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When tires were thin and drivers were fat...
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Published: January 5, 2009
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Well let's get the obvious out of the way and that is that these two F40s look different because they are modeled on different cars!
I will be the first to admit I was disappointed in the Slot.it‘s looks when I first saw the pictures. Now that I have spent some time with both of them I have to say the Slot.it has grown on me, scouring the Internet looking for pictures of the two models made me realize how different they are supposed to be!
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Published: October 28, 2008
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A very interesting thread has been posted in the Paddock on SCI.
The Paddock is part of the Forums side of SCI where readers can discuss this hobby in more detail.
Hope to see all Readers come to The Paddock and vote.
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Published: July 29, 2008
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The 1/43rd scale is coming of age and makes a lot of sense for a home racing track. The space requirements are much less compared to the larger 1:32nd and 1:24th scales and the price is very affordable. This begs the question, are these cars as pleasing to the eye and as close to true scale as what you would find in 1/32nd.
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Published: February 29, 2008
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From the outside, both the Carrera 908 and the SCX 908 are faithful recreations. Side by side, the cars are nearly identical except in a few areas. The Carrera version sports unusually large tires and the massive guide blade present on most newer Carrera cars. The SCX version sports a lower, more correctly modeled rear deck, as fine of detail as the Carrera version, and is much lower resulting in a very low center of gravity (CG).
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Published: November 28, 2006
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I had always admired the gullwing Mercedes 300SL, but had never managed to add one to my stable. Revell made a nice version back in the day, but they are expensive now and even mint NOS examples typically have lousy chrome trim pieces. By chance a few years ago I came across a Hasegawa static kit of the 300SL that was incredibly detailed with opening doors and hood, engine, photo-etched trim etc. Coincidentally, Mark Gussin began a slot conversion of the same kit (albeit produced by Tomy) and posted the process on his website. He chose to model the car John Fitch drove to an overall fifth place finish in the 1955 Mille Miglia.
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Published: August 22, 2006
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I decided to bust open my race cases and test all the different examples of JCTCs that I could find. I tested the cars without magnet on the 24m Scalextric Sport test track. The track was a replica of Reckless Racer's "The Coffin" circuit. The infield is very technical, and there's a nice long straight where these cars could wind out to terminal velocity.
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Published: January 20, 2005
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There was a quote once in Road & Track magazine, actually a caption to a photo of a robust and quite rotund Farina, a well known driver from the 50’s getting out of his Italian mount, the narrow rear tire of the car at his side, along the lines of.... ”the golden era of motor sport when tires were thin and men were fat.” It captured neatly the contrast to toady's fat tired Formula 1 cars and muscular jockey sized drivers. It also brought into focus how far auto racing has evolved, but has it always been for the better? Is the spectacle now any more special or magnificent compared to the old days or was that an era more romantic and exciting? -
Published: August 30, 2004
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Step into the “way back “ machine and imagine a simpler, more innocent time in the mid 1960’s. JFK was gone, his brother and Martin Luther King were to follow, the cold war was at its height, Viet Nam was starting to fracture the U.S.A., the space race captured our imagination, the Pony car was hot, muscle cars proliferated and the VW Beetle was the only small car, trucks were for farms. Well, not so innocent in terms of world events, but for a kid in Southern Ontario, in Canada, I was able to view these events from a detached distance. And all it took to tick your parents off was to grow your hair long over your ears.
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Published: May 12, 2004
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Never in my wildest imaginings did I expect the warm and wonderful reaction that my nostalgic meandering would illicit from so many SCI readers. (Model Race Cars... a racer waxes nostalgic!) It was heartening to read your reactions on the board, but then a steady trickle of e-mails starting popping up at my e-mail address. Thank you, to all of you.
One e-mail in particular caught my attention. It was from a gentleman in Brazil by the name of Osvaldo Pace. Osvaldo rediscovered his childhood passion for model car racing 10 years ago, and now just over fifty years old, he still remembers the smell of his first slot car set, a Christmas gift in 1965.
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Published: April 11, 2004
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It was a quiet snow covered Christmas day in 1962. A twelve year old small town boy in Southern Ontario gets his first Eldon slot car set ( six volt transformer, two controllers and two nylon Eldon chassis's with four stock car bodies, a white Chevy Impala, red Ford Thunderbird, yellow Chrysler and a blue Pontiac.) The track is an extended figure eight with a mechanical lap counter. -
