Your content and narration was excellent! So good, I didn't even think about the quality of the video. You had me interested the whole time. And am thinking about starting slot car racing. Subbed, Saved and Shared!
As and outsider to the slot car community, your video showed up on my main feed. That says a lot about the video you've made and I agree with the algorithm: keep up the good work!
My youtube recommendations have been getting more and more wacky. Being a car guy, I found this interesting, never had an interest in slot cars but kind of want to check it out now.
Man, this is a whole new universe opening up for me. I´m old but never knew this time of pre-RC was still such an elaborate scene. Love it, never stop.
Would be interesting to see slow mo footage with high speed cameras how these tweaks actually affect the handling. The cars just move too quickly watching it whereas it is probably more in the feel if you are controlling the car in person. High speed footage of anything is usually awesome to watch and I don't think that this would be any less awesome
Watching a really fast slot car, is like barely seeing a blur. Cant tell whats going on, and I dont know how guys keep track of their car in a pack of blurs going around. If you have a group of carrera cars, with a little set up on each, then you have races. On a tight home track the ultra fast pro cars just wont work, maybe a professional driver could drive one.
Raced 32nd scale for many years, and was always impressed how quickly and consistently well guys who spent a lot of time on their cars got them to go. That wasn’t what I wanted from the hobby though. I much preferred when we would race stock cars straight from the box, with maybe limited mods allowed like adding weight. Seemed to make for more fun racing. I guess that’s why I didn’t race 24th scale stuff. Maybe didn’t have the reactions for it either. But still had fun, I already spent way too much time and money on RC car racing, so slot stuff was for me quite a secondary hobby Good video though. Lots of good info.
Gary i have to say this is one of the best Slot Car Comparative Video i ever seen, Right to the point, and Fair. I will be glad to see the next video soon.
Excellent video Gary! Our club has seen some very recent growth and I will be forwarding a link to this video to our newest members. This will help them immensely in understanding the differences between the pro brands of slot cars and the toy brands.
Great video, I'm not into the topic but I really enjoyed your work. I'm always impressed by the fact that stuff like this exists. There are multiple companies producing many different levels of quality parts for these "toys", imagine that. There are many people whose job it is to produce chassis, bodys etc. for a niche like this.
Slot car racing is bigger in europe, not so much in the US. Its a hobby that some take really, really seriously. ........these ultra fast pro cars have a hard time on the usual home track, they need a wide open custom built smooth track to really go.
Fantastic videos, thank you. I love this channel and can’t wait for more uploads. I have been playing with Scalextric since my dad gave me my first set in 1967 and still love it!
Yep would've got mine a few years earlier, l think the Christmas of the big snow. I really got into the commercial race tracks of the late 60's and built my own cars from scratch. I loved it but by the time l was 15, l'd we'll moved on to other things. To this day l still love them though and the skills l learnt building them fuel much of my life to this day.
I am just getting into slot cars, and this video, as well as your video comparing Carrera vs scaletrix has been a great help! please keep making videos!
That was a very professional presentation. Well done is hugely deserved. It was also very interesting for me to see the inner workings of a modern 'professional' 1/32 slot car. When I last raced - about 56 years ago, - if you didn't want to use Scalextric or MRRC you basically had to scratch build your own. One feature we built which I couldn't quite see if available on the pro car you demonstrated, was a lightly weighted drop arm holding the pickups. The principal being that you could keep the power on even if the car was starting to leave contact with the track. I was impressed to see that your cars have still retained the 'floppy body' principal though, as that really did make a massive difference as well. I see you have been racing for 20years, so I will say long may your quick reactions stay with you. Thank you for the video. PS. I still have almost all my home made cars, and they certainly look like relics compared to the new stuff.
NSR cars used to come with drop arms but as of their most recent release, the AMG GT3, they have ditched this feature. There are some specialist Rally and Rally RAID cars with drop arms, but these compete on special courses with obstacles and hills where having the guide remain in the slot while the vehicle tackles the obstacles is essential rather than simply desired for performance reasons. So, they’re still about, here and there, but not very common. Thanks for watching.
As someone who is thinking of taking up this as a hobby, your videos are fascinating! You give a scientific and objective view. As an American, I wish you could teach journalists how to do their job like it used to be done.
I’m really into the “scale model” aspect of slot cars and strive to limit the cars to be matched closer to a realistic scale speed. Once they start flying around the track at cartoon speed the whole thing is spoiled for me, any realism is gone. But if you’re into the sport and competitive aspect of it all then maybe you’re having a lot more fun than I am. 😃 And that’s really the goal.
I'm the same as you. I find the hobby/sport fascinating, the level of detail really appeals to me as I'm a designer. But, as soon as they go on the track and zoom off at warp speed, my heart sinks a bit. It just looks comically bad to me. It feels like every consideration was made to make slot car racing appear as realistic as possible - except the actual speed of the cars. I dont know how 200mph + looks when its scaled down relatively to this size, maybe snails pace to the point of being no fun at all, but watching cars wizz around in a total blur would give me a headache in no time.
Most interesting post about the different types of slot cars and how one is deemed professional over another , i suppose you could also say 6 guys together racing same model of scalextric or carrera cars can have fabulous fun as 6 professional car guys racing highly tuned race slots ...its all good in such circumstances as long as everyone is playing fair as in simple rules regarding the modification of so called toy cars 🤗Greetings from Latvia...Harry
I realize that this was made more as a comparison video for people in the hobby, but I enjoyed it as a mini documentary. It's really neat finding out just how much nuance there is to slot car racing on the pro level.
