New Car: NSR Ford MKIV Martini Racing

 I'm back from my summer off-season, so I haven't been racing at all. I guess this car might be a fantasy livery. I can't find any information of Martini Racing in the 1967 Le Mans when the MKIV won it all. But that was the red #1 Shelby American entry with A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney driving. I'm pretty sure the MKIV only raced one year then was outlawed. Of course, facts be damned here at Mikey Hanson Slot Cars.

Big Sexy.

This design was called the "Breadtruck" I guess, due to it's lack of rear view. It's a beast of a car. Not expecting it at all to handle as well as a GT40 does. 

Hard to say where this car is going to do best. It'll have to really perform to make up the size difference. 

New Car: Thunderslot Ferrari Can-Am 350 Riverside 1967

Well, I'm back from my summer vacation and all rested and ready for another fantastic slot car season. A lot of it was spent playing guitar, which is a pretty great way to do it. A few trips, but nothing special. Mostly solving musical loose ends. And now that they are completed, we can get back into it. Right after I went on vacation, I got two cars that have been patiently waiting to do stuff. 

 This one kinda goes in the "need to own" pile, along with the Revoslot Datsun 510, Slot.it Ferrari 512M, to name a few others. Cars that are being released that are absolute must-haves. And this Ferrari is another one of those cars. 

Thunderslot already makes great cars...maybe even the best cars...so picking up this one is a no brainer for that fact alone. Great looking and absolutely solid build quality. It'll be nice watching all the new converts to Thunderslot, although it'll make finding cars more difficult due to their popularity. That's okay. 

This is a Ferrari, although licensing issues prevent them calling it one. That's okay. It's still a great car and it's not going to effect me in the slightest that it might be missing a badge or two.

The view most competitors will get of this car. Nice of them to display everything.

Performance-wise, I expect this car to handle and perform similarly to the McLaren M6A. Longish nose, short but boxy back end. Probably not quite as adept as the Elva, but should still keep up with it. Of course, being a Thunderslot car puts it in an instant contender status, which is a good place to start. 

Slot cars these days are so well made that you can depend on them almost completely to be what they claim to be. And this is not just in design, which is getting much better, by the way, but also in production. You can rely on results telling you things and you wouldn't have to factor in excuses like "maybe this car is a dud." I haven't found any duds. Like, none. I can pretty safely say that the brands of cars that I own meet up to all expectations of them. There isn't the floppy, wishy-washy thing where you're hoping to get a good one and not a bad one. 

This is kinda the reason why I decided I didn't want to review slot cars on YouTube. There's nothing to say about them. They're all tuned to the hilt, they all have top shelf ingredients, and they all come from manufacturers that have built reputations on making quality slot cars for hobby racing. So for me to come on here and say that "Brand X is definitively the best" doesn't really work. That's why we race them. But for you to be able to take a car out of the box today, give it a little oil/lube and tire sanding and THAT'S ALL you need to do. 

I expect that I won't have to replace or upgrade a thing on this car, or any other of the 55 or so cars I have now. They're just that good. This car is no different.

Late Summer Break

 This is something I normally do around April or May, and usually lasts until June, but due to circumstances I wasn't able to take my usual break, so it's timing out now. This is a break from dedicating weekends to racing. It gives me a chance to work on other things, get out in the sun, and re-energize myself for the winter. 

You gotta understand...I do this so that I don't burn out. I found this trick to work with most of my hobbies. If you force yourself to take a timed vacation from your hobbies, you'll come back to them with new interest. Now that doesn't mean I stop shopping. Most certainly not. I also don't stop running /r/slotcars. I just take a break from the physical aspect of setting up the track and racing on the floor on the weekend. 

This last batch of race cars has been so good that I can't pick a favorite out of the bunch. Each time I look at the last 6 or so cars that I've picked up, my favorite changes each time.

Usually the break lasts about a month or so. I'm trying to time it so it's right around when the weather changes. Plus there are a lot of concerts coming up, and I've been doing loads of show photography these days. But I'll probably end up buying a car or two during the break. I'm waiting on the Thunderslot Ferrari. Also want to pick up a couple of the GT40 MKIV cars from NSR. And then the holiday cars start showing up. 

So I'm hoping this all works out. Pretty sure it will. And it's not like I'm burned out and at risk of stopping. On the contrary. I'm forcing myself to do this. But I know that it'll matter later. It always does.

Such good cars this batch.

__________

So what's coming?

