So SCX.....

So here is another appeal to SCX. It would be a big help if SCX would produce a good tech sheet for each car produced. The one's you can lift from the website are OK but they don't include a lot of core information we need to keep these things on the track long-term. For example, I have just bought two Escort Mk 2's, sure, there is a tyre diameter but exactly which SCX code should I order to get replacement "new's"? Likewise, the guide, which guide fits the car, and which ARS type do I need for a particular car..... the list goes on.

I hate to say this, but take a look at the scalextric site and they publish a pdf file for every car with a exploded view of the disassembled car and part # by each component. Not only this, it's kept as a library for cars which are discontinued. I spent about an hour today trying to get a spec-sheet for my Ford Escort Mk2 #5 "British Airways" to get a handle on which tyres I need to find for CRP11 [with the amount of testing I'm doing these will be dead by November!!!]... but it's not on the general, UK or Spanish sites.

SCX make a superb product which has all the attributes to give a lifetime of fun. Despite that, if you have fun, you may just have too much and need a spare part. At the moment, spares are guesswork or research [here for example]..... but a basic download sheet we could print-off and file would be an enormous help. Just last week, I ended-up with some guides I did not need because they were mail order and I was not certain of the part-code.

So SCX, do you think you could help out joe-public here and produce something which can be kept on archive?

With all the best - Highlander

RMS code in Excel?

Folks,
I am just wondering if anyone out there has some code written that detects the RMS output to the serial port and allows the signal to be picked up in MS Excel. I currently run the Belgian PClaptimer software on free basis, but frankly it does not do what I want it to. Most of the bells and whistles are of little use and clearly its not customise-able to future developments.

I have a whole bunch of ideas for data-collection and computerisation which I would like to play with. For example, I wondered if it would be feasible to put RFD tags[or such] into cars[they are compact&light] so that the PC could recognise which car is on the track without having to mess around with pull down choices etc. This would also potentially allow additional timing points on a circuit to generate split times. IF I could pull-in the basic RMS data into Excel it would allow me to start to build a more flexible and expandable lap timing/race management system. Obviously, any code /programme I develop would be posted here for general use, and I could keep everyone informed of developments.

Any help would be appreciated.
best to All - Bob

HPI Racing Nissan Skylines

Hi All,
I feel rather disloyal to our generous hosts here talking about a different Marque of slot, but I just recently took delivery of a full set of the new-to-slots HPI racing Nissan Skyline R32's. I thought I would do a kind of overview of my impressions in case anyone else is looking at these.

I accidentally came across these cars on an ebay trawl, Jadlam racing had them on their cars sidebar and I had not heard of them, I then found out that they are entirely new slot maker, and this was their initial launch. I am not a collector but it appealed to get in on the ground-floor with something that could be semi-unique, and who knows if they get Ninco-like or bust, could be of future interest.

The first look at the pictures had me sold, I actually thought they were photo's of a real Skyline used for publicity... they aren't, its the slot. I had a good look at their website,

http://www.hpieurope.com/news.php?lang=en&...ssue=2009110501

and decided to dive in for some. It helps that they are currently widely available on ebay here in the UK with attractive buy-it-now prices and a few on $ starts. I managed to get two for <$50. The important thing though is..... are they any good. Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag really as I will explain.

The finish, detail and quality of the body is exceptional, street cars are not normally my thing, I like logo'd and go-faster striped to the hilt. But these are really cute. But here we go, there is a downside. The Scaling is really strange, HPI claim they are trully accurate 1/32, but they look small and out-of-scale with all my other 1/32 slots. I think they missed a trick here, they claim to want to satisfy static collectors along with slot-fans, but for cross-class racing this won't wash I feel. This is not a problem for me though as I prefer to have four of the same car in different liveries when I race.

The first one onto the track was the white car, it looks better in the white than I expected, but down the line I am looking at a homemade race livery so the white would be the tester. They run on sidewinder/Mabuchi configuration, they are quiet and smooth. For those of us loyal to SCX, they feature standard head/tail lights as good as those of our favorite... not quite as good on the tail. On the tail there seems to be a small manufacture mis-alignment which means they will never be as bright as they could be, especially as the set-up tries to light two roundels at the same time - they would have been better just going direct to one. The guide is set up universal so its deep and needs trimmed for many tracks, if you don't, you may hear the 'bag-of-spanners' I got on lap one.

