This review is given from the perspective of a novice racer who is not sponsored by slot car manufacturers and who cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars a week on this stuff.
8:06 Wing/spoiler replacements are sometimes available, but I’ve wound up just replacing the uprights with bicycle inner tube material once they break. I cut it to match the original piece with a little extra on bottom to thread through the holes in the body. Then I glue them in under the body and to the wing. My daughters, nephews, and I have had some spectacular crashes and the upgraded wings have held up just fine so far. (To get the Pink Pig’s spoiler off in one piece, unscrew the body and push the uprights out from underneath using a jeweler’s screwdriver.)
a great and very informative video,for me i started out with the bull and horse set.i was not keen on the figure 8 track so i made my own.my early videos show that, the next thing i invested in was a pit lane, just to make things a litle more exciting.now heres the bit that has the most debate, expansion,after doing my research i found it cheaper to get another set, rather than buying track bits and cars seperately,i got the race to victory set, over time i added start light gantry,a few buildings and seperate lighting, one thing with this hobby is you can spend as much or as little as you want, depending on what you want for your track,mine has now grown to 11feet long X 6 feet wide, which is up on four tables,for better lap counting and time keeping i did get the dongle for the smart race app, as i stated it all depends on what you want from your layout and over time how much or how little you want to spend on it.happy racing..
I bought the “Spirit of Speed”and “GT Face Off”sets second hand from eBay. My Pink Pig is definitely faster than the Corvette or the Vantage. “GT Face Off” came with a Ford GT and another 911 RSR (this one is white with a red and blue striped livery). You’d think that the two 911 RSRs would perform the same, but no. The red, white, and blue one is faster still. I’ve since bought an Audi R8 LMS GT3, which is just a rocketship. After trying the tires and lapping the pinion and crown gears with toothpaste, all the cars run significantly quieter, smoother, and faster than before. Now I’m just using white lithium grease on the gears. Regularly oiling the bushings also helps a lot with performance. In spite of all that, it seems like the Corvette and Vantage are just SLOW. (I may end up buying upgraded motors for them.) The Pink Pig is now much closer to the other 911, but the Audi owns my track record by about a half a second.
Since filming this, I've noticed Carrera "Starter Sets" are now available in the U.S. That set comes with 2 Ford Mustang GTs, but only 18.7 feet of track. On balance, Spirit of Speed is still a better value, but only if you're really, really certain you're into slot car racing.
