Car Tracks

Car Tracks

The slot car racing community is divided over car tracks. Ever since the introduction of digital car tracks, racers have been split in two: those that love digital and those that despise it. So what are the good and bad points of digital car tracks?

First, lets look at the good. Until recently, slot car racing was simple and had not changed for the last 40 years or so. It was one car per lane. The more cars you wanted to race, the wider your track needed to be. Well not anymore. It is now possible to race up to eight cars on a two-lane piece of digital track. Impossible we hear you cry!

The digital track gives you a more realistic racing experience. You overtake the competition by switching lanes. This is a new skill than many of the old school slot car racers are not used to. But if you race at home, this solves the problem of space that you may have. If you wanted to race four cars on analog car tracks, you will need a track space that is about 14 by 8 feet, as well as space to walk around the track. With digital car tracks, four people, and even more, can race on a track that covers an area of 4 foot by 8 foot. So if space is a concern, digital is the way to go.

Because digital car tracks are relatively new to the market, there is not as much choice when it comes to selecting cars as there is with analog. Also digital cars cannot be worked on the same way as analog cars can. So if you think you would enjoy working on the cars, you will want to go with analog car tracks.

The last difference between analog and digital car tracks is price. Digital is about 30% more expensive than analog and not only that, there is more than can go wrong. When a digital car breaks, it is much harder to service than an analog car. And for many, the attraction of the 1:32 analog cars and tracks is that they are so easy to service and fix.

So there you go, you can see why the slot car community is divided over the digital revolution. Young kids love digital tracks and if you are new to racing so will you. If you have been racing slot cars for years, you may find the switch to digital a little hard to swallow.