James May's Toy Stories BBC2 now

[Established 1984]

Well it's not the first time that I've been alone in my ponderings. Anyway I figured that they probably don't make the massive radius corner pieces needed to make a true representation of the tracks curves and so it'll have been massive straight - kink - massive straight...



... okay, okay I'll

[AJLintern]

I don't think they'd have needed many curved sections of track - the flexibility of the short straight sections over such a distance would have been enough to allow a curve of a large enough radius to follow the real life track. I should think they only used actual curved Scalextric track to negotiate the tighter obstacles.

[zac510]

I've been wondering how they separated each section's controller? Was each person's controller section separately powered? Then they may have had to rely on the car's speed to jump the gap from the last controller section into the next one.

[Jonny671]

zac510 said:

I've been wondering how they separated each section's controller? Was each person's controller section separately powered? Then they may have had to rely on the car's speed to jump the gap from the last controller section into the next one.

I think on the last page, this was discussed and this is the answer.. A car battery powered each section and between sections they had to rely on the cars speed to bridge the gap

[Hugo a Gogo]

elster said:

zac510 said:

Just watched it (late starter, I know) and quite enjoyed it. Best of the series so far.

I wonder how much of the track was end-to-end? The onboard footage of the full lap would be great to see but I imagine there might have been a break or two in some exceptionally difficult places.

Unless it was a fake world record, it had no breaks.

I suspect the onboard footage was faked (filmed afterwards), or what kind of tiny invisible cameras did they use?

also, did anyone else notice several shots of a 'carrera' branded chequered flag?
http://www.carrera-toys.de/

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Thursday 19th November 19:39

[fatboy18]

Jonny671 said:

zac510 said:

I've been wondering how they separated each section's controller? Was each person's controller section separately powered? Then they may have had to rely on the car's speed to jump the gap from the last controller section into the next one.

I think on the last page, this was discussed and this is the answer.. A car battery powered each section and between sections they had to rely on the cars speed to bridge the gap

Yes that's correct. At the end of each section we removed the internal link pins, each section was controlled by individual controllers, the cars simply crossed from one section to another by speed alone. If the car was going too slow it would have stopped dead at the intersection.

[zac510]

Thanks fatboy, watched it late on iPlayer and the thread had already gone nuts by the time I got back! cheers

[Mutley]

Established 1984 said:

...Also, what happened to the lego house episode?

Is still to come, we're only halfway into the series - and on a break till Christmas

[Steve748]

Jonny671 said:

zac510 said:

I've been wondering how they separated each section's controller? Was each person's controller section separately powered? Then they may have had to rely on the car's speed to jump the gap from the last controller section into the next one.

I think on the last page, this was discussed and this is the answer.. A car battery powered each section and between sections they had to rely on the cars speed to bridge the gap

Wouldn't the batteries be there at intervals to give a continuous source of power all the way round and so long as they are all connected correctly there shouldn't be any gaps in the power?

[Established 1984]

Steve748 said:

Jonny671 said:

zac510 said:

I've been wondering how they separated each section's controller? Was each person's controller section separately powered? Then they may have had to rely on the car's speed to jump the gap from the last controller section into the next one.

I think on the last page, this was discussed and this is the answer.. A car battery powered each section and between sections they had to rely on the cars speed to bridge the gap

Wouldn't the batteries be there at intervals to give a continuous source of power all the way round and so long as they are all connected correctly there shouldn't be any gaps in the power?

It could be done that way but I'm sure the gaps were so that different sections used different controlers.

[Halb]

crofty1984 said:

Mark_Karting said:

That was one of the most exciting races ive ever seen, brilliant!

Me too, I was rediculously excited!

SAme here. I remember my old Race'N'Chase. Loved this episode, had all the right ingredients for me.
May is the perfect person for this type of show. I am finding I enjoy him more when he is away from Top Gear.

[simonkay]

Hi folks,

New to the forum (although not the site), so hello!

Was just doing a search to see how the Scalextric programme went down. I did the slow motion filming, so it's great to see it was well received. It was a fantastic day. Good job as my daily look at the classifieds always reminds me what I could have got for the price of the camera!

[Jonny671]

simonkay said:

Hi folks,

New to the forum (although not the site), so hello!

Was just doing a search to see how the Scalextric programme went down. I did the slow motion filming, so it's great to see it was well received. It was a fantastic day. Good job as my daily look at the classifieds always reminds me what I could have got for the price of the camera!

Brilliant work that, Simon!

[Steve748]

Excellent work Simon, I'll be watching the repeat on Tonight too.......7:00pm - 8:00pm BBC2

[Eric Mc]

Watched it last night back to back with the Meccano episode. It was all jolly good entertainment.

I have a book on the history of Scalextric so I wasn't that concerned about the lack of a chronological history.

[Steve748]

Eric, I think you have a book on everything .................well certainly blokey stuff!

[Eric Mc]

I've got the Airfix book too

[The Hypno-Toad]

Eric Mc said:

I've got the Airfix book too

The Airfix box art book is now on my chrimbo list.

Slighty off topic but did the guy doing all the construction work on this (Simon?) used to be The Carpet Monster on The Big Breakfast?

[pmanson]

Well I really enjoyed it - great fun! Nice to see the community getting together as well

[Eric Mc]

The Hypno-Toad said:

Eric Mc said:

I've got the Airfix book too

The Airfix box art book is now on my chrimbo list.

Slighty off topic but did the guy doing all the construction work on this (Simon?) used to be The Carpet Monster on The Big Breakfast?

The Airfix book I have is Arthur Ward's History of Airfix - not the Roy Cross artwork book. I have to say, the Roy Cross book is extremely tempting.

Regarding Simon, May said in the programme that he had worked on Scrapheap Challenge.