Vintage mighty metro racing set

[Chloe-348608]

Good evening all

I am hoping you can help me! My husband has been digging around in his parents attic and found his mighty metro racing set from 30+ years ago. By some miracle it still works although patchy in places. I have a few questions, can you use anything on the track to make the cars run smoother I.e wd40? What cars of the new generation will run on it as I would love to get him some new ones for his 40th birthday for him and our kids to enjoy.

The track is 12V so I'm guessing the looney toons cars won't run???

Any help with thus is greatly appreciated.

Chloe

[Andy P.]

Hi Chloe,

I am guessing you are referring to the mighty metro from 1992.

That was a standard 1/32 scale set with the "classic" track that has teh two spoons or loops on the end.

Depending on when and where the track was made the rails will be of varying steel quality.

WD40 is known to attack plastic so it is not the item of choice. Sanding or using other scouring products will likely do more harm than good.

The ideal thing is to polish the track with products like AutoSol (other brands are available).

Before and after each use there is a product called Inox avialable from Pendle Slot Store that is excellent and will keep rust from reforming.

The advice section has other tips:

https://uk.scalextric.com/community/advice

The Looney Toons cars are made for the Scalextric mirco system which is roughly half the size (arguably 1/64 scale).

The metal rails of the track are a goo 5 mm farther apart. Standard Scalextric track has the rails actually make up part of the slot so are very close together.

So you have 2 problems:

1. Making electrical contact to the rails a
2. and the overall voltage

You can try twisting and pulling the braids to get them to make contact with the rails in the middle. I have done this and it can work fairly well. If you replace the braids with slightly longer (2-3 mm) versions you have more "play room". The braids only need a few strands to touch to get them to work.

Regarding the voltage: Many users have used the newer 9-volt Micro cars on 12 volt tracks without issues. The only theoretical problem is that they will be faster.

Given the age of your track though is is very likely you are only getting 10 volts anway so I would give it a try.

One trick I have done often is I have bought a plug in dimmer i.e. a device you plug into the wall and then you plug something like a lamp into it and then you can dim the lamp. They are sometimes called inline dimmers.

This will allow you to reduce the power to the track and as the kids get better you can increase. It works really well but there are rare, newer powerbases that sometimes start to get hot using this method. Experiment with it for a good 15 minutes to make sure it isn't overheating before using it "in anger".

One last point: I have never seen the new Micro cars in the flesh but I know they have magnets. If the magnets are two far apart i.e. not directly over the rails the "magnatraction" ie. magnetic downforce will be diminished. This is most easily handled by slowing the cars down... alternatively you can buy little 2-3 mm magnets, drill a hole in the chassis and glue them in.

I am curious as to how you get on!