[MSM]

What Aberstone said in post 10.
Im afraid the poll is too complicated for me, and the low number of responses suggests Im not alone in feeling that way.
I have resisted the call of slot rallying for some years because of the excessive number of rules. Reading through, literally, pages of small print to race toy cars is too big an ask.

 

[Kevan]

The sad thing is the Slot Rally section is very quiet indeed. Our club (MSCC) decided the race for the fastest car was preventing most club members entering other slower cars from the past. The adoption of a wide ranging set of Standard Class rules meant you could enter Scaley rally cars and be competitive against other Scaley rally cars, the same for SCX, Ninco and others (Fly, Team Slot etc). Slot Rally was brilliant last year, so good we left it alone, not only that but we've added Raid classes too - Standard (plastic chassis) and Open (Scratch builds, Mitoos etc).

One proviso for allowing cars to enter Slot Rally is the cars must be proven to have entered a timed rally with results available on places like https://www.ewrc-results.com

A photograph isn't proof, a Mosler or Audi Group S photographed on a rally stage doesn't prove anything and I'd love to be proved wrong as I've searched many times.

 

[driver#8]

Yes things have got looser in Farnham, not sure if it's better but it's easier to manage. Basically:

All cars must have two occupants, rally liveries only.

All classes admit 'pro' cars except SCX 4WD.

• Classic - Porsche 911 is allowed (unlike SRGB)
• Eighties - no real difference except it's all pro cars now!
• Mod 2WD - it's now all angle winders, the influx of 4WD cars with their bands removed is not permitted
• Mod 4WD - no difference except more Pro Xsaras and MSC Subarus
• SCX 4WD - no change

 

[Aberstone]

The exclusion of the Porsche 911 in Classic goes back many years when the Ninco 911/934 was deemed at the time too quick for others in that class, so it was put in 8o`s. As the years have passed and performanve levels moved on, it was never moved back into Classic. Perhaps for our Winter Slot Rally we could re-instate it.

RE: Michael`s text in #20, he has indeed competed in our event since that post ......... and I believe he did enjoy himself

 

[driver#8]

I think as long as it is period, Phil, then a Ninco 911 is certainly no better than a Team Slot or Avant Slot Alpine or an OSC/SRC Capri - those are the default choices now whether running classics as a racing class or on the stages. There's no easy way of defining it, though, because you can say 'no whale tail and wide arch 911s' only to be blown out of the water by history!

The beauty of the SRGB regs was that they weren't actually complex at all. Get a standard inline rally car and compete with it. They didn't need the same level of knowledge or fettlement to be competitive as you do with, say, a GT class on wood.

Personally, I don't find any massive difference in performance between an inline, sidewinder or angle winder with the same basic motor but 'inline only' did prevent arguments. Of course with pro cars that have magnetic motors it's a different thing altogether but for Ninco, Scalex, SCX etc. using regular motors there's precious little difference between layouts.

As of now, I'd say the cars to beat in each class are:

Classic: Pro: Avant Slot Alpine, Stock: Ninco Porsche 911

Eighties: Pro: OSC Peugeot, Stock: Ninco Lancia 037

Modern 2WD: Pro: NSR Clio, Stock: Ninco Clio

Modern 4WD: Pro: MSC Impreza, Stock: Ninco Lancer

Or in other words the best Pro cars have the best magnet motors and the best Stock cars have suspension and sprung guides!

Looks like the new Scaleauto hatchbacks (Peugeot 208, Hyundai i20) could shake modern 4WD up a bit. And OSC is breathing on the SRC Porsche 914, which could be worth a punt. Still plenty of life in slot rallying anyway.

 

[Aberstone]

I agree entirely, incidentally I`m trying to get my hands on a Ninco 911/934 whale tail to convert to Chequered Flag livery

​

 

[SplitRim]

Raid Track........
That always slows down the pseudo rally cars with no ground clearance.
I set up all my cars so that they can run successfully on SCX raid track.
OK I'm not the quickest, but I've beaten Avant Slot Porsche 997s on raid track with an SCX mk 2 Escort
If I had more raid track, I'd offer to build a stage for Slot Rally events.

