Slotmania! Brussels Promises to be a Fun Event

One of my Facebook friends, Julien Giloteau, reached out to me a while back to tell me about an event he is organizing for next month - SLOTMANIA! BRUSSELS.  He sent me some posters, additional info and some video links to check out - and it's clear that this looks like one of the best-organized events I've seen in a while.

Of course it would be nice to attend but a trip to Europe is not in the cards right now. Regardless, they have lined up not only a number of vendors, but have arranged for some manufacturers to be on hand as well, including Scalextric, Slot.it/Policar, Scaleauto and Avant Slot. They always have some notable folks in attendance, including race car drivers and this year - Adrian Norman.

Julien notes that they are tryinig to expand the event format beyond just the typical swap meet and vendor meet to more of a convention-type showcase. I think they are on the right track. If your close enough, be sure to try and make it. There is also a fabulous promo video out on YouTube - Be sure to check it out HERE.

New Additions to The Paddock: Vintage, Old and Relatively New

Always more holes to fill in the Slot Car Garage, it seems, and the acquisitions continue with a variety of cars that are a few decades old, well over a decade, and relatively new. The first of these is a classic Scalextric Lamborghini Miura - a car I've always wanted but up til now has been a little hard to come by in the US. I've almost sprung for the AutoArt version a couple of times but held off.  This much older Scaley version is a little dated (no separate chassis and the "tupperware" type body) but it was in excellent condition.

The next car on the list was an earlier 2000's MG-Lola LMP. I already had the dark grey and lime green original version, but this blue and white Thetford livery was in almost-new shape and was obtained on eBay for an excellent price. My original car was a superb runner, and I expect this one will be good as well.

Lastly, my other purchase was a Carrera Corvette C8 - this one (like the other grey and red one I own) purchased from Lakota Collectables as a de-digitized analog car with no box. As I really don't need another case and I am analog after all, this offers me some considerable savings.

 

It's a good deal all around, and I'm not the only one who's taken advantage of their approach. Lakota is actually a division of Great Traditions, an online dealer that is known to offer solid deals and excellent service.

 

 

Recent Updates from The SLOT Garage

Been offline for a week or so trying to get caught up at work after my daughter's wedding in Cleveland on June 5th. It was a wonderful weekend that included a rehearsal dinner cruise on Lake Erie, a ceremony and reception in Cleveland's Grand Arcade and lots of dancing, revelry and great fun. Now that the wife and I can "return to our regularly scheduled programming" I have had a chance to get some things organized toward building my next track as well as expanding my slot car collection.

Some very nice additions to the GT stable.

Among my recent acquisitions are three sharp Scalextric GT cars, two Aston Martin GT3s and a Porsche 911 RSR. For the most part, I collect Le Mans-type cars, LMPs, Classics, Group Cs, IMSA, GTP and GT cars, so these fit right in. The Scarlett & Mustard-liveried Aston was my first purchase; I really wanted the black Darell Lea car but could not find one--naturally, it turned up on eBay about a week-and-a-half after I bought the first car. Thankfully, it was at a good price. I like the Proton Porsche, too--although I am a little embarrassed to admit that, as a whole, I've never been a big fan of the whole 911-based body family (GT1 excluded) but the RSR has some subtleties that make it a nice fit with other current GT cars, especially with the right livery, and this is it.
 
One other thing you might notice in looking at these three cars--and this is another secret nitpick--is that I hate black wheels. I know they are dominant in racing cars now and have been for a while, but I never liked the look of a "black hole" inside a wheel well; it just looks ugly and unfinished to me. If I have to, I'll settle for a well-outlined tire (with lettering or a stripe) and even a charcoal-gray or dark pewter rim or wheel...but I always try to avoid black if I can. Of course, with some cars, like a classic Porsche 917, there's no alternative - but I guess that's life.

A couple of classic GT kits for conversion.

I also have a few scratch-build projects/conversions I'll be working on as time allows. One is an old Lindberg Aston Martin DP212 static kit which is not very well-detailed but decent enough to use for a slot car. It's not a commonly-known Aston Martin but was raced at Le Mans in 1962. It will need a lot of work to convert, but it's an opportunity to turn what many might call a sow's ear into a leather purse, if not a silk one. The other conversion project is an Aoshima Toyota 2000 GT snap kit which has all the detail the Lindberg lacks; there are a couple of nice liveries I can choose from, including a Shelby-prepared SCCA racer from 1968 - (see below).

A Busy Month for Slot Car Buying

Having not added any cars to the collection for a couple of years, it seems I've been doing a lot of catch-up lately. Since there are so many choices in both makes and liveries these days, I've probably focused more on those; honestly, modern GT class cars are growing increasingly attractive and varied, while their LMP counterparts seem to look more and more similar.

 

A couple of Carrera offerings lead the pack, with the #27592 Audi R8 "Valvoline" and the #27624 McLaren 720S GT3 "Blau." Both look great. Like all my cars, they are analog. I followed this up with a Scalextric #C3941 Mercedes AMG GT3 "Sun Energy" - which has a really fantastic multi-colored livery and bright orange wheels.

