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Art & Inspiration Turnpike On A Tabletop

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Ryan, Jul 11, 2011.

  1. Ryan
    Joined: Jan 2, 1995
    Posts: 21,633

    Ryan
    ADMINISTRATOR
    Staff Member

  2. 1950ChevySuburban
    Joined: Dec 20, 2006
    Posts: 6,187

    1950ChevySuburban
    Member Emeritus
    from Tucson AZ

    Three already? WOW!

    I don't know about steerable slot cars but grew up with standard cars thru the '70s.
    A few words of advice:
    Mount the track well to a 4x8 sheet of plywood, hinge it to the wall so it folds up when not in use.
    Use steel wool to clean rails. Always have power off when doing this (ask me how I know)!
    Guard rails really do work. Cars don't like hitting the floor after falling 4 feet.
    Each lane should have it's own transformer. They get warm and start to smell.
     
  3. 1950ChevySuburban
    Joined: Dec 20, 2006
    Posts: 6,187

    1950ChevySuburban
    Member Emeritus
    from Tucson AZ

    Oh, and I had a thread deleted last week. It's all good. When you go off-topic it's still enjoyable, if not informative.
     
  4. It seems to me that you might be better served by a smaller scale RC setup, and build a track for him. I think they'd be a little less temperamental than the older sets. If you're dead set on slot style stuff, I've got a bunch of Carerra digital 1:24 stuff that I'd be willing to trade for old Ford parts. :)
     

  5. stude_trucks
    Joined: Sep 13, 2007
    Posts: 4,755

    stude_trucks
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  6. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,345

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    My first race car set... 100 bucks in early 60's dollars it wasn't cheap. I begged my folks for a set starting 6 months out from Christmas. You can still find them on ebay and I know of one fellow on the HAMB who has one for sale in good shape. Perhaps he'll pipe in on this thread? Despite the features, like steering, changing lanes and running the other direction, the AMT stuff was too "proprietary" to be universally popular as only their stuff would work on their track. Regular old slot cars were the ticket. Even if I had a set now, I'd have no place to put it, the track was at least a foot wide and a basic oval with crossovers would fill up a 4x8 space easily. One of the best parts was it was stock car orientated, and you could easily adapt any of the AMT model kit bodies or promo models to the basic chassis. Gary
     
  7. hotrd32
    Joined: May 16, 2007
    Posts: 3,560

    hotrd32
    Member
    from WA

    Spent a lot of time at the slot car track near my house in the early sixties.....that's pre-sixty four......... so I say it's traditional and not OT...........what's to know?..... you paint'em (those clear plastic bodies looked great when painted from the inside) and race 'em......just keep your contacts clean. You got plenty of room in your building to build a big track........road course with drag strip?......Hell ya!
     
  8. tommy
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 14,757

    tommy
    Member Emeritus

    Yeah I was a slot car freak in 67-68. I finished my all brass soldered home built semi-sidewinder chassis with side body hinges the night before leaving for Okinawa. I took it to the track that night and beat every car in the local hero's box that night. He was king of the track. I thought about that car for nine months in Okinawa and Viet Nam.

    I put my box full of cars and parts in my car for storage until I returned. When I got home the box and all my cars were stolen. When I returned 9 months later the slot car track was closed and gone. I was a bad ass for one night anyway.:D


    I got the chassis design from a slot car magazine so the old info is still out there. Probably as out of date today as a flathead but to me it would be just as cool.

    Steerable wheels are cute but if you want to go fast fughetaboutit.

    I got started by buying a heavy Cox styrene plastic car complete with a driver. I liked it because it looked relistic. I soon found out that it was more fun to go fast.:D

    I still have my Bill Thomas cheetah body. Such a cool car.

    I never got into video games but I guess slot cars were my video games. You had to have good reflexes that's for sure.
     
  9. Goob333
    Joined: Dec 3, 2006
    Posts: 86

    Goob333
    Member

    Theres some dudes I know that drag race slot cars. They have a track in an old building in a town close to me. They have the whole setup like a full on real life drags would have except smaller...and cheaper. I'm not sure where they get their frames and motors from, but they just use regular model car bodies on theirs.
     
  10. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    I remember when the AMT set was introduced, but never knew anybody who had or ran one. Clearly, they weren't popular when mainstream slot cars were hot

    Adding steering to a slot car would seem to have the same counter-intuitive qualities that R/C has -- learning to steer the opposite way when the car is coming toward you.

