I recently purchased twelve of the Slot Car Heroes gears for motors with 1.5 mm shafts. I ordered early and Tim Johnson, the owner/operator, got them out very quickly. The package was brutalized in the mail and so Tim upon notification replaced the one crushed gear.
Some of the cars that Scalextric is now producing are equipped with their FF Style motor. This appears to be a Mabuchi FF-050 motor. What is amazing is that they sell the replacement and upgrade motors for these cars for $10-$15. These are FF series motors which are the mid-priced motors (gouge). I have stacks of these motors that were bought from Electronic Goldmine or salvaged from CD drives. Some run as well as the Scalextric motor, some better, and some are milder. The problem with these motors has always been getting a gear to fit the 1.5 mm shaft. Usually people have sleeved the gear for the 2 mm shaft motors to fit them. This is a lot of work and requires that one find tubing that will be the right size for the sleeve.
Currently both Scalextric and Slot car Heroes produce direct fit gears. What is the difference between the two companies. There are two. Scalextric has a wider range of options at the moment. Their gears range from 8-12 teeth. Here is the problem with this, I have never seen one of the Scalextric cars using this motor wound tight and begging for more top end. Why do they produce the 10-12 tooth gears? The eight and nine tooth gears I understand the need for as I may want to replace the standard gear or increase braking and power with the eight. A second fault I have is that they force you to buy three gears you will never use. Very sensibly Tim packages his gears in a ratio that is very usable and all are the same number of teeth.
A second difference is that the Scalextric gears are $8.99 for five, but remember that only two of them are usable for most of us and so that works out to $4.50 a gear. Tim sells 4 for $3.00 which equals $.75 per usable gear. When I read over this I asked myself the question of whether or not I am being a spin doctor and my answer was no. This is not a paid review. I bought the gears out of my lunch money. I honestly think these are a fabulously better deal. You are free to differ and it is your money. In fact if you can offer any valid reason to buy the Scalextric gears I will post all valid rejoinders.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
I am glad because who wants to write that much. What we have in our first picture is the pinion attached to three similarly sized motors. The first and third motor are non-Mabuchi motors, but using the same flat sided can as the Mabuchi FF-050 series motor. The second motor is out of a toothbrush and is round.
The first motor is the Electronic Goldmine G9330 motor which came with 7 tooth pinion, but this gear did not mesh well with some of the gears I tried with it, but Tim's gear meshes very well indeed. The motor costs about $1.75 or less from Electronic Goldmine once you factor in shipping. Some have rated it at about 30K in the RPM department. The only problem with this motor is that the bearing on the shaft end of the motor is larger than a Scalextric and the Scalextric chassis will have to be modified to accept it. The second motor is from an Oral-B toothbrush. It screams when run at 15 volts. The third motor is from a stack of about 30 that I have from CD Drives and other gizmos. Some are made by Panasonic and Sony, but many are Hotsawatsdootsahans. Many are milder than the Scalextric and this is needed for short tracks and so they become good detuning motors. The test gears fit snugly on all that were tested and not one required Loctite. Time will tell if this is needed as long periods of racing will test the gears. If any faults show up be assured of two things. I will tell Tim and then you.
Another Picture = More Motor Types
Tim's gears also fit the motors out of HO and 1/43rd cars as well. The motor on the left is the type you find in the Ninco carts, the older Pink Kar slot cars, HO slot cars, etc. The second motor is from a Sony video camera and screams but I have no idea what to use it for or how long it will last. The third one is a Mabuchi FF-030 motor which is used in some 1/43 cars. Flyin Brian McNay has used this motor in a little Arii model and made a killer car. Now he does not have to cannibalize a Carrera Go chassis to make another. The fourth motor is from a HO slot car which I plan on using in my Stohr/West DSR (SCCA/IMSA) car. This gear has really opened up the potential motor pool!
Available Chassis
What are your chassis options for these motors other than Scalextric cars? Slot Car Heroes sells a very nice chassis that is designed specifically for the Electronic Goldmine motor, but it is pricey. A second option is the BWA type popsicle stick chassis. BWA also makes a brass bracket for scratch builders that was designed specifically for this type of motor.
Conclusions
Now that I have the gear, I will be assembling one of Tim's chassis and also a BWA wooden thingie. Tentatively I am very happy with the gear and the service I got from Slot Car Heroes. For $5.00 you can buy 4 gears and test them yourself. The shipping charge is $2.00 for orders of $9.00 or less and the gears cost $3.00 per pack. He has two other types of gears, but I did not get them.
Now I await your comments.
UPDATE #1: The Scalextric classic F1 cars are armed with a very powerful motor. The motor is too much for the car even with a magnet and impossible without a magnet. I run these cars on my home track at 9 volts and they still have the ability to wag the tail of the dog. I put better tires on the back (Ninco Cobra tires), added some weight, and used one of Tim's gears to give it more braking. I was able with these three modifications able to take a full second off the lap times. No problems whatsoever with the gear up to this point.
