O/T, but does anyone remember the R&C slot-car drags? The readers could either participate live, or mail-in their cars and have them run by the crew. I still have the issue of R&C somewhere and some of the cars were pretty neat. Our family also had an Eldon-brand dragster set. It had a pair of front-motored, full bodied dragsters, a real christmas tree and winners flag at the end. You could also red-light, although I figured out pretty quickly that if I gave my little brother a head start ("just to be fair") and punched it on the second yellow, my car would cross the line at max speed, just as he was getting under way. Such was my carreer as a T/F pilot...
we had a small hobby shop Joes back in the day that had a tub track here is my current HO scale track 4x16 feet Paul Jug
A friend of mine turned me on to Lucky Bob's on the south side of Milwaukee for a model car swap meet, that was the first time i was in a slot car store,that was some cool stuff. I most deffinatly will be going back.
I remember there was a place in Union, New Jersey called Mr. Raceway. It had a huge track (at least it seemed huge to me at the time) and my dad and older cousin used to take me and my brother there when we were small. I remember all the older "guys" fixing their cars and I always wanted to get one when I got older. I was only like five or maybe seven, and I always asked for cars like that for christmas, but never got them. My parents did get my brother and I the smaller AFX/Aurora tracks and cars, between my brother and I, we have about 100 cars. I still have them stashed away for when I get a place to set them up. We used to race for hours. Very fun memories!
I grew up with the HO scale slot cars(the bigger slot cars werent popular anymore in my area in the early 80s) - all the kids in the neighborhood had them - we all put our tracks together to form one HUGE track in a buddy's basement - we'd play our own version of "chicken" - raced round n round, and if your car spun out on a corner, you had to leave it there to get hit by the other racer - if your car completely left the track, or flipped over from the impact, you were "out" and the next person in line would race the winner. My Dad taught us how to soup up our cars, rewraping the armatures with thinner wire(AFX had the radial motor and Tyco had the cylinder style), putting an extra magnet in the rear to keep from fishtailing...we'd ride out bikes every weekend to Wheaton Plaza to buy new cars, parts(those brushes and springs were TINY!) and space blank bodies to customize and paint...nobody liked me when I got the Kennworth 18 wheeler - even with only the front slot pin installed(had one in the trailer and a rear pin for the truck too) it was still heavey enough to cruise right through any spun out car. My Dad still has a few of my old cars, and even has a few cars(and the track) from when he was a kid - I think they're gonna add in into the HO train table they're planning on building at the homestead...
If those HO Tub Tracks start being made again,i'm gonna get me one!!!! I still have all my old TYCO,AFX,and Thunderjet cars...
During the 60's I had a large Aurora HO setup in my basement then I graduated to 1/24 cars and raced at Richie's Speed City in Springfield, Mass. Once I got interested in real cars I sold all my slot car stuff. Last year decided to build a track in the basement to use when my grandsons come over. They love it and I have to admit so do I.
Back in 68 my father had 1/18th 41 willys coupe model with a homemade tube frame and a lionel locomotive engine, they had a dragstrip setup and they use to run them at the house I was 14 they had just opened a slot car track about a half mile from the house I use to rent cars and controllers one day I decided to take his willys gasser I put it on the track came to the first turn flatout needless to same it didn't end well
I seen it too. The funny part is back when I was a kid we made a drag track for HO cars. Along with a road course on a piece of 4X8 plywood in the attic. The drag track was on the floor about 12 long and we had pillows at the end to stop the cars. I still have all of the track (1,200 feet), controls and cars stored in boxes right now and that post got me thinking of bring them back. I do have an extra room upstairs. Bad Bob, Keep your eyes open at flea market and yard sales. I have pick up some track last year. I guess we never grow up.
Back when we were kids, one of my cousins collected up all the 1/24th track and cars from all my other cousins who had outgrown models and slot cars. We ended up with enough track parts to make one HUGE track that went all over the house. Test runs didn't go so good, because one transformer wasn't enough to power the whole thing (we didn't know about using car batteries). Cars would haul ass for about half track then they'd be creepin down the hallway. Probably had more fun laying the track out than running it.
Only two old cars in this pic..I went to a few states to race we still had a track here a few years ago. I did go to a track in Mission Viejo in SO-Cal one time.
