Some New, Cool Slot Cars from Electric Dreams

2008  New Releases:

Information about the various manufacturers' prodict lines is filtering out from the Nurnberg Toy Fair and elsewhere.  Here are some of the highlights:

Carrera: 

We now have all the 2008 Carrera 1:32 scale race sets and cars on line and available for preorder, including these:

Carrera 27254 '60 Plymouth, Lee Petty.  $41.69.  Another Petty family car, but this time it's one driven by the founder and patriarch, Lee Petty, a year or two before Richard got into the act.  The 60 Plymouth also comes in 2 street versions, and as a custom, as well as in Digital 132. 

Carrera 27259 '57 Chevy custom.  $41.69   The car we all wanted when we were kids.  It will be available in several versions in both conventional and digital. 

Carrera 27265 DeKon Monza.  $41.69.  These cars ruled IMSA for a couple of seasons and were some of the coolest looking race cars ever built.

We don't have the Carrera 1/24 cars on line yet, but there are 2 versions each of the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Corvette Grand Sport. 

Also, we are bringing in the Carrera GO! 1/43 scale product line.  We think 1/43 scale is about to take off and that it will soon evolve from a toy to a scale for serious racers and modelers.  Meanwhile, 1/43 scale is a compact, low-cost option for those who want to give their children an introduction to slot car racing but don't know how it will be received.  With GO! they can give it a low-risk try with minimal financial investment.  The first shipment will be arriving soon, and we will have all the new cars and sets for 2008 as they are released. 

The Year of the Daytona Prototype

By now you know that Fly is releasing its new "Flyer" line of cars beginning with the 2007 GrandAm Daytona Prototype Chamopion Gainsco Racing car, due in March.   Now there is an even more exciting announcement from Racer Products.  They will be releasing their first plastic (instead of resin-cast) car this year and it will also be a Riley Daytona Prototype. 

Racer has a license from Riley to produce the 2008 version of the car, while Fly's car will be the 2007 and earlier version.  Racer's car will be priced comparable to other plastic RTR cars on the market and may be powered by...

Slot It's new ultra low-profile Flat 6 motor.  The Flat 6 lowers a car's center of gravity while retaining the standard shaft size, inlike the slim-line motors being used in many formula car models, so you will be able to use a standard pinion gear on it.  As you can see above, it's considerably lower than Slot It's own popular Boxer motor.

The Flat 6 will be available in three different models.



MN09H

Flat-6 20,500rpm - 200g*cm @12v

10g magnetic traction



MN11H

Flat-6R 23,000rpm - 200g*cm @12v

22g magnetic traction



MN11C

Flat-6R 23,000rpm - 200g*cm @12v

6g magnetic traction

The Flat 6 will also come in a new Slot IT Audi R8C with a newly tooled body and an anglewinder chassis. 

You can expect the Flat 6 to set off a wave of engineering advancement and also to make possible models of some cars that previous motors just wouldn't fit.

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These are just a few of the high points for 2008.  We will be adding information to our web site as we receive it.  Check our New Releases 2008 section frequently. 

New Items In Stock:

LeMans Miniatures 13219-53M Panhard CD #53 RTR car.  $107.95.  This car was a class winner at LeMans in 1962.

Also available are RTR models of the #54 and#55 cars that made up the rest of the Panhard team that year.

LeMans Miniatures 132020M Audi R10, 2007 Sebring winner.  $151.95

Thanks for shopping with us!

The Electric Dream Team

www.electricdreams.com

A Little Slot Car Racing Intro

Slot car racing (also called slotcar racing or slot racing) is the competitive hobby of racing with powered miniature autos (or other vehicles) which are guided by grooves or slots in the track on which they run.

Slot cars are usually models of actual automobiles, though some have bodies purpose-designed for miniature racing. Most enthusiasts use commercially-available slot cars (often modified for better performance), others motorize static models, and some "scratch-build," creating their own mechanisms and bodies from basic parts and materials.