This is a random video find but i find this kind of hobby interesting. Great job man this is really well presented. I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
I'm not into this but since I have interest in cars, well, I gave myself the chance to watch this video and thank you for your in-depth explanation about your hobby. Amazing.
I appreciate all the excellent info that you have provided. I have a lot of slot cars from several manufacturers plus my own scratch builds. I often have the most fun from old cars, or old design cars, that aren't very fast and certainly can't corner fast. My Scalextric Ford GT40 and Jaguar E-type from the 1970s may take twice as long over a lap and fall off if you don't seriously slow for corners, but I'd recommend them over the best modern professional car.
"Professional slot car racing" seems like the stupidest thing imagineable and I have no clue why the TH-cam algorithm put this in the "Millenial Mix" auto-playlist.
Very cool video. I'd love to see the slot car scene go crazy with the ultralight thing and start producing car bodies full of holes like with computer mice. Mostly just for the laughs.
The first thing guys do with most ultra light cars? Is add weight. Stick on lead weight. Because the cars wont stay on track. Either front or rear wont stay down enough to go fast.
All slot cars are toys, a plastic gadget with wheels that goes around in a slot. They're fun, I have a bunch of cars. Professional? Not unless you're making a living with the cars.
Its changed HUGELY. Nothing is the same. Especially digital slots. Totally programmable. The cars are fast and solid right out of the box. Tons of aftermarket stuff can be had to make any car go faster. Every part of the car can be changed or modified. A pro, like in this video, is very, very far removed from the everyday slot car guy. Whole different world. Home slot car racing is what happens in most of America. Nothing like a big wooden track. Slot cars are a blast! They're for fun.
This was something I was going to ask, obviously more expensive, just by how much?, I will not go the "is it worth it" route as we all spend on our hobbies what we can afford or at least try to justify!! if only to ourselves. Used to read about advanced slot car racing in Scale Model magazine in the very early seventies, unfortunately I lived in a cultural desert as far as modeling went with shops advising UHU as a plastic kit glue, fortunately we now have Internet. Enjoy what you do, be happy, and a happy new year to all. 😊.
This bigs back to the 80’s when me and my friends would go and watch serious slot car races. Fast enough if you blinked the car you were watching would out of sight
A small flat were the set screw* clamps on to the axle will lock the wheel more securely. I'm surprised that some aftermarket axle and wheel sets do not use nuts on the axles with the wheel sitting on a taper. This taper could be the same taper as the appropriate sized machine taper. *in the states they're set screws.
I used pro slot cars once and they didn’t have front wheels or suspension. I think they where called group 12 cars. Would be interesting to see a video on those cars versus the ones you use.
Professional is in the eye of the beholder. Virtually no one makes money from slot cars, they would be professional. The idea of toys or not toys is something that repels hobbyists because they think they're not playing with toys. But in fact these are all toys... I've had a number of conversations with my friend from Slot It and he will tell you that the cars he makes are toys. Slot cars serve no other purpose other than to have fun. Thus... toys.
That's not completely true. I've learned quite a lot about so many things from building and flying model airplanes, and racing R/C cars and slot cars. It's a major part of that thing we call play. Whether we should call them toys or something else is purely a matter of semantic. You and your friend at Slot It can call them what you want.
@@richarddarlington1139 Toys , hobby , professional . Call it what you will .As long as it floats your boat and gives you satisfaction , competition , enjoyment , relaxation do it and enjoy . We are all probably wanabe F1 drivers .
Great video. I can draw comparisons to RC of which I do myself. The toy grade RC car can’t cut it against an Xray or Schumacher though toys have their place. The car that got me into racing was a £5 Tesco drift car but was totally inadequate immediately
If you're not making money doing it you are not a professional. I will argue that all slot car racers are simply hobbyists and all slot cars are just toys.
My slot racing was in the late 1960’s. Starting with scalextric and ending with a vacuum formed body shell with a 1/16” brass rod chassis . Body mount was thin brass sheet hinged onto the chassis held into place with dressmaking pins. Motor was a standard Cox can not tuned sponge rear tyres from from a revel kit car the body was the gas turbine car used in Le Mans 24 hour all run on a club circuit at the English Electric Factory Kidsgrove Stoke-on-Trent.
Yes, as a kid I used to order all kinds of hardware from Riko in England. The real fanatics were even rewinding their motors with thicker copper wire for more speed!
@@racketman2u yes, I tried that. I still have the wire reel somewhere. I took 4 sections off the armature, to increase RPM. Then rewound it with 4’6” or 16 SWG copper to flatten the torque curve. Covered the rewind in araldite and baked it in the oven then checked it for balance. Then finished off with some high strength magnets. I used my old chassis but a new body shell with Mk.II written on each side. A disaster. Practice run, fine didn’t put my thumb down hard on my MRRC. Controller but I did notice it was warm. Line up for the first race. Thumb down, everyone else was on the banked bend at the end of the straight. My car was upside down about 2’ from the start line. Far too much torque for a low geared car 😡.
