[jyl]

I've only ever had HO and 1/32. If starting from scratch, I'd do 1/24 for the reason B D mentioned.

One neat thing to do is attach static plastic models to slot car chassis, this gives you a much wider selection of cars. You could organize a league of Baja Bugs, Citroen 2CVs, Batmobiles, whatever you want. The selection in static models is much better in 1/24 than in 1/32.

Also, down the line I think it would be neat to race small-scale RC cars. Take the real racing line, swap paint, no more retrieving deslotted cars, and quck-changing batteries would be like pitting for fuel. I'm not sure if the RC cars down at 1/32 and similar scales are performant enough just yet, but they will be. When they are, the extra width of 1/24 track would be nice.

I had to pack up my 1/32 track when we moved, but I'm holding on to it. When/if I ever get back into slot cars, I'm going to make my own track. You cut the slots using a router on MDF board and glue down copper tape for the power rails. This would allow all sorts of interesting curves and elevation changes. You could make Laguna Seca's corkscrew, etc.

In 1999 I visited Spain, which is slot car mecca. My long-suffering wife allowed me to spend a couple precious evenings in Madrid hunting down the local slot car tracks. The locals are rally-crazy, and they run really interesting rally-type slot cars. Four wheel drive using belts, coil spring suspension at all four corners, run on bumpy tracks. I've never seen those cars in the US, nor even any mention of them in the US slot car magazine(s) or websites.