I'm going to start up the racing series right when I get back. I've thought it all out now, and have gotten to a place where I can go ahead and do it. I'm going to post results here, and have been planning video coverage as well. I have rules that'll be well established for the series. Because of the huge amount of cars, I'm going to feature less track layouts, which means less overall races. It'll still be something like 11 or 15 races instead of the planned 21. I'll have everything laid out with easy explanations. 

Despite not racing, that doesn't take photography off during the break, nor does it mean I won't be posting here. I'm going to see if I can stretch the break to the end of August. We'll see if that works. 

Don't forget to get outside this summer. Stay well.

New Car: Policar Ferrari 412P - 1000km Spa 1967

 a.k.a. the 2nd car driven by Willy Mairesse that I own

a.k.a. a new brand enters the competition

POLICAR Ferrari 412P

Most people that race slot cars would probably be saying, "okay, so?" right about now, but I have my reasons. First off, the Ferrari 412P fits right in with all my other cars. It also happens to be YELLOW. And it's also from Policar. I've been wanting one of those for awhile now. Yes, sure, this car has been around for awhile, can be found at usually a very affordable sale price, comes from a relatively new brand. 

Or does it....?

Fresh out of the box. Still has the magnet in it. 

Policar is a subsidiary of Slot.it. In fact, it could very well be the other way around and I just don't know. Either way, they are very much related and it shows. This car is practically a Slot.it., with chassis, hardware and construction matching Slot.it cars. Even the tires seem to be the same quality stock that comes on Slot.it releases.

Adding a new brand is always interesting, and with cars from Thunderslot, NSR, Slot.it, Revoslot, Carrera, and now Policar, this should make for a good race. I would expect the Policar to keep up with the Slot.it cars. 

And that's a lot of the motivation for picking this car up. I was willing to take the chance that a Policar slot car is going to be inferior to a Slot.it car, but I don't see it so far. I'll have to get closer to it, and it'll really tell on the track. Policar is pretty widely available here, and they have some cool cars, plus they come in at a cheaper price point than Slot.it cars do. Why that is, I'm not sure. 

With all that said, maybe that's why this car intrigues me. Maybe it's the assumption that because it might be a less expensive car, it's going to run towards the back of the pack. Or maybe it's just those new brand questions that come up whenever you try a new brand. Although I gotta say it really really REALLY looks like a Slot.it car. 

Anyhow, this car is going to get its chance to perform. However it ends up, it was worth it. My expectation is that it'll keep up with the pack, and might have surprises. I'm hoping I like it enough to trigger my desire to buy more of their cars. Given the amount of brands I have, it might make sense to make a brand championship to go along with all the other ways I'm going to be scoring cars. And with this car on the track, the ghost of Willy Mairesse will have another chance to win. Garage time...

TUNING NOTES: After cracking the top off and taking a look inside, it's very much a Slot.it car. I think you should buy some of these. 

New Car: Thunderslot McLaren M6B Can-Am Las Vegas '68

 WOW!!

Thunderslot McLaren M6B

With its beautiful cerulean blue paint job and electric blue highlights, the T&G Racing's Hollywood Sport Cars entry, driven by Jerry Titus, is an absolute threat on the concourse as well as the race track. The gorgeous livery, which consists of only ONE THING that's not a number, is absolutely stunning. It throws you back to a time before everything got invaded by advertising. It's like that with most all of the cars from that era; fast cars with sweet paint jobs, racing.

The internal works are just what I've come to expect from Thunderslot: practically perfect design and manufacturing. Lightning fast and smooth as silk. If this was your first Thunderslot car, it WOULD BE your fastest slot car. No doubt about it. I can say that in absolute confidence, and I haven't even gotten this car out on the track yet. It's still on the concourse, taking pictures.

Tuning Day for the Latest Batch

 I slept lousy last night, probably because I watched a video on how to do 120fps video with my camera. That got me to thinking, which kept me awake. I woke up at 5, started right in on the video tests, then shifted gears and decided to work on the new group of race cars. I hadn't tuned them all just yet. Some partially, some not at all. So today was focused on the T70 III, the GT40, the P68, the yellow Ferrari and the Hippy Car, which was the most completed of the cars.

Three things from the top of my head:

1. There is absolutely nothing saying Slot.it cars can't keep up with NSR and Thunderslot and others. I used to believe something to this effect, mostly because I hadn't gotten past that first level of tuning, but now I see and understand. So if I've ever disparaged Slot.it, which I don't think I haven't, I want to make it perfectly clear that they are every bit as competitive as any other brand. 

