any advice for a new oldie?

[shadowman]

My new grand son has given me the opportunity to revisit my youth and so this xmas my loving wife and daughters bought me a brand spanking new scalextric set "American Classics" so what has changed in 50 years :) what is all this digital? and more importantly are there any more oldies reliving their childhood out there?

[Blagard-01]

The Amerocan Classics is a traditional Analogue set but has the benefit of ARC software for race management (Using a compatible smart device like an iphone). It is still just two car racing, one in each lane. It is an ARC One set with wired controllers

 

The next step up is ARC Air, the same sort of thing but now with wireless controllers and more software features

 

The Final step up is ARC Pro - That is a Digital set with wireless controllers and you can race upto six cars on any lane and can switch lanes with the special track pieces. But, your cars need to be digital as well, that means they must have a digital chip in them. If a car is DPR (Digital Plug Ready) it is easy to upgrade the car to Digital with the Digital plug in module.

 

To see the comparisons have a look at the link below and scroll down the page to see the comparisions

 

https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/shop/sets/app-race-control-arc.html

[shadowman]

thanks for the advice Blagard...it's a whole new world since the days of my youth

[Kelpieboy]

I am another recently returned "oldie" shadowman. I am constructing my track with 2 major hurdles. The first being limited area ( for the short term anyway) and the second being limited budget ( my other major hobby/sport/lifestyle being skiing which requires substantial funding ). Due to the second constraint I am sticking to analogue for a while which presents its own limitations to a degree.

However the limited area is providing me with its own entertainment. I must have laid down and ripped up my track at least 30 times as I discover the best usage of the area and what works and what doesnt as far as racing dynamics and what scenery I might be able to have. The making of my own scenery both landscape and trackside will stretch my limited funding further and is damn good fun into the bargain.

[Andy P.]

SOunds like fun. :-)

Here is a list of the various ranges and their capabilites:

https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/our-ranges-explained

CHeck out the top 5 tips:

https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/five-top-tuning-tip-for-christmas

You will need some sort of lap couting at least to keep things interesting. I also like lap timing which is why we love ARC

[Kelpieboy]

So far in my life I have avoided owning a portable smart device eg phone or tablet - I just dont have any real use or need for them to be honest. I can hear the younger generation now saying to themselves " what how do you survive without these devices ? You dont know what your missing out on ! " Its quite easy to not live your life devoted to such a thing..........but this is another subject and for another place.

I want to upgrade at some stage to probably ARC PROso I guess I might have finally found a reason to burden myself with 1 of these all life consuming devices. God help me , my dinosaur reputation will be in tatters.

[shadowman]

What is so unique about Scalextric and indeed the Scalextric forum is that it brings together the young and the young at heart who remember fondly their childhood which usually included owning a bike and owning a scalextric racing set. Even though the digital age has encompassed model racing it is still the sheer pleasure of racing a car around a circut at speed trying to wipe the smile of your opponents face :) that binds young and old together.....now enough of the speeches I have a question. My set is the American Classics and includes a Chevrolet camaro and a Ford mustang (think San Francisco and Steve Mcqueen) I would like to add a few modern cars to my fleet what would you suggest, something nicely balanced able to take corners at speed (or perhaps that is down to the driver :)