About
I’m a Mechanical Design Engineer by day, I got back into slot cars again when my children were given a Scalextric set and from there I thought it would be interesting to design a car that wasn’t fast but was just fun.
I live in Bedfordshire, UK. If you have any problems with building the kits or want any other information, please contact me: info@chase-cars.com
Reviews
“If idle hands are the devil’s playground, idle engineers are a field day of awesome.”
“Using some rapid prototyping equipment and a few CAD drawings, Jones whipped up a chassis that would allow the bodies to actually lean in a corner. Still unsatisfied, the engineer designed a unique steering system that allows the wheels to look like they actually turn in a corner. Throw in some clever interiors and a custom-designed 1972 limo, and you’ve got all the elements of a great scale electric chase from the ’70s”
“3D printing can be used to make fun things, funner. Like slot cars, sure they can hug the track with terrifying speed and a power to weight ratio similar to putting a cheetah’s strength into a hummingbird’s body but they sometimes lack personality, say the personality of a 70′s Hollywood car chase, with saggy suspension, sloppy handling and a certain clumsy swagger… Enter Chase-Cars, that uses Shapeways 3D printing to help make slot cars with that special 70′s style, handling and swagger.”
“British bloke gets bored of super fast slot cars, so builds his own with soft springs and loose rear ends so they slide like movie cop cars.”
“The idea is simple. Take one slot car chassis, add suspension, wheels, a motor and steering then add the body of your choice – preferably an American muscle car. Hey presto you have a leaning, sliding slot car. And if you put two or more together, you have a chase!”
“Real cars are equipped with high-tech electronic anti-roll mechanisms these days, but in the 70s, not so much. While the cars then were significantly less safe than today’s, their ancient suspension made for some dramatic Hollywood car chases; it’s the breakneck speed and gratuitous sliding too, to be certain, but there’s something about almost tipping over that’s just intrinsically exciting. The engineer behind chase-cars understood this, so he designed a printable chassis that lets the cars lean around the bends and more dramatically power slide, allowing for some realistically spectacular chase scenes”
“You can dig out the slot car track that you’ve got as a 9th birthday gift from mom again. Now you can not only steer the vehicles but they lean also. Neither makes it actually faster, but just looks much better.
“I have not much to say about these chassis, my jaw just dropped when I saw the movies on the website”
NSCC – National Scalextric Collectors Club
…and rather impressive it looks too, but to be honest the word impressive just isn’t strong enough when you consider all of the work that has gone into this project by one bloke on his own rather than a whole design team at a “popular household name” Company.
I therefore say again, that whatever words you use to describe this project / build / kit they simply cannot describe sufficiently the level of effort and ingenuity that has gone into this project. To me it is simply beyond words.