Talk:Slot car

message: The links sections needs a drastic cleanup,
There seems to be many links that aren't of educational value, but simply contain ads or other stuff that probably doesn't belong in Wikipedia.  I took out some of the ad links, but there are probably more there. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.37.202.32 (talk • contribs) 18:46, 20 May 2006  (UTC)
:Agreed. I've started by removing a few redundant links & links to personal-type websites. I've also culled some external links from the article text itself and moved them to the external links section, where they can be scrutinized more easily (trust me I won't be upset if they are removed!). There's still much cleanup to do here though.  I'll try to get around to it soon, but if any other editors are feeling ambitious feel free to dive in. --AbsolutDan (talk) 16:58, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cleanup Links 

message: May I offer some comment/reaction from a fresh reader?
1. Wikipedia - World Encyclopedia.
With great respect to the hard working author(s), while there are a few, very few, non-USA references, the overall thrust is unmistakably North American, rather than World. There is, arguably, a larger slot car fraternity in Europe and, to a lesser degree, in the rest of the world, that isn't apparent in the text. This applies particularly to the Organizations and Competitions areas. While I feel sure that was not the intention, the impression is fairly strong to a neutral reader and is probably not ideal in a "World Encyclopedia" setting. Perhaps a good idea to consider rephrasing/rewording/expanding anything that might prove to be ‘arguable’? 
2. Abbreviations.
It could be helpful to enlighten inexperienced readers with the full name of organizations such as "HOPRA", on first mention.
3. Miscellaneous.
While it is true that "OO" is the most common (mongrel) scale in UK for model trains, "OO" is never used in connection with slot cars. I suggest removing the "OO" reference.
In Slotless and Digital Slot Racing section, I suggest removal of the word "primitive". It seems too emotive/judgemental and nothing would be lost by its omission, other than elimination of a subjective sounding judgement call, which removal feels appropriate in an Encyclopedia. 
Similarly, but opposite, is the rather apparent approval intimated in “Digital slot racing promises to fundamentally change the way in which circuits are constructed  . . . etc”. I suggest that a neutral word such as “offers” would be more approriate in an Encyclopedia context. Again, it would seem ‘a good thing’ to strive towards avoiding contentiousness, as far as possible. 
I would also suggest separation of slotless from digital – they are so different as to be virtually unrelated.
I hope these comments can be accepted in the spirit intended – strictly neutral and with constructive intent.
--John Tempest 14:43, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Well done so far. 

message: I have again deleted and will continue to delete the link to the Mr Coney Slot car show information as this seems to me to be little more than a commercial site that sells products or services as outlined on 'links normally to be avoided' in Wikipedia:External links any comments for or against?
Slotblog! should probably be a stub or whatever, as its a social network like CarDomain but I've not had time to even think about how you start setting this up, in fact it seems to me that much of what currently appears on the slot car page should be on sub-pages that explain and develop each element of the subject i.e HO Racing, Wing Cars, digital etc. rather than overly confuse what should be a fairly short definition of the principle theme. Mighty Antar 02:35, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  External Links 