Watch out for this Slot.it car.

2. The T70 is an absolute beast.

Beast.

3. Here's the deal with the P68; because of the narrow front and rear of the car, those factor in to the handling in an immense way. At first I thought it would handle roughly like the GT40, but I was wrong. There's no rear-end weirdness whatsoever. This car is as planted and on the money as the Matra, which is a crazy concept. It's also very light, which plays directly into it's cornering ability. 

DAY TWO:

Now that the previous cars mentioned have all been dealt with, I'm moving on to quick cleanup and checking of some of the others. Nothing too fancy....a tire cleaning and 20 or so laps to make sure nothing weird is happening. Being that this is the first race of my season and has a lot of cars in various states, I thought I would give everyone a quick going over. Plus, my week extended by a day, so I have an extra day to do this. 

Most of the Classics are finished, and I'll be doing some motor adjustments to some of the GT cars to get them up to speed. 

I have the rest of the day to do the last of the cars and possibly even start the racing. I only have one errand to run, then it's all about slot cars. 

I've been thinking about it, and I'm honestly not sure I can predict who will win this. The field is so close that I'm going to run 50 lap races to get some decent scoring. I don't know if it'll be a car that has already won before, or whether it'll be one of the newer contenders. So many of these cars haven't been in a race yet. Ferrari, 917/10k, Lola, P68, the GT cars...so many have yet to compete, and the winner could be from any one of them, along with dozens of others.

I'm going to run a points system, so the last 10 cars won't score any points. I think that'll be 43 points for the winner, working down from there. Winner will also receive 3 bonus points, 2nd 2 bonus points and 3rd 1 bonus point. 

If the GT Class as a group are considerably slower than the Le Mans Class, their scores will be re-evaluated based on the Class as a separate group. That will also effect scoring for the Le Mans Class, so they would both have to be reconfigured. For example: if the entirety of the GT Class is off pace from the Le Mans Class by 3 seconds or so, yet still competitive with its own Class, then two separate scoring structures will happen, with a GT Class winner each race, as well as a similar scoring system to the Le Mans Class. 

I'll be running individual points championship, sponsor points championship and constructor's championship. Any team cars are eligible for the sponsor points championship, however only the two fastest team cars can carry their points over. The constructor's championship will be the slot car manufacturer's cup. Eligible companies at this time are: NSR, Slot.it, Thunderslot, Revoslot, Carrera. All cars are eligible to carry their points over. 

Back to the track...

5 Of My Favorite Cars

 After the last post with all the yellow GT40 pics, it got me to thinking about some of my favorite cars. When I get a new car, I take it out and run it, comparing it to the other cars, and generally just seeing what kind of package it is and how it runs. And when you buy cars from reputable manufacturers, it's pretty rare to have issues. Most of the time they run really well without much help. 

We all have opinions of what we like in a slot car, and which we think is good. I like a car that handles well, runs smoothly and feels light. That doesn't necessarily mean that I get those things in every car, nor does it mean I only settle for those things and reject everything else. 

So here are five cars that have grown to be favorites of mine [in no particular order]:

Thunderslot Elva #2

This was the first car that I bought that felt like it had limitless power. Whenever I gave it gas, it went faster. Between the red #2 and the black #47 [truly an evil car], the Elva has been hovering at the top of the scoresheet for a long time. 

I like the medium nose and short tail. Makes for a snappy race car that can still settle down and get in line for the straightaway. It doesn't waste any energy. It has such a low center and magnificent construction by Thunderslot that you can't put it away. It's the car the points out all the inefficiencies with your other cars. 

Slot.it Ferrari 512M

This one is a little weird the way it turned out. I had bought up a bunch of Slot.it classics, then moved on to NSR, Revoslot and Thunderslot. I originally thought that Slot.it cars wouldn't be able to keep up with the others, but that's not the case. So when the Ferrari came out I kinda freaked out, as did most everyone in the slot car world. Here's Slot.it, which was mostly pretty slow in regards to Classics being released, and then they put out this. 

It's so much fun to race, feels great and competitive, and kinda re-establishes a great car classification. It's great at taking pictures, and I imagine would even look great sitting on a shelf somewhere. Certainly looks and runs like a gem on my track.

