# General question: Comparing inline slot cars



## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Howdy all. Was just wondering something fairly simple: At the basic box stock level, who has the fastest slot car? 

What I'm looking for a is a comparison of mass produced inline chassis that are still in production. (I'm leaving out the BSRTs and Wizzard cars...and cars of their ilk for now.)

Assuming each chassis was not a dog, and had true tires, and everything working properly, who"s faster out of the box...Lifelike, Mega G, Tyco?

Which is more reliable and consistent?

I've got a pretty good box full of Tjets and Xtractions, but that's all Ive really dabbled in. I have the Gplus cars that came with my first set, and one LL for racing with my group....so I've not had much experience in how they stack up.

I'm laying the groundwork for a potential racing series and would like to consider an inline division...and I'd like to keep it basically box stock. What I'm really trying to figure is how to keep the cost down, and I wonder if the 3 chassis I mentioned above can hang with each other without having to buy trick parts, (thereby allowing the guys to choose which chassis they want to use) or if I should just keep it to one type of chassis.


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## jobobvideo (Jan 8, 2010)

in my limited experience...Tyco's can't keep up with Lifelike's without some add-on parts...with the neo magnets in lifelike are really hard to beat, what I would do if race tyco's with tyco's (keep in mind that a 440x2 would beat and HP7) lifelike vs lifelike.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

TYCOs per se are no longer available as Mattel bought them out. the Mattel chassis, although nearly identical to TYCO, have hotter arms and weird tires.
MegaG are quite fast but need constant maintenance and are very expensive.
liflike are durable and it appears still being manufactured, so replacement parts are available.
I think trying to mix them is a mistake, however, the fastest will become the favorite if you do.
I recommend allowing slip on silicone tires that are same diameter as stock no matter which chassis you choose.


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Al hit it.
Pick one chassis and stay with it,reduces your head-aches by alot.

Doesn't have to neccesarily be the fastest one either,pick the one that's the easiest to source parts for.
If everybody is racing the same car,you don't need the fastest car

Odd's are if your trying to start something,you'll also be the guy getting the parts to keep said cars running,and if you only use one chassis,your parts sourcing is way easier,and cheaper.:thumbsup:

You only have to stock parts for one brand of car instead of 3 or 4 brands.

And it cuts down on the rules you need if you only run one brand of car.

A big mistake,is trying to run several varieties of cars,and then use rules to equalize them,doesn't work,never has, all it causes is wars among friends
Just my .02 Trevor.
Rick


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## cwbam (Feb 8, 2010)

T chassis Life Like is a bullet at most wall wart voltage.
not many parts for it (rear tires/wheels) if it breaks harvest a few of the interchangeable parts. 
$12 for a few Nascars http://www.scaleauto.com/lifelike/cars.htm

mega g (no comment)

old school 
TOMY SG+ lots of parts (orginal & BSRT) hard to find base chassis $$$
Turbos and SRT getting tough to find
Tyco 440x2 narrow is bullet on Corvettes (put North South traction magnets & double shoes)
Life Like M chassis Love the sound - only 2 magnets - parts -shoes are getting tougher to find


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

LL and AFX good at swapping cars if there is a problem.

But I go the opposite direction of the advice given.

I would get 1 of each, find what you like based on bodies, driving and workability!

For race cars, I play with the top 3 manufactures for few years and then settled on 1 car as my mainstay

if I had the money I would keep the 1 or 2 of the other brands in my stable.

I found that different people find it easy to work on certain cars.
I think it good to find out early in the game


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Honestly, I'm leaning towards trying the Mattel/Tycos. They're cheap enough and apparently if you slip on some good tires, they're pretty solid. The LLs are fun, but the only issue I have with the current LL offerings is that I don't like the way they don't have front axles. One bad wall/floor shot and you might need a new one.

Hornet kinda nailed it. I do believe that one thing that will go a long way towards a successful club start up is to have a guy that'll act as the de facto pro shop proprietor. IMO, one of ths hobby's problems for new guys coming in is a reliance on mail order. (no one carries HO slots where I live, and I'm smack in the middle of a major population center) So I figure the "club" needs to have the stuff handy when someone has a problem, or if someone brings a guest in that decides he likes it and wants to come back...and needs a car.

I don't have any illusions about this being a big club, but I also know with my circle of 1:1 racing buddies and a long Canadian off-season, its possible that we could get surprised and end up with a lot af participants. 

Just want to be ready in case that happens. It's a ways off but I think I'm gonna order a small rack of Mattels and try and become one with them. 

Of course, then I have to get the body thing sorted out.


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## theking43 (May 1, 2012)

I'm stuck on Tomy SRT cars.They are fast, handle well out of the box and still available from AFX at blowout prices (in limited supply). They still use tried and true can motor technology. There are plenty of aftermarket high performance motors and stronger traction magnets to add more spunk and handling. Easy to work on and the motors are pretty much bullet proof. No replacing comm brushes. To me it's a solid, dependable platform for HO race cars.


