Scalextric Chatsworth Land Speed Record

Scalextric slot car racing is a popular hobby that continues to grow in popularity. Scalextric enthusiasts soon start to look for ways to enhance the performance of their cars and systems. Here I will outline a few simple techniques that you can use to make your Scalextric cars literally fly around the track.

The principles that apply to slot cars are the same as those that apply to real life F1 racing cars and rally cars. To increase speed you might install a more powerful engine, lower the weight and fit better tires. Optimising Scalextric cars can be very educational.

Let’s first think about the Scalextric cars engine. Your Scalextric cars use tiny electric motors, not super enhanced petrol engines, and these are easy to change. There are some high performance Scalextric motors that will give you some significant speed enhancements. Upgrading your cars motor will give you an immediate improvement in speed.

Increased speed can make it difficult to stay on the track on a bend. You can help your car to stay on the track with an appropriately positioned magnet. Many modern cars come fitted with these magnets but you might like to upgrade to a stronger magnet to help your car stick to the track.

The next improvement you might like to make to your car is new tires. Better grip with the track will help your car to fly around the track.

So your Scalextric car is fully pimped and ready to break the world land speed record. The next thing to consider is the track itself? There are a few simple enhancement that can make all the difference. I recommend that you try this on just one of your two tracks so that you can make a comparison.

Start by cleaning the Scalextric track. Dirt, dust and moisture on the track will inevitably result in low friction and maybe even some wheel spin. Next, clean out the slot. The slots in your track will inevitabley gather dust and dirt. This will inevitable impede the movement of your car. Ensuring your slots are free from dust and debris will bring significant performance improvements.

Don’t overlook your electrical system as ensuring all your connections are as good as they can be will bring performance enhancements. Clean all the electrical connectors, the slotted track and the contacts on your car.

Your car should now be flying around the track. Now’s the time to find a challenger for a race.

Scalextric cars became an instant hit in the slot car racing market, so much so that Minimodels was unable to meet the demand for its popular range and was incorporated within Tri-ang, who changed the slot cars from metal to plastic manufacture.  The first Scalextric tracks were made of a rubber compound and had two parallel grooves to allow two cars to race against each other.In the 1960s production of the track was also switched to moulded plastic using the same style attachment system that you see today.

As slot cars became more popular during the 1960s, Tri-ang opened additional factories in Spain, France, Australia and New Zealand to meet demand for Scalextric sets. By the 1980s, the parent company had collapsed and one of its subsidiaries became Hornby Railways.  By this point slot car racing had lost some of its appeal and Scalextric saw some of its  darkest days, but kept going nonetheless producing Scalextric sets while some of its biggest competitors like Fleischmann and Märklin, stopped production altogether.

The 1990s saw more authentic and detailed models.  New replicas of slot cars from the 1960s and 1970s appeared on the market, giving enthusiasts the option of racing modern and classic cars against each other. The Micro Scalextric range was also introduced racing on dedicated Micro Scalextric tracks.

Today Scalextric is synonymous with slot cars just as Hoover is with vacuum cleaners.  Scalextric Digital cars with digital control systems allow up to six cars to race in a single slot with more realistic passing.They are capable of utterly unrealistic speeds however!   Many have attempted to set the land speed record using Scalextric cars and a scale measured-mile.Celebrities like James May of BBC TV’s Top Gear managed to get a Scalextric Ford GT to reach the equivalent speed of 392 mph, which is 80 mph faster than the genuine article!  The current record stands at an astonishing scale equivalent of 983.88 mph using a Scalextric Honda F1 model.