Carrera for beginners

Factoids:

Sets from @ $150 up. (small figure 8 )

Cars, just about any class you want, very durable, and recent changes make them as fast as any of the major manufacturers.Usually a little cheaper than other manufacturers.

Controllers, Thumb plunger, some sets have reostat(black) some are electonic(red)

Power, one transformer per set, 14V for 1/32 and 18V for 1/24.

Track, stiff and smooth, stainless rails with plastic liner.Both 1/32 and 1/24 sets have the same track, just different size cars. The 1/24 track comes with borders, the 1/32 with gaurd rails.The lane spacing is the widest available, so the footprint of any given layout will be bigger than the other major brands.

The Nitty Gritty:

The track can be broken since it is not very flexible. Generally it is thought to be better in permenant /semi permenant layouts. And better on a table than the floor, if it gets stepped on it will break.

Plenty of radious allows 2/4/6/8 lane layouts.

Banked curves available for all radius turns.

Stiff rigid molded 2 piece bridge available(but they also make the piers to support the track as a flyover, and they are supplied in some sets.)

Accessories, electic timer, lapcounter , crossovers, squeez lanes, 1/4,1/3 straights, 30degree curves, borders for all pieces are or will be available available.

Digital sets and cars available.

Tradeoffs:

Smooth but fragile track

Larger space needed

Some folks don't like the gaurdrails

Harder to assemble, clips hold the track together, but solid after assembly.

Connector track accepts after market power, and aftermarket controllers are available.Some folks don't like the controllers, and like most home sets, the transformer is merely adequate.

Low or long cars may scape on the #1 rad banked curve, and the bridge. Non mag cars may have touble with the banks at slow speed. (Today, most RTR cars come mag, you choose to remove them.)

Lane spacing allows use of 1/24 cars, fly trucks, good for f1 and sliding/drifting 1/32 cars, even without borders. Some people perfer the closer lanes of other manufacturers, more banging/rubbing and blocking.

That's about it for now, this is a work in progress, I will edit later. Carrera owners, feel free to post additions, corrections, negative features.Lets have some feedback.

[JWEBDRD]

Here is a layout I had up for about a year, I gradually tweaked it till it looked like this:






It was a lot of fun, my fav, even without a long straight.

[kevind622]

Hi John,

That looks like a fun layout to race on. You have to race every inch of the track! I usually don't put any long straights in mine as they get boring after a while. I like to throw some bank curves in with the flat ones to make it more interesting. Good to see you back.

Kevin

[thatguy01]

Some folks don't like [Carrera] gaurdrails

Artin guardrails fit Carrera track perfectly, and they're cheap.

[JimD]

Has anyone found a good copper clip that can be used on the underside of Carrera track to build you own power taps? I am making a lot of custome MDF sections and need to be able to easily connect new MDF sections to the steel rails of the plastic track. I would prefer NOT to purchase the power taps from Carrera because I am going to need a lot of them before I get finished.

I thought I had found something today but it does not quite fit - the little copper contacts that you find at the ends of floresent light fixtures, where the tubes snap into the fixture.

I have not been to the LHS yet today, maybe I'll run over there and get some copper sheet.

Thanks,

Jim

[FamilyRacer]

Jim,

I've looked around and I believe that copper sheet is the only answer.

I'm very interested to learn about your custom routed sections. I am planning to do something similar when I put up my Carrera track this winter.

Brian

[scrjon]

i take braded wire strip 2 inches and tin it with a soldering gun then put some slight bends in it push it into the open slots under and in middle of track a couple of dabs of hot glue will hold good to track

[scrjon]

i have heard a lot of negative talk about carrera gaurd rails they now have 2 types the older ones where black or red with fragile small black plastic clip that broke just putting together the newer one is a thick clip white that can be a bear to put on smaller curves the rail is white with red stripes to match thier new aprons(border track) they look better and you can attach some sponcers to your fence very good looking the new clips break but are a lot tougher than the old style and carrera gives you plenty i never use all the uprites for rail givin.so if you have not seen the new rails check some out they are about 17 bucks for about 12 feet and like i said they give you plenty of supports,,,

[Daddyo]

Originally Posted by JimD

Has anyone found a good copper clip that can be used on the underside of Carrera track to build you own power taps? I am making a lot of custome MDF sections and need to be able to easily connect new MDF sections to the steel rails of the plastic track. I would prefer NOT to purchase the power taps from Carrera because I am going to need a lot of them before I get finished.

I thought I had found something today but it does not quite fit - the little copper contacts that you find at the ends of floresent light fixtures, where the tubes snap into the fixture.

I have not been to the LHS yet today, maybe I'll run over there and get some copper sheet.

Thanks,

Jim

I just used pieces I cut from brass sheet , folded and soldered to 20g wire , kinda time consuming to make but alot cheaper than buing carrera's (brass sheet =$3 , 20g wire @ dollar store $1 for 25feet ) I have a 60' track with power taps every 10 sections , total cost about $8 .

[boydmc85]

How can I add a cross over lane to my carrera track in order to make the race more "even" for both drivers?

[Volker]

Hi boydmc85 !
Welcome to SCI !
Usually you can do that by simply adding the track piece, so I'm probably missing something in your question. If so, please re-state the question.
The only issue I can see per se is that in an analog Carrera track you will need an even number of cross overs.
1. Because the electricity flow requires it
2. You will need to have the cars cross the finish line on the the lane they started, in case you have a lap counter

Please let me know if I missed your question.

Cheers and welcome again,
Volker

[boydmc85]

Originally Posted by Volker

Hi boydmc85 !
Welcome to SCI !
Usually you can do that by simply adding the track piece, so I'm probably missing something in your question. If so, please re-state the question.
The only issue I can see per se is that in an analog Carrera track you will need an even number of cross overs.
1. Because the electricity flow requires it
2. You will need to have the cars cross the finish line on the the lane they started, in case you have a lap counter

Please let me know if I missed your question.

Cheers and welcome again,
Volker

Thank you Volker for your quick response. You understood my question exactly. I had only installed 1 cross-over and of course (as I now see the error of my ways), experienced power problems. I'll put both cross-overs in.

Your help is much appreciated.

[gordon24]

Thatguy, Familyracer or JimD, have any of you gotten around to routing these pieces yet and if you did, could you post a pic or 2. I started a thread concerning this called Frankenstiening in this section
thanks, Chet

[thatguy01]

I haven't used those tabs on wood. Here's what the double-ended tabs look like where I use them on cut plastic track sections.

[gordon24]

Thanks Thatguy, that helps tremendously with marrying my scx pieces to carrera
chet