Slot Car Racing Slot Car Racing Slot car racing, or simply slot racing, is something we grew up with in the 70th and early 80th. Big in Germany has always been the Faller system in nearly H0 scale, and of course Carrera with its many systems and scales. Now, if you have a son in the right age, he'll serve as a *perfect* excuse for your wife to spend all that money for doing it again!
Nowadays, the supply chain for parts from the old days is nearly perfect and has one name: ebay. Before the age of ebay, it would have taken virtually ages to get your necessary parts, traveling from one flea market to the next. Now, just search the categories and you usually find what you need. Carrera has even come out of oblivion and launched new systems that are compatible to the old 1:24 scale. Why this works? Because all these dads in their thirties fall for it - again. Like me.
This page is not complete. For now I can only dump some older pictures here. I'll have to wait until we're back in Germany, where all the stuff is, before I can continue with this hobby and also document it a little better.
A small Faller track was the first I ever got as a little child from my dad. The fascinating thing about the Faller system is its small scale (actually ca. 1:72, though advertised as H0 = 1:87) and its love for the detail. There are many different curve radiuses and angles, and beautiful car models. The system was never designed for racing (like today's 'H0' systems mainly sold in the U.S.), but rather to mimic real landscapes and cities - much like a model railway. There were even concepts to mix the both, like a ramp to load cars onto a wagon of a freight train.
What I did here was to build the track I "always" wanted but never could afford. Its total length is a whopping 13m on a board of roughly 2 square meters that hangs from the ceiling. It can be pulled up to make room for other things in the basement's party room. The track is very hard to drive flawlessly. Conceptually, it consists of a town area (crossings, etc.), the countryside (forests, winding curves) and some piece of autobahn (with a sloped curve, a must in every track). I didn't put a big effort in landscape modelling. Just flat, green lawn paper and some glue was required.
It started with selling my old but complete Carrera 124 base package on ebay for a surprisingly good price. Then I checked on the extra cars I had, a Lancia Stratos and the BMW ambulance car, and found out that they have become collector's items over the years - and sold them, too. Then, from all that money I bought other, loose tracks and various new and old cars. This system is for driving wild and fast, and the huge 1:24 scale with its heavy vehicles is perfect for it!
Above is the maximum length track I could get into the basement. As seen on the right, the Carrera Go cars (1:43) drive just fine on the big scale, and are easy to handle for kids. The expert will also notice that I only have type 1 curves, which guarantee that the track ends will always come together. (The real reason is probably that the other curves are pretty expensive.)
Who says you shall not use Carrera outdoors? That's the best way to use it! Just let the parts dry from any moist, and watch out that the lawn doesn't get burned below the black tracks on a hot summer day. Cause if it does, you'll see the track layout for weeks, and your wife won't fail to remind you of it every day...
Just another track around the sandbox, the swing and what else is packed into the garden. The girls were eager as well and had fun for hours. At your next barbecue with friends, if you want to be the star for kids and dads alike: Put it up!
Above is a 1:43 Carrera Go track, built from two identical base packages, plus some extra cars, 45 degree curves, crossings and "bottlenecks" to make it more interesting. The whole set came at about 150 Euro. A track is built in no time, and likewise disassembled.