Available in many scales and the appearance of digital slot racing systems over the freebet five years, it has made selecting a slot car a quite confusing. We hope this guide will answer a few of the questions you may have.
Carrera produce cars in a wide range of scales from 1:24 to 1:43. The 1:32 scale ranges are named as 132 Evolution and 132 Digital. Their track is slightly wider than all the others manufactured and it is designed to take vehicles up to 1:24 scale. Carrera slots are great value and well finished with fantastic detail. Carrera digital works on a different operating system compared to Scalextric but it is still possible to convert their vehicles to Scalextric digital.
We would advise against converting their F1 vehicles as it needs a high level of modelling skills to complete the conversion. Carrera slots are supplied with a different guide that will allow their products to work on other types of track. To change the guide you only have to pull the existing guide out and push the Scalextric one into the car and the conversion is complete.
NSR cars are the racers choice. They are not cheap but their products are pure thoroughbreds, designed to race in competition and all NSR products are engineered for speed. They do have a limited range of car styles, but each car normally has a variation in motor configurations to choose from. A wide range of spares are also available to allow you to get the very best performance from their range.
Scalextric is the UK brand that everyone is familiar with and have grown up with. All the car companies mentioned above, have cars that will work on Scalextric track and vice versa on Ninco and Carrera track. Scalextric cars come in a few variations. They supply a range of high detailed cars, but these cars are not suitable for use with younger children as they are too fragile. The F1 cars are the most fragile in this range.
Their second style of car is their robust range and there are two types of these. They have plain coloured cars that are the cheapest, and then there is normally a more coloured racing livery with more detail. Robust cars do not have lights fitted because of their simplified design. Now digital racing has been around for some time, most of Scalextric cars have DPR chassis to allow the simple fitting of a digital plug. This can be completed in around 60 seconds, you will only need a small philips screw driver to convert them. Overall Scalextric cars offer good value for money and there is a wide range of cars to choose from when you decide which car style you want to race with.
Slot.it provide a similar car to NSR, made for the more serious racers. Their range of cars mainly follow Le Mans cars over the years dating back to the late 1960’s. Slot it cars are finished to a higher standard compared to NSR and the price is more affordable for the home racer. Slot.it cars do have a Digital chip that can be used to convert your cars to the Scalextric digital system and this does convince many home users to purchase this make.