The Rub-off Effect

[Audi1]

When I got back into slot car racing about 2 years ago; after a 47 year hiatus, all I wanted to do was to go fast again. I looked for the fastest cars, tuned them to be as fast as I knew how to make them and sent them off to compete.

Then someone came up with the idea of a themed fun run proxy; the La Carrera PanAmericana. This got me thinking more about the cars that I'd admired during the '50's and '60's, when I was a kid. That led me to resin-cast bodies, since none of the major manufacturers have an emphasis on that era of cars. That got me into after-market chassis, filler, paint and decals. And before I knew it, I was back into modeling; which I used to do quite a bit of when I was a kid.

All in all, I found that I got a lot more gratification from modeling and trying to build a good performing car around the model than I did from just taking a fast-dimensioned stock body/chassis and tuning it for speed. That was, initially, a surprise to me. But it's stuck.

I still do the "speed is king" races and I'll probably continue to do them, but when I think back on the proxy races that have meant the most to me over the past year or so, the two that come to mind are the La Carrera PanAmericana-1 and the ROAR; proxies where I've focused as much on the modeling aspects of the event as I have on the tuning aspects. I even modeled a brass chassis this year; just to see if I could do it. And the proxy that I'm now looking forward to the most, is the La Carrera PanAmericana-2.

I would not have gotten to this realization; or I would have gotten to it much more slowly, if it had not been for HomeRacingWorld. The rub-off modeling effect of being a member of this board has been very clear to me and I am very glad that is has happened, because it simply makes the hobby more fun for me. Thanks HRW!

Allan

And now...........back to the modeling/racing.................................... :auto-layrubber:

[HomeRacingWorld]

Glad to hear it. I agree.

I enjoy the modeling part the most but balanced with performance. Or I try haha.

[TsgtRet]

Well said, Allan. I got back into slots in 97 but it was an "on again-off again" affair due to work. Initially I was also into "what's fastest?" and when I was racing with my group in Ft Wayne I had a few cars to compete in each class. Since I have moved I've been trending heavily toward the "classics" and Trans Am. I have a few faster favorites not in those general classes but even those tend to be somewhat "vintage". Also like you, I find my old model building skills resurfacing and, with my layout, my old model RR skills are coming back too. (Like Doc says: I'm a model railroader that wants to go fast).
I may also try this resin casting stuff eventually but meanwhile there are enough great bodies out there that I won't be without something to build.
Finally, having a place like HRW to come to and share, certainly helps keep the furnace stoked.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

One of the reasons I went back to HO in the 70s after leaving it behind to do 1/32 in the mid 60s was that scale racing was getting polluted with slot cars that didn't even resemble cars. I have never had any interest in stupid fast blobs going around a track I can't see well enough to keep up with. Then, many, many, long years later, I stumbled onto Fly, Monogram, Ninco, and Scalextric just as they began to suddenly get irresistibly wonderful, 1995 or so. HooHah! Slot cars are back! I'm surprized people on the other side of the country didn't hear me cheering. Soon thereafter, I began hanging out at the first generation HRW site, and when we were YUKU'd I joined up, must have been 2003? Maybe a little later than that, but not much. I love seeing scale cars go around a track. I just love it. Maybe its leftover feelings from trains, I'm sure that's part of it, but as beautiful as they are, the thrill is a well-made scale car doing slightly faster than scale speed (whatever calculation method you use, we really do routinely run our scale cars at over 200mph scale speed- fine for a Bugatti Veyron, but I have a VW Beetle that does around 270mph scale speed, so I do have to be a little flexible!).

[strangebrew]

I was trying to run Deathstar motors in my scratchbuit paper bodied cars on my 5x11 oval 5 or 6 years ago...................
until I stumbled across HRW.
Now I'm casting & modeling again just like you guys have said. And it's much more fun. If you wanna' run stuff nobody produces,
'ya gotta' learn to model & cast. Now.......If I could just learn to tune & drive! :oops:

[Retro Racer 44]

I raced in the 60s and was losing interest when the thingies were taking over, and would have completely quit when wing cars came along whose front wheels didn't even turn. All my cars had clear plastic bodies painted from the inside with numbers and a few stickers on the outside.

I stopped racing because I took a job teaching in the Arctic, in an Inuit village where the people had only lived in wooden houses for a few years and still made igloos when they went out hunting. After 12 years in the north, the hobby was gone when I came back.

When I started racing again, after 44 years, the club ran only well tuned plastic cars with stock plastic chassis. In fact there was a rule, no brass chassis.

Starting with the SLOP proxy, I got into building brass chassised proxy cars, and so did others in the club. Now we do bracket racing in our club and the no brass rule is history.

I never was a very good modeller, and the only way I ever got a good paint job was from inside a clear body, but I am improving. Each new proxy is a new step, and a new chance to improve my efforts. I could always build good running brass chassis, but painting and decals will always be a challenge, until my old hands shake so badly it will be impossible.

Since HRW got into proxies, I believe all of us have stepped it up from what we were racing a couple of years ago.

Let's not let proxies die out, and keep that fun aspect to them.

Cheers,

Keith

[munter]

The Rub-off effect is global.
Round here there are a few of us who have gravitated to HRW due to the very thing you have pointed out, Allan.
Thank you HRW for ROE!

It is contagious and thankfully there is no cure.