[Zippideedooda]

Having started with Scalextric Classic track back in 2002, then buying Ninco track in 2005, and now owning Scalextric Sport track, can anyone tell me why Scalextric went with such a slippery surface for Sport track?  I never had to buy tires for brand new cars with classic or ninco track, but it seems if I want to race hard yet stay on the track, I need a set of silicones on the rear of my cars now.
Even the new Policar track has some surface texture in it to give the tires some grip.

[woodcote]

My hunch would be it was designed for the magnet age where the grip comes mostly from the magnet rather than the tyres. Carrera has similarly low-grip track.

It’s perfect for magnet cars, because you still get a bit of ‘give’ in the corners, requiring some driving skill - plus it’s possible/necessary to tune the cars. On a high-grip track like Ninco or Policar (or Scalextric / SCX Classic), magnet cars are less fun, in my opinion.

Taking the magnets out - or running performance brands that are designed to run non-mag, then Scalextric Sport and Carrera track is much more of a challenge - but an enjoyable one. Scalextric cars either need a lot of tyre prep or a change to grippier ones - my personal preferences are Urethanes (eg Paul Gage XPG) or Slot.it P6 compound.

I like the fact we have various different track surfaces available - just like real life. With adapter pieces, you can even have several surfaces in one layout - a pretty cool challenge for car prep and driving.

[Zippideedooda]

Has anyone tried roughing up the surface of Scalextric Sport track?

I am seriously thinking of using like 800 grit on my Sport track to give the tires more grip. Probably only need to do this on the r1 and r2 curves that are 90 degree turns. What do you guys think?

[Nonfractal]

Grey Garage floor paint has been applied to the smooth 6 lane scaley sport track at www.LondonSlotCarClub.com (wood green)
Coupled with urethane  ortmann tyres , the grip is very good without magnets.
Ortmans last forever so grip is good and consistent through the year. 

Once scalextric adopted magnetration, good tyres, track surfaces and good car design became unimportant in their products.
However, with growing calls to ban magnets in "toys", that model of working will need to be revisited. 

The alternative track&tyre strategy is the "spiky surface" track (ninco , policar) with rubber tyres as used at www.nascotwoodslotcarclub.co.uk

Alan

[Bazzer]

I would say that the Scalextric Sport track is very well matched to their cars, I first used Sport track in 2002 with the GT40 set and it was very good and still remains good to this day despite hundreds of hours of use and abuse. 

I first drove slot cars in 1970 on both Scalextric and Airfix tracks, I also drove a couple of seasons on the club track at Netley near Southampton using Parma Int 32's and a bit of Group 16 stuff.

The primary aim for Scalextric is for boxed sets to work as well as possible straight out of the box, this gives them happy first time customers and then new and repeat business. Sport and magnets help them achieve this, the track is quite flexible but conforms well to differing carpets etc

I use the Sportworld system and I can get my 2 1/2 year old Granddaughter driving with the max assist setting to give no crashes and I can blast around with no assitance and turn in pretty fast laps with the same car and track. I would say that is target achieved, modern sets should be better still. 

Magnets and Sport track increase the chances of success for the occasional user but don't think for one moment that a magnet car can get around any corner or does not need good tyres, to get really fast laps the tyres have to be in tip top condition no matter what the track or magnet system, I can feel tyres loosing a tiny bit of grip within 40 really fast laps but would go on for thousands of laps for a casual user.






Baz