SlotCarsForever.com Official Blog

Glow Controller

2009-09-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ever raced slot cars in the dark and wished you could see the panel in front of you? Well here is a simple solution from team Zombie. A radioactive marble sized chunk of uranium 238 is placed at the top of the controller and 12 volts is constantly applied to it to really get it shining. Oh by the way, make sure you have had all the children you plan on having and expect nausia for at lest 5 days after the race.

August 16, 2008 - Zombie Classic Race

2008-07-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

Mayhem and Such
Location: Buena Park Raceway, CA

To allow all the different blood factions to come together in a fun day of food, fellowship, and hard core racing, we've come up a two-race schedule that will allow both NorCal and host SoCal to compete for several different trophies.

The first race will be for the individual King of Can-Am trophy.
Overall lap count winner is crowned champ.

The second race will be a team event.
The top ten finisher's lap counts from each team will be combined and the team with the greatest total will be declared winners. A perpetual trophy will be awarded and will stay for one year at the winning team's track till the following year's race

Zombie Classic Race Rules

Can-Am King of CA Individual Race
Race #1 on MTT track at BPR- race is round robin with all in.
Chassis rules per D3 Retro Can-Am with the following additions:
Zombie handout motor has CCW rotation (D3 motor supplied by TSR)
Motors may be screwed or soldered into position
Minimum car weight of 100 grams applies to both races.

Zombie King of CA Team Race
Race #2 on King Track
Rules are same as above
Exception - NorCal motor rules
(see NorCal d3 website)

NEW Approved Body list
All bodies will be OK for either race.must have fully painted 3D interiors.
driver's compartmant must be trimmed to actual cut line for windshield.
No small cutout for only helmet to show thru.

Electric Dreams
MAC V03 - Ti22, MAC V11 - Abarth, MAC V15 - Lola160, MAC Ferrari 312/612

TrueScale
TSR 01 McLaren M8B, TSR 05 Lola T160, TSR 07 Porsche 908, TSR Ferrari 312/612

Toytech
TR179 McLaren M8A , TR195 Lola T160, TR183 Ferrari 350P4 , Russkit McKee

Concours will be three different divisions
1-most realistic
2-most artistic
3-most zombiesque

Schedule
Race #1
9-11 AM - Practice and registration for both races.
Motors and participation buttons will me handed out at this time
11AM - Tech opens. Cars will be impounded at time of inspection.
11:30-12:30 - Lunch
12:15pm -Tech closes.
12:30pm - Concours
1:00 pm - race starts*

NOTE* Race #2 begins 15 minutes after completion of Race #1 to facilitate motor changes if necessary

Race Fees $20 per race or $35 for both
Participation Plaques and Trophies to be awarded at end of each race.

New Slot Car Racing History Article

2008-03-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

A new article on the early days of slot car racing has been added to the article section of the main website. Be sure to check it out especially if you are under 40 years old and really don't know just how great slot car racing was in the beginning. Slot car racing in the 60's was huge, and unlike the hula hoop, it is still very cool to race slot cars today. Did you know that Monogram the model maker used to make slot cars. Revell used to be a separate company from Monogram. In fact most model companies made slot cars. Cox, known for their gas toys used to be the big dog of slot cars. Collectors all want Cox slot cars above all others.

Little HO's on big slot car tracks

2008-02-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Did you ever want to run your HO's on your 1/32 slot car track? This month, conversion expert Mr Buyer, has written an article on how to convert your HO with a special guide flag. It isn't difficult, but it can be tricky. Save frustration by reading this how-to posted in the articles section of the site.

The Krazy 8's Race

2008-01-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine raced last weekend in an invitational race called the Krazy 8's. The cars were all basically the same and prepared by our old friend Jeff Easterly. 4.5" JK chassis with Phillipe motors and 1968 style lexan repulls of old 60's molds. The cars were described as very easy to drive and the track itself was very simple. This race took place at Buena Park Raceway. The format was experimental. each car was painted the color of the lane. the drivers rotated the cars didn't. In fact the cars started each heat at the starting line. This made for many awes whenever a car was close to crossing the lap counter before the heat ended. With 23 entries these cars had many miles by the end of the race. Kudos the the builder.

New slot car of the month posted Dec2007

2007-12-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

A new hot rod slot car is this months SCOTM
converted from a model with modern day components, this car not only looks cool, it tears up the track with some hot lap times.