Slot.it Matra/Simca 670B

Early on I only had a handful of cars, and they were all very similar in style and capability. I had one that was different, which was an Alfa Romeo 33/3 because of how short it is, but nothing really stood out until I got the Matra. The first thing that stands out is the long wheelbase, but you notice it when you're racing. It's low, long, medium nose and medium tail, and incredibly stable. It runs the way you wish the 917 would run. If I was going to race in a Classics race and could only take one of my cars, I would take this car. 

Revoslot BMW 2002ti Fisher Technik

This car could have been pretty much any of the Revoslot GT cars. This one stands out being the smoothest from the start and looking particularly great. This is such a fun series of cars to race, even if the tuning situation is a little different from the other brands. Still great and I'm glad I tried them. Still not sure if a GT car could win it all, though, but given the right track, perhaps.

Thunderslot Lola T70 #21

My second Thunderslot car, and one of the smoothest performers I have. I know that sounds a bit like all the other cars, especially calling them all "smooth", but it's true. The smoother the race car, the faster it'll go. It shows a well-tuned racer and this car fits the bill completely. Deceptive and low-slung, it'll do both the curves and the straights. I love it.

Photography and Media Post

 This blog is a practice place for some stuff. As an amateur/semi-pro photographer [yes, I have occasionally gotten paid for my work and some has actually been published], I find the world of slot cars a great place to practice taking pictures. Ever since the beginning there has been an emphasis of including pictures associated with the cars I'm talking about. 

Here's something you might not know: each time I get a new car, I do a complete photo session of all the cars and replace each image on the sidebar with a current photo of each car. Why? For practice, for one. I also like to work on particular things when taking pictures, whether it might be something like lighting or a photographic technique. 

Back in the old days with the Canon 500D and an assortment of clip lights to help light things up.

While I had a pretty decent camera in the 500D, it wasn't great. I was able to get serviceable shots in the early years with it, however.

The resulting shot. Not spectacular, but pretty cool for starters.

As time went by, I added and replaced things. First was lenses, which are still my favorite thing to shop for in cameras, and later came things like a few good tripods, a flash lighting kit [which I have since retired...not my thing], and eventually proper professional video lights, suitable for both photography and video. Add to all of it a sound recording system, and I've built up a little empire. 

I now use a Canon 90D, which is their best APS-C camera. For lenses I got the EFS 18-135mm 5.6 zoom, the EFS 10-18mm 5.6 zoom, the EFS 24mm 2.8 pancake prime, and the 70-200mm F/4 USM. 

The GT40 on the Canon 90D with the 70-200mm F/4 in proper color [and lights].

Now that I have over 50 cars, taking pics of each and every one can be time consuming, but I tend to turn it into a bit of a process instead, so most times I'll set up with a neutral car, get the shot and the light I want, and start shooting. The shots are primarily similar, although I work with light settings, f-stop, ISO and other things to see what happens. The reasons I keep the shots similar is for the formatting of this blog. The shots look pretty good on a phone or computer, so I keep them that way. 

Early on I used to shoot in RAW, which is an editable image file and can be very well dialed in when you want it, but I changed to JPEG a few years ago. The reason was that I wanted to be able to take good photos and not rely so much on post-production to balance my shots. Sure, there are drawbacks to that; lossy compression, other stuff like that. But there's also the file size savings, which in my world can fill up very quickly. When I was shooting in RAW, I didn't care so much about my settings at the time, more thinking that I'd work them out in post. But that's a dependency I didn't want to have. I used to have Photoshop, but now I use iPhoto and occasionally Adobe Lightroom 3 when I do shoot in RAW for pro stuff. But since I don't do much color/brightness/etc adjusting, I pretty much go through iPhoto. I like the results I've gotten with practice, and have had only a handful of photos I wish I could have gotten back. The file size and time savings have been huge. 

The Matra is a grizzled veteran on my track. One of my favorite cars hands down.

So, I push to improve my ability to take good photos. Not all are perfect, and sometimes they're downright wrong, but that's the part of learning and discovery that I like. 

VIDEO

One thing I still don't see working is shooting video of a slot car race. Scale speeds are way too fast for most cameras to pick up a clean image of the car, and shots are often so far away from the action that it's hard to tell just what's going on. It's like trying to watch an F1 race from a helicopter a mile away from the track. I've found better results filming parade laps up close rather than full speed laps. With those, most cameras can actually pick up a good enough image to see what's going on. I've had luck on a few of my YouTube videos with parade lap shots. Sure, the car might not be blazing down the track, but it's moving, you can see it, and it looks good. 

