24 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Short but very sweet.

[SpeedyNH]

Is that Magnabraid?

[Mr. M]

I like the 2J!

[MattD]

Really nice, one of my favorite track designs. Lanes may be a bit close for loose cars, I would suppose they use Magnabraid to keep the cars stuck down like that. With no magnets and urethane or silicone tires they may slide around a bit more. There are several versions of Riverside on Google pictures. All are nice.   

 

Dick Wallen has a great book about Riverside.

[MSwiss]

I'm probably wrong, but that's the first one I recall with four lanes, and certainly the one most suited for semi-serious racing.

What exactly the benefits have been, it's impossible to say, but Slot Mods has certainly put slot racing in the limelight, at least to the 1/1 car enthusiasts.

[Alchemist]

I always enjoy the Slot Mod Track videos - thank you for sharing this one, Greg!

 

I concur with Mike, that Slot Mods gives the slot car hobby good exposure.

 

I'm hoping with the advent of electric cars, with almost every major manufacturer producing an all-electric vehicle, that someway, somehow, the slot car hobby will see a major revival and continue on!

 

That's what I'm hoping for! ! ! !

 

Thank you.

[MattD]

Because I like seeing landscaped tracks, I've saved pictures of some of the nicer copies of Riverside I  have found on the net. Here's a  Carrera track and one based on Monogram. I think I had a three-lane copy  saved, but I can't find it now, I've hid it from myself!
 
Obviously these are not Slot Mods, but they also are not $20K.
 

 

[MSwiss]

Scott Vargo's Chicago River North Raceway is going to be a great one, once finished.

It's more or less, a 1/32 urban Hillclimb.

In a video of it on Facebook, it looks like the pit lane switching still needs a little bit of work.

[idare2bdul]

Good effort but if it was ever that green out there I missed it. 

[eshorer]

Because I like seeing landscaped tracks, I've saved pictures of some of the nicer copies of Riverside I  have found on the net.

The top pic is Michael Smalley's track, one of ten tracks in our 1/32 scale Farrout Slot Car Club in SoCal. Michael's Carrera track is now in his living room and dining room in Palmdale, and he has since improved it with beautiful finishes on the surface. It's the best plastic track I've ever run on.

Eddie

[Ecurie Martini]

As I was watching the video, a thought occurred...

If slot car tracks (and cars) had evolved along these lines, would we be seeing long discussions of the fate of the hobby today?
 
EM

[MSwiss]

There will probably always be great looking 1/32 cars, and guys racing them in their garage or basement.

A lot of those 1/32 cars will never see the track, or only for a few laps.

As I mentioned a few times before, there was a raceway, two blocks away from my current location in about 2006, with four beautifully-landscaped tracks. I don't think they lasted a year.

Beautiful scenery in a controlled club environment, with all adults racing, or a $50K Slot Mods track in Bobby Rahal's Autobahn Country Club private clubhouse, doesn't translate to the reality of a commercial raceway, with the reality of mischievious six-year olds, and landlords who like their rent on time, every month.

When I get a new person buying a car, they are fine with the aerodynamic, non-realistic looking car, or when they ask if that separate, nice-looking, less aerodynamic body will fit on it, as soon as I explain it will, but the car won't handle as well, they pass on it.

Or in the case of the BRM cars. The BRM people came out to my raceway, during the big iHobby Show, to hold a race, lending out cars to whoever wanted to participate.

The guys all said the same thing. "That was sort of fun. The cars look great, but I'm not paying $189 for something that runs like crap."

This is experienced racers, with the ability to drive anything, who either have raced at Road America, or went there frequently, to enjoy the racing. IOW, race car enthusiasts.

They would sooner buy a 1/32 car for $55 and never take it out of the box, and look at it on their dresser, and race a 1/24 stamped chassis with whatever body handles the best.

[Cheater]

If slot car tracks (and cars) had evolved along these lines, would we be seeing long discussions of the fate of the hobby today?

I don't think the lack of realistic tracks is a big part of the commercial raceway's "genetic disease," Alan.

For me the critical issues are:

The promotion of all-out speed (not just handling) as the holy grail of commercial slot racing. Even in 1:1 racing, the 'message' isn't that Formula 1 or NASCAR are the only worthwhile forms of automotive competition.

The almost-universal belief among raceway owners that the bills can be paid solely from the profits generated by organized racing activities, along with the similar fallacy that bigger, longer tracks will generate enough revenue to cover the cost of the additional space they require as compared to smaller tracks.

The lack of an organization or organized group developing and promoting a viable business model for a commericial raceway operation. As it is today, every raceway owner has to start from scratch trying to come up with such a model; there is no raceway industry trade group with an 'institutional memory' of successful business models that have been proven profitable over time.
 
