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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...

Maintenance, repairs and troubleshooting of your system With slot car racing, because of the nature of the product and the treatment the cars can receive (especially with young children at the helm), things will inevitably break or need maintenance. Can't think of any other electronic product that gets hurled around your living room at scale speeds of 200mph+! If you bought a real new car, drove it into a wall and it stopped working, you would not return it to the car dealer and complain. Scale-for-scale, Scalextric cars can come out of hugely greater impacts than real cars can, completely unscathed, but even in the slot car world there are limits. So your first action in the event of trouble should not be to pick up the phone or send us a email saying "I crashed my car and it doesn't work any more", but use our troubleshooting guide to see if you can fix it yourself.

Here - unless a car is "dead on arrival", we do like to encourage customers to carry out their own repairs using the service sheets, it's really not difficult, and the tools and parts for all the latest cars are readily available. As the saying goes, " Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." With proper care and attention your cars and track will last you well and you will find it quicker, cheaper and more satisfying to do your own maintenance in the months and years to come. Learning to drive the cars quickly, but without breaking them (just like real racing drivers) is all part of the hobby. And for Dads there's the certain hero status that comes with being able to fix your son's car without sending it away!

Scalextric cars are pretty easy to fix and even if you need to fit spare parts, the average hobbyist should have no problem. If you are venturing into the hobby with your kids, dismantling and reassembling of cars is a required skill for running repairs such as reattaching guide contacts or replacing a broken guide blade. If you've never seen inside one before, the exploded diagram below shows how few parts there are to a car, and that's including the digital chip. The "Slot Car Handbook" (see Publications page) also contains lots of useful information about maintaining and preparing any slot car for racing. The troubleshooting guide provides a summary of some issues you may encounter with digital circuits, print it off and keep trackside for easy reference. Much of it is also relevant to analogue racing. If you are still having problems, send us an email, or try searching Slot Forum. If you feel you need some first-hand advice from the manufacturers, the Scalextric Customer Care number is 01843 233525, or you can email customercare@hornby.com. We also offer a repairs service here if you don't have the time or inclination to fix things yourself - see the general repairs item in the store section for more information.

Maintenance tools Unless you need spare parts such as a replacement chip, motor or undertray, all you are likely to need to repair and improve your cars' performance is: a) a small Philips screwdriver for opening up the car, releasing the rear wing and guide blade b) a small battery or lighter fuel powered fine-tipped soldering iron and solder for chipping cars and generally mending broken wires c) scissors or wire cutters, and wire strippers or some teeth d) some superglue, hotglue or just Blu-tack for seating and holding in-car chips and LEDs, and also for securing/repairing loose or broken wings etc. e) a bradawl for making holes in the undertray for digital LEDs for cars that don't have a suitable hole provided f) some electrical tape for covering any bare soldered joints g) lubricant and track cleaner (see our accessories section)

Wings, car undertrays, and other parts Most problems you encounter are likely to be electrical or chip-related, and fixes for these are covered in the troubleshooting guide. The most likely physical breakages that would occur will be underpans, wings, wing mirrors and barge boards. For current and recent car models these can all be ordered as spare parts. We can order them in for you if we don't have them in stock already, they are easy enough to fit yourself. Please consult the service sheet library to find the part you require. If your car's actual body breaks, (e.g. someone trod on a car and cracked the roof or windscreen), you will need to return it to Hornby for repair as car bodies are not available as spare parts. The body is essentially what you buy when you buy a car, pretty much all the other bits of the car are available as parts. But they may have spare bodies knocking around in their workshop.

If your car's undertray breaks (most likely where the guide blade pivots or at an axle clip point, following an accident), you will probably need to replace the whole undertray. (Some preventive measures can be taken against this, see this discussion on Slot Forum). But usually a broken guide pivot point cannot be successfully glued to withstand the forces of racing for more than a few laps. Again the part numbers for these are on the service sheets. To replace a car undertray it's the work of about 10-15 minutes to take all the components (see example in diagram above) off the broken one and pop them on the new one. Being the most stressed area on the car the guide blade area is a common break point - it's a good thing to learn how to replace an undertray, as in doing so you learn about how the whole car fits together and you will probably need to replace many throughout your years in the hobby. To replace an undertray, simply unscrew the bottom of the car, lift out the driver cage (on saloons), pop out the rear wheels, lever out the motor, wiggle out the digital chip and LED (if any) and unscrew the guide blade. On many cars the front wheels are part of the undertray, but remember to swap over any performance tyres and magnets you installed on the old one. Then simply put everything back in place on the new undertray. The rear wheels and motor just click in, the LED and chip may need a bit of hotglue, superglue or just Blu-tack to hold them in place. Some people like to glue their motor in place to prevent any possible wobble or it popping out. Replace the driver cage and thread the wires neatly through the interior, avoiding them touching any moving parts. Screw in the guide blade (the correct way round, with leading side of blade shorter than the trailing side), replace the car's body and you're done. TOP TIP: If you are at all concerned about getting everything back together again, take snapshots of the outside and inside of the car with your cameraphone before you start. On a few cars there are odd bits like exhaust pipes, suspension struts and barge boards that fall about loose when you take the top off so you need to be prepared for that happening.

