August Fly "Starters"

Fuel prices down

Finally some good news.

My car was low on fuel and I drove down to my favourite petrol BP station. I was really happy when I noticed the prices have gone down to 113.9p from 117.9p

As I wasn't sure how long the prices would remain down, I filled up the car - full tank. Half an hour later as I was driving past, I noticed that the prices have further gone down to 111.9p and has remained at that price since then.

If you want to find out the cheapest fuel prices in your area (in the UK) check out Petrolprices.com.

However, in order to get the details, you have to sign up for something called the Fubra Passport but that's a minor irritation.

The costliest around my area is the Texaco station at Jubilee Crescent. It is fast to increase it's prices but relaly slow to lower it. Right now the prices over there are still at 117.9p

Auto Story in Pictures Wednesday

I am starting this new meme called "Auto Story in Pictures Wednesday".

This meme is for auto enthusiasts, photographers, car owners - in fact everyone is welcome to join in. It's really simple. All you have to do is post up a picture of anything related to the auto industry that you feel tells a story on Wednesday.

Just leave a comment here or send me an email (ahoklah@gmail.com) with a link to your post and I will add you to the Auto Story in Pictures Wednesday blogroll.

I start the ball rolling with this photograph I took in Coventry. Calcott was a car manufacturer based in Coventry.

Avant Slot Rollcentre Team Pescarolo

Avant Slot has released the new Pescarolo livery - Rollcentre Team - , ref 50204.

New Super Tires (R) Offering for Monogram Vintage NASCAR's

A new Super Tires (R) offering for Monogram Vintage NASCAR's will be available from Slot Car Corner beginning Thursday, July 31st. The Super Tires part number is 1700. The 1700 is .310" wide with an outer diameter (o.d.) of .825" which is slightly larger than the stock tires. Orders can be placed now by visiting the Slot Car Corner website.

More Fly July releases

July "Fly Premium" releases

Nascar Statement on tire situation at Brickyard - prerace

A statement made prior to the start of today's "race" at Indy.

Search this...pdf search engine.

So this isn't slot car related but what the heck. A good search engine if you're looking for pdf's of most anything. Check out the results for "slot car" at this link.

July's Flyers

One car, your choice

Which one car would you most like to see done as a slot car? Answer that question here.

Nascar is ready for Indy

SCX Nascars... all 9 of them

Well here's a photo from the SCX home office in Barcelona, all 9 of the recently released and soon-to-be-released Nascars.


Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News
Marketing, SCX North America

(All SCX posts will carry this tagline since, in the interests of full disclosure, I'm going to sign my name as an SCX employee. Also just to let folks know, I will still publish news from ANY and ALL companies that want to have news shown here to their target market...)

RACE PREP 101 - Hands On Class - Aug 9 @ HSARC

Saturday, August 9th 10:00am - 11:30am

Out of the box race prep clinic hosted by HSARC and presented by Larry Edwards

HSARC

11612 Cypress N. Houton Rd. Cypress TX, 77429.

281.807.4026

A complete step-by-step from the box to the track race prep will be demonstrated with a question and answer period.


$5.00 per person, $7.50 group (family) rate, 15% to clinic participants discount on all cars and parts purchased between 9:30am - 12:00am.


Discount valid 8-9-08 ONLY!!! and only in person (not valid online).

Spirit Porsche 936

Spirit will release this livery of the Porsche 936.

The 1937 Tatra T87

Check out the classic 1937 Tatra T87 at Jay Leno’s Garage. Designed by Hans Ledwinka, this streamlined, air-cooled, rear-engine car was built by Czechoslovakian manufacturer Tatra and was the favourite of German officers during World War II.



Check out the Wikipedia page of the Tatra T87.

Thanks for the link Michelle.

Power Slot 1/32 Quad review by Eric Cropper

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Different is good and Power Slot of Spain has created something very different. A QUAD!!! No, I didn’t make a typo. Usually, if someone out there wanted something very different they pulled a Frankenstein and made it themselves. I’ve seen folks take die-cast motorcycles and with a bit of modification had a runner for their personal amusement. Well, Power Slot has done the work for us with this release. So, tighten your gloves, put on your helmet, pull the goggles down and I’ll kick start this review.

