woodcote

Hi Superstox - welcome to the forum! I have looked in 'Scalextric - the Ultimate Guide' by Adrian Norman & Roger Gillham. I can't find any mention of a special wooden-boxed 500 set. As you say, I suspect it is a one-off hand-crafted box, probably using branding and packaging that was available at the time. A skilled carpenter would probably produce something rather wonderful that has survived the past forty years far better than original cardboard box. Some pictures would be great to see.

Hi King Steuie - welcome to the forum! My advice with 1/64 scale HO track is almost always to stick to one system. As Andy P said, a DIY adapter might be okay 'for fun', but is likely to be very disappointing for longer-term use. There are adapters available for some American brands - AFX to Tyco, AFX to Life Like etc - although these can be tricky to find and expensive. There is the one adapter for Micro Scalextric - to the old Marchon / Scalextric Micro MR-1 track system. Can you give us the names on the boxes of all three of the sets you have. That will help me with figuring out what you have and whether it is compatible. Am I right in thinking your Giant Raceway is the Tomy AFX set? The lane spacing on AFX track is narrower (by a few millimetres) to the 1995-2019 Micro Scalextric track. That does make an adapter tricky to make. There is no commercially-available adapter from AFX to Micro.

Hi Big Bill - there have been various versions of the powerbase with different power and controller sockets. The most common two types of the 'old-style' (pre-2019) Micro Scalextric powerbases were those with the larger DC and stereo jacks and then the final flat, rectangular plugs. If you buy from eBay, you would need to chat to the seller to make sure you get what you need. The powerbases available as an accessory from Scalextric in 2020 are for the new 9 volt (2019) second generation system and are not compatible with your set. In any case, you only need one powerbase in a layout. You can power each lane separately, but it is not essential. I hope that helps.

There was a C7006 Retro-Fit Saloon car chip, but it hasn't been available for quite a few years. So the C7005 is the only choice now.

Hi Max. Yes, what you need is the C7005 Retro-Fit Digital Chip: www.scalextric.com/uk-en/retro-fit-digital-chip-a-single-seater-type It is out of stock here on the Scalextric website at the moment, but widely available from Scalextric stockists. It does require some basic soldering. Instructions are included. Here is an excellent video of a C7005 chip being fitted to a tiny Scalextric Mini Cooper: I hope that helps

This is not something I've done myself. The best thing to do is to Google something like 'routed digital slot car track'. There are some fabulous builds out there, such as this one: https://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=184107 I have seem some hybrid layouts of Scalextric track and routed sections, so that is possible. If the sections you are thinking have no lane changers included in them, it won't be any more difficult than wiring a routed analogue track. Before deciding on routed sections, you could look at some of the rally-style track sections offered by other slot car manufacturers (eg SCX, Ninco) as there are ways to connect from Scalextric Sport to these other track systems using adapter pieces. I hope that helps. Let us know how you get on.

Hi McLaine - welcome to the forum! You'll need to contact Scalextric Customer Services about this - they should be able to figure out what's going on. The BMW club car is really nice, so I hope you get your hands on it soon.

Hi halliday! Some Scalextric cars are grippier in the corners than others and adjusting the speed on the controllers (or via the app with ARC) can really help. However, all Scalextric drivers do need to learn to slow down for the corners - sliding off is a sign of going too fast. A competition to see how many laps your son can do without coming off might be a good start. There are a few things that will help with increasing the grip... 1) Keep the track clean. Before racing (and before turning on the powerbase) wipe away any dust or debris with a slightly moist (but not wet) microfibre cloth. 2) Clean the rear tyres on a strip of masking tape or duct tape. The sticky tape lifts dust and dirt off the tyres. Clean tyres and clean track = more grip. 3) Keep the braids straight and neat. If the braids - at the front of the car - are a bit messy, the car can de-slot too easily in the corners. These tips are included in an article on the website, together with some pictures and advanced tuning techniques: www.scalextric.com/uk-en/scalextric-tuning-tips I hope that helps!

