Tuesday 24 May 2011

30 Years of the NSCC

The third and final purchase at this weekend's slot car festival was the car commissioned by the National Scalextric Collector's Club to commemorate its 30 year anniversary.

The car chosen is a Jaguar XKR GT3 in British Racing Green with black bonnet and rear wing, plus NSCC logos and the Jaguar cat image picked out in gold.  The car comes in a special presentation box with the limited edition numbered card and a booklet detailing all of the special cars commissioned by the NSCC over the years.


Sunday 22 May 2011

Bullitt

I went to the UK Slot Car Festival today with Andy and bought (and sold!) some more cars.  I'd been interested in Pioneer slot cars since trying out their 68 Mustang Notchbacks at a show last year.  The Notchbacks are nice but what I really wanted was this pair...


... Steve McQueen as Bullitt driving the 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT...

...and the assassins driving the black Dodge Charger R/T.


These cars famously raced around the streets of San Francisco in the 1968 film "Bullitt".  They are highly detailed cars.  The assassin even has his gun half-covered by his coat...


...and it's a pretty good likeness of Steve McQueen...


They are both very quick and make another great pair to race on the Highwood Circuit - although no petrol station for the Charger to crash into and explode!


Tuesday 17 May 2011

Reach for the Skylines

A trio of very fast Nissan Skylines.  These are manufactured by HPI Racing - currently the only slot car they make, the rest of their extensive range is all radio-controlled cars.  The Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R is one of the iconic Japanese supercars and the Skyline models have always showcased the latest driving technologies that Nissan engineers could fit into a road-going car.  The GT-R continued this tradition, with up to 500 horsepower coming out of a 2.8-litre, dual-turbo 6-cylinder engine.


I bought the red and white models a few weeks back, and after a thorough testing with Stuart this weekend, I decided to get a third for a bit more variety and as a backup.  These cars are very fast and stable, with high levels of detail.  The exterior details like radiators, disc brakes, brake calipers, mirrors, wings, exhaust, headlight buckets, mirrors, tow hooks and radio antennae combine (along with lots of decals) to make the models extremely realistic. Inside is a fully painted and detailed interior, steering wheel, and dashboard.