Commercial Slot Car Racing Is Where The Big Cars Race

It might sound like an oxymoron to call a scale model car a big car, but that is the case in commercial slot car racing. Most such tracks race cars made to the 1:24 scale. This is the largest scale available in slot car racing. One source illustrates the point with the following example. A full sized Jaguar XK-E measures about 185 inches or 15.42 feet long. A commercial slot car racing vehicle at that scale measures about 7.7 inches long! A scale-model 6 foot tall driver would measure 3 inches tall. A quarter mile drag strip for a commercial slot car racing track would be 55 feet long. Therefore commercial slot car racing venues are usually permanent tracks housed inside large buildings. Ordinary home basements or garages usually cannot accommodate these large sizes.

Commercial slot car racing involves racing enthusiasts who desire more competition than their small plastic home tracks can offer. Local slot car racing clubs and related facilities often offer these tracks for rent. Beginning racers often bring the fastest standard car they can purchase. Serious commercial slot car racing fans painstakingly build their own racing cars from scratch. These custom cars may include customized electric motors, high performance wheels and hubs, and aerodynamic fins and spoilers. Racers who build custom cars for commercial slot car racing will spend much more money than the beginner satisfied with an off the shelf racing car.

All slot cars operate when the racer operates a hand held controller connected to the slot in which his car is placed. The controller regulates the speed of the slot car. Commercial slot car racing vehicles have no brakes, but will slow quickly when the controller decreases or stops the current to the car. This is true of all slot cars, not just the commercial slot car racing specimens. The goal of the race is to win the race by completing the designated number of track laps in the shortest amount of time. The skill lies in knowing when to speed up and slow down, especially in the curves. A commercial slot car racing fan who can take curves at maximum speed without flying off the track has a good chance to win the race.

Commercial slot car racing tracks are quite different from home tracks. Home tracks are composed of many track lengths which snap together. This causes irregularities at the track joints, and can sometimes cause electrical problems where the slots connect. Commercial slot car racing tracks are often made by routing slots into an industrially smooth slab of aluminum or wood. Each slot is continuous with no possibility of problems at the connection points.

Commercial slot car racing is often run in round-robin fashion. Each racer places his car in an assigned lane and a race is run. Then the racer is assigned the next lane, and this process continues until all racers have run in all lanes. At the end of this slot car racing competition, the lap times are totaled and a winner is declared. The United Slot Racers Association (USRA), True Scale Racing Federation (TSRF), and the HO Professional Racing Association (HOPRA) are some of the organizations that sponsor commercial slot car racing.

Copyright 2007 James D. Sterling - All Rights Reserved

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