If you click on Account/logout top right of the screen > My Details > Clubs you can see if your club membership is connected. If not, fill in the form on that page with your membership number and name. Make sure you keep a note of your login details. I hope that helps.

Hi Papy rebel - welcome to the forum! When you sign in to the site (and link your membership to you online account, if you received club membership as a gift), the discount should apply automatically. In fact, your club discount price should show when you browse the online store. That's what happens for me. Any problems, contact Scalextric Customer Services.

Hi roguejackal - not a daft question at all. Plenty of people have routed digital tracks in various ways, so it would certainly be possible. What sort of Rally Cross section were you thinking of?

Hi David - the conversation above is two years old. At present, the USB port communication protocol has not been released publicly, although the Bluetooth protocol has (and used to produce the Magic app for ARC). I do know that the Scalextric team are aware of enthusiasts' interest in an ARC Pro to PC wired link-up. I guess any decision will tie in with their long-term plans for the ARC Pro format. With several upgrades to the ARC Pro powerbase and the re-introduction of the big-ticket Platinum set, it looks like their focus has been to ensure the underlying hardware is as reliable as possible and that the ARC Pro sets appeal to newcomers and existing Scalextric digital enthusiasts alike. If you are an enthusiast - like myself - hoping that others will develop a new PC-based RMS, I think it is probably best to be patient - enjoy and explore ARC Pro as it is for now. If you are an established RMS developer, then I would make that very clear in your email - or give Hornby a call. I hope that helps.

Hi Rob The 'Ferrite Man' is made of two parts - a ferrite bead and a ceramic disc capacitor. The bead is the body, the head and legs the capacitor. The arms are the wires that come of the capacitor legs just below the ceramic disc. The ferrite beads are a standard Scalextric part - W8424. A few vendors, including Pendle Slot Racing have them in stock. Pioneer Slot Cars use the same DPR system and sell the beads as part WR200062 - available at inaslot.com and other vendors who sell Pioneer parts. The ceramic disc capacitor used by Scalextric is a 103M capacitor. Although Scalextric do not offer this as a spare part, Pioneer sell part WR200315 - a pack of ten 10nf capacitors. There is a how-to thread on SlotForum that shows how the ferrite man is made: https://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=69733 I hope that helps.

Hi roguejackal - welcome to the forum! The original screen is a old-fashioned LCD display and gives the powerbase limited functionality. You can pick up the original screens quite easily as most advanced powerbase users never use them. Try the 'Wanted' section on Slot Forum (worldwide), SlotRacer Online (UK) or Slot Car Illustrated (USA). By far the best way to the use the C7042 advanced powerbase is to buy a 'USB cable for Scalextric C7042 6 car digital powerbase' (on ebay or via the RikoRocket website) to attach the powerbase to a Windows computer. You can then use various digital race management systems to bring your digital racing alive. I have used and enjoy Scalextric Sport Digital Console (SSDC) and Race Control System 64 (RCS64). Both programs have a 30 day fully-featured free trial. They will also help you update the powerbase firmware to the latest v1.09 version. The cable costs £30 and a software license about the same. That will give you a very nice piece of kit. To use a monitor display on your race room wall, you will only need to attach the monitor to the computer via an HDMI or VGA cable. I hope that helps.

