. And the magnetic downforce was 116 grams.
One of the reasons for the speed of this car may be due to the fact that much of the car "lives" below the tops of the tires. It's mass is more below the level of the tires than most of the slot cars.
The paint on the car is well done as is the printing, nothing to take away from the overall look of the car or nothing to catch the eye as a blemish.
If you're into a car with a motor pod, then this car is for you. And yes it's a non-sport car technically. Even though it has a pod it does not have set-screw metal wheels. But it does have a sport guide in place which is adjustable with a screw rather than a press in fit.
The wheels on the Dallara have the same rib size as other common wheels and the same rib as the sport wheels. I'd call it a standard size that most would recognize as compatible with the Slot It wheels/tires. A very common size of rib that makes a wide variety of tires useable on this car and the sports versions of Spirit cars as well.
There are differences between the non aren't limited to the obvious lack of aluminum set screw wheels on the standard versions. Both cars have their differences from each other aside from the bodies.
I've cut and pasted the descriptions directly from a recent email with Jose at Spirit:
"Reynard Standard Series: Mounts chassis without pod and the motor SX01 (short box). This model can not mount the long motor S3X because of the complete plastic cockpit. Axles and crown are the same calibrated parts mounted in sport series. The guide is the standard one, without screw. Body is painted and decorated. Rims are plastic and detailed.
Reynard Sport Series: Mounts chassis with interchangeable pod and motor S3X (long box). Also mounts light lexan cockpit and aluminium rims. Body is painted and decorated. The guide is call “Sport” with screw and is injected in a mix of nylon and fiber to reduce the rubbing.
Dallara Standard Series: Mounts chassis with interchangeable pod and motor S3X (long box), complete plastic cockpit, detailed plastic rims, sport guide with screw and painted and decorated body.
Dallara Sport Series: Mounts chassis with interchangeable pod and motor S3X (long box), complete light lexan cockpit, aluminium rims, sport guide with screw and body without decoration and painting."
From this photo you can see the Dallara body is a bit longer than the Reynard.
The Reynard body's are close to the Sport version I recently tested with a few minor details. Some body features like air inlets and obviously livery details and the Lexan vacuum formed interior are missing in the standard (non sport) versions of the cars. I do like that generally the bodies are the same though. It give those that choose to purchase the standard versions a high quality body that doesn't differ in quality or race-worthiness from the sport version, very cool.
Again measurements taken with the Magnet Marshal were taken before racing. The body alone was 26 grams, the whole car was only 78 grams...lighter than the Dallara! And a surprise was that the magnet provided a very sticky 230 grams of downforce.
The wheels are a much larger diameter than the Dallara wheels and the tires aren't interchangeable. Personally I'd like to see the sizes of tires and wheels standardized, but that's just me.
Testing was done first with the stock tires in place. Times with the stock tires were around 6.7 seconds. These tires feel like a different compound than the Dallara tires and the sport version of the Reynard tires. They were very tacky to the touch and in fact maybe gripped a bit too well since a small amount of hop was easily achieved as you rounded the corners. Also the tires are hard to sand so if you're hoping to true them this might take some time.
To change the tires to get faster times, I swapped the rear end of the Dallara into the Reynard, which was an easy snap in that took only a few minutes.
After that it was off to the races. The car was first tested with Slot It S2's, which gave us times around 5.44. And a very smooth ride around the track. With a change to Ortmann rubber times dropped even further and bottomed out at 5.35 seconds.
The chassis on both the Reynards are a flat sheet with no pod (as was noted above) with the SX01 motor, a 24k S-Can type motor. The lower torque of this motor makes this car a great driver and very different than it's cousin the Dallara and these cars I find to be much more "forgiving" to drive than the cars with the SX3 motor.
A few thoughts and I'll wrap this up. Overall these cars provide slotters very fast and race ready cars out of the box. If you're into fiddling with cars, you'll find that these cars really respond well to tuning. With a little work they really turn into monsterously fast cars...and all without benefit of being technically "sports" editions.
Thanks to Spirit and Kimrey Enterprises for providing the cars for review.
DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Change in publishing notice
After the new year starts Slot Car News will not publish daily but rather as news becomes available. This may end up being 3 days a week.
I update the site with news from not only slot cars but Formula 1 Honda, Renault, BMW and Red Bull Racing. Also news from A1GP, the American LeMans Series, the Grand Am Series, Super GT Series, the WTCC and other series and teams. I trying to add more news from real racing to offer readers news from real racing as well as slot car racing. As the racing season starts back up I will post often with real racing news as it becomes available.
