Adventures in Scalextric Racing

Yesterday's 24' x 11' circuit wasn't quite good enough.

2012-05-19T04:25:00.004-07:00

I spent a bit of time this morning looking at the 24' x 11' circuit I'd designed yesterday and it seemed that there was room for improvement.

I looked at the number of track pieces which we had left after constructing said circuit and decided that without too much alteration, we could make a slightly better design.

Firstly, I wasn't particularly enamoured by the pit lane; I felt that it ran just a little too close to the main track; and secondly, I felt that the multi-lane section was a fraction too short.

And this is my re-working of that design. It has come out slightly wider (or longer depending upon how you look at things) than the original design -weighing in at 24' x 12' (twenty four feet by twelve feet), but hey when you're going big, what difference does an extra foot make?

This circuit makes use of all of our regular straights, all of our straight lane cross-over pieces, and all of our pit lane entry and exit pieces. We'll still have quite a number of track pieces left over after constructing this monster, but I'm not really sure a) if we could shoe-horn them in, or b) if it would be a good idea to even try.

I'm also not sure which cars would be best suited to race on this circuit; Because that big double-back is nice and wide I feel that the F1 cars would be very much at home (i.e. they won't come flying off), however there are three 90 degree corners, and I fear that unless the power is limited (and most likely even if it is) these will prove fateful for most racers.

Sadly, whilst I have not found somewhere to set it up, it will all be conjecture until the day arrives.

Because I've not posted for a number of days ...

2012-05-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

... in the absence of my witty remarks, I decided that I should put something up for you all to admire: And so here they are; a couple of designs that we made this evening.

They're not quite F1 circuits, but they do contain enough variation to test the skill of any and all drivers.

We particularly like this first design because it offers the opportunity of incorporating the pit lane game.

Unfortunately the software I've taken to using to model the tracks (Ultimate Racer v3.0) does not have a "tile" to represent the pit stop itself, but hey ho, not to worry, imagination is all that it takes; bearing in mind, of course, that it can only be in the pit lane, and there is only one of those on the circuit.

I've not designed many tracks like this one (above), where the width ranges from six lanes down to a single lane; it will indeed be a challenge, where skill will certainly out-weigh speed -though speed is important, it will not necessarily be the deciding factor.

As you can see, both circuits require a rather large area, and both circuits are designed with racing six cars at once in mind. The first example requires floor space of 24' x 11' (twenty four feet by eleven feet), and the second design 16' x 19' (sixteen feet by nineteen feet) ... plus enough room for racers, spectators and adjudicators to stand!

Currently, I am ONLY designing circuits which we have enough track to physically build, and our only downfall at this point is the lack of floor space to actually construct them: As Nancy keeps saying `We need a bigger house`. Though, I'm not entirely sure that not having the space to put together a slot car design is a valid justification for such a purchase.

Because the Formula One racing is currently under way, and following on from my designing of the Le Mans 24 hour circuit, I've also put together a couple of designs for this year's F1 circuits; Here's a little taster for your delight too.

UBS Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai), 2012

I plan on putting together a little competition based around these F1 circuits, but I need to first find somewhere where we can hold maybe a weekly event; somewhere with enough floor space for the extremely large track layouts, and the sober racing contingent, whatever size that turns out to be.

Anyone fancying joining in the racing fun should register their interest by leaving a comment here on my blog ... I'm actually quite disappointed that no one has yet left any messages at all, it kind of gives me the impression that nobody is interested in our antics.

Let there be light -or is that back to day one?

2012-05-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Me: So, how far did we get?
You: We got as far as your birthday; and that was well over a month ago!
Me: Ah, okay ...

In my last post I introduced you to a penchant of mine (with regards to the SCALEXTRIC racing of course), namely multiple-to-single lane circuits.

I believe that I also made mention of another SCALEXTRIC related fondness (though it is entirely possible that I made this mention prior to my last ppost). Le Mans Prototype endurance vehicles.
As an aside, have you all seen the latest offering from Audi? It's the 2012 LMP1 called the R18 e-Tron Hybrid; and I want to have a go! It did rather well in Florida earlier in the year.

However, as far as the slot-car versions go, in my mind these replica are just fantastic. My boy and I have got Scalextric and Avant versions of these guys, and we love them; we especially love the working lights (small things, and all that).

