[Inside_Info]

My 4 year old son wanted his Scalextric IRL set out this weekend, so we set it out on the lounge floor, complete with lap counter/timer.

Early afternoon and he challenges his sister (2 1/2 years old) to a race, he has a Scalextric Scooby she has a Ninco McLaren F1 GT... Here goes for another crashfest, neither of the cars are easy to drive so I tend to stay away from them. Anyway, I set the lap counter to 25 laps and start the race... For the minute or so I'm gobsmacked... no full throttle shunts into the video recorder, just a couple of minor collisions at the crossover followed by shouts of 'marshall!' (well ok... 'DADDY!' at the tops of their voices). The race ends, the Scooby wins by about 3 laps due to the little girl stopping a few times for 'pit stops', nevertheless she strings together a couple of amazing laps with the tail of the Mac all over the place... Then I see the fastest laps... 3.2 for the Scooby, 2.2 for the McLaren!!!!!

Foolishly I have a go at trying to beat 2.2 seconds in a 25 lap run... after about 5 crashes, I finally manage a 2.1 with about 2 laps to go... later on my wife tries and can't beat 2.5 seconds...

I think I'm going to retire... given a few years I won't stand a chance!!!

 

[Slot_d]

I'd retire now, given a few months, you won't stand a chance.

I am always [email protected]#$£d off when my nephews come over and beat me without trying. I tell myself it is because I care for the cars too much and try not to crash them, but the truth is they just learn faster and have faster re-actions.

 

[JohnP]

QUOTE I'd retire now, given a few months, you won't stand a chance.

...all you have to do is "tune" the cars for them

 

[Intergrali]

QUOTE ...all you have to do is "tune" the cars for them

you want a "de-" in there

...all you have to do is de-tune the cars for them

Rob.

 

[Doug]

As I have taken up the hobby in the last couple of years, my son (now 5.5) has been racing along with me. He is now faster than me with a magnet car

He and my daughter are helping with the track decoration too. Works out fine

 

[taxi]

My eldest daughter (4 in March) isn't keen on racing yet, but she loves to gently drive 'her' Ninco Safety Car round and round. Mainly she loves its flashing lights but she is starting to give it more throttle on the straights. I can see her kicking Daddy's butt in a few months though!

Rob

 

[sprint]

My son is 11, and with him I have started again slot racing; he drives well, but to my great satisfaction he don't want cars with magnets : less driving skill, he says, and a bad habit for the future races.

Ciao

 

[howmet tx]

My son, 10. Favourite car....
Pink Kar Auto Union.
Just loves to hang the rear end out round the turns. It's got him interested in historical GP, too.
Daughter, 13. Favourite car...
Plastic Hippo on old Mini chassis.
Dad- too busy honing the dithoffle valves to another thou and checking the tyre dimensions for scale accuracy to even get the !!!!! thing on the track.
Altogether Sing; 'The kids had fun fun fun till their daddy took the T.bird away' (so then they just got another couple of rare mint boxed Fly limited eds. off the shelf and played destruction derby.

 

[Fergy]

My son is 11. He occasionally raced HO cars in the past, but never truly got "bit by the bug". Now that I'm switching back to 1/32, and beginning to plan my future track, he is getting excited. He loves the larger scale and has a Fly Saleen that he is anxious to put some miles on. He's also looking forward to helping in the construction and landscaping/detailing of the track. Something about the size and appearance of the 1/32 cars has really caught his attention. Hmmm... same could be said for his dad I guess!

 

[jonny s]

For me this is probably the best aspect of our hobby. I`ve loved racing with my two lads at home over the years and on to club racing at Phoenix. It`s given us some extra quality time together and as they are now 19 and 16 they are involved in helping me run the club. We all still race too.

At the club we see over 200 kids a week race. They realy get stuck in and have superb reflexes. When they get their first win their face lights up and they grow to about ten feet tall. That makes me feel great too and realise what a superb hobby this truly is

I`m a bit of a blubber and get very emotional. Young Stevie S caught me out last year. He competed with his dad and older bro in the Phoenix 24 hour race! What a star

when it came to the presentations I really had to get a grip seeing his little face collect his trophy.

 

[Guest]

I love racing with my children, My daughter Katie is 6 and is getting quite good already, one day over the Christmas holiday Richard said to her I teach you how to race and she beat him.

RR.

