I have seen a few… but generally it seems that 1/32 scale slot racers do not consider drag racing. This, despite the fact that many of the drag racing dominates many 1/24 scale commercial raceways.
Drag racing has its advantages… Drag tracks take less space. Races rarely damage detailed cars. Win/loss drama every few seconds. A different set of skills to learn in setting up a car, picking your dial-in and honing your reaction time to thousandths of a second. With the bracket format, cars of varying speed can compete, so no car is too fast or too slow.
For me, and others who like to build or modify our cars, and who may be limited in gathering for races, the Slot Car Drag Race Proxy World Challenge is a great way to branch into Drag racing. After all, no track is even needed! All the racing will occur on a professional, drag strip that has held several World Championship events. The event is scored on three criteria, Top Speed, ET (time to cover the distance) and Appearance, as judged by expert judges. All the cars are prepared and run the same way for their timed pass, so it is all about the cars. So, the builder’s challenge is to make it fast, with nice paint and detail. There are three classes for 1/32 and others that are not scale specific, like a “3D Printed” “Just for Fun” “Wheelstander” and others.
I notice the latest email about upcoming Scalextric releases includes 4 cars that seem like a great basis for drag cars. Probably not the GT40 or the Escort, but the VWs, Corvette and especially the Charger all have potential. Not to mention their Mustang and Camaro prior releases. I am sure there are others.
Of course, Carrera did those ’57 Chevies and Furies, ’64 Vettes and Mustangs:
Pioneer did their own Mustangs and Camaros, but those Legends cars sure look like they would make great Altered, Gassers or Super Comp cars!
There are even 1/32 model kits that would be a good place t start: These from AMT are tempting:
While the 1/24 guys sometimes build motors up from parts and some cost over $300 We are restricting the 1/32 classes to sealed unmodified motors. But is not like they will be slow. The motors for example, all costing under $20 have from 40,000 to 50,000 RPM and as much as 657 G torque. Since most 1/32 cars come with 18,000 RPM motors with about 140 G torque, these motors should provide plenty of motivation!
Since running these motors on our track at 16.4 volts or the optional 25 volts will generate considerable velocity, we require all cars to use sponge tires. Other materials sometimes skip over the sticky stuff on the shutdown area that we use to stop the cars. Since 1/32 rarely use this type of tire, (although we love them on our magnet free road cars) I should point out that precision axles gears and foam wheels in scale proportions are available.
Almost all of the items featured here are available from our first “Recomended Supplier” sponsor 132slotcar.US we hope you will participate in the event and support our sponsors!
What will you build?