Slot.It Nissan GTR GT3

The tyre/wheels thing has been a bugbear of mine for a while too, as pointed out not helped by slot car wheel sizes.
Sloting plus do some 18mm dia wheels which would help those cars that suffer this, finding inserts may be tricky though.
Even more of a concern, is if the wheel is not centred in the arches, That will become clear when mine arrives, hopefully today.

The skinny profile fronts is a throwback to times when racers could not adjust the height of the front axle, now on most "performance" brands we can, there is no real need unless there is not enough adjustment.
I prefer the wheels to be touching the track on my setups, not only because its part of the club rules, but also because I prefer the way cars drive with all corners supported.

I thought these were supposed to come with 0.75mm offset pods ?

With various issues affecting the final retail price of all slot cars currently, I still think Slot.it are one of, if not, the best value for money brands out there.

Mine will either be OK or easily fixable, or else for sale again 😁

Slot.It Nissan GT-R GT3 Unboxing

Hello Slotfriends, DHL delivered a bit later than expected, but here are some pictures of Slot.it's latest GT3, the long expected Nissan GT-R GT3.
Kept everything completely stock for these pictures, or as they say "Box Standard"...
...even though the first thing I did after I'd opened the box...was too take out the Dremel and start grinding away 😇



First glance, first stance
So above the first picture I took after grinding away the ridges on the Slot.it plinth. Mounted the rear wing that's taped to the underside of the plint, a tight but good fit.
Lovely finish, great tamponed printed sponsoring, some covered by a nice layer of clear. Incredibly detailed right down to the correct Tech Inspection stickers on the roof.
Masking of the black on de side skirts and rear bumper a bit on the loose side. So far so good...but then...on close inspection
First stance didn't look right at all, front of the car a bit high and wobbly, front wheels of the block...what the f###...was going on here

Quality control, Covid and common sense
Havent bought many cars these years, but enough to notice that, for all manufacturers that have their slot cars produced in China, since 2020 quality control seems to be slipping.
And there's a simple reason for that...Covid19.
Cause since the outbreak strict quarantine restrictions in China have prevented European manufacturers to make inspection visits to their factories.
Factories that had been in lockdown for months and since reopening been working flat out to make up for the back log in production.
Factories where workers are paid by piece.
So most of the time, the first opportunity a manufacturer has to verify if proper Quality control has been applied...is when they receive the cars here in Europe.
And sometimes these moments can bring some nasty surprises...as can bee seen in this Slot.it video on Youtube
This is the reason why the European distributers have received their Nissans with such a delay. Slot.it had to manually rectify the errors made by the factory.
And there are far less hands available at Slot.it in Italy than in China.


So long story, what does that have to do with the first stance of the car? Well....
1st off all, with the focus on the wrong washers under the body screws and the incorrect positioning of the front axle grub screws, this one (see image above left) seemed to have slipped attention.
If you look carefully you'll see what looks like the tip of the lead wire eyelets sticking out underneath the guide.
With the braids folded over them this raises the nose of the car considerably.
And with left and right sticking out un evenly...makes the front of the car wobble.
But when I demounted the chassis and tried to pull the eyelets up a bit, I couldn't see them
So I pulled a bit harder with a set op pliers...and the wire snapped off...only to reveal a grub screw and the remains of the tinned tip of the lead wire that had been pocking through at the bottom.( see image above right)
Has it been so long ago that I bought a slot.it car? Apparently, cause I've totally missed that they switched from eyelets to grub screws. 😇
Anyhow...point of attention for all that are prepping their GT-R's, check the guide...and be aware, grubscrews.

Looking bad, looking good
First thing I noticed (or better heard) during unboxing, was that the interior had come loose during "Shipping"? (loud clunk as I turned the box upside down)
So ok Maurizio had mentioned that in the Nissan vid, easy fix, clicked right back in. But not before I had a good look at it...and boy does it look good.

