Slot.It Products
(Update 24.11.01)
Submitted by Jim Brown (Slot-Tech)
Sean of Pendle slot racing has kindly asked me to do a product review, on the latest gears and wheels available from “Slot.It” I was given a “SIKK02” pro axle system starter kit containing: a Z36 sidewinder ergal crown gear, alloy wheels (x2) with inserts, an axle, bearings, and set screws. I also received the “SIPA04”pro wheels (x2) with inserts to match the ones in the starter kit.
Lets start with the wheels, these are made of aluminium alloy, and are the same dimensions as a standard Ninco saloon wheel, apart from having a slightly wider boss (approx 1.5mm) to accommodate the set screw. Unlike most wheels available they are perfectly round and true. The inserts are made of resin, and are the BBS spoke pattern finished in silver. These could be painted to suit your own individual taste.
The axle is a 3/32 drill blank 57mm wide,
and comes with 2 brass bearings almost identical 
to
Nincos, and are a snug fit on the axle. The 36 tooth aluminium alloy ergal
crown gear is 19mm in diameter, and 4mm wide including the boss. The teeth
are 1.3mm wide.
So all I need now is a car to test them out. I decided to use the fly Venturi, although this is a wonderful car to drive on plexy track, the same cannot be said when used on wooden copper tape tracks, infact it is quite the opposite, a real handful. Another reason for using the Venturi was that I had 2 identical cars, and this would make it easier to make a comparison when testing.
I stripped the axle out of one of the cars and set about installing the Slot.It products, all was going well until I tried to fit the set screws into the wheels and gears. The starter kit does not contain an allen key! So I nipped over to Pendle slot racing and acquired a “sipa06” hexagonal wrench m2-0.95mm. So back to the workshop for assembly. The allen key is a good fit in the set screws, but I would suggest that you do not over tighten the screws, as I fear they would round off very easily.
The Venturi employs a split front stub axle arrangement, so I decided to use a solid one piece axle instead of stub axles to fit the front wheels. A word of caution here, the axle must be 3/32 diameter in order to fit the wheels.
Right now for the tyres, as the crown gear is 19mm in diameter the tyres need to be at least 20mm diameter to achieve some ground clearance. The original fly tyres are to big for the rims so I used some 20x10.5mm SCX slicks.
With everything assembled, it was down to Pendle Scalextric clubs 118ft wood and copper tape, computer controlled track for a serious test session.
As Pendle track has 5 lanes I opted to test on the central white lane, first up was the box standard Venturi to set the bench mark. After an initial warm up period the computer was re-set, and I set about some fast laps, an average lap around this track is around 10secs, after much de-slotting and inconsistent handling, I managed to set a fastest lap time of 9.74secs, with the bench mark now set I swapped to the other Slot.It Venturi. The car was very stable and predictable but emitted a very loud whining from the gears, nevertheless I re-set the computer and set about some quick laps. The car seemed to be a little slower down the main straight than the standard Venturi, but I still managed to set a best lap time of 9.01secs, quite impressive.
At this point I decided to investigate the loud whining from the gears, although everything looked ok I was still using the original fly 11tooth plastic pinion, I could only assume that the pitch of the gears were not quite compatible. The plastic gear was quickly replaced with a Slot.It “SIPS12” 12tooth pinion, the car re-assembled and the computer re-set for another assault. The gears were now silky smooth and whisper quiet, speed down the main straight can only be described as ballistic, and the lap times started to tumble, finishing up with a lap time of 8.66secs! That’s 1.08seconds a lap faster than the box standard Venturi! (Don’t tell Ron Dennis)
Final thoughtsA very nice product well engineered, and well worth the initial expense. On the down side, the set screws are quite delicate, and the starter set should contain the allen key.
The product may also benefit from a second set of wheels in a slightly larger diameter.
Footnote:
The “Slot.It” Venturi was entered in a 4 hour GT team race at north staffs Scalextric club on 11.6.00 and was used as a ‘B’ car for the Pendle team. It was required to run for 2 hours none stop and performed very well, with no problems with the gears or wheels. Eventually finishing in 3rd place. Well and truly tested.
If you have any questions or comments on this review please e-mail me at jim@slot-tech.freeserve.co.uk
Since writing this review the in-line gears are also now available, either as a starter kit or separately.