Highwood Pre-War Classic complete

Started by Andy and me way back in September, the Highwood Pre-War Classic was our first attempt at a race series.  16 cars - racing in four heats of four cars each, then two semi-finals leading into a final race.  84 races in total over seven evenings, spread over six months.  Phew!

We were very strict with crashes - three strikes and you were out of the race.  Probably too strict.  We think perhaps a simple deslot should be forgiven - but a roll is a write-off.  The points we awarded (3 for a win, 1 for a lose, 0 for DNF, and 1 for the fastest lap) need refining too.  But it made for some tense and close racing, and was a lot of fun.

None of my four entries made it to the final, but the eventual winner was one of Andy's MG K3s.  Andy bought me one of these for Christmas so when I've finished it, perhaps I'll have a more competitive entry!

We're thinking of similar race series e.g. 1960s cars, American cars.  And to start setting up a 1950s class, I bought a couple of Scalextric GP cars - a Ferrari 375 and Maserati 250F.

Fiat Bartoletti Ferrari Transporter

This limited edition model has just been released by Racer.  It's a reproduction in 1/32 scale of the Fiat Bartoletti Ferrari Transporter that was used in the fifties and sixties to transport up to three Ferraris to races.  It is a working slot car model with two motors and the rear ramp can be lowered.  I won't be buying one (RRP £450!) but I do think it's a beautiful model.

UK Slot Car Festival

Andy and I attended the UK Slot Car Festival at the Heritage Motor Centre yesterday.  As we got near the venue, we were seeing more and more classics on the road, and on arrival found that as well as the Slot Car Festival, it was also the Gaydon Spring Classic that day.

We had a wander around the classic cars (although our favorite cars we saw were the new Jaguar F-Type and Toyota GT-86 in the visitor car park!) but the Alpina was particularly nice.

Plus a nice Capri and classic Lotus wedge.

It was also the 40th anniversary of the Austin Allegro (or "all agro" as my Dad used to call his).

There were several dozen Allegros gathered - I'd be surprised if it wasn't most if not all of those still on the road.

The actual slot car festival was good too!  It gets bigger every year (I only realised on getting home and looking properly at the programme, that we missed three of the rooms!).

Following the delivery of a Carrera car this week (Carrera is to Germany what Scalextric is to the UK), I was on the look out for other Carrera models.  They are detailed cars, good to race and cheaper than Scalextric.  I'd bought a Ferrari 456 earlier this week (my favourite Ferrari after the 250GTO):

And I found a bargain Shelby Cobra at the show:

I found another couple of rare Carrera cars right as we were about to leave the show but I can't blog about those yet as I've passed them to Louise to give them me for my birthday :-)

I also bought a good example of a motorbike and sidecar combination.  Andy has lots of these but this is the first I've bought.  It drives rather well.

Lastly, I bought an assortment of spares, a couple of flat-pack marshall huts and a bodyshell for a conversion project I have in mind.  A great day out!

Aston vs Ferrari

In 'Goldfinger', the henchmen drive a Mercedes-Benz 180.  I wanted something more special than that to race against the DB5.  In the early scenes of 'GoldenEye', Bond races the Aston against a Ferrari 355 Spider driven by Xenia Onatopp.

I'm not a big fan of 80s and 90s Ferraris so figured something more classic should race against my DB5.  A car I love from the early sixties with a good racing pedigree is the Ferrari 250 GTO.

This car represents chassis no 4399 as raced by Mike Parkes at the Coppa Inter Europa race at Monza, Italy in September 1963.  The car finished 1st in class and 2nd overall, losing to an Aston Martin appropriately enough, one of the two DP214 prototypes.  I found this newspaper clipping of the Ferrari in the actual race.

I bought this car to cheer me up after being too ill to visit the annual Slotcar swapmeet at Swindon with Andy.

The cars look great together - almost too good to race, but I don't want to become one of those types of collectors.  These are slot cars after all and I've got plenty of superglue!