Digital or vintage?

[McD]

Hello all, new to the forum. 

I’m looking for some advice.

In my childhood / teenage years I was big big big into Scalextric, customising the tracks, adding lights, push button controls etc. 

Digital didn’t exist. 

I’m about to buy a second hand “cheap” set £30 or so to dip my toe back into it. 

Both digital and vintage are available within budget. 

So my questions are:

1. Is digital as easy to customise as vintage?

2. Are there benefits (lap counters, phone apps etc) that make digital a better choice? 

3. Which is the most common and most preferred? Will I be limited in what I can do with one of them?

4. Are vintage and digital interoperable? Both cars and track.

My initial thoughts are the mighty metro / saloon car vintage or the Porsche GT3 / BTCC digitaL. 

I don‘t want to be limited with regards to customisation. 

Thoughts?

Ewan

[woodcote]

Welcome to the forum McD & welcome back to Scalextric!

 

I'll try and aswer your questions:

 

1) I'm not quite sure what you by easy to customise? The basics are that with standard 'analogue' Scalextric (that's pre-2000 Classic track or the newer 'Sport' track) you can use pretty much any Scalextric car from 1959 to now, plus most other 1/32 scale slot car brands. Older cars might need new tyres and a little maintenance. With digital, all cars will need a digital chip added. The modern 'DPR' (Digital Plug Ready) cars are ready to fit the C8515 digital plug (or C8516 for single seaters). All older and non-DPR cars will need a C7005 'retro-fit' chip soldered in. The only limit to track design and race formats is your imagination - you can do everything you did as a kid, and probably a lot more. Digital does add a few more potential options.

 

2) Lap counting, race management programmes and apps are available for both digital and standard 'analogue' systems. The Scalextric ARC systems use the same app. ARC One and Air are analogue systems, ARC Pro is for digital. ARC Air and ARC Pro use almost all the same features in the app. I really like them. The main difference with standard 'analogue' systems and Scalextric digital is that only one car per lane can be used in analogue and up to six can be used across both lanes with digital - with lane changing and a separate pit lane. The older C7042 Digital Advanced Powerbase has some amazing race management software written for it. My favourite is RCS64. Adding all the extras to the C7042 powerbase does make digital quite expensive. ARC Pro offers similar features (although more basic and less customisable) for an extremely good price.

 

3) Digital is a bit like Marmite - people either love it or hate it (although I think many of the latter have never tried it). Some people are freaked out by having other cars on 'their' lane. For me, it depends if you are planning to race alone, in pairs or with groups of four or more. Digital is great for larger groups. Having said that, lane changing to run the 'racing line' round a track is fun, even on your own (or against computer-controlled ghost cars), as is using a separate pit lane to make pit stops - it adds to the realism. 'Ghost' cars are available in standard 'analogue' too - there are older stand-alone systems and the up-to-date app-based ARC Air.

 

4) I mentioned that almost all cars can be converted to digital. The Scalextric Sport track system is compatible with both standard 'analogue' and digital. There are a few digital only pieces, such as the digital lane-changers and pit lanes. The older pre-2000 'Classic' track can be connected to Sport with an adapter track. It's often cheaper to replace old pieces with Sport, but the adapters are great to use with Classic-only pieces like the Pacer unit, Le Mans Start, Goodwood Chicane, skid chicane, long chicane, curved chicanes and humpback bridge. The slot in 'Classic' track is shallower that Sport, so very recent cars (2012-ish onward) will bottom-out as they have a longer guide. These can be shaved down...

 

Given your two options, I'd say go for a modern set with modern 'Sport' track (I'm sure you can do that easily for £30 second-hand - boot fairs are a perfect place for bargains). You can add all the older cars you like and add modern cars like BTCC and GT3. That gives you the option to upgrade to digital via ARC Pro or stay with standard 'analogue' and use ARC Air or the more basic ARC One, which all give you access to the fun of the ARC app.

