Monster Scalextric Formula 1 circuit to go under the hammer A rather impressive Scalextric track designed by F1 commentator and former driver Martin Brundle, featuring "the best corners, chicanes and sections" from 2015 Formula 1 circuits will go under the hammer later this month in aid of the BBC's Children in Need. Suffice it to say, the winning bidder will need an extremely large …
> Bit of a pain if you spin off on the far side of the track
It was always fun to work out how to make the _other_ guy spin off by releasing the throttle at just the right moment - the power supply (or battery pack(*)) was current limited to about 1.5x what a single car could draw so popping your throttle off would result in a voltage spike and "unexpected acceleration" for the opposition.
(*) Assuming cheap Neveready D-size dry cells which didn't like the heavy current draw at all. Using Nicads could easily result in a cooked throttle controller and motor (and did, so I only tried that once).
"the long slot conductors are probably a bit ohmy"
They're more than adequate to run this kind of distance. The problem was always the track-end connects - sandpaper and a high-current ohm-meter(*) was an essential part of any kit with hard-wired links if you were the dedicated sort.
(*) Avo 8 was good. Electronic and DMM units don't push enough current to find the bit of problematic oxide and would register a track as OK even though it didn't work so well in service.
Agreed - you can see the elevation change for the crossover. But you can still have a figure of 8 with no elevation change, courtesy or a crossroad piece:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=scalextric+crossroads&safe=off&espv=2&biw=1084&bih=791&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIh9HpnOilxwIVgVYaCh3j2wZl#imgrc=_
"a figure of 8 with no elevation change"
Figure 8 racing is a form of banger racing in which automobiles race on a track that purposely intersects itself, increasing the risk of collisions. Figure-8 racing is most common and popular in the United States and Canada, in contrast to the oval-track banger racing seen in Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_8_racing
It's even better when they race school buses!
Eau Rouge is the "kink" half way up the left-hand side.
Playing too much Grand Prix Legends taught me that it's the elevation change which makes that such a difficult corner, rather than any tight turn. It's often hard to spot on plans of the circuit.
Slot Car Racing (please don't call it Scalextric as there were other, better brands) was my teen introduction to soldering and re-winding electric motors (they usually caught fire).
Though we graduated to Revell and more exotic cars, never had more fun than with the cheapest brand Airfix whose track we continued to use as it was smoother than the Scalex polythene stuff.
Slot Car Racing
I'm with you on this. When I was a kid my racing mates and I built our own chassis, wound our motors and even sanded our foam tyres to the desired profile.
Our local club circuit was eight lanes wide and over 100 feet long. The track was constructed from hand-cut hardboard with hand-laid copper conductors. The banking was reminiscent of Brooklands.
On a club night you could guarantee there would be plenty of marshals to replace crashed cars back into their slots. The club even held a 24 hour race once a year.
This was very different to beast to Scalextric.
Was airfix cheaper ? It was meant to be more reliable.
I had a set that my father bought when I was born (more a base set and extras) and which I got when I was about 10 (just remember coming down stairs one birthday morning to find it set up). The cars would work with Scaletrix, but were faster - great in a straight line, not so great in the corners when driven by a young teen.
Bit of history, this was created by Sky to promote this years F1 coverage, I assume it was shown as a pre-race but I try to avoid watching their coverage.
More info, and a video of Brundle racing against Telegraph hack is at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/sportvideo/formulaonevideo/11449657/Who-wins-on-Martin-Brundles-ultimate-F1-circuit.html
You'll need a 9ft x 9ft sized shed by the way.
At 1:32 scale that 45m track length is only a scale lap of 1.44 km
Never mind the 2015 season, the shortest F1 track in HISTORY was well over double that length and there are minimum standards in this area. 3.5km to be precise. It also falls well short on track width - minimum 12m, 15 on the grid straight. At 6" / ~15cm width, you need a minimum 6 lane (3 track) layout.
Sorry but as is the case with Brundle's commentary and coverage of F1 itself, others have done this before and far, far better.
Not the biggest by a long way; in the 70s Fylingdales in Yorkshire was isolated by snow in winter so to amuse the UK and US staff had the biggest Scalextric layout. (Well they would, wouldnt they). A friend of a friend made a fortune fixing US kit that had been plugged into our mains.
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