News

20-03-15 The Bizzarini is on its wheels, with the chassis made. The chassis uses the new design with a movable centre section, as mentioned in previous news it works very well. Having a great big six lane wooden slot car track just outside of ones workshop has its advantages for developing new cars and making improvements. This new resin chassis is first to be developed entirely with feedback from using them on our track. Having this track has made me think a lot more about slot racing in general. Having been a slot racer in the 60s when it was a big hobby for mainly youngsters (and a few oldies). But now it is a relatively small hobby, inhabited by mainly older gents. Many of whom, like myself, have got back into it over the past few years. It will never have the appeal to youngsters that it once had. Computer gaming is just too big and there are some pretty damn good driving games. But we still have a great hobby for us older types. A few years ago I used to belong to a model boat club, mainly old blokes again and they were always going on about bringing youngsters into the hobby. It never really worked, kids would come and have a go once and then off back to their computers. This is probably over generalising but our hobby is mainly middle age men with a real interest in real cars and motor racing. I still think there are alot of old slot racers out there who would love to get back into the hobby now they are around retirement. And have the time and money to spare. This may not bode well for the future of the hobby you may think, but fear not there are always slightly younger people to keep things going. Besides, lets face it, do we want a lot of kids running around and being faster than us. I digress, having the track is a great help to me for developing new cars. I feel there is a balance between scale models and scale slotcars. When I say scale I mean the cars people buy because they look good but never get used on a track, and some sadly never get taken out of the box. Even if they went on the track, chances are they would be rubbish. I do not have much interest in these. My models are pretty accurate but I will modify it to make a better working slotcar. I am making my body shells lighter, most of the time a light bodied car is better on the track. Do not worry I will only go so far, a car still has to look right as well as perform well (place dig at scalex here). The Bizzarini is a good example, it is fortunately a very wide car in full size form but it has a tiny bit added in the middle (as with most RTR cars; including slot it). Wheels and tyres are again an issue, scale wheels and tyres will be narrower and larger on a scale car. How well they grip and how round or true the tyres are is of little consequence. On a good Slot car we will use much wider tyres of a smaller diameter. Grip and how concentric they are becomes very important. This does cause problems when people want advice on what wheels and tyres to use. I can only advise on what I use and that tends to be geared towards a working slot car, on a wooden track. The Bizz is going to be a working slot car. First I want it to work on the track, but fit scale wheels and tyres and you have a bloody good, accurate shelf queen. If that is your thing there is nothing wrong with that, there is a place for everything. I spoke to Sean at Pendle yesterday and they will be making a 19 inch wire wheel. We should have some samples soon. This will be good news for us fans of old GP cars. Photos this week are of the Bizz and the Allard. The Allard will have a bit of strengthening and modification for racing (but still looking good). The last and best photo is of yours truely, dont I look happy. Sunday will be having our four hour endurance race, so hopefully a report on that next week. In the UK this week we had the budget. Obviously the most important thing by far is the price of beer. 1p off a pint, thats sure to keep all us poor people very happy mmm.