Tuning and improving car performance You can write a book on slot car tuning and indeed many have been. However if you keep cars free of fluff, with good braids and tyres (perhaps try silicon ones for extra grip), and a drop of lubricant on the axles and gears, plus sanding of the tyres (see below) you won't go far wrong. The Slot Car Handbook in the publications section goes into slot car tuning in some depth for those who want to really get right under the bonnet. The thing we are most often asked about is how to identify a fast car, and will car X be as fast as car Y. Firstly as a rule of thumb always try and race similar cars together - similar meaning all the same brand (i.e. all Scalextric or all Carrera) and then all GT or all Le Mans Prototype, or all F1, etc. But don't be too much of a purist and refuse to race cars with each other if they never raced on the same track in real life, as this will seriously reduce your options. Note that cars with full detail and interior, and lights, are a few grams heavier than those without so this will also affect how they handle. Even with all identical cars though, you could still find performance differences due to slight magnet strength and motor variations between individual models. When looking at new cars to buy, the faster cars will be the ones with the lowest centre of gravity and the sleekest bodywork (a bit like as in real life). Medium length streamlined saloon cars with wheels more or less at the corners will go well - Lamborghinis, Aston Martin DBR9s and so on. Also Le Mans Prototypes which are wide and low-profile, are very quick and stable. All these cars also all have the stronger bar magnet underneath. Tall cars like Range Rovers are more likely to roll on corners. Long cars like Dodge Chargers are more likely to have a loose rear end. And little cars like Minis and Caterhams have smaller magnets and give you less warning of when they are going to flip over. These more challenging cars are fun to drive in their own right, but less likely to be as fast, if speed is all you are after.

Sanding your tyres Are you buffing up your tyres? You will possibly be quite surprised what a difference this makes to the grip level and speed of your car. Whilst on track, simply place the rear wheels of your car over some sandpaper, tape the sandpaper in position and hold the rear of the car very slightly raised (try not to tilt it) while you give it a blast of full throttle for about 10-20 seconds. This roughs up the tyre surface, flattens any imperfections and also brings the magnet (if you have one) a tiny bit closer to the track. A car you previously thought was absolutely pants will gain a new lease of life! Eventually of course you will need new tyres but not for a long while. There is a full article on this at at Slot Forum.

Visitors to our track have commented on our "very civilised" buffing track piece and asked how to make one. It's easy - you just need an old bit of track, an old power supply from an analogue track, an old analogue hand throttle, some emery board / sandpaper, eyelets, and double sided tape (adult assembly required). Cut the abrasive into strips. The width of a steel ruler is about right. Then stick them to strips of double sided tape. Trim as required and and fix them either side of the rails on the track piece. Locate the track connector in the socket under the same rail Follow lead back as far as you can from the throttle connector - cut it and attach eyelets to both wires if required. You will end up with a wire that can connect directly from the power supply to the under-track connector as shown here. Tidy up cut leads with insulation tape, and, with track connector attached, connect wires to power supply terminals. This will give you permanent full power to the one lane. Any time you need to buff up your tyres, hold your car on the buffing track for a few seconds. You can repeat the construction with the other lane, using another throttle. Maybe use a different grade of sand paper on the other lane. Connect the wires from lane 2 to the same power supply. Or you can use a standard throttle configuration for the other lane, so you can vary the buffing power. (A compact single lane version could be made using a modern C7016 half straight, but you would need to solder the wires under the track as these modern single lane pieces don't have the analogue plug socket) Thanks to Paul at the Gordano Scalextric club for the instructions.

