The Independent Club for Slot-Car Enthusiasts Contents Wouldn't It Be

No.236 NOVEMBER 2001 The independent club for slot-car enthusiasts BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY © NSCC 2001 Contents Wouldn’t it be a good idea if.......? Swapmeets...............................3 ven now there are people who doubt the existence of Daft Idea Membership Update....................4 EAnimal - ye of little faith - cast your eyes towards the organisers Diary Dates..................................5 of the British Grand Prix - Octagon Motorsports. Factory Focus................................7 Silverstone has a traffic problem; no change there then. Do they Ramsgate Postscript.....................8 act like any normal business and try to improve access? No! They Editor’s Whinge...........................9 succumb to the promptings of my small blue furry friend and cut Members Moments....................10 Westcountry Rambling..............11 attendance by 30,000, meanwhile doubling the ticket price and Addiction....................................13 charging £45 extra if you dare to bring your nasty car to the circuit! Evesham Swapmeet...................15 Even better - they are going to keep the same number of parking Letters.........................................16 spaces available, 18,000, so you can actually pay for the privilege Grooving.....................................19 of sitting in a traffic jam for three hours. The mind boggles! Why Home Circuit.............................20 not go the whole hog and ban spectators altogether and charge News Update..............................24 them £200 to listen to it on the radio while remaining stationary Fly Lola Review..........................26 on the M25? North Staffs Race Meet.............30 Not that it really worries me - I stopped going to the British Slot-car Basics............................32 Grand Prix in the early 90s when it ceased to offer value for money; USA Raceways..........................34 give me a club meeting at Snetterton any day. Is it only me who Mole...........................................37 finds it amusing that we now live in a country without an Racing Down Under..................39 Members Ads.............................42 International football or athletics stadium and can boast the only Grand Prix circuit in the world that can’t cope with the automobile? EDITOR Brian Rogers I sometimes ponder on absurd missed chances for Scalextric so 27 Paige Close how about a GP2002 set with 24 cars running in the same slot so Watlington overtaking is impossible. The pit stop section could be reintroduced King’s Lynn to add a bit of interest but any car using it would incur a five lap Norfolk penalty in case it gained an advantage. The set would also contain PE33 0TQ a large number of grandstands but no spectator figures and would Tel/Fax:- 01553 813090 include a video of a gridlocked motorway to add a bit more realism! e-mail:- [email protected] And Finally - a 48 page issue this month and I still couldn’t fit TRADE ADVERTISING everything in! I am indeed a happy editor; don’t worry if your AND WEBSITE contribution has not appeared yet I will publish everything as soon Alan Slade The Old Schoolhouse as possible. Bridgefoot Strathmartine Till next month Angus Brian Scotland DD3 0PH Tel/Fax:- 01382 828670 e-mail:- [email protected] [email protected] www.nscc.co.uk 1 widdling our thumbs as we wait, with The Argos chain of stores agreed a deal bated excitement, for the arrival of the with Scalextric to supply a special livery Focus Tbrand new Formula 1 cars from for their standard rally set as had happened in Scalextric I fought for something to talk about. previous years with other cars. Last year their Casting my mind back, and there’s not usually Rally Challenge set was issued with a Focus in much mileage down that avenue due to the old red along with a silver Toyota Corolla. Both cars grey matter getting slower and slower, over new were decorated with a livery specifically for this car releases I was reminded of the Focus liveries. Argos set. The Focus, C2295W, is a light red So, Factory Focus is aptly named this month, with racing number 5 in white and the Ford blue with a round up of information on the Ford oval draped over the rear quarters of the car. Focus liveries. The Corolla was similarly decorated with a To most casual Scalextric racers and with a Toyota insignia. For the hardened nutcase glance at the catalogues from the last year and collectors (like myself) the first recorded variant a half, you would be forgiven for thinking that arrived on the scene with the red Focus seen at there have only been three Focus liveries issued. the Liphook swapmeet with the racing number In fact there are seven! on the roof in yellow (not white)! The