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.

Sidebar Updates and Stuff

 Last night I was taking pictures for a much needed sidebar update, and I was uploading the shots this morning when I remembered that I should probably wait as I have another car coming. Cool thing is the upcoming car is going to make a new race team here. Not saying who yet, but it wouldn't be too hard to guess. HINT: it has nothing to do with this car...

A little dark in the fore for my liking.

Meanwhile, started setting up the Datsun:

For the curious, this car fits in perfectly with the rest of the GT class from Revoslot. They're fantastic race cars and an extremely competitive class. Any one of them could win at any time, and I like that. 

21k motor on an adjustable mount.

The car is sitting a little high in the front, so I'll be loosening the chassis to help bring that down.

Split fronts. Still runs great.

New Car: NSR Alan Mann P68

 And now, introducing the 50th slot car that I own, the Alan Mann P68:

Arty farty picture, I know. But this car is just so dang sexy. Whether it can handle not like a fish has yet to be determined. Here is another pic:

No, but really. I was looking at a few of the older NSR Alan Mann cars that I found at a dealer for sale online, and they looked great, but every time I saw the rear end I couldn't picture it not being a difficult-handling race car. I didn't buy any of those older ones, but had to have this as it's got the neato Rothmans livery and is BLUE BLUE BLUE. 

Pictures can be deceptive. They can make you think something that really isn't there, or make you accept things based on perspective of the photo, rather than your own eyes in real life. And while I'm not trying to say that the P68 doesn't have a lot of tail, it's nowhere near the tail of the Porsche 962, as it's not boxy and tapers to an acceptable, high-pocketed shape. The front is also made with a similar taper, so while the car might seem long, what's happening at the nose and tail are much leaner, almost keeping most of the weight centered down the middle of the car. I suspect it'll handle better than the 962, and probably closer to a 917, since they both share a comparatively short wheelbase to the rest of the cars. 

I am very excited about this car for a weird reason. Even if it's a beast of a handler, something tells me it's going to be a straight line screamer.

New Car: Revoslot Datsun 510 - SCCA Trans Am 1972

 I had to get this car to round out my Trans Am collection:

I swear, Revoslot's Trans Am class is so excellent. They fit perfectly together and provide such a great race. They're very well put together and feel different than racing plastic chassis race cars. Much more solid and planted, plus you can feel the acceleration in a way that's different to other cars. 

Straight out of the box and onto a piece of track. I still need to set it up.

There are two others so far in this grouping, but I think I'm going to hold on to just this one 510, unless something completely mind blowing comes out. I really think it doesn't matter which cars from this collection you pick up...they are all going to run great together and give you lots of competition. 

Had a little time...

Had a little time, got out the camera and a couple cars. Couldn't set up the track, so I did the next best thing. 

I really didn't have a plan, just had an hour to kill, so I got out the Canon 70-200 F/4 II L out for some quick shots. It takes a bit more to set up, and needs a little distance to focus, but once you get it, it looks pretty good.

I usually use the EFS 18-135 for car profile shots here, which I think do a fine job. But every once in awhile I like to break the big guy out and see what it does. Just by comparing to the other posts, the image is a little darker, but good contrast. Color is much deeper as well. I didn't do any post trickery to the shots. 

I'm ordering a couple more cars tonight. I told myself I wasn't going to do this. 

Weekend Testing and Notes

 My daughter came running into the house, pointing at the cars and wanting to race. I was thinking of setting something up anyway, so away we went. I didn't do much more than a simple oval with some squiggly parts, but that's totally okay with her. She ran cars while I did some tuning. I needed to setup the Hippie Car, as well as work out some of the Group 2 cars. 

I did a lube/oil, and later today I'm going to true the tires. 

While I was doing that, my daughter got out what she says is now her "favorite car" and raced that. 

She has very good taste.

