Slot car racing is widely considered to be both a hobby and a sport. It involves the collecting and racing of miniature race cars on a slot car race track that has a slot cut into it to guide the car. The cars used in a slot car race are generally modeled after some of the most popular, real race cars, including those from Nascar Nextel Cup and the Indy Cup. The majority of the slot cars used are manufactured and purchased commercially. Other, more avid hobbyists choose to modify a commercially built one or put a motor in a static car that they already own. The really devoted rc car racing hobbyist may choose to fabricate their own car and motor for optimal performance.

The slot car racing world is made up of a variety of different racing enthusiasts. Some, like little boys, choose to just race commercially built slot cars in the basement or a garage somewhere. Others will go to any extreme to participate in highly publicized races that require specially built or modified cars that perform at high levels not normally seen in hobby rc car racing. Most of these slot car race competitions pay good money to the winner. Those who are not really interested in competitively racing slot cars may choose to simply collect the cars and will work on creating a custom car racing slot track, similar to the ones produced by model train aficionado’s.

Slot car racing requires a special kind of track. It has a slot that is designed to guide the car as it travels the path of the track. There are metal strips on either side of the slot that transfer power to the car as it passes over it. The car has a very low-voltage electric motor in it and is controlled by a hand-held unit. This controller allows only the speed of the car to be adjusted. However, this is the key point in successfully navigating the course of the track, as the momentum must be carefully controlled to keep the car in its slot, and not allowing it to jump off of the track. Doing so will result in disqualification from a slot car race.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 6:27 am and is filed under Automotive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.