So, when you say professional, do you mean…there is a payday at the end of a race or sponsorship compensation? Dig the cars and had all kinds of tracks and cars when younger. 🤘🤘🤘
Growing up, my older brother had a small "slot-car" type of racing kit which included the cars and track; probably early 1980s or late 1970s. The cool thing about the track and cars was there was no slot on the track; the cars could change lanes by clicking a switch on the controller. For the life of me, I can't remember who made the track and cars; have you ever seen or heard of this "toy?" I'd love to get my hands on a working setup. Love your channel, by the way! Subscribed🙂
Great Video. Im 51 and just got my first Scalextric set! I already now have 4 cars and looking to add a 5th. Have you got any links to where I can purchase a "tuned" car to get me going down the right track. Thank you.
Roger where are you based? If you take a look online they are stockists all over the world. There are small tweaks you can make to standard cars but they will never match pro cars
@@nickw7594 Thanks for the reply, I live near Cambridge and usually get my cars from Model Junction in Bury St Edmunds. I seem to struggle to find anyone in England that sells parts or complete modified cars.
@@rogercarder7720 Pendles are good but you can also get some good 3d printed chassis off ebay that fit Scalextric shells. Best thing to do is find a local club and then let them show you how to modify the cars. There are certain cars to buy that are known fast cars. If your looking at running modified Scalextric cars at home then just sand the tyres, glue the tyres to the rims, glue the motor with hot glue (a line each side of the motor), take the magnet out, add some lead, take the stock wiring out and fit a guide blade with a sleeve so there is no play in the guide blade. You need to add float to the body too so you can trim off any chasis lugs and around the chassis taking it back 1-2mm. Back the screws off so the shell is loose and can move (put tape on the screw holes so they don't fall out or upgrade screws). Other options can include fitting a new motor (not really needed for home use), slot.it running gear and independent front axle but at that point you could of bought a pro car like NSR or Slot.it. It is only worth running highly modified Scalextric cars if you are racing at a club and have to race in a class e.g. Scalextric modified class. A lot of clubs race Scalextric classes because they are easy to get into and you can pick cars up cheap and start racing for £30-40.
A "Pro" would never be seen racing on a home track, its all done on scratch built wood tracks where the ultra fast cars really work. Its a very different thing on a home plastic track, its supposed to be for fun. Magnets are universally poo poo'd by pros.
Not completely true. Our club of experienced racers race on standard Scalextric SPORT track because we race digital. The 24 hour endurance slot car races (an international series) are typically raced with 20 teams on 4 lanes of digital Nino plastic “home” track and the Oxigen digital system. We have been racing this way for at least 15 years.
Nice video, the pro cars are cool, but I like slot cars that don't go crazy stupid fast I saw "dirt track" slot cars recently that I thought were awesome, never even knew they had those
This popped into my feed and I enjoyed it! I was wondering if anyone makes cars where the front wheels turn. Feels like you could link them to the rotating guide.
Scalextric did it with their F1 cars for a while on the Jordan Honda’s, BMW Williams, David/Mika era McLarens and Schumi/Vodafone Ferrari not sure if they still do
Found a few loose scalextric cars on the car boot for £1 each, looks like the sell on ebay for ok money, one was a jaguar XJ220 blue number 11 livery, with lights, mika hakkinen f1 and another f1 benetton car, are these toys or decent cars? Good channel I found you while looking fir scalextric videos, very informative 👍🏻
They’re toys, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed. Slot car prices are pretty high on eBay right now so it can be difficult to determine value there. Make sure you’re checking completed listings if you want to see what people are really paying. Thanks for watching, have fun with them!
So if Carrera are toy brand cars (which I agree with), where does that leave their Digital 132 series (and ones like them), as they regularly reach prices similar to actual professional cars.
The only real reason for that is because of the D132 encoder. Bought stand-alone it costs almost as much as an Evolution car. Costs for digitising pro brands can easily reach into the hundreds.
I noticed that your cars have little pieces of rubber on the chassis and in the wheel wells of the body. Have you ever needed to change the tires during a race or is that something that's done before or after the race?
Endurance races frequently feature tyre / wheel changes. An average set of rubber tyres will last 3-4 hours before performance falls off and can go 8-12 before needing replacing due to total wear. These numbers aren’t absolute as wear is influenced by many factors, but it’s just to give an idea.
I had absolutely no idea there was a slot car scene. I thought there only existed scalectrix, no idea the hobby went this deep. Odd to see this pop up on my recommended
Clubs all over the world, Scalextric is one of the toy brands but often cars are raced on huge routed wooden tracks. The controllers have break, sensitivity, launch control and other trim settings and features. The skill comes down to car set up, ability to drive smooth and break and accelerate at the right place on the track. The pro cars have suspension, different motor configurations, tyre compounds, precision engineered components etc. It is definately not as easy as people think.
I got out of slot car 1/24 scale racing when I realized that I wasn't as good as the national champions who were building their own brass plate, brass rod, and piano wire frames (this was back around 1970). As a teen, instead I moved to real cars, and then realized that I was never going to be as good as the champions at that either. So I stopped racing, and just started driving and riding motorcycles for fun instead.
I’m in the UK, so Pendle Slot Racing is my go-to. They ship worldwide. If your country doesn’t have a decent vendor then eBay usually has a pretty healthy marketplace, as long as you know what to search for.
It takes a LOT of work to make a slot it car even be drivable on a tight home track, or one hell of a lot of skill to keep it on track. Slot its are FAST and light and dont like bumps or banking and they drag bottom a lot....tons of set up to try to make them work. Carrera? Take it outta the box and run it, put tires on it. Ive yet to see anybody beat a well set up carrera car on my tighter home track with a slot it car. Slot its need room to run to go fast.