I hadn't finished the tires on the Hippie Car yet, so I ran a few others. I wanted to see how they've been doing since they haven't ran much lately. Most all are just fine. I have a few problems with a few cars that I need to deal with, and I will get to those, but I want to get as much racing done as I can. 

I'll be modifying the track layout to make it a little more competitive. Then each car will get 100 laps to set the fastest overall time. Every car is eligible, and I intend on running each one. 

Since this will be the first race of a new season, it will be scored from 50 points for 1st down to, I think, 1 point for 48th. I'm pretty sure that's right.

Various points battles will take place:

 A Team Championship, whereby the fastest 2 cars from each team carry their points over for Team points. 

 A Class Championship, with Classic, Group 2 and Garage 56 cars race for their respective classes, as well as an overall win. Five bonus points will be awarded the winner of each class.

The race will be timed with the Carrera lap counter and take place over a period of a few sessions during this week. Each car will have their tires scrubbed, and the track will be wiped down prior to each session. 

I'll try to get as much pics, video and other info as I can. 

Funny Story

 So, whenever I buy a new car, I always update the sidebar to include it, which means including a picture of it linking to the post. So each time I buy a car, I have to take pictures of 47...no...48 cars. I like to keep the format typically the same; side view angle with the same shot. And what I'll typically do is light them a particular way for the session so that they all look good, are accurate representations, and have a nice overall uniform look. 

The Lola, and all the rest of the cars, are on the right sidebar. They're lit up with Lego City in the background.

I enjoy photography. It's been a hobby of mine for a number of years. I like to practice here with lighting and getting a nice shot of a nice car. I like that this slot car hobby can have so many spin-off aspects to it. I've found a way to incorporate photography, video, audio...all of it into slot cars. No, I didn't invent anything. But I love that they can all come together into one cohesive thing.

So a funny thing happened. I just got the Hippie Car [I love the name, so easy to recognize], and as I was taking pics of the cars for the sidebar, I went through the whole batch, finished up, loaded them into the computer, edited them, and started uploading. I got all the way to the bottom where the oldest cars are, and I realized I didn't have pictures for about five of them. I checked and double checked, and sure enough, I somehow missed getting pics of them. 

So I went back to the boxes and looked, and didn't see any of the missing cars. I must have misplaced them somehow. It was 5 cars, including the new Carrera Porsche, so I knew it had to be somewhere nearby. So I started looking around. My apartment is small, and there are only so many places to put things. I turned the whole place upside down looking for them. Every box, drawer, bag, sack or stack of anything was gone through. 

I keep my cars in stackable plastic sandwich boxes. Each one neatly holds three cars, and the boxes lock together in a stack. Makes it very convenient. Unfortunately not all of my boxes are like that. I also have a different set of boxes, stackable, yet not lockable. They're larger and could hold easily ten cars stacked on each other. Two of the boxes have two layers of cars in each of them. 

So after pretty much giving up, I check the boxes one more time, and wouldn't you know it, I found the cars buried on the bottom row of one of the large boxes. 

So that does it. I'm going to have to get rid of those boxes and move to the others. I'll have to shop around for them, but I should be able to find them without much trouble. They're popular at discount stores. I like the lockable ones better because they're much more fit for holding the cars. The big boxes feel like everything's loose inside. 

Tried to find a pic of my storage boxes, but I guess I haven't taken many shots of them. That plastic stack in the middle of the shot from the old, blurry Canon 500D days is them.

I can't have cars disappearing like that, even if technically there were always there to begin with, just hidden under a cover in a box. Plus, I want the tighter, more convenient stacking of the locking boxes. 

So now I have to reshoot the cars for the sidebar. Setup takes about 15 minutes and the shoot takes about an hour. 45 minutes to edit, another 45 to upload them to the sidebar. If you look on the right right now you can see which ones I missed. Oh, and to answer a question: no, I don't have a particular order the cars go in, nor do I have any form of checklist I follow [except the sidebar].