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Speed Racer Stadium Tracks for slot cars
By Pete Shreeves

Who doesn’t love loops and roller coasters? Watching the Speed Racer

(SR) Movie or playing the video game may remind us of being a kid and thrilling at the idea of a matchbox or slot car zooming through a wild layout. Maybe there is something to this idea that can be used to make slot racing more popular with youngsters.

The SR world of the future envisions a form of public spectacle racing maximized for viewing in public stadiums and with a global fan base fed by video coverage. The tracks seem to be inspired by Hot Wheels sets with steep slopes, high speed runs, loops and jumps. Given that Hot Wheels are gravity systems there is a natural cross-pollination between the early sets and roller coasters. Unpowered cars need the vertical element to translate altitude into speed. SR ‘stadium’ tracks retain a vertical element with almost exclusively elevated sections to impart gravity energy. The loops, turns and jumps are arranged to facilitate viewing from the massive banks of stadium seats. The combination of SR’s powered vehicles and vertical freedom results in stadium tracks that are a mixture of NASCAR high banks, roller coasters and motor-cross courses.

The SR movie/game applies this viewer-based motif to tracks that are pure stadiums (Thunderhead, Grand Prix, Fuji Helexicon), transcontinental road circuits (Casa Cristo 5000, Maltese Ice Caves) and local street-race-style (Pyramids, Skorost) venues. The tracks in the movie pay more attention to spectator viewing while those scripted for the play station game center a bit more on the view from the cockpit.

Either way, the concept of all-out speed is enhanced with exotic locations and splashes of color for visual excitement. (Note: The Skorost track is a 13 mile run which twists through an abandoned Soviet rocket base. Skorost a recent addition to the PS2 game.)

The first large slot car tracks in the early ’60 were largely an expression of real road courses. The cars themselves were scaled down replicas of real race cars and the tracks were tailored around the physical limitations of the cars. Drivers were challenged by courses with turns of changing radius, different length straight-aways and modest elevation changes. Zig Zags and bumps were added to challenge the driver and keep the speeds down. As the cars got faster (and less scale) the tracks began to include non-sale banked turns and phased out the speed-limiting contours. While many of the SR track features are visually interesting, (loops, jumps, spins, combative stunts) they generally make the racing slower which may not appeal to slot racers seeking the absolute minimum lap time.

Current slot car tracks are compressed road courses that strive to test driver’s ability while allowing the highest speeds in a limited space.

They are tailored for driver viewing rather than spectators and try to avoid any vertical transitions which slow the cars down. Unless the nature of slot racing changes to incorporate some other element of the Speed Racer vision (a return to scale modeling, large spectatorship, enhanced virtual driving experience, or partial flight features) there may be little motivation to change slot track designs.

In effect, the pursuit of pure speed rendered slot racing less real

(scale) and less imaginative. The current popularity of 1/32 true scale slot racing demonstrates that unlimited speed is not required to make the hobby-sport attractive. Maybe the plethora of spinning, looping and rolling tracks we find in the toy stores are an indication that Speed Racer style stadium tracks can be a path for promoting slot racing today as well.