 

My highlights of modern Scalextric cars are the BTCC, GT and Trans-Am ranges. But I also have most of the early 1980s Formula One cars that I drooled over when I was a kid. I run both sets of cars on ARC Air (although not against each other - the performance is very different). I also bought ARC Pro to upgrade my home digital system. I have a set of six super-resistant Porsche GT cars to run on this, which are great fun and robust for digital racing. Digital racing does cause damage, just like real racing.

 

By the way, ARC Pro can be switched from digital to 'analogue' mode, although I find the older cars don't work quite as well as on ARC Air (not everyone agrees!).

 

Hope that helps. Keep the questions coming 😀

[McD]

Thanks Woodcote, that’s really helpfuL

I had no idea you could do ghost cars etc with Scalextric.

You’ve helped me write off the idea of buying 80’s/90’s sets, I’ll buy a fairly recent set Instead.

The types of customisation I used to do in the 90’s with vintage track were all based around power.

I’d like to (unless they exist already):

1. add a switch with an in-line resistor to one of the controllers, starve the power so my infant daughter can pull the trigger fully and never crash. 

2. Recreate an old college project of a button to feed the track a small amount of power, allowing the cars to autopilot drive around the track slowly with nobody at the triggers.

3. If I properly get back into it, use the track to trigger LEDs when the cars go past etc.

I imagine stuff I used to get the soldering iron out for is now available off the shelf?

Gutted I car booted all my old cars and track, had all eras of F1 (inc 6 wheelers), 4x4 Audi, Lancia, Subaru rally cars, metro’s, mini’s, pit lanes, start line button, Dunlop bridge etc etc, I probably sold the lot for about £30 and dread to think what it’s worth now.

The plan is to buy a cheap set, something my daughter and I can do together then build something more permanent if it’s something we do often, recreate Nurburgring F1 track maybe?

[woodcote]

No problem McD.

 

Controlling the power levels is something that can be done in ARC Air and ARC Pro via the app. It can't be done with ARC One. The only problem is that the power level reverts to full power when the app is not connected or a race is not set up - so people find that supervision and/or rules around racing only with the app are important.

 

The 'Ghost' or pace car callibration in ARC Air and ARC Pro allows you to set the speed you want the ghost car to go. It's similar with the old 'pacer' track. Only with the stand-alone Challenger unit does the car actually 'learn' the track rather than go a constant speed. Most of the race management programs for the C7042 Digital Advanced Powerbase also offer a more complex pace car system and with multiple pace cars available. The hack for ARC Pro is to program several cars to the pace car ID and then you can race several ghosts cars to practice your overtaking skills - however, each ghost car will trigger a lap, so it's not much of a race.

 

Adding signal LEDs to the circuit should be fun. You might be able to find a project kit somewhere or someone may have posted a tutorial on a slot car or model railway forum or blog. There are some very imaginative hobbyists when it comes to using electronics to add extra functionality or brilliant scenic effects.

 

If you put together a wishlist of the old cars you want to gradually add to your garage, you'll be able to find bargains if you're patient. Of course eBay is one option, but the various slot car shows and swapmeets in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe and North America) are the best places to find the old stuff at excellent prices. That's my excuse for going to the swapmeets...

 

I think your aim should be to recreate the Nürburgring Nordschleife 😉

[gorp]

Digital ?

Try 100 pounds to start with some used and some new digital parts plus add cars and track.

 

Rubberbands make ghost cars.

[McD]

Cheers guys, appreciate the feedback. 

I bought a Sport track, it’s the figure of 8 with crossroad- 2x Ferrari F430’s. £20.

My daughter and I have played with it loads, she’s pretty good at keeping it slow, don’t think I’ll need to limit the power now. 

I’ve found the guide on building the Silverstone BTCC track which is a bit predictable for a newbie like me but fun none the less

[MashaFX]

Don't forget to have a good look at the tyres. Make sure they're nice and flat, the full width of the tyre touching the track. Gets some borders and barriers too, this will add a lot more fun to the racing.