    Why not buy Miller a decent R/C car and let him get started learning that difficult stuff right from the get-go?
     
  11. SUHRsc
    Joined: Sep 27, 2005
    Posts: 5,093

    SUHRsc
    Member

    I spent a good part of my younger days building, working on and racing slot cars...
    Raced the 1/32 and 1/24 scale at varous places... but at home it was HO scale

    I don't think "pushing a button" is all there is to it...
    I do see kids who find the medium speed that the car will maintain and not crash.. they get bored quick.... but when you actually try to drive and handle the car on the track at faster and faster speeds... thats when its a matter of hand/eye coordination...

    I think the steering on these cars is kind of neat as a novelty... but why not just get a remote controlled car instead?
    More speed... more freedom...etc

    You can go far with the idea of a home layout slot car track though... I found this track below, a 4 lane oval built as a dirt track... a friend had built it in the 70's... almost like building models, decorating it building cars to race on it... etc
    I think I got this when I was about 10 or so... maybe I appreciated it more then I would have at 3... but you never know....
    [​IMG]
     
  12. scrubba
    Joined: Jul 20, 2010
    Posts: 939

    scrubba
    Member

    I'm suprised that R C 2 hasn't addressed at least a querry to see if the Slot car set A MT did in 1962 is even a realty. I remember the set as it was on display within a toy store here where I currently live . I'm also aware of the "exclusivity " of only A M T stuff fitting . Still,with all the Nostalga wave ........... scrubba
     
  13. Bigcheese327
    Joined: Sep 16, 2001
    Posts: 6,694

    Bigcheese327
    Member

    If this is off topic, how did all those “HAMB Slots of DOOM!” threads make it way back when? Seems like this, go-karts, and motor boats all fit in pretty well on the HAMB.

    Anyway, I grew up with my parents’ leftover HO-scale slots from the 1970s, but was too old to care much by the time I discovered 1/25-scale stuff (by then I had outgrown modeling in favor of the real thing). The HO-scale stuff is neat because you could theoretically build a model-railroad type permanent layout in a basement or spare room if you wanted; the 1/25-scale stuff is cool because it can use (I think) any model-car body.

    I’m intrigued by the “build-an-RC-car” suggestions. I thought they were all odd scales that didn’t lend themselves well to customizing. Something like a tether car with radio control would be too awesome for words.

    -Dave
     
  14. scrubba
    Joined: Jul 20, 2010
    Posts: 939

    scrubba
    Member

    Dave , back in I guess 1953, A M T and I T C had such "Tethered " battery powered 1-25th scale cars ......... scrubba
     
  15. vegas
    Joined: Feb 6, 2008
    Posts: 269

    vegas
    Member

    I got my dad's old Strombecker 1/32nd set when I was a teenager, but it was pretty beat up/broken/abused, and I just got the pieces to some cars. I still had the set when I was in my early 20's and got interested in resurrecting it, got all the borken parts replaced and bought the "good" track from strombecker instead of the aluminum "glued" track that falls apart, found parts to fix one old car, and got another car (they still make loads of cars), put it all together and.....very dissappointing, it worked, but not as well as HO sets I had played with. I think old plastic track with very difficult to clean contacts between the sections was the cuplrit. So...I bought a new Carrera 1/32nd set, some more cars, then all the track shoulders, transformer, and controllers to use it with 1/24th cars. That set worked flawlessly, and was REALLY fun. You can steer with the throttle going through the corners. Those cars go so fast, that I coulnd't even imagine having another control variable to pay attention to like a steering wheel, and when using 1/32nd cars with the 1/24th power supply and controllers, they can be projectiles when they leave the track! :eek:
    Unfortunately, after moving to Las Vegas, I no longer have a house with a basement and can't spare garage space to set any of it up (big track pieces require lots of space), so it is all packed away now, both the complete Strombecker set, as well as the newer set. Maybe someday I'll have room to set it up again..it was a blast!
     
