breaking news from Revell

[Daryl J.]

Good times a'comin'. 
Mark my words. 

[PR19_Kit]

BTW the Monogram branded 1/32nd slot cars are friggin' beautiful.

I didn't even know Momogram still made slot cars! 

I had one of their BRMs back in the 60s, which they matched with a Ferrari and a Lotus 33 IIRC. The current range, with the Revell Gmbh cars, looks pretty darn good, a racing Trabant and a Merc 300SE for goodness sake! And their Daytona Cobra is mouth watering, one of my fave sports cars of all time. I see they also do a Ferrari 250GT/LM, I wonder if that's the same body mould as they used for the same car back in the 60s?

[jcf]

http://www.electricdreams.com/Shop/slot-cars-monogram-slot-cars-c-168_17.html

[Aircav]

Trabant's
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Trabant_racing_cars

A AMG modified 300 finished 2nd in the 24 Hours of Spa in 1971
http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/0,1518,415796,00.html

[PR19_Kit]

And they do a Chapparal 2C as well! Plus I note the King Cobra, they did that back in the 60s too.

I can see my interest in slot car racing picking up again. Somewhere I still have my 3-axle bus that I used to win the Saloon Car Championship in the UK's ECRA Nationals in 1967 or so. They changed the rules as a result so that only vehicles with less than 7 seats could enter. 

As for racing Trabbies and Merc 6.9s, the mind still boggles. I saw that big Merc when it came to UK a year or so after the Spa event, It DNS'd at a Brands Hatch big saloon car event, which was a pity as it sounded awesome!

[JayBee]

OH! OH! OH! Must dig out my slot racing stuff (1/32 of course).
Had the Lotus 33, which I bought as a static kit in Beaties in High Holborn.

[raafif]

the Revell Lancaster & now the Halifax have both been downgraded by modellers for their very poor wheels -- they suggest using Airfix or matchbox items !

Does Slot-car racing go in cycles in your country ??
    In Australia it tends to be popular for 2 or 3 years then die for 7 or 8  years before another resurgence.  During the peaks a few 4-lane commercial set-ups tend to appear.

[PR19_Kit]

the Revell Lancaster & now the Halifax have both been downgraded by modellers for their very poor wheels -- they suggest using Airfix or matchbox items !

Maybe generated by some unscrupulous add-on manufacturers? Unless you've got an Airfix or Matchbox one to hand you're unlikely to buy an entire kit just for the wheels, at least I wouldn't anyway.

Does Slot-car racing go in cycles in your country ??
    In Australia it tends to be popular for 2 or 3 years then die for 7 or 8  years before another resurgence.  During the peaks a few 4-lane commercial set-ups tend to appear.

Dunno, I moved away from the hobby in 1969 and apart from trouncing everyone present at a company Xmas Dinner event a few years ago (was my boss ever surprised!  ) I haven't touched a hand throttle since, although I still have mine. When the cost of parts started to get astronomical in the 70s, rare earth magnets and stuff like that, lots of people in the UK stopped racing. Plus the cars started to look like charactures of themselves rather than scale models.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm the one who raced the bus!

[The Wooksta!]

It isn't just the wheels that's wrong with the Halifax.  Fuselage shape around the nose, nacelles too high and waaay too wide, plus incorrectly shaped fairings. Check the threads about it on Britmodeller. Some there are advocating matching the Revell fuselage with the old Matchbox or Airfix wings.

The Lancaster is a beauty. Yes,the wheels are poor and yes, the Airfix ones are better but there isn't much else wrongwith the Revell Lanc apart from the guns and the mid upper turret sitting too high.  All fixable.  And no,the dihedral isn't wrong.

[Aircav]

It still looks like a Halifax though. 

[raafif]

yes, someone's already come out wth replacement bits for the Halifax - wheels & 2 types of engine radiators etc.

As far as slot-cars go back in the mid-80's, here in Oz, everything was lexan bodied - usually on home-made chassis.  Rather like the modern NASCAR type where the only thing that related to the road-car was the general shape.

Occassionally an old model-kit would turn up on the track just for nostalgia.

Kit, the bus sounds like great fun  Was it a Double-Decker

[PR19_Kit]

Kit, the bus sounds like great fun  Was it a Double-Decker

No, it's a single decker Duple bodied 3 axle coach with double front axle steering using two MRRC steering axles linked together. The motor is a K&B Super Challanger spur drive unit geared 2.7:1 I think, and it had the driver from the Airfix B Type bus installed. He's moulded with his tight arm indicating he's turning right all the time, or overtaking in the bus' case. 

I debut'd it a Leicester 1's circuit and blew everyone's mind on the first practice lap by popping a drag chute out of the rear luggage compartment at the end of their long straight! 

That was a one-off of course, and I removed it for the races but I could lean the bus on the wall from the center lane of their 5 lane track and woe betide anyone who was outboard of me, or who tried to go round the outside........

I'll get it out of storage and post a piccie or two. It has 'Kit's Koaches' emblazened on each side. 

[NARSES2]

It still looks like a Halifax though. 

Yup. Picked up the Freightdog correction bits at Hudders, very nice and will make it look a bit more like one 

[PR19_Kit]

Here's a couple of pics of my slot racing 'Kit's Koach'. 

[The Wooksta!]

You should have a couple of Mini's driving into the back.  Be ideal for a Scalextric Italian Job racing set.