Race fairly against several Ghost Cars

What are Ghost Cars?

Ghost Cars are autonomous vehicles on Carrera Digital 132/124. They can be programmed to a set speed according to the instructions on the Control Unit and then move around independently (even changing lanes). In theory, any number of Ghost Cars can be programmed, as long as the track’s power supply does not suffer too much.

Why are races against several Ghost Cars not fair?

For one simple reason: The Control Unit evaluates all Ghost Cars on controller 7 – so they are not differentiated. This means that there is no way for SmartRace to tell them apart either. The more Ghost Cars there are in the race, the more unfair it becomes – every time a Ghost Car crosses the finish line, a lap is added for the “driver” on controller 7. This very quickly leads to the Ghost Cars having an unassailable lead and/or incredibly fast lap times.

Option 1: Use setting in SmartRace

Since version 4.0 SmartRace offers the possibility not to let every ghost car lap be evaluated. To do this, you can set how many ghost cars take part in the race in the “New Race” dialogue. If you set 5, only every 5th lap of controller 7 will be counted. This way, you can race against several ghost cars, but you will have more or less equal chances.

Option 2: Masking the diodes.

A second possibility is to mask the diodes of all but one ghost car (e.g. with masking tape) after programming them to the desired speed. This way, no more laps are counted for all cars whose diodes are taped off. However, these ghost cars then no longer change lanes (thanks to Michael D. for the tip).