1August 2004

EditorBrian Rogers

27 Paige CloseWatlingtonKing’s Lynn

NorfolkPE33 0TQ

Tel/Fax:- 01553 813090e-mail:- editor@nscc.co.uk

Trade AdvertisingAdrian Leggett

RosevilleWestwood Lane

NormandyGuildford

SurreyGU3 2JG

Tel:- 07773 967333between 09:00 - 18:00

01483 810102 eveningse-mail:- sales@nscc.co.uk

ContentsSwapmeet..................................2Diary Dates................................3Messages From Margate............5Traders Travels..........................9Ebay Watch.............................10Ninco News..............................11Improving On A Classic..........13Letters......................................16Bits And Pieces.........................18Achtung Panzer....................19Duck Soup...............................20SCX Review.............................25Norman’s Conquest.................29Circuit 24.................................31A Plasterer’s Tale.....................34Power To The People..............37Adverts...................................39

NNNNNOOOOO.269 A.269 A.269 A.269 A.269 AUGUSTUGUSTUGUSTUGUSTUGUST 2004 2004 2004 2004 2004

Twelve minutes to the hour

It is July 15th 1989 and we are standing near the exit of Copsecorner at Silverstone during the final hour of qualifying. The turbo

era is at its peak; all the front runners have completed their first runon qualifying tyres and have put banker times on the board.

As we approach the final quarter of an hour there is a flurry ofactivity as everyone goes for their last shot at pole. Then, with exactly12 minutes to go, a red and white McLaren with the distinctivehelmet of Ayrton Senna emerges from pit lane. You could set yourwatch by him - barring mechanical problems he would always makehis final run at the same time. An expectant buzz surges through thecrowd - they can see the white stickers on his final set of qualifiersand the smoke haze reminiscent of a horde of angry bees trailingbehind the exhausts - the sure sign of a Honda turbo on full boostpushing out in excess of 1300bhp.

The cheers follow him round the warm-up lap but, as he crossesthe start line for the hot one, the crowd fall eerily silent and prepareto savour a few brief moments in the presence of a racing genius.He is through Copse in a blur of red and white before we have timeto blink but we can hear that unique Senna throttle sound all the wayround the lap. There are other cars on the track but they part likethe Red Sea as Ayrton storms to yet another pole position and, as hecompletes his slowing down lap, we are surrounded by people withsilly grins on their faces saying, “Wow!”

If I could have my own personal ‘Groundhog Day’ then it wouldforever be mid July in the late 80s at Silverstone and 12 minutes tothe hour!

And Finally - fast forward to Silverstone, early July 2004 - 21alleged F1 drivers trying to go slower than the rest in pre-qualifying!Ayrton must be spinning in his grave. Thank heaven for JensonButton - a true racer and the only one to go for it. I wonder whichslot-car manufacturer has had the foresight to acquire the B.A.R.licensing rights?

Till next monthBrian

2 www.nscc.co.uk

by Rob Smith

The focus this month has been very muchon people – well 1/32nd scale peopleanyway. We have seen the first pit crew

sets and several street cars containing new driverand passenger figures in civvies rather thannomex racing overalls.

Starsky and HutchC2603A Starsky and Hutch / Limited EditionC2553 and C2553A Ford Gran Torino 1976

C2602A Chevrolet Corvette 1969C2603A Starsky and Hutch twin pack is in thesame size display box as last year’s GoodwoodGT40 trio, decorated with images from the old70’s TV show, not the recent film. The FordGran Torino is available in C2603A as C2553Asport version and is also available separately asC2553. The base for the standard crystal casehad to have the slot lengthened to accommodatethe Torino which only just fits in the box. ➳

3August 2004

The Corvette is available in C2603A asC2602A sport version and is not availableseparately. The chassis has been updated to usethe latest guide and braid disk. Both of thesechassis contain the fittings to convert them toDigital versions at a future date. Set versionsC2553W and C2602W will be available in setC1137 Starsky and Hutch Set. A special versionof this set with a different track layout will besold in Marks and Spencer stores.

Street carsThere are street versions of several of the classicAmerican cars this year.

C2573 Chevrolet Camaro ‘SS’ street carThis is in red with two bold white stripes fromfront to back. Of particular note is the very finetampo printing of the badges and fine whitelining around each wheel arch. It also featuresnew chrome wheels, windscreen wipers and awing mirror not seen on the racers.

C2574 Mustang and C2575 Corvetteare also released but as mine haven’t arrived yetI will describe them next month.

C2478 Porsche Boxster “Red ‘04”The first of the budget priced sports cars to bereleased is the red Boxster. Decorated with twosilver stripes and a Boxster script it looks good.The front and rear lights are printed and thereare no windows. Designed to withstand brutaltreatment these cars should be popular with theyounger enthusiast. The Porsche is in a new boxtype too. This is predominantly purple with theyellow and black chequered decoration. It has arigid cellophane window rather than Perspexand it was quite hard to remove the car withoutdestroying the box. The car is held in place withthe familiar knurled screw and also two pieces ofplastic coated wire.

4 www.nscc.co.uk

C2607 Subaru Impreza getaway carThis is only available in set C1147 Hot Pursuit.In a vivid orange fading to purple colour schemeit has mirror finished flashes up the sides.Disappointingly it has blacked out windows andblack light lenses. I wonder why as it would lookso much better with an interior and lights andthe set is not cheap at around £80 in the shops.

The set also contains C2488W Ford Focus“Police Car”. This is identical to the solo releaselast September. The set is an X2 layout 5.32min length.

Race+ set accessoriesAt last some modern figures to work on yourScalextric cars. The new Race+ Set Accessoriesare a very welcome addition to the range. Thereare two different sets of figures each available ineither blue or silver Nomex. These are alsobundled with the new livery Indy Cars.

What we have is as follows:C8291 Race+ Pit Crew blue and C8292 Race+Pit Crew – silver; each contains eight figures. Sixof them are a tyre crew and two are refuellerscomplete with rig and hose. Two spare wheelsare also included.C8293 Race+ Pit Crew - blue and C8294Race+ Pit Crew - silver; each contains 10figures. These are the same six tyre crew asbefore and four general mechanics completewith a jack.C8302 Race + Pit Team – silver contains C8292

figures and C2600W Indianapolis silver.C8303 Race + Pit Team – blue contains C8293figures and C2601W Indianapolis blue.

These very attractive Sport decoratedDallara Indy Cars are only available in the newRace+ combination packs of car and pit figures.

These new Race+ items are nicely packagedin purple and yellow boxes with stiff cellophanewindows and bold Race+ Set Accessories script.They will be eye catching on the retailer’s shelf.

KitsSeveral of the Hornby branded plastic kits arealso available. These are the versions withoutpaint and glue:K2007A Ford GT40 JW Automotive GulfK2009A Chevrolet CorvetteK2011A Mini Cooper John Cooper Challenge

An interesting variation is K2006 FordGT40 Plastic Kit. This is identical to K2007with paint and glue but is in completely differentpackaging. It is being sold in Marks and Spencerstores branded with a strange circular logo andthe letters BT as well as the familiar M&S logo.There is absolutely no mention of Hornbyanywhere.

Track sectionsThose of us who attended the NSCC Hornbyweekend 2003 were shown a new track piecedesigned to provide a much sturdier bridgestructure. This has now been released as C8295Elevated Crossover. This comprises of two halfstraights each with two large circular lugs oneach side. Together with 4 pillars one piece canbe positioned above the other either at 90degrees or in the same direction.

Coming soonNothing new to report this month that hasn’talready been mentioned but with the Index andArgos catalogues due by the time you read thisthere may be several new items to discover soon.

If you find any variations in any of theseitems, or hear of any new specials please let meknow so we can share our knowledge. ■

5August 2004

Traders travelsBy Robert Learmouth(Westwood Models)

Orpington swapmeet in early July provedthere was still space for more events inthe calendar. Though I have to say my

personal view is that with Swindon (and anotherOrpington event) coming up either side of theturn of the year we now have enough events forthe time being.

Orpington had over 150 paying gueststhrough the door and, as with Slough, the vastmajority of faces were totally unfamiliar ‘on thecircuit’. With the wide choice of events now onoffer there would seem to be a trend towardsregionalised events. Prising people off the virtualworld of eBay and into the real world ofswapmeets was one of the prime aims of havingmore events and in my view this is beingachieved with a high degree of success. I haveonly two reservations. It is becoming hard workattending all these events as a dealer and with ayoung family it is becoming difficult for mepersonally to do so. Apart from the usual smallhard-core of dealers at nearly every event Isuspect others feel the same way. But perhapsthis is a good thing to mix it up a bit. My otherconcern is that the event calendar is very fataround the September-November area with lessgoing on in the first half of the year. This willend in tears unless organisers sit down and areprepared to move dates around, perhapsdrastically so if required. Evesham will not bethe only casualty otherwise and I have a nastyfeeling the next one could also be an NSCCevent unless we all get our heads together.