Slot car racing ranges from casual get-togethers at home tracks, using whatever cars the host makes available, to very serious competitions in which contestants painstakingly build or modify their own cars for maximum performance and compete in a series of races culminating in a national championship. Some slot car hobbyists, much as in model railroading, build elaborate tracks, sculpted to have the appearance of a real-life racecourse, including miniature buildings, trees and people, while the more serious competitive racers often prefer a track unobstructed by scenery.

Scalextric race set for `Quantum of Solace`

Scalextric race set for `Quantum of Solace` to feature Alfa Romeo versus Aston Martin DBS

As MI6 exclusively revealed back in December, Scalextric - the company behind the legendary slot car racing set for 50 years - is planning a special 007 edition in 2008 to coincide with the 22nd James Bond film "Quantum of Solace".

Scalextric is now owned by model maker Hornby, and has featured other licenced sets around franchises such as The Italian Job, The Simpsons, Transformers, Starsky & Hutch and Batman.

Today, news coverage of how Hornby had secured major licences let slip a potential spoiler about the 22nd James Bond film.

According to a BBC report, the 007-themed slot car racing set will feature Bond's Aston Martin DBS (as expected) with the chase car being an Alfa Romeo.

It was previously rumoured that the car chase, which is said to happen early in the film, would feature a Ford GT 40.

The last time an Alfa Romeo was featured in a James Bond film was in 1983's "Octopussy", where 007 steals a civilian's car to race to the American airbase in Germany.

Revell-Monogram Greenwood Corvette

If you’re a fanatic about racing Corvettes, as I am, you know about the legendary John Greenwood “Supervettes” of the 70s. These were the Greenwood “widebody” cars, designed for GT endurance racing in IMSA and at international events like LeMans. It’s said that these cars were often clocked at speeds over 230 miles per hour. They frequently took pole position and set fastest lap, though they too often failed to finish. The main problem was that there simply was no way at the time to build a transmission that would stand up for hours on end to the brutal torque of the cars’ 7-liter or larger engines. But when one of them did manage to stay together for an entire race distance it would win in impressive fashion. American race fans loved these loud, brutal, insanely fast cars precisely because they were so perfectly American in an in-your-face way that no other cars before or since have ever quite managed. And it wasn’t just American fans, either. Even the worldly, sophisticated French spectators at LeMans would go all weak-kneed at the sight –and sound-- of one of these monsters hurtling down the Mulsanne Straight. To this day the Greenwood widebodies are among the cars most eagerly sought after by vintage slot car race organizers, and they still put on a show that wows the crowd. Greenwood’s web site reveals that his shop built about a dozen of these cars, similar in appearance but varying in specifications. That makes them quite rare and pricey collectibles. Even if you have the kind of money it takes to purchase one you may not be able to find one for sale. In the meantime, however, you can own and race one or several of them in 1:32 scale. Revell-Monogram has produced four versions of the car for slot car racing: 85-4855 Spirit of Riverside ’75, $44.95 85-4857 Spirit of Sebring ’76, $44.95 85-4863 Spirit of LeMans ’76, $53.95 (special limited edition) 85-4864 Mancuso Chevrolet “customer car”, $44.95 The bodies on all four slot cars are the same (other than paint and markings) except for the rear spoiler. The Sebring and Riverside cars have a single wide spoiler while the LeMans and Mancuso cars have two smaller spoilers at the rear corners of the body. All the body details are there, including the wildly flared fenders, big hood hump, and the classic Corvette hardtop with rear window straps. The radiator inlet and rear fender vents feature photo-etched screens. Interior details include a full roll cage, instrument panel, rear-view mirror, shift lever, and fire system. The driver, with full-face helmet, 5-point racing harness, and detailed driving suit, looks at home in the car. The only paint flaw we could find on any of our review cars (the Riverside, the Sebring, and the Mancuso) was less-than crisp color demarcation between the blue and the white on the Sebring car. Otherwise, both the paint masking and the tampo-stamping were of extremely high quality. The finish on all three cars was glossy and free from dust specks and orange peel. RM earns an attaboy for not letting political correctness keep them from putting the Joe Camel decals on the IMSA cars. The chassis has some excellent frame rail and exhaust detail along the sides. Mechanically, it’s a front motor with drive shaft layout using the familiar s-can motor. The rear tires are wide and put lots of rubber on the track surface, but there’s room for even wider aftermarket wheels if you choose to fit them. The traction magnet slides fore and aft in its mount, though I didn’t observe much difference in handling, if any, between the full forward and full aft positions. Even so, the combination of wide tires and magnet downforce gives good cornering performance on our Scalextric sport test track. The track-test car (a Mancuso) handled a bit more on-rails than I prefer, but the grip was ferocious and when the car did break loose it spun, it didn’t tumble. RM’s designers appear to have taken the magnetic downforce right to the limit of increasing traction without smothering the car’s driving characteristics and making it boring to drive. Like all magnet cars do to one degree or another this one will break away without warning at the limit, but the limit is quite high. My best lap time with the car was 4.450 sec. For comparison purposes I ran some laps with what has come to be my “benchmark” car, a Scalextric TransAm Camaro, and turned a best lap of 4.691 sec. I’d say that puts the two cars’ performance somewhere in the direction of the same relationship they would have in 1:1 scale, but doesn’t put them so far apart that they can’t be tuned to make them even in performance with a little bit of magnet shimming. The Greenwood Corvette’s acceleration was strong, and the gearing seemed well suited to our rather tight test track. At the time I ran this test the only controller readily available was a 45-ohm Parma, and I definitely think the car would gain another tenth or two with a 25 or 35-ohm controller. Revell-Monogram gets top marks for quality and performance with its Greenwood Corvette and a lesser but still high grade for driving fun and pleasing driving feel. And of course, with a Greenwood Corvette, the Walter Mitty factor has to be off the scale. Review cars: 85-4855 85-4857 85-4864 Arie Viewer May 24, 2006

