Scale Slot Car Racing

In this section I'll try and answer any questions left by visitors to the site in the Guestbook section.

If you want a "direct non-visible to others" reply you will need to leave your e-mail address in Guestbook.

Note: As from November 2009 this section will no longer be used as the new Guestbook section has included a reply section, so all queries can now be answered using this option.

   

Ronan:
Hi Alan, love your site, especially the guide to enhancing classic Fly's.
I see you have had good results with BWA wheels and inserts and I have a shopping list of my own for them. However I can't see any contact or "buy now" links on the BWA site. Do you know a good online source for them apart from the main site? I hope they haven't gone out of business! Thanks for any info you have on them,
Ronan

Hi Ronan

Yes, I'm a big fan of Al Penrose's wheels, they are top quality.

BWA's site is ...umm how can I say it...not very user friendly and surprisingly it is not possible to order directly from the site.

I always e-mail him with my requirements, he then sends me a Paypal invoice, although you can send him cash or pay via credit card if you wish.

His email address is :-

 bwapenrose@hotmail.com

Regards

Alan

Junior Serrano:
You have a great site kinda make me wonder if i can build a winner like those you have. I guess it's all about patients and knowing what you have to do, I'll take a chance one day and do something like this if anything i'll try changing stuff and the NISSAN 390 with a change of motor and andf axles i guess is this possible i hope you can give me some hints in what i really need for this. I also wanted to find out what type of paint do you use to paint the cars. I lik eyour LMP'S slotcars really eye catching

Hi Junior, the Nissan 390 car is a great basis for a slot car. Your car should have come with two pins that you can insert into the area around the guide. This turns the 360 guide into a standard Scalex guide. If you want to upgrade the parts on this car, it is almost identical to upgrading a Fly Classic and you can find details on my site how to do this and what parts are required.

Regards

 

Alan

steve bedford:
Hi Alan,
I noticed that you have made the can am wolf dallara, I have been looking for this kit for a while now, the larger version with wheels. I am not a slot car guy but am looking for a model of this car the only other one I know of was a Ghost model which is out of production. I was wondering if you might know where I could pick this up here in canada.
thanks for your time
Steve Bedford

Hi Steve....The Wolf Dallara is a kit made by a Spanish Company called Bumslot......(BUM stands for Barcelona Universal Models...). I'm not sure of any suppliers in Canada who stock them but you can get them via the Pendle site in the UK.

Thanks for a great site. May I ask for your advice please? I'd like to re-colour a red Scalextric Maser. 250F to Masten Gregory's colours of white with blue stripes and wonder if you have done this sort of respraying. The details are so fine that I guess it won't stand much sanding and a good opaque white u/coat is also likely to kill details. What would you do and what paint would work best? Hope you can help.

If you ask 100 different people this qusetion you will get 100 different answers.

The way I do it is to lightly rub over the Scalex Shell with some fine emery cloth, being very careful not to go too near to fine detail parts. This just removes the shine.

Spray all over with grey or white automotive "plastic" primer, (dries in about 10 minutes) and then spray top coat main colour with automotive rattle cans., allow at least one day to dry and then mask up lines or second colours with Tamiya narrow masking tape. Mask the sections of the body you don't want to paint and again spray with automotive paint. Remove all masking tape after about 5 minutes, or before it dries so you don't get ridges in the paint.

 

Rod Rothacher:
Hi there,
Saw some of your messages on slot forum and was looking for some help.
I want to build my Proto Slot Penske Porsche 917 30, but I am having a devil of a time finding wheels that will fit this car. It seems you have some good advice. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanking you in advance,
R. Rothacher
Burbank, CA

Hi Rod

If I remember I used BWA '05 wheels on the rear and '03's on the front and then modified the inserts to suit the wheels.

Regards

Alan

JAG:
Hello, New to the hobby and just found your site - WOW!!! From the looks of things you've been at this for some time. Your work is fantastic and the cars are gorgeous. I've been reading with much interest in your PCS 32 modification as I have a few "Airfix" models I'd like to convert to slot cars. If possible would you be able to send more step by step photos/instructions suited for a total newbie, showing where cuts have been made and parts added for changes? For instance I'm not clear on the front axle change you make for axle bushings. I'm very interested in changing motor placement to an angle or sidewinder setup. It seems the with Fly possibly going away the Std motor pod isn't as easy to find anymore. Plus I'd like to keep cost as low as possible - so if there is a way to make the PCS chassis work without buying extra chassis parts the better. Also read your TR7 build and wondered once you have the plastic tubes mounted to chassis and then place the body on - How do you know where the tubes meet the body to finally JB Weld them to the body once you have them cut to the right height? - Is there a way to mark where they contact the body? Ok I guess that's all for now - thanks for a great site and any help you can provide. Regards, Jack

 

Hi Jack...Thanks for your comments. Some tricky questions you ask there....

The Airfix kits are not easy to start your car building career with, especially the older type cars, (1930's). They are all a little flimsy and require afair amount of work to ensure they don't collapse. To be honest you are better off with a good quality resin shell, as these are much stronger and easier to work with.

I think the Fly sidewinder pods will soon once again be available as Flyslot has now risen from the Ashes of Fly and will be making spares.

It is possible to make the PCS 32 chassis into an anglewinder, without buying any new parts, but you would need to cut into the two main frames of the chassis and glue the motor into position. I did this with a Beardog Mini motor in my Birdcage maserati, which is on the PCS32 chassis section of my site. Not the prettiest conversion, but it does work.

As regard the tubes and where they fit on the body work.....just dab a little white paint on the ends of the tube and hold in position against the body....this will show you where to place the JB WEld......I also add a touch to the top of each post.