Big Motor, Small price

2007-08-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

There is an RC motor out called the Clili Evolution It is bigger than a 16D but smaller than a 36D. It is designed for 7 volts so it may not hold up to the 13v of the big tracks. Certainly it will work on a 6v home system. We are going to give one of these to Professor S and have him do a full evaluation.
The reason we are even bothering with a motor not designed for slot cars is the price. At $32.50 it is supercheap. Yes wade but a super16D only costs $13. True but unlike this motor it doesn't have double ball bearings and Neodymium magnets
Do I have your attention now?

Trailer Track

2007-07-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of bringing slot car racing to the people, instead of paying high rent and hoping enough customers come through the door to cover the overhead.

The design is a Freeway layout first seen in California at Raceworld 32 in the early nineties.

This track is used as party rental in Texas.

Rainbow Cloud

2007-07-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

I came across a rare and fantastic sight just a few days ago and was fortunate to have my camera handy. It is most often called a Rainbow Cloud.

My physics friend informs me this is caused by the cloud encountering cold water vapor and the high noon sun refracting through it just at the right time and right circumstance.
It does seem strange that this was the only cloud that was affected. As you can see the other clouds around it are normal.
Not exactly a space ship so probably not alien visitation.
Sure was nice to look at, perhaps an angelic visitation or sign.
regardless, the cloud existed for almost 15 minutes before the the winds dissolved it. It was able to travel a distance as a rainbow cloud.

Bell of the ball - slot car racing

2007-07-17T15:37:00.001-07:00

May 9th, 2007
Over the weekend I attended a birthday party that had both a bounce house and a slot car track. The bounce house was very cool. Themed from the movie “Cars” as was the entire party. Most of the kids at the party had never seen a slot car track. In fact, of the 12 kids there, only one, my daughter had. It was amazing how popular the track was. Having only 2 lanes the kids had to rotate and take turns. It was fun to watch the progression of beginners learning to drive. By the end of the day, a couple of the kids were showing some real talent for it. The bounce house got the usual amount of attention I usually see. The kids would bounce for 5 minutes then ignore it for an hour. The track however was never off for more than 5 minutes during the 6 hours of the party

Slot car racing is still a viable hobby for tabletops, garages and basements. With all the high tech video games they grow up with today, it is so good to see how facinated they are with the best non virtual game ever.

Slot Cars are Monster Fun

2007-07-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

January 25th, 2007
Slot car racing isn’t all about speed. I have been preaching for a long time that speed is the enemy of this hobby. No, the most fun in doing slot cars is building them and watching your creation run around the track. No one builds more attention grabbing cars than Jeff Buyer. Jeff is famous in America, for his wild, unconventional creations and he always draws a crowd when he visits a raceway. This month he lets us see how he created the all new Big Daddy Roth monster car. Check out the articles section for the full story.

Great article on home slot car tracks

2007-07-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

December 22nd, 2006
Jeff Buyer is one of the most creative and active slot car builders of the past 2 decades. He begins his writing career with slotcarsforever.com with a great article on his home slot car tracks. Be sure to check out this illustrated article and see that the bread and butter of slot car existence is the home basement and garage track.

The article can be found in the newly added article section.

Team Zombie

2007-07-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

November 30th, 2006
I am a semi regular pro at BP raceway in so cal. The raceway is home to legendary pros like Mike Stuebe and John Torre Anderson. Zip Zap from Nor Cal has formed a new slot car team which is mostly a dozen or so slot car refugees from Bellflower raceway and RS Racing Center. Team Zombie will compete as a team for the first time Dec10 in a USRA division III warmup race for 1970 can am cars. to get you in the zombie mood, Zip Zap has sent along this video

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2702647

Opening a Raceway

2007-07-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to open your own slot car business. I will be honest with you, it is a bad idea financially 99% time. Say you want to open a raceway with just one king track. The building alone that you need to rent is 2000+ sq/ft and will cost $1500 to $4000 per month every month if you are say in California. That is alot of parts to sell. With a markup of just 46% most raceways are lucky to cover just the rent. what about salaries, inventory and insurance? Most raceway owners never run the numbers. They see this as their dream job and hope for the best. If you live in the midwest and can get a big place for say $600/mo have a large density of potential customers who are race fans in general and have no competition withing 100 miles, then you may have a chance at making a raceway work. We have added a new page of resources for those of you who would like to give that business a try or would like to investigate the possibility.