I had a ninco F1 Jordan car. It had a very clever front wheel steering setup . A big magnet in the front and a larger motor then an average 1/32 toy. That thing compared to the stock cars was utterly insane. Unfortunately the standard power supply couldn’t handle it. So if I race that car on my track the second rails had no power. It took 75% of a two lane system. Point is I’d like to see the difference between those Ninco’s and a professional one. While certainly not competition legal i think it would give it a run for the money
Ninco kind of straddle the line between toys and pro cars. It’s such a shame that they’ve more or less left the market now. Stick around on the channel as I’m sure you’ll see some future Ninco content here 😉
i honestly kinda wanna get into slot cars, but unlike tamiya these things are not available in every part of the world, these slot cars like scalextric are so hard to find and get, let alone the full tracks misc
ebay is everywhere, all these cars and track are online, they can be had. I ordered my track from Germany and saved about 150 bucks over buying it in the states. Germany is big on slot car racing. Carrera comes from there.
Their is nothing wrong with scalextric at the end of the day, I have 50 cars over the past 10 years in my collection, they might not be the fastest but they are not the slowest either, and they look good when racing, especially the higher end models!!!!
so, someone explain to me whats so crazy about holding down a throttle instead of a full flesh rc car, sorry if i sound toxic i just want to understand better
That's hard to say. Fastest? No. Other Brands are faster due to softer tyres or stronger motors: NSR or Sideways are very quick right out of the box. Give it a try.
just means you're consistent as f**k ahaha. Down here in Australia we did alot with just the plain scalextric cars, we used to slap on bigger guides and do quite a few other little things to get alot out of them to a point where they just went stuff it and opened up the open lemans racing to allow scalextric cars
Fun to get them as fast as possible. Running the DPR door loose is a good way to try and get more chassis flex if it is DPR ready cars. I run a 3D printed DPR door that is very light and flexible and still in the rules. The Honda Civic Scalextrics run fast, but it seems to be because the plastic chassis is so thin but unlike Slot.it or other hobby grade chassis it is so weak it cracks 🤣. These cars also have e reassessed guide blades which really help them.
,,,when very young,,I had no idea, slot car racing is a rich people hobby, I just race my cars as they are, but I do keep the magnets in and keep them clean as possible and wheels and track,
There’s a few audio glitches and badly lit shots in this one. Apologies. I will strive to get better with the production!
didn't notice anything, so must not have been that big of a deal.
Great knowledge in video buddy and didn't notice anything either 👍
No worries great video. Was it a TV running in the background or something? I thought I was hearing ghosts lol
Your content and narration was excellent!
So good, I didn't even think about the quality of the video. You had me interested the whole time. And am thinking about starting slot car racing.
Subbed, Saved and Shared!
Don`t worry about it we are happy to see the video.
As and outsider to the slot car community, your video showed up on my main feed. That says a lot about the video you've made and I agree with the algorithm: keep up the good work!
My youtube recommendations have been getting more and more wacky. Being a car guy, I found this interesting, never had an interest in slot cars but kind of want to check it out now.
Actually, the consistency of the lap times tells a lot about the quality of the driver. Really. Thanks Gary.
Just shows that the right tools make a difference for someone with the skill.
Man, this is a whole new universe opening up for me. I´m old but never knew this time of pre-RC was still such an elaborate scene. Love it, never stop.
I used to do this in the late 60's. I'm surprised to see it making a comeback.
Would be interesting to see slow mo footage with high speed cameras how these tweaks actually affect the handling.
The cars just move too quickly watching it whereas it is probably more in the feel if you are controlling the car in person.
High speed footage of anything is usually awesome to watch and I don't think that this would be any less awesome
Watching a really fast slot car, is like barely seeing a blur. Cant tell whats going on, and I dont know how guys keep track of their car in a pack of blurs going around.
If you have a group of carrera cars, with a little set up on each, then you have races.
On a tight home track the ultra fast pro cars just wont work, maybe a professional driver could drive one.
Raced 32nd scale for many years, and was always impressed how quickly and consistently well guys who spent a lot of time on their cars got them to go.
That wasn’t what I wanted from the hobby though.
I much preferred when we would race stock cars straight from the box, with maybe limited mods allowed like adding weight.
Seemed to make for more fun racing.
I guess that’s why I didn’t race 24th scale stuff. Maybe didn’t have the reactions for it either.
But still had fun, I already spent way too much time and money on RC car racing, so slot stuff was for me quite a secondary hobby
Good video though. Lots of good info.
99% of slot car owners are strictly in it for fun, and to make cars go fast.
But they still have other interests in life.
Gary i have to say this is one of the best Slot Car Comparative Video i ever seen, Right to the point, and Fair. I will be glad to see the next video soon.
Excellent video Gary! Our club has seen some very recent growth and I will be forwarding a link to this video to our newest members. This will help them immensely in understanding the differences between the pro brands of slot cars and the toy brands.
Great video, I'm not into the topic but I really enjoyed your work. I'm always impressed by the fact that stuff like this exists. There are multiple companies producing many different levels of quality parts for these "toys", imagine that. There are many people whose job it is to produce chassis, bodys etc. for a niche like this.
Slot car racing is bigger in europe, not so much in the US.
