[steve francis]

Jan 9 F32
Jan23 Retro Can am (formally known as D3)
Feb6 Retro F1 (formally known as D3)
Feb20 Hard body pre 72 sports and front engine GP/ Slot it sports
Mar6 F32
Mar20 Slot it sports (prepared sponge tyres supplied if without)
Apr3 International thingie proxy race
Apr17 Retro Can am
May1 Retro F1
May15 Hard body pre72 etc
May29 F32
Jun12 Retro Can am
Jun26 Retro F1
Jul10 Slot it sports
Jul24 F32
Aug7 Retro Can am
Aug21 Retro F1
Sept4 Hard body pre 72 etc
Sept18 F32
Oct2 Retro Can am
Oct16 Retro F1
Oct30 Slot it sports
Nov13 F32
Nov27 Retro Can am
Dec11 Retro F1
Dec 18 Slot it sports

You will see that this year we have decided to drop one of the hardbody nights and include a Slot-It class for group C and sports cars. As our track is painted MDF we are allowing modern fish rubber(sponge) rear tyres and lead ballast. Lowrider is getting together a few pairs of tyres for those without facilities to prepare their own for loan or to sell. He has already tried out a car with this set up with favourable results so hopefully this will prove to be a popular class.
Happy new year to all.

 

[ArJayAytch]

Noted Steve, thank you.

Richard
Luton SCC.

 

[JOHN SECCHI]

Not being involved with this years new classes and not having any experience with the SlotIt rules apart from a couple of meetings in the Italian championship, what are the rules we will be running to?
I understand we are allowing foam tyres and lead balast which might or might not be an advantage, the NLondon track will most of the time be contaminated with fish rubber residue so grip should come easy with most rubber tyres.
[oneofwos]

 

[steve francis]

Hi John, standard inline cars, bit of lead and fish tyres. we dont want to get bogged down with too many rules to start with. I think we will have to be a bit flexible to start with and see what works best. Low suggested the fish rubber as an alternative if the track surface is a problem.
happy new year
cheers steve

 

[JOHN SECCHI]

Steve
Will give it a go, have some old fish rubber on rims that can be narrowed and should fit but not sure they will be needed.
Think the SlotIt rules require a fixed gear ratio, 9x26 or 28 [cant remember!], is this still the case?
Happy new year to you and all!
[oneofwos]

 

[steve francis]

not familiar with the slot it rules on ratios but ive just checked my bog standard car and its on 9:27, cheers steve

 

[GT40MKII]

What is the definition of sports for Slot it does that include Chaparral 2E, Ford GT40 etc or is Slot it only group C? That meansI would have to buy one. My 2E had grip with the Slot it tyres supplied??
Hope you all had a good Xmas and wishing everybody a happy new year.
Regards Allan

 

[JOHN SECCHI]

Allan
I would have thought the GT40 would have passed as a sports car but you will need to confirm with SteveK.
Happy new year!
[oneofwos]

 

[Hobby]

Hi Guys.
Free advice, ignore it if you wish!
Slot It GT/group C models come inline with a 9 tooth pinion and a 28 crown gear (yellow). This years SIC as run by Graeme Thoburn and the Molesley guys, is to a basic standard formula with hand out tyres run unglued on mostly plastic tracks.
On your old gloss track you have two main options. 1; Run the models standard(ish) and specify a Slot it tyre such as the P range. You will need to glue them on, your track when cleaned, will give very high grip levels and pull the unglued tyres off the rims!
2;
If you can't be ar-ed with cleaning the 'goop' of the track every time you run them, then the 'fish' foam tyre is probably the best option. No experience with running sponges on Slot It, but weight may be required to make them race-able.
Regards Bill.
P.S.John.
Have you a date for the 'Open Frame' vintage event yet?
P.P.S.
Happy and prosperous New Year to all at NLSME!

 

[Mick Kerr]

Hi guys,
I'll add a bit more to Bill's post if I may.
1st. The latest Group C cars come with an off set motor pod and bigger diameter rear wheels.
On the long straights at North London this will give them a top speed advantage over the earlier cars.
2nd. The Classic cars, GT40, Alfa 33, Chaparral and Ferrari 312PB are all sidewinders and you can't convert them to inlines without removing the interiors.
The standard gear ratio for these is 11:34.
At most Slot.It open meetings they are usually run as a separate class however, at least at Rockinham, we have found the performance to be very similar to the Group C cars.
We have also raced plastic cars with sponge tyres and they're fine.
They make the cars easier and more predictable to drive at the limit without the sudden loss of adhesion you get with rubber tyres.
Hope that's helpful.
Cheers.
Mick.