I rapidly found the next issue. Despite bedding in the motor carefully, the car would not pick up any real speed. Another SCX-like attraction had been the adjustable magnet options, this includes three positions [sic] and a front of rear location PLUS the option to run both magnet compartments with an additional magnet... wow, this sounds as adjustable as an SCX... sorry - NO. There are three positions, in, full [too much] inverted [scally-esk, not enough] and not at all [no-way, it's a greasy squirrel]. In Full magnet position, the car just cannot pull enough speed to ever lose grip, for kids, who might like to get bored a lot, this would probably be a good option. It would pretty soon get them back to 'need for Speed' on the playstation. This is ironic, 'cos part of the "marketing" pitch on these is that Japanese street race idiom of that kind of game. Well, we boys do like to tinker, so three strips of selotape on the holder tuned her about right... SCX type speeds and just that 10% edge of loose, push-it... but not too far.

Pace-wise, it's early days but a good fast SCX midling. It's about 0.2 secs off my SCX benchmark cars {Opel Astra V8 DTM & Citroen C4 Loeb}, both unmodified but tuned/lubed stock SCX. That means that at this stage, it's running at 96% performance of a good SCX - pretty impressive. Grip levels are good and being slightly small, track 'interactions' are less likely. It has bounced about 20 times now, and no damage or failures so it's built well enough. The testing took place using all four lanes in the optimised state, it seems to like the inside a lot - and I have three or four R1 bends it hits at 22deg and 45deg. This is in spite of the fact it has kind-of weird hard plastic fronts and 'representative' tread patterns.... I suppose this makes the performance even more impressive.... and, what about the potential with some grippy rubber, back AND front?

Then another Oh, after about 70 laps and testing, a braid disintegrated. They are without doubt the nastiest, cheapest, lowest-quality braid I have ever seen on a slot. On the plus side, they're real soft. I carry a stock of the Hi-spec high performance low-oxygen copper braids which I use in all my SCX cars, they're 28mm but the Skyline only needs cica 24mm. This was handy as I cut back some slightly worn ones and fitted them, they went in a treat. The guide has a good screw and spring [downward] set-up, the guide itself is not self returning, free-floats but is good. The new braids made a big difference giving the car a lot more pace.

I then cracked-out the charcoal grey Skyline. The whole set-up was repeated and it's going fine though I have not done the braids yet - to get the best out of it, I WILL need to. I have to say, I am not as keen on this one as it is Stealth, the colour is so close to track you can barely see it. The build on the cars is pretty solid, though the wheels/axles are pretty basic - I will have to see how they last, too early to say at this stage. They also seem to have used some proprietary design/components, the axles look thicker than standard, and wheels and tyres may be an issue down the line. On that point, the rear wear for ~150 laps looks a bit heavy BUT grip keeps on improving as the tread diminishes.

I have completely stripped and rebuilt the white Skyline, there are nice touches like the interior being screw retained. The lights set up looks very high quality, I would say [quietly] better than SCX..... oops {sorry!!}... I did need to relocate the lights, they were loose of the retainers and a small refit levered by a flat screwdriver gave much improved brightness. Frankly, I have thought about looking at whether this set up would retro-fit into a Ninco as the whole car can be picked up for less than a N-lightset, and it really does look good quality with three boards, front&back off a central master board.

So, all in all I am happy with the HPI Skyline though irked at some minor flaws. They have promised upgrades and performance parts and the R34 is out with, they claim, very limited numbers "in the low hundreds".... we will see. I will be trying to get a R34 to find out which way HPI are heading, some of the colours look a bit suspect though. The rumour mill says they will launch a 350Z, and that racing liveries are coming too. I downloaded a few photo's of the racers and some, eg Penzoil, could look really good with their attention to detail.

