Looking to get into the hobby advice needed please

Hi, GTR and welcome to the hobby!

Lots of good questions and I suspect you’ll get just as many different answers - it’s a very diverse hobby. Anyway, here are my views:

if you can, come along to the Slot Car Festival at Gaydon on May 20-21. You’ll see a marvellous range of all kinds of new and used slot cars, parts and tracks and many of the vendors, too.

I started out with analogue Scalextric and I still have plenty of their cars. You can’t beat them for price and availability in UK. I’m afraid you’ll find the performance of the different types of cars is all pretty similar, although F1 cars tend to have an edge because they are so light, wide and low. I hardly dare mention the word ‘magnet’ because people on this forum have such strong views. However, cars with magnets are generally much faster than those without, but there is a view that magnet cars are too easy to drive. Scalextric cars generally have very simple chassis and don’t work well if you take out the magnets.

I’ve played with digital at past Gaydon and, last Christmas, I paid £25 for a Scalextric digital set from a charity shop. I have to say it doesn’t excite me as a solo racer, especially when all it has is lane-changers on the straights. The Scalextric digital system is not electrically compatible with their analogue cars and it costs about £20 per car to add a digital chip.

I moved on from Scalextric cars after a while, to the more-sophisticated cars from Slot.It and NSR, still with magnets. With these cars, I began to find the Scalextric track too bumpy and narrow, so I switched to the new-ish Policar track when it became available. I’ve been delighted with it. I did consider Carrera but, like you, I struggled to find in here in post-Brexit UK. Policar sell a starter set without cars and also a basic set with a couple of basic Subaru cars. I bought the set without cars because I already had plenty of cars! My track is small and I use a Carrera lap timer to do time trials of single cars. Recently, I’ve started experimenting with Policar Classic F1 cars without magnets an I find them a delight to build and drive.

In case you haven’t already discovered, Pendle Slot Racing are probably the leading online supplier for UK. I’ve also used Gaugemaster, who I think are the UK agents for Policar, and Jadlam, among others. Gaugemaster have the Policar starter set in stock at the moment. (Search results for: 'policar starter set' | Gaugemaster).

I’ve done my usual trick of writing too much and I see driver#8 has posted while I’ve been writing! I’d better finish by endorsing what driver#8 says: enjoy it!

Mike

Thanks for all the advice everyone it is very much appreciated 👍🏻

I'll try to answer to the replies as best as possible

I have thought about a club I'm based in Dorset in the UK so will have to look into it

Which brings me onto this event a few of you have mentioned in gaydon - not heard of that place before - will have to see how far it is from me, it does sound very good though

Also it is encouraging to read that generally the F1 cars are faster out of the box then say a rally car

And I agree with with few of you said it's about ones enjoyment and if possible where I would find most enjoyment is trying to base it from real life

So that now brings me to your advice 42redcat

This has given me much to think about as I prefer to idea of learning to drive the car on track and each car having different characteristics

I mean this with all due respect but if the car is very toy like and you just have to press a button on a controller and the car just wizz round the track this doesn't appeal to me at all

What caught my interest in this hobby was the fact cars can handle different and be tuned and have better detailed models -

So the idea you can buy better cars is great news for me - where would be a good place to buy them in the UK ? I don't mind second hand models either if possible

And I'm not familiar with this policar track system - but if definitely has my interest for sure

May I ask in your opinion what you find so good about it to say Carrera track?

As that was one of the first bits of research I did what was the best track to buy and from the results I found people mostly seemed to prefer Carrera over scalectrix track unless they had limited space etc

I have an area of about 8X4 foot max which should get me something reasonable

I don't mind not having digital - I just assumed digital was the way to go as new tech

So if it's possible to obtain cars on analogue and they can have different speeds, driving characteristics, handling etc then I'm all for it

The most important thing to me is having the cars which react differently and have there own handerling etc

So this is what I'm looking to get from the hobby and hope it's possible to it's just knowing where to go and start etc

More advice and help would be greatly appreciated
.
Many thanks

GTR_07 said:

I have an area of about 8X4 foot max which should get me something reasonable

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8x4 is very small for Carrera track. You'll struggle to fit much in the space available, so I'd recommend Policar track. It has slightly narrower lane spacing than Carrera but more than Scalextric, and its tightest radius corners are tighter than Carrera, but more open the Scalextric's. For a limited space, Policar is in my opinion your best option. Policar's track range will soon include digital pieces too, so should you at a later date wish to convert to digital, you'll easily be able to.

I encourage you not to buy Scalextric track. The track surface is quite smooth and has little grip, so cars often need a tyre change to a more grippier compound, plus its track borders have a raised kerb which looks nice, but actually just gets in the way, unsettles cars when they mount the kerb and at its worst will lift the rear wheels of low-riding cars clear of the track.

Here's a comparison of the corner geometries of the various track systems.

Thanks dopamine

Yes scalectrix track is definitely off the table

I have been reading up on policar track and there is a basic starter set for a reasonable price called

Policar BRZ Drift Set

So I am seriously considering this to begin with

But say I wanted to purchase two scalectrix cars - ford Mondeo & Renault Laguna for instance - would these cars drive almost identical?

As I don't really want to invest money into something that would just feel the samey going round the track. without any tuning do the cars feel different from the same class for example a touring car ? All do they pretty much all handle the same unless you tune them ?

Welcome to the madness GTR.
First of all, stop thinking if car X and Y will perform similarly or not. If you take two toy cars (scalextrics or carrera) out of the box, the magnets installed in the cars will dominate the way a car will perform on the track. Once you take the magnets out, then it is all about tuning the car - which is another can of worms. For what I understood from your posts, you are going to race by yourself so it odes not matter. Just buy the cars that you like and enjoy them around the track. When you gather more experience then you can start tune them and make them perform more equally (if they are within the same class).