I've thought about ways to film my races, and I just think it would be pointless and boring. Plus, I'd want to cover enough of the track with light to make it work right, and that can be tricky. But I just don't see how it can work right filming normal racing at normal speeds. Sure, you can do multiple angles and a lot of editing, but that's a pain. I've done it. It only really works at parade speeds. Racing laps mean blurry cars, loads of short shots with lots of jump cuts. Most all of my videos have it happening at one point or another, except for the more recent ones. But still, and this is including all of the other videos I've seen....they're rarely watchable, as much as I'd like to see detail and know what car is running. I'd rather see the cars coasting through the track at parade lap speeds, and THEN do the multi-cam edits. 

That's probably going to be my next thing to look at. I have theories I'd like to try and see if I can make them work. No hocus pocus...just good lighting and setup. I'm not planning on filming time trials, but I will likely film parade laps. I can use those much more effectively in a larger, more involved situation than just filming a blur going round-and-round. 

YOUTUBE

My YouTube stuff has been sporadic lately, and here's why: I wasn't really all that much of a fan of doing car reviews. I saw things going in that direction for me, and I didn't like it. As great as slot cars are, there's not all that much to talk about between the differences in them right out of the box. So you end up parroting the same information everyone else does, which means you end up competing with them for views. I'd rather not do that. I'd rather know how they're running now that they've had some time and adjustment. So I had to pretty much figure out who I was and what I was going to do. I know what it is now, and I've been mapping it out in my head. I have a few more things to try, then I'll have the necessary things to pull it all off. It basically comes down to the approach and the theme. I have the latter worked out, now I'm working on the approach. 

There are quite a few new YouTubers that have popped up since the Covid lockdowns. You can go pretty deep these days into slot car videos and get all sorts of results. I watch a lot of them, but mostly just to see what they're doing. People are starting to get serious by upgrading their equipment and turning themselves into influencers, which is okay, I guess. Not for me, though. I don't come from that angle. I'm looking to fill a niche that I think is there. We'll see if it works.

New Car: Thunderslot Lola T70 MKIII - Brands Hatch 1969

 Yay! Another Thunderslot car! I've been kinda combing and digging, looking for more Thunderslot cars, as my normal seller seems to be not carrying them so much anymore. I found another place that carries them, which is also where I picked up the GT40, and here it is, the Lola T70 MKIII:

The Lola T70 from Thunderslot is already an awesome car. Very smooth and fast, and feels like it's very planted. This car will fall right in line with all the others. With the Tech - Speed logo over the back of the car, this one....what? Oh, that. Well, from the looks of it, the car hit a can of blue paint on the track somewhere. I'm sure that's not what it is, and there's probably an easy explanation as to why the curious design decision. I'm going to do a deep dive here in a bit, so it's likely I'll replace this whole section with facts once I come across them.

The paint doesn't go completely over the front, and kind of slops over into the rally stripe and number on the front. I will say, I have absolutely NOTHING against this car whatsoever. I think the blue is really cool and makes the car look like it has worked hard. I'm sure the explanation is there somewhere. My guess: At some point during the race they had front end damage and replaced part of the front end bodywork. One of the reasons I think that isn't so much the blue paint as it is the curious black strips that look like they're holding the hood of the car together. I'll try to get a pic of that angle and show it here.

A rare car-facing-the-other-way photo here.

So stoked to have another Thunderslot car. They make such absolutely solid runners. I've found a few more outlets where I can get them, so I'm sure I'll have more again soon. 

Both the Lola and the GT40 will be given race-ready tuneups tomorrow. I still have about a dozen or so cars to check before the field is ready to race. I'll try to finish as many cars as I can tomorrow so we can move onto the track.

New Car: NSR GT40 Scuderia Filipinetti - 24h Le Mans 1966

 One of two cars I got today:

Before this guy showed up, I had three GT40 race cars, all from Slot.it. I remember one time thinking that if I got a GT40 from another brand, things could quickly sour on whoever is the slowest. I don't think that way anymore since I've gotten a couple of them up to contention. I'm going to be doing a comparison feature on them coming up. 

Looks great, sits low, and has a great paint job. 

This car has very rapidly sold out from most retailers. There will likely be more in the series. 

This and the other car I got today will both be getting tuned for the upcoming series. 

Preseason Tuning Day Two

 I want to be able to get all the cars going from the outset. No dud starters. Everybody gets an equal chance, whether they need a lot of work, little or none. Here are some of the cars.

