Inspection
The first step is to inspect the entire car, the moving and non-moving components. Look the under garage and replace or enhance anything that can be changed. For example, if you know of a better-performing motor, replacing the existing motor of your slot car is a good idea.
Check all car parts. Inspect how they fit with one another. If they're loose, tighten them. If they're very tight, loosen them up a bit. Take a mental note of all the parts and test drive the car. If it performs according to your expectations, you're done with inspection. If not, make some more adjustments.
Motor Burn-In Like in any car, real or miniature, burning-in the motor is critical to the car's performance. Some drivers like to do it the conventional way – that is racing a few laps; some prefer to do it underwater. If you are leaning towards the latter, follow the steps below:
First, remove the car's shell then attach the power source to the car's braids and submerge it underwater. You can use a bowl of distilled water for this. Run the car in the water for approximately 20 minutes while changing the voltage from lowest to the maximum speed the transformer could give. Hold the speed at slow, mid and high for about 5 minutes each. Now, for the final part, simulate the actual speed you run during an actual race.
Drying and Lubrication
The next step is to remove the water from every nook and cranny of the car then lubricating it. Use a spray lube on the motor, a door opener lube on the gears and light lube on the axles and bushings.
Wheel and Tire Tuning
Truing the tire, a process that involves polishing the surface of the tire on sandpaper, is a process that shouldn’t be missed when fine tuning a slot car.
Do this by first removing the tires from the rims and run these on 220 grit sandpaper. This should remove any burr that is created by the mold. Sand the cars down until the general profile becomes similar. For further polishing, use 220 to 800 grit sandpaper. You can see that they are ready for racing once they shine.
Braid and Guide Tuning
Inspect the guide and braids and remove them when you see that they need some polishing. The key here is to make these components as optimized for racing as possible by allowing them better contact with the groove on the track.
Axle Polishing and Gear Meshing
Before fixing the axles and the gears, it is advisable to glue the motor in place to prevent it from moving while on the track. Once you're done with that, you can look to the car's axles and gears and see where improvements can be made.
Now you're ready for the race. Put all the disassembled components of the car back in place and test-drive it. Learn how you can best control it by making further changes on its setting.
Toy makers found it a necessity to duplicate the quality that car manufacturers have applied on their automobiles, thus paving the way for the creation of slot cars. But did you know that the first slot cars were not really clamped on slots?
The first commercial slot cars were made by Lionel in 1912, and were being operated on rails similar to that of modern trains. These were often referred to as Rail Cars, and they were built with spare model train motors and parts.
The appearance of these slot cars was surprisingly almost similar to what we have today, except for the fact that during these early years, the cars can only run on a single pace. You can't make them run faster or slower.
During the late 1930s, slot cars were powered by small combustion engines, allowing them to dash through the rails at a faster speed. Human intervention is still not possible, and the slot cars were just being clamped to a single central rail so that they will not lose their track.
As years went by, and with the continuous improvement in technology and in electronics, hobbyists began to conduct experiments on how toy cars can become controllable. They installed hand-built motors inside the cars, thus permitting speed adjustments and manipulation in the presence of a human who acts as the controller.
1954 was a milestone for slot cars and slot car racing. This was the year when the first electronic racecourse was created. Hobbyists became driven as ever on slot car racing as the electricity-powered racecourse further increased the popularity of slot cars. Racing clubs eventually switched from center rails to slots in the track surface.
Slot car racing was at its peak during the 1960s, where slot car facilities began to grow in multitude in every town. Major manufacturers like Eldon, Revell and Scalextric began to make home sets and became commercial successes.
By the late 1970s, there was a gradual decline in the slot car frenzy; perhaps this can be attributed to other technological advancements that sparked interest to other hobbyists.
In the 1990s, slot cars had more detailed and intricate designs, thanks mainly to the computer which made it possible to design a model, even on 3D. The hobby is currently in a sort of revival with makers like Scalextric and Carrera making a comeback. The renewed interest also spurred hobbyists to collect vintage slot cars that became popular during the early years.
The most modern of the slot cars are the digitized ones, which were invented in 2004. Digital slot cars have the ability to race on multiple, providing a more realistic simulation of car racing.
Carrying out routine maintenance on slot cars should be very easy. This is especially true if you are handling the larger scale sizes 1:24 and 1:32 which don’t have hard to reach very small parts, unlike with HO slot car models and other scales in between.