Hi N01ParraFan - welcome to the forum! ARC Pro sets include the 'Scalextric Sport' track system, so look for sets that also include Scalextric Sport track. That should be most sets manufactured since 2000, with the exception of the START branded sets. ARC Pro is the current Scalextric digital system and has the option of using a smart device and the ARC app to control lap counting and loads of fabulous rade mode and simulation features. It makes Scalextric racing pretty close to real racing - with fuel consumption, tyre wear, engine problems and weather changes. I have written a guide to the ARC app here: https://slotracer.online/arc-pro-guide/ ARC Pro will run up to six cars on two lanes. To run six cars you will need two power supplies plugged into the ARC Pro powerbase and have six ARC wireless controllers - each connected to a separate colour on the powerbase. The cars will need to have Scalextric Digital chips (decoders) fitted. The six car set you mention sounds like the old C1330 'Digital Platinum' set. It contains the older C7042 six-car advanced powerbase, which has its own LCD display tower. The tower will give you very basic lap counting and race timing, plus a pace car feature and the ability to customise power settings. Enthusiasts have improved the C7042 advanced powerbase by producing a cable to connect it to a Windows computer running race management software. For an additional £60, you have a system that offers the same features - but even more detailed - than the ARC Pro app. Controller upgrades and pit lane sensors are also available for the advanced powerbase. Similar upgrades will most likely be available - in time - for ARC Pro (which is only two years old). You can only use one powerbase in a digital layout, so you you need to choose ARC Pro or the advanced powerbase. The older digital controllers that come with the 'Digital Platinum' set cannot be used with ARC Pro - but the power supplies, cars and track can. The ARC wireless controllers only work with ARC Pro (and the non-digital ARC Air). If you choose to go with ARC Pro - which is what I use at home - then perhaps buying a second ARC Pro set might be better. Or simply buy more ARC controllers, a second power supply and more track pieces or track expansion packs. The variety of track pieces in a set is mostly limited to standard 'radius 2' curves and you might want to explore wider or tighter curves to give variety to your layout. Finally, the cars that came with your non-digital sets will need to be fitted with digital chips (decoders) to work with ARC Pro or the advanced powerbase in digital mode. Both also have a traditional one-car-per-lane 'analogue' mode to run non-digital cars against each other. The powerbases, power supplies and controllers that came with your non-digital sets cannot be used with a digital layout. I hope that helps. Do ask any more questions, although as a new member, you are probably restricted to only two posts per 24 hours at the moment.

Hi Yupster - welcome to the forum! The low speed calibration is individual to each car - it is setting the slowest speed a car will get round the track without stalling. Some cars will need more 'juice' than others. The low-speed calibration is used for ARC features where the power is reduced - 'out of fuel', 'tyre blowout', 'weather change', 'incidents' etc. It should also kick in at the end of a race. Is the stuttering only happening in low speed features or all the time? Does it happen when you are not using the app too? Or is this happening with the Pace Car mode when you are setting the speed of the pace car? If this is happening with just one car, it could be an issue with the car. Stuttering can often be caused by the braids not making contact properly with the track or the contacts below the braid plate. Check the braids are neat and that the braid plate has not come loose - it should be pushed back in the slot at the front of the guide blade so it covers the circular guide base. Another reason for stuttering can be track problems - is the stuttering happening at a specific part of the track? Connections should be checked and tabs under the track tightened, if necessary: www.scalextric.com/uk-en/support/track-maintenance Hopefully that gives you a few things to look at. If none of them solves the problem, please let us know and give more details of what is happening and when. Good luck!

Hi Paceman - welcome to the forum! That is correct, the ARC app Pace Car mode only allows one driver-operated car. Although only one pace car will ever appear in the app race screen, it is possible to run more pace cars - simply place the cars on the track when you calibrate the pace car speed. Each pace car will trigger a lap, so you will get beaten (!) - but it is good practice for racing in traffic. I think you can set up multiple driver-controlled cars and multiple pace cars in the Magic app for ARC. I must have a good look at that one day. I hope that helps.

Hi Dave - I suspect a solution to your lap counting issue can be found here: https://slotracer.online/arc-pro-guide/preparation.html

It is possible to make / buy decals for the tyre lettering. Both Pattos Place and Indycals sell sheets of tyre decals. There are also replacement wings available on Shapeways for some Scalextric models - or I repair mine with black polycarbonate sheet (from food packaging) and a flexible glue like Shoe Goo or E6000. I understand that the restriction of spares to the bare minimum - motors, guide/braids and gears - is to keep costs down. The cost to produce spares across the whole range (and going back 10-20 years) is not insignificant, but it's the warehousing and the staff to administer a full range of spares that is prohibitive - especially with Scalextric and Hornby Hobbies having to be very focused on turning the company round. Everything that is sitting unsold in a warehouse is money that can't be invested in new models, new tooling etc. So I get why this is the way it is at the moment... My hope for the future would be a half-way house - not a full range, but blank wings and mirrors for current models, one rear axle assembly and tyres for each type of car etc. For those of us who race the cars, things do get broken, so it is nice to have replacements.