Not to be outdone by Scalextric, SCX andCarrera, good old Ninco have also announceda digital system. No details known at this timebut if I was Mr Ninco I would have observedthat Scalextric, on paper, are currently winningthe race and I would be asking to license thetechnology from them. If I was Mr Hornby Iwould be saying yes to help squeeze out SCXand Carrera.

The new Scalextric budget cars are nowamongst us. The Boxster is every inch a toy andunlikely to catch the eye of serious collectors butlet’s remember us lot are the tiny minority andI would expect Hornby to sell bucket loads ofthese at 15 quid each to their mainstreamcustomers. It’s also interesting to note that aDigital set will be produced with these cars. Itseems a strange marriage but I would guess thisis being done to make the technology availableas cheaply as possible to new entrants.

The great eBay price slide is showing signsof stabilising. A red reissue 1980s Bugatti asfacilitated by Steve De Havilland fetched £580.Earlier in the year bidding stumbled around atabout half of this price for one. A black ‘Perris’Bugatti fetched £570 although to the best of myknowledge Graham only produced his cars inblue and red. With the base apparently injectionmoulded I suspect this was the model producedaround the same time with a genuine test-shot80s base and resin top. I stand to be corrected.An NSCC Race Weekend GT40 fetched £400so the money is still out there for the right stuff.■

6 www.nscc.co.uk

Ebay watch…..By Tony Frewin

A quiet month on eBay; guess it’s theholiday season and people would ratherbe relaxing with a beer in the garden

than sitting in front of the saddo monitor…cheers to that!

Highlight of the past month was a pair ofScalextric vintage Bugattis, well nearly but notexactly…….. Perris and de Havilland (sorrySteve, but that’s what everyone knows them as)Bugattis actually.

A very nice MB black replica Bugatti (resintop and pukka ‘Scalextric’ underpan I under-stand) went for a heady £570.

The red mint deHavilland Bugatti (completebodyshells from the Scalextric original mould inred/yellow/green, were commissioned by StevedeH. in the 80s) went for a reasonable £580.

I don’t buy many new Scalextric releasesthese days but the Starsky and Hutch FordTorino caught my eye last weekend and I had tohave it for its sheer size! It just fits in a standardbox lengthwise and is sooooooo wide. TheMotorbikes look good too, but at £30+ each, no

thanks. After the initial minority interest, I thinkthey’ll sit on the shelves at that price; try £19.99Hornby and don’t be so greedy!

I’ve not had much time to view eBay, buthere are a few random sale results from the pastmonth (note the last two items; how prices canfluctuate for two almost identical cars) :-SCX83170 Lancia ‘R6’ MB 36ScalextricF40 ‘Liverpool’ MB 38CK1 Cobra made up – nice VGB 156B1 typhoons yellow and blue VGB 126 pairReplica Bugatti black MB 570‘de Hav Bugatti red M 580ExinFerrari GTO Espanola white M 69FlyBMW CSL & 320i set 96034 MB 77Ferrari 365GTB Mini auto l/e MB 75C69 Ferrari green French VG 205E4 Ferrari green French VG 81Happy eBaying! ■

7August 2004

From Peter Solari

Digital revolutionJust before going to print this month, I receivednotification of Ninco’s venture into DigitalTrack. This new digital system is due to belaunched next year and will enable several carsto compete on the traditional two lane track.The decision to venture along the digital routewas only taken after extensive market studiesand with development already underway, thenew Ninco Digital System will soon be a reality.

Compatibility is the fundamental objectivein this project and Ninco’s aim is to offer a newalternative to be used in conjunction with theirexisting range of track and vehicles. They arekeen to point out that this is not a break awayfrom their successful system but more “abroadening of the slot spectrum”.

New ChampThe second livery for the Reynard Champ Car(50341) will soon be on the shelves. This latestdecoration is, in my opinion, the most striking ofthe CART/Champ Car series produced so far.It is be based on the 2003 “Corona” sponsoredWalker Racing team car piloted by RodolfoLavin. As with other Champ/CART and F1cars, full front wheel steering is featured. In placeof the Ford Cosworth power plant, an NC-5Speeder motor is fitted and grip is supplied bywide rear slick tyres.

3rd 934; 1st G4, 7th 197724hr...

Now let me explain the subheading; Ninco’sthird offering of the Porsche 934, replicates theGroup 4 winning car, seventh overall, from the1977 24 hour Le Mans. Once again, the manresponsible for steering the real one to victorywas Bob Wollek - widely regarded as the bestPorsche driver, ever! Predominantly white withblue roof and bonnet, the simple “Burton of

London” graphics depict an amusing pin-stripedriver-figure painted on each side of the car,creating an x-ray effect of the driver. This 934shares the same NC-5 motor as the two earliermodels and is also fitted with all round “Pro-Shock” suspension. Oh, and just two morenumbers of interest… the car’s race number was58 and the Ninco reference number is 50334.

Let’s Off Road!As more and more Raid track sections becomeavailable, the range of Raid cars also increases.Next to appear is the totally new BMW X5(50343) produced as a 4-wheel-drive off-roadvehicle to compete with the Mitsubishi Pajeroand Ford Ranger. Finished in a beautiful mid-blue, this Sachs sponsored X5 comes fitted withall the Raid features such as ProArm drop guide,Proshock suspension and NC-7 Raider motor.

Fast and furiousTwo new Subarus are also due for release soon.Both cars are painted in the same “Imola”orange/yellow colour scheme but from theoutside the only difference is that one of them isa “muddy effect”. A quick peek under the bodyshell shows the real difference. One is ProRacespecification, fitted with hardened axles, ballracebearings and NC-6 Crusher motor - that’s thefast one. The other has standard componentsfitted, identical to those in the 2003 Turkeymodel. But what’s this? All that lovely hi-glossfinish has been covered in mud. When the paint-shop sees that, they’ll be furious! (Referencenumbers are 50344 and 50346 respectively).

Special offer detailsThanks to all those members who registered fordetails about the special Ninco Club Car offerlast month. Final details will be with you verysoon. ■

8 www.nscc.co.uk

It was back in 1995 when Fly appeared in themarket place with their first model, theDodge Viper. It took the slot-car world by

storm – up until that time no-one had seendetailing on a car like this, and the Viper notonly became a marker point in the history ofslot-cars, but very soon became the most popularFly car of them all. To date, there have been 35versions of this model, with the latest two onlyrecently having been released after a majorchange in the design of how the model is puttogether.

Of course, the Viper body has changed alittle over the years, and extra detailing has beenadded, but none of these changes have been tothe extent of the two current models. The firstof the new releases is the A84 Chrysler ViperOreca, which also was released as part of one ofthe now infamous ‘Team’ series making threeversions in all. The last one, the A205 Valencia2004, is a stunning livery and has carried on theFly Viper tradition in style.

The main difference though with thesemodels is the chassis and the way it fits on thecar. Firstly, lets take a look at the overall shape.

As you can see, the rear of the chassis is nowstraight with the rear bodywork curving under tomeet it. Also, on the old design you will noticethe large magnet holder. This has been thebiggest problem over the years as being so lowmeant that it will catch on the slightest of ➳

Improving On A ClassicBy Aaron Foord

(Gaugemaster Controls)

9August 2004

non-flat connections in Plexytrack, causing thecar to stop just for a split second and puttingextra strain on the crownwheel. Eventually it willsimply shred its teeth or the driveshaft will popout of its mounting. On the new design, this areais flatter and so the whole chassis has a slightlyhigher ride height. The magnet is now fittedfrom the inside of the model and can easily beremoved if required. The guide sits in a smallrecess, and has a greater degree of turn than theoriginal models.

The rear of the chassis is longer and doesnot curve upward in the same way as the olderone. This will help prevent de-slotting. The olderdesign also had the side exhaust outlets mouldedto it and this was an integral part of the chassisfixing to the body.

On the newer cars, the exhaust ports aremoulded onto the body itself. The new chassis isalso designed to take the new racing motors, andthe motor sits further back, helping with theoverall balance of the car and helps prevent rearend slide. This also gives more stability to thedrive shaft and drive shaft mount in the chassisitself. Lastly, the new chassis has a slightlynarrower and slightly shorter wheelbase, makingthe model more accurate and nearer the originalreal car.

10 www.nscc.co.uk

On the body, the model is available withboth types of rear wing, additional air vents havebeen formed each side to the rear of the cockpitand the cockpit has full interior detail.