Critical to performing car maintenance is knowing the model of your car. Although the basic components of slot cars are pretty much the same, there are some minor variations with each model. Before you open your own, check out model information first so you can be sure that you are not doing anything wrong with your car. If, for any reason, there is a need to replace a part, you should check available parts for that particular in online stores and hobby shops near you.
If you don’t wish to open your car yourself, it is advisable that you have a professional do it for. If, however, you prefer to do it on your own, you should take note of the first step to opening up a model – removing a few screws to separate the shell from the chassis. After opening the model, you should inspect the following:
Braids Braids, or brushes as other drivers call them, are the wires connected to the side of the track that send power to the motor. Although these are generally for keeping the slot car powered and running, they are also very important to keep the car attached to the grooves on the track. Worn out braids won't do that. Worse, they won't guarantee that your car receives the power it needs.
It is, thus, very important to replace worn out braids with new ones regularly. To do this, simply pull off the braids and replace them. New slot car sets often come with extra braids. If you've run out of these, you can always buy them in packs of 4 in slot car or hobby shops.
Gears If your car creates strange noise while running, you have problems with the gears. The best solution is often to replace the worn gears with new ones.
Motor Motors, no matter how excellently built they are, do not last forever. After long hours of racing, your motor should be replaced. A good sign that your motor needs replacement is when problems with speed and performance start to crop up.
Tires Your car's tires should be replaced whenever necessary as well. Bad tires affect performance. Often cars with bad tires often perform slower than those with perfectly good tires. Also, these tend to fly off of the racetrack as they no longer have the grip suitable for racing.
Replacing parts is not the only thing you should do during routine maintenance. Cleaning the entire car should also be part of the process. Usually, cars collect fluff, dirt and other components on the ground. To prevent these from affecting your car's performance, it is best to remove them regularly or after each race. You need not open the entire model every time though. You can simply scrape off the dirt or fluff using a small tool like a screwdriver or a pair of tweezers.
If, however, you wish to remove the fluff or dirt that has collected in the chassis of the car, you can unscrew the car and separate the chassis from the shell. This should allow you access to the gears which usually collect fibers, hairs and dirt.
Are you familiar with the cliché that goes, “Don't fix it if it is not yet broken”? Apparently, this does not work out every time. Take the case of your slot cars, for example. Just like life-size automobiles, there will come a time when age would ultimately take its toll on them. They're not necessarily broken, but would you want to see this happen before you even make an action?
Slot cars need an amount of regular maintenance to make sure that they are always on top-notch speed and performance. Unlike life-size automobiles, maintaining your slot cars is not really a daunting task. Just as long as you maintain and clean them on a regular basis, then they're good to go.
As with any other machine, the parts that are always vulnerable to wear and tear are the ones always in motion. These are the tires, gears, axles and motors.
If you start to notice that the slot car is gradually slowing down, the parts that should be checked first right away are the tires, gears and axles. Dust are often times absorbed by the tires, thus, making the tires loose their grip on the track.
One simple way of cleaning the tires is by rolling them over a Scotch tape. All of the dirt will simply glue their way over the tape, and the tires will tighten its grip once again.
Axles and gears, meanwhile, are also susceptible to dust, dirt and lint. If you let the dirt accumulate, chances are it will clog down the gears and cause the car to slow down. You can simply use a pair of tweezers to remove those dirt pieces one by one.
When everything seems to be okay on your slot cars and you notice that they're still running slow, then you now have to turn your attention to the slot car tracks. Remember, two of the track's main enemies are dirt and corrosion.
If the track will not be used for a long period of time, it needs to be covered or have it removed from dust-prone areas such as the garage or the basement. Too much dirt and dust will get in the way of the flow of electricity, which could reduce the speed of your slot car.
It is a big no-no to leave the tracks in humid areas. Be more cautious on moisture especially if what you have is a metal track. Moisture will make the track rusty and will later on lead to corrosion.
If you've seen that there's already an amount of dirt and rust that have already mounted up the tracks, wipe them off with a damp micro-fiber cloth, followed by a dry one. Scrub off the rust with a sandpaper or a wire brush. Of course, before you begin with the cleanup, make sure to turn the power off.
Lastly, don't forget to lubricate your slot car parts and tracks once in a while. If humans need water for sustenance, then slot cars need lubricants too to them to keep going. Just don't overdo it; a moderate amount is enough for your slot cars to start running smoothly again.