Its a hobby that some take really, really seriously. ........these ultra fast pro cars have a hard time on the usual home track, they need a wide open custom built smooth track to really go.
Who knew!!! I’ve never raced a slot car but I’m still watching for some reason! Lol!
Fantastic videos, thank you. I love this channel and can’t wait for more uploads. I have been playing with Scalextric since my dad gave me my first set in 1967 and still love it!
Yep would've got mine a few years earlier, l think the Christmas of the big snow. I really got into the commercial race tracks of the late 60's and built my own cars from scratch. I loved it but by the time l was 15, l'd we'll moved on to other things. To this day l still love them though and the skills l learnt building them fuel much of my life to this day.
I am just getting into slot cars, and this video, as well as your video comparing Carrera vs scaletrix has been a great help! please keep making videos!
Thank you! I’ll do my best
That was a very professional presentation. Well done is hugely deserved.
It was also very interesting for me to see the inner workings of a modern 'professional' 1/32 slot car. When I last raced - about 56 years ago, - if you didn't want to use Scalextric or MRRC you basically had to scratch build your own. One feature we built which I couldn't quite see if available on the pro car you demonstrated, was a lightly weighted drop arm holding the pickups. The principal being that you could keep the power on even if the car was starting to leave contact with the track. I was impressed to see that your cars have still retained the 'floppy body' principal though, as that really did make a massive difference as well. I see you have been racing for 20years, so I will say long may your quick reactions stay with you.
Thank you for the video.
PS. I still have almost all my home made cars, and they certainly look like relics compared to the new stuff.
NSR cars used to come with drop arms but as of their most recent release, the AMG GT3, they have ditched this feature. There are some specialist Rally and Rally RAID cars with drop arms, but these compete on special courses with obstacles and hills where having the guide remain in the slot while the vehicle tackles the obstacles is essential rather than simply desired for performance reasons. So, they’re still about, here and there, but not very common. Thanks for watching.
Pro drivers get Sponsorship, real jobs in the Slot Racing !
As someone who is thinking of taking up this as a hobby, your videos are fascinating! You give a scientific and objective view. As an American, I wish you could teach journalists how to do their job like it used to be done.
I’m really into the “scale model” aspect of slot cars and strive to limit the cars to be matched closer to a realistic scale speed. Once they start flying around the track at cartoon speed the whole thing is spoiled for me, any realism is gone. But if you’re into the sport and competitive aspect of it all then maybe you’re having a lot more fun than I am. 😃 And that’s really the goal.
If they were matched to realistic scale speed, it just wouldn't be fun, the faster the better. The faster, the more skilled you have to be.
@@RyGuy42089 may as well just not bother with cars at all then
@@hoah yeah, we could go with those weird scoop things they use instead of cars at the top end.
I'm the same as you. I find the hobby/sport fascinating, the level of detail really appeals to me as I'm a designer. But, as soon as they go on the track and zoom off at warp speed, my heart sinks a bit. It just looks comically bad to me. It feels like every consideration was made to make slot car racing appear as realistic as possible - except the actual speed of the cars. I dont know how 200mph + looks when its scaled down relatively to this size, maybe snails pace to the point of being no fun at all, but watching cars wizz around in a total blur would give me a headache in no time.
@@hoah not sure I follow.
I never got into slot cars, but always saw them when I was at the hobby shop hopping up my 1:24 losi micro rally. Love the hobby in general
But this is PRO drivers, real jobs !
Hello TH-cam algorithm, how are you today?
YT: Here is a slot car racing video.
Me: Watches
This was super interesting. I learned a lot about slot car racing!
Wow what a cool hobby! Thank you for introducing me to this!
Most interesting post about the different types of slot cars and how one is deemed professional over another , i suppose you could also say 6 guys together racing same model of scalextric or carrera cars can have fabulous fun as 6 professional car guys racing highly tuned race slots ...its all good in such circumstances as long as everyone is playing fair as in simple rules regarding the modification of so called toy cars 🤗Greetings from Latvia...Harry
Yes that's a good point Harry 👍
Thank you ...Appreciate you mate 😊😊
I realize that this was made more as a comparison video for people in the hobby, but I enjoyed it as a mini documentary. It's really neat finding out just how much nuance there is to slot car racing on the pro level.
This is a random video find but i find this kind of hobby interesting. Great job man this is really well presented. I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
Really cool video, I haven’t raced pro slot cars since the late 80’s when I had a few Flexi’s and a whoomp. I also had a whoomp drag car
I'm not into this but since I have interest in cars, well, I gave myself the chance to watch this video and thank you for your in-depth explanation about your hobby. Amazing.
Pro Racing Slot cars, a job not for all !
Need a real job ?
I appreciate all the excellent info that you have provided. I have a lot of slot cars from several manufacturers plus my own scratch builds. I often have the most fun from old cars, or old design cars, that aren't very fast and certainly can't corner fast. My Scalextric Ford GT40 and Jaguar E-type from the 1970s may take twice as long over a lap and fall off if you don't seriously slow for corners, but I'd recommend them over the best modern professional car.
You know this is pretty cool, so cheers for the introducing me to proper slot cars
"Professional slot car racing" seems like the stupidest thing imagineable and I have no clue why the TH-cam algorithm put this in the "Millenial Mix" auto-playlist.
Absolutely amazing and informative. Thank you.
Very cool video. I'd love to see the slot car scene go crazy with the ultralight thing and start producing car bodies full of holes like with computer mice. Mostly just for the laughs.
