122 replies to this topic

[Howie Ursaner]

No offense to any US racing groups, but I have to agree with Matt.
 
I've haven't seen anything, recently, that can rival something like the #16 cars, below.
 

 

The #16 car built by Michael Niemas won the $5,000 concours prize in Belgium in 2010. I was there.

[Eddie Fleming]

The #16 car built by Michael Niemas won the $5,000 concours prize in Belgium in 2010. I was there.

 

So that car has been around for at least seven years. It is hard to imagine it being raced much if at all and holding up that long.

 

On the other hand we don't know when the photos were taken.

 

Still outstanding cars.

[Howie Ursaner]

The #16 car is beyond anything ever done to a slot car. It is a masterpiece

 

 

 

[sportblazer350]

The quality of these builds amazes me, and even more amazing is the fact that they race these beauties against each other, and with the skill to not want to deslot at all, to not damage each other's car, and be competitive! The opposite of some of the racing i have experienced.

 

Howie, since you raced these cars, can you tell us more of that experience?

[Howie Ursaner]

When I was first introduced to these cars it was a challenge to get up to speed because there is a skill set to driving them. You have to push insanely hard and take it to the limit every lap without overdriving the car which will cost you time. If you go over the limit you will deslot. Most of the top drivers  over there basically don't deslot. You will lose the race if you come out at all.

Many of the racers get large blisters from the trigger. I did and it was the first time I ever got them and it was bad. You just push so hard and the cars handle fantastic. The tires and motors are all hand-out. They give them to you when you enter the race. This levels the playing field and takes motor and tires out of the equation as the car and driving are everything.

Those racers over there are commited and put in everything to design, build,  and compete at the highest level. They make their own carbon fibre bodies from molds they make themselves. They design chassis like real F1 cars, with carbon and aluminum on computers and tune them perfectly. It is extremely hard to compete with what they have. It took me awhile but i got it down. My team won the Plafit World Challenge at the ISRA Worlds in Chicago eight years ago. That was with cars they handed out to us.

With the help of European champion Nick De Wachter in Amsterdam building us cars, Chris Radisich and I as a team won the Enduro World Championship in Barcelona Spain in 2011. We also took first and second in the Can-Am Challenge that same week in Barcelona.

I love racing those cars with those drivers. They are slower, but so much fun. Tight racing at the limit is what it is all about, not overall speed. They could put faster motors in their cars but they don't. They are just right.

[Larry Labounty]

Howie,

I can see how some could really get hooked on racing them.

Larry

[spudboy]

I seem to recall that the McLaren was equally well turned out but lost points because the builder overlooked the tire markings.

[Howie Ursaner]

There were other fantastic cars entered in the concours but nobody was going to beat that Neimas Ferrari. Up close it was in a class by itself.

[Dennis David]

What I've noticed and of course this is a generality with many exceptions that slot car racing in the US has its eyes on the past while in Europe their eyes are more or less on the present. We race mostly slot cars while they race mostly model race cars. The average age of racers in the states, judging from pictures, is a lot older here. The cars we covet the most are the reproductions of past winners with as many original parts as possible with building techniques developed 50+ years ago on tracks that have not changed much in decades.

It's quite fascinating the different outlook we have on the same hobby. Not to mention they serve beer and wine at their clubs. ;-)

[don.siegel]

This type of racing is very particular to Germany and the Benelux countries (maybe without Luxembourg however...). Nothing like this in France or England that I know of, although I'm sure there are a few guys who could build to these standards. 
 
The contemporary competitive racing here is more focused on 1/32 cars (plus the BSCRA type "real" slot cars in England). And our vintage events are the usual old pharts... 
 
A few Germans came to the Bordo meeting for a few years, and some of their cars were fantastic, but they generally had different ideas on rules and approach, so haven't come back. 
 
I guess in a lot of ways, I like "slot cars," not rolling models - undoubtedly a product of my own history. And I like the idea of deslotting now and then... 
 
Don

[Dennis David]

True but the racing in Spain and Italy are generally similar but with different model racing cars. They're a long way from the "slot cars" we race.

In Spain rally cars are popular and they try to mimic rally courses. I don't see that beyond groups that run the very small ovals.

[Dennis David]

Don,
 
After I finish my Can-Am section on my Grand Prix History website I will start a new article on slot car racing around the world. I hope to get some of your input.

