REVELL RACEWAY 240

Revell Raceway is a 4 lane 240 foot long vintage Revell Slot-Car Racetrack.   Each piece in the layout was manufactured between 1964 and 1966.  It is powered by a 30 amp Zurich DS304M 0-15 volt (variable) power supply.  There is about 700 feet of 16 guage wire in the track so far.  Each lane has 22 power supply tracks and 140 feet of straights in it.   A Gateway 166MHz Pentium I computer and Greg Braun's LapTimer 2000 software handle the timing chores. Lap Record so far is 14.998 seconds by a lexan bodied Pro-Track Sauber / Petronas with carbon-fiber axles, ball bearing bushings, a 46,000 rpm JK Falcon motor, and top-secret new Professor Motor slicks. 

I started racing slot cars around 1971. I was 11 years old. Had Strombecker, Eldon, and H.O. stuff. Raced on commercial tracks a few times but they seemed like they were constantly going out of business. Never really got into the winged cars, just played around at home.  I always dreamed of having a huge track but never had the room. Every x-mas for years would find a new layout up and running - in the family room or on my bedroom floor. 

Then I grew up, got married to my high-school sweetheart and had two wonderfull boys.  We bought a house that had a 20 by 40 foot 4 car garage - perfect for a decent sized track and a pool table.   Started collecting Revell track 14 years ago.  I wanted to get as much track as possible in there without overtaking the garage. This layout started out as a 60 foot 2 lane and grew to 240 feet - complete with 1/24th scale aprons. 

The average lane length of the present layout is 239.5  feet.  It may be the largest privately owned track on the planet.  The longest lane (Lane #1) is 6 feet longer than the shortest (Lane 4).  The track sits on a little less than than six 4' x 8' tables and occupies exactly 186 square feet of floor-space.   It could have easily taken up 1000 square feet if it was not multi-level.  It’s overall dimensions are 38’ long by 8’ wide though the track is 4’ wide in most places. 

There is one 24 foot straight-a-way and one that's 33'.   Monza Banked Curves are set at 48 degrees and 57 degrees of inclination.   Most of the track is epoxied together in 4 to 6 foot sections. I have 4 Parma 25 ohm Sebring controllers, 1 Parma double-barrel wet-wound 3 ohm Turbo controller, and 1 top of the line Professor Motor Silver Series Semi-Pro controller with variable brakes and variable sensitivity.   Soon as I can find an extra 500 bucks I'll have 3 more Professor Motor controllers.  This layout also has 2 adjustable jumps in it.   They can be installed or taken out in less than 1 minute.   The farthest I’ve ever successfully jump a slot car is about 4 feet.   It was a slightly modified Fly Saleen.   There is even a short  30 degree downhill off-camber flat (non-banked) turn. 

The track needs to be landscaped and the bridging is two-thirds done. It will probably take me a while, but I'm working on it.    I was going to put a train layout inside of the track, but decided more track was the way to go.   It’s super fun to race on.   I’ve been working on improving vision over the past few weeks and it’s really made a difference.   Not sure how (or where) but there’s got to be a way to get another 10 feet of 4 lane in there somehow.  

250 is such a nice, round number.

Rev