"Vendetta" classic enduro - April 21, 2012

[Giddyup]

It's been far too long, since we raced last. People have been advised and the date is set.

On April 21st, old f@rts from around Calgary will gather at Mugello for a special endurance race, called the
"Vendetta."



In true Italian spirit, this will be an emotion-filled, all Italian showdown between the NSR and Slot.it.

It'll be a team-based 3 hr enduro; teams will consist of 2 drivers. Pairings will be based on a draw on race day. So tune your car, but prepared to run a partners.

More to come...

[MrCarp]

I just can't wait.

MrCarp

[Giddyup]

Practice will start *10 am* for any last minute tuning / test laps; we’ll also draw teams then before getting down to business


The class will be the LeMans Classics era of any NSR or Slot.it classic (see list below). Between us all - we should be able to field team cars quite easily.


Available models:
NSR Ford 3L P68
NSR Ford GT40 MkI or MkII or MkIV
NSR Porsche 917k
Slot.it Ferrari 312PB
Slot.it Alfa Romeo T33/3
Slot.it Chaparral 2E (I know, it never ran at LeMans, but will be allowed since it’s of the same era)
Slot.it Ford GT40 MkI or MkII


FYI - Links to the respective brands and their released models of the above cars: NSR and Slot.it



http://www.nsrslot.it/index_models.html
http://www.slot.it/INGLESE/Models.html


Tuning is up to you, with the following restrictions:
- any NSR or Slot.it chassis, gears, guides, suspension, wheels/hubs etc parts stock or otherwise are permitted (except motor and tires - see specifics below)
- no tire treatments or silicone tires ; stock NSR, Slot.it (C1) or urethane tires permitted
- no lowering of car body onto chassis
- add weight at your discretion; minimum weight is *60g* but no max weight (all cars will be weighed prior to race)
- tires must be inside the fenders (i.e., not visible from overhead); if "knock-offs" stick out that's OK
- NSR 20k or Slot.it Orange bell motors 21.5k are the only acceptable motors (these are stock to the above listed models)


Each heat will be 30 mins. (paused after 15 min. to switch drivers); after each heat we will rotate lanes; overall, teams will drive each lane twice. Total distance driven will take it.


So far, our driver line-up is a who’s who of the COSCC:
Mr .Carp (Paul) as local woody aficionado has shown he’s ready for prime time. Weapon of choice? Rumor has it that it will be a Ford GT40…but which brand is the question? Yes, our spys tell us Mr. Carp has a Slot.it on the way…


I’ve got Kimchi all over my pants (Kim) returns as a changed man; will the kinder, gentler Kimmy show he’s still got the race pace? Weapon of choice? The word on the street is that there may be a white NSR Ford Mk.IV up on the hoist right now; but some spy shots from Edmonton indicate Kimchi recently negotiated the release of a silver NSR Martini Porsche 917k. One thing is for sure, he’ll be driving the wheels off of whatever he drives.


DerChristian (Chris), notorious European jewel thief returns to the scene of many a crime to show he hasn’t gone soft after an extended stay in the Motherland. While under the watchful eye of immigrations officials, he’s been seen spotted with a NSR Gulf Porsche 917k #21. While no rain is in sight, it remains to be seen if his track skills will be worthy of Pedro’s car!


Kenny aka I need a Nickname (Ken), the man who drives with no hands is back to claim his rightful spot on top of the podium after many close calls. Armed with what some observers say is a sense of purpose, officials have it on good authority that there may be a yellow NSR Ford GT40 #8 in the offing for Team No Hands.


Bobbin’ for Apples (Bob), successfully recovered from last year’s back surgery says he’s ready to bend all the way over and do whatever it takes this time. Always a bridesmaid, he narrowly missing out on the last 3hrs of Mugello by some 40m’s. Without wheels, Mr. Apples claims he’ll drive any car in whatever position, under his “don’t ask don’t tell” policy.


G-$ (George), a relative newcomer from out east has shown some flashes of brilliance while multitasking on his Blackberry. It remains to be seen if this prowess translates to race pace. Rumor has it that he’s looking for new sponsorship after the Greek government default.


Giddyup (Tom) as track host, the local spaghetti slinger’s intimate knowledge of Mugello may finally yield a top podium step. Weapon of choice? The ultra-sleek and sexy NSR Ford 3L P68 #33 adorned in British Racing Green trim.


One open seat remains…who knows, maybe the Canadian Stig will make an appearance?

[Giddyup]

Early track testing has revealed some tell tale signs of things to come…


NSRs are quick, as expected. The easiest to drive has been the GT40 in terms of feel; the 917k is possible a shade (0.05) slower than the GT40 but also has a lower centre of gravity which leads you to believe it’s more stable than the GT40. But so far, driving the GT40 feels almost invincible.



