Man!, The local slot car track was the "Pool Hall" of my youth! I had a couple of cars and spent most of my lawn mowin money at the track. WE also had the big "franchise" tracks here in Texas call "Tom Thumb". Anybody remember those?
My father grew up with slot car racing, gas u-control planes and gas cars that ran down a string line in Brooklyn, NY. Used to run the gas cars down the big hallways of the apartment building he lived in. He still has his collection of cars from when he was a kid. Even has some trophies I am going to be putting them all in a large display for him soon, instead of having them tucked away in a dedicated 'tool box'. Most of his older cars were hand soldered using brass tubing and wire. When I was a kid I got into it as well, was into it for a long time, until I got my license. One of my favorite cars he has is his Demolition Derby car, thing weighs a ton, I don't remember if one car had to reverse its gearing and they went head on, or if there was an intersecting figure 8. His total collection has got to be around 100 cars, maybe 35% from the 60s, rest from the 80s and 90s. Not sure if anyone has one, but my best friends father invented and sold the Cidex Omni Turbo controllers. First of the "modern controllers" other than a resistored Parma. He hasn't sold them for almost a decade, but because he lost interest. Distributors used to beg him to produce more.
Circle-T raceways in North Hlywd in 69 when I moved here from New York is the one I remember. In Brooklyn, New York, before I moved here were several places that were converted from Super Markets, and had on the norm, 5 HUGE race tracks. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps. Thanks for the memories. It (Slot cars) was a very big part of my youth.
I'm gonna go by the track in Buena Park and check out the dragstrip track. I have a '33 Willys and an Anglia body i'd like to make into a drag car. I'll post some pic's if I go there. Last time I went,there were some really detailed cars.
My Dad became very intrigued with slot cars when the first Scaltrix(sp) came out. we built some cars to run on those piece together tracks. He wanted to build a layout like a real race track. It would have been landscaped like a HO train deal. His would have hills and jumps, maybe a tunnel like Monte Carlo. We did some test sections where the slots closed up on each other in the turns forcing the car behind to slow. The slots also would widen at the turn exit so that your wheels would be in the dirt. He was a detail freak too, must be drivers that sort of thing. He lost interest and we moved on to something else, Go Karts I think. DW
About 8 years ago, me and about 20 other guys had a huge track set up in a warehouse in Hollywood, once a week was slotcar race day, it was wild. About 70 to 100 spectators every time, and they were betting $$$ too, (DID I JUST SAY THAT, nevermind). Good times.
I was stationed at the Naval Air Test Facility in Patuxent River Maryland from 1965 to late 1967.There wasn't a lot to do around there as it was pretty remote and about all you could do was drink the local hooch and play the slot machines(legal in St.Mary's County then). A retired chief petty officer bought an old movie theater in town and put in 5 slot car tracks.They were for 1/32 and 1/24th cars and range from 75ft. to 180ft. in length.A bunch of us used to spend all our money there in our off time(precious little fortunately).We had some really hair-raising times in our quest for speed.We held a couple of 12 hour matches where you could only use one car but had a break every hour to change brushes and do repairs.Couldn't swap motors but could install brushes and bearings.Luckily we had lap counters. Remember traveling to Alexandria VA once to compete.They had a scale 1 mile track(220 feet!)and we had a lousy time.Nobody had the proper gears to run on it and we were peaking about a third of the way down the 60 ft. straight. We were always building something exotic whether it be ultralight frames or special tire tread coatings(seem to remember oil of wintergreen working pretty well)or experimental windings and commutator timing.I had a friend in the instrument lab on base that used to supply me with 1/8" I.D.x 1/4" O.D. ball bearings for axles and motors.Even got hold of some pure silver magnet wire but they outlawed that when they caught me running so fast. My favorite car was a 1/32 Lola GT with two Pittman DC-196B motors put end to end for a 4WD.Used to beat a bunch of hot 1/24th cars.Freaked them out when they picked it up and turned it over.Weighed a ton but could go into virtually ANY corner flat out.Good memories!