message: Thanks to Mighty Antar (great name - after the Thornycroft lorry, I presume) for his (or her?) diligence in combing the links for commercial entries and other problems. 
I was not so charmed, however, by his Dec. 7 edits to the introductory section of the article. After considerable thought, I have somewhat reverted this edit, with some alterations to cover the most important of Antar's concerns. I have also added several references.
Overall, the Dec. edit added many words to the intro, without greatly clarifying meaning or adding a corresponding amount of significant information. In addition, it damaged the hierarchy of significance by reordering the intro to mention historical anomalies before near-universal characteristics.
Some notes: 
-- Before the Dec 7 edit, the first sentence adequately defined the term, giving the class of objects it belongs to (powered miniature vehicles) and what differentiates it from the rest of the class (the slot steering system). After the edit, the first sentence no longer fully defined the term.
-- The Dec. edit changes "A slot car is..." to read
"Slot car is a generic term used to describe...". True, but except for proper nouns, every entry in the Wikipedia is a generic term used to describe something. I suspect Antar meant to convey that the term is broader than just cars, but that is really not what 'generic' means here, and besides, that issue was already handled in the original intro.
-- "preformed track..." - 'preformed' here can't mean pre-manufactured, since slot car track is often owner-built from wood, etc. If it just means 'constructed by human beings prior to running cars,' then it's obvious and unnecessary.
-- "The term first came into use in the late 1950s to differentiate..." - This was a valid addition, but is a usage note relating to an historical oddity, so I moved it from the beginning to the end of the intro, with the other notes on usage. 
--  "In the hands of some enthusiasts, however, any precise relationship with an automobile can be very tentative."  -- That's a lot of woords, and I'm not sure what it means. It appears to be a long way to say that some hobbyists create custom bodies, or perhaps, that they run vehicles besides cars. But those points had already been covered succinctly.
-- "The terms 'slot car' and 'slot racing' are loosely interchangeable..."  --  I don't think Antar really meant to say that, but clearly, they aren't.
-- "...and as such have been used to encompass other types of model vehicles: motorcycles, aeroplanes, spacecraft, horses, trucks, etc. ..." - I think this was already covered when the original text said that the term also applies to other types of vehicles. Perhaps a separate historical section could be added to the main text, but the intro should be a brief overview of the essentials, and specific mention of such historical oddities as slot-horses, spacecraft, etc. doesn't really belong here.
-- "These terms have also been used to describe ... diesel powered model cars, ..."  - A valid point, worth keeping for its historical significance, though by diesel I think Antar meant glow-plug engines using methanol.
-- David
---------------------------------------------------------
Thanks David
I admit I'm new to Wiki and I rushed in a bit when I saw the banner that the slot car section didn't cite any references or sources as I had some, but the more you look into this whole encyclopedia, the more you realise that the current slot car page and most of the toy and hobby sections are woefully inadequate. The Slot Car page should actually be a lot smaller and work something like the one for sneaker. Similarly, as I said in 'External Links' above, types of slot car and the things that you do with them i.e. digital, HO, build, race etc. need to be on pages by themselves just like the types of things that you can do with sneakers are. I didn't add significantly because it very quickly became clear how inadequate the current page is and just how mammoth remedying it would be! 
Sorry you didn't understand what my 'tentative' phrase meant, it was an attempt to clarify the relationship between a Group 7 Wing Car and any currently known type of vehicle, miniature or otherwise. Given Group 7 is what some enthusiasts consider the ultimate in slot cars, do you really feel your current definition is adequate? See http://www.bparkraceway.com/05Concours5.jpg for a typical wing car.
Not sure where you are based, but here in the UK, slot car racing, slot cars and slot racing are all loosely interchangeable terms. They may not be grammatically correct, but they are all used by enthusiasts to describe the same thing. As 'Slot car racing' currently redirects to 'slot car' in Wiki, somethings gotta change somewhere! Mighty Antar 01:27, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Revert of Introductory Expansion 

message: I have nothing against any of the huge number of links that I've just deleted other than wikipedia is not the place for them. Please refer to WP:EL for details. This is an encyclopedia article which attempts to explain what a slot car is and what its for, if you don't think the article fully covers that, then please edit the article and add to our knowledge. If we want links to discussion groups or commercial sites I think we all know how to use google, yahoo etc.etc. Mighty Antar 23:20, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  External Links 

message: I've reverted this edit
because it would have replaced a cited reference and at the moment the Tether car page does cite any sources for its version of history. Mighty Antar 17:56, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tether Car History 

message: This article should mention some of the more unusual track arrangements developed over the years that helped add variety to the track layouts. Our slot car system had plastic riser clips that allowed one piece of track to be be suspended in midair above the other, allowing:
* track to pass over other section as if a hill/tunnel
* spiral stacking, where the road rises in a continuous spiral as if in a large parking garage to ascend great heights (use two stacks together to spiral up, then spiral down)
Also some manufacturers built incline/decline track sections of 30 degrees to 45 degress to allow the cars to practically jump into the air off the track if going too fast.
I seem to recall wall-racing, where two 45-inclines combine to make a 90-degree straight up hill and then track runs up the wall a few feet, does a quick 180 and comes back down. The old style 1970s cars could stay properly aligned to track up and down the wall but can't stay aligned for continuous sideways tracking on a wall.
Some manufacturers specifically sold track kits to allow the cars to do 360 barrel rolls. Without enough speed the car falls off or can't make the rollover.
Also, the old 1960s/1970s cars also used magnet tracking, but not really powerful tracking. This effect wasn't necessarily intentional but was due to the design of the motor -- most used two magnetic pole motors, and the magnets just so happened to be mounted directly above the steel slot power strips, so there was some attraction of the car to the track but not a huge amount.
DMahalko (talk) 15:56, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  spiral track stacks, 360-flips, ramps, verticals, magnet attaction 

