# Scalextric Pit Lane HELP



## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

I'm thinking of buying a few pit lanes, but not for pits.. I think they'd be pretty cool as extra passing lanes for digital racing. I've read everything I can about them, but got no answers. Before I invest, I just want to be sure that penalties aren't incurred if you use them as pass lanes.. Eventually, I might get a pit set up, but for now, I'm just not into it. If anyone's tried this, with or without an actual pit lane, please let me know.


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## FullyLoaded (Apr 19, 2006)

The downsides I read about these pit lanes is just that, they are made as pit lanes and not as easy to implement as passing lanes. You would need to check with other guys who actually use 1/32 digital slot car systems to see if this is possible. I know it seems simple enough and as long as they are just an extra lane it should work but you never know about switches and such.


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## TheRockinator (May 16, 2007)

There is NO problem using the Scalextric Pit Lanes to create passing lanes. What you will find however is the time a car loses in changing lanes can pretty much cancel out it's speed advantage over the car it's trying to pass. You can use the pit lane tracks pretty much anywhere in your layout you want provided you have a 1.5 standard length of straight to put it in. It's even pretty easy to make your own one lane tracks with creative use of a utility knife.  I have been tinkering with a track plan using Pit Lane tracks to make lanes "go away" Forcing cars to change lanes to find the best racing line. Another use for these tracks is to create a "get out of the way lane" for slower cars to move into when the race leaders are coming around racing for position. The only way you can be penalized for using a pit lane track is if the lane you create bypasses the start finish sensor. Then a car in that lane won't get it's lap counted. Other than that put them where you want. Take 2 lanes down to one for the ultimate squeeze track. Quickly expand 2 lanes to 3, 4 or even more. Just make sure when you get to the start finish line you are back to 2. Think OUTSIDE the Box. These aren't real cars, they run in SLOTS!! 

Later The planning my next digital track to be so far out of the box it might not be drive able Rockinator


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## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

What have you figured out so far to maximize the speeds you can use when entering the Scalextric lane changes?? I've heard this a few times now. Is it that you're not getting power to the car, or the angle is too steep, making you reduce so much that you lose your advantage, etc? There has to be a way to overcome it. Longer guidepins, or stronger traction magnets maybe? Yeah, I know it's the obvious.. Better to say it and get it out of the way.. What about using a dremel bit to make the slot a bit deeper? I wouldn't want to do this to the whole setup, unless the new depth was really beneficial.. If it's a matter of no power because the rails cut out too soon, have you tried using copper tape to lengthen them? I bought from 3 different sources, but don't have anything here yet. Looking at the parts on my laptop, the only thing I can definitely say at this point is if you try to use the car's momentum when you place the lane change sections, it'll be less of a downside to switch lanes.. Incorporate the in/out and out/in sections into the tail end of S curves, and put the straight one at the beginning, right after a hairpin, when you don't have any speed yet to lose.. Thanks for the info on the pit lane. I think a 'shortcut' on a skinny road with no sidewalls/railings is more my speed than dead ends.. Maybe skilt the track this way and that to make it more difficult to traverse.. kinda like the bathtub dance.. you know you're going to fall, but you still do the dance anyway hoping you won't fall. It's never worked, but still we try..


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

guinnesspeanut said:


> What have you figured out so far to maximize the speeds you can use when entering the Scalextric lane changes?? I've heard this a few times now. Is it that you're not getting power to the car, or the angle is too steep, making you reduce so much that you lose your advantage, etc? There has to be a way to overcome it. Longer guidepins, or stronger traction magnets maybe? Yeah, I know it's the obvious.. Better to say it and get it out of the way.. What about using a dremel bit to make the slot a bit deeper? I wouldn't want to do this to the whole setup, unless the new depth was really beneficial..


Making the slot deeper and using longer pins might help, but you can't just do part, you would have to do it all (if it can be done at all). You can't stop and switch guide pins every time you enter and leave the deeper slot section of track. Stronger magnets might help, but that would change the whole driving dynamic and take a lot of the challenge out of driving.





guinnesspeanut said:


> If it's a matter of no power because the rails cut out too soon, have you tried using copper tape to lengthen them? I bought from 3 different sources, but don't have anything here yet. Looking at the parts on my laptop, the only thing I can definitely say at this point is if you try to use the car's momentum when you place the lane change sections, it'll be less of a downside to switch lanes.. Incorporate the in/out and out/in sections into the tail end of S curves, and put the straight one at the beginning, right after a hairpin, when you don't have any speed yet to lose.. snip...


