Hasta La Ideas

There’s eight slot cars pictured on the track in the first shot above, but they’re moving so freaking fast they’re captured on-screen only as blurs. It’s a screen-cap from an international championship held by a Finnish slot car enthusiast club. While it’s not quite mag-lev—the much older slot-car technology uses a pin on the underside of each car extending into its lane-specific slot—the speeds attained are staggering, as you can see in the video below. (Action starts around 0:53, and you needn’t sit through all five minutes of the vid to get the idea.)

Aside from the coolness of the sheer speed, another thing that caught my eye in this video was in the first minute, where they show the contestants all tinkering with their self-built vehicles. You’ll notice they all have cases on their desk holding their tools and gear:

(more…)