Track and Car Wishes

[Notty_Notlob]

Here are my wishes:

Track:

- Racing line curves, i.e. on an Radius 2 180 curve have the outside line come in to run alongside the inside lane and then back out again. Or a racing line through a Radius 2 left/right chicane.

- Bring back the long chicane from the classic track - C174a, C174b, C176 & C179

- Bring back the curved lane-changers

- Shamelessly copy the digital switch track sections that Carrera has, i.e. the straight single change and the straight/curve single change.

- Borders/barriers to fit inside the sideswipe straight/hairpin curve combination

- Borders/barriers for the short straights C8200 & C8236

- Border/barrier Radius 2 curved Lead in/Lead out

- More robust bridge supports.

Cars

- The new Jaguar F-Type

- Nissan GT-R

- Electronics (capacitor?) in the car or changes to the track to ensure there are no deadspots where the power goes off, i.e. on cross-overs. I hate it when the headlights flash off/on as they go over the cross-over and it's the most frequent place where we have to nudge the car to get it moving again.

- Brake lights as standard, i.e. brighter rear lights (on braking). I know this is possible with some home electronics, I've done it myself!

- Better availability of spares, particularly wings, wing-mirrors and arieal packs.

Not much then! :)

[EvadingGrid]

Yes, bring back the Long Chicane, in fact bring back all the exciting track pieces such as the Hump Back Bridge, the Le Mans start, Goodwood Chicane, its a long list of track that used to be made and is highly sort after on ebay.

Specific to the long chicane, sell the bit in the middle as an extsion piece so we can have a  chicane as long as desired.

[Joe Hawkins]

Yes, bring back the Long Chicane, in fact bring back all the exciting track pieces such as the Hump Back Bridge, the Le Mans start, Goodwood Chicane, its a long list of track that used to be made and is highly sort after on ebay.

Specific to the long chicane, sell the bit in the middle as an extsion piece so we can have a  chicane as long as desired.

I agree. My layout is in need of more action. I'd love a sport Goodwood Chicane and really like the idea of a "racing line" 180. 

[Andy P.]

Track:

- Racing line curves, i.e. on an Radius 2 180 curve have the outside line come in to run alongside the inside lane and then back out again. Or a racing line through a Radius 2 left/right chicane.

You can kind of do this with the current R2 crossover track. I know a lot of drivers do not like it though when their cars hit other cars. Some of us have enough trouble keeping the car on the track so have cars hit is often frowned upon. I do know a Spanish maker has a "chicane" curve that with an adapter piece come somewhat close however the inside lane is still a stndard R2 (for that brand the R2 is a little wider than Scalextric).

There is a French guy who makes digital wood track and he actually has it set up so that if the path is clear the car takes the ideal line and if the path is not clear it switches automatically to a "passing" lane. I will see if I can find a video of it....

Anyway, the point is, a lot of drivers do not want car crashes (part of why the new squeeze track/chicane is not as tight) and why the crossover/intersection piece tends to be in the more basic "fun" sets. The other point is if you want ideal line racing without hitting other cars you have to go digital...

- Bring back the long chicane from the classic track - C174a, C174b, C176 & C179

See my point above. While I also own these sections and love them a lot a lot of drivers don't like to bang their cars up. I think Hornby was very careful when setting up the new chicanes and squeeze sections to make sure the cars touch, but don't smash into each other. I allso think this is why they chose the curve to do the lane change as you tend to be going slower and it makes for a less dangerous move.

- Bring back the curved lane-changers

I don't drive digital so I have no idea if there were issues that track. I agree though that passing in a curve is cool. :-)

- Borders/barriers to fit inside the sideswipe straight/hairpin curve combination

Not sure I understand this. The hairpin outer dimensions are the same as a standard R1 and the outer and inner borders fit just fine. Or did you mean have aramco/guard rails around the inside?

- Borders/barriers for the short straights C8200 & C8236

Yes, or at least make sure that the longer ones can be used with the short ones. for example, if you use 3 C8200 to make a straight the standard straight borders fit with no problems.

- Border/barrier Radius 2 curved Lead in/Lead out

Are you saying that is starts narrow at the beginning of the curve and reaches standard width by the end? I could see a lof car dropping off or hitting the guardrail. For exmaple formula 1 cars as they are long...

