What's the fastest slot car?

 First off, disclaimers have to happen. I'm talking about off-the-shelf, out-of-box slot car. No modifications other than coming out of the box, getting lubed and getting on the track. I'm not talking about scratchbuilt cars, modifications or other stuff like that.

Is a fast car the one that gets down the straightaway the fastest? Or is it the car that runs the fastest lap? Is it the tight handler? Or the road eating sled? 

There has to be a combination of things that makes a great race car. Even if that car might be part of a group that all share the same specs, it'll ultimately come down to how the car is tuned and who is driving it. But it's also things like body shape, chassis shape and design, and measurements that contribute to the overall worthiness of a fast car. 

Thunderslot Lola T70 MKIII

What I have noticed over time is that a car that has a well-rounded approach, meaning it isn't better at straights than at curves and vice-versa, is a car that is a much better candidate for being fastest car. Something that is light, smooth and relatively quiet also has a good start. And for me, the body shape plays in a lot, even if it's mostly psychological. The Lola, above, checks all the boxes, and has an especially nice body shape for racing. There's practically nothing to it. It could easily be the fastest slot car.

But how do you tell? Every slot car should have an equal opportunity to be the fastest car. But they're not. For every fast, Lola-style car I have one that won't cut the mustard. A car that just wouldn't be able to tow it around fast enough to beat the field. 

Revoslot Ferrari 333 SP

The Ferrari above is a huge, massively massive ginormous car. The fact that it has a aluminum chassis adds to the weight, as well as the performance. And putting it up one-to-one against a car like the Lola will show exactly how different the two cars are. There's just no way this car can compete on my home track against the Lola. 

Check out these two cars. The Alfa [left] has a shorter wheelbase than the GT40 [right], as well as a shorter chassis, resulting in an overall shorter length. Helps with handling.
There's also this thing. It doesn't really have a name, but it's about two triangles. They are: the distance from the guide flag to the back wheels, and the distance from the guide flag to the front wheels. Lots of discussion about the benefits of the various types. Between the two, I'd call the GT40 a well-rounded car, where the Alfa is a shorter, technical racer. 

There are a lot of considerations going into something like trying to determine the fastest car. It's not an easy question to answer. It definitely has to be a well-made race car on top of all those other things. A 30 dollar slot car isn't going to have the tech to win it. 

For quite awhile it was understood that nothing was going to beat the NSR Mosler in club racing. It was all I read about. For whatever reason, I was thinking that I was going to find the answers from some genius on the internet. After awhile I realized that nobody knows the answer to what is the fastest slot car. Besides, what happens to you when you have raced all the cars and they are less than .01 of a second apart? Can you give the title definitively to one car? That's kind of why there are so many classes of racing.