VULCAN
A new brand manufacturer became public at Nuremberg. VULCAN is the new company formed by Rafael Barrios Snr and Soler-Roig, son of the famous Spanish racing driver Alex Soler-Roig. The name Rafael Barrios will be familar to many of you, he was the founder of FLY, then MG VANQUISH, the SRC, and now VULCAN. Yes, thats 4 companies from one person, are we seeing a theme here ?
Vulcan announced their arrival with two cars, firstly the BMW 3.0CSL which has two variations. Both Alpina and Schnitzer bodywork will be produced, and the first cars will be in Jagermeister and Le Mans liveries.
The other new car is the Ford Escort MK1 which will have race and rally versions. Two styles of race bodywork will be produced including the Group 5 cars, and Vulcan had bodies on show with the differences clearly visible, especially for the front spoilers.
We must admit the rally version looked a little wide to us, but the detail is excellent. The full cockpit has everything included, plus something special we will talk about later. The Minilite wheels are among the best we have seen so hopefully they will also be available as spares.
A new innovation on all the Vulcam cars is the amount of working lights. We have become used to headlights, tail lights, spotlamps, and working brake lights. Vulcan will include all of these, plus the bonus of working dashboard lighting. Yes its true - just see the pictures. We are promised that this will be developed to include co-driver maplights using fibre optics in the rally cars, so slot rally stages in the dark could become quite entertaining.
One thing we have to admit to being uncertain about is the chassis design. It is well known that Rafael Barrios has a fixation with the motor being in the same position as the engine in the real car. We have seen this in Fly and SRC cars, and it continues into the new Vulcan cars. Yes, there are situations where is it a benefit, and it has led the way to much more detailed interiors, but not everyone wants their slot car to handle like the real thing if it isn't competitive with cars having a more conventional chassis. Time will tell if this is a good move by Vulcan, or be a disadvantage on the tracks.
Vulcan also have an interesting programme for production. The next cars will be the Porsche 908/3 and the Rondeau M382, nice models that will fit nicely into established racing categories.
The big surprise is the proposal to make motorcycle combination outfits. Modern ones with long wheelbases and sleek aerodynamics, not to be confused with the Scalextric items of many years ago. We questioned Vulcan about the practicalities, and they confirmed that prototypes were already being tested. The general layout has the motor in the bike unit, the front wheel offset to one side of the slot, the guide central and hidden under the bodywork. What will make them work is the passenger being produced in lead (or its PC equivalent) and supplied in three different poses to adjust the weight distribution. We would very much have liked to see a sample but we can only tell you how it was explained to us.
Ok, there you have it. :)