So what do we plan on doing about this "obsession"? Well, not a lot really, other than this.

How cool does that look? And yes, you've guessed it, that is our version of the Le Mans 24 Hour circuit. I'm not sure we can keep it up for 24 hours, but maybe if we also scale down the length of the race (using the same ratio as the cars); let me think ... @ 1:32 24 hours would be hmmm that's approximately 45 minutes.

I wonder, 45 minutes with six cars racing, how cool would that race be?

The only problem is that our sitting room is not big enough to house such a track, so this past weekend we settled for this puppy instead.

... and for anyone who would like to see the plans for said track.

What day is it now?

2012-04-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

40 years old, and what does one receive for

his birthday?

Thank you very much Miles and family, it's a special edition Porsche 911, complete with gold spokes and all.

... so my birthday was last month, and seeing as it was a (semi) big one, we decided to get a bunch of my friends together for the afternoon to celebrate.

As it turned out, there were more children present than there were adults, so the inclusion of a large Scalextric racing track certainly went down well.

This was the birthday track. Eleven adults and fifteen children

took it in turns to race eachother. This was taken prior to the

madness beginning.

We wanted the most amount of track in the available space, but due to the number of kiddies running around we could not have any raised sections; also due to the number of children involved in the event, we had to keep the inclusion of hairpin bends to a minimum, and we managed it with just one.

Our racers that day ranged in age from three years all the way through to forty six years -you should notice that I was not the eldest racer- and to be fair, the ~~most~~ only tears were shed by adults! One attendee left a very delightful message for me on my Facebook wall, reproduced here in (almost) pink because the post was made by a mummy.

Wooo-hooo I won! Ok, it was against children, but a win is a win. Thanks for having us, we all had a lovely day. x

As you can see from the photo above (and those of previous blog posts), I am quite partial to a track which contains multiple lanes (for overtaking), single lanes (to even out the field a little), and a spiral.

It's a spiral, can you see it?

That's what is so great about Scalextric Digital in my mind; it is possible to create a race track that forces you to take an active role -I mean beyond holding down the trigger on the controller.

In the, albeit simplistic, example on the left here it is simply not possible to stay in a single lane, and if one wants to remain on the inside (in order to gain those ever so important microseconds) it can only be achieved by actively changing lane.

If none of the racers however were to make such a choice and instead simply relied upon holding down the accelerator then all racers would end up on the same (outside) track, and the finishing positions would be entirely dictated within the first few seconds of the race. But as it stands, this track enables finishing positions to be determined by skill rather than brute force (okay speed alone).

If you have never raced on a digital circuit (Scalextric or otherwise), I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I cannot emphasise how desperately you need to give it a go. Add to the example above a lane change on the straight, or a sneaky pit lane (with or without the pitstop game itself) and all of a sudden you have on your hands the fun and excitement of a very realistic race ... all one requires next is the skill, which I'm rather hoping will come with practice.

Happy birthday to me with love from

my mum and dad

I am notoriously difficult to buy presents for, and so when I let my parents know that I was now interested in collecting some high quality slot-cars,

Happy birthday to me with love from

my Nancy

suddenly the selection of a birthday present became less of an issue -although I did have to point them in the right general direction, you can see that they made a most excellent choice.

Also, the fact that Nancy got it meant that she too could find something to delight without asking too many questions and without me suspecting for a moment what she would be bestowing upon me to celebrate my turning middle-aged. Fantastic!

Just because your car seat is a recaro, does not mean that

daddy's car will zoom around like a Scalextric model.

"And what did Shey do for your birthday?" I hear you asking ... well see for yourself; he just sat around looking cool.

How is it that I've had forty years to practice, and I still don't look cool (ever) and yet here is my boy, just three and a half years young and he is able to pull it off without so much as a hint of effort?

Thursday at the races ...

2012-04-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

I have to apologise for the quality of this photograph; it was taken with my phone after maybe one or two ginger beers had been consumed.

There's no kidding going on here, it really was ginger beer -it's not that I'm a tea-totaler, nor is it that I couldn't find any booze, rather, the point is that this photograph was taken during the eponymous evening -okay, okay, I know that this term had been mis-used, so let's call it poetic licence.

... and ginger beer was consumed because there was real driving involved after the Scalextric fun had finished. So, let's get on with the story ...

