Back in 1985, a couple of
friends (photo) set-up to build a Slot Racing
track in their garage. As they had been involved in Slot Racing for a while
they decided to build a four tracks circuit based on the Scalectrix Classis
technology. A lot of the track is original Scalectrix pieces while the longer
and more critical pieces (Parabolic Curve, Straight) are home made (See the map and some pictures of the track). It took about two
years to complete the track but it is a very nice achievement.
The track is about 70 meters
long (that's over 230 feet). All the electrical and electronics of the circuit
are home made and the track is powered by a 32 V adjustable power supply. It
also has an IR sensor for timing and counting which is installed at the Start/Finish line. It is driven by a micro-contoller board that sends the
information to a display board set-up atop the parabolic curve (compteur). All the information is also
interfaced to a PC or a Mac for automatic acquisition and display in a
spreadsheet.
All the cars are entirely
home made, following a set of rules decided upon by the various people
involved. Rules include wheel base spacing, maximum width, engine restrictions
(such as unchanged rotors) See the complete
rules (in French).... See one of the Cars.
The best lap time ever on
the track is 14.70 secs
Every year several races are
organized. They can take various formats: 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours. The highlight
of the year is the 24 hours race, which is organized one week after the 24
hours of Le Mans. Teams of two pilots actually go for 24 hours on 2 hours
rotation. This is usually a great opportunity for a weekend of fun where a lot
of people just show up to enjoy the Barbecue and tease the boys. The 1996
edition was probably the most exciting in history: only 6 laps difference
between first and second after 24 hours. Check this page
for more details on the 1996 race.
