Ready, set go!

This is the world’s fastest motorsport. Cars competing here routinely reach speeds several times faster than a Formula One racecar. Which means g-forces generated when cornering, accelerating and braking are multiplied several notches over too. Well, if only these cars–and thus all the resultant figures–weren’t scaled down to 1:24th of actual F1 cars.

We’re referring to slot car racing. Since the Tamiya Mini 4WD craze has fizzled and gone the way of shawarma and pearl shakes, slot car racing is increasingly getting popular. With good reason, too, appealing mostly to speed freaks who have an understandable aversion to physical harm.

Because the good part about slot car racing is that anyone with a bit of time and cash to spare can drive these cars. And if the car crashes, drivers are completely unhurt since they’re always a good distance away from the cars they’re driving.

Slot cars are basically electric-powered miniature scale models of actual, full-size vehicles. Underneath the car is a "shoe" or guide "flag" that "slots" in the grooves of a specifically built track. The car gets its power from the track when the flag gets in contact with the positive and negative points of the grooves or slots.

The scale with which a slot car is reduced varies, but the most popular are the 1:32 scale, typically considered as "home sets", and the 1:24 scale models, which is the type favored by serious enthusiasts and used for racing.

Unlike the Mini 4WDs, a slot car requires a driver. The car is driven with the use of an electric controller that is hooked to the racetrack. The driver pulls the controller’s "trigger" to control the car’s acceleration and braking. And since a racetrack has turns, bumps and the like, driving skill is required lest a car jumps out of its slot.

But like the Mini 4WDs and any other form of motorsports, car setup and tuning is essential – as is real world driving skill. So here again, knowledge in race car dynamics and driving are a plus. Especially since there is an almost infinite number of motor/chassis/gear/tire/body combinations to choose from. Needless to say, driving skill and technique are equally indispensable.

There are about eight types of engines that can be installed, with all eight having several variants each. Engine type, power and even timing are variable. The same is true with the rest of the car. One can opt for a spring, steel, or hybrid spring and steel chassis. Gears and tire selection is also almost infinite, and so are the body types that can be used. Drivers can also choose from several types of controllers. Modifications to suit one’s preference increase the setup choices further.

Generally, the most powerful Tamiya Mini 4WDs are comparable with only the slowest type of slot cars, probably the "home set" or the non-competitive ones. Slot cars can traverse 40 meters in about three seconds flat – straightaways, turns and all. Which may not be faster than what an F1 car can do (about 5,000 meters in 75 seconds). But remember that these cars are 24 times smaller than an actual F1 car. Slot cars’ motors also attain a stratospheric 200,000 rpm. An F1 car, as most anybody knows, revs 18,000 times a minute, already more than twice the average sedan’s.

Though still far from ubiquitous as those Mini 4WDs during their heyday, several slot car racetracks have sprouted in malls, particularly the swankier ones like Shangri-La, Power Plant and Alabang Town Center.

But the Fastrax Raceway in Alabang Town Center currently has the distinction of being the premier slot car racing venue locally. For one, the racetrack used is the only one in the country that is fully-computerized and suited for the competitive 1:24 scale model cars. Using a Hillclimb racetrack, this model is a standard worldwide, having been designed by Steve Ogilvie, the foremost slot car racetrack designer.

President and general manager of Fastrax Alan Dacanay said he hopes "to fill the void left when the Tamiya craze went out," a statement that may downplay his passion for slot cars. Because in reality, the man has started his lifelong affair with slot cars at an early age, racing when he was barely 10 years old and being able to remember by name each and every slot car racetrack in the country since the ’60s.

As the licensed distributor of Scalextric slot cars and official Ferrari Formula One merchandise, Dacanay seems not only to be slot car aficionado but a serious motorsport fan as well – if Fastrax’s décor is anything to go by.

"It has always been there," he says, referring to his passion for motorsports like it was some malignant and persistent virus. Which may not be far from the truth at all, as anybody who has been bitten by the racing bug knows. In Dacanay’s case, the slot car racing bug just may have bit him harder than usual. And trust us, drop by Fastrax and see how infectious this hobby could be.