New Car: Thunderslot McLaren Elva Mk1 - Canadian GP 1964

 Yes, that's right. Another gorgeous Elva:

That's Bruce McLaren in there driving. No, really.

It was kind of a given that I was going to pick this one up. It was the next on my list. I admit that I have an obsession with Thunderslot at this point. I don't know what else to call it. At first I thought the cars would start showing faults, doing weird things. But there's nothing like that. They just keep going, and are extremely fun to drive. 

The entire Thunderslot line uses the same components, which makes them very competitive with each other, as well as with other brand lines [NSR, Slot.it, etc.]. They'd be great for club racing whether they had to have their own class or could fit in another. 

What would make this car stand out against others? It's a combination of things, all in the right places. The great design, workmanship, lightweight, low center of gravity, quality tuned parts...it's all there. And all of it together makes for a great race car.

If you're looking for your first Thunderslot, and you race with magnets, you need to know that this car comes without magnets. So make sure you ask your dealer for magnets when you buy the car. I don't use them, so I like them not being there. But that's me.

Blurry pic, but there's actually quite a bit of detail there. More than the NSR Porsche had.

There's another thing about Thunderslot: if you're the type that likes to mess with gearing and things like that, the rear axle is a little larger than normal [3mm], so you'll need to plan for that. If you're not, and you're like me, then you'll totally be fine with what you have and can tune to your heart's content.

I took this car out of the box and gave it my standard setup: lube, oil, basic loose pod setting, checked connections, prepped braids. I'll get it out on the track in a day or two, and I'm really looking forward to it. 

The first Elva I got was an instant favorite. It took me no time at all to fall in love with it. So smooth, fast and nimble. Then I went and got a few Lolas and put off picking up a second Elva. Now I'm glad I did. I thought about the gold Elvis car, but liked this one better, even if it's mostly black. It'll probably be a dust collector, but it'll be a fast one.

New Car: NSR Porsche 908/3 - Gulf - Nurburgring 1971

 Let's get right to the picture, shall we:

When something like this comes out, I just gotta have it.

This is my third Porsche 908/3. The other two, the Sunoco and the Tergal, are such good cars that I knew adding to that collection was a no-brainer. 

The NSR Porsche 908 is a great car for someone with a home track. It handles corners so extremely well that you'd be hard-pressed to find another model that can do better. The 908 is consistently on top of the lap times around here, with the Tergal being one of my fastest cars [Thunderslot included!]. It's shorter than the 917 Porsche, which makes it seem a little boxier in comparison, since the widths are pretty much equal between the two. That shorter wheelbase puts it in the Alfa 33/3, McLaren M6B category: short cars that can burn through the turns.

My first #1.    I wonder if it'll be #1.

Performance wise, it's absolutely responsive and doesn't tend to swing out around turns. Very planted, and not lacking straight speed when needed. The Alfa Romeo 33/3 from Slot.it tends to sacrifice straight speed for cornering, but that might be the cause of the model that I have, as the entire model had warping issues. I have another one from Slot.it in my future. 

The back view is your standard, quite open rear end. One can see the junk in the trunk.

The practicality of buying an NSR slot car is a bit of a tough one, I know. They can be expensive, but here's the thing: when you buy something like a Slot.it car, which usually runs about 15 bucks cheaper than an NSR car from the places I look at, the possibility to get the Slot.it car to a level the NSR car is at is achievable, but could end up costing you quite a bit in accessories. For a long time I was under the assumption that I would never purchase a higher-end slot car, so I was able to convince myself that I could get my existing Slot.it cars to a comfortable place, racing as well as they can. And I think it worked out pretty well. But then something happened: I ran out of Slot.it cars that I wanted, and I wanted more cars. So I went for it. I bought a couple of Revoslot and a couple of NSR cars. The differences in the three brands was immediately noticeable, which translated to the track.  While the Revoslot were competitive with the Slot.it cars, the NSR cars were in a world all their own. And while it's not impossible, it's extremely difficult to get a Slot.it car faster than an NSR car, at least the way I do things. 

The cockpit detail is nice and clean with not very many breakable pieces. 

The Porsche comes with the Shark EVO 21.5K sidewinder motor, a 3-point pod and fantastic factory rubber tires. Otherwise it's about as clean of a slot car as you can imagine. The body sits nicely on the chassis and allows for plenty of float adjustments. It comes pretty loose from the factory, which is good, I think. 

Overall, I'm very happy with it and am excited to get it on the track. I'm sure it'll be a contender, as the other two 908s have become. And the Gulf colors, I tell ya. I'm never going to get tired of that fantastic color combination for a livery. 

Floor Notes: Need Some Space

 We're about ready to get into the winter holidays, and I'm making my plan for how to make the most of it. I have some ideas, just trying to decide which direction to go. 

First, I need to free up some space. I took two more loads [the last two] from the house and now I need to sort and re-store that stuff here. I have a basement room dedicated to just that sort of thing. I also need to get my drums to a practice room. In fact, all my musical gear needs a place to go. 

Then, there's the matter of which direction I want to travel in. Do I:

1. Buy the latest crop of new cars

2. Buy the track pieces I have been looking at [large radius curves, another overpass, analog lap counter]

3. Buy the power supply I've always been talking about getting

So let's break those down. Number 1 is definitely the easiest, most fun of the options. I'm at 21 cars now or something like that, so I don't know if I particularly need any new ones. I might go with one of the other options and include a car or two to satiate that thirst. I have no cars in mind at the present, except for the 917/10 from NSR. So I might be looking at NSR pretty heavily, unless Thunderslot has a new release this year, which they likely will.

Number 2 is really where I should be focusing. Every time I set up a layout I complain to myself about the lack of large radius track pieces. I've got it in my head to do some major straights replacement with flowing curves and more flowing track designs, and getting rid of as many 1/60 track pieces as I can. Plus, as I'm now experimenting with lap-over track layouts, I want to have another overpass so I have more flexibility. I really really like the overpass. I makes total sense to me now and is a real space-saver. I'm also leaning heavily on the analog lap counter. I want a better timing setup that my current one.  So between those three things, I can pretty much complete layout issues and devote my time to new layouts in my new apartment. 

Number 3 is tricky. I should have taken care of that long ago, when I first built my table. The 2018 track design gave me my first power trouble. I should have taken care of it then, but I instead did a design that was a little shorter. 

This track design took all the power I could muster. Racing two cars was a dicey proposition, and it was not uncommon for cars to strain for power.

So here's my solution: Power.

This post has been sitting for a couple of weeks while I did my research and decision making. It's going to cost me about 120euro for a 5A/0-30V supply and necessary cables. That'll still leave me room for some track pieces. I think I could drop 80 bucks or so on those and be fine. 

A couple of weeks ago I shopped around for another SCP-1 and had a hard time finding them at a good price. And since I had been having power issues, and not so much controller issues, it makes more sense to go with a power supply now and later add another SCP controller when needed. It's not that much more expensive to go with the PS over the SCP controller, but it would solve a lot of problems.