Some cars needed as little as a once-over and they were on their way. The black Elva is one of those cars.

The black Elva is the car to beat, by my estimation. It took the last two races it was in by a good margin and was never really challenged. I didn't need to do anything to the car to prepare it for racing. It's ready to go. 

On the right track, the 908 is going to dominate. And I have a lot of them, each one just as deadly as the last. The Tibidabo is one of the only 908s that aren't part of a team. Perfect spoiler car. This one should cause all kinds of consternation in the pit garages.

Do NOT ignore the Matra. Let me tell you...the Matra is the best pure racing slot car that Slot.it makes. I'll die on that hill. It's the truth. Long wheelbase, short ends, low slung...it has it all. I've got this thing keeping up with the Thunderslot cars, which is saying something. Does it have enough to win? We'll have to wait and see. 

Unlucky Strike

First it was tire rub. A lot of it. Then something electrical started malfunctioning. Not sure what it is. I've traced both leads the whole way and found nothing out of the ordinary. I'm starting to think one of the wires might be in the process of breaking. So there may be a period when this car underperforms. I might go so far as to say that if any car was to DNF, it would likely be this one. 

Wanted to check the beer car and make sure it was up to spec. Pretty much all of the Revoslots are ready to go. I'm not sure what make/model is going to do the best, so we'll have to wait and see. The BMW is already dang fast. and so are the Escorts. The Alfa Guilia will do well on a more forgiving track, but it might struggle against the BMW in the curves. Throw the Datsun in there and there's practically a whole field. 

I have a couple more cars coming in the next day or two. Those will both get immediate work to be eligible for the races. Believe me, it'll be worth waiting for them. 

Preseason Tuning Day One

 Took advantage of a little time off today to work on nine of the most recently purchased cars, as well as a couple of other older ones. I wanted to get them all up to racing spec for the start of the season. I'd like them all to have an even chance, so getting them setup and running right is important. 

One of three Ferrari 512M race cars from Slot.it that I have.

Since I was going to be tuning the other two 512s, I wanted to make sure I did each car justice, so I brought out the #16 and gave it what I gave the others. I'm glad I did it, because it probably would have been a lesser performer than the other two if I hadn't. I ran all the cars I worked on today through the tire truer, including the #16 Ferrari, and got them all in race shape.

On the NSR front I tuned the Hippie Car and the P68, and did a going over of the Lucky Strike 917, as it had been having some intermittent power issues. Still not sure about that one. I might have a faulty wire in there. Connections are good otherwise. 

Overall the NSR cars are ready. The 917/10 cars all have those meaty slicks on the back, so tuning them up was a breeze. They're going to be really fast cars.

The 917/10 might just be the car to beat.

I still think these are going to be really competitive. I used to think the 908 body style was the best, being so blunt on the nose and tail, but the more I run this, the better the car feels. It's like an even more aggressive 908. 

I tuned the Datsun 510 up the other day, so I'm all set on the Revoslot cars now. They're all tuned and ready for racing. Curious to see how the GT cars are going to fare against the Classics. 

Team Sunoco is going to come FLYING off the line.

I considered giving the Sunoco Ferrari a different chassis/body float setup than the #16 Ferrari, kind of like I used to do with the three GT40's back in the old days, but decided against it. I figure that, instead of potentially crippling a car for the sake of experimentation, I'd instead go for what I know and tune it to the best of its abilities. 

It is exciting to have new cars in the competition. There are a lot of cars to choose from now. With all that I had before and the addition of the Ferraris, the Porsche 917/10s and the P68, not to mention all the GT cars and their varieties, it makes for great racing. I can name a dozen cars off the top of my head that would all have potential to win a race. I should put odds on the field. Maybe I'll do that in another post.

Killer shark or bloated whale? We'll find out soon.

The tires on the P68 seem incredibly soft. Abnormally soft. They're even soft compared to other tires on other NSR cars. The trued up like a breeze. 

The Ferraris getting ready for a trim and a truing.

Don't know what I'd do without my tire truer. Once you get enough cars to where you're spending more time messing with your tires than you are racing, you need one of these. I've overhauled all my cars now and it improved lap times all the way across the board. Much smoother rides out of all of them. A tire truer is a must-have.

Race Team Introductions [part 2]: The Rest

 Now that the two big teams have been introduced, let's look at the smaller teams. 

