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Scalextric Mini Twin Pack C3128   £36.95   info... Scalextric 2012 Catalogue, Edition 53 C8175   £6.95   info... Scalextric McLaren MP4-12C Limited Edition Twin Pack C3171A   £74.95   info... Scalextric Mercedes GP 2011 (Rosberg) C3168   £32.95   info... Scalextric Mercedes GP 2011 (Schumacher) C3167   £32.95   info... Scalextric McLaren F1 2011 (Hamilton) C3165   £32.95   info... Scalextric McLaren F1 2011 (Button) C3166   £32.95   info... Scalextric Ford Escort Mk1 1969 C3212   £32.95   info... Scalextric Ford Lotus Cortina Mk1 1964 C3210   £32.95   info... Scalextric Jaguar XKR GT3 #78 C3181   £27.95   info... Scalextric Porsche 911 GT3 Cup "Apex" C3182   £28.95   info... Scalextric Ford GT40 no. 29 C3211   £32.95   info...

Digital racing without a physical slot car track If you like the idea of racing a car (but not a real, full size one) and you also want more cars to race against, try this. Live For Speed (LFS) is a multiplayer online 3D motor racing simulator and community, which we also support on this web site. (No connection to the "Need for Speed" arcade racing game). LFS takes over where slot car racing leaves off, for races of more than 6 or 8 cars. We are often asked whether it would ever be possible to have bigger SSD race fields by connecting up two 6 car powerbases and so on. Unfortunately that's not electronically possible, but LFS complements SSD very well in this respect for those who want to race against more people.

For your average household, the problem with going beyond 6 cars on a slot car system would be marshalling the crashes and keeping a clear track, because you need a longer track to provide enough space to race, some thoroughly applied racing rules, and a track room that's also big enough for all the drivers and marshals. On LFS, registered users can participate in full-field (40+ car) races in a variety of sports and single seater cars, on a selection of fictitious racetracks. A fair number of LFS users are racing drivers at various levels in real life too. Racing from the comfort of your own home, marshalling of crashed cars and application of racing rules is dealt with by the simulator. You can even race in a Scalextric livery as shown in these examples created by LFS Forum user "unseen".

There is no personal face-to-face interaction and no physical Scalextric model car to collect, tune, and so on, that you have with slot cars, so this is definitely not going to appeal to the pure slot car collector. And unless you have several suitable networked computers in your house it's not something the family can do together. But you can text-chat or Teamspeak to others on the simulator, design your own car livery and you can also get some physical feedback from the racing if you use a Force Feedback steering wheel and pedals. You will need a PC with good graphics capability to take part, and a broadband internet connection with a sensible bandwidth allowance (surprisingly it's not a big eater of bandwidth though, compared to video streaming like the BBC iPlayer).

For times when you just want to hook up online for a quick race with someone - maybe because it's not club race night, or if you have nobody to race with on your Scalextric track, or maybe your track is out of action for some reason - LFS is a nice alternative to get your racing "fix". If you liked the idea of Sport World internet racing, which Scalextric have now discontinued, this might grab your interest. The instruction manual can be found here (PDF format) and setup files for the various cars can be downloaded at the Team Inferno or Setupgrid sites. If you don't mind being a Tail-End Charlie for a while, from time to time you will find Martin and other slot car club members on there, so drop an email if you are going online to LFS and we will perhaps try and meet up for a race.

LFS Video The video below shows some examples of LFS racing with huge fields of cars. It's made from real footage from the simulator and looks very life-like.

LFS custom liveries Martin is happy to create a custom livery for your LFS racing car (for a small fee) if you are thinking of promoting your business, association or other theme in the Live for Speed Sim Racing environment. Here's an example of a recent livery done for the UF-GTR (a weird cross between a Mini and a Trabant), based on the NSCC 25th anniversary club car from 2006 (the original C2599A model is shown in the lower picture). They are relatively easy to create for people with Photoshop or other similar graphics programs at their disposal but if you don't have the time, tools, skills or inclination, send an email using the "Contact Us" link above for more details. See also our LFS page on modelmotorracing.com for some more information.

iRacing.com You can now also race against Martin (the store owner) on iRacing.com, which is an alternative, subscription based on-line multiplayer racing simulator. It's a more expensive option than LFS because all the content (cars and tracks) is licenced from the real life originals. Tracks are laser-scanned and cars modelled using real life CAD data. The image here, UK race fans may recognise, as the view of Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch, from within the simulator. Find out more at the iRacing web site.