# slotless h0 racing



## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

(copy of my message on RC forum, where anyone seems to be interested, so I post here. I hope it will be OK for you). 

Hi, 

I'm usually a slot racer (all scales), but I have a special love for smallest scales. 

A few years ago, before I bought my first "man grown" slot car set, I and some friends had a lot of fun with micro Rc cars, especially the famous BitChar-G cars (named microsizers in USA). I built a track for them, and we were able to race 4 cars at the same time. The cars were "on-off" control, but the size and design made the driving/steering really fun and eficient, like in old vintage videogames, for example. Even with those simple controls, we were able to compete and use our skills. 


Here's some videos to show you what it is : 


















As you can see, it's not that far from our usual ho slocar racing : tabletop racing with 1/64 cars. 


But cars were quite expensive and fragile, and a few months later, we didn't have enough good shaped cars to race anymore.



So I bought my first 1/43 scale slot car track, built a scenery of it, etc... And later, I built a big 14 meters h0 4lanes track (stills WIP) and also a medium sized 1/32-1/43 4lanes oval track (currently work in progress, not useable for now; D shape oval about 4meters on 1.50 meters). 


But, even if I still love slot car racing, I never forgot about the fun we had running these tiny rc cars. These days, seeing these wonderfull but expensive for my pocker Dnano, I was wondering if microRC cars were still available. I discovered that bitchar-g and clones became quite difficult to find. But I finally found cheap 1/64 chinese cars, barely the same but a bit more realistic, and, especially, available in 4 frequencies. 

So I ordered them. I plan to make a detailled scenery permanent track, probably with a remix of Indianapolis oval + a inner field for road racing. I'm familiar with scenery modelling, since it was my job a few years ago, so it should be really fun. 


And now, I just want to see if anyone is interested into that kind of toys. If any interest, I'll post my future track work in progress here, vids, pics and stuff once I'll receive my cars.


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## Rick Voegelin (Oct 27, 2006)

I'm very interested! I'm an avid HO slot car racer, but I bought quite a few Bit-Char-G and Chinese RC clones several years ago. I had planned to build a micro RC track on a hollow-core door to give our club something different to race along with our usual slot cars.

Well, years later, the micro RCs are still in a box on the shelf. I've seen several great layouts for these cars on the Web. I'll be following your progress -- and hoping that I get inspired to build a track for our club!

Thanks!
Rick V.


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

Nice ! At least I'll have a friend to follow my micro rc adventures ! 

MicroRC cars and slot racing are just not the same thing. I like them both, for their own qualities. 

Concerning track, I had something half permanent (means that I was able to store the track behind a furniture). Size was around 200cms x 150cms. 

Road was around 30cms (1foot) wide. Wide road is a way funnier in my opinion. NOthing more boring than having to manoeuvrate your car like a 50 tons truck to keep it in good direction. You don't need to make a complex track. People often make this mistake ("if my track is too simple, I'll get bored, so let's do a spaguetti track with 10cm wide road") and finally make something unplayable (on youtube we can see tracks like this sometimes). 

My future track will include a indianapolis-style oval (not banked since I need to keep it quite thin for storage), and an innertrack inside. The track table itself will measure around 240cm x 120 (or 150) cms (wich is the classic 8' x 4' ho slot table). I'll build it light, with 5mm plywood mounted on wood chassis. 


I'll keep you informed about the result. I ordered the cars at the beginning of the week, I should receive them in about 2-4weeks.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I think it looks like a lot of fun!! For all night parties make it a bit more of a challenge. If you need to back up, you drink a shot. Roll overs = 2 shots. Too bad the cars are expensive. I'll be watching D!:thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

> For all night parties make it a bit more of a challenge. If you need to back up, you drink a shot. Roll overs = 2 shots



You get it 


The first ones (original bitchar-G) were expensive, since they were "trademarked toys" (well built in japan, I believe), and we had to buy it imported from HK or japan (these days it was not as easy as now to do this) or buy them in specialized in japan gadgets and toys european shops. around (translating the money from euros) 40-60usd each. 

Then, we saw a few official versions in Europe (Compact char-G). Cars were around 40usd each. In usa, you had in "big brands" the microsizers (I don't know if they still in business), and now, Xmods micro (wich replace zipszaps, I guess). I don't know the price of them. 


More recently, Takara created Q-steer cars, based on IR technology. The cars were around 20usd each. I've got 2 of them, but I never liked it much, not my taste even if they were well built. 


Anyway, all these cars are or were around 1/64 scale, and are difficult to find in new condition AND with decent shipping cost to France (always the same problem, with slot cars it's also the same...). 


So after searching on google and youtube, I finally found new products easier to find, and cheap. Here's a video of (I believe) similar product than what I bought. 






4 frequencies for 4 players in same time, diferent cars models, often based on japan GTs, but not only, european gts also, etc... but the cars looks nice in my opinion. I don't know much about the quality, but for the price, and the goal I want to achieve (party racing) I took the risk. 

It cost me around 50usd for 5 cars (4cars and 1 car I'll keep for parts) shipped from HK to France on the famous auctions website. The models I choosed are mostly super GT (japan gt) and european GT. The sponsors and car decorations are of course not official, but we can recognize the cars. It could make a nice modelling project also. Perhaps the wheel base is some kind of compatible with slot car bodies too, who knows ?


the only thing I'm afraid is if the cars are too fast for table racing, then, I'll have to modify them (probably adding a diode to "eat" some voltage). We'll see.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

It's difficult to tell from video. I have found with my camera, the video tends to looks much faster than the subject was actually going. Let's hope that's the case here, as it was either sped up, or the guy is a pro at driving them!


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## Rick Voegelin (Oct 27, 2006)

slotcarman12078 said:


> It's difficult to tell from video. I have found with my camera, the video tends to looks much faster than the subject was actually going. Let's hope that's the case here, as it was either sped up, or the guy is a pro at driving them!


I thought the same thing . . . if the video of the German racers is real-time, then those cars and drivers are very, very quick! It looked like some were using the walls and barriers to control the cars in the corners, like riding the guardrail with a ThunderJet slot car <g>. With my limited experience (so far) with micro RCs, it's not easy to be smooth and fast. Drinkin' and drivin' would be really difficult.

I was able to buy quite a few Bit CharG/Hobbico "Microsizers", bodies, and accessories on sale when the line was discontinued in the U.S. Tower Hobbies was practically giving them away, so I stocked up. Now I'm glad that I did!

Thanks,
Rick V.


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## TomH (Jan 17, 2006)

Check these out from Hotwheels. Pretty cool


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## demether (Aug 26, 2008)

these hotwheels look pretty cool : it seems there is some kind of proportionnal steering. But seems to be difficult to find (and more expensive than my cars). 

Concerning speed, a simple way to make them slower is to add a Zener diode just before the motor : a zener diode "eats" around 0.6volt. I built some adjustable powersupply like this. 


We'll see, now I just have to wait for mail delievering :thumbsup:


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