[woodcote]

The accurate gear change sounds might be tricky, but the rest really isn’t. 

Scalextric already have a variety of car engine sound files in their Spark Plug dongle. Normally, the dongle plugs into a Scalextric powerbase and is controlled via the Spark Plug app... but it’s very possible to wire the circuit board into a car, rig the track power to full power and you’d have a Trans-Am slot car making V8 noises - corresponding to throttle input - and a squeal of brakes every time you touch the brake button on the app screen. The downside (for now) is you’d use a phone or tablet instead of a controller.

In the dongle, the speaker is a little weedy, in a car it might not be much better. However, those speakers for locos aren’t too expensive. Wiring one to the Spark Plug board would probably improve the sounds and - with trial and error - the volume too. You do want the V8 sound to be loud...

Yep, it’s on my increasingly long to-do list.

But if Scalextric can put all that in a £15 dongle, a cheap in-car sound chip has to be feasible? Especially from a company that has already developed the technology for their trains - the Hornby TTS DCC + sound decoders cost about £40, which is a lot less than the top-end £100+ versions.

I guess a lot of people wouldn’t be interested, but a lot would be. Beats providing the sounds of the cars myself... as I have been for near on 50 years.