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## RiderZ (Feb 19, 2007)

Good question Shadow.At our small (5-6 guys) we run 6-7 types on chassis depending the venue.We have two tracks in our little group.My track is a 4 lane Tomy 49 ft. Lap length road course.My buddies track is a 16ft.4lane Tomy banked oval.As far as the fastest it seems a tight toss up between the SG+ or MegaG.The Tycos are probably our favorites though.They are fairly cheap,smooth,tough & pretty darn quick. We mostly run the open wheel bodies on all but three classes.The body style DOES make a difference in speed.I suggest trying a bunch of chassis and picking your favorite which WORKS best for you.Here a list of the chassis types we run on our two tracks.
Tomy MegaG
Tomy SG+
Tomy SRT
LL T chassis
Tyco 440 X2
AFX MagnaTraction
BSRT G3
Wizard P3E


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Trevor we basically only have 2 rules,but that's because of the cars we run.

But the one rule we do enforce,is parts have to be available trackside to be legal.

You'll always have one guy who wants to win ,and is in the position to spend more then the average guy.

If you run a parts available at trackside rule,it helps keep this guy in line,if he wants to run some fancy new parts,well he has to bring in enough parts for everybody.
We allow a 10% price increase in said parts above website pricing.
This way the guy with money can't bring in enough parts to make them legal,and then overprice them so that nobody else can afford them.
On some new parts you're gonna take a hit in the wallet if you want to run them,as alot of times our price structuring doesn't cover the cost of shipping and the exchange rate if there is one.

You gotta keep the clamp slammed down on that one guy, one guy who wants to win at all odds and will spend money like it's going out of style will kill a club pretty fast.

Glad to see you picked up on Crash and Burns,we've been running that style of racing for 20 years,and it works.
This will be the end of our 23rd season this year.
Rick


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

well, hornet has hit the sensitive spot
and I don't mean G!
yep, more than one fun group has been destroyed by someone with more money and pushing the "gray" area of the rules.

good for you, hornet, for saying it.

in nearly every area there are guys running expensive cars against each other and often for cash.
maybe the "BIG fish in the little ponds" would do well to try their hand racing with other PROs rather than destroying groups that have been having fun for a long time and didn't need every single aspect of every single part of every single rule spelled out. I have seen rules books that do exactly that, they resemble the Britannica encyclopedia for 3 classes of racing and the cars MUST be teched at the beginning, middle and end of every event.

OK, off the soap box .....
for now....


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## cwbam (Feb 8, 2010)

Claiming race?

hmm, maybe that's an idea how to keep cost down

All running the same body style and type can really help
like Chevy Nascar 20XX or 19XX


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Agreed on most points. 

I've been involved in 1:1 racing as a pseudo track employee/reporter for quite some time, and its easy enough to see the effect that "win at all cost" guys have on the racing. Especially exasperating is the guys that blow Late Model money to build a Street Stock. I still don't understand why they do it, but they do and thats the way it is. Figure out how to keep those guys in check and you're laughing.

Anyway, right on with the trackside availability only rule. I hadn't thought of it quite that way before. I was envisioning running basically box stock, with blueprinting allowed, but not much else.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Yep, that cheap Mattel chassis is pretty tough to beat. 
You can carry a load of them and part out some chassis for needed parts.
There are several Hot Wheels bodies that will fit these chassis, most
notably the 69 Chevelle. (Some assembly required)
Slip on silicons can be bought in bulk cheap too.
Sounds like a lot of fun.

:thumbsup:


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Just two reminders on the new Mattel chassis:

1. Replace the rear tires right away. They will melt into the track (and other plastic surfaces) if left sitting for a little while.

2. The Mattel chassis are designed to run on 4 "D" batteries - 6 volts. So are all the later Mattel chassis since they switched over to battery powered sets.

The question of which car is fastest is asked often. I think a more appropriate question is which chassis is the most fun to drive - and that is a personal preferance.

I agree with finding one chassis type and going with that. While I am not a racer, I can see where it would be a nightmare trying to equalize different chassis.

Of course, with a crash and burn format, speed is sometimes not as great an issue. I never had the fastest car but if I am still running at the end of the race, I'll place pretty well. The fastest guys will often end up in the wall.

Joe


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Grandcheapskate said:


> Just two reminders on the new Mattel chassis:
> 
> 2. The Mattel chassis are designed to run on 4 "D" batteries - 6 volts. So are all the later Mattel chassis since they switched over to battery powered sets.


For the electronically challenged, what does this mean, in effect? Motors burn up?


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

No they don't burn up Trev.
They are a lower ohm arm,usually around 4.0 ohms compared to a normal stock arm of 6 ohms.
They'll be fairly fast on 18 volts with the stock Tyco arms,and if you put them on slip-ons lots of fun:thumbsup:.
Rick


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## RiderZ (Feb 19, 2007)

We run the Tycos with a $1.50 pair of jelclaw tires on the back.they are our favorites.


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