- More robust bridge supports.

Yes, whereby I find the standard ones much better than the ones the other slot car makers use. You can make nice grades and drops and they stick to the track well. I also love the crossover bridge. It sits really well .

Cars- The new Jaguar F-Type- Nissan GT-R

Ohh.. I do agree...

- Electronics (capacitor?) in the car or changes to the track to ensure there are no deadspots where the power goes off, i.e. on cross-overs. I hate it when the headlights flash off/on as they go over the cross-over and it's the most frequent place where we have to nudge the car to get it moving again.- Brake lights as standard, i.e. brighter rear lights (on braking). I know this is possible with some home electronics, I've done it myself!

I have thought about this a lot too. When you look at what can be built I wonder why a capacitor can't be added to the mix. I know from aftermarket kits a capacitor (also called a gold cap)  is about 4-5 € but surely when you buy them in bulk the price would come down. An added advnatage is that even on older cars it keeps the lights constant and when they come off the lights stay on. I know a club that does "night" races and without constant lights that would be impossible.

- Better availability of spares, particularly wings, wing-mirrors and arieal packs

I always wondered why it was so hard to get this stuff. Mind you, thanks to the interweb it is easier than ever!

[allnkonury]

I would like to see the manor/marrusia formula one cars made by scalextric, also please the 2016 wec manor car. big please as I am a big manor team fan ever since they began 

[Notty_Notlob]

Andy P: Thank you for your comprehensive reply some months ago. I wrote the post and then completely forgot about it... :) Must have been the run-up to Christmas. I've just surprised myself by seeing my post on the forum.

Anyway, my thoughts on your thoughts:

Racing Line Curves: I get the idea that many racers want to keep their cars in good order and a racing line curve could be seen as upping the potential for bashing your car. However, the curved cross-over invites even more crashes, particularly when the car "stalls" on the power-less section in the actual cross-over. You could have a curve with the inside track near the edge - the track might need some extra "tarmac" on the inside of the curve - and then the other track as near to it as the R1 squeeze track.

I'd have thought that a lot of drivers who worry about crashing would be more concerned about digital track because you can be on the same track as someone else and are at their mercy should they decide to stop or stall. I've seen big crashes result in these circumstances. Anyway...

Borders/Barriers to fit inside sideswipe straight/hairpin curve combination: In my experience, if you attempt to use two straight borders + barriers on the inside of the two straights in the lead in/out of the hairpin R1 90deg turn, they won't fit. The only way I've got round this is to use a combination of lead-in/lead-out border/barrier on opposite sides of the straights leading in to the R1 90deg turn. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, in which case, I'd love to know how to sort it out.

Border/Barrier R2 Curve Lead-In/Lead-Out: Yes, I'm suggesting that you have a lead-in border on the curve, narrow to start and then normal by mid-way through the R2 curve, so quite quickly going to normal width. It's a cosmetic thing really, there are times when I need a border/barrier on the outside of an R2 curve, but there's no elegant way to start the barrier and you end up just starting the border/barrier with an R2 curve rather than a lead in.

More Robust Bridge Supports: I find the standard little cylinder things pretty rubbish. They're forever getting knocked. My old Aurora had great supports that spanned the track underneath and had supports either side of the track holding it in place and you could just fit one on top of the other. They just need to be better and more robust.

New Cars: I've now got a couple of the GTR R34 models, but the GTR R35 model is low detail only and I think it deserves a high detail model or two. The GTR R35 model is the CBA model rather than the DBA model (update in 2011) and the new model is now out as well.

Electronics (Capacitor): I think it's definitely worth some further research, but I have a horrible feeling that the capacitor that would be required would be somewhat too big to get in to the car easily and could be hard to hide which is a shame.

Anyway, apologies for the long wait for a reply.

[Andy P.]

I See... Whell for both the R1 and R2 border questions there is a Spanish manufacturer ending in "X" that makes them and they use the same radii and track thickness. The borders are not quite as wide so they should fit inside the R1 hairpin and they have nice, short lead in / out borders that almost do what you want for R2. Since they are one-piece constructions you could easily manufacture what you are look for.

One trick I saw online is finding foam rubber pipe insulation that has the same inner diamter as the standard supports. Cut them to size and if you find grey colored ones you are prett much good to go! they add width and stability.