The Slot It Porsche 956 Short-tail Slot Car

The Porsche 956, along with its variant, the 962, was the car that established the pattern for the entire Group C / GTP category of race cars, a pattern followed for the entire duration of that era of endurance racing. Designed originally to dominate endurance racing’s premier event, the 24 Hours of LeMans, the 956 went on to win countless races on road courses large and small around the world. The 956 gained its greatest fame at LeMans, a high-speed circuit where low drag and high-speed stability are essential. Thus, it’s not surprising that the car is most often modeled and most familiar to hobbyists in its long-tail configuration as used in the 24-hour classic. However, most of the car’s other races were lesser-known events on shorter, tighter circuits where cornering grip and downforce ruled, even at the cost of higher drag. For these events Porsche provided an alternate set of bodywork with a much shorter tail incorporating a higher, larger wing. A team contesting the entire season needed both configurations to be competitive.

Slot It, after producing several long-tail 956 slot car has now started in on the short-tail versions with stock # SICA09n Racing car as driven by Hans Stuck and Stefan Bellof at Imola in 1984. In addition to the high wing this particular 956 also has a small add-on airfoil above the nose between the headlights. This is a strikingly colorful slot car model that’s easy to see on the track and stands out on the shelf. The MSRP on this slot car is $49.95.



Slot It has introduced two new features with this that will be welcomed by racers and collectors. The first is a clear vacuum-formed bubble that fits in between the top of the slot car and the top of the plastic case to hold the firmly in place even if the hold-down key should work loose. No more cars damaged from rattling around inside the case during shipping. The more service-conscious dealers will appreciate the bubble because it means they no longer have to open the case and put tissue paper inside to protect the car. The labor saved can now go toward improving service in some other area. This is an amenity all slot car manufacturers should adopt immediately.

