planetf1.com

Thought you guys may enjoy this:

http://youtu.be/GtwkRd6zHwg

Those cars must have properly strong magnets to hold to the track at those speeds

Here's another mad track from James May's toy stories (full episode is on youtube as well)
http://www.youtube.com/#/watch?v=_OGlPc-BZz4

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There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals that Chuck Norris allows to live.

Some people have way too much time on their hands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgFItzAvKNU&sns=em

Those are 1/24 scale "wing cars", which don't use magnets to hold them to the track but aerodynamics - via large rear spoilers and air dams along the sides of the body. You can find out more about wing car slot racing here: http://www.esroc.net/ and here: http://www.britishwingcarchampionship.com/1.html

Thanks for the info, pretty interesting stuff. Although it's a little too fast at that scale for my liking!

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There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals that Chuck Norris allows to live.

Great video, but really that's just silly.

Just insane... Love it!

Very cool. I wouldn't have pegged that as being the case, I expected magnets also. Very cool.

They had a 4 lane version of Spa in a marquee down the road from La Source last year can't find a youtube of it though

Magnets wouldn't be much use as the tracks that wing cars run on use braided copper rather than steel on each side of the slot. The performance figures for top wing cars make even jetsprint boats look slow: 0-70 mph in under half a second and top speed of more than 90 mph. Not cheap though - motors cost around £200 each and you need several for a typical 8 heat race - and they all need professionally rebuilding afterwards!

I was going to say something sarcastic but after watching the video I have to say that truly is insane! How can you get that much downforce... defies physics.

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Rosberg - Bottas

I'm guessing the faster they go, the more downforce they get. But then the more downforce they get, the more drag they get, reducing their speed. I'm guessing they found a perfect balance between speed, downforce and drag. Very impressive.

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Sebastian Vettel - Most successful driver on the 2013 grid!

Supporter of Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button, Red Bull, Sauber, Williams and Caterham.

How in the world do you see where your car is!!! There going so quick!

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And they say men cant multi task.. haa, ask a formula 1 driver!

That's ridiculous..

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I also have one of these.

Oh man, I'm putting the finishing touches to a monster Scalextric track in my loft and was looking forward to posting about it. This kind of steals my thunder!

Though, to be fair, I don't really see the appeal in this sort of slot racing. Even powerful magnets can spoil the fun, I like sliding the cars through the corners. 80's F1 cars are the most fun. I have a few superfast heavily magnetised cars but it doesn't take the same sort of skill and the novelty of going mentally fast wears off.

My track is largely based on real corners, though I've found some are too subtle to suit slot car racing. I have an exact repro of the first sector of Suzuka though and Nurburgring's Karusel, the first sector of Interlagos, Parabolica etc.

EDIT
Saw this recently and liked it (not my track, I don't go in for the fake buildings and stuff). Exact replica of Monaco

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I went skating on your name,
And by tracing it twice,
I fell through the ice,
of Alice

In the featured vids of the original post was this nice little 'make your own' vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t26mKDo4N88&feature=related

MDF, jig saw, router, soldering iron and a bit if imagination! If I had the space in the garage (and wife would let me) I'd have a new hobby.

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There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals that Chuck Norris allows to live.

Wow Balibari! Sweet stuff!

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Sebastian Vettel - Most successful driver on the 2013 grid!

Supporter of Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button, Red Bull, Sauber, Williams and Caterham.

Back int he 90's when i was heavily into competitive RC Racing, a new hobby shop opened up a few blocks from my Mom's house. They had one of these Slot Car Tracks and I really got into it BIGTIME. The crazy part is how ridiculously expensive it is when you jump up to the higher formulae cars like the Group 20's (Best of the best back then - look identical to the ones in the vid). When you lifted off the bodies the chassis themselves were made from soldered wire coat hangers!!! They were rather flimsy and quite fragile. They certainly did haul major but one little misstep and it went flying to the wall and your chassis was out of square for good. Time to dull out another $150 and hope it lasted more than a couple of months. After about a year I was done with Slot Cars. Not enough tracks to keep it interesting and it just didn't compare to outdoor RC racing both on and off road… Especially Off-Road, which I am looking to get back into.

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Second place is the first loser!

Modern Group 27 wing car chassis are a bit more sophisticated than soldered wire coat hangers - generally built from laser cut spring steel or aluminium - but still minimalist and they don't take kindly to heavy crashes. However, the cost of the chassis is nothing compared to a full house Group 27 strap motor - and you need half a dozen (at least) to go racing seriously.

Still a bit anorexic and a bit of a copout considering the advancements in manufacturing processes as well as superior materials, and I find it to be a magnificently overpriced "hobby". If I wanted to, I could design and build a slot car that would be just as fast as anything today that is all but bulletproof at a lower cost. And I'd make sure to add real tires up front instead of the disc mounted O-rings or the little model steering wheels serving as front tires. LOL

I think it's great you're putting together your own miniature super track but I hope you have some fast cars to run on it to maximize the fun factor!

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Second place is the first loser!