Dead spots are made intentionally to avoid shorts. Digital stuff is really sensitive to them, so I'm sure the safety margin is there for a reason. Having less dramatic of a lane change might make changing lanes smoother, but that extends that dead spot where the potential for a short exists (the longer the lane shift is, the longer a pick up is crossing over both rails / power strips). Looking at pictures of both the lane changing straights and the pit lane turn off tracks, it looks to me like the angle of the lane changes are the same. The design engineers no doubt sought out the best angle of deviation that would make the cross over doable and yet challenging, without a short circuit potential. 

A feasible use for pit lanes might be to equalize the difficulty of a section of the track. Shifting into the pit lane might make the next curve easier to handle, but that lane would be trapped through the following turn where it's hardest to navigate. This can be done just the opposite too. The pit lane puts you in the worst lane for the first curve you encounter, but puts you in the best lane for the next one. 

From what I've seen, digital is pretty cool. I wish someone could scale the concept down to HO and get it to market. About a year and a half ago, there was someone here on the boards who had just about everything set up to make it work. I think what held it back is finding a suitable chassis that will accept the chip, and be slow enough to make the lane changes.

I'm sure the cost of track production, chassis production as well as all the other bits and pieces to make it all happen are a huge financial roadblock. T jets would be best to handle it speed-wise, but due to the way Aurora designed the pick up shoe to brush spring set up there is no easy way to break off the power to insert the digital stuff. A whole new power set up would have to be engineered to get the power to the front axle cavity where the board would be housed (if it can be made small enough). Power would then be sent to the brush springs to power the motor. 

The only way I see HO digital happening is if someone like Tomy made it, and made the new digital track pieces work with their non-digital existing track selection. It would be a much harder sell if you had to use digital exclusive track to run them. The other issue would be could non digital cars run on that same track?


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## TheRockinator (May 16, 2007)

The slowing down at lane changes, pit lanes is not a matter of guide depth or length. The guide flags are not bottoming out. It's more a matter of the dead spots built into the tracks to, as slotcarman12078 said, minimize shorts. In fact the newest lane change tracks have lengthened the dead spots to help eliminate shorts even more. The other factor is if you are the one changing lanes your car is essentially turning while the other car is going straight and in a slightly shorter space. I guess it's physics or something.  When I said make a lane disappear I wasn't thinking of a dead end but more of having a car in the fast lane of say a tight curve suddenly have that lane merge into the next and have That lane then merge into 2 lanes creating a short section of 1 lane where drivers are forced out of the fastest line into a situation where they have to change lanes again to maintain the best line through the subsequent turns. I believe you would need - curve -pit lane exit-pit lane entrance- 2 lane track of your choice even a lane change track. 

Later The as I say there is no "right" way OR "wrong" way to use these tracks. Experiment and see what works for YOU. Rockinator


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## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

*Got some track..*

Well, my first of 3 boxes of Scalextric arrived.. A digital car, a few straights, and a few curves. Enough to make a figure 8 or "L" shaped track. A tiny L, but an L. No power track yet, so I just look. I also got a lane change curve. Bummer on the whole 1 way concept.. They advertise the heck out of being able to go forward or reverse, but don't say anything about all the changeover tracks only working in forwards, unless you intentionally put a few in backwards?? One of the flippers on the track moves, and the other is stationary. WHY is the stationary one silver instead of black? It doesn't DO anything! The flipper must be magnetic? because as I was turning it around, gravity pulled it down. Hope it's not broken? Are they supposed to just flop? Any input greatly appreciated. But, back to the forwards-only point. I noticed a jack and pin connection that goes from the sensor track to the lane change track.. Has anyone tried to tie in a second track to the sensor? This way, you could take the decision to change lanes out of someone else's hands.. If anyone out there has a defective sensor track, might be neat to try this out.. At least you'd get partial use out of the lane change track.. More later when the next box arrives.


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