The Baseboards run the full length of one long side of the garage, across the short side and now nearly halfway  back down the other long side. The width available is that of a standard door and is just enough to accept a 180 bend of Standard Curves. The track  has yet to be rebuilt following its winter packed away. Having used one of these free software programs it was discovered that our original track should not have worked as one of the loops from the bridge would have naturally gone over another part of the track.. (The program was not very easy to use so is not named or linked to as a recommendation.) Forcing it into an unnatural  shape may have contributed to our electrical problems, so the loop and bridge will be omitted.  There has been very little damage while in storage although rust has started to reappear on a few pieces of track. The longest straight section of 16 foot will run along the front edge of the baseboard down the long side. It leads via a 180 Standard Curve bend to a 8 foot straight which then turns in towards and then along side the long straight where a  Skid Chicane leads to a Le Mans start. The final third of the track on the two shorter boards is all curves and includes Changeover Tracks and a Long Chicane corner. Crash Barriers have been fitted to all corners. Foam padded boards, from an old bed, have been fixed at the ends of the baseboards to stop cars falling onto the concrete floor. Only standard curves have been used as some of the younger drivers have difficulties with the tight ones. All parts of the track are fairly easy to reach for all drivers except for one corner where a box has to be provided for those who are vertically challenged. 

A small oval track for the testing of a single car at a time can be set up in between the long straights by the use  of a cross-over piece of  track.

No Borders are used on any part of the track. There would not be space for them on the Standard Curve bends which take up the full width of the baseboard. The inner curves of the test track have borders fitted that have been cut out of unused track. This was necessary as drivers in their efforts not to deslot were going so slowly they were dropping a rear wheel off the track into the centre.

Track has been cleaned using WD40 and a clean rag with help from a toothbrush for more ingrained dirt. Cif has been used to clean stubborn marks on the power rails. Don't use any thing more abrasive as it will remove the plating and become prone to rust. Once the track starts to rust sandpaper cannot do any more damage and the track will still be usable. We continually check car boot sales for old track and have now nearly managed to replace all the rusted pieces.

Where track pieces have lost a plastic connection tab, two such broken pieces are connected and heat welded together after first making sure a good electrical join has been made. Poor electrical connections of track pieces have been a major problem so each piece has been cleaned and tested as the track was built up. Where necessary bits of the rail have been bent to ensure a good contact is made. These adjustments are made with an old screwdriver that is also used to force open any kinks inside the slot itself.

A single non-conducting joint will have little effect as electricity can still run all around the track, but a second one will cause a dead area with no power. Home made booster wires have been fitted in a couple of places where tracks run close to one another as protection against any bad electrical joins that might develop.

Each lane is powered by its own Scalextric black boxed transformer and the standard Scalextric hand controller.

Scale      1:
Track Length   Feet Metres 
Time          Seconds
Speed          MPH KPH 

Using a scale MPH formula devised by Jim Kinder (Sorry Jim I can't remember where your site was) our best speeds on the old track were as follows:

• Metro 125 mph
• 6R4 117 mph
• MGB 125 mph
• MG TC 96 mph
• T Type Racer 117 mph
• MG Maestro 96 mph
• Unmodified Metro 96 mph
• Porsche 962 145 mph (magnatraction) (see Other Makes for how we slowed it down)

The formulas involves creating a Track-Scale Factor
Track-Scale Factor = Scale * Feet/Lap * Seconds/Hour / Feet/Mile = 32 * 80 * 3600 / 5280 = 1745
Scale speed = the Track-Scale Factor (1745) / Seconds per lap

Jims example of an 88 foot track with 8 turns
Gil's Track-Scale Factor = 32 * 88 * 3600 / 5280 = 1920
Gil's (8 turns) - 1920 / 3.97 seconds = 483 Scale MPH

Jim's quoted speeds ranged from 380 MPH on a track with 13 turns to 545 MPH on a track with 3 turns. Our track has 4 x 180 degree turns (2 x standard & 2 x inner curves), 12 other turns, 4 x cross over tracks and 1 chicane. In the final 25 feet of track the longest straight is part of a cross over track itself.
Our quickest time is around 12 seconds but even though we use a manual stop watch, our track in uneven and the cars are unmodified we still cannot imagine any car covering this distance in 4 seconds. Are cars really this good?