Slot Car Racing

We want the slot car hobby to flourish and not die. As we all realize the hobby as we practice it suffers from:

• Cost - to maintain and run a club and track; to buy (competitive) car parts, controllers, electronics, tools, supplies etc.; travel to events.
• Time - to build, repair and maintain tracks, cars etc.; to dedicate to learning the different skills to improve and be competitive; travel to tracks and events.
• Skills - both technical and physical needed to be competitive; need for dedication and perseverance to acquire them.
• Demographics - fewer tracks further apart make it harder to partake; many of us are well past our prime and notable people have already passed away; few "young" people are taking it up; and there's a chasm where the young drop out to have families, earn a living etc. and perhaps return in later life.
• Divergence of goals - all "racers" don't want the same things - some want a social experience and to have fun; some want intense and international competition; some want ...
• Hobby or a business? It's a horrible grey area where if it's treated as a business profits increase cost (raceway model for example) and if it's treated as a hobby there's no reinvestment for growth and incentives are missing.

We see brushless motors as a way for addressing a small part of the cost issue. They are a lower cost option to brushed motors that are close to (and soon) shall exceed the performance of brushed motors. One obstacle to running brushless is the eCom - we hope by providing a very competitive one at low cost, we can remove if not eliminate that obstacle.

Slot car racing has always represented a way to practically learn some new skills.

The traditional route (that I and others followed) was to go from having had fun with the Scalextric toy, to club racing, motivated by wanting to go faster and compete. This involved finding a club track close by - which back in the late 1960's and early 1970's in the UK was not too hard to do.

This led on to: building chassis out of brass and piano wire - which taught soldering skills, and basic metal working skills; winding and tuning motors - which taught some electricity and magnetism lessons (Lenz's law, Ohm's law etc. ).

These days the bar has been raised, as has the skill set. To be a competitive DIY slot car racer you need to: understand how to design and manufacture an EDM-cut spring steel chassis - using mechanical CAD skills; master the motor winding skills and know how to design and build an eCom - using eCAD. Too much for most people.

We hope by providing an open solution for the latter we've moved things along a bit and opened the door for more people to learn and innovate, and hopefully bring the hobby back to its roots a bit.

Now, all we need (lol) are some open designs for motors, chassis, controllers etc. ;-)