All these changes mean that the sparespreviously available will not fit the new Vipers,so make sure that you get the right spares foryour vehicle. The older ones are still available,but there is a complete new range for the A84,A205 and beyond. There are some others duefor release before Christmas, and Fly have justannounced their schedule from now up until theend of December. As you can see, we do nothave all the details yet but as soon as we get moreinformation I will print it in a future article.Otherwise, lock up your wallets – Fly arecoming through!!

JulyA412 (88121) Porsche 908 Flunder LH whiteand blueTeam 08 (96042) Team Alfa Romeo-Spain 147A782 (88114) Alfa Romeo 156 ETCC RubertiyellowE684 (96048) BMW CSL ArtCar Calder inspecial boxC89 (88117) Porsche 917K Martini silverFly 25 (07039) Capri racingC73 (88118) Ferrari 512S Coda Lunga metalfinishTruck 51(08028) MAN Webasto blueA671(88136) Ferrari Daytona street versionyellow

AugustC94 (88119) Lola T70 Toad Hall blueA77 (88120) Porsche GT1-98 Warsteiner white

SeptemberA206 (88113) Dodge Viper IGOL-Festina blueTeam 09 Team Ferrari Daytona Thompson LMA655 Ferrari Daytona Thompson LM whiteand redFly 44 Lola Racing R new rimsA625 BMW 320 ETCC A.GarcíaTruck 32 Mercedes black and siilverA685 BMW 3.5 CSL metal finishS300 Viper Special Edition for 2 million unitsmade

OctoberA207 Dodge Viper FIA GT 03 #18Truck 71Buggyra CEPSA-FLY Jarama 2003redA207L Dodge Viper FIA GT 03 #18 with lightsTeam 10 Team Autodelta Alfa 156A783Alfa Romeo 156 ETCC 2003 AutodeltaredE83 Viper 10th Anniversary of InterkitsA801 Alfa Romeo GTV Osona 76 red/white

NovemberA 15 Venturi tiled finishTruck 72 Buggyra blueA901Porsche 911RS LM Keyser yellowA802 Alfa GTV BertoneS81 Porsche 917K Compte Rossi silver (box)E901 Porsche 911 MasSlot magazineFly 45 Lola racing RLM 02 Porsche 917K Mickey LM DisneyLM 03 Ferrari 512S CL Donald LM Disney

DecemberA208 Dodge Viper LeMans 03 #68 black-redTruck 52 MAN TR1400A656 Ferrari Daytona #64 Minter-ChinettiAlfa TV Alfa Romeo 147 GTA TV CameraA961 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000E685 BMW CSL Art Car StellaA931 Porsche 911T Montecarlo 70 redFly 45 Lola racing RA185 Ford GT40 ■

11August 2004

Sir,Having read your remarks in response to myletter in the July issue, I thought I should expandmy original comments. Having waded throughreams of corporate nonsense over the years,brevity is attractive, but perhaps ‘pants’ took it tothe extreme!

The cornering abilities of the bikes are poor.Lo and behold! Hornby announce on theirwebsite on 9 July that they are introducingadditional weights for the stabilisers to help withthe cornering problems. This dressed up withpatronising spin about handling characteristics!What’s the point of them being blistering in astraight line when they can only corner at acrawl? The majority of the club members herein Jersey have been racing for over 20 years andthe consensus has been ‘great looking product,poor on track’. Can I assume that these weightswill be issued free to those of us who havepurchased units already?

In order to improve handling, the unit coulddo with a stronger magnet or perhaps the setscould be sold with 100 ohm resistor throttles inorder to soften the power application. (Yes, oneof our members is an electronics engineer!).Also, on a minor point, the stabiliser scraping onthe track is yet another annoyance, albeitunavoidable.

I am also concerned at the impact of thisproduct on newcomers to the hobby. If I wasstanding in Toys ‘r’ Us, thinking of buying a firstset and paid good money for the Moto GP set,then I’d be hugely disappointed and unlikely topursue the hobby further. As NSCC members,we need to consider that we have an ageingdemographic for the hobby and there is a need

to attract and retain new, younger enthusiasts.Poorly performing product like the Moto GPbikes is not the way to do it.

Personally, I do not believe that Digital is theway forward for either Hornby or SCX. I standby my ‘dodgem’ comments. I have no problemwith the pursuit of new initiatives, but are the‘hard core’ NSCC enthusiasts sounded outabout some of these developments? If so, it’ssurprising that Digital and Sport World wereenthusiastically received.

A quick improvement that Hornby couldmake is to their Rally Cars. How many WRCRally Cars these days are two wheel drive?Provide proper 4WD shaft driven units like theSCX equivalents. There’s a simple productdevelopment for starters that would improve theSlot-car experience. Another is to give us properrace tuned cars via their ‘Sport’ branding andnot charge us an extra £4 for a chassis badgeand an opaque blue box.

Hornby cars do not perform well withoutmagnets unlike their SCX or Ninco competitors.A substantial amount of alteration is required tomake them work well and the magnets seem tomask a number of poor handling characteristics.A proper racing equivalent (aka Fly) of theirstandard models via the Sport branding couldperhaps find following amongst the club racingfraternity?

We pursue and enjoy an expensive hobby, ifI pay £30 for a poor product then my VictorMeldrew side will emerge. I genuinely believethat Hornby can improve more on some of thebasics before providing the grand gestures.I am, yours etc,Richard Painter

12 www.nscc.co.uk

Sir,I’d like to reply to the letter from Phil Lanhamin the July issue. I do not know Phil but I find Ialready hate him; he has reminded me of howlong I have been messing with model cars!

He asks if anyone recalls racing on theClarendon circuit - The first national finals wererun on the track - it was built for this event. Allthe area finalists (Sports and GP) of the (then)ECRA came together in London to decide whowould be National champion in 1964.

I ran a Ferrari 375mm carved from balsa, ithad been very good in the area heats so Ithought I was in with a shout, how wrong canone be! I was up against the likes of RobPhilpott, Barry Adams and Allan Hedley - I gotroasted! I’ll get you next year I thought, but in65 we took on the Beckenham Bombshell, butthat another story.

A thing that stood out on this track, in theinfield was a model of a guy flying a control lineaircraft that rotated! I can’t remember if itworked on finals day, probably not. As for AlexGee’s clothing, you must remember this was pre-thong days; it was considered “not on” to appearwithout shirt and tie at such an event.

On a sadder note, looking through thenames that were there, many of them are nolonger with us. I wonder what they would thinkof today’s racing. One guy is still with us, that’sJoe Dutton; a few months ago he reminded mehe had to take me to task for shouting at themarshals at the Clarendon track, things ain’tchanged much over the years!

I am, yours etc,Mac Pinches..............................................................................Sir,I’m trying to get a new slot car club off theground in the Cardiff and South Wales Valleysarea. The club is called Valley Slot Car RacersClub. We meet every other Thursday at 7pm atthe Van Community Centre in Caerphilly.

Open to all 1/32 scale cars, the track isScalextric sport two lane. We have a new layoutat every meeting based on famous circuits of theworld. Please phone 029 20868584 or email meat robertowenprice@hotmail.com

I am, yours etc,Bob Price

13August 2004

BITS & PIECESD.I.V.O.R.C.E

When bidding on a Scrapyard Sale Auction oneBay recently, I read the description to find outmore about the item. Unfortunately, it givesmore information on the couple’s marital statusthan the pile of bodies in the digital photograph;

“Here we have what’s left of my wife’spatience, it goes or I do; so I hope it’s of use tosomeone or I’ll need to buy a suitcase. All thecars at the back are runners, some of the othersdon’t go any more and I’m no longer allowed tofix them because we have a new table! There aresome spare engines that are new and a shed loadof body shells and other running bits. There aremore axles than I can be bothered to count.Please feel free to ask questions. I will also beselling some cars very soon, so keep checkingback.”

The least I could do was start the bidding ata pound to guarantee the poor guy a sale.

Stephen Daniel

SCX Mini offerGareth Jex has received a reasonable quantity oforders for the Vintage SCX Mini - providingthere isn’t a last minute rush everybody willreceive one. Delivery will not be until midSeptember so please be patient.

Happy Birthday to EricAndy Carmichael’s Father, Eric, recentlycelebrated his 80th Birthday - does this makehim the oldest member of the NSCC?I have a Ninco Punto available as a prize foranyone prepared to admit to the greatest agewhile still playing with toy plastic cars!

Advert timeA Renault advert featuring Circuit 24 submittedby Don Siegel. The French tagline is: “As man getsolder he doesn’t abandon his dreams, he perfectsthem!” This also shows that for a certain agegroup, Circuit-24 is as much a part of Frenchboyhood as Scalextric...