first releases were the two most of us The next catalogue livery appeared late in recognise. These are the C2175 and C2176 cars 2000 with the arrival of the white and light blue of Morgan/Sulayem and Grist/McRae, Laukannen Focus, racing number 19. The respectively. The Iridium car of Sulayem is the typically Finnish livery of C2343 is probably the eye-catching black-silver-white livery whilst the prettiest of the Focus cars. McRae car, naturally, had the instantly Finally, Argos agreed a fresh livery for their recognisable Valvoline red and blue livery on the Rally set for this year, 2001, with C2380WA and primarily white car. C2381WA. The cars are silver and red. The Later in 2000 the Carlos Sainz car was silver car (C2380WA) is striking with its released in Scalextric Collector Centres under turquoise lettering and dark blue Ford oval. The reference C2179. The car is generally the same red car (C2381WA) has yellow lettering. as the McRae car but with Moya/Sainz names Although the cars have advertising down the on the side windows and racing number 6 on the length of the doors and large Ford ‘RS’ logos on roof and doors. the sides, they are obviously and unfortunately produced to a price and thus only have a three colour tampo print. Such a shame as they would look so much better with a full colour livery, whether sold as a toy or as a car for the racer or collector. There we have it then, seven cars plus one known variation. Unless, of course, you know different.........! ■ 2 November 2001 The organised chaos of Adrian Norman BY STEVE BAKER ell it all started so long ago......... Once my e-mails on the 8th September, I had 2 from upon a time there was this nice bloke Adrian. Firstly he wanted a ‘fastest finger first’ Wby the name of Phil Etgart; it often round, well ok, but how the hell can you do that seemed like everybody in the entire club knew with Scalextric questions? err pass. Along with Phil in some way. One of the many things he did that came the BIG bombshell, he didn’t want it for the club was a slot-car quiz at the annual get to be as the previous quizzes, i.e. 1 question together. Then one day he decided to leave the addressed to the room, but to individuals, this club to pursue other avenues (though it was nice was a whole new ball game which meant the to see him again at this year’s event). quiz I’d spent hours sweating over, revising, This left a gap in the weekend, which, when changing to suit his desires was completely speaking with Adrian at the Liphook swapmeet, useless. I was daft enough to offer to write a quiz. All was Well as you can imagine I wasn’t really in well for a while - a friend (Brad Salmon) wrote that ‘Happy bunny’ frame of mind just them. some motor sport questions, and I started And then just to put the icing on the cake the last trawling through the back catalogues and Roger thing Adrian asked was, “I’d like you to read Gillham’s books. them too”. Well at least I thought I could Then on August 12th I wrote to Adrian; manage that. So I replied yes I could read the even now things were still ok. On the 13th I got questions, but I thought the best way to do the his reply, this was when the skies started to whole thing was for me to borrow my son’s darken, and ghosties and goblins started to Millionaire quiz book, this would mean that the arrive. quiz was general knowledge only, no Hornby First it was queries about checking the questions at all. But this got Adrian’s approval, answers were correct, then on August 31st the so all was well. first bomb dropped. Two weeks to go, and But this left me with the original quiz, MY although Adrian was happy that the quiz was QUIZ, it is in 3 sections: motor sport, Hornby now sorted, he asked if I could come turn it into (roughly in date order from the oldest to newest), a ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ style quiz with and general knowledge. A, B, C, D options for each question. Sounds Well that’s it I’m done, I’ve had my rant, but easy doesn’t it. Well it wasn’t. One of the original all in all was it worth it? Well it was great fun Motorsport questions was: What does the ‘Y’ in doing the quiz, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, Jackie Y. Stewart stand for? Now come on be but was it worth it? Ask me next year. honest, how many men’s names beginning with Y can you think of ? Did you think of 4? - No? Steve, neither could I ! By the way the answer is Young You really know how to make me feel guilty, don’t you! If (as in Clive), and there were others too where it were down to me I’d nominate you for some kind of you just couldn’t get four appropriate and in one special award, but as the award is Run the Quiz night or two cases even inappropriate answers.

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