Scalextric one person racing device?

[Michael Squier]

A few years back I read about a device that you could race against, like a pace car. It was for scalectrix analog track. What was it called and is it still available?
Im new here, have had some car and track for a while but haven’t used them much. I think it’s time to set up a decent track and have some fun.

[4424ever]

You are referring to the Challenger system
I have one and wouldn’t particularly recommend it. It does work but can only use the one car that comes with it, a Mercedes F1 safety car with flashing roof lights The car ips place on the track to do 2 laps slowly and learn the circuit, it is then ready to race against. The biggest problem I have with mine is after the circuit is learned if there’s ANY loss of power to the car all memory is lost so the whole process must be repeated. Can get aggravating!

[Scatman]

There was also the Pacer system. Which was better than the Challenger. You could race against any car. You press a button run laps and once you feel you have the fastest lap, you hit the button to record. It remembers every trigger action. Also, if the car slows down or to fast, you can turn a knob to make corrections. The program lap must be under 10 seconds, and you can race up to 100 laps. I used the system with my Scalex, and did a mod to my Carrera track back when.

[slothead]

Here are some other thoughts about having a car to race against. Create a layout that has 1 lane where you can keep a car on the track relatively easily. That will be the lane the 'ghost' car runs on, you're going to use the other lane as you try to catch it. If you're magnet racing leave the magnet in the ghost car, but either remove it from you're car(s) or otherwise lessen the magnetic downforce. This will force you to enhance your driving skill to attain the same speed. Now you can put a rubber band or tape on the controller for the ghost car so it runs at the fastest speed it can while still staying on.

You may find that there are some areas of the track the ghost car has trouble staying on at what otherwise is a good rate of speed. You can address this by applying short strips of tape to one of the rails in the ghost car's lane where a brief loss of power will slow it enough to get through that section. Adjust the number, location, and length of pieces of tape so the ghost car slows down where needed. I found this to be a very effective way of getting a ghost car to run at a fast enough speed so that it took me many laps of exacting racing to catch and then overtake it. If you can get this method to work you'll soon learn the importance of being smooth since pushing too hard will mean getting out of shape and losing ground. I specifically remember having to be very precise in how I applied power coming out of corners so as not to get sideways. It was a lot of fun, well worth the work.

[Rastas]

I'm a solo racer and I use a car with magnets and good gripping tire's and a zip tie on the controller and set the speed with the tie , and race that with no mag . I'm going to invest in a train speed controller once I get my table built but I've been using that method for quite a while and it's cheap.

[Michael Squier]

Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions. I did temper it was the pacer system and also remover why I didn’t get one, it fits the shorter slot old track and I’ve got sport track. I really like the simple one speed idea with magnet pace car you suggest. I have been de magnetizeing to my cars so that would work well for me. I’ll just keep one fully magnetized. I’m thinking a lap counter with timer would be a better investment also. Lap times would be nice to know.

[slothead]

Yes, a lap counter and timer is a great addition to any track. Certainly worth it and there are a lot of options available.

[SlotCat]

Also using a very good handling car as ghost car helps.

[slowshoes]

Here are some other thoughts about having a car to race against. Create a layout that has 1 lane where you can keep a car on the track relatively easily. That will be the lane the 'ghost' car runs on, you're going to use the other lane as you try to catch it. If you're magnet racing leave the magnet in the ghost car, but either remove it from you're car(s) or otherwise lessen the magnetic downforce. This will force you to enhance your driving skill to attain the same speed. Now you can put a rubber band or tape on the controller for the ghost car so it runs at the fastest speed it can while still staying on.

You may find that there are some areas of the track the ghost car has trouble staying on at what otherwise is a good rate of speed. You can address this by applying short strips of tape to one of the rails in the ghost car's lane where a brief loss of power will slow it enough to get through that section. Adjust the number, location, and length of pieces of tape so the ghost car slows down where needed. I found this to be a very effective way of getting a ghost car to run at a fast enough speed so that it took me many laps of exacting racing to catch and then overtake it. If you can get this method to work you'll soon learn the importance of being smooth since pushing too hard will mean getting out of shape and losing ground. I specifically remember having to be very precise in how I applied power coming out of corners so as not to get sideways. It was a lot of fun, well worth the work.

What an excellent post - thanks slothead!

Bill

[dungeonracer]

I’m thinking a lap counter with timer would be a better investment also. Lap times would be nice to know.

For the money, Trackmate is as good as it gets. I will admit that sometimes service is a bit slow, but once you get the program up and running, it's about the best out there for the price.

[Mickey thumbs]

Also very happy with my Trackmate on a routed two-lane track. Went with IR lightbridge for Carrera as I used their lane spacing to allow for occasional 1/24 cars. That saved time waiting for a custom bridge to match some other size wide lane spacing.