July 22, 2020
#398
Gentle reader,
There have been countless toys created over the millennia once humans figured out how to make things. Every year since the dawn of the 20th Century, the number, variety, complexity and availability of these toys has increased exponentially.
Some of the most joyous days in our family was the arrival of the Sears, Wards and JCPenny Christmas catalogs. Yes, folks, LONG before the Internet, people ordered things they could not get locally via catalogs through the mail. Sears, Roebuck and Company was one of the first to capitalize on this idea. They produced quarterly catalogs and the best one as far as kids are concerned were their annual holiday catalogs.
The advent of "devices" and prior to that computer, then console video games changed how many kids played, to the detriment of children's imagination and physical and possibly mental health.
Imagination is one thing that humans have the rest of the animal kingdom lacks. More change has been wrought on planet earth since the Industrial Revolution. Most of it good, some destructive. But I am digressing.
"Hot Wheels" has become a generic term for small metal cars, but of course there are many companies that have and do produce them. Some companies that did are lost to history.
Hot Wheels K.I.T. Racing Kinetic Interactive Technology Test Trax.
I only recently learned that Hot Wheels also made slot car tracks. We were fortunate that our parents encouraged out interest in things. I was always playing with cars, so in the 1960's when they gave us an Aurora Model Motoring HO slot car set my brother and I were thrilled!
A company called Far Out Toys created the racing set above, well, this is the second generation in cooperation with NASCAR. The first used 1950's cars and was simply called Crash Racers. There really is Figure-8 racing. The idea is to avoid each other, but the crowds hope for crashes. These sets are a lot of fun and are the basis for countless people trying to create in their home the type of fun downhill racing perfected by 3DBotMaker on YouTube. 3Dbotmaker - YouTube
We are one of them, I showed their videos to my wife and she got super excited. She is not your ordinary female, on many levels. One of the countless reasons after ALL these years, I still adore her.
We have bought two Crash Racer sets, so far. We combined the track pieces (less the intersection) into different shapes and now into the beginning of our downhill course. Hot Wheels track connects to Crash Racers with standard HW track connectors.
She saw a friend of hers was selling a "Hot Wheels K.I.T. Racing Kinetic Interactive Technology" set (shown above Crash Racers). It is from 2002 and it intrigued her, so she bought it, thinking it might be useful.
She saw a friend of hers was selling a "Hot Wheels K.I.T. Racing Kinetic Interactive Technology" set (shown above Crash Racers). It is from 2002 and it intrigued her, so she bought it, thinking it might be useful.
There is almost NO information out on the Internet that I could find about these Hot Wheels K.I.T. Racing Kinetic Interactive Technology cars and their TRAX system. I've looked. Why is that?
Having decades of experience working with my hands in a multitude of ways, including on HO slot cars and railroad cars, I was very interested in seeing how these work.
After seeing that the car in the set requires assembly, I sought out other ones on eBay. I bought these three for less than twenty bucks.
I'm going to unbox one, show you what is there, assemble it and then show you the wide variety of cars, parts and functionality they created in these tiny electrical marvels.
To get the cover off, pull off the top and bottom pieces, then slide out the inner packaging.
Slit the tape that holds the top clear plastic to the bottom. Above are all the contents.
This is the bare chassis, dominated by a Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable battery. See how they decorated the chassis to resemble electrical components?
Turning it over reveals that TOMY actually created these cars.
Here is everything pulled from the plastic.
Rear axle has a blue driven gear on it. Front axle is similar to many 1:64th scale diecast cars use. Blue device above the gears is "suspension" for the front axle. Double blue gear is driven by the white gear which goes on the motor and transfers the energy to the driven gear which rotates the rear axle, wheels and tires. The TINY motor I placed inside one of the tires, since it kept rolling away. The metal device by the other tire secures the motor in the chassis and also acts as a heat sink according to the directions. They dissipate heat.
All of the bodies and parts are various types of plastic. Only the axles, electrical conductors and motor and battery parts are metal.
Rather than a series of photos, here is a scan of the directions so that you can see each step.
Part 8 is vital. First, the cars have a short wheelbase which means they tend to wander. The horizontal rollers help keep it on the track.
I did not bother to "Test" my vehicle's performance as suggested. I assembled a simple oval with what Hot Wheels track we had and tried it out. The cars do not like banked turns.
The "Kinetic Interactive Technology" portion of these cars are what I believe were their downfall. That and fragile plastic pars. As I found out.
Scans above and below show all the MANY parts that can be interchanged on the cars to change their performance in certain circumstances.
The colors above and below show the types of car kits one could purchase and the parts shown above which could also be bought to swap on your cars. Each color of car promises different types of performance.
