Magnets in Slot Cars - Good or Bad

There's nothing more fun than racing a slot car at full speed, ripping up the track lap after lap, hammer down full blast. Slot cars have always been great for that. Crazy speeds and fantastic wrecks. Cars flying like bullets [or baseballs depending on scale], taking out fancy nicknacks and breaking all kinds of stuff.

Alfa Romeo 33/3 coming for your lunch money.

What if you are starting to get bored sitting there with the hammer down, watching your car dutifully obey the call to maximum power? What if beating your little brother requires nothing more than max throttle? What if there was another way that was more challenging?

The first two slot cars I got, the Audi R18 LMP and the Audi R8 Safety car from Carrera, had two magnets each inside them. They were easy to access, so I took them out. It was a little sloppy at first, and I slid off the track a few times, but I noticed a few things. First was that instead of relying on the car to stay on the track through its magnets, I now found the car to be following a more natural physical thing. Physics was applicable now. Suddenly, if I go too fast in a corner, the back end will come out. It might even spin the car out completely. But I also notice that there are other factors at work.

I come from humble beginnings. Just after my first set of expansion tracks and my first paint job. I'd move furniture and set up on the rug in the main room.

Anybody who plays video games like Gran Turismo or Forza knows that when racing you have to set up the car before the curve, brake at the appropriate time and accelerate out at the appropriate time. None of that applies when you have magnets in your car, but ALL of that applies when you don't.
You have to think about how you get into a curve and what the optimum speed that could be without your backend coming out, all the while working through the curve patiently until accelerating at just the right time to get best speed out with least amount of wheel spin.

Another thing I noticed was that my cars were more competitive with each other with the magnets out. It seemed to put them all on a more level field. Taking the magnets out also made the setup of the slot car much more important. Suddenly the tires mattered, as well as the overall condition of the car. When before you could just slap a car on the track and jam the throttle down, now you notice whether tires need to be treated, or if a car needs to be lubed, or maybe an adjustment to the handling.

And if those things might sound like a hassle to you, like things you'd rather not have to worry about, then that's cool. Run magnets and have a blast.

But if you're the kind of person who wants to know if a Porsche 962C would go faster through a curve than an Alfa Romeo, and what that might be like....well, you can get a pretty good idea trying it with the slot cars.
I think the Alfa would probably go through a curve faster than a 962c, but then lose in the straight.

There's a lot of difference in wheelbase between these cars.

You might have you kids racing with you and think that taking the magnets out would be something they couldn't handle. If that's the case, try it. Kids catch on remarkably quick. My nephews have no problem racing on my track, and there are no magnets. It takes them at most two laps and they catch on.
And if it's YOU, and if you're the reason you think it won't be fun, try it. It's a two minute operation to take the magnet out of a slot car, and doing so might introduce you to something you didn't think you needed in your life. I'm just sayin'.