Slot cars have been around for decades and children of all ages have, in one way or another, experienced the thrill of racing miniature models of their favorite cars, whether by watching adults race slot cars or by growing up racing the cars themselves. But not everyone is very familiar with the hobby because as far as gaming and sports goes, children nowadays are more computer-game-oriented.
So what is slot car racing? Slot car racing is a hobby or a sport, depending on which side of the coin you are looking. Nowadays, it is largely considered a hobby among those who were born during the earlier decades. In the sixties, however, it is widely considered as a sport, somewhat in the league of baseball, bowling, and basketball. During the earlier decades, both young and old are involved in the sports. Huge commercial raceways dot nearly all cities, just as they do now with bowling facilities. Unfortunately, as with most fad sports, this one died its natural death. But it was never really forgotten as evidenced by the fact that slot racing these days is experiencing revival in popularity.
The New and The Old When it was first introduced to the public, slot racing was the sports of the sons of the filthy rich. The raceways as well as the model cars are very very expensive, thus it started slow. But the general public soon picked up the habit when less expensive model cars and raceways became available. Its Golden Age began and ended during the sixties to seventies. It is only now that people are rediscovering slot car racing.
The classic style of slot racing comprises of model cars made of wood or plastic that are powered by electricity. This is considered the conventional slot cars.
In this type of slot racing, cars race in a single line. The number of cars that are raced during a single 'competition' depends on the number of lanes available. Say when the raceway only has 2 lines, only 2 cars are allowed to compete. Whenever there are 4 lanes, 4 cars are allowed for completion, and so on. Because variations in the general speed of the slot car are affected by the position of the lanes, most races are divided into heats wherein drivers switch lanes to equalize any limitations imposed by each lane. Being the conventional or classic mode of slot racing, this is the more popular method used among race sets all over the world.
The newer form of racing is the digital slot car racing. This allows for 2 to 8 drivers to compete in 2-lane tracks. Unlike with the conventional mode of racing, this one allows for better control of the lane as well as the car. Any or all of the drivers can race in one lane simultaneously, thus allowing for better competition and real race-like appeal.
Why you should race? Slot car racing is many different things to different people. Some people race for fun, others as a hobby and still others for money prizes. For starters, slot car racing is purely for the satisfaction of one's innate sense for racing.
Most cars won't perform their best when raced straight out of the box. They are just not competitive enough for racing against other cars that have received some modifications. Fine-tuning is very much needed to shake off the mass production settings of the car.
Braids The original braids of slot cars are often too small for good performance. A little push to keep them apart will do the trick of allowing them closer contact to the rail. For better performance, exchange the original braids with softer ones to reduce friction and enhance electrical conductivity. Always do routine maintenance to the braids to keep them free of dirt.
Rims and Tires Slot cars are molded from plastic and as such, are likely to have burrs in some areas which could affect the performance of the car. Remove all burrs as much as possible. Remove, especially, the burrs on each wheel and polish the rim to make it completely round.
To do this, remove each wheel and give the rim a more round profile. Put back the wheels and run the car on sandpaper for a few seconds. This process, called 'truing the tires', should polish the entire circumference of each wheel. For further polishing, you can soak the wheels with oil to soften the rubber.
Clean the tires. Use light fuel to rub the entire with a clean sheet to remove dirt. You can do this for routine maintenance and every after race to keep the tires free from dirt.
Some people glue the tires to the rim to prevent these from spinning. You can do this if you don’t want the axles of your car's wheels to move during the race.
Cleaning Routine maintenance is a key component of keeping the car's performance at its best. After each race, cars get dirty. This is especially true if you are racing on simulated rally courses that use either cocoa powder or flour to substitute for dirt or snow.
Check the entire car for dirt, especially the interior or chassis. Check the chassis for dust and dirt and wipe these out.
Motor Serious attention should be given to the car's motor. Needless to say, the motor should always be clean and well maintained.
Prior to the race, most racers make it a habit to warm up the motor before putting the car on the track. This should take more or less a few hours to complete. When doing this, be sure to gradually increase the voltage to ensure that the car gets the power it needs to perform well.
To prevent wear and tear, most racers attach the motor to the chassis permanently. Do this by either gluing the motor to the chassis or by taping it.
Chassis Just like real racecars, the chassis of any slot car should be optimized for performance. Sanding the sides of the car as well as loosening the screws will do the trick.
