One of the first questions I always get is, “Why do you scratchbuild all of the slot cars that you play with? No, that is not just my wife, friends, neighbors and family. That is from just about anyone I run into, either at a slot car track or other places.

To me the joy of slot car racing is taking that chassis that you spent time in designing, building and finally racing. Perhaps it is similar to what folks like Mickey Thompson, Andy Granatelli, Frank Kurtis, A.J. Watson and a whole host of others. Each year they came to The Indianapolis Motor Speedway with their very own ‘creation’ and started to run laps, hoping they had the car to sit on the pole and eventually win the Indy 500.

Many times, once I get to the track and take a few laps, whatever happens after that, is not really important. When my car meets or exceeds the expectations I had for it, all is good in the world of slot car racing.

Usually the second question I am asked is “Who makes the best slot car kit?” My normal answer is K&S Engineering out of Chicago, Illinois. They make all the supplies you will ever need to create your own chassis. They music wire, brass tubing, rod, sheet, strips and angles. The tubing comes in round, square, rectangular and streamlined. You can buy enough material to build a chassis for under $10. The rest comes from you, that is the effort required to take that pile of ‘scratch’ and build a chassis from it, then go and race it.

What really is “Made from Scratch?” If you open a window with your browser, go to Google and enter “Made from Scratch” you will find that there are a whole host of things made from this stuff called scratch. I know my wife makes a lot of our meals from scratch. She also makes some of the best brownies you have ever tasted from the same material, scratch. There is a site that is called “made-from-scratch.com” that makes events from scratch. This must be pretty flexible and useful stuff. You can do a whole lot of things with this material known as scratch!

Is it hard to scratchbuild? Nope, not really.

Is scratchbuilding dangerous? Well I do have calluses on my hands, some burn marks, a few blood blisters, abrasions and contusions, but nothing that won’t go away.

Can anyone be a scratchbuilder? In my opinion, yes. However there are some people that I have met in my life that I might suggest they find a much simpler and less complex hobby to enter into. One without sharp objects, hot things and stuff that can cut metal. I would not suggest this to anyone. If you are handy enough to change a light bulb without reading the directions, then you might just have what it takes to be a scratchbuilder!

So, what’s the best way to get started? That’s up to you. Prior to letting pilot trainees fly the F-15, the USAF makes sure they can handle a trainer correctly, including landings!
What do I need to get started? The desire to build your own cars and have fun doing that and then the ultimate – running them around a slot car track.

What is the easiest scale to build in? I would have to say 12:1 or 12 inches to the foot. I find there is a lot of room there, but the materials are a bit more expensive. I would suggest starting out with something quite easy, like a Falcon Wing Car. If someone wants to build one of those, I would be more then happy to build one. The project is simple and it’s a whole lot of fun. You learn all the concepts of building and then the car is simple; very few moving parts and they’re a blast to drive. While they are usually no faster then a Falcon 7 powered slot car going down the straights, once they enter the turns, they really get to strut their stuff. At our local King track, a really good GT-1 car with Falcon 7 power will make laps in the 4.6 – 4.8 area. A really good Group-F car (Falcon 7 powered Wing Car) will turn the same lap in the 3.9 – 4.2 second time. If you watch the cars they will run side by side from the lead on to the Deadman on the track, but once the Group-F car enters the Deadman, it just pulls away from the GT-1 car.

I have used Popsicle sticks (empty of course) to hold the front and rear axle at a set distance from each other. All you need is one of the twin Popsicle treats and you have all you need to build your first jig. The reason I say first, is that jigs are kind of like soldering irons. You never have too many of them.

Graph paper and blue tape makes a super way of laying out your chassis. Once you layout the chassis, then it’s just a process of laying the parts on the lines, taping them in place and soldering them together.

Soldering irons are something that I would strongly suggest getting a ‘decent’ one to begin with. No, you don’t have to incur the national debt to purchase a good, solid soldering iron. I use an Inland 100 Watt soldering iron. You can find them online for under $30. They have excellent tips and if you buy one, I strongly urge you to consider buying or building (yep, from scratch) a unit to control the heat of the iron with. I have an extension cord that has a duplex outlet on it. I cut the buss bar on the side and have wired it as two separate outlets. One of them in ON all the time at full power and the other one is controlled by a light dimmer switch. I run about half power all day long and the tip stays nice and clean. Plus you always have an extension cord.

If there is any interest, let me know and we can build something here. Something nice and simple for the first time. But we need to build it from scratch, not from a kit.

Any takers?