New Track System from Germany

[F1Fan]

Copied from Old Forum :

Harrel Racing Standard - looks beautiful.....and expensive! Made from wood, plastic and metal, with Carrera lane spacing .

With new tracks systems announced by Policar/Slot.It and Scaleauto last year, I for one am surprised to see another new entrant.

https://harrel-rs.com/en/

Image resized to 70% of its original size [1280 x 682]

[F1Fan]

Some updated info about this new track system below.

A few interesting observations:

1) only available online, you build the track with the design software, then the box with those pieces are shipped to you
2) not designed to compete with other plastic tracks, but rather MDF tracks
3) colour coded lanes
4) no jumper cables required
5) established company building plastic parts for the automotive industry
6) plastic track parts are coated with a slightly abrasive finish
7) won the Red Dot award for design
8) I love the 911 with Harrel RS on the back
9) Like they say in one of the videos on the site.....it's German made, and it shows!

https://harrel-rs.com/en/

[HomeRacingWorld]

Well it's cool. But literally no one will invest. I wouldn't.

Carrera lane spacing. Ok, then just buy Carrera?

After which...route your own ?

[F1Fan]

Well it's cool. But literally no one will invest. I wouldn't.

Carrera lane spacing. Ok, then just buy Carrera?

After which...route your own ?

Having just finished my second MDF track, I can again confirm it's a lot of work, but I am very happy with the end product.

It is however clear that the consumer is not really their target market, they appear to focus more on the prosumer to commercial sector. Clubs or consumers that would like the feel and look of a MDF track, but with less skill required and the flexibility to make changes to the design if wanted seems to be their target.

I am sure compared to Carrera and Scalextric etc. this track will be more expensive, but compared to MDF (and depending on the tools available in your shop, your own skill level, and time available to you) this could be an excellent alternative. Winning the Red Dot award says a lot, and I am impressed with the company, so my assumption is that they have the financial resources and backing.

Not for everyone, and not for me at the moment, but I am impressed.....and I don't impress easily!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Not saying it isn't impressive. The "Red Dot" award is meaningless to me. Never heard of it.

Slot Mods is impressive too. Sheer artistry. Yet, still don't know anyone who has one. VERY limited market.

Wish nothing but the best for them. It would be fantastic to see all sorts of folks building empires with it.

But with all the perfectly acceptable options in our hobby already, I see almost zero potential. But then again, they are not really a slot car company. Just doing it on the side.

Routing a track isn't that hard for most of us. Yes it takes time, and patience...but I feel a great many enthusiasts possess these characteristics.

If they didn't...we wouldn't see so many new wood tracks being built.

Just an opinion.

But if you are that impressed....then maybe you will give us the first review when yours arrives?

[F1Fan]

If I bought everything that impresses me, I would be racing slot cars with you while my Gulfstream waits at the local airport for me.....or maybe I would just drive down to visit in my GTC4 Lusso.......LOL!!

[Fast Co.]

Very impressive. No doubt this has got to be the best made slot car track commercially available. I like that you can design your own circuit with their software and they'll ship your custom set directly to you. But I think this product is over-engineered, when lower quality, less expensive, but fully satisfactory plastic track sets are readily available.

On top of that, the shipping costs to the Western Hemisphere will be economically prohibitive except for the very well-heeled.

Maybe there is a sufficient market in Europe to make this product economically feasible. I hope so.

I certainly wish them a lot of success.

I would love to have one of these tracks myself, but I already have an awesome mdf track that I routed myself.

[mattb]

Very limited market...... 1/32/HO home guys have a little bit of buying power,,,,, but the rest of the slot hobby is a non-market for serious manufacturers......I'm sure the cost would scare all of us......We all have tracks already so it would be really hard to justify this expense....... Alternative to routed, ,,,I'd say you could build your own designed,,,,,,, routed,,,,,,, and taped track for what 20 foot of this track would cost.....You don't feel like a router or carpentry is your thing,,,,,,ask around among friends and you can find probably find somebody that can do the routing and track layout either free,,,,or very cheap....A table top taped track is not real serious carpenter work.

To add to the confusion,,,,you can find used Carrera fairly cheap if you watch ebay........there is the new Polistil track that is probably also pretty expensive,,,,,,I just don't see how there is enough market for all of these products.

[Eric P]

" more than 100 parts in each module " That's exactly what I need, but in HO.... LOL

[Kevan]

...I'd say you could build your own designed,,,,,,, routed,,,,,,, and taped track for what 20 foot of this track would cost....

there's plenty of businesses out there with a CNC router. Even on our little island there's a local sign maker has one and one of our club members had one such made in sections.

[PetesLightKits]

Very nice looking. I designed a 71 foot 4-lane course and I was just over 11,000 Euros (+ shipping).

Peter

[Ragtopman]

11,000 euros!!! Wow! That’s a lot of money!
Looks like awesome track but over 12,000 US dollars that’s insane.....

[slothead]

I agree with everything said so far about this track system being more expensive and 'complicated' than needed, but want to interject there are many more people with very deep pockets than we imagine. I just retired from a very prestigious small college with a very hefty tuition price tag - around $70K a year. The majority of students at these colleges require no financial aid what-so-ever. Faculty would often comment the students drove nicer cars than they did.