So far, I only have one Scaleauto car, a Radical. I've had my eye on the #SC6053 Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R cars for a long time, and was finally able to obtain one at a reasonable price--from a shop in Spain! Even with the shipping, it was still $10 less than anything I could find on this side of the Atlantic, so I bit. With its silver and orange livery, it's a real looker. Can't wait to see how it will do on the track.

For whatever reason, I missed out on the original offering of MB Slot Pagani Zonda RTR cars. But I was able to pick up this #A0701 white kit on eBay at a very good price. I'm tempted to keep it mostly white, doing some minimal trim painting and adding some race numbers and a few decals only. We'll see.

 

Get Your Weekly Fix with Dave Kennedy's Slot Car News

 As I recently got back into the hobby, Dave Kennedy was a familiar name to me and I was happy to see that he had transitioned much of his presence from his Slot Car News blog to a really amazing YouTube Channel. Dave's original blog has transitioned to more of a commercial racing news source, and the content there is now handled by others (though he retains ownership of the site). Dave now primarily focuses on the 1:32 model slot car industry and provides weekly updates on new models coming out, new products, and other content that will be of great interest to most hobbyists.

If you want to know what's going on in the slot car industry, Dave Kennedy is your man.

With his extensive experience working for SCX, Scalextric and Carrera, Dave knows the ins-and-outs of the industry and best of all, isn't afraid to tell it like it is. He's done awesome videos featuring straight talk on subjects such as brand licensing, model production numbers, the basic differences in chassis and motors, and other topics that people often ask about. He explains why companies like Scalextric and Carrera think like "toy manufacturers" and not "slot car enthusiasts" - and how these factors shape the way the industry creates and sells products. It's fascinating stuff, and it's one reason why I look forward to his Friday uploads.

Besides the latest hobby news, Dave also provides a lot of useful and educational content that will be of use to slot car hobbyists--especially those just starting out. He offers helpful tips on the different brands of track, what different manufacturers have to offer, basic car maintenance and much, much more. While his expertise makes him compelling to experienced slot car folks, he doesn't assume you already know everything--and that's refreshing.

Dave also recently started doing some live-stream chat events, where he will happily talk about new developments and answer your questions. Check him out on YouTube at Slot Car News Official.

Retro Roundup: SCX SRS2 Series Slot Cars 1992-93

My Mazda 787B. I'm missing my dashed stripes... :-(

A while back, I highlighted a few of the Spanish Scalextric SRS (Super Racing Series) cars that I had acquired over the years. Those cars featured an advanced chassis, higher-than-average performance RX motors, and light weight (about 65 grams) to offer a little more to slot racers in the 1980's through 1991. With more of a pin-type guide and a fairly strong magnet, I found them to be excellent performers on my old home track, and were quite fast. While some people have swapped out their original guides for a more traditional type, I have not found that to be necessary to this point.

The XJR-14 in the Castrol (masked "Silk Cut") livery.

In 1992, SCX in Spain took the original idea and developed a new breed, called SRS2. While the original intent of increasing performance was maintained, the newer cars featured hard plastic bodies in place of vacu-formed Lexan bodies and also added front wheel steering to their modified SRS chassis. They also featured a normal guide blade in place of the original series' pin guides, and the tire and wheels were of a more traditional type as well.

The chassis of the SRS2 was a modified version of the original.

While the first SRS series featured a fairly wide range of cars, the SRS2 series included only a Mazda 787B (Mazda and Renown liveries) and a Jaguar XJR-14 (Castrol and Bud Light liveries). With their greater weight (now about 77 grams) they didn't seem to be as quick as the original SRS cars, but still offered good performance. Personally, I did not see much advantage to the steerable chassis, but it wasn't a detractor, either. While not comparable to some of today's more performance-oriented cars, they offered good fun for their time, and with a little tuning could be made reasonably competitive.

As you can see, the front wheels do actually steer. Not sure how much it helps.

My only disappointment is that the Renown-liveried Mazda I have (a replica of the 1991 Le Mans winner) did not include the dashed-line decals that separate the green-and-orange sections of the paint job. Based on photos of the slot car, they should have been included. I've tried in vain to find something in 1:32 scale that could work; being white and clear, the decals are hard to replicate without special printing equipment.

Collection Catch-Up with a Dynamic Racing Duo

 Since I had not been buying a lot of cars for a while (prior to early this year) I find I have to focus on filling some "holes" in my slot car collection. As I am primarily interested in "full-bodied" cars, like Le Mans, Group C / IMSA and Can Am cars, I try to find types or models that I don't already have, or from various slot car manufacturers.

Two more additions to the racing stable. It will be a while before they see track time.

  For example, The Slot.It Porsche 962 with the Copenhagen livery is a nice companion for the Slot.It 956 Warsteiner livery car that I already have, not to mention the much older Scalextric 962s I own, which include a silver Texaco "360" car and a black and red Kenwood livery. Both of those cars run well and are quite fun--though they obviously aren't in the same class as the Slot.Its.