The P68 feels the smoothest of all 3 cars and seems quicker than it is, with the challenge being keeping the longer tail in check. No signs of any Ford Mk.IV testing so far, but given how close (all within a tenth of each other) the other 3 are in terms of lap times, I’d wager it’ll perform like the others. Overall, for the NSRs it’s looking like it will come to personal choice based on driver feel and driving style for individual car choice.


Does this leave Slot.it out in the cold? While it may appear so, it seems like a Slot.it could be the dark horse. My old Chaparral 2E rolled out of the garage, and with some simple gluing/truing of rear urethanes, and about 8g of putty weight in front of the motor, it looks like this may in fact be the quickest of any car tested so far.



So where do things stand for personal driving choice? Overall, it looks like if you like to drive with a heavy (> 50%) brake setting and like the throttle on/off driving style and responsiveness (torque) from the Slot.it orange bell motors then the Chappy is the way to go; on the other hand, if you value more of a finer feathering of the throttle, much less brake and general smoothness to your laps then the NSRs seem like a logical choice.


I haven’t tested the new Alfa Romeo T33/3 and its upgraded EVO6 chassis/pod design but I would wager it’s plenty fast, as the old design was fast – so fast in fact, Danno called the Alfa the perfect slot car. Nor have I pulled out a Ferrari 312PB to see what it has to offer, and I doubt I will.


The only unknown at this point is the Slot.it GT40 MkI or II. Rumor has it that she will run head-to-head with the Chaparral. Note, she’s the anorexic side, weighing in around 62-63g (which is why we had to lower the acceptable min. weight to 60g). So I’m planning on getting one of these on to the track this week and report back results.

[Giddyup]

"Many are called, few are chosen", pretty much sums up the day.

Joining us today were a wide array of characters....a notorious German jewel thief, a nutty professor, and let's not forget the man who knitted himself a sweater out of his own belly button lint.

After some bevvies & pizza, we got down to qualifying. A silky smooth Slot.it Chaparral 2E was our test mule. Everyone got a few minutes on the middle, green lane to test their mettle. Team pairings were based on the host, with intimate track knowledge and accessibility for track testing, with the slowest qualifier, followed by the top qualifier & next to slowest qualifier, and the ever deadly # 3/4 qualifier combination.

Who knew the fastest qually time would come by the first racer, on his second lap....indeed Kenny "I need a nickname" came to race ....without further adieu, our qually times:



As you can see, less than tenth separated the men from the boys; well then again, maybe all were boys

With the pairings set, teams got down to selecting a weapon of choice. Team Wunderkind (Chris & Kim) selected a very smooth Alfa Romeo T33/3; Team SuperFirends (Ken & Paul) selected a NSR Ford GT40 while the host team of the BottomFeeders (Tom & Bob) went for a highly quick but experimental Slot.it Ford GT40.

As the Mugello staff set up video cameras to capture the scintillating conversation, the track timing laptop fell prey to the dreaded Windows automatic update/restart. After a quick reset, it was all systems go.

Race Heats were to be 10 minutes stints (20 min in total), but some late lobbying by MrCarp (Paul) gave way to marathon 15 min stints (30 min total heats).

Heat #1 was actioned packed as drivers settled in .... Bob the Bullet was indeed a bullet, right out of the slot more than once, while our Interpol eluder was uber-quick in the shorter, inner lane. MrCarp found himself playing with his dials while his team strategist whispered sweet nothings in his ear.

In the second half/stint of Heat #1, Giddyup (Tom) found the groove and rattled off the laps but found stiff competition from the Nutty Professor and Kenny. The Nutty Professor complained about the middle, green lane and was quite often subject to the Ford sandwich

We'll have some video highlights, or maybe "low lights" of the race up soon...but laughs were had, stories were told and jokes were made at the Nutty Professor's insistence that his hair was indeed not "store bought"

Here's a few summaries of heat by heat what went down:



In the fourth of fifth heat, the WunderTwins wore out their tires and their performance "fell off the cliff" and eventually into catastrophic failure. Race organizer agreed to their NSR Ford GT MkIV substitution; which proved to be double-wide, fast and a little tail happy.

Then here's a summary of how those heats translated into racing distance:



And finally by the overall results:



As you can see, things stayed pretty close and even though the SuperFriends didn't win a single heat, they still managed to stay ahead of the WunderTwins . While the BottomFeeders reached the top step of the podium at last with the Slot.it rocketsled.

One has to wonder if the WunderTwins engineers will ever come with a built to race car...that may the day where the WunderTwins unite and take the form of...champions

Alls I know is that today we had some good racing with two of the best slot brands on the planet: NSR and Slot.it. I wouldn't say one is better than the other, but we're all better for them being in business

Vids and pictures to follow...

Cheers,eh!

[The Professor]

Nice write up Tom, sounds like you guys had fun!

[MrCarp]

Nice posting Tommy Boy. Yes, Superfriends would have like to win a few runs but it does prove that consistency does have it's advantages. We all had a great day of racing regardless of where we all ended. Thanks for the stats and I am looking forward to the vids and pics. I will upload them to photo bucket later today.

Cheers Buddy

Paul