[HN Gopher] NYC's competitive slotcar racing scene (2019)
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NYC's competitive slotcar racing scene (2019)
Author : Tomte
Score : 54 points
Date : 2021-04-10 10:48 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| whateveracct wrote:
| Are these slot cars? I don't see the "slot" and the implication
| that there is 0 control isn't my experience with them.
|
| EDIT: Yeah this is "Mini 4WD" and not exactly "slotcars."
|
| Still a very cool article/video though!
| busterarm wrote:
| It's both. Just in different sections of the article.
| captn3m0 wrote:
| A video from Ars from the same time that explains the
| race/regulations much better
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZZL5i8vOXM
| Rapzid wrote:
| Interesting.. Just got into building Tamiya RC a month ago. Not
| really interested in slot, and Tamiya seems very niche and in the
| USA in particular.
|
| Kids are all about Traxxas, Arrma, ready to run, bashing, and
| crawling.
| filoleg wrote:
| > Just got into building Tamiya RC a month ago. Not really
| interested in slot, and Tamiya seems very niche and in the USA
| in particular.
|
| Surprised to hear Tamiya being referenced in this context. Not
| sure if it is the same Tamiya I am thinking about, but the one
| I remember is the one that makes all sorts of tools and paints
| and other stuff for building plastic models (e.g., gunpla
| models).
|
| Feels like it could easily be the same, given the exact same
| name and being in a somewhat adjacent industry. Interesting how
| it all works.
| CobaltFire wrote:
| Tamiya makes quite a selection of RC cars. They also make the
| 4WD racers referenced in the article.
|
| Same company.
| criddell wrote:
| In the 1980's, Tamiya was huge in radio controlled cars.
| Their Grasshopper car was especially popular and was how a
| lot of people got into the hobby. I had a Tamiya Hornet and
| it was one of my favorite toys for a long time.
| mdip wrote:
| Brings back memories for me, though not NYC. I was recently
| looking to introduce my kids to some of the hobby things I did as
| a kid before video games could basically simulate every
| interesting thing
|
| Slot car racing was something I _loved_ doing. It was easy to
| learn, fun to play and relatively inexpensive to get into. There
| were two places nearby who had excellent tracks, rented
| reasonable cars and, of course, let you race your own.
| Unfortunately, there 's only one of these sort of hobby shops
| around (incidentally, the biggest one from my childhood, which
| moved to an even bigger building), and they only have RC tracks.
|
| Would love to see slot car racing return to my area.
| billforsternz wrote:
| If you ever get the chance to see "Spotswood", a real niche Indie
| movie starring Anthony Hopkins as a man with a cold heart who
| discovers his own humanity through the power of slot car racing
| (yes way), take it.
| zucked wrote:
| I used to love slot car racing when I was a kid. Just reading
| this article brought back that smell - if you ever played with
| slot cars, you know the one I'm talking about.
| whateveracct wrote:
| that burnt rubber smell in my childhood basement :) so true!
| analog31 wrote:
| And ozone from the sparking contacts!
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| And squishing the foamy little tires after you've squirted
| oil on the gears
| zabzonk wrote:
| When I was at boarding school in the 1960s, four or five of us
| brought all our Scalextric track, cars and other stuff to school,
| and every weekend we would build a giant layout in one of the
| classrooms (this used to really piss of the people who's form-
| room it was, because we didn't always put the desks and tables
| back). We didn't just use Scalextric cars, but Revel, (I had a
| Strombecker, which was crap, which my dad picked up in Singapore)
| and very popularly Airfix Mini-Coopers, which were cheap, and
| went fast if you fiddled with track brushes and the motor
| commutator.
|
| Oh, happy days - when you weren't being bullied and being sent
| out to play "rugger" in the rain and mud.
| jtolmar wrote:
| This is the first I've learned about Tamiya 4WD. Pretty neat
| stuff.
|
| Anyone else immediately get the urge to try to adopt a micromouse
| style robot into one of these? Like put a computer into it that
| can complete the track at a safe speed then remember where the
| straightaways are so it knows how fast to accelerate.
| busterarm wrote:
| The Rui Yong Hobby store mentioned in the article closed sometime
| last year and has moved to online only.
|
| And Buzz a Rama stays closed summers (mid-June to mid-September).
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