My Slot Car Stable......

Have you put up a picture?

I watched the vid way up there up there not what I expected.. huge track and 900 mph monster monster motors

You’ve hit on one of the reasons that stops me from getting excited at slot car racing.....900mph speeds.....well, sort of.
What is the point of racing scale cars if they aren’t running at scale speeds ?
You don’t get model railways racing.
I’m sure Al has a few words to say ?

Ron234 wrote:You’ve hit on one of the reasons that stops me from getting excited at slot car racing.....900mph speeds.....well, sort of.
What is the point of racing scale cars if they aren’t running at scale speeds ?
You don’t get model railways racing.
I’m sure Al has a few words to say ?

That made me chuckle, can you get a Japanese bullet train?

Sam, I guess the Dakar Mitusbishi Pajero is most likely Scalecrix as it looks to be out off scale. (too short).

The Porsche 956 is gorgeous and deffo on my 'to get' list and I'd love to get my hands on the Sunoco 69 Camaro as Trans-am is my weakest class as this is THE body to use. Trouble is they go for anywhere between GBP50 to GBP75, way to much to use just the body and ditch everything else. Still, maybe one day....

Ron..... "900mph scale speeds" so I'm guessing you are probably referring to 'wing car racing' as apposed to the true scale racing my club uses with 'scale speeds' from about 150mph up to around 280mph depending on class.

15-20 years ago, I raced everything from bog standard Scalex, through true scale scratch built Lexan body cars, all the way up to wing cars.

However, I've always found standard Scales type cars to be too slow and somewhat boring to race even though it 'levels' the playing field so for me I always preferred scratch built stuff as I (like all the others) was always looking to 'get the edge' on fellow racers, all within the rules you understand. (Ahem!!!)

20 years ago I'd buy Mura motors at GBP40 each take them apart, rewind them re-balance them, replace the brushes and brush springs with higher quality ones, straighten the can, insert spacers either end of the armature shaft to get rid of end to end slop, re-true the comm, solder in a ball race bearing on the can and replace the  bronze endbell bearing with a low friction version, glue in more powerful magnets (curing in the oven) and then hone them out to the desired air gap. After that I'd 'bed the motor in' on low power for around twelve hours. Only then was it ready to race. I guess the total amount of time would be around fifteen hours or so.

However as time progressed the British Slot Car Racing Association (BSCRA) mandated a set wheel base for each class and a set rear track. This led to the Lexan bodies becoming out of scale and looking some what like jelly molds, which is why I prefer racing the true scale I do now.

We have to use motors set to a max RPM (Different for each class, and a set front and rear tyre width.

Motor config can be inline, side winder of angle winder

The chassis can be as per makers spec, scratch built or after market which leaves plenty of scope for ingenuity.

For me, this is a nice balance between bog standard Scalex type cars and super fast racing blobs. (wing cars)

Going back to wing cars, without any doubt it is extremely exciting. A friend once called it 'adrenaline on a stick' which I thing sums it up nicely.

This is very much like the track I used to race on:

Cue through to 1m39seconds

Wing Car Racing

This is the world group 7 (wing car ) racing record. Pay careful attention ' cos if you blink, you will miss it.

Wing car world record


It's hard to see, but once he pressed the trigger from the start to full power, it never comes off until the lap is over. No braking and no slowing down. So really it's not about 'racing and is really down to how well you can maximise the down force, which is VERY real.

i.e. it's ac onstructors thing not a racers thing IMO

Completely Bonkers !
Nope, that’s not for me.
At least I now have a better understanding of slot car racing.
.....but then I like classic car racing, but just don’t understand the fuss of today’s Formula One.
Each to our own I guess.

I understood very little of the tuning stuff but like all hobbies it sounds really expensive. However the end result is the same, can’t even see the cars, never mind actually compete with them..
What are the chassis rules, is it like, gotta be made of this or must weigh this much minimum?

I was big into the large scale slot cars from about 1990 up until we moved to Wyoming. By then almost all the tracks started closing, none were in Wyoming, and we needed money for the move. One less hobby as well. (I had already sold all my R/C cars/planes/boats when Eli was born. (We needed my hobby room).

I had lots, and I do mean lots, of slots. Like Al, I had wing cars, flexi and wire frame. Regular flexi chassis. Flat, brass chassis , all with inline as well as sidewinder and angle engine configurations. Many cars were built for specific classes. I loved building hard bodies because you used model car bodies, so it was the best of both worlds for me. Wing cars are freaky fast. The main shop I raced at had an oval as well as a road course. Even on the oval wing cars were a handful. I tried them on the road course once, and they were completely unmanageable.

I had a huge collection of H.O. as well. Sold them all a few years back to clear things out some more. I honestly am trying to stick with just models and full size cars/bikes as my hobbies.

I’d seen the cars on eBay as I’ve flicked through but naively thought of figure 8 tracks and stuff from when I was a kid.
It’s beyond what I could have imagined.
But nope, I can’t keep up with those and it would send me daft, I’ll stick to models tyvm.
I’ve got an rc car but that’s just for fun on a gravel carpark down the road or the back garden.

Wing car racing is without a doubt an adrenaline junkie's dream and I loved it back then but it's way to fast for me now and anyway, I much prefer proper (and slower) scale racing.

It also has to be said that it looks MUCH faster on camera than in real life.

I think all slot cars should be fitted with the same method of attachment to the track as the old Scalextric Stock Cars had.....and non of that ‘magnatraction’ lark. If the cars take a corner too fast they spin out, and would make for better driving skills and even choices of tyres. Mind you, that’s coming from someone who has no clue whatsoever of slot cars beyond building a track in my loft for my son thirty years plus ago.

Ron, it's only 'home tracks' that use Magnatraction.

Club tracks like ours use copper tape or copper braid to deliver the power and yes, go in to hot and you will deffo leave the track.

Just finished up these two yesterday. They ar resin bodied kits and not for racing.











Scale shot:

Nice pair of classics Al - especially on the Borrani wire wheels.