14 www.nscc.co.uk

Every club seems to have one, the racerwho is friendly and pleasant away fromthe track, but with the beast lurking

inside! They tell you it’s “just a bit of fun”, butare seized by “slot rage” the instant they get theirpaws around a hand throttle. They scream at theslightest hesitation by the marshals and nocollision is ever their fault. If the race has gonebadly, you learn to avoid Mr Hyde for 10 or 15minutes until the affable Dr Jekyll re-emerges.

Imagine then the delight next time theycome round to lap you. They have to waitthrough the bend as you’re a little too wide topass. Once onto the straight they accelerate pastyou. Then that look of smug triumph turns todisbelief as a ball of flame engulfs their car andthey have to wait until the molten lump ofplastic that was their super duper Slot EmperorWizard Thingy has cooled down enough to beprised from the track.

You see, I’m having to lie low at themoment. I recently found a few vintage itemsthat have been on my “most wanted” list forsome time. Unfortunately, this involved spendingnot only this month’s purchasing budget, but thenext three months’ as well. Still it could havebeen worse. If I’d eaten my words on Fly specialeditions and succumbed to the temptations ofthe beautiful T6 yellow Ferrari on sale at theAshford swapmeet, I wouldn’t have beenallowed out of the house again until 2006! As itis, I’ve further strained the marital patience (andthe breaking strain of our bookshelves) byacquiring 40 years of Motor Sport magazines.

So I’ve had to find something to occupymyself that doesn’t involve spending money. Anideal time to start tackling that shelf ofuncompleted projects you say. The only problembeing, that once I know I’ve got all the bits, I tendto regard the project as completed and am farmore interested in getting the bits for the nextproject, than completing the current one. But asspending money is out, I thought I might haveno option but to break out the allen keys andspray paint and get on with it.

However, as anyone who’s worked with mecould tell you, my motto is “sometimes I sits andthinks…... and sometimes I just sits”. So a farbetter prospect soon emerged, working out thedetails of one of my fantasy projects.

Yes, a slot-car tank! However, not just anytank. I’ve seen one before, I think it was one ofJon Sword’s models used on the TV series wherehe built all the tracks and scenery used in theirchampionship. I felt this wasn’t nearly extremeenough. What I wanted was something thatwould really make a statement, something thatwould allow the underdogs to fight back!

So, there’s a company that makes radiocontrolled 1/32 tanks which should be a goodstarting point, a cigarette lighter could providethe flame, all I need now is the means to providea puff of air to direct the flame down the barreland I’m there.

And people say I’m just bitter because I’ma crap racer! ■

Achtung Panzer!By Steve Westby

15August 2004

Regular readers may remember that Inormally tell of my travels to eitherEvesham or Paris. This article is a little

different; it is the tale of my travels to the 2004Bordeaux vintage slot race held on June 5th and6th.

To recap, about 4 years ago, a man calledSamy Beraha decided to organise a “vintage slotrace” in the town of Bordeaux. The idea was torace only old cars, and most importantly, to havefun doing so, I seem to recall that the first eventwas won by a Polistil car! Now ably helped by anAmerican in Paris (also known as Don Siegel),Samy organises a very friendly meeting everyyear. The rules are simple, all cars to be pre 1968and built from pre 1971 slot parts. Points areawarded as follows: 50% for the “Concoursd’élégance” and 50% for the racing. Both 1/32nd

and 1/24th cars are catered for.Way back in 2002, David Lawson and I

decided to attend the 2003 meeting - we evenbought 1/24th plastic kits to convert. Alas, mydaughter decided to get married in May 2003and by January of that year, it was obvious thatI could only cope with one major ordeal in ayear. Sadly, I had to cancel attending theBordeaux event.

This year was different, David and I weredetermined to attend; we did the rounds of allthe known and unknown models shops in theLondon area looking for that elusive unusualmodel that would stand out from the crowd.

After months of faffing around with variouscars, I settled for the Bruce McLaren CooperOldsmobile (also known as the Jolly GreenGiant) starting from a 1/32nd Beta Classic fibre-glass body, and a 1/24th Monogram Chaparral2D kit that I started building immediately. I evensent away to Professor Motor for a reproMonogram chassis and a mighty 36D motor. Atthe Paris swapmeet in March, disaster struck: Isaw a Monogram 2D next to a Cox 2D, it wasobvious that Mr Monogram had got it verywrong, the kit is quite inaccurate.

On our return to the UK it was back to thedrawing board. Fortunately, the Cooper wasprogressing fine if somewhat slowly. I had arummage through my collection, and came upwith another great looking car: a very old 1/24th

Strombecker Scarab plastic model, (also sold byMPC).

Work progressed on the Cooper, all thedetails were scratchbuilt, and the car was testedon the club track. It turned out to be easy todrive, thanks to its Pittman motor and Atlaschassis, as recommended by Phil Smith. TheScarab was painted, many of the detail partswere built, and a K&B chassis was chosen, butotherwise it made little progress, the cockpit areaproving quite troublesome. With a week to go,the Cooper Olds was more or less ready, whenshown to Derek Cooper and Phil Smith at theLiphook swapmeet, they both remarked that thecockpit would need reworking, and a decentdriver needed fitting. Phil kindly agreed to sendme a Maxi-Model driver he had.

Alas, at this stage David Lawson had to pullout. With three days to go I had done the workon the Cooper and totally rebuilt the interior; aspromised, Phil’s driver turned up. Annoyingly, itwould have required too much surgery to fit inthe Cooper so a Ninco driver was bullied intoimpersonating Bruce McLaren.

I was still waiting for transfers for theScarab, and had by now decided that my firstchassis choice was inadequate, I tried to fit a Coxbrass chassis instead of the K&B (more room forthe cockpit you see).

With no transfers and no cockpit, it was backto plan B. Grab a 1/24th car from my collection,and rush prepare it.

Luckily, I had a nicely painted HasegawaFerrari Dino built about seven years ago andmounted on an equally nice Cox Iso fulcrumchassis. A few details were added for goodmeasure, and it was fitted with a mean Muragroup 12 motor; when tested it promptlydemolished its gears in three laps. Just to be safe

Duck SoupBy Joel Thura

16 www.nscc.co.uk

(who wants to be stuck in Bordeaux with nogears?) I fitted it with a Revell 26D instead anda new set of gears.

I packed all the small bits and tools I couldthink of (including plenty of spare gears), andflew to Bordeaux alone on the Friday afternoon.

I arrived about 4pm, went to the hotel, metup with Phil Smith, Derek Cooper with sonJamie and Phil’s American friend Brad Blohm.We walked to the track for a quick look andpractice session.

The Bordeaux club is based in an indoorTennis club, it is a bit of a dark dungeon, butthere is plenty of space. One room with thetracks and bar (this is France after all), a secondroom with all the competitors/traders tables,and a long, long, long, corridor with the Dragstrip.

Both tracks looked tricky, the 1/32nd has avery sharp unsighted corner under the bridge!The 1/24th track is painted with gloss paint, andI found it very slippery, but otherwise nice andflowing.

In the evening, we met up with the rest ofthe English contingent (Ralph Parker withdaughters, and Eddie Grice with wife anddaughter) and went to the Irish pub, followed byan Italian restaurant!

Saturday morning, bright and early, we allwent to the track with a hangover and startedpractising. We met with Scottish Gary who haslittle racing or modelling experience, but madeit with his girlfriend all the way down fromGlasgow! The atmosphere was really friendly;everyone was borrowing tools, motors, tyres etc,from each other or helping with spares andadvice.

One thing was very noticeable though, the1/24th cars were all better looking than my rushprepared seven year old Dino. Also, on the track,the thing was just fishtailing everywhere with nogrip at all! One of the reasons was that I had notsanded the treads off my tyres; I was running ➳

Joel’Joel’Joel’Joel’Joel’s Concours winning Cooper Oldsmobiles Concours winning Cooper Oldsmobiles Concours winning Cooper Oldsmobiles Concours winning Cooper Oldsmobiles Concours winning Cooper Oldsmobile

17August 2004

on Ortmann 1/24th Scalex repros just as theywere. I think foam would have been moreeffective! The car was also jumping out of theslot too readily. Over on the 1/32nd track, theCooper Olds was behaving itself very well, notthe fastest but safe handling, and looking aroundat the other cars, although a little dull in colour,it was on par with most for the Concours, thecharacteristic organ pipe exhaust attracting a lotof attention.

As I came back to my table, Phil was all ina tizz, his 1/32nd car had lost a headlight for thesecond time that day. We all searched the floor,his table, the floor again, but to no avail. Onlyone thing for it, shape one out a bit of clearplastic. I cut a strip out of an Evian bottle, and,in about ½ hr shaped another headlight. Usingthe first one as a template, I cut a second one,which Phil sanded down to its final shape, gluedboth to the car, and it looked much better thanwith the original toy like items.