Simon

 

[nonfractal]

Rally cars running around a high speed, smooth and flowing six lane open circuit never made any sense to me.
At Nascot wood, the rally class slowly morphed into an "inline GT" class, first with the Porsches then the Astons.
The race nights were not always won by NSR cars. There are some formidable rally cars such as the MSC Subaru Impreza.
In the end, we've abandoned faux-rally and gone for an NSR - GT class based around the uk national NSR GT rules.

With a year's grace to convert your NSR rally car to NSR-GT format, it will be interesting this year to see how the legacy inline NSR cars compete against the NSR- GT angle winders during 2019.

I'd like to do more slot rallying and build some classic rally cars but a single lane rally track is not really a viable club proposition.
Roll on UKSlot Car Fest. Always rally tracks there!

Alan

 

[BigC]

I'd like to do more slot rallying and build some classic rally cars but a single lane rally track is not really a viable club proposition.
Roll on UKSlot Car Fest. Always rally tracks there!

If you'd like to do more slot rallying, no need to wait until UK Slot Car Fest. The Oxford Slot Rally is on 24th Feb. More details here

Colin

 

[driver#8]

Rally cars running around a high speed, smooth and flowing six lane open circuit never made any sense to me.
At Nascot wood, the rally class slowly morphed into an "inline GT" class, first with the Porsches then the Astons.
The race nights were not always won by NSR cars. There are some formidable rally cars such as the MSC Subaru Impreza.

We run ours around bumpy 4-lane Ninco but you can't set rally stages up every week and a lot of us are rally fans, so at least we can race the cars that we like more often!

Since loosening the regs off on 'pro' cars in the classes, our lap times have dropped wildly. My inline MSC Subaru is much faster than any stock non-magnet GT or sports car and so far the NSR Clio is quicker still (but far less forgiving). The OSC Peugeot is the best handling box stock car I've ever seen and it's been fun to put a less powerful OSC up against the more muscular MSC RS200s and 6R4s but now there are factory fit motors in the Peugeot that will destroy anything not to the same spec and jump up and down on the remains! Great engineering and lovely cars, but openness is the essence of slot rallying and I'd hate to see the classes become single-car series.

Not a fan of high end GT slot rally cars if I'm honest. Running them as pure GTs is a lot more sensible. The SCX Porsche 997 and Ferrari 360 are very nice cars to run - and do at least attempt to replicate real life rally machinery - but NSR and Black Arrow cars? Hmmmm...

To me a good slot rally is seeing a wide variety of cars from different manufacturers running competitively. Team Slot, SCX, Ninco and the like with opportunities, each with different strengths. And for someone with a £10 Scalextric Escort Cossie or their Dad's old TR7 to come and have a bit of fun and be competitive. There are plenty of other places to run an NSR!

 

[Kevan]

We have five Open classes for cars like NSR, OSC etc. They rarely win any of these classes, they're dominated by scratch builds, 3DP chassis, and Mack chassis cars.

 

[driver#8]

We have five Open classes for cars like NSR, OSC etc. They rarely win any of these classes, they're dominated by scratch builds, 3DP chassis, and Mack chassis cars.

Don't be talking that kind of voodoo. That way scrutineering becomes part of the game and £200 slot cars with semi-sprung pods, carbon fibre inserts and magnetic screws lie in wait.

 

[Kevan]

In our club scrutineering is part of the game. My scratch builds cost about £2 in materials plus a £2 Chinese 21k motor...and they're always in the top three of each class.

 

[Wankel Ickx]

Each to their own but that ain't the kinda 'game' I want to play. Makes Formula E look exciting, that does.

Nor, I suspect, do many newbs. Nuttin' quite so unappealing as scrutineerin'. Which rhymes. Nicely.

 

[Grumpy Gaz]

Very true, Daniel Ickx, in the name of fair play rules & regulations, and by association scrutineering have become necessary evils.