Impressive home made 1/32 scale slot car track

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SSVDP

SSVDP

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Here is my buddy Jimmy's slot car track that he has been building for 25 years, it's in the Detroit area and over Thanksgiving I was able to attend one of his events. It is fully function and has four lanes for up to eight cars. He uses AC power and the cars need a diode added. Aftermarket tires help a lot since there is no magnetic enhanced traction. This has been in a few model car magazines.
And yes it is as impressive in person as in pictures...

This is a really different slot racing experience, it is not about speed but more about racing against one another and the track. Note the lanes do not have any space between them but there is a passing lane ( and super complex lane switcher!).



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Here's the pit area with his Vintage Mopar stock cars

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OK, I am puzzled..

So why did he make the lanes so close ? I have run on a number of 4 lane wooden tracks ....I can see a chicanne or 2 but not that much blockage....with wood, you do a lot more drifting and if you happen to take out a competitor when you are doing it, so much the better... Also why the ac power ? Kinda limits you..you have to run whats there rather than run what ya brung ..and if you are racing, you really want to know your cars..

You can make the wooden track magnetized but it is a bother...weighting of the car is very important and also the controller is important...when I raced, I carried 4 different amp controllers ...

Not sure about your other comment.....weather the track was plastic or wood, we raced each other and tried to keep on the track as well..but it was all about speed....man, that track would be a bugger to marshal...we ran yoyo...your off, your out..but you would still have to get the crashed cars off the track..

Nice track but baffled about the limitations ...and he must have a sympathetic wife :)
 
First yes his wife is an angel.

This is very different from "normal" slot car racing. The AC power allows each lane to run two cars (now there are digital tracks that are a more complex form of this idea). There is not enough space between lanes to pass so you need to utilize the passing lane. Think of it like a real track with one proper line thru each corner. It takes at least ten guys to race, 7 or 8 racers and at least 2 to corner Marshall.

This whole track from concept to the scale detail is really impressive in a mad scientist sort of way. It is really fun but very very different from the normal slot car racing experience.
 
Cool. We didn't get into digital or the unit that allowed you to race yourself. You know from racing 1/32 that the cars don't hold to the track even if they are magnetized like the HO scale.

With the two on one lane...can they pass each other ? Now that you explain it, the track layout makes more sense to me. Do you mind if I post a picture of the track to my slot friends ?

We actually became a Scaletric dealer because this sport is expensive.

I am glad that he didn't go the way of Parma because I like the detailed cars.

The year I left we were going to introduce a class of home made from models... I still have the MGB model that I was going to convert.

The 1/32 dodge charger was slightly out of scale and actually too large to race competitively.

The track looks like a lot of fun with a bunch of guys, some beers, and time to kill.
 
Please show it to any slot heads. It has been in some magazines and also on other web sites.

My friend Jimmy is a scale freak! I'll see if I have any other pics of some of the detail he has put into the scenery.
 
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