I love the detail of the scalectric cars and there's another company making some really nice cars too. GT40's,Ferrari Dino's,GT350's,TransAm Mustangs and Camaros. F1 cars too!
I have 2-300 slot cars. Mostly 1/64 scale but 1/32 and 1/24 also. 15-20 tracks. <img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-4/151282/bronze2.JPG' >
I still have my slot car and controller. I've had to keep them hid from my wife for the past 38 years though.
Yeah...We had one here in Parkville(Baltimore) Spent a lot of time there!!! I held on to those cars till I was around 30. That was before I realized I should keep shit like that. That's right they are long gone.....would have been cool just to let sit around now!!!!
I am setting up one now with the kids. I tell my wife its for the kids . Its a four lane HO scale with Tyco track. Its great to race again.
Yep...its still alive and well. I run the drag cars when I get a chance and my son races on a traveling circuit every month. I raced back in the 60's and ran across a local track 10 years ago and got him started and he loves it. I got links out the ass for stuff if you guys want em.
The first slotcar I got was a Roth Mr. Gasser in a BRM kit. It was slower than a stock 59 VW Bug with four foot ball players in it goin' over the Grape Vine Then I started building them from scratch. But I was always one step behind the state of the art guy's. So I went back to kit bashing model cars. Up here in Mountain View CA there were 2 tracks I knew about. One was in the "Blossom Plaza" shopping center on Cuesta Dr. & Mirramonte Ave. (Were the post office is now). And the other was in a shopping center off Grant Rd. & El Camino Real (Next to the Round table Pizza). I cost way too much to do very often. So I built my own drag strip. Pin Board mounted to quarter inch plywood. With this silver conductive tape & some old transformer Dad had lying around. I got board with that then I got an HO track for Christmas one year & did that til I got interested in Gals & messin w/real cars etc. I think that today there is still a track down in San Jose CA off Union Ave.
Ok, this is weird! My first 1/24th scale slotcar was a hard body 29 Duesenberg dual cowl phaeton. [Birthday present] Yes, it really was a commercialy made slotcar kit. It had a brass adjustable wheelbase chassis. It was sssllooowww and heavy. I took it to a commercial track and spent 30 minutes racing and 15 minutes collecting all the parts that got knocked off by the fast guys. They were mad I was there wasting their time. Hey, I didn't know any better, I was kid!
hey man you have one sick merc my first merc was a hot wheel my dad bought me and ever since ive always loved the car .Its great to dream but even better when your dreams come true.I now own a 51 merc
Used to be 2 slot tracks here in Doodah - when one went out of business, the other bought their tracks and expanded. Now they have 2 mongo road courses (1/24 and one 1/32), plus a dragstrip. They have hosted National Slot Drags here several times, and International Slot Races.
o2bdone, That's wonderful....but nothing to do with this thread! If you want to talk Mercs,PM me or look up "49 to 51 Mercs lets see em". I know your new and all,but you'll learn more by reading observing...
My uncle actually started a slot car place in my hometown about 14 years ago, and then went out of business about 12 years ago. He remembered it fondly from his childhood, but just couldn't pay the bills. CHAZ
About 15 years ago there was a place in Wichita Falls and it was set up for heads up drag racing and you could get paid out for each round and even got slips of reaction times and such. Man i had some killer ass old school rides. Wished i'd kept them or had pictures of them
My mate Craig just got two new slot cars for his track, a Willys gasser and a Deuce roadster. Pretty cool watching that gasser haul round corners - it ain't natural!
There used to be one in Canton, Ohio. Ill have to see if it's still there. I still have my box full of slot cars.
I remember volunteering as a corner spotter during some of the races the "big" kids would have.I would get yelled at if I was too slow returning the car to the slot.Also,they went ballistic if I accidentaly put the car in the wrong slot.Those were the days!
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