Slot Car Drag Racing Accelerates The Excitement

Slot car drag racing is simply performing drag racing using miniature slot cars. Drag racing is a variation of racing in which two cars race down a straight track. The track is usually a quarter mile long. The cars begin from a stopped position, and accelerate when the signal is given. The first car to reach the finish line is the winner. Slot car drag racing operates by the same rules, except that the track is scaled down to the scale of the slot cars. The scales for slot car drag racing tracks can be 1:24, 1:32, or HO scale.

Performing slot car drag racing on an actual quarter mile track would be costly. It would also quickly become tiring for the racers to repeatedly go back and forth to each end of the track. Also, a quarter mile of track would be expensive! A quarter mile is 440 yards or 1320 feet. When using 1:24 scale slot cars, the corresponding track would be 55 feet long. For 1:32 scale cars, the slot car drag racing track would be 41.25 ft long. HO scale includes both 1:87 to 1:64 scale cars. The corresponding HO scale slot car drag racing tracks would be 15.2 ft to 20.6 feet, respectively. Older HO scale cars are usually built to the 1:87 scale.

To begin a slot car drag racing event, both racers must accelerate their cars upon seeing a prearranged signal. This might be as simple as someone saying "go," or as sophisticated as an electronic count down timer. If the racer's car is prone to slippage on the track, the racer must gradually accelerate to top speed. Otherwise, racers usually set their hand controllers to top speed until the cars pass the finish line. It is desirable to have some kind of soft barrier at the end of the slot car drag racing track. Otherwise, the cars tend to slam into walls and furniture and become damaged or destroyed.

Racers need an accurate way to judge the winner of slot car drag racing. Sometimes a race is so one-sided that the winner is evident. Disputes can arise when the race is very close and a winner is not obvious. There are mechanical devices that signal a winner when the winning car of the slot car drag racing event trips a lever. There are also electronic devices that perform this task more accurately. There is no slow-motion replay in slot car drag racing, so a good way of determining a winner is necessary.

Some of the more advanced slot car drag racing tracks might have synchronized starting and ending electronics. The starting unit signals the start of the slot car drag racing and begins a timer. The ending device signals the winner, and uses the time from the starter to display the time and speed of the winner. Even if racers don't have these advanced gadgets, slot car drag racing is still and exciting way to spend an otherwise boring afternoon.

Copyright 2007 James D. Sterling - All Rights Reserved

Slot Car Racing @ HSARC (Houston Scale Auto Race)

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