Review of BBC / Scalextric Land Speed Record

We arrived at North Weald Airfield at 9:30 on an October morning to attempt to find out just how fast, in scaled up speed, a Scalextric car can go.

The rules of the challenge were as follows:

• The car must have a Scalextric chassis and body
• Any items which can viewed within the car must not be altered
• Wheels and tyres may be changed, but the replacements must look similar to the standard wheels / tyres for the car
• Tyres must be dry when the car is placed on the track
• The car may not drain more then 6 amps of current

These rules however, gave plenty of opportunities for adjustments to be made, for example:

• Hubs and tyres can be changed and trued
• Weight can be added to the car, or reduced by removing non-visible parts of the bodywork
• Magnets may be added or removed
• Oil and other fluids may be used

The first thing which struck you as you walked into the hanger, was the sheer length of the track.   It spanned from one end to the other, with the furthest end disappearing into the distance.   It was made up of 205 ft of straights, with rally turn-arounds at each end constructed from curves.

The track

the cold

The second thing which struck you was the temperature - or lack there of.

new Scalextric plastic pit buildings

new plastic grandstands

The BBC crew had also arrived and had started to set up - a process which would take them several hours.  

spider cameras

LMP testing a car

There were market-stall type benches erected along one side of the track as a pit lane, and a test track was soon set up behind these.   The test track soon became very important to see if the cars drew more then the specified 6 amps from the track.   This was an important restriction. The timing software, track power and race control were all being provided by the hotly awaited "Sport World" from Scalextric. It was the restrictions within Sport World which meant anything over 6 amps of current would cause an overload in the system.   On the test track, several people with non standard motors, which pull more current, began to test how quickly they could accelerate without tripping out the system.   Pulling the trigger fully to start with, would cause a current spike which might exceed the 6 amps.

Scalextric had suggested that the timing could be done as a drag strip, this was something that Sport World was already designed to do.   The BBC had other ideas though.   As in other land speed attempts, it was not enough for the BBC to know how fast the cars could cover a mile from a standing start, they wanted to test them as Thrust had been tested over the "Racing Mile" to calculate a top speed.   This is why 205 ft of track was needed.   165 ft was for the scale mile, with 20 ft on each side for speeding up and slowing down.   Unfortunately, Sport World was not equipped to measure a racing mile.   Several frantic code writing days later, the software which could do this was finally completed on Thursday, before the race on the Sunday.   There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind!    One of the programmers of Sport World was at the event to see how it performed in its biggest test day yet.   Although not a slot racer himself, it was nice to see him taking both interest and pride in the product which he has helped to develop.

the test strip got longer during the day

Bleep and Astro

After the crew was fed and watered, and we had oiled our cars and trued the tyres again - just to stop us falling asleep, it was finally time to get on with the racing.   All cars were checked by Adrian Norman for eligibility and to ensure that they were fitted with black plastic guides (blue ones are not registered by the Sport World optical in-track reader), and the details of the event were given: we were all to be allowed one run down the track;   James May (from Top Gear) would stand with us while we held the controller, and do his best to put us off racing by giving a quick interview to camera just before we had to race.   The aim would be to get the car from the far end of the track (where you could just see it if it had lights, or you had binoculars) to the start/finish line by your feet in the fastest time possible.   Sport World would scale up the time taken, to give an average speed in 1:1 mph.

Who ever said "don't worry, no one has ever crashed a Scalextric car in a straight line" was soon made to eat his words, as the first driver's car (our very own Abbo - sorry for the naming and shaming) came merrily out of the slot and rolled across the hanger floor, 2/3rds of the way down the track.   Fortunately that was the only car to de-slot partway down the track, but that was just the start of the problems.   It soon became apparent that the timing system was not registering all the cars correctly.   Sport World recognises that there is a car on the track by sensing the current drain, and where it is on the track through the use of current breaks, the black lines you sometimes see on the track where the rail is covered or removed.   The software registered the car as it passed the first current break; it then timed it until it passed the optical sensor at the start / finish line.   However as the software had been finished quickly and not had time for thorough testing, a flaw started to show.   If the car bounced on the track, and the braids lost contact, then the system thought the car had finished the race, causing a false fast time to be posted.   Conversely, if the car was going too quickly through the start /finish gate, and the guide was lifted out of the slot enough to miss the optical sensor in the track, the finish would not register and the timer would keep running.   Consequently, many cars did not have their times logged as they either showed speeds around 7,000 mph, or 70mph.   In order to try to combat the bouncing, and the guide lifting above the optical sensor, cars with large tyres e.g. F1 cars, were made to run without the front tyres.   This solved some of the problems, but still many cars had to run several times to post a logged time, and by the end of the day, some people still had not managed to post an official time.

race control

Ford kindly brought their GT down for the day

Racing continued until about 5pm, and the tension in the room was only broken by the frequent low-flying overhead planes, and the arrival of a 1:1 Ford GT which was to be used in the final scene.  

Despite the technical problems, and the waiting around due to the TV crew, this was a good event, and I am proud to be involved in a TV production such as this which can only bring more enthusiasts to our special world.

The program will be shown on BBC2 in the week before Christmas (we do not know which day yet) and will be called "Toy Stories".   Get those video recorders primed!