Up until now, regardless what you think of the rest of their cars, Carrera has beaten all other manufacturers hands down when it come to interior detail....
...but no longer.
A full roll cage, a driver in a correct position that actually holds the steering wheel. And look at that detailed helmet...unheard of.
The rest of the half deep tray interior spurs lots of nicely moulded and painted details. This one should be a very easy job to vacform for a light weight upgrade.

Oh and did you notice the side mirrors? Slot.it has made me eat my words on what I posted in the Mission8 topic on main manufacturers crude representation of mirrors and mirror supports. Do hope that they will be released soon as part of a Nissan Tearproof set..as stock mirrors are cast in hard plastic. 😬

Was it all good? No!
As I replaced the interior into the body I noticed that without it, the body was straight and true, but with the interior mounted it became twisted.
Close inspection showed that a not perfectly mounted roll cage was the culprit here.
As you can see in the picture above right, left side of the roll cage wasn't inserted deep enough by little Chinese hands.
And when my big Dutch fingers tried to reposition...I also noticed that the cage was hitting the drivers helmet and left hand.
With a little bit more applied force and repositioning I managed to have the Roll cage clear both.
Inserted the interior again and now the body remained straight and true.
So again...attention point here., check if body isn't bent by out of position roll cage.

Tipping the scale
Part of my unboxing procedure is weighing all parts, but for this post I didn't want to disassemble the whole car...
...but at least here are the figures for the stock body with rear wing and windows and the tray interior.



So guide, braids and front axle set properly, body now straight again, noticed that as assembled previously the chassis had warped on the trip over from China.
Ok, warm bath standard procedure for all plastic chassis, nothing out of the ordinary.
Chassis by the way comes with some nice features that will be welcomed by the digital fans. Like a receptacle into which you can click you hall sensor (3).

Small plastic bag taped underneath the box contains not just the usual Allen key, but also 2 grubs for the top axle mounts (1)
A plastic bracket to secure your O2 or SSD chip (2) with plenty of holes for the IR Lane Change LED to shine through in many orientations.
Welcome surprise are the two brackets (4) to turn the stock pod into an "Evo" pod with side suspension (springs & screws not included).
Last but not least...not a fan of stock screws with their coarse thread...but at least these from Slot.it are half shafts...so loosen the body screws a few turns and you'll have a perfect float.

Small wheels...Big wheels?
Will always remain an area of discussion, but I can tell you this, the Nissan comes with the biggest tires ever mounted on a Slot.it GT.
20,3 mmø at the front...and a whopping 21,5 mmø at the rear. Inserts in the 17,3mmø rims are gorgeous, central lock nut sharply detailed and painted.
What more can you ask for....but a set of nice brake discs 😇
Front axle without spacers a bit narrow, when set at same width as wheel arches you've got about 2-3mm of play.
Rear axle has a good number of shims between right rear and pod, left wheel could use some between rim and Spur gear.
Good mesh between pinion and spur gear with motor just clicked in pod, but would advice securing motor better with slot.it motor screws.
Pod itself in new type of white "plastic" different color than previous "stock" 0,75 and 1,0 pods.
Would have to disassemble pod from chassis and measure to check what Stock Nissan pod "offset" is.


2nd Glance and Stance
Time to reassemble the car and check its stance, noticed that all pod screws had been tightened extremely firm.
So unscrewed those for a wee bit of pod play and float. Took these pictures with the car still on braids and wires pushed back up in the guide.
Wheels tiny bit off centre in wheel arches but this is due to regular pod play...and me not centering them properly for this picture (was a bit of a rush job).
Yes there's still a bigger gap above the front wheels than the rears, but that's not because the front wheel arch is oversized (like on Sideways M6)
But due to front tires being undersized...as in real life the Nissan ran with same size tires on all corners. (325-705-18)