On Dec. 27 there will be updated news from the Global Proxy Race throughout the day, as I can post it. Photos will be taken as well and updated also during the day...look for extensive coverage.
I'd also like to encourage clubs and individuals to send video of their own tracks or races they have. I can host any video that's sent to me on my space so that doesn't take away any band width from anyone's own server space.
I'm trying to not dilute what I publish by "publishing just to publish". And by allowing a day or two more to put a more comprehensive review or news item together only improves what you will see here.
Rest assured that if I get news I WILL POST IT whether I've already published something that day or not. I like to keep the flow of news as fast as possible to make this a destination for readers to be able to see what's coming out next week or months from now.
happy holidays
Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News
I update the site with news from not only slot cars but Formula 1 Honda, Renault, BMW and Red Bull Racing. Also news from A1GP, the American LeMans Series, the Grand Am Series, Super GT Series, the WTCC and other series and teams. I trying to add more news from real racing to offer readers news from real racing as well as slot car racing. As the racing season starts back up I will post often with real racing news as it becomes available.
On Dec. 27 there will be updated news from the Global Proxy Race throughout the day, as I can post it. Photos will be taken as well and updated also during the day...look for extensive coverage.
I'd also like to encourage clubs and individuals to send video of their own tracks or races they have. I can host any video that's sent to me on my space so that doesn't take away any band width from anyone's own server space.
I'm trying to not dilute what I publish by "publishing just to publish". And by allowing a day or two more to put a more comprehensive review or news item together only improves what you will see here.
Rest assured that if I get news I WILL POST IT whether I've already published something that day or not. I like to keep the flow of news as fast as possible to make this a destination for readers to be able to see what's coming out next week or months from now.
happy holidays
Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News
Honda and BMW F1 news
Honda F1 news...
IndyCar driver Marco Andretti joined the Honda Racing F1 Team in Jerez on Friday for his first drive in an F1 car.
The team offered the opportunity to Marco to drive the RA106 race car in recognition of his achievements in the Honda-powered IndyCar series this year.
Marco began running shortly after 9am with an installation lap, followed by several short runs to familiarise himself with the car and get used to the controls. He completed 33 laps before the morning session came to a close.
Marco was back on track at the start of the afternoon session and continued to steadily improve his lap times as he completed a further 35 laps for a total of 68 laps today.
Marco Andretti
“First of all I couldn’t have had more fun today and it’s a shame that it was only a day! It took me a little while to get used to the traction control and the brakes but once I got to grips with them, the times were more and more consistent. I would like to say a big thank you to the Honda Racing F1 Team on how professional and welcoming they have been this week, and I’m sure that they will have a good season next year.”
BMW F1 news of a different sort....
Hinwil-The BMW Sauber F1 Team has a new super brain. Albert2, presented on Thursday to international media representatives in Hinwil, is Europe's fastest machine used in industry according to the current Top-500 list. Albert2 is based on Intel processors and employed by the team for computational fluid dynamics (CFD). On average, it is about three times faster than its predecessor.
"The powerful Dual-Core Xeon processors perfectly match the high demand on computing power of the BMW Sauber F1 Team. The cluster based on these processors is one of the fastest in the world running computational fluid dynamic applications," said Christian Morales, Vice President & General Manager of Intel Europe, Middle East and Africa. "With the move to Multi-Core we are able to meet the future demand on computing power of the BMW Sauber F1 Team for computational fluid dynamics."
Albert2 is based on Intel technology. It has 256 nodes with two Intel Xeon 5160 processors each, and each of these has two cores. This results in a total of 1024 cores. The capacity of the main memory is 2,048 Gbyte, the maximum computing power is 12,288 GFlops.
To illustrate the point for non-computer-experts, this means that Albert2 is capable of performing 12,288,000,000,000 floating-point arithmetic operations per second. To equal this computing power, all the inhabitants of the city of Munich (1.3 million) would have to multiply two eight-digit numbers every three and a half seconds for an entire year.
According to the criteria defined for acceptance in the Top-500 list of Supercomputers, this data makes Albert2 5.5 times faster than its predecessor, Albert. In the field, though - as with any computer - the software used plays a crucial part when it comes to speed. But even when running the complex programs for CFD calculations the increase is immense: when using the Fluent application, the average performance improvement amounts to a factor of three.
All news and photos copyright Honda & BMW used with permission of Honda and BMW, no reuse for any reason of their content.
Monday, December 18, 2006
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