  16. BangerMatt
    Joined: Mar 3, 2008
    Posts: 465

    BangerMatt
    Member

    If you have some time to spare, check out "White Lake Formula One":D
     
  17. need louvers ?
    Joined: Nov 20, 2008
    Posts: 12,903

    need louvers ?
    Member

    Zach up the way there hit the nail on the head as far as what I was going to say. If you give a kid a car that is just a bit of a challenge on a slot course it's great for months of fun at a time. Also a great way to learn mechanical stuff too... By 8 I had a great collection of dissassembled thunderjet and AF/X cars, and a few that were a hell of alot faster than out of the box. In other words, as soon as the first challenging car becomes too boring, a little father/son wrenching time spent builds a new generation of challenges for the next few months and some extra skills. Get the other kids involved too so that even more talent is developed. When I was a kid, my uncle who was at the time about 20, one night a week would haul me around to his friends HO tracks to race and just hang out. It was always cool to be a 8 or 9 year old kid that could keep up at something with the adults... Also probably my first real introduction to the complete "guyness" that is the garage/shop night. Killin' many birds with one stone!
     
  18. The modern slot cars have tiny magnet underneath so to help the cars stay on the track. Perfect for young kids. HO scale is great because you can build a nice layout in a small space. Also, forget about transformers; run the power to several locations on the track, using a 12volt automotive battery.
     
  19. I have to say I agree with Zach too.

    That said Scalectrix (http://www.scalextric.com) still makes cars and tracks and I remember reading that there were cars you could 'steer'. I believe the steering in this consisted of moving the pin that locates the car in the track though, so I am not sure that would be of much use except on the straights.

    Radio Shack offered a 1/43 (actually I think it was a bit larger) scale RC car that was steerable not so long ago. They even had competitions as I recall, though they did have a range limited to line-of-sight.

    Just found this when you look for 'steerable scalectrix'

    http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/portal/forums/showthread.php?t=617
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2011
  20. Bigcheese327
    Joined: Sep 16, 2001
    Posts: 6,694

    Bigcheese327
    Member

    Not quite what I meant. Rather something like this:

    [​IMG]

    But with radio-controlled steering instead of a tether.

    -Dave
     
  21. Ramblur
    Joined: Jun 15, 2005
    Posts: 2,101

    Ramblur
    Member

    All the cool dads are sharing the RC cars with junior. Lipo batteries and brushless motors require very little maintenance and the 1/10 scale
    Short Course trucks are virtually 3 yr. old proof as seen here in our prewar
    citrus packinghouse.:p

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL5YQEQWW4w
     
  22. Von Dago
    Joined: Feb 13, 2007
    Posts: 504

    Von Dago
    Member
    from New Jersey

  23. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    This may be obsolete info, but:

    The Scalextric "steering" cars merely had a tie rod linking the front wheels to the pickup. This meant that the front wheels were always pointed straight down the track, even if the car was all sideways. No difference in the car's cornering speed; no control available to the driver beyond that of any other slot car. Looked cool, though.
     
  24. sic944t
    Joined: Apr 23, 2008
    Posts: 81

    sic944t
    Member
    from ohio

  25. I'll put you in the wall. ;)
     
  26. VonMoldy
    Joined: May 23, 2005
    Posts: 1,562

    VonMoldy
    Member
    from UTARRGH!

  27. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,345

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    No, they aren't the old AMT Turnpike deal, but new slot cars have all the fancy stuff, digital steering, passing, etc.

    If you just won the lottery, go here... See www.slotmods.com

    VERY nice stuff, but I can't see how all that fancy landscaping and scenery will hold up against cars flying off the track. Gary
     
  28. 327-365hp
    Joined: Feb 5, 2006
    Posts: 5,429

    327-365hp
    Member
    from Mass

    When we were kids, my dad built us an HO set-up. It was a 4x8 table the was hinged to fold up against the wall. It had the Aurora T-Jets race track and an HO trainset, complete with grade crossing. Just like Gomez Addams, we used to smash up a lot of stuff.
     
  29. daddio211
    Joined: Aug 26, 2008
    Posts: 6,012

    daddio211
    Member

    Ha ha ha... you tell 'em (us?) boss!

    I LOVE that lead photo in the story! Looks just like a shot Ed Roth would have staged!

    <img src=http://www.jalopyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/01.jpg>
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2011
  30. need louvers ?
    Joined: Nov 20, 2008
    Posts: 12,903

    need louvers ?
    Member

    Hey! Von Moldy might have the most killer idea of them all... GO KARTS!!! I had to wait 'till I was forty four to have mine, now it's a daily thing around here! Ryan, just skip to the chase and nominate your self for father of the year with one of those!!! Then quarter midgets are the next logical step...
     

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