Before I found slot cars and well back in my university days I raced 1:10 and 1:12 scale remote control battery powered ‘cars’ on a local carpet track in Brampton. Carbon fibre Team Associated chassis with NiCd batteries, Novak controllers, Futaba Alpina radios and servos all enclosed within a clear plastic single piece body were the ticket back then. I even traveled to Florida to race at Lake Whippoorwill International Speedway – a scale version of the Daytona International Speedway… and it was awesome! Sadly that track no longer exists but you can find pictures and references to it elsewhere on the web… here are a few from one of the R/C forums:

What Lake Whippoorwill International Speedway proved (to me at least) is that anything is possible for remote control cars – and as grand albeit short lived as it was – it pushed R/C racing to what could be described as the pinnacle for 1/10 scale race tracks. What I loved about that track apart from it’s sheer scale was the fact that it looked spectacular and incorporated quite a bit of ‘Americana’ detail.

But that style of carpet racing in my own local backyard – unpack, charge, apply ‘secret sauce’ to your foam tires, reserve your radio channel, race a 4 minute heat then discharge – and repeat… while sitting on a wooden bench and eating a microwaved hot dog in the comfort of the equivalent of a Canadian Tire garage bay… eventually lost its shine.

The hobby has come a long way since then though… and like a kid in a candy shop I rediscovered the highly detailed and much smaller scale possibilities – a long haul from my first Tamiya 1/10 scale R/C model – ‘The Clodbuster’ back in 1987. From Wiki: ‘With its four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, twin Mabuchi RS-540 motors and 165 mm tires it quickly became one of Tamiya’s most popular radio controlled model kits.’

I wish I still had it even though it is no longer my ‘cup of tea’. Preferences change and now I prefer detailed scale models of cars that raced – with real racing liveries on purpose built scenerized circuits – which was what drew me to slot cars in the 2000’s. I still have wonderful memories of Ferrari1950’s ‘Autodromo’ in Oakville (Now Cornwall) – the first wood track slot car experience I had.

That was the first hook.

Now it seems that the same is possible with remote control models and in particular the Kyosho Mini-Z platform – which opens up a whole new range of possibilities…