Being someone who all his life (I'm 63) loved to create, build, modify, restore, repair and so much more. I think Kinetic Interactive Technology is fantastic!
I turned it over and installed the tiny motor/drive gear assembly. I carefully placed the metal (heat sink) device over the shaft the transfer gears ride on, pressed it down over the motor and into the hole it is supposed to "Click" into (see 7C). The tab sticking out on the right side above slides into a slot on the rear of the bodies. That is what broke off.
I knew from experience that super-gluing it back on would not be strong enough to retain that metal piece which is under tension. So, I tried clamping the metal piece down and using another type of glue to hold it in place. I later used super-glue to reattach the tab.
That worked, and once the glue dried, I put two AA batteries in the charger and charged up the Ni-Cad in the car. It would not run! I rotated the rear axle, everything turned without binding. So, I tapped the car on the table. It ran for a few seconds then stopped. Crap. Another tap, short run, then nothing. Either the Ni-Cad battery is no good, or their is a loose connection.
OK, I opened the Test Trax box and got out it's car parts. It went together smoothly. I charged it up and it ran fine. However, as stated above, it wandered (on the Crash Racers track) around.
So, I came back up here and tried to install part #8. In doing so the FRONT part of the car broke which holds the front axle on!
I carefully super-glued those pieces back on, reinstalled the axle and carefully and slowly installed part #8. To prevent it coming off (which it did when I tried it on track!) I glued it in place.
The other difference, other than size and structurally much more robust chassis made of softer plastic, is that the Crash Racers use a CAPACITOR rather than a battery to store the electricity from their charger The capacitor is the blue cylinder.
The battery in your petroleum (gas or diesel) powered car is used to start the engine and power things like the radio and other things one might want to use when the engine is off.
When your car's engine is running, the alternator (driven by the engine via a serpentine belt) charges the battery and provides ALL the electricity to power all electrical component used while driving. It is not a good idea, but once your engine is running, one can remove the battery altogether. The engine and all components (except the alternator!) will work fine.
There are people who realized this and replaced their car's battery with capacitors. Here is a link to one video where it was done:
Replacing My Car Battery with Capacitors! 12V BoostPack Update - YouTube
Note that although Crash Racer cars are larger than Hot Wheels, they fit fine on and do run on Hot Wheels track. The trouble is they are WAY too fast for Hot Wheels track!
"Transition" is the place where orange meets grey.
Another shot of the naked Crash Racers chassis for size comparison.
So how did the working K.I.T. car do? I put together a simple oval track using two 180 degree curves, seen below. Then I switched to banked curves on both ends and the car did well.
The 30 second charge is good for about three minutes of running time. To truly race them one would need lots of two-lane curves which Hot Wheels has not made in a long time.
The speed is much slower than Crash Racers, but it is quick. Sometimes it does drive off the side of the straight tracks. The Test Trax are all made with higher walls.
[UPDATE: With a full 30 second charge, the car WILL climb all the way to the top where the black start gate is.
On the grey track, sometimes they will do "a 180" and reverse their direction.
And finally, they do really well on carpet! Boy do the dogs take off after it!]
[UPDATE: With a full 30 second charge, the car WILL climb all the way to the top where the black start gate is.
On the grey track, sometimes they will do "a 180" and reverse their direction.
And finally, they do really well on carpet! Boy do the dogs take off after it!]
That last statement is one of the many problems with K.I.T. cars and Test Trax. They do not connect to standard Hot Wheels orange track and as mentioned, the ONE review I was able to find pointed out that the Ni-Cad batteries tend to leak and the plastic pieces which connect the Test Trax together are, wait for it.....fragile.
So now we decide whether to build the other two cars and try and race them on the Crash Racers track. Stay tuned.
Left is a TYCO Ferrari F40 body and their type of chassis. If you have seen larger scale slot cars, this smaller one mimics the larger car's design. Nowadays, the large scale slot cars have gone digital and can change lanes and even have multiple cars running on the same track! See:
24 Hour slot car Le Mans 2018 - YouTube
Middle is an Aurora AFX (Aurora Factory Experimental) Porsche 911 body and chassis. Aurora, one of the earliest HO slot car companies, chose to make their chassis with a horizontally placed motor which uses an intermediary gear (the call it an "idler" gear) between the motor and a two-level gear (like the K.I.T. car's) to transfer the power to a ring gear on the rear axle.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this tale and perhaps learned a few things along the way. Please take a moment to click the FOLLOW button (found on the Assembly sheet scan) and leave a comment below or on Facebook.
Scott & Nancy
July 22, 2020
#398
