Silverstone Visitors Can Now Race on a Scalextric Replica

Soon, visitors to England's famed Silverstone circuit can experience some small-scale excitement by trying their skill on a small replica of the course that will be open to the public next month at the Northamptonshire track’s on-site museum.

 

Constructed by The Racing Room, which designs and builds slot car layouts, a specialized team of modelers built the track and created all the highly-detailed scenery. Currently the impressive layout is one of the highlights of the Silverstone Museum’s ‘On Track’ exhibition, which runs during the Easter holidays from April 1-16. You can read more about the track HERE on Motor Sport.

Avant Slot Looking to Build on Growing List of New LMH / LMDh Cars

I sometimes laugh and tell people I am "All Endurance Racing - All The Time" - which is kinda true - from the early 60's to the present day, I love my Le Mans and IMSA cars. Even with a relatively tight collectors focus like that, there are still so many cars out there...and the growth of 3D printing has put even more of them in reach.

That said, it is good to see that at least one slot car manufacturer has put a flag in the ground and has plans to produce some more of this growing list of WEC / IMSA Endurance Racing cars. I saw this announcement from Avant just recently, and it is an ambitious release list, to be sure. In real life, endurance racing is seeing a huge influx of new (and old) LMH/LMDh participants, including Porsche, BMW, Peugeot, Ferrari, Cadillac, Acura, Glickenhaus and even Vanwall and Isotta Fraschini!

I'm sure some of these cars will be (or already have been) modeled by some of our 3D printing superstars, but it will be nice to see some new products from our slot car manufacturers, too. SRC will be producing a Porsche 919 soon and Slot.it will add an LMH Oreca car as well. That will no doubt be used by many privateer teams, thus allowing a wide array of liveries. Acura is using that chassis, so maybe that will be a car we can look forward to. Let's hope!    

Dazzling Thoughts on Modern Race Car Liveries

In real world sports car racing, there's a lot of excitement about the changes taking place in WEC, IMSA/GTP and the higher-level classses like Hypercar (LMH) and Hybrid (LMPh). With a growing number of manufacturers getting in on the action, many endurance fans are feeling like "the good old days" are again on the horizon.

Over the past few years, as some of these newer cars have shown up as RTR slot cars, opinions have varied in terms of how the cars look. While the modern full-bodied racers may not have the inherent beauty of a Ferrari 330p or the balanced look of a Porsche 962, they still have the curves and overall appearance that endurance fans expect. I still like them, although I an still not a big fan of the dorsal fins! Over the past couple of years I've added cars like the Lola B12s, Ginettas, Audi R18s and Toyota Hybrid, and am looking forward to adding more. The real world cars and manufacturers currently coming on board do vary in looks to a greater extent than they have over recent years. In fact, the new Peugeot 9X8 has a semi-fin and no wing at all!

That said, I do want to point out one factor that really makes a difference in how these cars look - and one which may influence slot car manufacturers as they make future decisions on which liveries to choose for production. Since the many "lumps, bumps and bulges" inherent in modern LMPs often result in a less coherent whole (compared to many older examples) I would posit that liveries which clarify the form and shape of the car make them not only more attractive, but also easier to identify. Take for example, the Porsche 963 below.

I find the result here to be very clean and good-looking; the paint work accentuates the body lines of the car and the overall look is very appealing. In contrast, I present the livery of the BMW M Hybrid shown below. The effect here is very much similar to the old "dazzle" paint that was used to hide the true form of military (and civilian) ships during the  World Wars. The thought was that painting anything like this made it not only harder to clearly identify a ship, but also for an enemy to target it. As you can see, the approach works. The BMW may be an attractive car, but it's really hard to tell with that livery, though it is colorful.

Note how the effect is similar to the old wartime "dazzle" pain [below]

That's just my .02--I'm sure our slot car manufacturers will turn out some beauties either way, but I think that maybe a slightly more traditional approach to race car liveries helps make them easier to ID and a bit more attractive. What do you think?

If Modern Endurance and F1 Cars Don't Drift Through a Turn, Your Slot Car Probably Shouldn't Either.

As I have been getting back into the hobby, it's inevitable that I hear the occasional back-and-forth between magnet and non-magnet racers, I often hear standard lines, like: "non-magnet racing is more challenging" or "Non-magnet racing takes more skill" or "non-magnet racing is more realistic."

First of all, let me say that I appreciate both kinds of racing. People should do whatever they like. Most of my cars retain their magnets because that makes them better-suited for running on my style of home tracks and for my guests (who aren't that experienced). I also primarily run Le Mans-type cars and modern GT cars, and expect them to stick to the track and not "drift" through turns. Think about it. Do you commonly see the back ends of LMPs or F1 cars fishtailing through a turn? Probably not--because the two main factors at play--tire grip and aerodynamic downforce--keep them glued to the track. That is how they are designed, and they are driven according to those principles.