In class one year I asked what students were doing for Thanksgiving break. A student named Margaret spoke up and said she was flying to Switzerland to go skiing with her brother for 2 days then they were flying to Paris to have Thanksgiving dinner with their parents. Another of my students had a $7 million second home in Florida they only visited for a few weeks each winter.

My point is many people can afford and only want the very best. And making a track wouldn't be an option because tools are what service people use. A friend who grew up in Manhattan NYC and lived in apartments all his life won't touch a tool, 'cause he never has or needed to. If something needed fixing you call the super and it gets fixed. Just like with top of the line sports cars if the profit margin is big enough you don't need a mass market to make a product worth offering.

[F1Fan]

Some excellent comments in this post. I have not priced a track myself since I have no interest in buying one, especially not at that price, but I do think this is an interesting project. Although I personally have the tools and "most of the skills" to build my own routed track (and have done so 2x) there are many that would never attempt such a project. Just the simple task of bringing a few sheets of MDF home are for many not an option. European cars, homes and space is in many cases very different than what we have available living in suburban North America.

[mattb]

I doubt if any of the kids at your college or their parents even know what slot cars are. ...... Most of us don't know much about skiing in Switzerland either...... Sounds like the way you have categorized these people and tools, that they wouldn't try or have any idea of how to eve assemble this track.....If they were smart enough to really research slot car tracks,,,,,, they would be more inclined to order a custom built track from Slot Mods,,,,Gary Gerding, ,, Ed Tunkel, ,,, Cruisin Bob or on of the other commercial track builders.....these guys build custom tracks in their shops and then come to the customers house and assemble them, ,,,,turnkey style. ...less than 12k.......that would be if any of these people even wanted a track.....We'll see where this track system is in a year and if we even know of anybody buying it....Hopefully if there is ever a track assembled from this we might become aware of it.

[slothead]

I didn't mean to suggest people with very deep pockets have 10 thumbs or pointy heads, they just don't have the same cost concerns most of us have, and there are more people in that situation than we might imagine. The kids I worked with were great kids, the cost of things just didn't matter. So, a really nice but expensive hobby item will have a target audience - we're just not part of it.

[HO RacePro]

Well somebody seems convinced this track system has potential. The injection molding tools they've invested in cost serious money.

Which is why CNC routing the track surface out of "wood" (MDF?) makes sense. It gives great design flexibility while avoiding huge upfront tooling costs. And, incidentally, reduces the material costs a lot. Even 'cheap' plastic is not cheap.

While CNC routing each individual piece takes a lot of machine time, CNC routers are not that expensive anymore, and being fully automatic they require very little labor to keep running. You may not have heard of a "lights out" factory, but I suspect that is what they are aiming for -- at least for the routing. A large factory floor full of fully-automatic machines running unattended.*

It would be interesting to learn how vulnerable the track surface is to moisture. Europeans love their outdoor model railways, and at least a few have built slot tracks outdoors. With the stainless steel power conductors and banana-plug connections the electricals should be suitable for outdoor use. The track surface is painted (top and bottom?) so there is a chance it will repel water.

Speaking of model railways, you only have to take a casual look at our sister hobby to realize just how much money some people are prepared to sink into their hobby. And as for labor, patching together one of these slot tracks would be a weekend job compared to what is involved in setting up a detailed model railway.

Germans love their models. We know that very well. And they have set a standard for modeling that the rest of us struggle to match. So it is no surprise they'd come up with a complete upgrade of traditional sectional slot track. Heck, the basic technology it is replacing has only been around for 60 some years.

Ed Bianchi

* Back in the '90's I was developing a robotic production system. I felt I had reached a milestone when I left it running unattended while I went to lunch. Forty minutes later I came back and it was still running just fine. Years before that I had rebuilt an automatic casepacker that was the worst machine on the floor. It took two operators to keep clearing its jams. After the rebuild the machine ran flawlessly, three shifts, five days a week. All it required was someone to load cardboard. The "lights out" factory is not that much of a stretch.

[lance]

After watching the videos, it really seems like he is looking to replace the aging plastic track that many overseas clubs have. Lot of the big races overseas are on Ninco (I think) type plastic track and may not be smooth with the connection pieces. I watch the Slot it oxygen race and it is plastic track. I have watched the tracks that Digital Slot Car Association race on and they are plastic track. Even some commercial raceways put cardboard on their routed track in order to put the plastic track down to race on. I guess it is because of some race rules requiring the race to be on a specific type of track.

He will probably set up some exibition tracks around Germany and Europe to get the word out and have people see the actual product and try it out.
If it is as advertised, hopefully the tracks connect so there are not power drops and no rough transitions from track piece to track piece.
If it catches on, maybe he can expand to digital pieces to run digital cars. Maybe not the oxygen race since postil/slot it are same company.
Who knows, maybe in a few years it may be the standard.
I know routed wood is way cheaper than this, but, after you rout a wood track, there are not many changes that can be made. sure corners and lanes can be filled in and re-routed, but the basic shape will stay the same until a decision is made to make a new track or extend a section.