The second feature is the inclusion with the car of a pair of 19 X 10 mm silicone rear tires. This is especially welcome in view of the low grip level and poor handling afforded by the stock rear tires. The silicone tires, welcome as they are, only solve part of the problem, however. The stock magnet remains too weak and covers too little of the car’s width to produce the kind of out-of-the box handling a model of a Group c car should have. As an interim measure Slot It needs to make the more powerful “racing” magnet standard equipment on these cars. A full solution will require replacing the current magnet design with a Scalextric-type bar magnet that provides magnetic grip over much more of the slot car's width and keeps the magnet over the track rails at greater cornering angles. This does not mean the car should be stuck down like an HO car to the point where one can drive it around the track by simply holding the trigger at full throttle. It simply means that the car should offer enough grip over enough of the car’s width to provide the consistent handling that allows it to be driven aggressively. Alternate magnet positions and changes in magnet height and strength will allow the car to be tuned for the degree of grip each individual desires. As it is now the stock grip level of Slot It cars is so low they make a very poor initial impression. That’s unfortunate because a simple change in magnet and / or tires transforms a Slot It car completely. It would cost the company little or nothing to equip their cars with better tires and magnet to begin with and make a much more positive first impression on the consumer. Appearance-wise, however, our test car made an outstanding first impression. The paint was glossy and speck-free. The tampo-printing was of a very high order. The fit of all the body parts was tight and precise. Panel lines are crisp and uniform, if a shade too wide, and all the small details we have come to expect in Slot It cars are there. I continue to be impressed with Slot It’s driver figures. The one in our test car looked remarkably life-like with an elaborately striped and decaled helmet and printing on the seat belts.

I found two flaws in the build quality, one minor and the other more serious. The lesser of the two is the obvious part lines and small areas of roughness in the body surface just forward of the two fins at the rear. You really have to look for these to find them, however. The more serious problem is a noticeable warping of the entire car, which causes the right front wheel to ride considerably higher than the left front. I have not encountered this in other Slot It cars I have driven, and I don’t think it is typical. I would have preferred to use a different car for testing, but this example was the only one available at the time so I went ahead and tested it anyway. In the end the warping did not seem to affect performance significantly, but it was there nevertheless.

The chassis and mechanicals are unchanged from the long-tail 956, except for the changes at the rear necessary to mate with the short-tail body. They are also essentially the same as on the Sauber C9 reviewed recently. The wheels, as usual for Slot It, are aluminum with set screws at the rear and press-on plastic at the front. The BBS inserts with front cooling fans are exquisite, and the Dunlop lettering on the tire sidewalls is very neatly done.

In out-of-the-box trim the 956 slot car recorded a best lap time of 5.402 seconds on the Electric Dreams Scalextric Sport test track. It ran smoothly and had good straightline speed but suffered badly from a lack of cornering grip. The first step in remedying the situation was to install the silicone tires that came with the car. That brought the lap time down to 4.709 seconds. Next, I checked the magnet installation and found, as I have on every Slot It slot car I've tested, that small amounts of excess plastic in the magnet pocket were keeping the magnet from mounting properly. Some scraping with a hobby knife allowed the magnet to fit down into its proper position, getting it a bit closer to the track. While we were at it we loosened the four motor carrier screws about ¾ of a turn each. That got the car down to a 4.643. The next step was to replace the stock magnet with an SICN04 “racing” magnet. Lap times immediately dropped by more than a full second to a low of 3.449. With this magnet I could drive the car the way I felt it should be driven – deep into the turns and powering out of them. I no longer had to wait until the car was pointed perfectly straight to apply the power. As with the Sauber I decided that laps in the 3.4s and 3.5s were faster than the car really needed to go on the track. I brought it back into the same performance range as my other Slot It Gp. C cars by putting the stock rear tires back on. This resulted in a lap time of 3.805 and gave the car a bit more of a sideways component in its cornering tat I found quite enjoyable. There is clearly a lot more performance to be extracted from this car and other Slot It Gp. C cars. The racing magnet and silicone tires could easily put down more power than the stock motor delivers. However, few home racers really need that level of performance unless they are going to race in an organized program with liberal car preparation rules. The mods we have tested deliver plenty of speed and handling without unduly increasing crash impacts and maintenance requirements. I can only wish Slot It would equip the cars with the racing magnet to begin with and deliver this kind of performance right out of the box for even the most casual racer to enjoy.

This is one fine slot car!