Tuesday 26 February 2008

SLOT SOUL: Lamborghini

SLOT SOUL
Proteus Lamborghini Murcielago

2007 has to be the year of the plain kit. Slot.it, MB Slot, Ninco and Spirit all release slots in plain kits so you can create your own piece of slot soul, a unique liveried slot car with your own character. I find that there is nothing more enjoyable as racing your own personal liveried slot.

I thought I'd start sharing some of my sprayed and liveried slot cars as I really enjoy this aspect of our great hobby. If you're a first timer, this section is designed to inspire you to start down the road of producing your own slot cars. If you have already explored this aspect of our hobby, I hope you enjoy the photos. I encourage you to send some photos of your cars in so I can share them with other readers.

This slot started life as a plain silver Proteus Lamborghini Murcielago street car. I decided as I could not purchase a racing version of the big Lambo, I'd do one myself. I fitted the car with a Scalextric NSX rear wing as the NSX wing has a similar curve to the rear of the Murcielago, (see the second photo from the top). The rear wing was cut into the body of the slot which took a little more time and care than gluing it onto the body. The main benefit of fitting the tail in this manner is if the wing takes a big hit, the tail pops out and can be easily reinserted.

I picked the Jagermeister liver as it is straight forward and I had the spare decals at the time. Apart from the rear wing, the slot is standard. The Proteus Lambo makes for a great track car, particularly on my Carrera track. It's fast and handles very well. Unfortunately, Proteus stopped making slots a few years ago so these cars are getting harder to acquire.



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NEWS: Avant 2008 Releases

Avant Slots 2008 Releases

This information just in from the Avant Slot Team, some of the exciting new releases they have lined up for 2008.

Dakar Man Truck - Avant Slot.

Another champion of the Dakar reaching slot. This is the Man truck who starred the last Dakar. The scale of this vehicle is nominally 1/32, like all the trucks on the market. It will be integrated with traction at all wheels and a mechanical revolutionary. Of course with suspensions, reducers and everything you need a monster of the desert. Release will be before the end of the year.

This is one Avant Slot release I just can't wait to get my hands on!

Peugeot 207 S2000 IRC Champion - Avant slot.

A car "novice" but it is already writing his name in letters of gold in the history of motorsports world. After overcoming a successful test phase, the new Peugeot 207 S2000 took victory in the world of IRC with the Spanish Ojeda at the wheel. All of a luxury rallys that come in 1/32 scale, with 4x4 traction, and some rocking guide technical advancement in the chassis. The position of the engine is ...unknown.

Quad Suzuki 450 Dakar - Avant Slot.

The Quad-Slot Avant is a reproduction of the Suzuki 450 Dakar with Carlos Avendano won the title in the last edition of the Dakar in the category of up to 450cc Quads. A special machine that will see the light before the summer. The scale chosen is the 1 / 24, because we believe it is the most viable for use in raids today, with the advantage that uses all components of the standard 1/32 as engines, transmissions, wheels, tires, guides, etc. With all possible settings and set-up that entails.

Pescarolo Rollcentre Le Mans 2007 to 4th position.

If you already have the first three, the fourth adds to your collection. The first fully private car at Le Mans can not fail in any collection.

Le Mans Winners of 2006 - Avant Slot.

This is a product that will take place at the express request of many fans that we have done well to get there. The box of the winners of Le Mans 2006, edition de luxe, limited and numbered only 1000 units for the entire planet. In May at the usual outlets, not keep without it.

This will make for a very nice limited edition set especially if you're a huge Le Mans fan such as me.

Bank Engine: Avant new tool slot.

It has a compact design and is very light. Built in aluminum to ensure their duration in time. The design of the tool has been with a triple function, It will be available approximately one month in the usual outlets.

You can find out more about Avant Slot here: http://www.avantslot.com/

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Sunday 24 February 2008

IMMORTAL: Porsche 917K

IMMORTAL SLOT CARS
Fly Porsche 917K - Part II

From time to time, ManicSlots is going to take a look at some of the 'immortal' slot cars that have been produced since the 'Fly' revolution of 1996. In 1996 Fly released the Viper, a slot car that would change the direction of the 1/32 slot car industry forever! Fly let us know that slot cars could actually resemble a racing car and introduced the slot car industry to the 'D' word, detail!

Of all of Fly's releases, the Fly Classic range has to be the most successful and sort after by collectors. Classic slots such as the Porsche 917K, Ferrari 512 and the Lola T70. More recently Fly has released other classics such as the Porsche 917LH and Ferrari 250 GTO but these models have not enjoyed the same success.

