Well, not a lot happened with this blog last year, shortly after I published it I had to take down my track as I found I was spending too much money on the hobby and needed to cool it for a while.
The track in the first post now resides in Dave's house in Raheny and is still great to use, and now I have a new track pictures of which I'll post later. Otherwise when time allows I still enjoy tinkering with the cars in my collection.
Hope to add more in 2011!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Saturday, February 20, 2010
First post for this blog
This blog is intended to promote the currently small slot car racing scene here in Dublin. At the moment we are a group of around 10 guys who meet up in each others homes and race 1:32 slot cars on a variety of 4 lane slot tracks.
In addition to the well known Scalextric brand, we use cars and equipment made by other brands such as Carrera, Ninco, SCX (Spanish Scalextric), Fly, Racer, Revell/Monogram, Slot.it and many more.
Generally we are a competitive bunch and when I joined the group in July 2009 I was no where in terms of keeping up with the others! However with practice you soon get up to speed and for the most part having a bit of fun is the most important thing!
My own track is currently the only wooden track in the group (the other guys have plastic Scalextric or Ninco tracks) and is of course my personal favourite! I prefer the smoothness of a wood track and also I find the cars more fun to drive as there is no magnetic downforce effect.
Here are some pictures of my track:
New slot car racers are always welcome, considering how much scalextric stuff sells from Marks Models in town and from Hamley's in Dundrum over Christmas I would think there must be more "closet racers" out there!
Another aspect of this hobby for me is proxy racing. This is promoted through the various main slot car online forums such as www.slotforum.com (UK based), www.auslot.com (an Australian forum) and www.slotcarillustrated.com (a US based forum). To enter a proxy you prepare a slot car to a given set of rules and then post it to the organiser. The car is then run usually against the clock on a variety of tracks around the world and at the end of the "season" a winner is declared. It certainly appeals to the anorak in me!
I'll try to post pictures of my proxy car builds here as well.
This is my Avant Slot Porsche RS Spyder which I've entered for the 2010 Down Under Proxy Race in Australia:
Ronan
In addition to the well known Scalextric brand, we use cars and equipment made by other brands such as Carrera, Ninco, SCX (Spanish Scalextric), Fly, Racer, Revell/Monogram, Slot.it and many more.
Generally we are a competitive bunch and when I joined the group in July 2009 I was no where in terms of keeping up with the others! However with practice you soon get up to speed and for the most part having a bit of fun is the most important thing!
My own track is currently the only wooden track in the group (the other guys have plastic Scalextric or Ninco tracks) and is of course my personal favourite! I prefer the smoothness of a wood track and also I find the cars more fun to drive as there is no magnetic downforce effect.
Here are some pictures of my track:
New slot car racers are always welcome, considering how much scalextric stuff sells from Marks Models in town and from Hamley's in Dundrum over Christmas I would think there must be more "closet racers" out there!
Another aspect of this hobby for me is proxy racing. This is promoted through the various main slot car online forums such as www.slotforum.com (UK based), www.auslot.com (an Australian forum) and www.slotcarillustrated.com (a US based forum). To enter a proxy you prepare a slot car to a given set of rules and then post it to the organiser. The car is then run usually against the clock on a variety of tracks around the world and at the end of the "season" a winner is declared. It certainly appeals to the anorak in me!
I'll try to post pictures of my proxy car builds here as well.
This is my Avant Slot Porsche RS Spyder which I've entered for the 2010 Down Under Proxy Race in Australia:
It's pretty much "out of the box" apart from replacing the rear wheels and tyres (using Avant Slot metal rims and MJK urethane rubber tyres).
Another car currently in the southern hemisphere is my entry for the 2010 New Zealand CanAm Proxy. It's a Revell-Monogram Lola T70 driven by George Follmer. It has Paul Gage XPS urethane rear tyres, a slot.it rear axle and wheels, a slot.it motor and a chassis modified to allow the body to rock (mimics suspension movement and makes the car less likely to de-slot). Again I'm hoping it is competitive (it certainly was fast on my track!).
Ronan
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