[Johnno]

DPJ knows what he'd do with that space - and I think I know what I'd do too... But it's not about us - it's about YOU.

I hope you've had a look through our SlotRacer's Manual: slotracer.online/manual

These are questions I'd ask anyone starting out - and about to invest a not insignificant amount of time and money - in a new hobby...

• What's your initial start-up budget - a hundred pounds/dollars, hundreds, a thousand, thousands, ten thousand or more?
  
• Do you want something simple that works straight out of the box?
  
• What's your ongoing budget for upgrades and materials - plus cars? More or less than a hundred a month?
  
• How much time will you be investing in your new hobby - a few hours a day, a few hours a week or a few hours a month?
  
• Will you be enjoying your new hobby on your own, with others - or want the flexibility to do both?
  
• Do you have - or want to develop - any practical skills and interests - carpentry, soldering, electronic circuit design, software development, model-making, scenic modelling, photography, video making etc
  
• Do you love playing with new technology or do you stick with what you know? Are you comfortable with complex hardware/software systems? Are you comfortable using a wide range of apps on a smart device (phone or tablet)?
  
• Are there any types of model you particularly want to race or collect - specific brands or scales, a favourite era of model, type of motorsport, rediscovering vintage slot cars from your youth etc?
  
• What one thing excites you most about the hobby?
  

That's a lot to think about just for starters! There's a lot of choice - not just Carrera and Scalextric - and you really don't want to invest in something that's either too complicated or not complex enough. The most important thing is the system you choose does what you want it to, excites you and gives you years of pleasure.

One final piece of advice is to try before you buy - whether that's at a local hobby store, a local club (or racing group) or getting an invite to see local enthusiasts' layouts. Also look at slot car videos on YouTube and see what excites you - and what doesn't.

I hope that helps.

The other very important item to add to your list is:
- Scale: 1/32 or 1/24 or both? This will determine the plastic track you go for up front in this case Carrera Digital will be the choice, if you only want to run and race 1/32 then I'd recommend Scalextric SSD Digital from personal experience with Scalextric Digital.

- Do you want to invest in a CNC'd (or routed) wood track such as MrTrax (MrTrax CNC'd Slot Car Track) these are a fully modular, infinitely expandable track system that can have scenery added such as Anthony Anderson is doing, the tracks are designed for 1/24 scale cars but also run 1/32 scale cars perfectly.


Again, having invested thousands of dollars (AUD) in Scalextric Digital, I was just not happy for some reason, other than having no scenic thumbs. For this reason I switched to the MrTrax wood system.