Lastly, even if the above points had been addressed, one must not discount the personalties and egos of raceway owners, who as a group largely feel they don't need no stinkin' advice from anyone, because they know exactly what will work for them. Incredibly, even after learning at significant cost that they were mistaken, most still don't change their opinions.
 
Not greatly different from the restaurant industry, where the 'formulas' for success are reasonably-well known but where "60% do not make it past the first year, and 80% go under in five years" usually because many restaurant owners don't think it is important to adhere to the concepts and procedures that have been proven actually to work.

[Dave Crevie]

Definitely Magnabraid. Even at those slow speeds and with Supertires, the cars would be drifting out some.

 

These tracks are not for serious slot racers, but rather a nice diversion from billiards or fooseball for a basement bar or rec room. The scenery makes the tracks attractive. 

[MattD]

Eddie, if the Carrera Riverside has been re-done how about some pix next time you race there?  

 

I always say I would be happy to race 1/32 on a nice home track/plastic and at a slower speed if that was my only option. Can't say I would care much about the current car design, but they have beautiful hard bodies that allow you t build most any scale replica of the '50s-'70s era cars I like.   

 

Equal racing is the goal and the fun part. We all know speed kills.

[Ecurie Martini]

Definitely Magnabraid. Even at those slow speeds and with Supertires, the cars would be drifting out some.

 

These tracks are not for serious slot racers, but rather a nice diversion from billiards or fooseball for a basement bar or rec room. The scenery makes the tracks attractive. 

 

It was not my intent to re-igniten a rather incendiary topic but simply a thought in passing based on about 60 years of observation and participation. Speed is relative. I have competed both in SCCA racing and sailing dinghies. The speed difference is enormous but the competition is equally intense. (BTW, magnets are not permitted in any of our local classes.)

 

Definitions of what makes a "serious" slot racer may vary. With a well-equipped shop including a lathe, drill press, milling machine, soldering gear ranging from a battery powered iron through a 200 W "club" iron to a nearly kilowatt resistance soldering rig and having built everything except motors and gears (including guide flags and wheels), I think I'm pretty serious about it.

 

One might choose to relegate this approach to a "diversion" but OTOH, an approach that was less demanding of space, less intimidating and more evocative of "the real thing" might have attracted a more diverse and perhaps wider audience.

 

YMMV.

 

EM 

[eshorer]

Eddie, if the Carrera Riverside has been re-done how about some pix next time you race there?

Here are some pics from our last race at Michael Smalley's Riverside Raceway in June.

Eddie

[don.siegel]

Thanks for all the pics, guys. Always loved the Riverside track and I think it's one of the few real circuits that translates into an interesting slot car track.
 
The Slot Mods track shown here could be the scene of some great and serious 1/32 racing, with or without Magnabraid - I'd like to get our vintage cars on that track!
 
Commercial tracks are a whole other category, as some say above. As much as I loved them, and would love to have another one near me, they're probably an aberration in the history of slot racing, which is more intrinsically a club/home activity.
 
About 20 years ago in Normandy, I ran into a track a guy had opened, with a beautifully landscaped four-lane Fleischmann plastic track that was easily over 100 feet long - but there were a few problems: the track was way too technical, and any beginners renting time would spent half their time putting cars back in the slots; also, the guy knew almost nothing about slot cars, and I had to give him a couple addresses to get replacement braid... Now, maybe a concept like this could have worked in a seaside resort type town, but we'll never know, because he did everything wrong.
 
Don

[MSwiss]

From Scott Vargo's Chicago River North Raceway.

 

He's friends with Dave Beadie, from Slot Mods.

 

 

[Ecurie Martini]

That Riverside track is lovely - and the parched sand scenery is exactly as I remember it.

 

EM

[MattD]

Agree with you, Don. A track design that looks like spaghetti thrown on the wall is a surefire way to take away the fun from newbies. The Riverside plan is a pretty good combination.       

If you routed it you can add some banking and widen curves a little to make it flow some better. I would be happy to have a variation of it to race on at home with 1/32 stuff.
 
Swiss, those pics look good. Where can we find more?

[n9949y]

Add banking!? Camel's nose under the tent...

[Martin]

... but will it fit back in the box?

 

[eshorer]

Add banking!? Camel's nose under the tent...

 I hope the thread isn't getting the various Riverside tracks too confused...  

The Carrera one in post #17 has an interesting feature to help "even out" the times between the inner and outer lanes: The outer two lanes are banked on the far turn at the end of the straightaway, so even though they're the long way around, you can "catch up" to the shorter inner two lanes. 

Eddie

[MattD]

Todd, I didn't see a camel.     

 

 

 The Monogram Riverside is probably the set I like the best of them all.   Still really just 1/32, but everything about the box art would make every kid want it.