Saturday 30 August 2014

Track improvements


I've never been completely happy with the bridge over the long straight.  It's narrow, drops in height too quickly, not fully supported along its length so not flat enough, and the clipped on barriers on the sides keep dropping off.


So thanks to Andy's big car, I got some more MDF and cut a long length to support the track over a steady six foot drop, that then continued losing height around the corner, so the track isn't table height again until the apex of the corner.


This looks and races much better, and allows more space to store cars underneath the elevated track.  I raised the corner piece of scenery and added some more fencing from Slot Track Scenics.


Another minor addition - a marker to indicate exactly where to stop to refuel, as the sensor in lane 2 can't be seen easily if there is already a car refuelling in lane 1.  The sign is made by Playmobil and I stuck a graphic of a fuel pump over the original image.


Monday 11 August 2014

Race reports

I had a couple of race sessions with both Stuart and Andy in recent days.  The bad news is that the new start-finish gantry isn't Stuart-proof...


...but it was easily re-erected and fixed again.  These spectators were not so lucky:


After all the effort of building them and then tweaking them, the good news is that the BMW Isettas race fantastically although their shape does give them a tendency to role - synchronised in some cases:


With a bit of practice, they race really well although I think a little bit of lead over the front axles will set them up just right.

Andy and I also raced some of our pre-war cars, the Stutz, Bentleys and MG K3s.  A 1950s/1960s British sports car race series is in the wings.

My Dad dropped off some tools last week and a variable voltage power supply has now been adapted to act as a rolling road for tuning the cars on the workbench.


MGA Mille Miglia

The predecessor to my latest real car, the MGA was produced from 1955 to 1962, and it's a lovely looking car.  I bought a resin body shell off eBay a few months back and married it with a PCS chassis.


The casting was good but needed a lot of cleaning up around the base and the wheel arches, so after 30 minutes with the Dremel it looked like this:


I sprayed the body in crimson red, painted up the driver and built the chassis.


Another addition to my growing collection of 1950s and 60s British classics.




Friday 8 August 2014

Louise's Roadster

Louise's first sports car was a Eunos Roadster V-Spec, a luxury specification model in Racing Green imported from Japan - otherwise known as a Mazda MX-5 in the UK and Europe, or the Mazda Miata in the US.


Louise's parents got me a slot car model kit from Pendle Slot Racing for Christmas.


The very nicely cast resin body was easy to prime and spray in British Racing Green.  The chassis was a PCS-32 version from Pendle, and the interior was painted to match the tan leather interior of Louise's car.


Everything went together smoothly...


And the model was finished off with the correct number plates...


So the only real difference is that the hood is staying up on the model!