As lunchtime came, Derek, Phil and Jamesdecided to go for a pizza, in spite of the cheapmeal made available by the organisers. Iprotested that they had to sample the localcuisine, at which point James Cooper said, “I betits bloody duck, its always bloody duck!” Well,

yes, as it happens it was duck salad followed byduck breast. Off they went, and I tucked into mysmoked duck and gizzards salad topped by duckliver pate (Foix Gras to you erudite people),promptly followed by duck breast with sautéepotatoes, washed down with a glass of decentBordeaux, all for about £4. Brad, who hadstayed behind, ordered himself the same meal,gulped it down and exclaimed, “ I have triedmost French food, except Foix Gras!” Well Brad,you have now!

In the afternoon, I sorted out the Dino; theproblem was that the body was mounted tootight on the chassis. A bit of soldering later, andthe car was really smooth, still no grip, but nowI could keep it in the slot.

We all got ready for the Concours judging.I was marking the 1/24th class, and as I wentalong the grid, it was obvious that some carswere actually using handling bodies, 20% widerand longer than they should be, and about 40%lower. The wheels on some cars were also muchtoo small and wide, no wonder that duringpractice some guys were lapping me every thirdlap! One car in particular was a stunning model,all perfectly to scale with the most amazingdetail I have ever seen on a slot-car; alas the

Many people had brought along DrMany people had brought along DrMany people had brought along DrMany people had brought along DrMany people had brought along Dragsters and hotrodsagsters and hotrodsagsters and hotrodsagsters and hotrodsagsters and hotrods,,,,,

the drthe drthe drthe drthe drag strip provag strip provag strip provag strip provag strip proved ved ved ved ved very popular with the kids throughout the weekend.ery popular with the kids throughout the weekend.ery popular with the kids throughout the weekend.ery popular with the kids throughout the weekend.ery popular with the kids throughout the weekend.

18 www.nscc.co.uk

wheels were clearly wrong, what a shame tocompromise such a beautiful model with thewrong wheels. There were many really nicemodels, including a 1950 Talbot Lago withheadlights and cycle wings. Scratchbuilt bySamy from a Heller kit, including the underpanwhich kept all the chassis and motor hidden, itwas hopeless on the track against all the 60s cars,but what a brave move, totally in the spirit of themeeting. Quite rightly, Samy won the 1/24th

concours.Marking done, we all went down to a hotel

for the evening meal and auction, and guesswhat was on the menu? Well duck of course,what else? I began to think that perhaps Jameswas right.

Come Sunday morning at 8 o’clock sharp,we arrived for the racing. After about ½ hr, thelights went out, total power failure! Someonemust have been using a seriously high currentmotor.

Eventually, the man from EDF turned upand reset the circuit breaker, all worked well forthe rest of the day.

We found out the result of the concours, andI am proud to say that my Cooper Oldsmobilewon the 1/32nd class (by only two points mind),over in 1/24th, the Dino was 15th, which is justabout all it deserved. Winning the 1/32nd

Concours made my day, I could have gonehome there and then.

We got on with the racing, starting with 1/32nd. I was in the second batch, and the Cooper’shandling allowed me to put in some good laps,➳

!/24th Concours winning T!/24th Concours winning T!/24th Concours winning T!/24th Concours winning T!/24th Concours winning Talbot Lagoalbot Lagoalbot Lagoalbot Lagoalbot Lago

19August 2004

I only fell off a couple of times in lane two andfinished 20th with 107 laps, which is quite goodconsidering my skills.

Once all the 1/32nd drivers had taken theirturn, we had a brief stop for lunch, and you’ll beglad to hear that there was no duck on the menu.

Now for the pièce de résistance, “proper” 1/24th slot racing on a painted wooden track (notsomething I have ever done before) just like youcan read about in all those old 60’s magazines.

Slip sliding away I went, the German guy inmy heat was lapping me every third lap. But Iwas not last by far, many other people had worsecars than mine, or they were pushing too hardand falling off. The system is that all racers runin every lane in succession, this means 8 heats onthe trot without stopping! By the last heat I wasunlapping myself from the German rocket, hisfoam tyres were gone, mine were just warmingup! Sadly, I can’t tell you where I finished,because I had a plane to catch and could notwait for the prize-giving ceremony.

Samy was kind enough to work out theoverall result for 1/32nd before I went, and,adding Concours and racing together, I finished7th, one point behind Don Siegel. Samy gave mea big trophy, a Tee shirt and a decent bottle ofwine to take home! You should have seen thelook on the face of the security man at Bordeaux

airport when my hand luggage went through:Trophy, cars, spare motors, modelling knife etc.He insisted that my luggage should go in thehold because of two small screwdrivers I wascarrying, so I left them with him. Mind you hisyoung assistant was very impressed by thetrophy, I felt like Michael Schumacher on hisway home after a day in the office.

I will return to Bordeaux next year, it’s abeautiful city, Samy and Don are nice guys, thewhole event is friendly, the racing is great, andthe Concours result made all the months ofscratchbuilding worthwhile!

Why don’t you give it a try? The trick is todo what the other British racers do, combine itwith a short family holiday, send your partnerand/or kids shopping whilst you are racing, andafterwards spend a couple of extra days in thesouth of France. With all the cheap airline ticketsfloating around, cost need not be a problem.

A cheap holiday, sunshine, shopping, lots ofslot racing; and all the duck you can eat, whatmore do you want from life? In the meantime,you can see more pictures on our club website:www.ssrcworld.com

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some cars toprepare for next year’s event. ■

A typical grid in the 1/32 classA typical grid in the 1/32 classA typical grid in the 1/32 classA typical grid in the 1/32 classA typical grid in the 1/32 class

20 www.nscc.co.uk

When I was offered the chance to testout the new SCX Champ Car partof me was thinking, “Hmm- another

single-seater slot-car to race”, and another partof me was thinking, “ What on earth are theseChamp Cars?”! Whilst F1 cars are lean meanracing machines this one looked like it had eatentoo many hamburgers and should book a stint atWeight Watchers!

So off I virtually trotted to the wonderfulworld wide web and the land of Google to learna little more about single seater racing fromacross the Pond.

I’m still not clear, but I think there used to besingle seater racing called by some acronymwhich evades me!

Then, in the land of the free and the rightto choose (and the land of the wish to make ahuge profit), some people thought that theywould like more money and so there becametwo separate racing series – both of which seemto be struggling to continue – F1 take note.

The Indy Racing League and Champion-ship Auto Racing Team series are basically twoversions of the same thing which are thenabbreviated to IRL and CART to make thingseasier to understand! The main difference beingthat IRL cars run purely on ovals while CART/Champ Cars include road and street courses ontheir schedule as well. Somewhere in the mix isa series called Indy Lights – which I thoughtwere a low tar cigarette!

There seems to be a sudden influx of IRLand Champ Cars from various manufacturerswhich I think is a good thing as they providemodel racing cars with different handlingcharacteristics. Also, if they are similar toexisting modern F1 cars then the benefit is thatyou can race different liveries and pick out yourcar amongst the blur.

I know there are a number of readers wholike some background information, so this iswhat I have found about the car and the driver.

Oriel Servia has raced in Indy Lights andFormula 3 and drove for a trial period with theVisteon sponsored Patrick Racing team in July2002 and was re-signed for the 2003 series.

This SCX model represents his 2003 carand the first thing that struck me is the overalllack of sponsors plastered all over the car – thismay be because it is less expensive to race in theUS or more money is given by the main sponsor– or, as I suspect, there are too many cars for thenumber of sponsors.

The car is predominantly orange with awhite broad band along the side advertisingVisteon (who have a wonderful website writtenin marketing-ese but were part of Ford once andprovide bits for cars) and a white spoiler at thefront and rear.

The cockpit area is well detailed with a ¾length figure in red and white overalls, red seatbelt harness and the yellow and red helmet – Iassume depicting the Catalonian area of Spainthat Oriel hails from. ➳

61440 Champ Car “Servia”Reviewed by Jamie Coles

21August 2004

The rear spoiler is very similar to F1 cars butat the front looks like two sets of kitchen steps!Clearly a lot of down force is required whenturning corners in CART racing.

This front spoiler seems only attached bytwo small plastic heat welds and my concernwould be that if it breaks then the Supergluewould be needed.

The next impression of the car is the size –of the side pods. These remind me of the 70swhen the F1 racers would fill up for the day andpower off down the track for a couple of hoursand not come back into the pit apart from tyrechanges.

