My Problem with Thunderslot

 When I got my first Thunderslot car, I bought it alone. No partner. These cars are pricey, so I wanted to try one before sinking too much into it. I worry that I'll eventually find something that really would be better at the commercial track rather than my track, and I'd rather not spend too much at the outset. So the first car I bought was through a coin flip with about six other cars. It was the Elva:

There are a few different options, but they're pretty much cosmetic differences.

As I explained in previous posts, this thing is absolutely insane, yet is still tame enough to run on my track. It's a great running car, smooth as can be, and it's an absolute pleasure to race. So much so that I'd be out of my mind not to get a partner for it. So I did.

I picked the Lola because it looked like it would be a good competitor.

The Lola turned out to be EXACTLY as good as the Elva. Like, less than .01 difference. Now, I've been around long enough to know that something like that is extremely difficult to come by. You just don't come across two cars so perfectly matched like that. Every track I tried, no matter what, they ran practically perfect with each other. 

Of course, I thought more about the two great cars I got than the idea that they were basically the same car. Not that that's a bad thing. So I did what any sane person would do: I settled on the two cars and never got another one.

So the third one I got was because it was too pretty to pass up. And it had to be different enough that I would be totally happy with it anyway.

I had read about how the owner of Thunderslot used to work at NSR and was a designer and stuff, and he had ideas. He had ways he thought things should be. So he broke away and formed his own company. Part of the ethos of the company is to produce cars that are competitive with each other. So they are their own class. A hugely insane, crazy fast class of cars. And I've purchased three of them. And they all run .01 of a second from each other.

And that's my problem with Thunderslot: they are everything they have advertised. Their cars do exactly what they're supposed to do. And they're extremely good at doing that.

The fourth one. I haven't found a bad Thunderslot car yet. 

Where do they fit in the big scheme of things? Well, on my track they sit right at the top. Thunderslot > NSR > Slot.it. And while they race with good odds, it's always possible for one of the other cars to take it all. 

I'm planning on buying one or two more. Then I'll have to wait for new releases. I think I have all the body styles they offer. 

Floor Notes: Getting Settled In

 It took me almost two weeks before I was finally able to set up a layout on the floor. I had lots of boxes to deal with and needed enough space to make it worthwhile. Since my intention has been to use the living room floor for layouts, the room is designed with a nice open area. The only thing taking up space is my desk, but I could even use most of that space in a layout if I needed to. The couch is small, so I leave it where it is. 

Setup and shakedown of a recent layout first thing in the morning. I elevated the straight after taking this pic. This is about half of the room, with the other half having about as much space. Once I get rid of those boxes back there, I'll get almost another meter to work with, which will open up that area very nicely.

Is the floor as awesome as a table? No, but it's still awesome. I'll get used to it, since it was the way I raced up until a handful of years ago. So the table didn't spoil me, thankfully. 

I've been looking at picking up more track pieces, notably more 3/30 curves and a bunch of 4/15 curves, of which I have none. My plan is to take advantage of every layout, so I'll be replacing straight sections with varying curve sections, and the 4/15 curves will help a lot with that. Not planning on getting any banking, but I am strongly considering getting started on adding borders to the track. I think it might be time. Being in a tighter environment means tighter racing and slower speeds than on a more open track. You end up driving on the edge taking advantage of those curves, and it would be nice to have that extra space. I have a few for 1/60 curves that work well enough for me to want more. I'll probably get some 2/30 borders as well, but likely that'll be all. I haven't had a car come off a 3/30 yet, so I'm not worried about needing borders for that. 

Porsche 917K climbing the hill in the morning.

Getting shots of the track action is going to be kind of tough, but I'm going to figure out the best way to do it. I think a GoPro might be in my future. I'm going to need something flexible and compact to get good footage. I'm also going to build a lightbox so I can do photography. That won't be on the floor, but probably in my bedroom. It'll be probably 3'x3' so it'll handle more than just cars. That'll be my ongoing winter project.

