Slot Cars : Ninco - Scalextric - Fleischmann - Artin
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The year 2004

Interesting year for slot racers

The year two thousand and four was highly interesting for slot racers. Many new products were announced and released. This year can be best described as the "Digital Year".

German Toy Fair in Nuremberg

The German Toy Fair in Nuremberg is usually the place for the manufacturers to show their new products. Scalextric introduced two new systems: Scalextric Digital and Sport World. The Digital system has been released at the end of the year but Sport World, the interactive system for (classic, not digital) racing, will be available in the summer of 2005. Hornby expressed high expectations of digital racing. The manufacturer of Scalextric hopes to sell fifteen thousand digital race sets in the United Kingdom before Christmas 2004.

Digital systems

Two other companies have produced digital systems. SCX was the first company that entered the market with a digital race set. The set was well received in Spain, where it was introduced because SCX is a Spanish company. This company has been smart to sell three cars and controllers in the race sets. The two other companies only offered two cars and controllers in the first sets. Carrera released the digital sets world-wide with a strong campaign.

Ninco

We did not hear any news about the plans of Ninco after the press release in which the company announced a digital system. It is expected that the company will introduce the digital system at the Toy Fair in Nuremberg in 2005.
What can Ninco do better than the other slot car brands? Ninco should pay attention for the amount of power, the number of cars in the sets and pay special attention to crossover sections.

Carrera does not have enough power

According to some users the Carrera system does not have enough power to run more than two cars at the same time. This is a remarkable failure because it is obvious that the system should handle more than two cars because that is one of the advantages of digital racing.

Sport Digital

The main complaint about Sport Digital is the length of the crossover section. The crossover section of Scalextric takes the length of two standard curves and a half-straight section. The half-straight section is needed because "the digital eye" that operates the crossover section has been built in this track piece. The requirement of these sections is a limitation in the design of your track. Not many people will be able to turn their current track into a digital track without adjusting major changes to the layout. SCX and Carrera have chosen a more flexible solution by offering crossover sections on the straight track pieces.

Market strategy of Carrera and Scalextric

What is the market strategy of Carrera and Scalextric by not offering more than two cars in the sets? Probably they expect that newcomers to the hobby will buy the sets anyway. And we, die-hard slot racers, are most willing to spend more money to buy the extra cars and controllers. At least that is what the manufacturers want, but it is a fact that the majority of experienced slot car racers hesitate to buy the new products because they are very sceptical about digital racing. Not many people have changed yet from classic (analog) to digital racing.

Future

What will be the future? Do we keep the different digital systems or do we get one universal system? Which system will survive?
What do you think? You are invited to express your opinion to SlotcarAcademy.com!

Jan Willem van Capelleveen, November 2004