The first thing guys do with most ultra light cars? Is add weight. Stick on lead weight.
Because the cars wont stay on track. Either front or rear wont stay down enough to go fast.
Good video, thanks for posting.
the concept of a professional toy never fails to amuse me.
All slot cars are toys, a plastic gadget with wheels that goes around in a slot.
They're fun, I have a bunch of cars. Professional? Not unless you're making a living with the cars.
never done slot racing before but after this video im certainly considering it
Find a local club
Best video I have seen on this well done.
Another great video. Thank you 😀
Well done many thanks, interesting.
A most excellent video. Especially for a new person like myself. Tyvm for this. 👍🏻💯
Slot car technology hasn't changed much from the mid 1960's . 🏆 🏎
Its changed HUGELY. Nothing is the same.
Especially digital slots. Totally programmable. The cars are fast and solid right out of the box.
Tons of aftermarket stuff can be had to make any car go faster.
Every part of the car can be changed or modified.
A pro, like in this video, is very, very far removed from the everyday slot car guy.
Whole different world. Home slot car racing is what happens in most of America.
Nothing like a big wooden track. Slot cars are a blast! They're for fun.
So to get into the nitty gritty .... whats the difference in cost between the cars ?
This was something I was going to ask, obviously more expensive, just by how much?, I will not go the "is it worth it" route as we all spend on our hobbies what we can afford or at least try to justify!! if only to ourselves. Used to read about advanced slot car racing in Scale Model magazine in the very early seventies, unfortunately I lived in a cultural desert as far as modeling went with shops advising UHU as a plastic kit glue, fortunately we now have Internet. Enjoy what you do, be happy, and a happy new year to all. 😊.
Next video family cars vs F1 cars
This bigs back to the 80’s when me and my friends would go and watch serious slot car races. Fast enough if you blinked the car you were watching would out of sight
A small flat were the set screw* clamps on to the axle will lock the wheel more securely. I'm surprised that some aftermarket axle and wheel sets do not use nuts on the axles with the wheel sitting on a taper. This taper could be the same taper as the appropriate sized machine taper.
*in the states they're set screws.
very good video. well worth a like and a sub!
idk much about this type of racing and never bought one of those racing cars but u damn right i watched the whole video
I used pro slot cars once and they didn’t have front wheels or suspension. I think they where called group 12 cars. Would be interesting to see a video on those cars versus the ones you use.
Professional is in the eye of the beholder. Virtually no one makes money from slot cars, they would be professional. The idea of toys or not toys is something that repels hobbyists because they think they're not playing with toys. But in fact these are all toys... I've had a number of conversations with my friend from Slot It and he will tell you that the cars he makes are toys. Slot cars serve no other purpose other than to have fun. Thus... toys.
That's not completely true.
I've learned quite a lot about so many things from building and flying model airplanes, and racing R/C cars and slot cars. It's a major part of that thing we call play.
Whether we should call them toys or something else is purely a matter of semantic. You and your friend at Slot It can call them what you want.
True words. And let me add: Not all toys are for kids. ;-)
@@slotracing.digital
You ain't kidding, either.
Can you imagine giving a 5-year-old a cigarette boat? A real one?
@@richarddarlington1139 Toys , hobby , professional . Call it what you will .As long as it floats your boat and gives you satisfaction , competition , enjoyment , relaxation do it and enjoy . We are all probably wanabe F1 drivers .
ahhh. so good to never have insomnia again :-)
Excellent video again, Gary! :)
Great video. I can draw comparisons to RC of which I do myself. The toy grade RC car can’t cut it against an Xray or Schumacher though toys have their place. The car that got me into racing was a £5 Tesco drift car but was totally inadequate immediately
If you're not making money doing it you are not a professional. I will argue that all slot car racers are simply hobbyists and all slot cars are just toys.
Very helpful video, and great track
My slot racing was in the late 1960’s. Starting with scalextric and ending with a vacuum formed body shell with a 1/16” brass rod chassis . Body mount was thin brass sheet hinged onto the chassis held into place with dressmaking pins. Motor was a standard Cox can not tuned sponge rear tyres from from a revel kit car the body was the gas turbine car used in Le Mans 24 hour all run on a club circuit at the English Electric Factory Kidsgrove Stoke-on-Trent.
Yes, as a kid I used to order all kinds of hardware from Riko in England. The real fanatics were even rewinding their motors with thicker copper wire for more speed!
@@racketman2u yes, I tried that. I still have the wire reel somewhere.
I took 4 sections off the armature, to increase RPM.
Then rewound it with 4’6” or 16 SWG copper to flatten the torque curve.
Covered the rewind in araldite and baked it in the oven then checked it for balance.
Then finished off with some high strength magnets.
I used my old chassis but a new body shell with Mk.II written on each side.
A disaster. Practice run, fine didn’t put my thumb down hard on my MRRC. Controller but I did notice it was warm.
Line up for the first race. Thumb down, everyone else was on the banked bend at the end of the straight.
My car was upside down about 2’ from the start line. Far too much torque for a low geared car 😡.
So, when you say professional, do you mean…there is a payday at the end of a race or sponsorship compensation? Dig the cars and had all kinds of tracks and cars when younger. 🤘🤘🤘
I dont think much if any money is made, there might be trophies.
So no, its not a profession.
