$400 slot car

[Ryan_from_OHio]

Well heres a $400 slot car for you all to drool over.

The motor is a Camen Bandit setup for drag racing or qualifying. This motor is almost $300.

Car can do around 80-110 MPH depending on track size and gearing.

Anyone else race slot cars?

[Gixer1K]

80-110 MPH, holy crap. How big is the wheelbase and width on that thing?

[Ryan_from_OHio]

Well there is no actual "wheelbase". The front wheels are there because cars have four wheels. They are soft neoprene like rubber and very light and flexible. The front guide is like the front tires if you will. Its also what guides it around the track in a slot, hence "slot car". The width overall of the rear wheels is 3 1/4".

This is what they call a wing car (body not shown). The actual body is lie .007" vaccum formed lexan material and is swoopy. It has big air damns (wings). These things litterally fly!

This is not my personal car. I build the fast cars for the boss at the local track. This car here goes to some real rich guy out in Boston.

Ill look for a pic of one with a body on it.

Drag slot cars can get up to 127 actual MPH on a scale 1/4 mile. Now thats friggin amazing! If I had the $ I would be able to get in that area, if I had the $

[FrankW]

Flirking Shnit! That beats the pants off of radio controlled cars in the speed department (current confirmed speed record is 112.7mph by Chris Collins). But going around a slot car track gets boring to me, too repetitive.

-Frank

[Jr Branham]

Ryan,
I run slots too. I have a carrera track. It will run either 1/24 or 1/32nd scales. The new 1/32 scales really have some detail. Cool Stuff.
Jr. B

[Ryan_from_OHio]

I also get a chance to see TONS of them "plastic" cars. The local track owner sells on his website and litterally has a ton of them.

Carrera tracks are nice but nothing beats a commercial track.

At the track Im helping build a Carrera roadcourse track.

As to the boring comment, yhea you would think it to be boring. But get to a store and pick up a control and rent a car for 15 minutes with a couple friends. You will soon realize its not as boring as you first thought.

[Sorcerer 001]

I got suckered in to buying a slot car around a year ago or so, after an old friend of mine opened the "Largest Slot Car Track in the USA" here in Oregon. I had fun for the first few days I did it, but after finding out the expense and experiencing the repetetiveness, I got out of it. I was pretty blown away at how much those little motors sell for.

[Ryan_from_OHio]

The up keep needed for a car like this is absolutely nuts!

COnsider each motor about $300, and you need one to qualify with and one for each lane (9 motors in all) thats $2700 in motors for one car 1 race. Of course you just dont use them once then to the garbage, but its alot of money to invest in 1 car.

I wonder if brushless technology could make it to these cars?

[Doug Forrester]

Ryan
I used to be involved in slot car racing (1/24) back in the sixties (the first commercial boom). We used to call cars(?) that looked like that open car, "thingys". Back then, our cars were more scale oriented.
As a matter of interest, why would the open cars require a separate motor for each slot?

[Ryan_from_OHio]

Well at the high RPMs theese babies turn (upwards of 140,000 RPM) the springs get hot and weaken, the brushes wear, the comms get loaded up and need to be trued.

I never really raced one of theese, just built some for a customer for the store. I have drag raced some of these motors and they are wicked!

After seeing all the brushless technology here, I wonder if it will ever make its debut in slot cars? The market would be huge for it... (well as huge as the slotcar world is..).

[mrtwister]

hey ryan i am dougy jr from rumrunner, some of the best slot car racers in the country are from my area. the two guys i used to race with were mike muir , and paul chicarello who is the best slot racer in the world! they both left my area to work for parma. it was easy to get sponsored by parma then. in 92 the nationals came to nj, in group 10 there were 70 entries i placed 2nd i was beat by heshman ,who ifound out later was cheating~! good luck with the car . the only thing i did betterthan slots is rc boat racing. im leaving in two days for ca , i better get back to preping my boats, i want to make a good impression as the new rumrunner racer. car looks great! dougy

[Ryan_from_OHio]

There is alot of arugably (bast) racers out there.

Every track no matter how much of a dive it is has its "best" racer.

I may not be the best racer, but one of the best builders. I was doing the Sprint cars. My cars were very good, very very competetive. Heck some races last year we had 12 cars and all but 2 were ones I built. Thats a little scary when you have to go out and beat what you build.

As a rule I never "detune" anyones car, I build it as I would build my own, sometimes better.

Slot cars is not growing or going anywhere. Most people who race do so on a meager budget, such as myself. When someone jumps in with a healthy job and buys the best of the best it hurts the rest of us.

Thats why all races at out local track are with cheaper low powered motors. Keeps people racing and keeps the field somewhat level.

When you get into theese open cars motors can get upto $350 or more each. Now think you need 9 motors per car to be competetive....