What is a Slot Car?

 

Slot cars are usually models of actual automobiles, though some have bodies purpose-designed for miniature racing. Most enthusiasts use commercially-available slot cars (often modified for better performance), others motorize static models, and some "scratch-build," creating their own mechanisms and bodies from basic parts and materials.  Drivers generally use a hand-held controller to regulate a low-voltage electric motor hidden within the car. Traditionally, each car runs on a separate lane with its own guide-slot (though recently-developed digital technology can allow cars to share a lane). The challenge in racing slot cars comes in taking curves and other obstacles at the highest speed that will not cause the car to lose its grip and spin sideways, or to 'deslot,' leaving the track altogether.

 

What does Scale Mean?

 

1:24 scale cars are built so that 1 unit of length (such as an inch or millimetre) on the model equals 24 units on the actual car. Thus, a model of a Jaguar XK-E (185" or 4.7 m overall length) would be 7.7" long (19.6 cm) in 1:24 scale.  1:24 cars require a course so large as to be impractical for many home enthusiasts, so most serious 1:24 racing is done at commercial or club tracks like C&R Raceway.

 

1:32 scale cars are smaller and more suited to home-sized race courses but they are also widely raced on commercial tracks, in hobby shops or in clubs. This scale is the most popular in Europe, and is equivalent to the old #1 Gauge (or "standard size") of toy trains. Our Jaguar XK-E would be about 5.8" (14.7 cm) in 1:32 scale.

 

HO-sized cars vary in scale. Because they were marketed as model railroad accessories, the original small slot cars of the early 1960s roughly approximated either American/European HO scale (1:87) or British OO scale (1:76). As racing in this size evolved, the cars were enlarged to take more powerful motors, and today they are closer to 1:64 in scale; but they still run on track of approximately the same width, and are generically referred to as HO slot cars. They are not always accurate scale models, since the proportions of the tiny bodies must often be stretched to accommodate a standard motor and mechanism. The E-Jaguar scales out to 2.1" (5.3 cm) in 1:87 and 2.9" (7.3 cm) in 1:64). Though there is HO racing on commercial and shop-tracks, probably most HO racing occurs on home racetracks.

 

How do these Slot Cars get there power?

 

Power for most slot car tracks comes from a power pack. Power packs contain a transformer which reduces high voltage house current to a safe 12 to 20V (depending on car type) and usually a rectifier which changes AC to DC, for cooler running and simpler motors. High-capacity lead-acid batteries are sometimes used for hobby slotcars, but toy race-sets may use dry cell batteries at 3 to 6 volts.  Controllers ("throttles") vary car speed by modulating the voltage from the power pack. They are usually hand-held and attached by wires to the track. Besides speed control, modern racing controllers usually feature an adjustable "brake", "coast", and "dial-out". Braking works by temporarily connecting the rails via a resistor; this converts the car's motor into a generator, and the magnetic forces that turned the motor are now slowing it down. Coast allows a certain amount of power to continue to the track after the driver has "let-off" (which would normally cut all power to the car). A dial-out allows the driver to limit the maximum power that can reach the car.

 

The early rail-car tracks used telegraph keys, model-train rheostats and other improvised means to control car speed. The first commercial race sets (1957) used handheld controllers with a thumb-button; like the telegraph key, these were either on or off, requiring the driver to "blip" the throttle for intermediate speeds. Later versions had an intermediate speed, and one late version used a buzzer mechanism to provide full-range speed control.

From 1959 to about 1965, most HO slot sets had a table-mounted controller with a miniature steering wheel or simple dial-knob operating a rheostat (variable resistor), which gave precise control throughout the car's speed range. This type could be left on a particular speed setting, making it very suitable for model highway layouts, but they were awkward for racing. Around 1960, handheld rheostats began to appear. The earliest had vertical, thumb-operated plungers. Aurora had a plunger design in which a stack of carbon/silicon discs replaced the rheostat. Thumb-plunger controllers, were popular throughout the 1960s, but eventually were supplanted by the trigger-operated pistol grip controller, introduced by Russ kit in 1965. In this style, control was by the index finger and the heat-generating rheostat was moved up above the grip for comfort and effective ventilation. The Russkit configuration has remained the standard controller style, both for race sets and serious hobbyists, from the late 1960s to the present day.

For good response, rheostats must be matched to the particular cars involved - to race different classes of cars, several controllers with different resistance ratings are often required. In the 1970s, electronic additions to the rheostat controllers became popular, which allowed them to be tuned to the particular car being raced. Some modern electronic controllers dispense with the rheostat altogether, and can be used for all classes and types of car. Digital slot cars generally use a controller that is trigger operated, though the rheostat housing is replaced by a slim bulge containing the electronics.

On most tracks, a driver will plug or clip his personal controller to his lane's "driver's station," which has wired connections to the power source and track rails. Modern controllers usually require three connections - one to the power terminal of the driver's station (customarily white), one to the brake terminal (red), and one to the track terminal (black). Conventional slot car tracks are wired in one of two ways: with the power terminal connected to the power source positive and the brake terminal negative (called "positive gate"), or the other way around ("negative gate"). Modern controllers feature a switch which adapts them for either gate configuration.

 

Check out the C&R Raceway to feel the exhilaration and excitement felt by the real drivers throughout the world!  Hope to see you soon!