Without a doubt, the 'King' of the Fly classic range has to be the Porsche 917K. I have split this edition of Immortal Slots into two parts because there are just too many stunning versions of the Porsche 917K to fit in one post. The slots I've photographed are not the rarest 917Ks available but they are some nice examples. If anyone has some of the rarer 917Ks they'd like photographed and featured on ManicSlots, by all means send them my way. ;)

The number 18 Porsche was driven by David Piper and Gus Van Lennip in the 1970 Le Mans 24h. The car did not finish and retired after 112 laps. The race was won by another Porsche 917K driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood.


The below 917K is the special re-issue of SM3 24hr LeMans 1970 and was released by Fly in 2007 to celebrate their 10th anniversary, (1996 - 2006). The car was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman, the car did not finish the race and retired after 156 laps.

This from Wikipedia 'For the first time the traditional "Le Mans start" was replaced by an "Indianapolis start". For Porsche's 20th participation, Ferry Porsche himself dropped the tricolor flag at 16:00.'

So where did the 'K' model come from, this from Wikipedia: 'Disappointed by the poor results of the 917 in 1969 and facing a new competition, Porsche contracted John Wyer and the Gulf Team to become the official Porsche team, and also the official development partner. During tests in Zeltweg, Wyer's engineer John Horsmann had the idea to increase downforce to the expense of drag, a new tail was molded with aluminum sheets taped together. This worked well as the new short tail gave the 917 better stability. The new version was called 917 K (Kurzheck).' Kurzheck means 'short back'.




The below 917K raced at Can-Am Watkins Glen in 1970 and was driven by Brian Redman. Brian finished the race in 7th position, his only race points for the Can-Am 1970 season. The race was won by Danny Hulme driving a McLaren M8D #1.

This from Wikipedia: 'Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The facility is owned by International Speedway Corporation. It was long known around the world as the home of the United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for 20 consecutive years (1961–1980), but it has been home to road racing of nearly every class for over 50 years.'

The number 6 Porsche 917K is part of the recently released Fly Team Gulf set, Ref 99046. This set was released in 2007 and is already getting hard to come by. If you have the means to collect one I strongly recommend you do so as the set is stunning and very collectible. You can read a review on the Team Gulf set here: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/fly-gulf-team-set.html






Find out more about the 1970 running of Le Mans here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans

You can find out more about the Porsche 917K here: http://www.research-racing.de/917-a.htm

You can find Part I of Immortal Slot's Porsche 917K here:http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2008/02/immortal-porsche-917k.html

ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (non LE 917K): Extremely High!
ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (LE 917K): Off the Scale!

If you like these photos, head over to ManicSlot's Wallpapers: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/manicslots-wallpapers.html



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Friday 22 February 2008

NEWS: Fly Website

FLY Car Model
New Website Launched

For those of you who are big Fly slot fans, the last year has been testing with Fly rebuilding its website. I felt they should have built the new site prior to taking the old one of the web. That aside, the new site looks excellent and I'm glad Fly is back on the web.

The website is broken down into several pages similar to what you would expect to find on any good manufacture's website. For me the 'News' and 'Promotions' pages are something I'll frequently visit, hopefully Fly will do a good job at keeping them up-to-date.

The news page is currently showing four new liveries, above you can see the DRM Champion Porsche 935 raced by Klaus Ludwig in 1979. Below is the long awaited 'Red Lobster' BMW M1 raced at Daytona in 1980.

Also shown is the stunning new Lucky Strike 917K KYALAMI 1972 raced by Tony Adamovich. Nice to see a slot car with sponsorship like this that I don't have to apply the decals to! As a classic collector, I can't get this car soon enough. I'll have some photos to follow as soon as I get it.

Another exciting release is the Porsche 908/3 raced at Le Mans in 1972. In my opinion, the liver on this car is excellent, I love the front lights and just look at the 908's rear detail!



You can find Fly's recently released website here: http://flycarmodel.com/

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Thursday 21 February 2008

NEWS: Slot.it Audi R8C

NEWS: SICA12A Slot.it Audi R8C
Australian Release Date

I've just heard from Cathy from ArmChair Racer, it looks likely that the new SICA12A Slot.it Audi R8C, (Snetterton Roll-out and white kit) will be released in Australia on the 14th of March.