Good luck with your builds.

"i have leaky fly classic tires like you mentioned in ;upgrading fly classics.its happened to 6 porsches.
5 runners 1 shelf.im concerned about the others.
do you know what causes this?
and of course how to prevent it.
does mr fly know about this?
thanks matt"

Hi Matt

It's a common problem with Fly Classic tyres I'm afraid. After they have been standing for some while the tyres start leaching a "sticky substance". In addition the front tyres tend to split across the width of the tyre. I'm not aware of any remedy except to change the tyres. I use Slot.it zero grips on the fronts and Ortman "Fly Classic" rears.

I'm sure Fly are aware of the problem, but I haven't heard if they are doing anything about it. The problem  doesn't seem to happen with other Fly tyres.

Sorry that is not really much help.

"Alan, thanks for all the info. I'm looking into doing a digital routed track w/Scaley (new) power base. Any advice? I'd like to do a scale version of an American LeMans track".

Hi Mike, thanks for your comments.

Digital racetracks are not really my thing, but I have a few friends that have built them with great success.
The basics of building a routed track in Digital or Analogue are the same, so I'll start there.

Building scale versions of real racetracks in 1/32nd scale is very difficult and they rarely look good or make good driving tracks. They are too big and frankly don't generate enough interest during a lap. What a lot of people do is take their favorite elements from real racetracks and build them into their layouts. Good examples are the corkscrew at Laguna Seca or Eau Rouge at Spa, the chicane at Goodwood or the hairpin at Monaco....Some very good examples of track design can be found at the Canadian site www.oldslotracer.com. The guy that runs it...Luf...is really the "guru" of routed tracks.

Use a good quality router bit, it does pay. The quality of the router itself does not matter very much. Read all the info available on Luf's site and consider using his router kit.

On digital tracks make full use of the ability to run many cars on just one lane, by possibly including a "village" section, always looks pretty cool.

For lane changers look to the work being done on "Slotforum" for advivce and hints. Nice bunch of guys doing Hornby's R & D for them!.

    "Hello , I really enjoy your site. I've a few qustions. your proto kits,is there scale on? I,ve seen a few mmk cars, early issues, do they seem large like the old strombecker? My inquirey is in regardes to pre ordering the tr-61 proto kit, for the price I, like it to fit with other cars of that that time."

Hi Doug and thanks for your comments.
The Protoslot kits are a great range, very well thought out and have a superb finish, (pre-painted models). The instructions are a little limited and a full colour photograph of the original car would help when fitting the small photo-etched parts or decals. They have got a little expensive lately as well.
As for scale, I think the Lola T70 Spyders are a little on the large size, and it seems like the bodies have been stretched to fit the Fly Lola chassis. smaller cars like the Aston V8 and Spyker seem a lot better, scale wise.
The MMK cars seem pretty good to me, I have about 5 of them. They came with a variety of chassis, from MMK's own poor resin one to the PCS 32 or Slot Classic.  All of them need a little work to make them run correctly as far as I'm concerned. They can be very noisy, which is down to the brass crown wheel that MMK fit. If you replace with either a Slot.it  or Scalextric one the cars run much better and smoother.
The TR-61 looks a great kit.....I built one a while ago from a Resilient Resins  shell.

"I just love your Morgan 4x4 and would really like to buy one somewhere for my dad, as he has had a couple over the years.
So if you know where to buy one, let me know"

You can purchase a resin shell for the Morgan from Pendle Slot Racing in the UK. The shells are made by OCAR.
A suitable chassis for the car is the PCS32, again available from Pendle.

"Have had you on my favourites for some time but only now sat and read your site- Absolutely Fantastic. Can you email me with your tel.no as I would like to speak to you re starting scratch building again. I used to in the 1960's but know don't know where to start".

Hi Mike....thaks very much for your comments. Much appreciated.
Glad to hear you want to get back into scratchbuilding again. It is a lot easier now than it used to be, simply because of the large quantity of shells, chassis, other parts etc. that are available.
I will contact you via Slotforum with my telephone number.  

 
"Great site with wonderful track and cars. How did you strengthen the chassis on the Ninco cars that hop? I have two that areperforming this way. Thanks for any help you can provide".

Hi Don.....I'll be doing a new section on dealing with the "Ninco Hop", the very next time I buy a Ninco anglewinder car.....probably the Ascari or perhaps the new Lambo.

" Hi, could be a useful site for me. I have recently purchased a Morgan body, with Riko chassis. Any idea where I could get wheels for this? Where were Riko made, and are they still in business?"

Hi John....I'm afraid I haven't seen a Riko kit for many a year, but the best man to contact to obtain spare vintage parts is Phil Smith.
This is a link to his website:- http://www.philsmith.co.uk/
All his stock of spare parts will not be listed on his site, so I suggest you contact him via e-mail.

"grat site, sir.. i am a laweyr in the states and love these items, esp the wood brothers cars, #21 nascar from 1950-2008, and other rides with the great jim clark, gurney and foyt.... can you tell me the simplest way to mount a slot car body.. is it to use tape, or nonadhesive fabric"  

Hi Skip.. There are many ways to mount slot car bodies to chassis. If you are talking about brass chassis and lexan shells the best way is to mount four tubes on the sidepans of the chassis and then use pins through the lexan shells into the tubes. Electric Dreams (in the States) sell a tool made by TSRF which makes this operation fairly straight forward.
For hardbodied cars I always make my own mounting tubes from two sizes of Plastistrut tubing, fixed to the shell with JB weld.