Well, this is a project that GRID has been working on with Sebastian Nockemann of DoSlot Racing Parts in Germany for a good part of last year and pending the usual jam of mail going into Christmas... it has finally arrived in North America in time for the New Year.
Where to start? The new Scaleauto RTR cars that began with the Porsche 911 GT3 almost exactly two years ago this month represented an unprecedented boost for 1/24 scale model car racing. The Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3 has just been released alongside the BMW M3 GT2 and the Jaguar XKR GT2 earlier this year with numerous pre-painted liveries and white kits to build the team of choice. Already a great-looking GT grid and we know that there is more to come from Scaleauto. The cars are beautifully reproduced. The Scaleauto limited edition Jeff Koons BMW Art Car is definitely one of the nicest mass produced slot cars produced. The top Pros have raced the cars for two years now at the OEPS World Sprint Championship in Germany and they are highly competitive with very minor upgrades and tuning for international competition. The price of the cars are very reasonable, something that everyone wanted and they are available to racers worldwide. A huge success by any standards and major kudos to Scaleauto... and keep them coming!!!
Needless to say, racers always want more! The DoSlot GTC chassis has become one of the benchmarks in open 1/24 scale GT racing in Europe with podium finishes weekend after weekend including those of Sebastian Nockemann and his fellow drivers at Team Plastikquäler. The motivation was to have DoSlot adapt their award-winning GTC chassis so it would be a direct bolt-on upgrade for the stock Scaleauto chassis and in doing so create a new Pro class that could run directly alongside the stock Scaleauto cars, not unlike how GT1 and GT2 share the track on race day. So here is the results of that effort... the new DoSlot GTC-S chassis.
A quick apology to DoSlot and please mind the pink flare to the photos as the low afternoon sun bounces off the snow outside my shop window. Although it does add a bit of a holiday glow to the whole thing
1. As with all DoSlot products, the manufacturing quality of this chassis is second to none. The CNC work and finishing is absolutely flawless in every respect. No tool marks or burrs on any of the parts and the carbon quality is absolute top quality.
2. Here is the now-familiar underside of a Scaleauto car and the screw mounting and chassis mounting plates shown here on the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR body with the standard RTR chassis.
3. With the body removed the stock Scaleauto RTR chassis is side by side with the new DoSlot GTC-S chassis.
4. The body mounting plates on the DoSlot chassis are dimensionally aligned to fit the mounting posts on the Scaleauto body with ample adjustment to perfectly align the chassis and body.
5. The stock Scaleauto mounting screws mount the DoSlot chassis to the body mounting posts in familiar fashion.
6. Four screws later the chassis is fully mounted. In fact, once you have either chassis setup for racing you could switch from one to the other in under a minute.
7. The chassis also accepts the Scaleauto long can 13D motor that comes with the RTR car so that both the stock and pro cars can run with the same motor and gear ratio leaving just the chassis and setup to define the difference between the two classes.
8. You can also see in these pictures the independent motor box of the DoSlot chassis that allows the rotation of the rear wheels around the center line of the chassis. Harder or softer springs under the two T posts... one in front of the motor and one behind the motor (not in the picture)... allow you to dial in the grip according to the track surface and design.
9. And just before I take a break, a close-up shot that speaks again of the quality of the DoSlot production. Look at how perfectly and consistently the screws are countersunk into the baseplate of the chassis; and everything assembled with Torx head screws for and accurate and sure fit. Just doesn't get any better.
That's it for now. Will come back with some more pics of the chassis fully built. Enjoy!
