Radio Control Racing - RC-Micro-Slotcars with track

I found this on ebay last week. I knew this set because I saw one in a toy store some years ago. It was way too expensive then, so I did just look at it. But now it had a nice price, and I nearly got outbid by another guy that bid the same amount as me, luckily my bid was the first and so I won.

Today the Slotcar Trackset arrived and I was more than surprised, because I did never see the big box it was stored in, I only saw the built up trackset in the toy store. I opened it nevertheless and found everything that is needed to start racing with radio controlled slotcars right away. Battery pack, mains charger, two controllers, trackset, even stickers for the trackset (some arrows pointing into the pits, warning stickers for the corners) were included. Apparently the whole set has not been used much, no signs of wear on the cars brushes or elsewhere. But this will change soon.

Now for some technical details.

The cars are built like steerable slotcars (i.e. carrera servo), but with some extra features. One feature is a built in 'battery' (two big capacitors, may exchange them with gold caps), that is charged a little bit every time you drive by (or better: over) the starting line or charged a little more when you go through the pits. Additionally the pin between the front wheels is lifted electrically when you engage the steering on the controller, so that the car can steer out of the lanes. There are seven lanes that the cars can drive in, and each time they pass the start-finish-section they are set back to the ones that lead to the charging section.

The Silverlit X-Trek Pro system is similar to this, but X-Trek has semi-proportional control and no guiding lanes, in fact you can drive the X-Trek Pro Cars on and off the track, where you can hunt down MicroSizers and so on. But I prefer the Nikko set, because the track is more solid and you get through the corners easily (like on rails if you don't steer), you can crash into the rails when you steer too much or too less with the X-Trek Pro.