Growing up, my older brother had a small "slot-car" type of racing kit which included the cars and track; probably early 1980s or late 1970s. The cool thing about the track and cars was there was no slot on the track; the cars could change lanes by clicking a switch on the controller. For the life of me, I can't remember who made the track and cars; have you ever seen or heard of this "toy?" I'd love to get my hands on a working setup. Love your channel, by the way! Subscribed🙂
Most likely TCR, “Total Control Racing”. Thanks for the sub!
Maybe it was Carrera Servo?
Great Video. Im 51 and just got my first Scalextric set! I already now have 4 cars and looking to add a 5th. Have you got any links to where I can purchase a "tuned" car to get me going down the right track. Thank you.
Consider doing some tuning on one of the ones you have to get an idea of what you want.
Roger where are you based? If you take a look online they are stockists all over the world. There are small tweaks you can make to standard cars but they will never match pro cars
@@nickw7594 Thanks for the reply, I live near Cambridge and usually get my cars from Model Junction in Bury St Edmunds. I seem to struggle to find anyone in England that sells parts or complete modified cars.
Perhaps try Pendle Slot Racing............
@@rogercarder7720 Pendles are good but you can also get some good 3d printed chassis off ebay that fit Scalextric shells. Best thing to do is find a local club and then let them show you how to modify the cars. There are certain cars to buy that are known fast cars.
If your looking at running modified Scalextric cars at home then just sand the tyres, glue the tyres to the rims, glue the motor with hot glue (a line each side of the motor), take the magnet out, add some lead, take the stock wiring out and fit a guide blade with a sleeve so there is no play in the guide blade.
You need to add float to the body too so you can trim off any chasis lugs and around the chassis taking it back 1-2mm. Back the screws off so the shell is loose and can move (put tape on the screw holes so they don't fall out or upgrade screws).
Other options can include fitting a new motor (not really needed for home use), slot.it running gear and independent front axle but at that point you could of bought a pro car like NSR or Slot.it. It is only worth running highly modified Scalextric cars if you are racing at a club and have to race in a class e.g. Scalextric modified class.
A lot of clubs race Scalextric classes because they are easy to get into and you can pick cars up cheap and start racing for £30-40.
I was wondering when mention of 3D printing was coming, what’s the cost of the pro car?
Thanks for this. How would the same two cars compare on a “regular” scalextric track with magna-traction?
A "Pro" would never be seen racing on a home track, its all done on scratch built wood tracks where the ultra fast cars really work.
Its a very different thing on a home plastic track, its supposed to be for fun.
Magnets are universally poo poo'd by pros.
Not completely true. Our club of experienced racers race on standard Scalextric SPORT track because we race digital. The 24 hour endurance slot car races (an international series) are typically raced with 20 teams on 4 lanes of digital Nino plastic “home” track and the Oxigen digital system. We have been racing this way for at least 15 years.
Thank You Really appreciated It,this video
What were those sensors on the front tires on that one car?
I am afraid i am neglecting my slot car after discovering Kyosho 1/28 Mini Z.....
Nice video, the pro cars are cool, but I like slot cars that don't go crazy stupid fast
I saw "dirt track" slot cars recently that I thought were awesome, never even knew they had those
Perhaps I missed the cost comparison, and which actual cars were used in the comparison?
Very informative vid.. Thanks
This popped into my feed and I enjoyed it!
I was wondering if anyone makes cars where the front wheels turn. Feels like you could link them to the rotating guide.
Yes, but it’s uncommon. SCX Formula Once cars typically feature turning front wheels that are linked to the guide blade. Thanks for watching!
Scalextric did it with their F1 cars for a while on the Jordan Honda’s, BMW Williams, David/Mika era McLarens and Schumi/Vodafone Ferrari not sure if they still do
Great video mate 👍
Can a professional slot car be ran on a carrera digital setup? Other than having to add the decoder.
Yes! Almost any car can be converted to digital by fitting the correct encoder. Thanks for watching
Found a few loose scalextric cars on the car boot for £1 each, looks like the sell on ebay for ok money, one was a jaguar XJ220 blue number 11 livery, with lights, mika hakkinen f1 and another f1 benetton car, are these toys or decent cars? Good channel I found you while looking fir scalextric videos, very informative 👍🏻
They’re toys, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed. Slot car prices are pretty high on eBay right now so it can be difficult to determine value there. Make sure you’re checking completed listings if you want to see what people are really paying. Thanks for watching, have fun with them!
Can you do a list of racing brands?
good stuff maybe a thorough preview but love the content .
5
Could you give some tips for driving with 1/32 cars? I drive a lot 1/24 slot cars, and i just started in 1/32 slotcars.
So if Carrera are toy brand cars (which I agree with), where does that leave their Digital 132 series (and ones like them), as they regularly reach prices similar to actual professional cars.
The only real reason for that is because of the D132 encoder. Bought stand-alone it costs almost as much as an Evolution car. Costs for digitising pro brands can easily reach into the hundreds.
Thanx for that 👍
First time I hear there's something as professional slot racing.
A toy versus a slightly more expensive toy
PLEASE TELL ME WHICH TOYBRANDS are compatibile with old 1/32 Polistil.
I'm restoring a toytrack... then there have to run toys!
Even just some foam rubber on the smooth, hard parts of walls and ceilings can help with the echo
What are SCX cars like?
In your opinion is Viper Scale Racing closer to the "Toy" or "Professional" side of the market?
