Scorpius Carrera LC for Ninco track

5657 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Merc_A, Jan 13, 2012

Merc_A

Discussion Starter · Oct 7, 2011 (Edited by Moderator)

Yes it can

I've been converting Carrera LC's to Ninco gauge.

As you all might know, Carrera gauge is 99 mm. and Ninco gauge (as is my vintage Fleischmann, and the Italian Polistil) is 90 mm. Just a little too wide that is.
However, i like to use the long Carrera LC's, they can provide faster lane changing than the narrower Ninco LC's.
The first solution i came up with is this:

Accepting the two gauges, i used a Carrera chicane piece to bring the two gauges together.

I cut the trackpiece where it would fit the 90 mm. gauge and voilá.
The 9 mm. change of slot is minimal and gives no problems during driving - check the test track video in the other thread to see how it rides, or check it here:

The most important thing is a smooth transition between track pieces. With a little sanding and good placement of the joining slots this can be easily done. I inserted a long piece ( ca. 20 cm.) of copper wire in the hollow rails for good electrical connection.

Even if the above works fine, i wanted to try another approach - what if i cut the Carrera LC to 90 mm. gauge?

It takes three cuts in all: two length cuts to cut away 9 mm. of track, one broad cut to shorten the diagonal slot - you have to cut the second LC track piece down with 44 mm. to bring the diagonal slot to the right gauge.

Here's the result. The best tool to do it is a good sharp knive and a metal ruler, is my experience. For cutting the metal rails i used a fine metal saw, but a dremel will do too i suppose.

Here you see the smooth transition between the track pieces.
The only thing left is to hot glue the track parts together, as i did with the other LC's.
First i feared the amount of work and skill needed, but it turned out to be quite an easy job.
So if you want fast Scorpius/Carrera LC's in your Ninco track, it's not that hard - even i managed to do it

Merc

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Merc_A

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 8, 2011 (Edited by Moderator)

Tnx

My main reason for posting this is simple: with Scorpius i reckon many Ninco users would like to have the benefit of long LC's like Carrera's - and with my two left hands i managed to obtain that, so it can be done by anyone without many difficulties

One other thing added to that: the obsolete Carrera Pro-X LC's are quite useful for this conversion: they're only obsolete because of the old Pro-X electronics, physically these LC's are perfect for a Scorpius Lane Brain. They go for very low prices on auction sites i noticed - i picked up two mint Pro-X LC's (one left, one right) for less than 25 euros.

Merc

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Merc_A

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 16, 2011

There's no such thing as stupid questions

Ninco sells converter track for connecting Ninco to Scalextric, and Scalextric can be connected to SCX / Scalex classic.
But to my knowledge there's no Ninco-Carrera converter track available, as there's no factory made Scalex <-> Carrera converter track.

So i decided, to have the long Carrera LC's in my track i needed to do it this way

Merc

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Merc_A

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 13, 2012 (Edited by Moderator)

Yes, Pitslot, i know them

They can provide any converter piece, between all brands and gauges.
But i have to admit, i found it quite fun to experiment myself and chop up these second hand track parts

For using the Carrera LC on Ninco/Fleischmann/Polistil gauge, the best (and best looking) option is i think the second, cutting down to 90 mm. gauge.
However, this method can only work on single LC's. To make the diagonal changing lane match the parallel rails to 90 mm. gauge, you have to cut away 45 mm. length of the second track part so it nicely comes down to the required gauge.
This would be quite impossible on a XLC, because you have to cut away the excess track on one side of the rails - well it can be done, but highly unpractical.

So when i came across a nicely priced 2nd hand Carrera Pro-X XLC, i knew my first method of using Carrera chicane parts as converter piece is the practical way to go for putting a XLC to work on Ninco / Fleischmann / Polistil track

Top of picture the Carrera XLC on 99 mm gauge with converter pieces, down right the converted 90 mm. gauge Carrera single LC.

We've been racing the Xmas track now for weeks, and i haven't had any deslot on the long straight passing the 90-99 mm. converter piece.
You can actually drive over the long straight full speed, passing the converter gives a slight movement to the side, but it's never enough to destabilize the car. No deslots, no tail shaking whatsoever.
Ok, i have no report on how a ultra fast NSR would behave of course, i'm talking standard Scaley / Ninco / Slot.it cars here.
On the last pic a Scalextric crash resistant Porsche and a Ninco Lambo Gallardo. The last car is tuned up and is stunningly fast on the straights, but as i learned, no problems taking the XLC fast.

I have to add to this that the Carrera track surface is very much like the Fleischmann track surface. Both hard plastic, very strong and superb flat track parts, gives a smooth transition between the two brands.
Ninco instead... way softer plastic, i find Ninco track surface more bumpy and uneven than i expected. Main culprit her are the Ninco clips under the track. Good for strong connections, but when clipped on the clips tend to pull hardly noticeable dents in the road surface.

Merc

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