Don't see much fishtailing through the turns here...

I was watching an excellent video about some of the more serious crashes in racing history and how safety has developed over time. At about the 5:30 mark, it provides an excellent explanation of how tire grip and aerodynamic downforce combine to keep race cars on the track, and how--when the downforce is suddenly lost--the results can be catastrophic, as they were in the case of Ayrton Senna, for example. To me, that seems to parallel similar results when a magnet car loses grip at speed. Time and time again I hear non-magnet proponents say: "the problem is, when a magnet car crashes, your car can get seriously damaged." YES. Just like in real racing.

Losing downforce (aerodynamic or magnet) usually has poor results.

To me, the removal of the magnet from a slot car would essentially be the same as removing all the wings and ground effects from a real race car and telling the driver to just rely on their tire grip to stay on the track. Since there are no aerodynamic effects at 1:32 scale, the magnet provides the essential substitute. Not a perfect one, but not bad either. I know many would suggest that simply adding weight (lead) is somehow a more acceptable substitute, but this attitude seems like a tired remnant from the "old days" of wood track commercial racing, before magna-traction was even a thing. Magnets and lead are both artificial--why pretend that one is better or somehow more "legitimate" than the other?

How did we get to the point where it's bad to have a magnet, but perfectly OK to add lead to your slot car?

I came across a forum comment from a magnet racer that said he thought it took more skill to keep a magnet car on the track at high speed--running that razor edge between maximum speed and sudden grip failure. That may be; the conception that magnet racers just plaster down the throttle and watch the car fly around the track is utter nonsense. Can high-speed crashes be bad? Absolutely--so magnet racers must learn how to drive fast without crashing. Conversely, it takes skill to learn how to run a non-magnet car quickly, to tune it for top performance and gain a feel for how it goes around a curve. That can offer its own fun challenges. Both take skill, but different types of skill. But to insist that one is somehow more realistic or takes more skill than the other just doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

That said, I can see where certain types of cars--like American muscle cars, rally cars or some vintage racers--can and should slide around the track a little as they as they come through sharp corners. For those types of cars, that looks realistic, and I would suggest that magnets probably aren't needed. In the end, it all depends how you enjoy the hobby; whether you're racing at home on a plastic track for fun, through proxy racing, or on a routed wood club track. You can take the approach that's required for each one and enjoy it without totally excluding the use of others, or claiming that the one you've chosen is the only "right" way.

Audi Debuts New R18 Race Car

If it's not obvious yet, my favorite types of cars are Endurance Racers and GTs...so I was happy to see Audi unveil their newest Le Mans prototype, the R18 LMP1. The new Le Mans coupe will be the German manufacturer’s weapon as it seeks to claim its 10th win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans next June. Audi says the R18, which replaces the open-cockpit R15 TDI, is a completely new racer.

PHOTO CREDITS: Auto Week.

The car will make its racing debut at the six-hour endurance race held at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit on May 8. According to Audi officials, the decision to go with a closed coupe is purely a performance decision, since their testing has made it clear that closed cars now have a clear advantage.

Of course, any new slot cars of this type are always welcome! The comments regarding the design (at least on some of the slot car discussion boards) have been somewhat mixed; the design is clearly aggressive, but many observers aren't quite sold on the dorsal fin. At least--on a slot car--it would offer a handy spot to grab when you picked it up off the track!

Read more about the R18 HERE.

Now if Carrera Would Only Make THIS Ferrari...

I just came across this on Jalopnik - it's the racing version of Jim Glickenhaus's wicked Ferrari P4/5 - which is currently under construction. Set to compete in next year's 24-hours of the Nürburgring, the car--dubbed the Competizione--will incorporate the suspension and V-8 drivetrain of an F430 GT2 ALMS racing car under bodywork like that of his one-off, Pininfarina-built Ferrari Enzo.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jalopnik.com.

I think this would make an incredible slot car - hopefully Carrera (who owns the current rights to Ferrari) will agree, assuming the car does run at The Ring and hopefully at some other races (LeMans would be nice) as well. While many of the current available modern Ferraris are nice - this would be a real step up, in my opinion.

VIDEO: The Porsche 917 Was Scary Fast

Forty years on, many still marvel at the legend of the Porsche 917. I came across this great video courtesy of Jalopnik, which notes: "The Porsche 917 is what happens when Ze Germans focus all their energy on global domination... in a good way."

Porsche 917 from Mee on Vimeo.

I have a couple of Fly classics in my collection, but watching this really makes me want to get a few more. Still looking for a good deal on a 917 long-tail...