Hi Truslot, welcome to the forum.

You say that the cars' wheels are rotating under power but the cars are not moving. This shows that there is too much drag from the guide and pick-ups for the grip available from the tyres.

Can you push the cars along, or is the guide too deep or wide for the slot? If this is the case there is a mis-match between cars and track, or the cars have been modified with different guides, or the slot width has closed up due to abuse of the track (standing on it for instance).

It is likely that they tyres have hardened after not being used for so long, so try roughing up the tread surfaces with sandpaper.

The track may also have become polished and dirty, so wipe it with a little lighter fuel and a rag to clean it up.

My guess is that the tyres are hard and polished, plus there is greasy track. If the sandpaper trick fails, and all else looks ok, you can try new tyres. there are some very grippy urethane tyres about that can be picked up from slot car spares suppliers (not necessarily Scalextric tyres) and there are many of these on line.

Good luck!

GP

 

Hi Truslot,
Here are some reasonably cheap(ish) solutions based upon the info you have given,
1. TYRES on the cars may have hardened due to age, try some sandpaper but I suggest new tyres,
2. Dirty track.. there are excelent pick up cleaners I use from "HI SPEC" on e-bay, course, medium and fine....these clean up your track really well,
3. PICK UP BRAIDS ... replace these..dead cheap.

Sounds to me like tyres to be fair. if the motors are working well then you cant lay down power onto the track just like real F1 cars with degraded tyres.
Keep us updated and don't be afraid to ask for help.
best of luck
Graeme

 

Oh..OH...OH another thought based on my experience....sometimes the plastic track giude (the bit holding the pick up braids which slots into the track) can stick on raised bits on the bottom of the track.... Try pushing the cars around the track to see if the cars "jump" on certain pieces of track.
Graeme

 

Hi Graeme / GP

Firstly, thanks for coming up with some remedies I can try out. Will try both the sanding trick as well as carrying out a bit of track cleaning to see if that does the trick. Looking at the tyres on the cars they do seem very slick and as you say may be struggling to grip the truck based on the amount of torque they produce.

Can't wait to get these fellas going round the track and staging my own little grand prix between me and the wife. Will let you know the outcome and fairly safe to say with my past experience or taking corners at the right speed can see me on the podium with my wifes car being recovered from between the sofa or rescued from the dog after straying into her dog bed lol.

Really impressed with the quick and helpful responses and glad I joined up to the site

As I become more accomplished with Scalextric I hope to return the favour some day...

Cheers

Truslot

 

As the guys above say it is a question of grip vs friction.

If the cars are very old and the tires are rock hard you'll need some new ones.

Go here You should be able to identify your cars either by name or by number and find some replacement tires.
There are other places but this is scalextric specific and you are new so baby steps first.

If the tires are soft but still shiny tape a piece of sand paper to the track and hold the tires over the sandpaper and with the car running in reverse ( rubber/elastic band on the controller) gently lower the rear of the car onto the sand paper and gently grind off the smooth bit. Rub the tires on a piece of masking tape to remove the grunge. Then a wet finger's worth of 3-in-one wiped on the tires.