Hi Ironhippie and ToXic U4ia Scalextric now produce only basic spares for their cars, but that does include gears, motors, guides/braid assemblies. There are some spares for older cars listed on the website, but when they are gone, they're gone: https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/shop/spares-accessories.html Specifically, the gear inline gears are here: https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/shop/spares-accessories/contrate_gear_pack_(inline_motors).html Other Scalextric retailers, such as Pendle Slot Racing will carry a good selection of spares. My experience is that with good maintenance - especially cleaning - the Scalextric cars are pretty robust. I've never had the gears fail on a car. I have changed a couple of motors after a lot of heavy running. The most common change for me is new braids and - because I tend to run cars without magnets - I change the rear tyres to the correct Slot.it or Paul Gage versions. I hope that helps.

Hi sfisher8 - welcome to the forum! Yes, you definitely need braid plates for those cars. They are the 'old' (pre-2019) My First / Micro Scalextric system and will need the older W1573 guide plate and braid set (usually sold in pairs). I have also seen these described as L8109 or ML14092 - they look identical to me. The only Micro Scalextric braid plates that won't fit your cars are the new G8047 set of eight spare guide blades + screw. These are for the new (2019 onward) My First / Micro Scalextric cars and they attach to the cars quite differently. I hope that helps!

In theory, it would be possible to retro-fit ARC One into any slot car system - just use the lap sensing part of ARC One and use the regular powerbase for powering the track. The track power cables of the ARC One powerbase should not be connected to the track rails. It is more difficult with Micro Scalextric and any other 1/64 scale system. The ARC sensors are an infrared beam broken by a black guide blade. The tiny 1/64 scale guide pin/flag is just not big enough to trigger the sensor. An alternative is to use a sensor that picks up the localised magnetic field of the cars' traction magnets - Hall effect sensors would be most reliable, but reed switches could work. This would need some modification to the circuitry - the Hall effect sensors require power and the output signal would probably need tweaking... This has been talked about by enthusiasts in theory, but no-one (as far as I know) has produced a working prototype. ARC Air with with wireless controllers would be great, but then there is the issue of the power output - the standard is 15-ish volts and the voltage required for the old Micro Scalextric is 18 volts or 9 volts for the new 2019 system. Not impossible, but even more complex and means fiddling with the power circuits. Will Scalextric produce an ARC product for the new 9 volt Micro Scalextric system? I don't think so. Will they produce some electronic accessories and apps? I am pretty confident they will do - over the next few years. If I was to make a guess, it would be very easy to produce a Spark Plug for Micro Scalextric. I already use a stand alone lap-counting app with Micro, see here: https://www.scalextric.com/uk-en/new-micro-system-sets

Superman has been added to the single car range in the 2020 catalogue. Some retailers (for example, Jadlam Racing Models) have split cars from sets - I picked up the two Justice League set cars that way. There are three new road cars for 2020 - the Aston Martin DB5, Jaguar XF and Rasio C-20. All are set-only in the 2020 catalogue, but we'll have to wait and see if there are more individual cars in 2021. The six individually-packaged cars in the 2020 catalogue is already more than has been available from Micro Scalextric in the past 10-15 years. So good news!

Hi Brian - Pendles have a few SSD chipped cars listed in their Slot.it section, but most are out of stock. Gaugemaster are the UK distributor and you could browse their list too. I imagine that any UK Slot.it retailer can order the chipped cars for you via Gaugemaster. It's probably the same in North America and Australia / New Zealand too - you would need to contact a retailer or the distributor. The chipped cars do work out good value, but fitting the SP15B SSD chip into most Slot.it cars is really easy, requiring just two solder points on the motor. If you love your Slot.its and you run ARC Pro, it is something you'll need to learn to do :-) I hope that helps.

