Check out the Auto World brand for slot cars, track, and accessories designed for everyday fun. Slot cars for beginners and for serious enthusiastsĮspecially if you’re interested in analog HO scale, Tower Hobbies® has a great selection of slot cars and slot car tracks for beginners as well as serious hobbyists. Crossover track sections provide opportunities to change lanes, block, pass, and overtake competitors. Any number of cars can compete at once regardless of how many lanes are available in your digital slot car track. Each controller is programmed to operate a specific car, not a lane - and not just its speed but also lights and other features. In digital slot car sets, electricity runs continuously through all of the track’s metal strips. Special track sections are needed for a car to change lanes while staying under the same driver’s control. You can race only as many slot cars as you have lanes. The slot car in your lane speeds up or slows down accordingly. You determine the amount of current by how hard you press the trigger. In analog slot car sets, pressing your controller’s trigger sends electricity only through the metal strips in your lane on the track. Digital slot cars take advantage of the newer digital technology. Analog slot cars have been around for over half a century. Slot car racing sets are available in two different formats, analog and digital. Each slot car’s chassis has wire braids that contact the strips, creating a circuit that delivers electrical power to the slot car motor. Metal strips in the slot car track carry the current throughout the course. Slot cars are powered by AC household electric current sent through a transformer to lower the voltage. The larger sizes rival high-quality die cast cars for scale detail. Slots cars are available in many body styles, including sports cars, street cars, and LMP (LeMans prototype). Larger, higher priced 1/32 and 1/24 scale sizes offer more realism for serious slot car fans. HO scale is the smallest and most popular, because the track can be set up easily in a limited space.

The variety found in slot car racing offers something for everyone, from young children to serious racing enthusiasts. The challenge for each driver is to negotiate curves and obstacles as fast as possible without spinning off the track. The car is steered automatically by a guide pin on its chassis that fits into the slot in the track.Ĭompeting slot cars run in parallel slots on the track. Its driver controls speed using a hand-held controller wired to the track. A slot car is a motorized miniature vehicle that races on a slotted track.

Hobby shops with slot cars