The event in question took place on the evening of 15th February 2012, and contrary to anything else you might hear, I won the evening.

Before we go on, how about a little bit about me? Okay, here goes: For a living I'm a software engineer. I take contract work; I won't go into much detail because

You might get bored
You might not fully understand
You might not care
It's not really relevant to this blog

I would like it to be known however that I think that I'm pretty good at what I do. Okay, I do have my faults, too many in fact to be listed here, but I feel one which is worthy of mention here is my interpersonal skills.

I'm not a bully, but I occasionally could be perceived as such; the actual truth of the matter is that I can't stand a "professional liar"; this is the type of person who secures a position within a business when they are in fact not in posession of the skills to perform their duty, and rather than "fessing up" to their lack of whatever it is they lack, instead they lie and cheat. I'm quite good at "sussing out" this type of person; and when I have done so, I make it my "mission" to make sure everyone else knows what I have found. I don't suffer fools either; oh and I'm quite direct too.

So, how does this relate to my Scalextric blog? Well, it doesn't really. I just like to talk about myself.

I took it upon myslef to organise a "team building" exercise; so we took over the lounge of one team member's apartment for an evening. He supplied the pizza, I supplied the Scalextric, and one of the Agile coaches supplied the drinks and snacks -next time around I am assured that we will have to take care of the pizza amongst ourselves, since it cost a bit more than apartment owner anticipated.

We raced for several hours; It resembled stock racing more than anything else, but it was great fun and I think it's fair to say that everyone enjoyed the evening.

I'm bored now, and I need to go to bed, but at least I think I've made the point that I intended in this post ... Scalextric can be a great tool as well as a great source of entertainment. By spending a few hours one evening playing at racing, we managed to forge a stronger team for our day job. It's a shame that some of the team members were absent, but my hope is that the next time they will not be.

I leave you now with a few pictures of some smashing tracks we (my family, not my work colleagues) enjoyed in the ensuing days ...

If you look carefully at this one, you will

actually see Nancy and Shey playing together.

How cool is that?

This is Miles' son playing with us here.

Miles brought him over to our place

one evening for a bit of 'father son time'.

We were happy to assist.

This is of course my boy, demonstrating how

proud he is of the wonderful track we have

put together -he beat me 'hands down' on

this one!

Day something higher than three ...

2012-04-20T17:21:00.001-07:00

Nancy bought into slot-car racing as soon as we set up the Digital Platinum Racing Set. This is Nancy by the way; whilst the unsavoury individual taking the photograph and reflected in her shades is me.

This is me Nancy, at the time we were sightseeing from a

boat in New York

For me, that moment of "buy-in" was [almost] priceless.

It was longed for, because I already had a feeling that Shey and I would be spending a lot of time in the future racing, but to be completely honest, it was a little unexpected.

Well, unexpected or not, the desired outcome was gained, and we then had an entire family unit who were more than happy (actually I'm not sure we were more than happy, perhaps we should just settle on the notion that we were at least happy) to spend a few hours in the evening constructing a race track, racing each other, and taking it in turns dancing around the lounge waving our hands in the air and chanting "I am the winner" whilst taking great delight in the exercise of finger pointing to punctuate the stucatto of "and you are the loosers, ner ner, ner ner ner!"

I was not particularly good, bearing in mind that I'd not actually partaken in slot-car racing since being a pre-adolescent youth, but I was better than a three year old (who had never done it at all before), and Nancy; so it should be needless to say that I was mostly the individual prancing around the room mocking those who could not beat me -did I mention that I'm a terrible winner, and an even worse loser? Let's take that as written from this moment on.

That's me that is, posing in front of the mirror

(in the WC at work), for your pleasure.

Oh, and this is me; I don't usually look quite so dorky, but as you can see I am "posing" in front of a mirror in order to take a snapshot on my phone; a snapshot which was taken specifically to introduce everyone not familiar with my current appearance, to my dashing good looks. What would you say? 28 years old? Oh please, you are far too kind with your offer of 25 years young!

So, now you are better equipped to imagine this fully grown man taunting (yes taunting) his fellow family members; and if your imagination does not paint a pretty picture, believe me, you would not like to be there in the flesh!

