Want this Laguna Seca layout for your basement? It’s available from Slot Mods Raceways.

Ron Ruelle hobbyDB

During Thanksgiving week, I wrote about slot cars, including family traditions, and the history of track design as the hobby evolved from driving simulation to racing action. And as much fun as I have with my slots, sometimes the hobby needs to be taken up a notch.

For most slot car enthusiasts, there are a couple of ways to get their cars on the track. Setting one up on the basement floor works great for temporary thrills, until dust, pets and other space requirements get in the way and you put it back in the box for awhile. Heck, maybe you even have a permanent course on a 4×8 plywood table. And as long as it’s permanent, you might add some hills and banked curves and some basic scenery if you have time.

Or you can join a slot car club. In this case you maintain your own cars and take them to meetings, usually at a hobby shop with impressive permanent track setups. (Sorry, no pinkslips!) It’s a lot of fun even if you’re stuck with their schedule.

Well, good news! The folks at Slot Mods Raceways have taken this concept to a whole new level. Their Custom Scenic Megatracks range from 6 feet by 20 feet to whopping layouts of 25 feet by 14 feet. Basically, whatever you have the space and budget for, they will build it.

Fully landscaped layouts feature breathtaking off-track detail.

As you can see in the photos, Slot Mods doesn’t mess around. The courses are complex, often based on real race tracks, and the scenery is exquisitely detailed. Designed for 1/32 scale cars, they are by nature huge. The budget? Let’s just say you’re easily looking at five figures for starters.

The process begins with a review of your space… in many cases you can send them photos and dimensions and they can start from there. Just to be safe, they might need to make a site visit in person. Better safe than sorry, right? Then they can start to sketch and doodle and of course, estimate costs.

The design process starts with some very focused doodles.

Their layouts don’t use the modular track most of us are used to. The track forms are custom cut, with the grooves routed out and metal conductor strips inset by hand. Not only are the tracks super smooth and sturdy, but it also means you can have multiple lanes with variations between their spacing, and even lane changes. To add more realism, the slots often hug the apex of a curve meaning the outside of the turn goes largely unused, just like on a real track.

Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin is faithfully replicated in this course.

Speaking of real track, Slot Mods can make a layout of your favorite racing venue… or at least a selectively compressed layout that captures the feel of it anyway. Their layout of Road America from Elkhart Lake, for example, has the signature number of turns, the same hills, just with shorter scale distances. Details include pit areas, grandstands and the scenery and the architecture surround that track prefectly echo the Wisconsin countryside.

Ther Vernola Raceway fits a ton of track on a 9×13 foot layout.

In some cases, you can even purchase a pre-owned setup that was built for a previous event, such as this recreation of the Laguna Seca track made for the Los Angeles Auto Show. There’s fun and a bit unnerving sensation about hitting “Add to Cart” for something that big.

Many of us think about how we’d fill our dream garage if we won the lottery. After seeing their tracks, it seems a giant Slot Mods track would be a good use for one or two car spaces.

This track replicates the Penske Sunoco Camaro Trans Am series race cars from the late 1960s.