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Pendle Slot Racing
Cortina Mk 2
For those who call in regularly you will recognise the livery as that used by John Love; Gunston Cigarettes was his sponsor in all his African exploits and over the years it was to be seen at many race circuits on the dark continent. You will also recognise it as the livery depicted on the Scalextric Lotus 72 mentioned earlier on this site. For that reason I will leave out the narrative which normally accompanies my reviews,
Quite a striking livery and one which not only stands out in a crowd, but also one that stands out on the slotcar track!.
The body weight was reduced from 32 grams to 20. I could have gone lower (15?) but decided to leave a little more strength in the model as I will be racing it!
The body was a chance buy from Pendle Slotcars and is a fair representation of the real thing. There are several deviations from scale but as this car is meant for the track and not the shelf, I have let them go. There is one very obvious error with the model too, which I did correct but still is present in some of the early pictures but I’ll let you see if you can find it.
The first deviation from scale is the body configuration. The original is a four door while the resin body is a two door! I have deliberately not copied the original as getting some of the decals would be a harder job. Instead I’ve just left the decoration to give the ‘feel’ of the original.
The body colour is 50 / 50 flat red and flat yellow Tamiya enamel and is a lot closer match than the photos show. Why flat….Mmmmmm. Well, it covers in one coat for a start and the model will end up with at least three coats of clear giving it a very nice shine. Also, enamel is a bit more chip resistant than acrylic.
The chassis is the indomitable Wixwacing PCB chassis which has proved itself time and time again. I have also switched from soldering the motors in place. Superglue is proving to be the solution with the hot glue technique running a close second!
The grille is a bit plain and up against a picture of the real ting, is quite dull, but away from the pack it does look good
The decals were made by renown tyre maker MJK, yes you heard right. The boys down in Adelaide have had the facility to produce decals for some time now but the pressures of tyre production has meant that all else has to wait. I created and posted off the artwork just to speed up the process though.
The motor is a BWA Ninco NC1 clone (13k @ 12v.) and final drive is in line through a Slot.it 9z / 27z rear end.
Next mistake are the wheel inserts (my mistake, not Pendle’s). The original wheels are four stud whereas the resin inserts I have used are five stud.
Once the interior was painted I decided to emulate some wompy tricks from way back. The tray is held in by masking tape for ease of fitment. Also, in the event of problems the tray can be removed in no time at all.
The guide is a Slot,it board track guide. I like these because they have a centre screw to hold the guide in. I have also utilized the ‘Wixle’ front end this holds the front wheels in places and allows the font wheels to rotate independently of each other, reducing tyre drag in corners.
Next fault is the decal on the bonnet, the N should have gone above the numbers, no matter, there will be few who pick this one!
Already some battle scars and still a fledgling! Simple enough to touch in though
Gloss clear coat goes on flat colour coat, clear coat next, decals next, another clear coat next, final light rub down and last clear coat!
Better shot of the ‘Wixle’ front end
Not much happening at the back! Interesting to note that the doors and bonnet/boot etcc have had the shadow effect applied to door seams for effect.
Top shot of the rolling chassis. As mentioned before, the motors from the Wixwacing stable are now glued in place.
South African replica from which some detail has been borrowed.
The two grooves on the edge of the tyres are to reduce grip in corners and minimise the roll over effect. this works well and leaves the rest of the tread area as a slick for straight line performance
For those who missed it, the N was missing from the stripe! Fortunately I was able to overlay the original error with a new decal.
You certainly don't have to look far for the next Gunston liverie
So this is a ‘quickbuild’ to get the model track worthy. Interesting to note the fact that I run the model without lube for twenty minutes or so in the beginning. This allows the dry surfaces to bed in and generate the minimum of free play. You can feel the model getting faster lap after lap. Finally some ‘three in one’ or ‘Singer’ oil is applied to great effect. Tamiya fine polish compound is applied to the contrate and again the model is run for several minutes to bed in. The gear finally gets a squirt of ‘Vaseline’ petroleum Jelly to keep things smooth and moving.
Another great ‘fun’ car to build and certainly great fun on board or plastic. So do yourself a favour and get on over to Pendle slot. Then to Google images for some decal ideas!