 

[GastheerG]

RACING WITH CHILDREN - sounds like a TV serie? Ok let's have some fun. My daughter now is almost 7 year and from 13 months she stood with a Parma controller near my track. Now see have her own set of cars and the cars "without a roof" are her favourite.
Sometime she love to race. Sometime she love to play with the track figures but making scenery is her story. Most fun for here is making a rally track when we use flower as snow. In my race paradise she have here own corner with drawing, painting and glue tools. On a rainy Sunday we can stay together a day in "dad's office". Her most fabulous idea was making a statute from a track figure.
Check it out on (second pic!):
http://www.racebaan.com/racebaanpraatje/va...rden/index.html

When the statute was ready she insist that there first was a sheet over the statute for an officially oppening!
Kids have there own open view on this world so also on your hobby. To do this together with your kids it bring more fun and they learn also from it.
But on Thursday evening when the big kids arrive for our weekly competition, then it's bedtime. But she loved it when she can give the guys a tour around dad's new cars and scenery.
Don't be afraid that kids broke some things. In all those six year she broke one track figure and one GT40 (a Gulf Sport version!). For me that's a good price for so much fun! The big kids have don much much more damage………But that's an other story…………

Gerard

 

[Inside_Info]

Love the statue Racebaan... thats really neat...

Out of interest, we live near Goodwood Motor Circuit and go quite frequently to watch sprints and trackdays mainly just to look at the cars but there's such a good atmosphere there, the kids love it... Tucked away at the end of the paddock is a small memorial garden there in honour of Bruce McLaren... I wonder how many people have been there and never seen it?

Your comment about damage to cars is quite true... most of the damage my kids have done has been repairable... that done by adults is usually terminal!!!!

 

[Doug]

I have a little box on the track table that I use to collect the bits that fall or break off. At the end of a session I use CA glue to do the basic repairs. If you don't want something broken then don't bring it out or turn down the power if you can. Give the kids MacDonalds and M&M's NASCARs to learn on. They learn to respect the cars.

 

[jonny s]

Good point. I can support that opinion as I use the NASCARS for the Kids Birthday parties at Phoenix. They are really strong. and been hammered

The new ASCARS are gonna be even better value RRP of £20 in the list in Scalextric latest catolog. Impressive

 

[Mo55man]

My experience with children (I have two of my own) in general is that they can quite happily race round without coming off too often, but as soon as you mention the word "RACE" the race often ends at the first corner.

You will also find that children being that much younger, have much quicker reactions. It's the hand-eye co-ordination which let's them down.

A car with a strong magnet does require much quicker reactions and may suit the younger driver. where as a non-magnetised car requires better hand-eye co-ordination and suits older more experienced racers.

M

 

[minimental]

my friends (me being 14) do'nt race
they are more interested in putting mrrc track figures in the lanes and lego walls for the cars to drive through great friends

they have trashed a scx srs2 peugeot 406 and broken a new mini, nascar and a bugatti eb110

but when we do race give them a race with normal power then without them knowing add a power boost

they soon crash

 

[soapy]

My son is 2 and a half, I put a governor on his controller so he can get around the track without flying off on every corner. He loves the crashes, it is a good thing we got the scalextric bash and crash set. The pinch section is great, he will shout "stop in the pinch!" and then he will come flying around and ram my car. We also like setting up walls of blocks on the tracks and blowing cars through them. And sometimes toy animals wander onto the track...

 

[Mecoprop]

I am not sure I can agree with one of Mo55man's conclusions.

Most little guys (and gals) certainly have quicker reactions than most adults. But the hand/eye co-ordination is surely based on those very same fast reactions plus the additional factor of experience blended in?

Generally speaking, the little terrors can beat the crap out of an adult on any action video game and I really would expect that, with just a little experience (and of course the interest/motovation to gain that experience) they wouldn't take long to repeat the humiliation in slot racing! I honestly think that it is simply down to their varying levels of need for instant as opposed to prolonged gratification that makes the difference and that successful no-mag racing has a rather longer learning curve. If they actually WANT to beat us, they WILL, mags or no mags!

Having said that, there is a lower age limit, below which they are necessarily too busy learning to sit up straight without falling over and then to walk etc. I wouldn't like to try to define that age, but I'd guess it's around three years old or a little less.

 

[Fergy]

QUOTE hand/eye co-ordination is surely based on those very same fast reactions plus the additional factor of experience blended in?

I would suggest that good slot racers display more than just good reactions and hand/eye coordination. These are the two factors most often mentioned, but I don't think it's quite that simple. I think those are very important, but I think there's a great deal of mental processing that takes place that doesn't truly fit into either of those categories. Reactions are instinctive and don't require thought - someone throws something at you, and you will either stop it or avoid it. Very little mental effort but fast physical response. Hand/eye coordination is only subtley different - visual clues are rapidly turned into anticipated, and pre-learned responses from specific muscles. But while experience greatly affects the latter, it is still a "reactive" response. The brain is also capable of being "proactive", and this, in my opinion, is where experience has the greatest impact, and where most of our focus lies when driving. Call it "racecraft" for lack of a better term.

"Racecraft" is why some of us antiques can still show up on the podium!