Digital Slot Car Review – Carrera, SCX & Scalextric

We ran across a review of 3 different digital track sets, in of all places, Car and Driver. We think that’s pretty cool.The reviews are short and sweet, but they do give nice comparisons and contrasts between 3 of the most popular digital slot car track makers: Scalextric, Carrera and SCX.

Digital Slot Cars Tested: Carrera, SCX, Scalextric – Gearbox

Slot Machines: Digital technology has juiced up the slot-car-racing scene.

Slot cars, as we know them, have been around since 1957, when Minimodels electrified its clockwork Scalex cars. During the 1960s, slot-car racing enjoyed a boom, but the craze “hit a wall in the late 1970s to the 1990s,” according to Dave Kennedy, the North American marketing manager for Carrera, an Austrian maker of these sets. He says that demand has “grown a lot since 2002,” partly because the cars have become more realistic and also due to the introduction of digital technology, which allows for a number of advances. In the past, you could run only one car per lane on a two-lane track. On a digital track, though, the cars can switch lanes, up to six can run at a time, and different speed settings and even pseudo “fuel” strategies are possible. We looked at three digital sets—from Carrera, Spanish maker SCX, and the mack daddy of them all, Britain’s Scalextric (imported exclusively by Hornby America)—ranging from a two-car starter set that retails for just over $200 to a larger, $500 four-car layout.

Let’s see what they are saying about the different track sets:

Carrera Digital Racing Sets

“My 12-year-old son appreciated the ability to program different speed settings and the ease with which he could set up the cars. This starter set comes with 17.7 feet of track and a gorgeous Can-Am Porsche 917/30 and an equally stunning McLaren M20.”

Electric Dreams carries 12 different Carrera Race Sets. You can see them here: Carrera Digital Slot Car Sets.

Scalextric Digital Racing Sets

“With four cars and 22 feet of track, motorized mayhem ensued when we set up this one; the rear wing of one car was destroyed after just two races.”

Hmmm… sound like fun. We carry 11 different Scalextric Racing sets. You can see these here: Scalextric Digital Racing Sets.

SCX Digital Racing Sets

“After about two minutes, the Gillies family was bump draftin’, love tappin’, tradin’ paint, and spinnin’ out just like true NASCAR heroes. We even had a Talladega-style wreck. About the only thing missing was the ability to do donuts at the end of a race.”

I am first in line when they come up the the “donut track to finish a race! We carry a few different SCX systems in the Shop. You can check them out here: SCX Digital Slot Car Racing Sets.

If you want to read the rest of the article at Car and Driver, click here.

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