I grew up at Merry Five Hobby Shop in Livonia, MI. They had a figure eight over and under 1/24th scale eight lane track. We could rent time for .50/hr. It was a twelve volt track powered by three truck batteries wired in parallel. We had to bring our own controller, and we would wire in a D cell that would give us enough reverse polarity to run the slot car motor backwards when lifting off the throttle for brakes. We scratch built our chassis out of brass with floppy pans to give us max ground effects. We had chassis with motors set up as in-liners, sidewinders and angle-winders for times when we would go to other shops with different tracks. Bodies were VUF. We would spend all day racing at that shop, and then buy a couple of model car kits to take home. That was a great place, but long gone now. Later, I frequented a newer hobby shop that had a pretty nice HO track in the back. I never got into HO, but I was amazed at the tech that some guys were putting into those little cars and how fast they would go. They had a good little club that would meet there to race, and I often had fun just watching. One day I went into the store and the track was gone. I asked they owner what, happened , and he said that some of the older model airplane customers were complaining about the noise and had mentioned they would probably spend more money there if it wasn't for the constant ruckus in the back. The owner was worried that he was running off paying customers by having the track, so he took it out. It wasn't long after that until the place was gone. Seems that the old complainers didn't come back and spend gobs of money after all, and since the track was gone, the young guys didn't come in either. Just goes to show you, you're always better off running what you brung.
I have been reading the replies about guys and their buddies combining tracks. That is exactly what we did!! I think our parents got together and decided their sons needed slot cars. 5 of us got HO tracks for Christmas! 4 of us got Aurora and one got a TYCO. We started at my house in the attic until my parents couldn't stand those noise from above. Next we went to my buddies basement. That went well until his little sister wanted to play down there too and they started fighting. And so it went until we got thrown out of everyones house and went back to where we started. No one had room for a permanent layout so we just would set up a track when the mood struck us and tore it down when we were done. As far as I know I am the only one out our group that still has slot cars. Those guys left never-never land and grew up! Marty
BADBOB...I sure do. but the last slot car whent down with the titanic, you senil old coot! HA!...POP.
I remember the slot cars.It was about the only American past time we had in our down time back in 68-69 when I was over seas.I may still have my old replica of Fred Lorenzen's 64 NASCAR slot car tucked away somewhere.
Yeah, used to go to the one on Washington Blvd a couple of doors from Horsepower Engineering in Pasadena.
a new track, road, and drag strip has opened in warner robins ga. I haven't been there yet, but from the talk its pretty good.
When I was a young teen there was a local hobby shop called Bobby's Hobby Lobby in Westminster , Md that had slot car track . had lots of fun there . There is a NASCAR store in the Hanover Mall in Hanover , Pa. that has 2 figure 8 tracks in there . I have seen some of those cars going so fast I can't keep up with the car ! I can't see how these people keep the car on the track that fast and see it all the time ! It's the young and old that race there . They race sprint cars and what ever they really build to race . It's fun to watch them ! Speed comes in many different ways ! RetroJim
Henderson furniture store in Cambrige city IN. had a slot car track back in the late 60's - early 70's. Spent lots of Saturdays down at Buds store racing.
I'm sure somebody's already brought this up, but the cost of a store-front is prohibitive in many areas. until a couple years ago, there was a nice little place in PORT ANGELES WASHINGTON of all places! actually bought some nice nos stuff from 'em. 5-6 years ago, there was a place with a road-course and! a drag-strip on 50 & division in portland oregon. i think you'll have to go online at a slotcar forum to find who's still in business. most of the joints still in operation are neccessarily located in areas where rents are cheaper.
hey you socal guys should go to buena park raceway, well you probly already know about it, its the only commercial slot track left in socal i think.
...there was a guy named Doug Hines in Ohio making them a few years ago. (He's the same guy that makes the fiberglass Batmobile kits, I think the name of the company was "Gotham Glass") He made a two-piece mold out of an original so you could get it down your basement and the workmanship was beautiful, far nicer than the originals. Here's a pic of mine (I sold it last year) Here's an original tub that belongs to a friend of mine, Henry Harnish. Oh yeah, just to keep it HAMB friendly, in 1962 Aurora held their first ever Championship. Over 1 million racer's competed nationwide and when the dust settled the only one left standing was my buddy Harnish. The final race was broadcast live on the Steve Allen Show. Here's the trophy and the showroom fresh '62 T-Bird he won as first prize. Since he was only 15, his father had to drive it home.....
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