PerformanceOK next step - put the car on the track and seehow it goes. Yep - the strong vari-height magnetpulls the car to the track - reminiscent of myfavourite F1 car at the moment - the SCXJaguar.

I find with SCX cars that even out of thebox they react fast to the throttle and reach theirtop speed soon and then hold on well. On mylocal track - which has two long straights and Ssand then a twisty infield this is an ideal set up.For longer top speed circuits it may not be.

Also the SCX engines tend to be a little stiffat first but copious WD40 and switch cleanerand oiling of the wheel bearings soon sorts themout.

On my home track (a mix of new SCX andold Classic) – which I just use for checking carsout – the Champ Car scuttled away down theshort straight before entering a tight corner andthen accelerating out along the fast part of thetrack which is basically three sides of a oblongwith 90 degree turns.

The infield part of the track is a bit twistierand has a 180 before the short start finishstraight. I only had to reduce the throttle slightlyin order to negotiate this for the completion ofa lap.

After a few runs I was getting more confidentand even after a few “offs” I had the time downto 7.2 seconds which is just faster than the Jag.Wow!

The other good thing was that despite somehairy off-road experiences the tail and frontspoilers look fine. Next, the bit I hate doing but,for a comprehensive review, I have to “lift thebonnet” or in the case of slot-cars “unscrew thebase”.

22 www.nscc.co.uk

OK, so turn the car over and straight awayit can be seen that the springy guide that turnsthe front wheels has a longer than normalcolumn of plastic – so no more cases of the littlestub coming detached during racing and the carnot steering correctly.

One slight concern, only in terms of qualitycontrol, is that between the bodywork and thechassis there is a slight gap where it bends roundin front of the driver - but that could simply bebecause my sample was left in my car on a veryhot day before running it.

My other worry about the three antennaeand the two driver mirrors being lost duringracing again proved to be wrong.

The next bit was to try and detach theunderpan from the chassis and I admitteddefeat. I was able to take out the three screwswhich held the chassis to the bodywork and alonger screw than normal at the front.

The rear of the upper body un-hooked fromunder the chassis by the rear spoiler and at leastallowed me to peek in at the gubbins inside!

SCX’s now standard copper tape from theAuto Return System (the acronym still appealsto my schoolboy sense of humour!) of the guideruns along the floor pan to the …..

What’s this?..The back end with the motor and rear wheels isall loose and floppy… surely that can’t be right..quick, where’s my receipt!!

Phew. no problem – this is the same set upas applied to the new Dome. SCX call it arocking body – but it’s really a rocking engineand rear axle - in effect it means that the reardrive assembly stays true to the track with lessloss of traction during cornering.

The rear axle also has rounded rear busheswhich self-centre the axle.

This would explain the ability to take thecorners a lot faster than I thought possible. Alsoit looks like the motor is a new one, an RX42 –which I presume means it is faster than theRX41 – but I don’t know by how much.

So in conclusion the SCX Champ Car is anexcellent car in terms of performance and mydoubts about the front wing were unfounded. Iwould have liked to run it on a bigger track butthere wasn’t time.

With the wheel base being the same as theJaguar but with a slightly wider rear axle – andwith the “rocking” engine, I shall race this in thenext magnet F1 class as sadly there don’t appearto be any others about to be released and theSCX Jaguar can have the night off. ■

23August 2004

Norman’s conquest –revisited

Norman Griffiths – who oversaw Scalextric

production from 1964-1971 – recalls the

development of the all-in-one chassis

unit that powered the C5, C6, C8, C9 and C14

cars.

PPPPPaul Straul Straul Straul Straul Strange range range range range reporeporeporeporeportststststs

Part 7: the power sledgeTo fight increasing competition from other slot-car manufacturers during the late 60s, theScalextric management team were not adverseto innovative ideas from the factory staff. In fact,they actively encouraged it. “Lines Brotherswere very keen on suggestion boxes – ideas fromthe shop floor,” says Norman Griffiths, as wecontinue our discussion at his home inBroadstairs, Kent. “And it was surprising someof the reasonably realistic ideas that came fromthese people who weren’t supposed to knowanything about anything.”

Norman thinks it’s more than likely that thePower Sledge – the all-in-one drive unit whichfirst emerged in 1968 on the C5 Europa Vee andC6 Panther – originally stemmed from an ideaplaced in a staff suggestion box. Designed tohandle supremely well, the sledge cars wereprimarily aimed at inexperienced drivers,enabling them to race the cars straight out of thebox with the minimum of spins and crashes.The cars were deliberately included in the bigfour-lane sets, because the whole family –particularly women – would find them easy todrive. Today the thinking behind this may seemsomewhat naff and supremely sexist, butScalextric were keen to increase family sales ata time of falling demand. And, in an effort todisguise this philosophy and to attract moreexperienced racers to the product, in thecatalogues they touted the sledge as a state-of-the-art, high-performance design.

“The sledge would have been mentioned atone of the suggestion meetings that we used tohave between the sales, the development and theproduction people, chaired by a senior director,”says Norman. “This, by the way, seemed to bea Lines Brothers’ thing because Rovex – thetrain people – had these meetings as well. Thesales people would know what they could sell,the development wouldn’t care a monkey’s –they’d just develop it – and ideas would be tossedon to the table. Occasionally these things wouldgo to development, we’d have another look at itthen. And, in the case of many items, they wouldcome to fruition and would be produced.Development would do the bulk of the work onit up to a point where production would takeover. It’s one thing for someone to make a one-off on development. Then we’ve got to discussit for tooling for large-scale manufacturing.”

A clever and innovative design, the sledgeused a number of specially modifiedcomponents. “It had a modified RX motor [theE8]. The pole pieces were obviously new, thearmature shaft was longer and the carbonbrushes were smaller. There was a mouldednylon gearbox on the drive end. The power tothe sledge was provided by a metal pinion on themotor shaft driving a nylon moulded crowngear. The bulk of the sledge was made in-house,apart from the bought-outs, which would havebeen the metal pinion, the armature shaft andthe magnet – similar to most of the bought-outitems with the RX motor.”

It’s known that spare Bugatti bodies wereused in the original testing (see June 1996Newsletter), but Norman suggests that trainbodies may also have played their part. “I recalla number of bodies being used on the sledge, butnot the Bugatti. The sledge would virtually goround on its own without a car body! You couldput anything on top of that – even a locomotivebody if you could achieve a method of holdingit on! The sledge was a good design because it ➳

24 www.nscc.co.uk

held the track. It hinged from the back, youclipped it in and you could almost change bodiesat a pit stop.”

With its sliding, adjustable pick up, thesledge was capable of being fitted into a varietyof F1 bodies. The initial Panther and EuropaVee bodies were in-house designs and latervariants were updated by fitting aerofoils. Thesewere soon overshadowed by the more-detailedand desirable Lotus Indianapolis (C8), FerrariV8 (C9) and Matra MS11 (C14). Unfortunatelyall of the Power Sledge cars had vulnerable, verythin windscreens, and today it’s quite hard tofind good examples with screens fully intact.

But the sledge car’s main fault was its lack oftop-end grunt. In “A Look Behind The Scenes”(February 1994 Newsletter), it was suggested thatthis was because the prototype vanished duringthe first week it was on display at the the Tri-angshowrooms and the production version neverquite had the same performance. Norman hasa more practical explanation.

“The main problem was the drive. Thesledge was a heavier thing to start off – in otherwords, when you operate the hand throttle,there’s a lot more resistance than on an ordinaryScalextric car. The pinion was metal and on theinitial start of the car, the torque or surgerequired to start the vehicle, instead of turningthe crown wheel, stripped the teeth in thatposition, similar to the problems we encountered

with the early Formula Juniors. It’s quite possiblethat we may have modified the armaturewindings to slow down the power of the motorin order to overcome the problem of the gearstripping. You’ve got to remember that the RXmotor would drive a model railway engine,pulling anything up to 30 or 40 trucks from astanding start. Fair enough, you’ve got a differentdrive on the Scalextric RX motor, but at thesame time, it shows the power that could go intoit.

“I think it was quite possible that the originalprototype was faster because the gear strippingproblem didn’t occur on it. With a stroke of luckyou might not shear that one. When you makejust one, you have no variation. When youmould a thousand, it’s possible that you getvariation in the teeth depth and all sorts ofthings, so therefore you’ve got to modify thepower in order to accommodate the problemsthat arise in multiple production.