Which brings me to second point: Given that you are completely new, find another club or event that is reasonably close or reachable and see in person what slotcar is today.

As Dopamine said, you have a very limited space for Carrera: get yourself Policar which is a modern track system. Just be aware that some people do not like the way the track surface looks so before you buy, search this forum or google for more pics...but if you can, go and see in person.

Digital is a different beast all together. There are some misconceptions that are still in vouge. For instance, some systems like scalextric has an analog mode which allows you to control with the supplied digital controllers any analog cars (meaning a car without a chip). Now this mode is not perfect, but for most toy brand cars it is more than capable. So, you do not need to buy chips for all your cars....and in any case, you buy a set of chips over time that you can move across your cars.

Thanks for the information grunz

And while I take all your points on board it does matter to me about how the car performs out of the box - sorry I probably have not explained in properly

In the long term I would like to race others assuming I can get up to speed that is

For the short term the idea was to have a small test track and compare times between cars and generally practice driving without the magnets

I'm just trying to find the right information and where to look for buying the right products

This might not be popular opinion here but when you say just buy the cars you like and enjoy them round the track - to me that can get boring quickly so say for instance scalectrix cars if they all perform similar right out of the box no matter what car it is - then it would be unlikely I would get involved in the hobby unless you can buy cars from the same class that offer different driving - for instance Ferrari gt has mode speed but less grip on the corners Vs Porsche gt slower speed but much better grip

Is it possible to buy cars like that already or would you have to turn them yourselves?

All cars handle differently, even two cars that are supposedly identical, so what matters is how competent you are as a driver. The more competent you are, the greater your ability to notice those very subtle differences.

However, even unskilled drivers can usually notice the handling and performance differences between different brands of slot car, and different classes of car within one brand, so I think it's very unlikely that you'll end up with cars that all feel the same to you.

Nonetheless, if you're expecting two cars of the same class from the same manufacturer to handle very differently, as your Ferrari v Porsche scenario suggests, you might be disappointed. Pit a 1:1 Ferrari against a 1:1 Porsche on a circuit and their lap times will be similar, their handling subtly different, but not night and day different as it would be if you pitted a Ferrari against a London bus. Slot cars are far simpler mechanically - the majority of Scalextric's GT cars have the same motor and gearing, for example - and slot car manufacturers try pretty hard to make cars from one class perform similarly for the very simple reason that the majority of drivers want to have a choice of models which are all competitive with each other, which seems at odds with what you're looking for.

In the end, only you know how different you want your cars to feel, so the best advice is probably to try before you buy. To that end, find a club local to you or visit the Slot Car Festival at Gaydon, this year on the 20th and 21st May.

Welcome to the forum!

Personally, I would recommend picking up an older classic Scalextric/SCX set from eBay, second hand. Classic track is the term used for Scalextric track before Scalextric overhauled and launched it's Sport track in the mid 00's that you see in shops today.

If you fancy this route, try and find a local seller who is selling a bundle of pre-Sport track, and if you are prepared to collect, it works out much cheaper. You might end up with too much track for the space, but you'll be able to experiment. Why am I recommending old track? It's not perfect but there is an abundance and its cheap, also works really well for non-magnet cars.

I would also purchase older cars, hunt down some bargains, not the latest and greatest, cars from the nineties that either had no magnet, or light magnet downforce. The cars of this period are not like the missiles we see today. Scalextric cars nowadays are ridiculously quick, whether its a 60's Mini Cooper or F1.

You'll quickly find the type of car you enjoy to run, yearn for more speed, magnet/non-magnet racing, car class etc. Hopefully the above option will wet the appetite and spur you on to competitive racing, collecting, better track system etc.

GTR_07 said:

This might not be popular opinion here but when you say just buy the cars you like and enjoy them round the track - to me that can get boring quickly so say for instance scalectrix cars if they all perform similar right out of the box no matter what car it is - then it would be unlikely I would get involved in the hobby unless you can buy cars from the same class that offer different driving - for instance Ferrari gt has mode speed but less grip on the corners Vs Porsche gt slower speed but much better grip

Is it possible to buy cars like that already or would you have to turn them yourselves?

Click to expand...

As posted two identical cars won't perform identically. I have had four of the same Scaleauto F1 cars and each has been unique. From torque, top end and even handling each has their own characteristics. The uniqueness comes in how you have to drive to get the best out of them. However for casual laps yeah they all perform roughly the same.

I do agree with your statement. For me the driving experience dictates the experience versus running this or that model of car around the layout. I typically run NSR and Scaleauto and they are inherently different. NSR has more torque and handles better (softer tires) until it doesn't. The Scaleauto is more grounded and its slide can be controlled much easier. You can really throw the Scaleauto around where the NSR you have to watch the torque and baby the curves as the rear will give way and or the the front end will lift.

Bottom line you can take two of the same cars and use different rear tires and your experience will be completely different.

Best thing you can do is take a step back and think before you spend your cash. I pretty much spent my budget at the start and then realised what I had wasn’t really what I wanted. But you are already asking for advice so I don’t think you’ll have that problem. What I should have done was save some of the budget for a wider variety of curves and some other brands of cars as others have mentioned.
Carrera is a very good track system but it’s not perfect. None of the mainstream track systems are. Just good for different things in different ways. You might want to look out for good deals on track expansion options, I found some used Carrera track for a good price which helped but plan ahead and think of getting some R3 and R4 just to mix it up a bit later on or now depending on your preference.
I’m interested in both digital and analog and have converted my digital CU to also run analog. I use some second hand analog controllers in this mode (quite simple to implement) but there are other fancier options though they are quite expensive or time consuming to build.