I think the racing will be good, but it's going to be on more technical tracks than what I was racing before. There will be more work for the controller on each of the cars to get just the right settings. I think the action will be tight across all brands. 

I'm still going to do time trial racing, but it'll definitely be split up in groups. Since I'm splitting them up, I'll likely run longer races, which will allow for more competitive racing. Doing 20 laps on a 5 second track is a pretty short race. I'll have to do some tests to see what works best. I have a lot of cars now, and I'm not planning on benching any of them [well, except possibly for one, although not quite yet]. 

Two cars that are itching to get in their first race: Sunoco M6A and Lola T70 III. Definite challengers.

I'm also thinking of getting another overpass. I like it a lot better than putting 8 pieces in the air to get over another part of the track. The overpass is just so much more convenient and is still a challenge. But with tight tracks, where you can fold them over themselves, more overpasses will definitely come in handy. 

I'll be working on some car reviews for YouTube. I have enough cars to do a decent series, so I'm going to work on that for awhile. I want to review every car I have, so they'll be new and used car reviews, kinda like the one I did for the Lola T70. I'll probably go a little more in-depth than I did before, but not too much. I don't want to just put redundant information up just to do it. I want to do interesting videos of cars that have been used, and how that experience has been. 

Alright, my daughter has been here for the weekend, and we got some good racing in on a small kidney oval I put together. She's getting really good at it and enjoys it very much. She even requested that I set it up so we could play when she came over. That's my kid. 

New Car - Thunderslot Lola T70 MKIII

 So my birthday was just the other day, and in all the craziness going on lately with me moving and starting my new job and everything, I had neglected getting myself my birthday present. So off to my favorite shop, Overdrive Slotservice to pick up a new car. I've bought about a half dozen or so cars from them and they're great.

So, the car came the day after my birthday, which also happened to be the day I was getting my Covid shot. Well, wouldn't you know it I got a shot that took me out for a couple of days, so I didn't get a chance to do much other than take the car out of the box. 

Another great one from Thunderslot. They are a very good slot car company.

This is my fourth Thunderslot car. I decided not long ago to get one of each body style available, and I think I have one more to get. Not sure about that, though. 

The impressive thing, aside from how great these cars are in general, is just how closely they run against each other. Granted, they share the identical setup/parts/etc. Small differences in chassis. But what that means is that you're going to have a much more competitive field all the way across it. One car won't have a clear advantage, although I think different cars would respond a little differently to things. 

Here's the T70. There's hardly anything to it in this configuration, making it low and fast.

The Lola T70 MKIII drives a bit like the Chaparral does. It's a little boxy in back, but that boxiness remains planted with the right accelerator application. 

The paint job is great on this car, as are the details. You'd think a light blue and yellow car wouldn't be an attractive pick, but it makes a damn fine looking race car.

I did a tune up and tire job to the car today, and I'm going to run it against a couple other cars on a new track I'm laying down. It's kinda fun and is taking up a nice footprint in the apartment. Pics when coverage starts.

"Howdy"

In real life this car ran about 47 laps in the 1968 Le Mans race before being disqualified when the driver went too far away from the car. Turns out I had another car from this race:

This car, driven by Willy Mairesse, crashed on the first lap of the race in 1968, giving him career-ending injuries. He committed suicide not long after.

At first I thought I had an obsession with a particular car, like the GT40 above, but the more I look, the more I like many of the cars from the era, and find beauty in many of them. I find the cars to look much better in person than they ever could on picture, at least that I've seen. 

It's looking better and better to getting started back into time trials again. I think I'll be able to do them on weekends, likely starting next weekend. I set up a track yesterday and will see if I can leave it out for the entire week. If not I'll just build a new one this weekend. I definitely have enough space to make cool layouts, and I haven't even tried one moving things around in the living room. So I even have more space than what I'm messing with now.

I can see lighting being an issue. I was so used to having permanent lights over my track and not thinking about it. Now I need to install some floor-level lighting that'll make things easier. 

Meanwhile I'm going to work in the MKIII and the M6A for awhile.