The point that I was trying to get around to making is this ... Shey, being a three year old, didn't quite understand who was winning and who was losing, especially since I had set the fantastic digital controller thing-a-ma-jig so that the race would end as soon as all cars behind the winning car had crossed the line. To him and his wonderfully innocent mind (I was going to say "child-like" but that would just be stupid, since after all, he is not like a child, he is a child!), the race ended when he crossed the line which obviously meant that he was the winner. Therefore he took great offence to my taunting. I had to get creative with the race positions -remember the bit that we have to take as written? Well you should not be surprised then to learn that I could not simply say "Yes Shey, you won"; it would have gone against everything I stand for -as an aside, I am so glad that I am not my father, and I don't just mean that from a paradoxical standpoint!

Stop opening the new pieces of track and say cheese will you

child!

Just look at that face -------->

Even I, as heartless as I am, find it painful to see him cry, especially at something as low down on the "meaningful scale" as losing a Scalextric race. So, with my incredible aptitude for ingenuity and general cleverness, the next time Shey declared "I'm the winner", I said ... "Yes you are winner number two, and daddy is winner number one!"

What a stroke of genius: I enabled my son to believe that he was the winner, whilst also being true to my values. I did not lie to him, and I certainly did not concede defeat in the absence of it [erm, tongue in cheek guys and gals, tongue in cheek].

Please find below a series of photographs depicting several of our first track designs, displayed here in no particular order ...

I think this was our first attempt at sneaky

Hairpin bend and a jump on the straight

Slight variation on the above

Hairpin bend to gain elevation, it's all about

fitting as much track into as little space as

possible

Great Suppliers (in the UK) for my Scalextric Stash

2012-04-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

Looking for somewhere to buy your slot-car equipment? So was I, and these are the places that I use most frequently.

Modelzone ...

They have usually got something going for a song, and the staff are incredibly helpful, though generally as far as pricing goes they would have to be considered on the expensive side where most products are sold at or very close to RRP.

LD Discounts ...

Cheaper than Modelzone, and they are also very helpful. It's not only Scalextric slot-car equipment that they stock and sell; I have purchased a couple of Avant slot cars from these guys

... unfortunately however, I cannot use these slot-cars with my digital track without modification (and I don't want to go drilling holes in the chasis, etc.); when I informed the guys/gals that I had made this purchase in error, they were more than happy for me to return the items. I did not return them however because I really like the cars, and I actually feel that they are a bit better than their Scalextric cousins (in terms of replica detail and quality)

JadlamRacing Models ...

This is where I purchase most of my equipment. List prices are not that much cheaper than elsewhere, but every time I make a purchase I receive a discount code which gives me 10% off of my next order, which usually makes it all cheaper than anywhere else. This is not always the case (i.e. they are not always the cheapest), and therefore I make purchases from alternate suppliers.

I'm constantly on the lookout for retailers who can supply at the lowest prices, since I've not yet stopped buying stuff. Look at all of these other wonderful replica which I have recently acquired:

Day two ...

2012-04-20T11:08:00.002-07:00

Something which I did not previously mention and which is pertinent to my recently-found enjoyment of the slot-car racing goodness is the fact that I never owned any Scalextric as a child. A gift in the form of slot-car racing was bestowed upon me at the tender age of eight years (or there about); but it just wasn't SCALEXTRIC.

... Anyhow, back to the present day -or close to the present at least, since we are still talking history after all!

I went into work a day or two after making my first SCALEXTRIC purchase; and with a close friend (called Miles) I discussed my purchase and the ensuing enjoyment, along with my surprise at how Shey had taken to it so naturally. I was still thinking at that point that I had spent rather a lot of money on this one toy -another fact which I presented to Miles.

Bill (that's me): It was really great fun, and I hope we will get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Miles (he's my friend): I'm sure you will Bill.
Bill: It was rather a lot of money though.
Miles: Really? How much is a lot?
Bill: Seventy five quid
Miles: That's not a lot at all!
Bill: Oh, isn't it? Well, I guess it was half price.

... one conversation later and I was now thinking that I had not spent much after all, and in fact I was feeling that I'd been quite mean!

I then began investigating the prices of other bits and pieces; I started by looking on eBay, where I found all sorts of goodies, the bit that really caught my attention was Scalextric Digital System. "Oh My God", I thought to myself -if you can forgive the blasphemy (if you consider it to be). "That looks awesome!"

