Slotcar Racing and Everything Slot Car Related

Slotcars are electrically powered (usually) small scale cars that run on a purpose built track, guided by a small pin or blade that extends from the bottom of the car into the slot that is set into the track.

The cars are controlled by a "Hand controller", a speed controlling device used by the Slotcar Racer. Controllers are either operated by pulling the trigger on the controller, shaped much like a gun trigger, or by pushing a plunger.

The very first controllable Slot Cars as we know them today date back to the 1950's, however electrically powered cars running on "rail" tracks date all the way back to about 1915.

Slotcars can come in any scale or size, but are commercially available in HO (these days 1:64 but have varied over the years to as small as 1:87), 1/32 and 1/24 scale.

The HO and 1/32 scale cars are mainly found racing on plastic "homeset" tracks and are usually highly detailed replicas of real cars, while the 24th scale cars are mainly used on commercial wooden routed tracks, and raced at commercial raceways, due to their size. The fastest of the 1/24th scale cars are called "Wing Cars", named for their lexan "wings" that are affixed to the sides of the body to dramatically increase the handling and speed of the cars. These cars will reach scale speeds of over two thousand miles per hour, and can cover a 155ft track in under 1.5 seconds.

The most visible Slot Cars to the average person are either the HO or 1/32 scale cars and sets found in most hobby shops and toy stores, including brands like Ninco , Scalextrix , Carrera , Tyco , Aurora AFX , Artin , SCX

Slot Cars are found in many shapes and sizes, from the small home set cars everyone had as a kid, all the way through to the commercial track 1/24th cars. The differnet scales and types of cars are really dictated by the types of track each car is designed to run on.

Types of Tracks

Plastic Homeset Tracks

The traditional home set type track is the type most familiar to most people. The track comes in plastic sections, snaps together and can be set up on the floor, on a table or on a dedicated layout. Traditionally these sets are either HO or 1/32nd scale, although these days there are some 1/24th scale sets available.

Technology has advanced over the years, and the plastic tracks of today are much more robust and well made than the early ones. The connections between the track sections have improved to eliminate the issues of the tracks of yesteryear. Technology has alos moved on with the cars and control systems, with all sorts of options available, including digital systems where it is even possible to run more than one car on a lane.

Wooden Routed Tracks

The wooden routed tracks first appeared in the 1960's in the large commercial raceways that sprung up during the slot car heydays. The tracks are usually quite long, swoopy, fast, and are usually 8 lanes, and are built for 1/24th scale cars, with some smaller tracks built for 1/32 scale also.

Of course tracks can be built by anyone, and many people do have routed wooden tracks at home, sometimes only 1 or 2 lanes. Tracks have also been routed form various plastic materials, and just about anything else you can think of.

Types of Cars

Slot Cars by definition are minature cars. When it comes to racing slot cars there are two schools of thought. Firstly there are the people who ar emainly slot car collectors, adn want highly detailed exact copies of real cars and racing cars. The cars that this type of person usually has are the highly detailed slot cars that are made as exact replicas, and usually are made to run on plastic type tracks.

Then there are those that are only interested in the racing. They will usually be looking to get their cars to go as fast as they can, and are not so interested in having them look like exact replicas. Some will try to stay true to the replica theme, while others will be building out and out speed machines, these days known as "Wing Cars", aptly named for the stylizyed body shells, an the lexan aerodynamic "wings" attached to the side of the body shells. These "Wing" cars can reach speeds up to 90mph, and can cover the standard Blue King style routed commercail track layout of 155ft in under 1.5 seconds.