Ready availability of maintenance items and additional track, cars, and accessories
 

Both Scalextric and Carrera offer an extensive line of additional track sections, cars, accessory items, and essential maintenance parts.  We do everything we can to have all these items in stock all year round, and there are many other dealers across the US also stocking them.  There are, however, other brands offered that do not make maintenance and expansion items readily available.  Hobbyists sometimes find that the only way to get more equipment is to get another set, and key items, such as curves in various radii for making 4-lane tracks, are not available at all.  When shopping for a race set, be sure to find out if you will be able to get more track, cars, and replacement parts easily and reliably.  Check manufacturers’ and dealers’ catalogs to be sure these items are listed. 

Whichever set you choose, from the least expensive to the top of the line, it will include two ready-to-run cars, two controllers, a power supply, and a layout of snap-together sectional track, along with an instruction sheet.  The main difference among sets at the various price points in any manufacturer’s product line is in the type of cars and the number of track sections.    Lap lengths of currently available sets range from 12 feet to about 30 feet.  Most sets also include some accessory items.  These may include guardrails, bridge supports for making a layout with an overpass, track borders, and, in a few high-end sets, an electronic lap counter. 

All the sets, both conventional and digital, from any given manufacturer are made up from the same standardized track components, mostly full straight sections and standard curves.  All the components from any set in a manufacturer’s product line will be compatible with any other set from that manufacturer, so two or more sets can be combined to make a single long layout.  The one exception to this is SCX, which uses two completely different track systems for digital and conventional racing.  All SCX digital sets and track are compatible and the same is true of SCX conventional sets and track, but SCX conventional and digital system track cannot be used together.

Most important, all the conventional cars made by Scalextric, Carrera, and other manufacturers, such as Ninco, Fly, MRRC, and SCX, will run on any of the 1:32 scale conventional track systems currently available.  You are not tied to a particular manufacturer’s selection of cars.  Carrera cars require some trimming of the guide flag to fit the shallower slots on other brands of track.  Fly cars, as well as other cars fitted with aftermarket traction magnets or hopup motors, will need a power system upgrade to a separate power supply per lane and lower-resistance controllers to perform to their full potential.  However, they all will run on the original-equipment power system of any of the conventional race sets we sell.

Digital systems, however, are not compatible between manufacturers so you can’t run one company’s digital car on another’s digital track without replacing the car’s chip module with one from the other manufacturer.

To see a selection of race sets, cars, and accessory items carefully chosen to give children and beginners the best possible start in slot car racing, visit the “Great For Children and Beginners” section of our on-line store.

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