So the next step was to price up converting to digital. We would need the digital power base (RRP £149) and a couple of pieces of digital track; and of course during my investigations I had convinced myself that we needed a few bits of track extension anyway.

A trip back to Modelzone was in order; fortunately the guys in my local store were very helpful. After my enquiry about the Digital Advanced 6 Car Powerbase and the subsequent discovery that this, not so modestly priced, item does not include even a single hand control, we discussed the merits of purchasing the Scalextric Digital Platinum Set. The guys set about calculating the cost of the set when purchased individually; it transpired that the powerbase, the controllers, and the six digital cars included in the set on their own cost more than the entire set, so in effect all of the track would be free!

I had not gone to the shop with the intention of purchasing the Platinum set, but by golly I ended up leaving with it under my arm -well not exactly under my arm because it was quite a large box.

Pit lanes. What a brilliant idea!; so I had to get me some pit lane in/out pieces; which of course meant that I had to get some single lane track -straight and curved. This was all going to cost me a small fortune if I were to continue to buy this stuff from Modelzone; so when I returned home I had to search the interweb for someone selling this stuff a little bit cheaper ...

Pictures from the past ... aka Day One

2012-04-19T16:03:00.002-07:00

One could be forgiven for expecting this post to be concerned with truely historic events; one must always remeber however that the past began the second that the present slipped away ...

... and speaking of presents, that is what this puppy was; albeit to me from myself, but rest assured that I was very grateful for it.

This is in fact the very vehicle which piquéd my interest in creating the Le Mans circuit ... and collecting as many endurance vehicles as I can. I cannot describe my fascination (if even it is a fascination) with these fantastic replica, but believe me when I say that it is there.

Anyhow, I digress ...

I can't really tell where this story begins so I've arbitrarily chosen a point in time, but I guess it's entirely possible that I will jump back beyond that at some stage, be prepared and don't really expect too much in the way of lineality (if there is such a word). So, without much more in the way of pomp, let us begin with a brief introduction:

Sausage and beans for lunch

This is Shey; He's my son, and as you can see from these delightful pictures; he enjoys a bit of sausage and beans, he's quite young (three and a half to be precise), and he's pretty cool (leaving my personal bias aside). He is kind of the reason that it all began.

Shooting monsters (aka playing HALO CE Anniversary edition)

Those of you who know me know that my real passion is skiing; and this year I only managed to get in a measly three weeks.

I was due to spend my birthday week in the French Alps, but because I'm such a nice husband I took my wife to New York for four days to celebrate her birthday (we live in Hampshire, in the UK for those who don't know and who might think that it was just a trip under the Hudson). This had the unfortunate effect of depleting my funds, and the net result ... I could ill afford to take my family away for a week of spring skiing. :o(

Upon our return home from The States, we took Shey out shopping in our local(ish) shopping centre. As it turned out, Model Zone had a bit of a sale on, and specifically they had some good deals on their SCALEXTRIC sets, upon the seeing of which, I immediately thought "I can get one of these, and we'll spend more than a week playing with it; and hey look it's about 10% of the cost of one person skiing for a week!".

This is what I bought:

It was purchased initially for me (because I'm a little bit selfish), but by the time we had reached home it had become "ours" -that's mine and my boy's!

Nancy (who is my wife -which is a statement, not a question!), was not immediately sold on the idea, and I think that I too was a bit concerned that I'd just spent £74.00 on a toy, but anyhow Shey was pleading with me "can we race my cars now daddy?"

So, we put the track together and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening racing. It was brilliant. I have no other way of describing the event. My three year old boy got it immediately! It was better than I could have imagined, he could actually race -so much so that he was better at it than his mum (that would be Nancy; again, who is my wife -which is still a statement, and not yet a question).

That then was day one ...

A new Blog for an alternate subject matter.

2012-04-17T23:06:00.003-07:00

This blog is pretty much intended to be about my adventures in the world of SCALEXTRIC slot-car racing.

This is an area into which we (my family) are new entrants -well approximately 2 months into- and within which we have found much enjoyment thus far.

I'm going to blog about the tracks we have raced on (no serious competitions, it's all going to be good clean family fun), the tracks we have designed and buit, I'll most likely even drop a few recommendations for suppliers of all things Scalextric too.