Kickstart slotless racing

Imagine a slot-car set where you could drift, slipstream, pass and bump... That's roughly what UK-based RealFX Racing is planning and wants to put in every playroom and mancave.

Made up of an enthusiastic group of learned fellows, RealFX is looking to bring a modern fusion of slot-cars and video games into the world's lounge rooms. And they are using a Kickstarter campaign to get things on the grid.

The campaign is up and running and if successful the team hope to deliver a system they have conceived and been working on for close to a decade. It features radio controlled cars on a non-slotted click together track and offers the ability for solo play against an AI opponent, on a circuit you create.

Each car uses optical technology to 'read' its position on the track, the artificial intelligence (AI) will then attempt to keep the car on a central path. However, players will be able to adjust speed and steer the car through passing manoeuvres.

Speed too fast into a corner and the back-end will slide or the car will leave the track. Instead of having to run over, pick the car up and reposition in a slot, however, drivers can reverse back onto the track and continue to compete.

RealFX Racing will boast two main modes of play, Practice and Championship with the latter having options to add virtual track hazards (such as oil spillages) and other real-time events along with multiple set-ups for individual or race series events.

If you have no friends, you can switch a car to “Pace Mode” and it will provide an opponent for your human controlled vehicle.

The cars and ‘pistol grip’ style controllers will be offered for sale separately with the track pieces offered in two boxed versions. The Real FX Starter track system has 12 pieces, the Pro-Racing set featuring a further 39 track segments for some wild circuit layouts.

It looks like this is not the first team to head down this slotless pathway, with at least one other UK based team looking at a less sophisticated magnetic system www.magracing.co.uk to achieve similar freedom of the miniature track.

One concern for Australia is that the RealFX Racing RC cars will operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency range, the same range as many home wireless internet set-ups. Still, if you are playing slotless racing cars in your living room with your neighbours, who needs wireless internet at the time?