The first thing you notice is that the Quad doesn’t come in your typical slot case. It is a cardboard box with a removable clamshell plastic interior. The box has some nice artwork on it depicting various scenes of racing Quads. Below is a close up of the two end flaps of the box.


APPEARANCE:
The first debate some of you may make, “Is it really 1/32 scale?” I’m going to say, “No.” The driver looks more like a young boy driving this Quad instead of a man. The next debate is, “Do we really care?” I again say, “No.” Why you ask? Simple, we need to keep in mind the overall size of this Quad. You have to make it bigger than 1/32 scale in order to have room for all the mechanical parts that make it a slot quad instead of a static quad.

The overall appearance of the Quad is done very well and the finish is great. Colors are solid, vivid and hold little to no flaws. Power Slot pulled off the Quad look with features like the push bar bumper up front, grated foot platforms and the exaggerated fenders found on any real world quad.Read the full review at this link to Home Racing World.

Slotburger slot car now for sale

Would you like to own a very distinctive and rare slot car?

Would you also like to support a truely grass-roots slot car website?


Interested folks can send $47.00 to PayPal account usa-service@tecnitoys.com (Which is Bryan Young), or send a check to SCX Tecnitoys, 229 East Main Street, Wayne, Ohio 43466.
International orders $55.00
Checks payable to:
Tecnitoys North America, Inc


50% of the proceeds will go to help Harry keep Home Racing World a fun and vital place on the internet.

BMW 635 Jager from Spirit

Spirit will release the BMW 635 Jager later this year.

Spirit Golf Rally

A BP deco of the Golf will be released by Spirit.

PowerSlot VW Polo S.1600 By Shawn Smith

Appearance: Before we get too far in let me again remind everyone that this is a brand new company so some growing pains are to be expected. Even so when I first opened the box and pulled out these Polo's I was pleasantly surprised by the general appearance of both cars. The cases, which are really big for such relatively small cars, are simlar in look to case from numerous other companies having a flat black plastic base and a tall clear plastic top. While these Polo's might look a little dwarfed by the case size Power Slot also makes Dakar style trucks so they have to be large enough to fit their other lines. Inside each case is a thick card-stock background with very basic company information on the back.Leaning more towards race liveries than street car looks I went for the white BP South Africa Rally Championship car first and quickly opened the case to get a better look at these new cars. At first glance the car looks great with orange accents like both front and rear bumpers, the rear hatch mounted wing and a variety of other colors that stand out well on the mostly white base paint.The 'Show Car' version, in contrast, is a basic red finish which is difficult to make lacking that 'toy-like' appearance. The overall finish however is nice the glossy although for me it screams to be covered in graphics and have numbers placed on it.

Read the full review at this link on Home Racing World.

Spirit Courage

Another livery of the Spirit Courage "Mazda" powered slot car.

Indy Car video

Odd that IndyCar would put out this video. But then you can't blame them for trying to drum up interest any way they can. Even if the action on the track isn't compelling enough, then why not put out this video, eh?

The new C3 Picasso

The new Citroen C3 family body style will be presented at this year’s Paris Motor Show and launch in the first-quarter of next year.

Despite it's small appearance, this MPV measures 4.08 m long, 1.73 m wide and 1.62 m tall with a fairly big boot space. The split-fold rear seats can be folded away with one hand in one simple movement. The new C3 allows flat loading space right up to the seatbacks in row one. That's not all. the load length can be further extended by folding the front passenger seat back down into desk position.

Check out the innovative, three-part windscreen with slim pillars. Combined with the high seats, it will give the driver a wide-angle vision.


Regarding the engine, the C3 Picasso there are four options. Either the two new-generation petrol options – the VTi 95 and VTi 120 – and two diesels, the HDi 90 and HDi 110 DPFS. As for environment fliendliness, these engines provide low CO2 emissions, with the HDi 90 unit emitting just 125 g/km.

SCX National Championshop - HOUSTON (complete)

Well, the 2008 SCX National Championship Regional Qualifier in Houston is now in the books.



It was a long, hard race, that all the racers fully enjoyed.

We started the event with the SCX NASCAR class to get the racing off the ground... not to mention we all needed to wake up a little bit!