 

[steve francis]

Hi Guys, and a happy new year to you, thanks for your input, always useful as we have never played with these before. We are trying out our options to see what works best for us so going to be fairly flexible at the moment to get our night up and running.
and yes Allan you can run what you have so you dont need to raid you piggy bank..
One question, my old 956 has a white endbell motor, what is the difference between that and the newer orange endbell motors performance wise?
cheers steve

 

[Mick Kerr]

Hi Steve,
The white endbell motor is rated at 25,000 rpm but with quite low torque.
The orange endbell motor is rated at 21,500 rpm but with much higher torque.
At Rockingham they have very similar performance, we allow either.
At North London you will probably find that the orange has better acceleration out of the corners and the white has a higher top speed.
Over a whole lap it will probably equal out.
Cheers.
Mick.

 

[steve francis]

Thanks Mick.

 

[JOHN SECCHI]

Hi All and a happy new year.
Thanks for everybodies input, with the unpredictable condition of our track from week to week its a case of trying it and see!
Not having any experience of the SlotIt class [or any other form of slot racing], what can and cant you do to the cars? e.g can you glue the axle bearings in? can you glue the motor in? do you only use SlotIt components? Etc Etc. Just a general question regards the SlotIt class, not anything specific to our racing.
Bill
Still out of the country, will be back soon [mice please take note!] so a clashing date will be decided and posted soon.
Ciao
[oneofwos]

 

[justDave]

John, you can find the Slot.It Group C Challenge rules here. They're very similar to the rules we use in our Group C class at Rockingham. As Bill says, you'll probably want to glue/true your tyres - we generally use Ultragrips at Rockingham.

David

 

[Mick Kerr]

Hi John,
Most clubs run to a Slot.It parts only rule.
The Slot.It Group C Challenge rules are a good starting point.
You do need to have some sort of controls on what can be used as the Slot.It upgrade range is huge and, if you're not careful, it could get very expensive.
Some clubs allow a change of rear tyres as Slot.It don't seem to be able to decide what works and what doesn't consequently their range is very confusing.
The tyres the cars come with are more for show than go and some of the replacements are silicon.
We allow the motor to be glued in but they are a good fit so it's probably not necessary. The latest motor pods have screw fitting for the motors.
Axle bearings are spherical self aligning type fitted into the motor pod so gluing them is probably not a good idea unless they are loose in their mounting.

Basic car set up.
Glue and true the front wheels and tyres. Set the front up as low as you can. The latest cars have screw adjustable front ride height.
Body mounting screws backed off about 1/2 turn to allow some body rock.
Motor pod screws backed off a little to allow the pod to move freely. you'll need to experiment with this to find the best option.
A bit of weight on the motor pod in front of the motor.
If you find the nose lifts under acceleration then you'll have to put some weight up front as well.

If you do run sponge tyres you will have to use a different brand of wheel as Slot.It don't do anything suitable.

Cheers.
Mick.

PS. When you get back PM me and I'll send you all the Event dates for 2013. I hope you can find a non-clashing date this time.

 

[lowrider]

Thanks for your inputs, Mick, Bill and John. Nice to have interest in a new (for us) venture.
Here's the car I used as a test vehicle at the last meeting of 2012. I had to assemble the car from available parts but I hope it's close enough to the approved spec to give an idea of the feasibility of the class.

The rear tyres here are JK nylon hub Retro Can-Am wheels narrowed and turned down a bit to .770". I'm working on having half a dozen spare sets of tyres ready for the first run of these cars, both natural and treated rubber. I'm happy to make sets up for other people if required.

From an aesthetic point of view I would prefer everyone to run the Group C cars but Allan is free to test the waters with his Chaparral of course. eBay has dozens of Group C cars in the £30-40 range and I'm visiting Nic at Slot32 tomorrow to pick up a second car for myself. If he agrees I might borrow a few more of his cars for a month or two to sell at cost at the club.

Looking forward to further running,
L.

 

[Hobby]

Hi Steve.
Your model looks very standard, as Slot It turned them out a few years ago. As Mick has said, the latest Group C and GT model have a dark grey, rather than black motor mount, this give a .5 mm 'offset' (hypoid) to the rear axle. If any of you guys buy S/hand versions and find them fitted with a light grey pod, this is a full 1.00 mm offset and should be run with the appropriate hypoid (white) gear. The .5 offset pod probably won't give a huge edge to the model, as this amount is close to tyre +/- after truing/sanding. The 1.00 mm pod will give a noticable performance (handling) improvement, so you may want to outlaw that one.
Cheers Bill.

 

[JOHN SECCHI]

Thanks for all the info.
We have never run to the absolute letter and dont think this class will be any different.
Will try my best not to clash dates but its not always down to me, see last year!
[oneofwos]

 

[Mick Kerr]

Hi Steve,
The can end drive motor pod in your car is now obsolete.
The Group C cars all now have endbell drive motor pods.
The Slot.It Group C Challenge rules only allow the endbell drive pods to be used.
Personally I don't think it makes any difference what so ever but the rule makers did not agree.
Cheers.
Mick.