With Formula One visiting Turkey recently it is the perfect time to feature some Turkish Slot Car Racing, yes, Slotcar Racing in Turkey.

The Turkish apparently have a thriving Slotcar racing scene, complete with national events. The event in the video was held in the Tepe Nautilus shopping center.

Tepe Nautilus, opened in September 2002, is the second-biggest modern shopping mall in Turkey. Built by Tepe Group, it is situated in the Acıbadem quarter of Kadiköy district in the Asian part of Istanbul.

Tepe Nautilus, in walking distance from Kadiköy port at the Sea of Marmara, is the first thematic shopping mall Turkey’s with its name, decoration and architectural features associated with sea and navigation. It covers an area of 170,000 m2. The shopping mall consists of 130 stores on 3 floors, a department store and Carrefour supermarket. It has a smart-parking lot with a capacity of 2,700 cars, which indicates empty spaces. There are Cinemaxx movie theaters with eight screens, a bowling alley and entertainment center. The food court hosts 16 restaurants and cafes. Concerts and exhibitions frequently take place in the mall. 50,000 people visit Nautilus on weekends.

Not knowing too much about Turkey, the interesting thing in the above excerpt is that this is the second largest mall in Turkey and attracts somewhere around 50,000 plus visitors each weekend, and yet it only has 2700 car parking spaces! Can you imagine an American mall with only 2700 spaces, it would be parking hell!

Now, back to the subject at hand, slotcars. Watching the video the competitors all seem very capable, and the competition looks tough. While we struggle here in the US to get slot car racing known, the Turkish are out there getting the slot cars in front of the people. Maybe some lessons can be learnt.

[youtube 7vsJm1Yw0Gc Slotcar Nats in Turkey]

In recent articles I introduced you to the Ecurie Barnton Model Car Club in the UK, and then gave you a guided tour and pit walk at the 2007 BOC race at Ecurie Barnton, and then showed you the 32nd Eurosport A Main slotcar race.

Next is the 32nd Saloon Car A main. These cars are basically the same as the 32nd scale Eurosport cars we run here in the US, but they are longer wheelbase and are powered by a C Can Group 12 motor.

Winner of this race, in a very close finish is Brian Saunders of BSP Slotcar. Brian is familiar to anyone who has been to the USRA Scale Nats over the last few years, as he has made the trip across to race.

[google 8128324977282469790 Saloon A Main From BOC at Ecurie Barnton]

In recent articles I introduced you to the Ecurie Barnton Model Car Club in the UK, and then gave you a guided tour and pit walk at the 2007 BOC race at Ecurie Barnton, and now we move on to the racing from the 2007 UK BOC round at Ecurie Barnton.

First up is the 32nd Eurosport A main. The cars are the same as we race here in the US in 32nd Eurosport, but the track is a much tighter and twistier 4 lane track typical of UK Club Tracks.

[google -8652202190216144523 2007 BOC Round at Ecurie Barnton]

Following on from a look at the Ecurie Barnton Model Car Club in the UK, here is another video fro the club, this time are the British Slot Car Racing Association (BSCRA) visited for the clubs local British Open Championship (BOC) round.

In the UK BSCRA is the equivalent of the USRA here in the US, but unlike in the US, BSCRA organizes many races each year all over the UK (hosted by the local area reps and clubs). This event is part of the year long National Championship series for 32nd cars, and culminates with the 32nd Scale BSCRA 32nd Nats, for which you must run in a specified number of BOC rounds to qualify.

Here is a cool look in the pits, with a lot of closeups of the cars and equipment they race with.

[google 8718468279335824360 Pit Walk at Ecurie Barnton BOC Race]