Improptu SCX Car Reviewa and Tech Notes:

Notes:

• All of the NASCAR cars ran on the new hand out rear tires. Many of the drivers opted to swap out their front tires as well, since most of us had turned the fronts down a little, or rounded the corners off.
  
• The SCX NASCAR tires according to the lastest SCX price list were only available as a complete kit of 4 tires with a full rear axle setup. Luckily for one of the racers (me) I got to use the whole kit and swap my rear axle out, after one of the wheels on my Kevin Harvick car came off the axle.
  
• We teched all the NASCARs, with a body-off presentation to the impound. Once the cars were cleared, the bodies were put back on the cars, and the marshalls cranked the body and magnet mount screws all the way down, so everyone was literally on a box stock, level playing field with no "magnet draggers".
  
• We also dropped all them on the Magnet Marshall to check them out (just for grins).
  
• The NASCARs were all run box stock, with hand-out rears only. No SCX PRO parts allowed (to keep the cost down for the racers).
  
• The SCX PRO Audi's were allowed to run SCX PRO parts, but oddly enough everyone ran theirs with stock gearing.
  
• We knew that the racing would be REAL close (and it was!) so we did 5 minutes per lane across 4 lanes, European rotation, and was measured in total laps, with the ties broken by total distance of last lap, then by fastest lap time.
  

For the impromptu review of the SCX NASCAR, this one is short but simple. They ROCK!
For those of you with an SCX Regional Qualifier coming up, I dont know how your race host will check your cars, but we had 5 people that were all running brand new cars (ie: they just came in on Friday kind of new...). The new Earnhardt #3 Wrangler, Kahne #9 Mopar and the Montoya #42 Texaco Havoline. Let me just say that all 5 of these cars placed...you guessed it at the top!! They pulled down 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th.
Given that the motors were identical and brand spankin new, as were the tires, the only thing that we can attribute it to, is that the rear magnets in the new cars are MUCH stronger than all the others.

The magnets in the new cars were pulling 450-480 on the Magnet Marshall and the other SCX NASCARs were pulling 320-330. The light-weight of the group were 2 older SCX Reeses cars, pulling a 215 and 230.

Hmmmm, dont know how that one is going to pan out across all the races, as SCX doesnt make replacement magnets for the cars. Hope you saved yours if you are a no-mag club like we are.

For the SCX Pro Audi

Make SURE that you check the grub screw on your crown gear! You always hear about the one that "could have been" or "that got away"...well, in the case of Greg Andrews and Rick Carlson, the rear crown came loose on the axle and allowed the axle to slide out to the side, to the point that the tire bound up on the fender of the car. Since repairs are made with the track hot (just like in a real race), getting the car off the track, getting the screw drivers, popping the body off, re-aligning the axle and tighening with re-assembly took 9-10 laps of both drivers. Remember the 10sec lap times were on a 122 foot track. So we lost a LOT of ground!

On our Audi's all of them but 1 were SCX PRO Audi's, the last was an SCX R10 with an SCX Pro motor and tires.



All of the cars handled like a dream and gave the drivers to see what they were really capable of. The one repetitive comment that I heard was that the cars were on par with what Slot.Its were capable of doing on the track, and I think it opened up some guys eyes that had been die-hard Slot.It fans.

These things drive incredibly smoothly and are predictable once you get a few laps under you. The power is consistently smooth.

The one complaint about the cars (both the PRO Audi and NASCAR) is that the motors dont really seem to come alive until about 5 laps into the race when they start to warm up.

For the results...

NASCAR RACE: (left to right)

1st : Ronny Paul, Jr. - aka: "Crash" : 119 laps (Distance Winner) : 9.835 sec

2nd : Ronny Paul, Sr. : 119 laps : 9.513 sec

3rd : Shawn Hughes : 118 laps : 9.657 sec

4th : Larry Edwards : 117 : 9.664

5th : Ken Brown : 115 (Distance) : 10.04

6th : Russ Cox : 115 : 9.802

7th : Greg Andrews : 114 : 10.04

8th : Shane Slement : 113 : 9.954

9th : Bruce Hunt : 112 : 10.13

10th : Cooper Carlson (Distance): 107 : 10.61

11th : Rick Carlson : 107 : 10.34

12th : Cole Andrews : 105 : 10.27

13th : Ed Hunter : 103 : 10.58

SCX PRO AUDI Race : (left to right)