Team Rothmans

The Rothmans Team has a pretty decent collection of quality NSR Porsches. The 908 is a previous winner, the 917 has had its struggles, and the P68 is unproven. It should be an interesting team to watch. 

Even if I have three cars from the same manufacturer, they'll perform and handle differently from each other. When you run cars without magnets, handling characteristics play much more into a car's ability to finish well. The Rothmans Team has one car that is a guaranteed threat, and that's the 908. Most all of my NSR 908s are threats. It often is going to come down to their teammate's ability to score points. 

__________

Tergal Team

Another definite sleeper team. I know the 908 is fast and has won before, and the Ferrari is coming from a really good place. I feel this team should not be overlooked.

The Tergal Team is interesting because it has the same issue the Rothmans Team has, just less chances to get it right with only a two-car team. It also has an NSR 908 with a Slot.it Ferrari as teammates. On my track Slot.it cars tend to mostly lap a few tenths lower than NSR cars. Mostly. And since the Ferraris are such nice cars and fast runners, they should be okay in that respect. 

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The Jägermeister Team

The Jägermeister Team is very curious, while although both cars are fast, this is the only team with a Revoslot car in it. The 917/10 can haul the mail, and so can the Escort, but it's hard to say how they'll do together. The colors don't match perfectly, either, and that bugs me a little.

I was hoping to have another combination like this, and I might fudge things a little to make another one. Since this is only one of two teams running a car in each class, I don't know what's going to happen. It's going to depend on how the Escort does. I've been planning on running a Classics class and a GT class, but I was going to use a wait-and-see approach. So far the Revoslot cars are proving competitive with the other brands. That's going to make this a make-or-break race team. 

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The Hippy Team

Although they're not racing for a sponsor, they are racing with the similar "hippy" livery. For kicks, and to include the Carrera in the mix, I am forming this hippy racing team. The 917 will do just fine. It's the 918 that I'm worried about.

To be honest, I really don't expect much of anything from this team. I'm sure the 917 will run effectively, and likely be competitive. But the 918 is not going to do as well, and will likely not beat most of the field, which will effect their team points. It's actually a threat to come in dead last, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to score points that low. This puts more pressure on the #35 to carry the team's weight, since the best they'll be able to do is half the points most other teams will be putting up.

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Chaparral Team

Another case of "when the manufacturer is the brand." Beautiful cars, but I have low expectations for them. 

I take that back. The #66 should do okay, but the 65 is always a little behind. They're mostly going to be pack runners, maybe the occasional top-10 finish out of the #66, but I don't think much more than that. 

The way I'm going to handle tuning the cars between races is primarily deal with the cars that perform poorly or can't keep up. As I continue to focus on the slower cars, tuning them will bring the entire field closer together. And since I can get most of the cars within a couple tenths of each other, I can close that gap and make everything way more competitive. Besides, the best performing race cars aren't the ones that need the work. The guys in back will need help to get to the next level. 

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L&M Team

These two are just a few tweaks from being super competitive.

Nothing saying these cars can't do it, although so far they're not as fast as the other 917/10s I have. Not sure why that is. 

I do have some cars that haven't gone through much more than a lube and tire treatment. Those cars will be worked on prior to races starting, almost like a preseason. I'd like to get the unfinished cars in competitive condition. 

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The Shell Team

When I first saw this matchup, I didn't think it was going to work. After thinking about it a bit more, I think it's going to be pretty great. The GT40 is one of my fastest cars, and the Ferrari is a previous winner.

This one is a curious entry for a few reasons: the Revoslot Ferrari. Since I have two classes of cars, there is one other place where the Ferrari fits, and that's in the Garage 56 class. Cars in that class won't be eligible for championship points, but they will be able to carry those points over into Team points. Garage 56 cars include anything that won't fit into the two main classes. Each Garage 56 car will still have a non-competitive point total applied to them based on their finishing position for reference.

EDIT: I was doing a little research on a couple of cars I had, and noticed one thing about one of them. Turns out the Matra ran on the Shell team back then, so this car will be added to the Shell team here:

This changes the makeup of this team significantly. The Matra is brutally fast. I know, it has a big Shell sticker on the side, but lots of cars have that without Shell being the primary sponsor. They were in this case, however. Anyhow, with two of my most competitive Slot.it cars on the same race team, that turns this into an insta-contender, and lets the Ferrari become the secret weapon. 