“What we did find with the Power Sledge, ofcourse, was there was much better roadholding.The sledge cars were aimed at younger driversand families, and this was why we perseveredwith it, despite all the initial faults. The cars wereeasy to drive and the roadholding was so muchbetter – the ladies of the family could also havea go!” ■

Next month: the 1/24th seriesNext month: the 1/24th seriesNext month: the 1/24th seriesNext month: the 1/24th seriesNext month: the 1/24th series

25August 2004

It was only around for about twelve years,with a baker’s dozen cars to its credit. ButCircuit 24 is still the generic name for home

slot racing in France, like Scalextric in England.Circuit 24 entered the French market in

1961, four years after Scalextric’s debut in theUK and a year prior to the official launch ofScalextric in France. In other words, the marketwas ripe for the taking. And in the minds ofmany a 10-year old boy in 1962 it did just that.But Circuit 24 was to fall by the wayside like somany other home racing sets, although leavingmore of a legacy – at least in France.

300 km/h in your living roomCircuit 24 was launched by “Usine à Idée” (partof a company called Les Jouets Rationnels), laterknown as Idé France, then Société Idé. Rightfrom the start, they played the French card: theirads claimed “300 km/h in your living room,”followed by: “The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1/30 Scale.” However, the first car to be releasedwas a better known Italian one, the Ferrari TestaRossa, which would eventually be available infour colours: red, blue, green and the very rareyellow.

Right from the start, the Ferrari Testa Rossa setthe tone: Circuit 24 did not attempt to makeracing cars in miniature, but rather toys in thebest sense of the word: colourful, rugged, withreal character, and, to top it all off, noisy as hell!

Following their own quirky path, this Frenchcompany chose not a normal DC rotatingmotor, but a huge AC vibrator; that is, anelectromagnet, ratchet and pawl arrangementnot unlike a huge door buzzer. And it made thesame incredible racket – heaven for little boysand hell for parents. You haven’t lived untilyou’ve experienced a 6-car Circuit 24 race, theclosest thing in miniature to a real Le Mans start!It was basically the same system as Aurora hadintroduced on their little HO cars in the UnitedStates the previous year (derived from theunsuccessful English Playcraft system). But inHO, the vibrator motor made sense because itreally saved space. According to DominiqueJouët, the son of the inventor of Circuit 24, hisfather spent six months developing this vibratorsystem, and chose it so the car would duplicateas closely as possible the sound of a real motor.

The second year of Circuit 24 would see theintroduction of its most emblematic (andcommon) model, the DB Panhard – still the onlymodel of this car in the world of slot-cars. TheFerrari was also released in a “Super-Competition” model, featuring a “hotter”winding, and above all a mechanical brakingsystem – a tacit admission that the C-24 cars hadno brakes to speak of. (The Panhard, Type-Eand Ford GT were also released in competitionversions.) ➳

Circuit 24 – Scalextric,French Style!

By Don Siegel

26 www.nscc.co.uk

1963 would see the appearance of two ofthe rarer C-24 models, namely a Go-Kart anda Cooper F1 which was closer to 1/24 scale. TheCooper would only be available for a year,making it undoubtedly the hardest model in therange to find. The French factory offeredCoopers in red and green, while a blue one wasproduced in England (see below). The Go-Kartis not that rare, but is a good-looking modelesteemed by collectors. Also coming out thatyear were a very ordinary E-Type Jaguar and aPorsche Abarth, also the only slot-car of thismodel.

In 1967 came the first new Circuit 24 carsafter a very dry patch: a Ford GT40 and a MatraJet. The GT40 was the first, and perhaps onlyC-24 car to come with decals. But in 1966 thecompany took a small detour, releasing the“Grand Prix de France” set under a new brandname, Fanacourse, with two 1950’s style FerrariF1 cars, this time with conventional DC motors.

In 1969, the company finally added twomore cars, a very ugly Ferrari P4 and a decentChaparral 2H – very hard to find with its wingintact! Its ultimate releases came in 1971-72, aMatra 650 barquette, only with the Buehler DCmotor, and a Porsche 917, in white, red oryellow.

The end of Circuit 24 is a little vague. Themain plant in the Paris suburb of Suresnes seemsto have closed in 1972. Production of Circuit24’s line of 1/30 cars came to an end in 1973.But German company Carrera bought theCircuit 24 brand, and a plant was opened inDrancy, in eastern France. This plant turned outfour fairly well detailed Formula 1 cars in 1/24scale, a BRM, Brabham, Ferrari and Lotus, verysimilar to Carrera’s own cars. Production haltedin 1978, as the Drancy plant was closed andL’Usine à Idé filed for bankruptcy. The Circuit24 brand name still belongs to Carrera.

On trackThere are many curious aspects to the Circuit 24story, but one of the most striking is that theyseem to have paid more attention to accessoriesthan the cars! While Scalextric was coming outwith a full line of cars, adding to the rangealmost every year, Circuit 24 offered a numberof different tracks and accessories, but new carswere few and far between. Even in 1966, Frenchboys had to pretend they were winning Le Manswith a Testa Rossa or Panhard.

Circuit 24 eventually offered 6-lane racingand a generous supply of accessories, not tomention various versions of the cars: the Super-Competition models of course, but also the “S”series, which just meant a “silent” DC motor,

27August 2004

and also a lane change pack with two diode-fitted cars plus a mechanical lane-changesection. The vibrator type motor was relativelyfast for the time, but made a lot of noise, andneeded constant adjustment. Furthermore,tuning was limited to these adjustments. Youdidn’t need to add weight, because these carswere already the heaviest mothers on the track.

While the marque was established in itshome country, it had more difficulty in otherlands. It was released in England under theMeccano brand from 1962 to 1964, as well as inthe U.S., although with even less success.

Horses for coursesThe “Idea Factory” did have one last idea up itssleeve, however. In 1965 it introduced Tiercé 24,a horse and sulky slot racing set that won the“Oscar” as French toy of the year. It is by nearlyuniversal acclaim the most successful set of thistype, as the horses’ legs moved realisticallythanks to fine wires. And it was promoted by

Leon Zitrone, an announcer synonymous withFrench horse racing at the time (“tiercé” meansthe daily triple, and the set included papermoney and all the betting accoutrements). But asgood as it was, you wouldn’t bet the company onTiercé 24.

All in all, Circuit 24 was inimitably French,and a noble failure that added a phrase to theFrench language.

Acknowledgements:This article was, in large part, based oninformation in the article “Circuit 24” byFrédéric Remise in the French monthly “La Viedu Jouet”, June 2001; the book “Le Circuit dansle monde de la collection” by Emile Standart;research by Marius Thollon-Pommerol; andemail exchanges with Dominique Jouët. A bookon Circuit 24 by the latter is scheduled to comeout in early 2005; he can be contacted at (33) 0607 01 94 95, or circuit.24@free.fr / http://www.Circuit24.com) ■

28 www.nscc.co.uk

Back in March 2003 they said, “You won’tnotice we’ve been here.” The nowfamous (well, in my head anyway) Silver

Hatch circuit resides in the mother in law’s spareroom. One day the landlord rang and informedus that he was going to replace the old windowswith a brand new set. The downside of this wasthat the circuit would have to be covered up forthe fortnight or so that it would take to completethe job. No problem with that, I would use thespare time to perform some maintenance on thecars and other small jobs that I had been putting

off. While fitting the windows they discoveredthat the walls were falling away and that theywould have to be re-plastered.

Again no problem – we covered the circuitand removed the majority of the buildings andthen sat back and waited for them to finish. Thesummer came and the summer went. Finally onSeptember 1st, a full 6 months after they startedthe job was completed.

Now imagine my dismay when we took thecovers off and found the scene below.

Loadsamoney – a plasterer’stale

By Ken Elston

29August 2004

No way were we going to be racing in thenear future. However, after the initial shock anddisappointment wore off I went into positivemode and decided that this was a gloriousopportunity to re-build the circuit. A rebuildrather than a new layout was decided on becauseI have nearly 700 cars all with their ownqualifying times and I didn’t fancy having to re-qualify them all again! Little did I know.

The first step was to assess exactly what wasneeded and would it require much funding.There were two areas of the track that I feltneeded completely replacing, the elevatedsection and the straight underneath it.

The red and white run off borders neededcleaning and re-painting. The buildings neededat least a clean, in some cases a complete repaintwas necessary. I also decided the boards wouldbenefit from a complete re-paint.

I was fortunate that the other four membersof the club agreed to split the costs with mebefore I began the work so that at least wassomething I didn’t have to worry about.

The second step was to decide how to goabout the task. To keep from dying of boredompainting or washing I took the decision to splitthe track into sections and process each one inturn. I had read a review in the Journal of thePlebys Track Cleaning kit and was impressedenough to give it a go.

I was able to spend about four hours a weekworking on the circuit and the picture belowshows the progress I had made after four weeks.The section in the middle is the new elevatedsection composed entirely of the new Sporttrack.

As mentioned earlier the red and white trackborders were individually washed and painted sothat they regained their original look.