Good News We are back with all pages

2007-07-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

We were gone for a week but fortunately we are back on the great world wide web of slot car enthusiasm. It will still be a few days before we get our newsletter signup system back on line and configured. Those of you who signed up previously are still signed up.

Youngest racer video gets play

2007-07-05T17:24:00.002-07:00

original posting October 18th, 2006

Well our little 1 minute video is really getting some play around the internet. This is good news for slot cars as it means the hobby still has interest. It is unfortunate but a large segment of the world population that would be intersted in slot car racing isn’t even aware that the sport is still in existance. We love it, it you want it to grow into what it once was, get the word out. If you haven’t seen the video which autoplays on our homepage you can see it in a larger format here. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1108593042374915630

Slot Car Video

2007-07-05T17:24:00.001-07:00

October 6th, 2006
I have posted a new slot car video on the main slotcarsforever page. This video features one of the oldest and the youngest slot car racers. The track is called “The Earl”. it is a 2 lane test track complete with braid and the lanemaster computer timing and scoring. The corvette in the early shots is a Revell-Monogram slot car available now through any hobby shop or the slot cars forever store. As you can see, it really gets going. The NASCAR is custom built from readily available parts.

Ferrari 330

2007-07-05T17:23:00.001-07:00

originally October 4th, 2006
I had a chance to run the SCX Ferrari 330 vintage series slot car. The guide flag is very odd and it sets up so high that only 1/16? of it was actually in the slot. i did manage to get it around the track a couple times. It is very slow. The detail is bad and the engineering must have been left in the hands of the chinese children that manufactured it. What a pile of poo this toy is. Do not buy it.

Scratchbuilders Showcase

2007-07-05T17:22:00.002-07:00

September 23rd, 2006
A new showcase of scratchbuilt slot cars has been added to the 1/24 scale section. The 1/32 scale section will get it’s own soon. The first additions are some can am designs by the slot car ambassador - Jeff Easterly.

Author Watch

2007-07-05T17:22:00.001-07:00

I was speaking with a friend of mine about slot car racing in clubs and his new basement track. Envy on my part as I live in so cal and can only dream of having a basement. Anyway this friend just happens to be quite unique in the world of slot car fabrication and without spilling the beans now, I have a firm yes from him to sign on as a contributing expert. I will make a formal anouncement when he starts to post.

Update on slotcarsforever.com

2007-06-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

Just as promised, my old host went under and took the website with it. The sad part is SCF invested alot of money up front to get the best hosting available. It was good, until it goes under after 10 months that is. So now work is being done on the website behind the scenes. We are looking into hosting the website on a dedicated server as opposed to shared hosting which is what 99.9% of all websites are on. dedicated means a internet server/computer with only SCF on it. this will probably take up to a month to setup as we do not want to do it ever again. So much of our hard work was lost. And no a lawsuit will not recover the loses we are sustaining because the host is broke and 5000 other websites are sueing them. $0/5000 = waste of time.

Over the next week we will repost the old posts for those of you who are just discovering us.

Which Newsletter to choose

2007-06-28T20:15:00.001-07:00

I have been getting the questions of which newsletter to choose and what is the difference between the two. As you have seen SCF offers two signups at the bottom of our main page. Just click on one of the photos and you are taken to the signup pages. Your first name and email address is all there is to it.

The beginners newsletter provides a 12 day primer on slot cars. A real overview. If you know nothing about slot cars or very little this explains the cars the tracks the home sets the conmmercial racing. It does get the beginner up to speed.

There is only one newsletter. the beginner one just starts off with the primer series. then it is all the same. You get notifications as they happen.

Raceway Directory added to slotcarsforever.com

2007-06-28T20:14:00.002-07:00

September 6th, 2006
Whether you have a club track or a big retail joint, add your information to the raceway directory so you can be found by travelers. If you know of a raceway that isn’t computer savvy, do them a favor and add them yourself.

New Slot Car Gear Chart

2007-06-28T20:14:00.001-07:00

Subscribers to the slot cars forever newsletter now recieve a free gear chart download. It covers a wide range of gears from 48 pitch to 80 pitch. Ratios from home sets to drag racing.

Welcome to the SlotCarsForever Blog

2007-06-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

Slot car racing is a wonderful hobby. Any age or any gender. Part of it's appear all these 5 decades has been it's appeal to families. How many fathers have raced with there sons who grow up to race with their sons. This is something worth saving. In the months and years ahead, we are going to teach you how to race and fix what went wrong. Welcome.