A General Rule Of Thumb; Drive Carefully - Think Logically. Digital racing works best as a non-contact sport! You will find a successful, smart overtaking move is much more satisfying than a pile-up. Look out ahead for stationary cars on or across your lane! Try and look after your cars and be prepared to take them apart and fix them yourself if necessary, as breakages resulting from racing are very unlikely to be covered by warranty. If you should however find a car is not behaving itself, logically go through all the components that could be causing the problem. Don't automatically assume it's a problem with the car. It could also be the track, the power supply, or the controller. Did you just have a crash? See if any of the other solutions listed in our guide offer a clue. And always try a process of elimination by swapping cars, track and controllers around to narrow down the likely cause.

General Scalextric car performance improvement 7 Steps to Improve the Track Performance of Your Classic Scalextric Car By Gary Harding The older Scalextric cars from the 1970s and 1980s are great models but can seem slow and difficult to race by the standards set by modern Scalextric cars. Luckily these classic Scalextric cars can be upgraded to greatly enhance their track performance making them competitive on the track while not removing any of the enjoyment and skill required for the older Scalextric cars. This article lists seven simple changes to greatly improve your classic Scalextric car. We have based this article on a 1970s Scalextric C.052 Ford Escort RS1600 which was selected as being typical of the Scalextric cars of the period. It was not prepared before the test apart from ensuring the motor operated as expected and the car was complete, electrically and mechanically with no obvious faults. The tyres were not cracked or split to any great degree and still had grip when run on classic Scalextric track. Our overall impression is that this car had been stood unused for a long period of time. The results are based on a Scalextric Sport track with a test circuit specifically designed for this test. Built from the modern Sport Scalextric track the surface offers little mechanical grip with a smoother surface compared to the original classic Scalextric track. It incorporated tight inner corner hairpin sections, long straights, chicanes, corners that tightened, corners that opened out. Essentially all types of challenges. Step 1: After conducting a visual inspection we measured the best lap times the car could achieve. The best lap time achieved was 18.72 seconds. Then the car was given an electrical service with new; copper pick up braids, pick up pins and wires from the pick up assembly to the motor. A retest gave a new lap time of 15.22 seconds which is an improvement of around 18%. Step 2: Then, the car given a full lubrication service with all the motor and axle bearings given a small drop of oil each. Also, the gears were lightly coated with Teflon impregnated grease. A retest of the car gave a new best lap time of 13.77 seconds which is a further improvement of around 9.5%. Step 3: After the lubrication service, slightly wider axles were fitted and a little weight added to the rear of the chassis. Again the car was tested of the track and this time gave a best lap time of 12.50 seconds which is an improvement of 9.2%. Step 4: Next a set of high grip replacement SuperSlix tyres were fitted to the rear wheel hubs. A retest gave a new best lap time of 9.99 seconds which is a further 20.1%. Step 5: With the improvement made so far the next step was to replace the original Johnson motor with a new Mabuchi motor. This more powerful and lighter motor slightly increased the car's lap time, probably due to problems in getting the power down to the track. The best lap time recorded was 10.49 seconds which is a degradation of 0.5%. Step 6: In order to give the car a chance to use the power available from the Mabuchi motor a Neodymium magnet was added to the chassis of the Escort. The best lap time achieved was 9.12 seconds which was an improvement of 25.5% Step 7: Our final change was to add MAX Grip tyres as some tyre slip was clearly evident even with the Neodymium magnet present. These replacement SuperSlix tyres are manufactured from a latex material and give outstanding track grip. The best lap achieved a time of 6.44 seconds which was a further improvement of 25.5%. The overall improvement in lap times make this car competitive on the track while not removing any of the enjoyment and skill required. With these simple changes this car was almost a staggering 3 times faster than when purchased. A more detailed account of the parts used and the results of each step can be can be found at Scalextric Car Restorations. Gary Harding has been working with Scalextric cars for over 30 years and now operates Scalextric Car Restorations in the UK. Scalextric Car Restorations is a Worldwide internet based business that offers for sale high quality Scalextric cars and Scalextric parts from the 1960s to the present day. All the restoration work is carried out to the highest standards with the highest quality parts available. Only the best cars are selected and the final result is a car that is genuinely like new. Further help and advice relating to this article or Scalextric cars in general can be found at: http://www.scalextric-car.co.uk Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Harding http://EzineArticles.com/?7-Steps-to-Improve-the-Track-Performance-of-Your-Classic-Scalextric-Car&id=2266940