I don’t know much about H:O scale. I’ve heard of Viper but couldn’t really comment. Thanks for watching!
I noticed that your cars have little pieces of rubber on the chassis and in the wheel wells of the body. Have you ever needed to change the tires during a race or is that something that's done before or after the race?
Endurance races frequently feature tyre / wheel changes. An average set of rubber tyres will last 3-4 hours before performance falls off and can go 8-12 before needing replacing due to total wear. These numbers aren’t absolute as wear is influenced by many factors, but it’s just to give an idea.
Wow, fast growing channel, huh?
Very good video!
I had absolutely no idea there was a slot car scene. I thought there only existed scalectrix, no idea the hobby went this deep. Odd to see this pop up on my recommended
Clubs all over the world, Scalextric is one of the toy brands but often cars are raced on huge routed wooden tracks. The controllers have break, sensitivity, launch control and other trim settings and features. The skill comes down to car set up, ability to drive smooth and break and accelerate at the right place on the track.
The pro cars have suspension, different motor configurations, tyre compounds, precision engineered components etc. It is definately not as easy as people think.
I got out of slot car 1/24 scale racing when I realized that I wasn't as good as the national champions who were building their own brass plate, brass rod, and piano wire frames (this was back around 1970). As a teen, instead I moved to real cars, and then realized that I was never going to be as good as the champions at that either. So I stopped racing, and just started driving and riding motorcycles for fun instead.
Do you recommend the truespeed controller used in this video for someone who wants an affordable, club spec controller
Absolutely
Where do you buy your cars, the professional vesions ?
I’m in the UK, so Pendle Slot Racing is my go-to. They ship worldwide. If your country doesn’t have a decent vendor then eBay usually has a pretty healthy marketplace, as long as you know what to search for.
holy moly what yt rabbit hole i went down this time;)))
A good friend of mine has a slot care track and there was simply no comparison between his Carrera cars and his Slot.it cars.
It takes a LOT of work to make a slot it car even be drivable on a tight home track, or one hell of a lot of skill to keep it on track. Slot its are FAST and light and dont like bumps or banking and they drag bottom a lot....tons of set up to try to make them work.
Carrera? Take it outta the box and run it, put tires on it. Ive yet to see anybody beat a well set up carrera car on my tighter home track with a slot it car.
Slot its need room to run to go fast.
Nice to see most of the best brands are still Italian 💪🏻
awesome.God bless.
I had a ninco F1 Jordan car.
It had a very clever front wheel steering setup . A big magnet in the front and a larger motor then an average 1/32 toy.
That thing compared to the stock cars was utterly insane.
Unfortunately the standard power supply couldn’t handle it. So if I race that car on my track the second rails had no power. It took 75% of a two lane system.
Point is I’d like to see the difference between those Ninco’s and a professional one.
While certainly not competition legal i think it would give it a run for the money
Ninco kind of straddle the line between toys and pro cars. It’s such a shame that they’ve more or less left the market now. Stick around on the channel as I’m sure you’ll see some future Ninco content here 😉
i honestly kinda wanna get into slot cars, but unlike tamiya these things are not available in every part of the world, these slot cars like scalextric are so hard to find and get, let alone the full tracks misc
ebay is everywhere, all these cars and track are online, they can be had.
I ordered my track from Germany and saved about 150 bucks over buying it in the states.
Germany is big on slot car racing. Carrera comes from there.
Would you recommend buying one of the toy cars as a beginner? Or would it make more sense to go the professional route to full immersion in the sport?
With hobbies its usually better to get cheaper stuff for learning on because you will likely break stuff as you get a feel for things
Depends what you want to get out of it, cars made by the likes of slot it aren't that much more money and will save you buying twice
Their is nothing wrong with scalextric at the end of the day, I have 50 cars over the past 10 years in my collection, they might not be the fastest but they are not the slowest either, and they look good when racing, especially the higher end models!!!!
so, someone explain to me whats so crazy about holding down a throttle instead of a full flesh rc car, sorry if i sound toxic i just want to understand better
i dont remember ever seeing slot cars that were so big lol the ones i played with were like the size of a hotwheels lol
HO scale
Is slotit considered to be the best out of the box racer available?
That's hard to say. Fastest? No.
Other Brands are faster due to softer tyres or stronger motors: NSR or Sideways are very quick right out of the box. Give it a try.
Gotta love the TH-cam algorithm
just means you're consistent as f**k ahaha.
Down here in Australia we did alot with just the plain scalextric cars, we used to slap on bigger guides and do quite a few other little things to get alot out of them to a point where they just went stuff it and opened up the open lemans racing to allow scalextric cars
Fun to get them as fast as possible. Running the DPR door loose is a good way to try and get more chassis flex if it is DPR ready cars. I run a 3D printed DPR door that is very light and flexible and still in the rules. The Honda Civic Scalextrics run fast, but it seems to be because the plastic chassis is so thin but unlike Slot.it or other hobby grade chassis it is so weak it cracks 🤣. These cars also have e reassessed guide blades which really help them.
And now Scaletric are selling their cars at the same price as Slot It... it's a no brainer which is more bang for the buck. Which would you choose?
As good as some of the Slot'It and other cars are, they're still off-the-shelf. Wouldn't "professional" refer more to BSCRA type cars?
,,,when very young,,I had no idea, slot car racing is a rich people hobby, I just race my cars as they are, but I do keep the magnets in and keep them clean as possible and wheels and track,