Two types of track borders were used, theoriginal white version for the bends and elevatedstraight sections as they are more likely to stopa speeding de-slotted missile and the modernones for the flat straight sections. The picturebelow shows the completed bend at the end ofthe back straight.

The biggest advantage of constructing thecircuit in sections was that the power supplycould be checked every time a new section wascompleted.

On the 15th December the moment of trutharrived. As you can see from the followingpicture one last connection was to be made andthe track was complete. Life is all about timing,completion and a fortnight’s break from workneatly coinciding! ➳

30 www.nscc.co.uk

Now the trouble started. I placed the car onlane 1, pressed the controller and off I went onone of the slowest, most slippery laps I have evermade around a Scalextric track. My jaw hit thefloor, four months hard work had led to theultimate driving experience – slot on ice. Anovelty I grant you but I doubt it would evercatch on?

On close inspection the “Goodyear Eagle”tyres on the car had gone rock hard. I checkeda number of other cars and the results were thesame. The next logical step was to use one of mynew cars – I had still been adding to mycollection in the time when the track wasinaccessible. Better grip but still way off thepace.

Here’s some examples from my qualifyingtimes database recorded on the old circuit.

Scalextric Jordan Peugeot 8.468Scalextric Parmalat Brabham 10.065Scalextric Saudia Williams 10.475

Compare this to the times set on the new circuit.

Scalextric Jordan Peugeot 9.995Scalextric Parmalat Brabham 13.332Scalextric Saudia Williams 13.842Scalextric Compaq Williams 10.255

The Compaq Williams car was straight outof the box. I would have expected times similarif not a tad quicker than those recorded by theJordan and a lot faster than those recorded bythe Saudi Williams in 2002 but as you can seethis was not the case.

So what had caused this situation? In thecase of the tyres I feel the extremely hot summermust have contributed in some way. I don’t know

for sure as I am not a tyre expert. I would begrateful if there is someone out there who couldconfirm it.

As for the track I remembered reading in thePlebys review that the cleaning fluid would makethe track more slippery; however this could beremedied by wiping clean with a damp cloth. Inaddition I had read in the Journal theadvertisement for Ortmann tyres – could this bea practical and financially viable solution?

The tyres arrived and were placed on aHornby Parmalaat Brabham. Would there bean improvement? The Brabham was 3 secondsa lap slower than it was on soft “GoodyearEagles”!

I contacted Colin Spark who supplied thetyres and outlined the problem and he suggestedsanding the tyres. I did this for a while, howmuch do you do? The results were astonishing- a whole second’s improvement on the averagelap time but still 2.3 seconds away from theoriginal time. I sent the results back to Colin andwondered if perhaps I had inadvertentlyreceived a dodgy set but he assured (andconvinced) me that his tyres were OK and thatthe problem was with the track. So back tocleaning I went.

At the same time I contacted Adrian atPlebys and reported the problem to him andalthough sympathetic all he could advise was tokeep watering the track as each time more andmore of the fluid would be diluted.

To date I have done about 10,000 timed lapssince the circuit rebuild was completed.

So it’s now March 2004 and I’m engaged incleaning, sanding and more tests.

Our season was due to restart on April 29th

– how would it go? ■

31August 2004

As regular readers of our Journal mayknow, since my retirement in 1997, Ihave run a 55ft two lane Scalextric track

in my spare room for the benefit of myself anda few friends who come round a couple of timesa week to race in our various championshipseries.

The competition is consistent and intense,time having not yet dulled the desire to win in allof us. Our standards tend to be high and ourrequirements, although not pedantic, are verydemanding (on second thoughts maybe they arepedantic).

If anything goes wrong with the track, or ifany type of improvement is needed, I bear thebrunt of complaints, trying as best as I can tosort out the many (or few) rantings and ravingsthat come about. As I think I have said before inprevious articles, old farts we may be but we stilllike everything to be right.

Over the years that we have used the trackthere has been a big increase in the number andvariety of cars (and consequently engines) thatwe race. Different classes of models haveevolved, many having more powerful motorsand Magnatraction than the original oldScalextric Mabuchis and bar magnets ever had.For instance, how many of Ninco’s current issueshave the NC1 motor installed irrespective oftheir initial age and racing history?

Generally, most slot-car racing motors needabout 1 amp output per lane, but if in a case likeours, you have several classes of differentlypowered cars, some with very powerful enginesyou may need 2 amps plus (some really fast carsused on commercial circuits use even more).

Each lane of our track was originallypowered by a Hornby C912 wall mountedtransformer with approximately 13 volts and anoutput of about 1 amp which, when we firststarted, was sufficient. Additionally we used (andstill do) a DS lap counter with its own 12 volt

transformer. All three of these were plugged intoa four gang individually switched electricalsocket.

Of late it had become glaringly obvious thatthe demands being put on this system haveoutgrown the capacity of the power supply -after all these Scalextric transformers are reallymeant for table top use with boxed sets.

Over the years we have gone through acouple of these units per annum - a total ofsome six or eight and at £9.50 a time (including.VAT and carriage) they were proving to beinconsistent not to say costly.

As slot-car motors become more powerfuland are pushed to their limits with lots of speedand magnetic downforce two things can gowrong - either the motor can burn out or, as inour case, the transformers themselves can go ‘offsong’.

In theory the higher the voltage the fasterthe car, but that assumes an adequate supply ofamps and herein lies the problem. The voltageof the C912 is generally sufficient but as statedearlier the output is about 1 amp. This proved tobe just not good enough for some of our cars.Power would drop on any lane where therelevant transformer ‘went off ’; surges of powerwere commonplace and the inconsistency of theperformance that the C912s were producing wasgiving us serious problems let alone frustrationand anger at making our pleasure of racing acomplete farce.

Cue PendleSo as is usual when in a slot racing dilemma Ispoke to my friend Sean Fothersgill of PendleSlot Racing and after an informative chat wedecided on a more powerful, reliable powersource. I purchased an Eagle EP 907 DCregulated power supply. This has a volt variablerating and a variable output of up to 6 ampsmaximum. It also has two glass fronted meters➳

Power to the peopleBy Tony Secchi

32 www.nscc.co.uk

to show exactly how many volts and amps arebeing used by each car. In addition there are twofixed 12 volt outputs for track-side accessories.Young Nick at Pendle Slot made me up a greatset of gold plated connecting leads and we werein business.

The power pack is more expensive than thetwo C912 transformers but as we had bought sixor eight of these along with the extension socket,the price of the Eagle EP 907 was compatible.Like all regulated power sources it filters out theAC current and delivers pure DC current to thetrack.

DigressionAs we all probably know, voltage is electricalpressure (or current).

The amp is the rate of electrical flow - thehigher the amperage the greater the rate of flowand therefore power (think of a river with awaterfall).

The ohm is the unit of electrical resistance- the lower the ohm rating of your controller thefaster your car will go.

So, a pressure of 1 volt acting against aresistance of 1 ohm causes a current of 1 ampto flow.

Without going into too much detail it isknown that AC current will ‘alternate’ as itsname implies) first in one direction and then inthe other between the North and South poles ofthe magnet. The use of a switch changes thedirection of the current so that it is drawn in onedirection only. This is direct current or DC.

A dynamo generates AC current althoughthe output is DC (a one way current). Thischange is brought about by the commutator,which acts as the switch. A power pack usesdiode bridges to get the same effect.

End of digressionOnce installed we were delighted with the effect.We can now power both lanes and the DS lapcounter direct from the power pack. We havedone away with the wiring clutter and spaceconsumption of the four gang socket, the threetransformers and a mess of connecting leads.We have plenty of consistent regulated power,no track troubles and smoother, faster, morereliable cars. Even more importantly, if a cardoes play up or run slow we now know that thepower source is not to blame.

The unit supplies fully stabilised voltage andoutput so that we always know the exact currentthat we are running with.

There is, however, another advantage to avariable power supply which although we do notuse ourselves has been mentioned previously byRobert Gillham and Peter Novani. If you racevintage cars you can vary the outputs to giveparity and realistic speed levels according toeach car whatever the engine fitted.

Manufacturers these days are inclined to fittheir latest and therefore more powerful motorsinto whatever car they are currently issuing sothat you can get a situation where a (circa) 1969Ford GT40 can lap your circuit as quick as a2003 Dome Judd S101 or Lola B98/10 and thatcan’t be right. This can be rectified however ifyou vary the outputs and race the cars accordingto their year and heritage.

In conclusion, the use of a regulated powersupply ensures consistency, reliability, andflexibility. It does cost more initially but in thelong run will pay for itself in peace of mind anda level of performance that cannot be equalled.

As for the old farts (myself excluded ofcourse) they are less likely to moan and that isOK by me. ■