message: I have corrected the form of the reference tags to these two excellent, noncommercial information resources. They now appear, properly named, in the References.
I have also reinstated the External Links to the Victory/VIP History site (they got lost sometime in 2007) and added a Link for the Slot Car Portal Pictorial Reference site.  
There is no question that the informational content on these websites justifies their presence on the article's Links list. Both are used for citations in the article itself, and there is a wealth of relevant information on each, about aspects of slot car history that the article does not cover. 
D.Helber (talk) 01:46, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Links and Refs - Victory Industries and Slot Car Portal 

message: I was looking through Public Domain videos at archive.org today and found this video of Gilbert Slot Cars. I would have placed it in the External links section but it looks like this article has had a time with WP:EL issues..so I leave it here for the editors to decide...damn fine article, btw. Cheers,⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 21:46, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gilbert Slot Cars video into External links? 

message: I don't know if Record Breakers: World of Speed could be mentioned in the article (possibly as a note about a different kind of slot car, one that can run independent of the track?  Or more likely just as a "See also" note at the end of the article.), but it could use a Wikipedia article of its own.  I in time may start one, though I'd be happy if someone did it (and a better job) before I get around to it.  I should also note that the TV show co-hosted by Jesse Ventura was an example of televised slot car racing.
Klknoles (talk) 04:49, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Record Breakers: World of Speed]] 

message: It's always tempting to add extra information to an article. But in the end the article must be balanced between the amount of info and the relevance and readability of the whole. After considerable thought, I have removed Wahiba's elaborations on the slot car scales, because:
 
This is a section on slot car scales, not on scale in general. If the reader wants to know alternate names for a scale, or what fraction of an inch in each scale represents a foot, the article provides a link to each scale mentioned. These particular alternate names are, in my experience, seldom used in the slot-car hobby, whose terminology is usually in ratio, (e.g. "1:32"), and not English fractions of an inch per foot, (e.g. "three-sixteenths scale").  
The elaborations were inconsistently applied. Metric scales and even partial-metric scales, such as HO and OO did not get elaborations. 
The elaborations disrupted the flow of the sentence  with a substantial length of awkward type between the subject and the verb or adjective and noun. 
They increased the length of the article and the density of the paragraphs, thus discouraging readers, and added little information relevant to the topic.
They looked awkward, with the oversized stacked fractions.
One was factually incorrect. 1/4" scale (1:48) is not O scale. It is American O-scale; British and European O-scale is 1:43 (which did not get an elaboration) or 1:45.
D.Helber (talk) 00:55, 5 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Scale Elaborations]] 

message: Thanks to the contributor, but this photo doesn't belong in the Slotcar Scales section, and certainly not at the beginning, displacing a photo which actually illustrates the section's text. There is no other section where it seems to fit well. Though it is attractive, the photo and its caption "Model of the custom painted Midway Homes Mosler, a unique 1:32 scale Ninco slot car", adds nothing to the understanding of the general topic of slot cars. There are already two other photos showing examples of 1:32 slotcars, each suitable to its section - the two racing beetles graphically represent competition in a way the Mosler does not, and the Fly car shows the sophisticated commercial graphics mentioned in the text, which the custom-painted Mosler does not. I removed the photo as redundant. D.Helber (talk) 18:27, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed Photo from Common Slotcar Scales 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Slot car. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090106200038/http://www.tri-ang.co.uk/Minic/layout4.htm to http://www.tri-ang.co.uk/Minic/layout4.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 00:49, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect :Pink kar and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 April 28#Pink kar until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion.  CycloneYoris talk! 06:45, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Pink kar" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]