 I love classic Le Mans cars, so it's no surprise I have plenty of Fly Porsche 917s, Lola T70s, Ford GTs, Ferrari 512s and a few others form the mid-60's through the early 70's. What I did not have was a Ferrari P4, which many people consider one of the most beautiful racing cars ever made.

 For whatever reason, I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; too late to get the earlier Scalextric releases at a decent price, and I delayed getting back into the hobby long enough that now the more recent Policar releases are out of stock in many places and prices are going up. Fortunately the newer Scalextric 412Ps are available at very good prices, so I will have to get by with that until I can add a P4 at some point in the future. This car looks great--I'm not a great fan of the sky blue rims on this livery but for now it will do. For the most part, I like my Ferraris red - so this one fits the bill.

New Additions to The Garage

 As I have been "off" from the hobby for a few years, I have some catching up to do in terms of  buying cars and adding them to my collection. I usually tend to buy in "spurts" - where I will get maybe 10 cars over a month or so after not purchasing any at all for 6 months or more, maybe longer.

I will get into a longer post soon about what I buy and why--I have by necessity limited my purchases to "full-bodied" race cars of the LeMans/GT/GTP/IMSA/Can Am etc. classes of cars, primarily from the mid-60's through the present day. It's not that I don't like other types, but I can't afford to buy everything that's out there, so some discipline helps focus my interests.

Here are some fairly recent additions to the Garage.

The purple Ford GT GTE by Scalextric is, in my opinion, the sharpest livery available for this car. I'm sure (due to its color) it will be one of my wife's favorites. I was pleased to add the Ginetta to my group of more recent LeMans prototypes; as a group, the modern cars are not so aesthetically pleasing--with all their lumps and bumps and fins--but I still like them. The SCX Renault Sport RS is a car I've had my eye on for a long time--the Megane in a similar livery seems to be everywhere but this one is not quite so common.

Overall, these make some nice additions to the stable and I'm looking forward to running them!

Hornby Apparently Derailed by Olympics Setback

Shares in Hornby lost more than a third of their value on Tuesday after the maker of model train sets issued its third profit warning of the year.

The owner of the Scalextric, Airfix and Corgi brands warned that an expected sales boost from the Olympic Games ran out of steam, as cash-strapped consumers shunned its London 2012 scale models of black taxis and double-decker buses.

Hornby, whose Olympics-related products included a £20 Team GB cycling velodrome Scalextric racing set, said: “Faced with lower-than-expected sales, major retailers resorted to deep price discounting. [read more here]

Waiting for the Scalextric Lola Aston Martin

As modern Le Mans prototypes are among my primary collecting and racing interests, I have been anticipating getting my hands on the new Lola Aston Martin LMP1 from Scalextric. This is the car that ran at La Sarthe in 2010, and it was initially announced that it would first be only available in a special 2-car collectors set, along with the DBR9 GT1. While I wouldn't mind having another Aston Martin DBR9 (especially since the Ninco one I recently bought is such a dog) I was glad to hear that the LMP will eventually be available by itself later this year.

PHOTO CREDITS: Scalextric

It's a great looking car - especially in the Gulf livery, and if it runs anything like the other Scalextric cars I've purchased over the years, it's bound to be a favorite.

Video: How to be...The Model Dad.

Yeah - this video is kind of silly - but in a good way. Truth be told, a lot of us probably ARE this dad....but involving your kids in your hobby is a great way to build a strong family relationship and ensure that your children are doing something other than playing video games.

Thanks to Modelzone.uk for posting this on YouTube.

Scalextric Super Racing System (SRS) Cars

They are not easy to find now, but the lexan-bodied Scalextric SRS cars were not only good performers, but for many years, they were the only game in town in terms of more exotic endurance racing cars like the Lancia LC2, Nissan R89C and the Peugeot 905. Now that some of these cars are (or will be) available in high-quality hard body shells from manufacturers like Slot.It, LeMans Miniatures and others, we have options that look a little better and offer more durability. Nevertheless, these cars from the mid-80's/early-90's still look quite good, perform well, and still have significant value for collectors. The chassis are super lightweight, and the strong motors and lexan bodies deliver excellent racing performance. These examples are in very good shape, sans the obvious yellowing of the Lancia Body, which was originally pure white. I've seen some that are still nice and white - so I don't know if this one was exposed to too much sunlight or perhaps had been clear-coated...with something.

If You Look Close Enough, You Can See Slotcars in this Photo

I came across this, uh...interesting...bit -- courtesy of The Sun online. They delivered a nice video and slideshow featuring Page 3 beauties Sam and Mel, showing off Scalextric's Quantum of Solace race set. Though the set nor the photo feature are new, I hadn't seen them before, so I thought I'd post a photo here.

PHOTO CREDIT: thesun.co.uk.

To see the rest of the photo slide show, and an accompanying video - check it out here. Who says slot cars aren't sexy?