TERRY SMITH Are you a collector, a home racer, a club racer, or a scratch builder? Terry reveals all...
There are many kinds of slot car enthusiast. I believe all of them equally enjoy real motorsport and want to emulate it by racing or collecting slot cars. Why be a Collector, you might ask? Are Slot Cars for racing on home or club tracks and not just for putting on a shelf?
I know many collectors and while some may do a few test laps with their models, others will not even take them out of their boxes. People have collected stamps, matchboxes, coins, art, in fact almost anything, so why not slot cars? Today most models come in a clear crystal box allowing you to see the model and even read its race description and driver details. Because they're modelled in 1:32 Scale they are a nice size to display a collection. Models from Fly Car Model are highly detailed and very collectable. Also, look at the cars from Le Mans Miniatures who produce very low runs of their beautiful resin slot cars.
Here is a collection of Ford GT40s from Fly Car Model. All seven of these cars raced at the 1966 Le Mans 24hrs.
Most would have started out in the hobby by getting a set for Christmas and had many hours racing on tracks put together on the carpet. Some still own their sets, or at least part of them. I still have the cars from the set bought for me in 1966! As we get older some revisit the hobby and race against our own kids, or have our mates round for an evening’s racing. I generally call these the Home Racers.
There is plenty of product on the market for the Home Racer whether it is more track sections and accessories, buildings and of course, cars. Top brands in this sector are Scalextric, SCX, and Carrera, and you will be pleased to hear that all non-digital cars from each manufacturer will run on each other’s track - as will cars from most other companies too such as Fly, NSR, Policar and Slot.it.
Where things do differ though is when we talk Digital, which is multi-car racing, i.e. more than on car on a lane. You do have to stick with each particular Digital system, although there is nothing stopping you modifying cars from other brands if they have the compatible decoder fitted for that system. Some even take their home circuit to the next level making it permanent and making it fully scenic using model railway techniques.
Fully scenic slot car tracks are a wonderful place to race your cars.
I would like to mention the Scratch Builders; they take parts from here and pieces from there and then often build up or heavily modify existing models to create something unique or super detailed. I personally love this side of the hobby and will take an old model from a car boot or swap meet and then change it into something more realistic. Sometimes it is only the body that is used, other times I may have purchased a resin body from a specialist manufacturer and use parts offered by ourselves such as chassis, wheels, and tyres. You will see loads of items like this listed by companies like FLY, Policar, Slot.it on our website. These and other companies also produce complete slot car kits if you want to have a go yourself.
You can’t buy this in the shops! What we have here is a heavily modified Scalextric Tyrrell. The body has been repainted and mounted on a Fly March chassis - transforming this 45-year-old model.
Finally, we have the Club Racer. A hardcore slot enthusiast who is competitive and wishes to pit his pride and joy against other like-minded people at his local track. I say local but my club is an 80-mile round trip for me to go to, but I rarely miss a race evening unless I must. Great brands to race are Slot.it, NSR and Thunderslot. Depending on club and even class, rules for the cars can be everything from stock 'out of the box', to fully modified. This can involve a change of wheels, tyres, axles, bearings, motors, and even the chassis. Items like the gears can be changed to different ratios to suit the track, while the tyres can be purchased in different compounds – how close to real racing is this? Don’t ask a club racer, he will tell you that this is real racing!
If these guys look serious its because they are racing! While seen here as an adult hobby, most clubs allow younger members to take part. Check out where your local club is.
So which category do I fall in? Well call me sad, but I am active in all of the above!