Sunday, 20 January 2008

SLOT SOUL: Porsche 962C

Slot.it Porsche 962C
Camel Brun Motorsport 1988

2007 has to be the year of the plain kit. Slot.it, MB Slot, Ninco and Spirit all release slots in plain kits so you can create your own piece of slot soul, a unique liveried slot car with your own character. I find that there is nothing more enjoyable as racing your own personal liveried slot.

I thought I'd start sharing some of my sprayed and liveried slot cars as I really enjoy this aspect of our great hobby. If you're a first timer, this section is designed to inspire you to start down the road of producing your own slot cars. If you have already explored this aspect of our hobby, I hope you enjoy the photos. I encourage you to send some photos of your cars in so I can share them with other readers.

This slot started out as a Rothmans Porsche 956 from the 3 car LE Rothmans set, (I didn't have a spare 962). The slot had been raced hard and it was showing with scratches and some damage to the tail. For some reason decals had also started to come away in places, it was time for a respray!

The Camel Brun Motorsport Porsche 962C raced at Le Mans in 1988 but did not finish due to an accident after 91 laps. The car was driven by Walter Lechner, Franz Hunkeler and Manuel Reuter.




You can find out more about the 1988 running of Le Mans here:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Le_Mans-1988-06-12-photo.html



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Saturday, 19 January 2008

MINI REVIEW: Avant Slot, the new kids on the block!

The new kids on the block...
Avant Slot Peugeot 908 HDi
& Pescarolo 2006/2007

One of ManicSlot's readers (parryana) sent these photos in along with a mini review I'm sure most of you will find very interesting. These cars are now available in Australia and with the Test Cars (matt black) being limited to 1,000 world wide, you will need to be quick!

Went down to see Roland and Troy at the Slotshop today and they had the new Peugoet 908s in from Avant Slot. I am a fan of any car from France and this one was a must have. I never bought the Audi R8 that Avant first bought out but had seen them run on comp nights and they were very quick and competitive.

The 908 looks great in all black, they are all numbered and are part of a 1000 car release. The case is stamped and so is the underside of the car.

I pulled the magnet out and did some initial laps, the car seemed very stable and not a deslot to be felt. Once pushed the car was a bit tail happy so loosened the body screws a tad and I was able to improve it.With a bit of oil in the gears and bearings I pushed very hard and was starting to get some very good laptimes. 4.1 constistant with my fastest being a 4.08, the non-magnet race lap record a the slotshop is at 3.94.

This car is quick out of the box, the tires do need some truing as they were high in the middle. It has tappered boy screws so you can adjust the body movement as much as you like without losing the screw on the track. Front axle grubscrews to control the travel of the front axel. It also has a suspended pod with adjustable suspension. The axle bearings have a hole to allow oil to get down where it counts, this is a great idea and I am starting to use these bearings for all my other cars over slot it and NSR bearings.

I almost forgot to mention, this beast weighs in at 76grams.The 908 is running the Orange Avant motor, which I think runs at 29k, the gearing is a 9/27 whick I found great running on 10v, non magnet on Artin track.

The only thing I dislike is that there is no room for wider tires (11mm). The car is still tail happy on exit, dial that out and the laprecord will be broken! This is a serious racer's car with lots of options you can tinker with. The fastest cars at the moment at the "Slotshop" are the NSR Mosler (4.0), Spirit Silloute (4.1), Avant Slot Audi R8 (4.1) and the SCX PRO Audi R8 (3.9), this 908 will be competing for the top spot.

parryana was also luck enough to get his hands on both the new Pescarolo 2006 Test Car and the Pescaraolo Le Mans 2007, he was nice enough to send some photos of those in too. Thanks mate.








You can find out more about Avant Slot here: http://www.avantslot.com/

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