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Tuning Centre

We ran the Micro Scalextric Championship in Worthing with cars we provided, so there was no tuning necessary to race.

You might want to see the couple of things we did to the Micro cars to make them run a little smoother on our club tracks - essentially just replacing the tyres and the braids.

For details of HO car maintenance and tools for use with HO cars, check out the WHO Racing Tech section here.

Tyres

Braids

We’ve replaced the rear tyres with more grippy silicone tyres. There are several small-scale manufacturers of HO silicone tyres, but Supertires are what we use (see links for suppliers).

The Micro Scalextric cars have strong traction magnets and we alter the rear wheel/tyre height to give more or less downforce.

To run on our Tomy AFX track system, we use .426” Supertires on the standard Micro Scalextric wheels.

To run on Micro Scalextric track, slightly bigger diameter Supertires will be required.

Micro Scalextric cars are unique in the HO world by using braids to pick up electricity from the track. Most HO cars use bronze shoes.

The standard braids are a bit thick. They do work, but thinner copper braids work a bit better.

You can buy replacement braids from slot car specialist shops - look for soft copper braid. Pendles do their own racing braids, plus there are some vendors on eBay who sell copper braid for Micro cars. All these are good tune-up parts.

Removing the braid plate is fairly straight-forward. Take off the car body and you can see two clips on the braid plate, front and rear. Use a tiny screwdriver just to slip one of these clips out (see picture, top right). It doesn’t need too much force. The old braids will fall out with the plate.

Bend the new braids (you may also need to cut them to the right length - about 20mm) so they will fit snuggly on the motor contacts, bending the other end round the front of the plate or through the slots, if present, to reach the back of the plate on the guide side.

Sometimes the metal contacts underneath the braid plate can sit too flush in the chassis and a bad connection with the braids can cause the car to stutter or not go at all. We just ease the plates up a little with a small screwdriver (see middle picture).

Fitting the plate back so the braids stay in place might take a few tries, but be patient.

Once that’s done ‘profile’ the braids so the car sits low and the guide pin or blade sits as low in the slot as possible. But you also want a good connection - so the profile is ultimately a compromise.

When you’ve tested the car on track and everything is okay, replace the body and you’re ready to race!