Leading the pack
So, one of the first things I will do is swap the rears for some stickier G25's and mount the rears on the front rims.
Narrow them, true & glue them and all should be fine.
Picked up two Nissans, this lovely spa 24hrs livery and a white kit. More than happy with them so far.
This first proper GT3 racer from Slot.it has a lot of potential.
#23 Spa car will be rebuild to DiSCA GT3 spec and raced at Suzuka Double Digital...but...
Its the white kit I'm sure of that it wil be in the lead...even in stock form with its small can SW motor.
As the white kit will be build to serve as the new Suzuka pace car..leading the pack at the start of the 2022 Suzuka 6hrs WEC race

With kind regards
Tamar

P.S. Wheels centered Screw(ed) up
Contrary to what I had just posted, one of the first things I have done is not swapping the tires...but swapping the screws.
As I put the Nissan back on its plinth, I noticed that, although the body floated freely, the stock screws were rubbing slightly inside the chassis mounts.
Specifically the rear body screw was pushing the body forward causing the front axle to come off centre in the wheel arches.
As I dismounted the body and remounted the screws it was obvious that who ever mounted the screws the first time...
...didn't pay attention if they went in straight and true.

So in the bin the stock screws went and out came the box with SV Workz titanium M2.2 8mm long Torqs screws.
And I did pay attention that they went in straight and true. The result, perfectly centered wheels front and back with the same forward/rearward play.
Torqs head slightly smaller than stock screws, but shaft ticker 😇

Have taken and posted enough images for today...so you'l just have to take my word for it

with kind regards
Tamar

Nice write up Tamar. I think your pics make justice to this excellent model.

The interior is really good. I already notice the level of details in their interior for the DTM classic cars.

As for the guide, I remember that I noticed that the guide was different when I played with the Maser.
But I vaguely remember that the grabscrews where in the front of the guide eyelet (like Thunderslot) not inside it (like in your pic).
Anyway, the guide will be changed for a scaleauto one. And it looks like also the braids will need to be changed.

It is good that they have 4 grub screws for setting the height of the front axle. Nice touch.

The chip mounting clip is only for the C chip mounted transversely: per se I do not have any issue with that except that I do not like how the cables are routed in that orientation. I wish that the c chip has some extra pads so that if one wanted, they could reposition the wires. Anyway, B chip it is!

Anyway, the car looks fab! I personally would buy any GT3 cars from them even if others would make the same model.
Concluding: Well done Maurzio and the team!

tamar.nelwan said:

Has it been so long ago that I bought a slot.it car? Apparently, cause I've totally missed that they switched from eyelets to grub screws. 😇

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Blimey! Here's me thinking you're an authority on Slot.it cars.

I can't remember when I first bought a Slot.it car with grub screws instead of eyelets, but it's several years ago and eyelets haven't been used since on any of the cars I've bought. Initially the wires were untinned and often suffered fatigue failures after not much use, so rewiring each week for racing to be sure that there wouldn't be a failure mid-race became an annoying necessity. I quickly reverted to using eyelets.

More recent Slot.it releases have the ends of the wires tinned into one thick strand, which has made fatigue failures even more common and happen more quickly at the point where the single thick strand ends and the individual copper cores emerge from it - it wasn't unusual for my brand new Slot.it cars with tinned wires secured by grubs to suffer a failure in the first 100 laps of use. Now I habitually fit eyelets before first use of the car.

tamar.nelwan said:

2nd Glance and Stance

Click to expand...

The car looks great in this photo. The rear wheels/tyres fill the rear arches nicely, and the fronts are acceptable enough too.

Savage said:

I haven't had chance to look into mine in detail, but I suspect from a quick look around, some body or chassis twist as Tamar mentions, as one of my rear wheels is a lot better positioned than the other.
Hopefully it will be a case of disassembly and re-fixing things correctly ...

Click to expand...

