Posted: 03 November 2007 at 7:09pm | IP Logged

Ta-dah!
It gives me great pleasure to announce:

The North London December CanAm Cruise and Cucaracha Challenge!

To be held on the evening of Monday, 17th December to honour the forthcoming visit to NL of the Thingie Kingie - live and in person amongst us.

North London regulars should note that this Monday is in our 'off week' and is an addition to our regular schedule of races.

To respect our visitor's well known dislike of excessive speed where model cars are involved, and to preserve his virginal white #13 car, I propose that a 25 lap break-out limit be set on the 3 minute heats with any laps above this total to be disregarded.
A concours vote BEFORE cruising commences can decide final positions when added to lap totals, if everyone agrees.

The Cucaracha Challenge will be open to all Thingies, although an extra point will be awarded to actual Cucs of any variety, and can follow the same format as the CanAm racing with a 20 lap break-out limit.

Cruising will, as usual, be open to all comers but the Royal Personage has especially requested that both Chopper and Howmet be available to wait on him.

Let the leisurely driving commence!

Regards,

Posted: 18 December 2007 at 11:24am | IP Logged

A chilly night in the North of merry London Town.  The Triumph was warm and inviting ...

... but that came later.  There was some slot racing fun to be had first.

A big thanks to all the regulars who turned out on this icy Monday night to welcome the Thingie Kingie to NL and to join in the low pressure festive play.
Nine racers made up our group including Roly '250GTO', Leader of the London GT Pack, making his first NL appearance in a long time and the only native to give the Kingie any competition in the mutton-chop sideburn concours event.

While the room (and the racing) was slowly warming up, Edo took the opportunity to investigate the goodies in Chopper's slot case and took care of all the ceremonial meeting and greeting that is a monarch's daily duty.

"What IS this Retro CanAm stuff all about"?

The ritual recording for posterity of the contents of Howmet's treasure chest while Lord Velcro was away entertaining the throng:

Very nice Chaparral 'Whisper' Jet' on display along with a glimpse under the skirts of various CanAm cars and a proxy race Thingie returned from it's long travels.

The Kaiser carries only the bare essentials when he comes to party with the NL slot car disassemblers ...
The tools of statesmanship:

What's that you say?
You want to know about the racing?
Oh.

L.

Posted: 18 December 2007 at 12:45pm | IP Logged

The CanAm Cruise was proposed to be the first course of the evening's banquet and the Guest of Honour's very pretty car took it's place down amongst the NL commoners.
Unfortunately, it was rapidly pointed out that the Kingie's car (paint by Barry Obler, chassis by Mike Steube) was being driven by the invisible man.  Edo will, no doubt, be taking a stout stick to his chief mechanic this morning for allowing this sad lapse of protocol to take place.
Ouch!

L to R: Howmet's Chaparral 2J, the Royal Lola, Lowrider's historic McLaren M8 on loan to Roly, and Phil Smith's pretty (but unfortunately skidmarked ...) Ferrari.  The latter purporting to pump out 500HP from each bank of it's V10 motor.  It must be true, Phil told me so himself!

L to R: A new succulent replacement body for John Secchi's Lola, Howmet's Clash-themed Ferrari, the Lugano Flyer, Chopper's freshly re-bodied - and so far unbreakable - Ferrari.

Chopper was hatching yet another cunning plan ...

It's a case of Big John/Little John, M'lud!

Messrs Howmet and Secchi.  It's a trick of perspective.
Honest.

Many more photos are sure to follow when the Kingie can download his camera.
With a shortened race format of two heats and a ladder final, John Secchi top qualified with Steve Francis close behind him.  John's best heat was 35.53 laps while Steve's was 34.87.  These two formidable racers have only one speed.  Full on!

Edo qualified a very repectable 6th with a best run of 28.07 on red lane.  I ran a few laps with the Kingie's car in practice and, while I naturally didn't take it to the limits of it's capacity, it was very smooth and balanced and sensibly geared for the NL track.  And fast, did I mention that?
Perhaps that Steube guy knows what he's doing after all.

The finals were rolled through and biggest mover was Phil who qualified last due to a DNF in his first heat and, at last harnessing his 1000HP, zoomed up to a creditable 5th place.
Roly slipped from 5th with two fine 28 lap runs to 7th, and Lowrider, in perhaps the only serious race of the night, fought his way past everyone else to take the A final.

