My wife and I moved to south-west France less than a year ago. One of my first missions was to find a slot car club to race at. The closest club is just outside Neuvic. It’s a fabulous facility, just reopened after a five-year refit costing 300,000 euros! There are two tracks at the moment, a six-lane Ninco of 50m and a four-lane digital Carrera of 60m. The Ninco is analogue but can quickly be converted to digital if required.
Neuvic club decided to field two teams in the Léguevin Grand Prix near Toulouse earlier this year. The event was for Formula One cars from the 1950s, the first decade of Formula One racing. One team was all French racers and mine was all British. I decided to build a car for it and I chose the Alfa Romeo 158 that Emilio Giuseppe Farina drove to become the first F1 World Champion.
I already had a beautiful bodyshell by Dave Jones and bought the remaining parts from over 20 different suppliers. The rules were strict. There were seven tracks and we had to race on every lane of every track, over 11 hours in total. It was more of an endurance race than a sprint! Thirty-eight teams entered.
So the car had to be tough and every detail had to be considered in order to make it competitive but I also wanted it to look good too. There was a concours up for grabs.
to be continued...
