As I mentioned in part 1, a slot car collection contains value in may ways. One of them is meeting others in slot car fairs or gatherings, events where you realize there are other slot car enthusiasts who are even crazier than you, showing up with cars that exceed your wildest dreams. 

• What can a slot car collection provide apart from decorative purposes? 
  • Historical research: There’s always an interesting story behind each one of your slot cars. You’ll discover fascinating stories as well as anecdotes on the real cars; doing some research is a beautiful way of connecting with your hobby, provides you historical context on the real car your slot replica is based on.
  • Organize some races at home: have tons of fun and, who knows? Bring newcomers into this hobby. 
  • If you’re interested in raw performance and fight against the clock, learning to tune and optimize your slot cars so you can race your machine against others’ in equal terms in more demanding events. Most cars, although reasonably optimised straight out of the box, need extra adjustments so we can unlock their full potential. In order to learn how to do this properly, the place to be is a club, and you’ll acquire this knowledge from the usual suspects; in other words, from the seasoned racers. Is there a slot club near your place?
  • Consider joining a slot club. The fun level, technical know-how and competitiveness is normally high, and there’s no replacement to learning from the club masters you’ll meet in these places. This will help you develop your own criteria and abilities, and soon you’ll start doing some changes on your own. Learning, making mistakes, testing, testing, and more testing. It’s part of the process. And you will also learn in a club how to organize a major event. You’ll realize it has nothing to do with setting up a slot car race at home. 
  • Slot car restoring: Probably, some of the additions to your collection will be second hand. And depending on your purchase condition, you’ll decide to restore it in some way. It’s a very satisfying process to suppress vibrations, screeches, polishing the exterior and see the final result, in the form of a rolling sculpture running like a dream.  
  • Searching Unicorns: As a future collector, you’ll find out that there are certain cars holding a myth status. Particularly hard to find, or that, being discontinued, aren’t available in the usual commercial channels. This leads to a persistent searching. The simple fact of putting our hands in one of those is quite an achievment in itself. Normally, social networking plays here a significant role; try to always keep a healthy friendship with your slot car fellows, which will always be willing to help. 

As you can see, a slot car collection is a shuttle to multiple ways of leisure.