1st : Ken Brown : 90 laps : 10.29 sec

2nd : Larry Edwards : 90 laps : 10.42 sec

3rd : Shane Slement : 88 laps : 10.45 sec

4th : Shawn Hughes : 86 : 10.23

5th : Cooper Carlson : 86 : 10.55

6th : Russ Cox : 85 : 10.50

7th : Ed Hunter : 82 : 10.60

8th : Greg Andrews : 81 : 10.24

9th : Rick Carlson : 80 : 10.28

10th : Cole Andrews : 78 : 11.35

About the event's host: Scale Auto Racing, Inc. - Houston, TX.

Scale Auto Racing is located in northwest Houston and is home to the Houston Scale Auto Racing Club (HSARC). Scale Auto Racing, Inc. has been around for about 7yrs and started out as a grass roots operation. It now occupies about 4000sf and houses a 4lane, 122 foot 1/32scale, custom routed track. It also is home to a 1/24 scale 8lane, 87foot 1967 American Racing Yellow track as well as a scale 1/8 mile drag strip.

Scale Auto Racing and its HSARC club primarily run 1/32 hard body cars in competitive league races on Friday nights with about 20 racers. League racing is fun for all ages and starts at 7pm each Friday night.
Hours for the shop are: Friday - 6pm till 12am; Saturday and Sunday - 12Noon till 6pm.

For more information, visit the following: Scale Auto Racing, Inc. ( http://www.HoustonScaleAutoRacing.com ) or the Houston Scale Auto Racing Club ( http://www.hsarc.net ).

It was a beautiful day in Trout Run!!!

I just can say enough about how cool it was watching the cars at the Rose Valley Hill Climb event race balls-to-the-wall up the mile long course!

Throw in this awesome Porsche 914/6 and a Daytona Cobra and you've got yourself a really fun day. See the rest of the photos at this link on SCXWorldWide.com.

The folks watching the race were great to talk with and the racing was top notch. And if you happen to be in Central Pennsylvania Sunday you can go watch the races for only $5.00 a carload!!!!!

Go to this website for information about how to get to the race. And it's a fund raiser for the local volunteer fire department so it's for a good cause too!

Spirit Peugeot's x2

Above is the livery of the SCX Digital compatible Spirit Peugeot 406. It will be released later this year (the 4th quarter I believe but I might be wrong on that).
And the "super sport" Peugeot release.

Discounts on car rentals

One of my friends is going to Austria for a holiday and he initially had planned to drive there but later on decided to fly there. I asked him how he was plannign to get around the place and found out that he planned to use public transport from moving around the city and hiring a car for going outside town.

When deciding on a car rental company, two companies usually come to mind, namely, Hertz and Avis. However, in the process we miss out on a number of other companies which provide competitive rental rates. One searching around the web, we came across Advantage Rent A Car. This car rental company is more than 40 years old and has a presence in 150 U.S. locations and 130 locations in 33 countries internationally. Yes! They are in Austria as well.

Found out that they are offering some special offers including a 50% discount on luxury cars and convertibles. Definitely worth considering when deciding on a car rental company.

AutoArt July/August releases

New Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV

A new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV model will be unveiled at 2008 Moscow Motor Show. the show will run from August 26 to September 7 (open to the public on August 29) at the Crocus Expo in Moscow.

The model will be known as the "Montero Sport" in South America, "Shogun' in the UK, "Nativa" in Latin America and "Challenger" in Australia. However, it will not be sold in Central and Western Europe nor in North America.


Rear


Front view

The new Pajero has a really sporty look. They are offering a choice of three engines viz.,: 2.5-litre and 3.2-litre common rail direct injection diesel units and a 3.5-litre V6 gasoline unit.

Very practical innovations include the water-repellent seats and waterproof luggage compartment floor.

According to their press release, Mitsubishi choose to launch the new Pajero Sport at the Moscow Motor Show to indicate "Russia's eminent position within Mitsubishi Motors". It's not surprising because in the last fiscal year (2007) Mitsubishi Motors sold some 100,000 vehicles on the Russian market.

Spirit BMW twin pack

New SCX-Digital F1 McLaren

For all the latest SCX news go to SCX WorldWide.com.