Electric Dreams Slot Car Challenge 1 Entries
The entries are in for our first contest and the testing and evaluations are underway as this is being written. Here are the cars:
Rob Ambrose of Glendale, Arizona, sent in this kandy blue entry. Modifications include bronze bushings, Fly Racing hollow axle, crown gear, and Evo 2 wheels and tires, and chassis bottom ground for clearance. On his list of modifications he also wrote, "Destroyed body trying to remove paint...Tried to salvage body w/paint." We appreciate his sense of humor, having been there ourselves. Total cost $82.93. ("Yikes!" he wrote on his form next to the total.)
Kevin Fleming, of Cornwall, Vermont, built this car as a model of the Equipe Endeavor GTO driven by Mike Parkes to win the Scalextric International Trophy race at Silverstone in 1962. The model's only performance modification is a Scale Auto SC007 35K motor. Total cost $56.98.
Kevin also entered this model of another GTO from the 1962 Scalextric International Trophy. This one was owned by none other than Stirling Moss and driven by Masten Gregory to second place behind the #31 car. Kevin's model is box-stock except for the painting and detailing.
Both of these cars were painted with a brush!
This GTO comes from Rick Gondeck of Abingdon, MD. Rick drilled holes throughout the chassis to remove weight and lowered the body over the chassis by shortening the body posts. He also detailed and weathered the body. Otherwise, the car is box-stock. You'll note that the body is from an A1801, not the E1801 specified for the contest. Our warehouse sent him an A1801 by mistake, and since the error was ours we accepted the entry.
Priestly J. Mance, of Upper Marlboro, MD, sent us this entry, box-stock except for a wild metalflake paint job. We like his race team name -- PerforMance racing.
Here's a serious race car from Byron L. Watson of Beavercreek. OH. This one's loaded with TSRF parts, including wheels, tires, and axles. There's also a Fly Racing crown gear and two stacked magnets, a Slot It SICN02 and a Professor Motor PMTR1030. Modifications include chassis grinding for clearance, brass tubing inside the stock axle bushings, lowered body, and flared rear fenders.
Byron's second entry is a much more conservative car, box-stock except for a pair of Ortmann 43B tires and lots of basic race preparation, including gluing and truing the tires, gluing in the bushings and motor, lube, and break-in. Interestinly enough, he raised the magnet .020", decreasing the downforce-- more straight-line speed, perhaps? An interesting approach to optimizing a car for the BFB prize.
Check this out! We can just imagine somebody preparing a GTO like this for SCCA A-Production racing in the 70s to run against bigblock Corvettes and 427 Cobras. It's all there -- fat tires, flared fenders, big side pipes, and a look-at-me paint job. The body has also been lowered over the chassis. And the mechanicals are just as radical as the body, with all slot It wheels, tires, axles, bushings, gears, guide, braid, and a Flat-6 motor moved to the rear. Brian Winters, of Waltham, MA, entered this one, and he's clearly going for concours and all-out performance, more than the BFB prize. Total cost $115.48.
Another BFB challenger, this one from Alan Wood of Auburn Township, OH. Alan kept his car stock except for two major upgrades, a Scale auto SC006 motor and Indy Grips 3009 rear tires. It looks like he also put some silicone on the shaft bushing mount to keep the bushing securely in place. Total cost $59.28.
It will be interesting to see how the evaluations and track testing all shake out. Only two, perhaps three of the cars appear to have been built for all-out performance. Will any of them have enough of a performance advantage to place in the BFB competition in spite of cost? Three of the cars have no additional parts, keeping their cost at the $39.99 price of the basic car. One of those has mods that do not add to cost. Three cars have had a motor swap, two with Scale Auto motors and one with a Slot It. Only four of the cars have aftermarket tires and only two have aftermarket magnets. This is surprising because tires and magnets are generally considered the two most cost-effective performance upgrades that can be done to any car.
Six of the nine entries have modified or repainted bodes for the concours competition, while three left the body unchanged or nearly so. On two of the cars flared fenders serve as a performance mod as well as an appearance item by allowing wider tires. The concours judging will be interesting.
The BFB competition is wide-open, and we expect to see some surprises. We think either a box-stock car or a heavily modified one might actually have a chance to win or at least place in the top 3. This is essentially unknown territory for us as well as the entrants. The results of this first BFB competition should give some insight into what it will take to win future ones.
And there will be future ones. Watch our newsletter and web site for an announcement coming soon. Slot Car Challenge 2 is in the works now, and we are waiting for the results of Challenge 1 to see what procedures we may need to revise in the light of experience before we write up the rules for challenge 2.
Next week...
We'll have the final results of Slot Car Challenge 1!