So, hopefully, that gives you all an insight into a new-ish slot car and producer, there hasn't been much of a buzz about these cars so they are kind-of on the lowdown right now, the Pioneers seem to be running away at crazy demand levels on Ebay over here, going HIGH on 24 hr listings wheras these are slipping out at pretty good prices. I plan to buy more, they're interesting, different and run just fine [with a little work] from what I have found.

I hope this has been of interest, please let me know if I can give any more information. Post if you have found this of any use, or want to offer different views.
Best to All - Bob

Save the C2!!!

Hi folks, just a note to try to rally support for a single request. I love the Citroen C2's on my analogue track and I have four in total. I know that the Chassis is not digital compatible so it looks like SCX have dropped the model after its third livery. OK, so I did a custom paint, and I have got four, and OK, Altaya do a different Livery - BUT.... please SCX... do just one more, even a limited edition/special, so that those of us with a four lane and a sad obsession with making it fair for all four lanes by running the same car...... can not lose sleep!!!!

The Red Bull relly du Var livery would be great and fit in with the Red Bull theme in recent cars, it need not to be red/yellow/white so the kids can pick out there machine..... Please SCX... please.
Highlander

hello!

Hello to all the members in the SCX worldwide community. I wanted just to intoduce myself and thank all the members of the community who have posted so much help on the boards here over the last years. I have been using all the technical know-how here to resolve niggles with my cars and have learned much about repair/maintainance and modification.

I only came back to 'Slot's' a few years ago, my daughter is a Scout and they ran a family race night. I dug out my set from the loft and re-commisioned my Ferrari Dino's.... they seemed to run pretty well. On Race night, it wasn't pretty..... the Dino's were destroyed by modern slot cars (Scalleys) and my kids [the team] let there disgust and embarrasment be clearly known. I had hoped it might spark an interest in them, instead Dad failed again. One of the racers had SCX cars and advised me to look at them, I was stunned by the detail and Tampo which was far superior to the '70's stuff I had known, and lights!!... that actually worked!!!

Within a couple of weeks I had bought a SCX Citroen C2 off ebay [I drive Citroen's and have a big affection for their cars]. The top cars at the racenight had been scalley Mini's so I had bought a set-pack of two, my daughter thought these were pretty fast.... the C2 destroyed them! I then got a C4 which is the car I drive right now, Ferrari 360's[Scuderia Eccose for the daughter... she swooned at it when she saw it on the web], Seat Leon's, more C2's/4's.... a small buying disorder developed. One night I put a small holding bid on a Opel Astra V8 DTM 'Dumbreck' which ended up winning, the car came for ~$10. To be honest, I thought it might be a organ-donor, but it set a benchmark. In 2009, scout's repeated the race night and Dumbreck cruised home by an embarrasingly huge margin, ~20 laps over 4x4 minute rotations. All the families in the village donated their track and it half filled the scout-hut, so this was no small feat. There were a few compaints about 'cheating', "that magnet adjustment can't be legal".... from the previous winner, who had dressed all his team in "Williams F1" outfits... My F1 showing was weak though as I had not bought any SCX F1. I fixed that.

This year I was a little concerned that it might become "no point, Bob always wins" so I loaned my prime car (the C4 now, as a result of all the advice on this site it was now faster than Dumbreck.... marginally) to another nice family with three young boy's from the Village. It won, Dumbreck came in second. The F1 did win though.... result. So now, I have my set up out for most of the year, I have RMS on it and I tune/maintain as my hobby. Have done a couple of custom repaints [advice from here], and have bought a couple of non-SCX, Ninco, Carrera and just taken delivery of HPI-Racing Skylines (3 here 1 coming).

It is great to have come back to this interest, my original oval dates back to the 1960's, my Brother and I added to it each Christmas. By the time we were both teens it was a good sized 2-lane with good compexity and we had 6-8 cars. It then went away to the loft, for about 20 years until my son's arrived at ~5 when Bro turned up at Xmas and said "your boy's will be needing this now"!! Actually, after one christmas of excitement they returned to the playstation and I was saddened they had no interest. It went back up at Xmas a couple of times, but until this scout's night, it was another storage item. It now has a home-room to itself, and is Dad's toy.... they're too good for kid's.

So, greetings to you all from the Highlands.... hope to make all your aquaintance, cheers - Bob