[don.siegel]

Be glad to help, Dennis - assuming Europe still exists at the time... 
 
Don 
 
PS: A few guys in southern France are trying to revive metal chassis slot racing, since a couple big tracks have survived there, and that was one of the centers of "real" slot racing in France, back when I started in the '90s. There were about a dozen clubs in a few regions of France that popped up and disappeared from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Bordo is still around, and I think they do some Flexi racing, but not sure - the plastic 1/32 cars seem to be more popular. And one old slotter is trying to introduce Retro, but hasn't seemed to catch on yet.

[don.siegel]

Sorry for the thread drift, but just found this in my phototheque: an old Bryan Warmack car from the R&C series, that PdL raced at the Bordo vintage meeting many years ago. To me, this is the essence of "slot car", and probably the most impressive thing I've seen over the years, partly because of my history of course - but it just seems right! 

 

Don 

 

 

[Dennis David]

Yep, same for me. Holds a special place but still nostalgia driven like I mentioned before.

I will be in contact.

[Benno - SAC]

Yesterday there was another race at the track. And an awesome new build was presented:

https://youtu.be/4Dx31FJEeHM

Edit: again a car from Michael Niemas btw.
And some pics:

https://www.freeslot...dellbau-extrem/

Short link to the gallery with pictures from the building process:
https://www.freeslot...81-ferrari-350/

[Tex]

fantastiche!

[Eddie Fleming]

Wow!

[Roger U]

Wow!

 

Wow for sure. What a beautiful model.

[spudboy]

Benno,

 

Beautiful.  Thank you for posting this.

[sportblazer350]

here in the US i have raced several classes of scale hardbody cars: true mid 1960's era cars (Cox, Monogram, K&B, etc), BRM, Scaleauto, and H&R Racing chassis with plastic model kit bodies. Overall, all of these classes were fairly similar in lap times, fastest being either rtr Scaleauto and the H&R Racing classes. I am surprised that hardbody real scale racing is not more popular with kids at raceways. Probably due to how building plastic models back in the 60's and 70's was more popular then, and kids today play with their cell phones. A Scaleauto car, out of the box, with their foam rubber rear tires are great to race- very evenly matched. However i have seen that there were two issues when raced: racers pushed the cars too hard: way too many deslots, too many track calls, too much body damage, and complaining of the high cost of a car, especially after damaging the bodies. Revert back to issue #1: slow down, don't deslot, and the car bodies last as long as you want them to. So if we raced them as the Germans race their beautiful CanAm cars, it would make for a great new series to race.  

 

     Unfortunately, all of that racing has come to an end for me. I just rent track time a few times a year, or adapt these cars to my home Carrera track with silicone rear tires. Not as much fun running them alone compared to a full 8 lanes of racing. Now that I am retiring maybe I will move to Germany and race Can Am  

[Benno - SAC]

Once again ...
Once a year there is a big event with those absolute (find your own super words for this, please) fantastic cars.

Please copy the text from the first post to google translator to get an idea of what was done here!

Have fun!

https://www.freeslot...n-meeting-2019/

[sportblazer350]

Happy to say that i am back to racing "SCALE" model cars again. Since retiring i was able to find enough interest to race real 1965 era slot cars here in NJ, USA. And we also have been racing Jaildoor cars which are also a vintage type of car (using 1967 era rules) with scale bodies. I am having the most fun racing slot cars now, and with a great group of guys.

 

   The only thing missing for me is hardbody racing. Even though a rtr Scaleauto or BRm car is considered a toy to these racers in Germany, if you race them with the right frame of mind, like these guys do in Germany with regard to staying in the slot, it is very competitive and lots of fun.Same with the real 1960s vintage cars: if you push the cars like racing a Flexi car, they will crash and break. So the skill is real racing model cars: push as hard as possible yet hold back to not deslot. 

 

   I've done it, so it can be done. And I still had a lot of fun. And real SCALE hardbody cars just look so much better going around the track. Marshalling them is as much fun as racing them. At least for me, anyway. I never enjoyed racing super fast, glued to the track, lightning fast cars, whether h.o. or 1/24 scale. But I do understand the thrill for those who wanna go fast. It is part of the overall hobby.

 

   So again- thanks for all of the posts with photos and videos. I too have been watching these builders and racers in Germany for over 10 years now. Wish I was part of it!