Lowrider         Q4/P1  (best run of 35 laps)
Steve Francis  Q2/P2  (34.87)
John Secchi    Q1/P3  (35.53)
Mooster          ; ; Q3/P4  (31.02)
Phil Smith       Q9/P5  (30)
Edo         &am p;nb sp;      Q6/P6  (28.07)
Roly 250GTO  Q5/P7  (28.42)
Howmet          Q7/P8  (27)
Chopper         Q8/P9  (24)

Cucarachas?
Yes, there were some of those too.

L.

Posted: 18 December 2007 at 2:37pm | IP Logged

The Cucaracha Challenge was supposed to be a non-serious event and it was.  Oh yes.

North London managed to summon up a total of six bona fide, real authentic, vintage Cox La Cucarachas and watching them roll around the NL track in formation was a real, if brief, thrill.
My own one toasted it's non-original armature in practice and so was the first car packed up before the racing actually started.

The Kingie, naturally, took the lead in photographing these favourite cars of his so my own efforts are less numerous by comparison.  These far superior illustrations should join my own humble efforts over the course of the weekend.
I can offer this candid snap, however, of the Royal Personage engaged in his duties.  Elegance personified ...

Perhaps he was limbering up his trigger finger for the contest ahead.

The gaps in the race sheet were plugged with a variety of other items.
Lowrider was forced to run a wide-body O2R Cuca-noda body over a barely disguised CanAm chassis.  Mooster, sadly passing over the chance to come last with a borrowed Li'l Cuc, used a Ferrari 512 Em-aracha 'pedalcar' and Howmet had some fun with a pair of his proxy series cars that have finally returned from their travels.
Roly used Lowrider's proxy Choti and pronounced himself quite pleased with it's performance.  Steve Francis inherited John Secchi's Classic Asp which certainly looked fantastic.

A selection of snaps that will have to suffice until the real thing comes along:

L to R: The Kingie's Cox original still retaining it's stripes beside John Secchi's more travelled example, Howmet's lightning fast 1:32 proxy car now sporting spiritually correct oversize rear tyres.

L to R: Roly's borrowed Choti with paint by O2R, Steve's borrowed Asp and Mr Secchi's Cuc again.

L to R: Another Howmet proxy special, The Kingie's royal conveyance, Chopper's well-travelled/less well-arrived Cuc with single-armed driver, Phil's sweet green tuning machine.

The results are not really that important here.  Those who could lap quickly did and those with a more stately pace arrived in a far more relaxed condition.
For those who need to know:

Lowrider  -  Furthest distance travelled
Mooster  -  Very close behind
Roly 250GTO  -  Only 4 sections behind Moo after 6 minutes driving
John Secchi  -  4th overall/1st Cox Cuc Class
Howmet  -  5th
Steve Francis  -  6th
Edo  -  7th/2nd Cox Cuc Class
Phil Smith  -  8th/3rd Cox Cuc Class
Chopper  -  9th/4th Cox Cuc Class

The Kingie demonstrating the correct upright posture to be employed at all time while rapidly model motoring, for the benefit of Chopper, Phil and Howmet.

Howmet's almost got it.

In a fair decision applauded by all, Chopper was awarded the memorial CanAm Ferrari body by the ever-diplomatic Edo as a reward for being the racer who most entered into the spirit of the night's jaunt.

So it was that we all bid a farewell to the NLSME for the year of 2007 and made our way to the Triumph for a well-earned thirst quencher.
Rather surprisingly the Kingie passed up the opportunity presented by the offer of a reasonably priced half gallon of North London beer and quietly nursed his cola in the low lights and warm atmosphere.

When informed that a leading member of the Swiss Royal Family had travelled far to visit her racy establishment, Tracy (revealed here for the first time ever!) had no hesitation in vaulting over the bar and posing next to the Kingie for a souvenir pictogram.

If the Kingie was aiming to achieve inscrutabilty here ... I think he still has a long way to go.
Such a sweet natured girl.

My thanks to all the racers who made the effort to turn up on a chilly Monday determined to have some fun.  The Kingie tells me that he enjoyed it immensely.
For John Roche who set out on the longest journey to join us but was foiled by mechanical problems, sorry mate - you missed a good one.

All systems set for 2008.

Best regards,