I really like the Scalextric Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Ford Thunderbird. They are big and tough and perfect for digital racing. However, the Monte Carlo has a problem counting laps on the ARC Pro powerbase in digital mode. This is something Dr_C has looked at both theoretically and in practice. The Monte Carlo counts laps perfectly in the analogue mode of ARC Pro - and also with ARC Air, ARC One and other Scalextric analogue lap counters. It is only the digital mode of ARC Pro which is a problem - and I do find that it counts laps reliably on Red, Green and Blue but does miss some laps on Yellow, Orange and White. Basically, the higher the ID number (the colours furthest to the right on the powerbase), the greater the risk of missing laps. The two-step lap counting mechanism involves a black coloured guide breaking a horizontal sensor in the track (used in analogue mode and with ARC Air and One). In digital mode, the powerbase then needs to know what car ID has crossed the line. A second vertical sensor immediately searches for the car ID via the digital chip's LED. This second sensor is a set distance behind the first and there is a very short window of searching for the ID. In practice, Dr_C has found that the optimum performance for the second sensor is when the rear edge of the guide to LED distance is in a range between 6mm and 14mm (10mm plus or minus 4mm) - and the absolute maximum is 24mm. I measured the gaps on both the Thunderbird and the Monte Carlo. The T-Bird is right on the money at 10.6mm. The Monte Carlo is 23.86mm, right on the limit - which explains the issues with lap counting. The easiest fix I've come up with is to wrap some black PVC electrical tape around the guide so it trails back to 10.6mm in front of the LED - marked with the gold dot on the picture below... /media/tinymce_upload/7fc3e5acf8661af8bf69d9b00bf50c0c.jpg The tape does add extra width to the guide and - if you will be permanently modifying the car to run exclusively on ARC Pro digital - you could sand down the guide a little on both sides to compensate. I haven't found problems on any of my Scalextric Sport track pieces (including Radius 1s), but the tape does clearly rub. If you have any track pieces that have been bent and the slot closed up at all, the wider guide is likely to get stuck and the slot must opened out again or you risk damaging the digital chip if you gun the motor to get past the blockage. The first thing to do is to remove the braid plate. Then cut a long length of black PVC tape and attach it - one side at a time - to the guide blade, the bottom of the tape just above the slot for the braid plate and then stick the ends together at the trailing end. It is important the tape is wrapped tightly around the front of the blade... /media/tinymce_upload/d96f467bd18f6ec11f7b7e20375d3bc8.jpg Then trim the tape level with the bottom of the guide blade (or top when the car is up-side-down!) and cut at the back in line with the gold dot marking 10.6mm from the LED... /media/tinymce_upload/0136e2eb23a881c74d75ef684a799b7b.jpg Then re-fit the braid plate, which will require looping it over the tape extension at the rear of the guide... /media/tinymce_upload/c48547b4fbf147b976ff90811c1508e8.jpg We are then ready to race and count laps! There is another issue with the LED being so far back which the guide extension will not solve. This impacts on both lap counting and lane changing. The LED must be directly over the slot to trigger the lane changer and lap counting sensors - any sideways movement of the rear wheels (out of a corner, fishtailing on a straight etc) will move the LED off the centre line - and the further back the LED is positioned from the guide pivot, the further off the centre line the LED will be. Slot.it suggest a maximum distance of 35mm from the guide pivot to the LED and the Monte Carlo is 33.4mm, the T-Bird only 20.14mm. What this means is there must be at least one half straight between the exit of a corner and either a lane changer, pit entry or the ARC Pro powerbase - otherwise LED and sensor will not line up. This is good practice for any digital track design and running any digital cars. A full straight is even better - especially if running cars without traction magnets. The Monte Carlo will be more susceptible to missing sensors than the T-Bird, so that is important for the drivers to remember.