Slot Cars!

"Osiris - I can haz Euro spec?" (o51r15) 01/17/2015 at 00:41 • Filed to: Slot Cars

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So, I was at Wal-Mart earlier, going through their clearance section, and I found this!

So it's most obviously not a famous or high end set. Definitely not. But it's still awesome and I got two sets for a total of $22! You just can't beat that!

But I have to say, the greatest thing is not the fact that I got two insanely cheap slot car sets. It's the fact that it works great. It works exactly like any other slot car set that we had growing up, the first thing we all did was mash down the controller as hard as we could and watch the cars fly off the track at speeds we thought were in the triple digit ranges. then, we "grew up" and started dating real life people and somehow lost our tracks in the pursuit of...well, happiness.

Something else I absolutely loved was the so very obviously NASCAR-esque car that came with it all dressed up in #2 attire. Wait...what's that wearing a #8 designation? You're damn right! It's a Ford Escort Cosworth! Complete with rally attire and everything! How could I not buy this?

The greatest thing about all of this is the fact that my 3 year old already gets it. She's actually got more steady hand that I and falls of the track a lot less. But that's probably because I have reverted to eight year old me and am looking for that triple digit speed launch off the track.

PushToStart > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 01/17/2015 at 00:51

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man, I should break out my slot car set again. those things are tons of fun.

also, if you haven't seen this, it's worth a look. $300,000 for a slot car track, lol

https://www.neimanmarcus.com/christmasbook/…

Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? > PushToStart 01/17/2015 at 00:54

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Holy friggin' crap that's awesomely expensive! If only I had $300K in disposable income! Ha!

Funktheduck > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 01/17/2015 at 01:03

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I may have to go by walmart tomorrow to see if this exists in my neck of the woods.

ttyymmnn > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 01/17/2015 at 01:11

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I bought a slot set a couple of Christmases ago. It came with an Audi and a Peugeot LMP car. One nice feature is that the transformer has three settings on it, so at its lowest setting you can keep the accelerator mashed and the cars will still stay on the track. The throttle grips aren't very well made, though, and you don't really have very good delicate control of it. We don't use it much because I really have no good place to set it up—it's pretty big. I don't want to keep building it and breaking it down. And the only place I have to build it is on the LR carpet. I've been saying for ages that I'm going to tack it down to a big piece of plywood and leave it set up. One of these days.

This is a pic from the web, not mine. But the layout is the same. I never built the cardboard grandstand or pits. Those look like my cars, too.

Here it is, I found it.

Tohru > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 01/17/2015 at 02:08

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Reminds me of the year I bought 5 slot car sets on clearance for $8/ea. Dad and I wired it up to a wall adapter (instead of using D batteries) and made a slot car set that covered the pool table.

The highlight of it was a 7-foot straightaway that ran into a big stacked loop (instead of 270 degrees like your set, it went an additional 270 degrees. We used cardboard for some guardrails to prevent cars from flying off onto concrete. We kept that set up for a year. In that time, we burned out 3 of the cheapo cars that came in the sets. We had 10 cars so it wasn't a big deal.

PushToStart > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 01/17/2015 at 03:17

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Even then, there's some badass cars you could buy for 300K!

kanadanmajava1 > PushToStart 01/17/2015 at 04:54

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How can you drive on that long one? There isn't any place where you could see the track while standing besides it.

I have driven on a 27 m long slot car track and that was pretty hard even though you could see nearly the whole track.

imadeaburner > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 01/17/2015 at 05:54

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There is a guy in maine with a mini sized New england dragway complete with timing lights and everything. He sets up bracket races with a buy in and allows betting and whoever wins wints the pot of money.

He also has a scale race track that he does competitions on, I tihnk it was a six lane track.

shop-teacher > Funktheduck 01/17/2015 at 06:59

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I hate going to Walmart, but I may do the same thing.

PushToStart > kanadanmajava1 01/17/2015 at 11:27

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that's a really good point actually, I don't know. It says there's cameras positioned around the track, I guess maybe they're hooked up to a display to help you see the cars on the other side of the track.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Osiris - I can haz Euro spec? 04/12/2015 at 17:33

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Ugh! The nostalgia of Christmases long passed... It hurts