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Canon Team

The Canon Team won't be eligible for racing points, but will instead run in the "Garage 56" class, reserved for those racers who do not fit in the category of Classic or GT. If my F1 collection were to start growing, for some reason, then I would run the class separately. I might still do that. They're fun cars.

Nope, I'm not going to do that. They're going to run in Garage 56 like anyone else. There's no point in creating another class unless I have at least a half dozen of those class' cars in the first place. And since they're the only two F1 cars, they'll be treated as demos throughout the event, with no individual or team scoring [since their team exists only in Garage 56], except the reference total.

Well there it is. There are still a lot of journeyman cars that can spoil it for anybody and everybody. And once I've decided on the points program, then we'll know how much flexibility some of these teams have. 

Since I have 51 cars now, I want to have a points cutoff, probably to make a Top 25. The rest would receive no points. That'll force the pack to run faster. Either that or I'll award points all the way down to the last 10 cars, but I'd rather not. I'll have to think about it. 

Race Team Introductions [part 1]: Gulf and Sunoco

 Now that I have enough race teams to make the racing interesting, I thought I'd introduce them, focusing first on two of the strongest groups on the list, the Gulf Team and Team Sunoco. 

An all-NSR field for the Gulf Team.

It should come as no surprise that I would have a well-stocked Gulf Team, since I'll never get over how good the livery looks. And that they're all NSR cars makes them quite competitive. It should be a good team to race for and against. 

HOW MY SCORING WORKS

It could be done with a single race, but it's more intended to be done with a series. But either way is possible. 

Team scoring is carried over from the individual points the cars got in the race. For example, if the 908 Porsche #1 comes in 4th and gets 16 points, those points are carried over to the Team score. 

A "Team" is a minimum of two cars sharing the livery or primary sponsor. The maximum eligible cars scoring for any Team would be two, no matter how many cars are on the Team. Teams with more than two cars would have an advantage of being able to field more competitors, which would offer better points opportunities. But to keep the competition even, only the two fastest cars a team has for a race would be eligible to transfer their points over. 

The rest of the field of cars that are not Team eligible run as lone entries. There are plenty of lone entries that can win any race, and they would certainly act as spoilers for any competitive team.

Team Sunoco - A smorgasbord of manufacturers. [I just noticed that the T70 seems to be on the verge of losing a wheel insert.]

With Team Sunoco, the question here becomes, can a team made up of three different manufacturers outrun a team made up of one? Team Sunoco consists of an NSR Porsche 908, a McLaren M6A and a Lola T70 [both from Thunderslot], and a Slot.it Ferrari 512M. There are all kinds of questions this lineup provides. I know the two Thunderslot cars are fast AF, and it's certain that the 908 is fast, and the Ferrari is right up there with them all with a few tweaks. It could very well turn into a manufacturer's war at the very top between the Sunoco Thunderslot cars and the NSR Gulf cars. I might be running a manufacturer's championship as well, but it will be informal. I don't think the outcome of that would be as interesting as having various manufacturers working with each other to win. 

Once a championship series starts, any new car will be added to a team if eligible, regardless of when in the season it joins. So while they may not come out with a high overall points total for the championship, they could step in and contribute to Team points right away. If the addition of a new car forms a new race Team, they will have to start from when they were first a team. No aggregate or retroactive scoring for any cars that might have started the series as a solo entry and suddenly find themselves on a Team. 

I'll be doing an introduction to the smaller teams coming up. There are just as many potential surprises there as there are in these two teams. I fully expect the Sponsor Championship to be a good one. 

New Car: Slot.it Ferrari 512M - Le Mans 24h 1971

 Number three in what I think is the best series car from Slot.it:

Awesome Ferrari? Check. Yellow? CHECK!!

Slot.it, you have absolutely nailed this car. Holy crap is it great! The Ferrari 512M is just such a good looking race car to start, and it's perfect! Holy crap. I know it's not an NSR car, but it races like one, practically right out of the box. Each of the three 512Ms are so incredibly dialed-in from the start that doing any chassis or body adjustments just lends more opportunity to select what type of handling you like. 

Just the thought of Porsches and Ferraris challenging for the win makes it all worth it. The Ferrari fits in perfectly with the rest of the Classics field, and it might be a bit better. I honestly don't know how to explain why it's so fast and handles so well aside from the standard stuff, but it's clearly a faster race car than many of the other Slot.it cars I have. It'll be interesting how the three cars compete. I know the #16 is very fast and well handling, and the Sunoco car is just as good. I have high expectations for this race car.