If you were abducted by aliens during the last month and haven't seen the Slot.it Audi R8C Reloaded movie, you can download it here:
http://www.slot.it/INGLESE/Download.html

Slot.it has released a fantastic poster of the new Audi R8C here, (2,600 x 3,950 pixels):

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Sunday 17 February 2008

IMMORTAL: Porsche 917K

IMMORTAL SLOT CARS
Fly Porsche 917K - Part I

From time to time, ManicSlots is going to take a look at some of the 'immortal' slot cars that have been produced since the 'Fly' revolution of 1996. In 1996 Fly released the Viper, a slot car that would change the direction of the 1/32 slot car industry forever! Fly let us know that slot cars could actually resemble a racing car and introduced the slot car industry to the 'D' word, detail!

Of all of Fly's releases, the Fly Classic range has to be the most successful and sort after by collectors. Classic slots such as the Porsche 917K, Ferrari 512 and the Lola T70. More recently Fly has released other classics such as the Porsche 917LH and Ferrari 250 GTO but these models have not enjoyed the same success.

Without a doubt, the 'King' of the Fly classic range has to be the Porsche 917K. I have split this edition of Immortal Slots into two parts because there are just too many stunning versions of the Porsche 917K to fit in one post. The slots I've photographed are not the rarest 917Ks available but they are some nice examples. If anyone has some of the rarer 917Ks they'd like photographed and featured on ManicSlots, by all means send them my way. ;)

This silver limited edition is the S81 Porsche 917K Roadcar 'Conde Rossi'. This from Wikipedia; 'Astonishingly, despite the car's impracticality, at least two 917s were road-registered. One, for Count Rossi of the Martini concern, was painted silver and given the Alabama plate 61-27737 to circumvent red tape in Europe, and the second, for Joachim Grossbad, was painted white and given the German registration CW-K 917.'

The Conde Rossi is truly a beautiful example of Fly's 917K and can still be found occasionally on ebay and is still stocked by a few slot shops. Whether you race them or shelf them, I advises collecting any Fly 917K and therefore strongly advise the limited edition versions. Apart from being very collectible, they will soon become the flagship of your collection. No serious collection is complete without at least a few.


The below 917K is from the Fly Team 12, Porsche Martini Racing 2 car set. It is also known as the ‘Psychedelic’ Team Set because of the outrageous paint finishes the cars have. The first car in the set is the #3 917LH which raced at 24 hours of LeMans in 1970 and was driven by Willy Kauhsen. The second car, (photographed here) is the #31 917K which raced at the Monza classic endurance race in 2004 and was driven by Juan Barazi.

The Fly Porsche Martini Racing set is still occasionally available, but commands high prices as it is a team set. Prices are around the $US250 mark.

This from Wikipedia: 'The Porsche 917 is a racecar that gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971. Powered by the Type 912 flat-12 engine of 4.5, 4.9, or 5 litres, the long-tailed version was capable of a 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time of less than 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 248 mph (394 km/h).'

'The 917 is one of the most iconic sports racing cars of all time, largely for its high speeds and high horsepower outputs, and was made into a movie star by Steve McQueen in his film Le Mans.' If you haven't already seen the Steve McQueen movie LeMans and you love these cars, then you owe it to yourself to get a copy quickly.



The below 917K is part of Fly's Racing Films Collection and was raced in the 1,000 km Buenos Aires event in 1971 by Vic Elford and G. Larrousse. The recently released LE car comes with a DVD documenting the event and a 20 page book outlining some of the history of the event. Of particular interest is Vic Elford's account of the race which makes for fantastic reading. This race was the first time a Porsche 917K had been raced in the now famous Martini Racing Team livery. Vic set the fastest lap time during the race but was later disqualified for receiving outside assistance, (outside of pit lane).

The DVD details the history of Las Temporadas Argentinas from 1947 to 1972 and has extensive coverage of the 1971 1,000 km Buenos Aires race including the fatal crash that claimed Ignazio Giunti in his Ferrari 312PB. The crash is quite disturbing as Ignazio's car and Jean-Pierre Beltoise's car burst into a massive fire ball on impact. The tragedy is the entire incident would have been avoided if yellow flags had been deployed more effectively.

Enough of the history, I'm sure you'll all agree the Martini Racing Team 917K is spectacular. This car is still available so if you have the means, get one while you can.



You can read the history of the Porsche 917K on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_917

For a more comprehensive history of the 917K and dozens of excellent photos, head over to IMCA here:

ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (non LE 917K): Extremely High!
ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (LE 917K): Off the Scale!

You can view Part II of Immortal Slot's Porsche 917K here: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2008/02/immortal-porsche-917k_24.html

If you like these photos, head over to ManicSlot's Wallpapers: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/manicslots-wallpapers.html


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