I've had recent issues with Slot.it body twist caused by the interior tray. Once the tray is removed, the body springs back and becomes true. It's a pain to have to entirely dismantle a car to correct assembly issues, but that's the way it has become for me with recent Slot.it purchases (CW24 Rothmans Porsche 956 LH. CA36D Opel Calibra. CA03M Shell Porsche 962C)

OK after a little play with only what is supplied :



The front wheels I have set to just touch Scalextric track with the supplied tyres. Interior and guide grub screws removed from that picture/setup to ensure no interference.
I think they will sit al ittle higher once I put thinner braids and sort some larger diameter tyres for the front, and set the height for wood/copper tape track.
The pod is loosened 1 turn of all 4 screws, the chassis to body is snug for the purposes of that picture.
If you swap the rear tyres to the front it fills the arches nicely, but they will need a smidgeon truing down to ensure free rotation when just touching track. I will likely find something in my spares box half way between the front and rear diameters, or resize the rears to suit
I also plan to use a 1mm offset pod, and neoprene 0.5mm spacers with G25 tyres of suitable size for home use, or NSR ultra's if I decide to club race it.
My chassis is not terrible, but will benefit from flattening.

Other points to note: My wing mounting slots were closed off, so opening was required, but it is a nice snug fit once done. I intend to leave it that way (unglued)
I had to move the chassis fully forward with the play available for the rear wheel to sit that central, so will file the chassis slots open a bit more rearwards.
As Tamar already noted, The black tampo isn't as sharp as we have come to expect from Slot.it.
Overall I am happy with it, but it is my MO to change things up a bit for my own aesthetic satisfaction so I don't mind having to tweak or replace parts were others might not want to.

And a more flattering picture

Dopamine said:

Blimey! Here's me thinking you're an authority on Slot.it cars.

Click to expand...

GRUNZ said:

Tamar goes for quality not quantity ;-)
He is an authority because he builds unique cars to get the most of the performance out of them not because he buys many of them.
Beside, he races mainly GT3 and GTLM cars. Therefore (so far) no much from slot.it to interest him.

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LOL, the only "authority" I might claim is on making lots and lots of mistakes, fuk -up s and failures with the projects I've done in Slot racing.
And maybe on posting and sharing them with you lot.

As for the lack of Slot.it cars in my collection, Gio already answered that one correctly.
My main focus has been in racing (DiSCA) GT3 /GTLM cars with some side steps to modern LMP.
But the cooperation between SV Workz and Slot.it during the last two years, for the hopefully 2022 release of the Slot.it Oreca 07 LMP2....
..has learned me a lot and has given me a great deal more insight on the pitfalls in the design and manufacuturing process of slot cars.
And maybe in that process I picked up some information here and there that's usually not available to the general public.
Can't disclose more...as Steven and I both signed NDA's 😇

But enough said, as someone once posted, If there's no picture...there's no proof.



So here the missing picture of the "Box stock" Nissan but with SVWorkz screws. All wheels now perfectly centered, also proof that GT-R is now shelved until next month.
Oh and as you can see, with just a "slight modification " to the Box plinth, Nissan does fit in the box with wing attached. A tight fit agreed, but it does.
At least now the car won't be collecting dust awaiting further tuning.
Last but not least... took this last shot for Savage....Slot.it Nissan GT-R GT3 now record holder of biggest baddest GT3 brute out there, standing head and shoulder above the former king...the Scalex Bentley Continental GT3

With kind regards
Tamar

p.s. Also unboxed the white kit car, same story with the guide/leadwires. Un assembled white kit body has no warping caused by manual labour like on #23 painted car. Chassis has been assembled so just as much in need of hot bath as #23.
Good news....painted/colored clear parts (like red tail lights and black window frames and streamer) are to be found in Slot.it Nissan white kit.

p.s.p.s Does anyone else have this problem of inserting smiley's from the frequently used list...and not having them displayed/aligned properly?
Makes a big difference if you want to post a thumbs up 👍 and it shows a thumbs down 👎
Hmmm does seem to align properly if you select the from the general list.