Classic to Sport

[Andylex]

Hi - I picked up a big lot (and the hobby again after about 30 yrs) of classic track cheap at a garage sale about a year ago without doing my research on sport track/power bases etc and am now at a crossroads in terms of addingf track.

The old classic track connectivity/conductivity seemed a bit rubbish to me - i cleaned it up and it was better, although it still seems to drop off in places. I replaced the power base with an air one, since the functionality looked good and bought a bunch of sport track, although to go like for like with the classic i have would be expensive and some of the nice old classic pieces like chicanes/track crossovers don't exist in sport track. Although, likewise, there are different sport track that don't exist in classic .

I've noted that there are issues with guide blades bottoming out with slot.it/carerra/newer scalextric on classic. These are solvable by in some cases filing down the guide and in some cases shortening the guide, since some get stuck in hairpins.

I like the mix and match of classic/sport, and also not having to buy sport track in bulk, but the track conductivity/guide issues with classic are a pain. So, after all this a couple of questions:

1. has anyone ever tried to deepen the slot in classic track to take the deeper blades or is this a really stupid idea that'll damage the integrity of the track?

2. In order to try and bump up the power around the circuit, can i use two power bases at the same time (arc one and C8530) or would this be a particularly bad idea?

Thanks in advance

Andy.

[Andy P.]

To your question 1: I have thought about this a few times. I have never done it but I was thinking if you affixed the track to something sturdy (plastic/acrylic/wood) you could then use a sanding wheel to cut it down.

My theory for affixing it first is you want to keep the slot width an lane space the same.

The main problem is the way classic track connects. Because it is levered into place you have to leave that area open on the bottom.

Personally I have replaced all my classic track with Sport except for the things that are not available in Sport like the Goodwood chicane.

To point 2: There is a post on here somewhere of a guy who has used two powerbases but I have no idea how that worked. Getting good connections and using "booster cables" running cables from the power base to the track that is farthest away.

[woodcote]

Hi Andy - welcome to the forum! I was racing 70s and 80s Scalextric cars on a mix of Sport and Classic (including Spanish SCX Classic) track last night and it was great fun with no issues. I've also raced on rally layouts with a mix of Sport, Classic, SCX and Ninco pieces - and that was a lot of fun too :-)

 

If you choose to stay with the mix of Sport and Classic, the simple fix is to shave the newer, longer guide blades so they don't bottom out. If you wanted to try modifying some Classic track, why not have a go? I suspect it will take a lot of careful work if you are using a lot of Classic track.

 

Using a second powerbase with ARC Air just isn't going to work, I'm afraid. The Sport/Classic layout I was racing on yesterday had good track maintenance (https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/support/track-maintenance) plus two power taps / boosters. You can make your own or buy ready-made cables from Jadlams: https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/scalextric-c8248-sport-track-power-booster-cable-2x/

 

The track owner also uses INOX MX3. INOX works very well to help with conductivity and protecting the rails. Just using a drop on each braid of the cars at the start of a racing session (ie start of the evening, not each race!) usually does the job. Pendles stock INOX in the UK (https://www.pendleslotracing.co.uk/brand/inox.html) - one bottle will last for years.

 

ARC Air is a fabulous system. If you wanted to add a little extra power, you can upgrade the ARC Air power supply to the P9300 ARC Pro 15V 4 Amp transformer that will fit the ARC Air powerbase and not cause a power overload. This is something the Scalextric team suggested a while back.

 

I hope that helps!

[Andylex]

Thanks both, some usful tips - very helpful. 

I may give modifying the classic track a go, although thinking about it a bit more, I think some of it is not that flat which does cause problems. With the modified guide on newer rally cars, they skip out of the slot on the classic track. This doesn't happen with the sport track and i suspect it is because all the classic track i have is not quite flat and is a devil to make truly flat.

The other thing I wondered as well is that on a lot of the classic track i have, underneath the male end of the rails, there is a small piece of plastic that doesn't sit flush under the rail (i guess it's part of the track molding) but sits at a angle. When trying to insert the mail rail into the female, unless this piece of plastic can be instered into the female rail as well, i think it causes the rail to sit up and potentially reduces connectivity. I was also going to cut all these pieces out since they are a nuisance when connecting the track and might help.

The last thiing is that i have a couple of kids for whom this is clearly all for, or at least that is what i tell the wife. But they have a habit of walking all over the track since they are still quite young. So maybe making do with the classic until they show all the kit a bit more respect is a good idea...

[Andylex]

Update on this:

 

Got agricultural on some straights with a hand saw to lower the slot. Seemed to work fine with no issue to the integrity of the track as far as i can see. 

[woodcote]

Thanks for the update - that's excellent news!