Slot cars are groovy.

A while back I asked for advice on slot cars and eventually bought a 1:32 Scalextric Sport set. It's about 31 feet long, which makes for a reasonable track layout. My oldest son is 5 and has already mastered throttle control. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to run them. And it's also amazing to me that I have a slot car of my real car. Unfortunately, I haven't found replacement tires for the Fly Porsches. They are old and hard, just like the race tires on my MG. I looked at Carrera and Ninco, but decided on Scalextric and I'm very pleased so far.

I wish I needed another hobby / money pit. I was huge into HO cars back in the '70s, and the big 1:32 jobbers look way cooler.

I did 1:24 in a local race series. It was a blast. I still have them, but basically no place to run them anymore.

I just dropped by to congratulate you on the thread topic.

Also considered were: "Slots of fun" and "It's electric - boggie woogie woogie"

This set takes up about a 10x8 foot print. It could be made smaller, but I wanted a long straight so the cars had enough speed to leave the track and dent the drywall. The MGA has lights, which is pretty awesome in the dark following one of the Porsches. There's probably a couple hundred bucks pictured there.

Very nice!

tuna55 wrote: I did 1:24 in a local race series. It was a blast. I still have them, but basically no place to run them anymore.

there used to be a place around here that had 2 tracks.. sadly they closed about 10 years ago

BTW- The tire juice used to revive old tires works great on those. We rented a track for my sons's 7th Birthday. Used a couple drops of Victory Lap on the cars that were fastest and the things would rail the corners for a few laps.

mad_machine wrote:

tuna55 wrote: I did 1:24 in a local race series. It was a blast. I still have them, but basically no place to run them anymore.

there used to be a place around here that had 2 tracks.. sadly they closed about 10 years ago

Seems to be the trend. I really liked that. It's also surprising how "cheap" it can be. Real league-type racing, fielding a very competitive car, cost us maybe $100 per season.

I just brought my boys to the "local" slot car track yesterday. I have taken them there a few times over the past year or so, and this time we were able to actually use my old Parma chassis cars with new bodies that we bought a few months back. My old cars were way better than the rentals, and my kids had a blast. My youngest son used my "old turbo" controller, and thought it made all the difference compared to the rental controller. I bet it is the same one aside from paint and the fact that I wired in a relay for full throttle bypass. It made him feel like a real racer with the new car and controller though so I went with it.

I just wish the track was closer by. It takes an hour plus to get there. I used to go to a track that was 20 minutes away, and it was great. All this was before kids as well. $30 well spent for the afternoon, and we were home in time for a great meal, and the big game.

We bought a carrera slot car track for our 7 and 5 year old boys for christmas and it's great! It's the 1:32 scale set with a f1 red bull and f1 Ferrari. The world class set maybe?

I haven't tried looking for a local track- that's a great idea!

I've got an old Strombecker set from when I was a kid. Just went on Ebay and there is tons of old track available CHEAP. Any of the 1/32 cars will run on it apparently. Me and the boy are going to build a layout in the garage. Likely about 8x12 or so and hung from the ceiling on a cable winch.

Another slot car thread..yes!

Next week we start the 2014 season at the local club track. There's half a dozen of us that show up every other week.We race 1/32 scale and run 12 classes from February to November that use almost every chassis from a Scalextric to a Womp.

It's good cheap clean fun.