Hot Rods Drag racing..... slot cars?

This is a little ot, but I was wondering who was into slot cars? Mainly drag racing. It has been tooo colddd to do anything out in the garage lately, so I have been building in the basement. I built this 40 ford as a tribute to two of my favorite 40's out there. This one isnt all that fast (yet), just built outta some things that I could get for a song. I got a chassis (with a motor) for 5 bucks and a used model body for another five . I think that I have about 8 bucks in the tires (used).

Well show what you have....

 

We do, my group of company guys here. We used to run every week during the winter when we lived in Tulsa. Since we've been in Kentucky, the nearest track we know of is in Nashville; 1 1/2 hours south. We'd been thinking of building our own place here. We've got a BUNCH of cars, 90% Mopars, mostly pro stock style, because that was the class we ran in Tulsa, spec super 16D motors, pro stock bodies, heads up. I'll look on my other 'puter and see if I've got any pics.
You need somewhere between 55-60 feet for a scale 1/4 mile, plus stopping area. we had a guy in Tulsa who built a couple of rocket powered dragsters, just like the real exhibition jet cars. They ran over 300 MPH (scale, 1/24), and also went through the plate glass window of the store. Twice. Great fun!

 

They ran over 300 MPH (scale, 1/24), and also went through the plate glass window of the store. Twice. Great fun!


That would have been something to see... Imagine pedestrians walking past the store front on the street and this slot car comes threw the window at them...<!-- / message -->

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuBXJViwuJw

ahaha! i just see blur...

 

That is great fun! Anyone that knows me knows that I have soft spot for rocket cars, too cool.

There is local 1/8 scale track, havent had any REAL racing going on, yet. I plan on getting something going soon, real soon. Most of the guys talk of bracket racing, really like the heads-up, that is reall racing!

What chassis did you run?

I hope to see some pics when you can.

Jeff

 

I love and still have my old HO cars. My brothers raced the bigger cars ( forgot the scale ). Have them also. They date to mid later 60,s.
My friend (Frontenginedragsters). we raced in the upstairs to his garage and held a weekly Drag race for the neighborhood. God that was fun.
Someday I will dig it all out and set it up ..

thanks

 

I remember the days when there were slot car tracks around, we had the Aurora small scale cars and would take all the straight pieces for a drag strip setup, I still have some of the originals. This winter I set up a track for my 11 year old, his friends and myself. They were ok for a while but video games won out, it is a different changed time! I would like to see a resurgence in the Md. area of the slots, now that us kids grew up and can afford the track fees and cars. There may even be a following already, I guess Google could help.

 

Yeah, slotcars is like analog video games. I have been getting into slotcars for my two boys. I cant believe they are into it with the distraction of video games. The local guys have made sure there is an entry level class to make sure it is affordable for guys like me, with a couple of kids racing.

I am hoping to get some weekly drag racing going. Its gonna be 1/24 scale bracket racing, probably one heads-up class.

Does anyone have any video of slotcar drags?

 

Just went bracket racing last night. Have'nt raced in 3 years. Went out first round RED LIGHT!!!! I think I need to start practicing again!!!!

 

Fortunately, the track owner didn't let the rockets go until lthe end of the evenings' racing, so no pedestrians were injured!
1/24 and 1/25 are the only way to go, big enough to see, easy to work on, etc. We build all of our own chassis, except one Parma I've had for probably 20 years that we rigged wheelie bars on. It is darned consistant, too, an excellent bracket car.
A good way to keep cost down and have fun entry level is to talk the local track owner in to have a "hardbody" class with spec motors; if you have a need to run the road course. Hardbody cars are slower, and you really have to drive them, drifting, etc. Much more fun IMO, than the wing/flex cars that are so fast you really can't even see them run, just a blurr of color. Hardbody drags are great fun too, because the cars all react totally different from one another, it makes for much more interesting and fun racing, which is exactly what we're trying to do; right? Especially when we're doing it with our kids.

 

I had a Monogram Quicksilver I was chopping up to resemble my 60 2 door wagon. Raced it unfinished at Rebel Raceway in Wichita. Sorry, no photos.

I built an all out rail with an open arm. When I finally got it to hook, it broke all the solder joints. Some of them were wired before soldering.

I built a 41 Willys wheelstander. It would drag the tail all the way down.

Before I quit, I started building a T. Never drove it. Got damaged in moving.

Sold it all along with tons of other slot stuff. Miss it sometimes.

 

I've got a couple..

 

Well you definately nailed it. Just like the real thing.

 

Redsdad, theres a great slot car track right in Broken Arrow! I'm pretty sure Jeff is still around somewhere, if you drop in to A-1 autobody right there on 145th in BA, ask for Brandon (he runs an a fueler or top alcohol car in NHRA too) he should be able to tell you where it is these days. I miss racing those guys!

 

Cool, sounds fun!

We have a spec class on the road course running a cheap motor and cheap tires with nascar bodies. Keeps the racing slower and competitive.

I really like the hard body drag cars, the detail and creativity.

That looks like some killer stuff!

That is little more than a couple. Wow!

thanks bud, it is as close to the real thing that I can get.

Jeff

 

i have a bunch of those slotcars at my dad's house but i dont know where a track is to play with them

 

i ran 1/24th scale drag racing in the mid 90s in the corpus christi area and had an anglia that run a scaled 1/8th mile in just under a second, it was the fastest car in the valley (bet ya never heard that before LOL) til an accident where it went thru the traps flew off the track and hit the wall at the back of the shop bending the frame.

I still have some of my old stuff, I have a 60s falcon bodied car on a DRS frame and a super16 motor, kinda had a itch lately to get back into it

 

Try a search, ya might find something.

I had an accident with my 41 willys, kinda a bummer.

 

Sold my 1/24 scale when i moved from Ohio to Ga. in 1969,cause no tracks in this area then.But kept my HO scale stuff.My mom was in the Navy and rewound electric motors for airplanes ect,i didnt know this and ask for extra money to get my 1/24 scale motor rewound and my mom said i can do it ,she did and my friends never did believe she did it.....Go...MOM,s......................YG

 

Slots of Doom action...

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Storm King......There is a track near Louisville called the Bullitt Speedway. We had a track here in Lexington, but it closed a couple of years ago. I have a bunch just sitting in the case in the closet. Mostly just 16D stuff on old DRS frames.

 

damn, that makes it look fun! Now that is a video!

 

16D in a spec class is still fun. Anything with similar body rules, spec motors and heads up is a blast!

Something we always thought was cool...Mopar guys should know this; real Mopars run completely different combos than real Chevies. Different gears, tire sizes, etc. Our Mopar bodied slot cars, with the same spec motors as everybody else, had to run different gearing and tire sizes to run competitive ET's with all the rest! Weird, or what?! We kind of dug it, because it was just like the real world. The other guys would come by and say, " how can you run those ET's with those tires, or with that gearing"?, they just couldn't understnd it. Fun!

 

We never ran any "Drag Racing" slot cars ... but in the late '60s & early '70s, I used to go with my father and some of his hot rodder friends to a slot car track here in the Bay Area.

I still have most of my father's old Gar-vic and hand-built brass chassis cars ... and a bunch of Tradeship MK-70 Micro Motors.

We also raced 1:24 Eldon cars at home ...

Me & my Eldon "garage track" (circa 1970)​

I still have all my old Eldon sets ... and a few years ago started purchasing several other Eldon sets off of ebaY... including a mint-in-box Eldon #9822 "TOP ELIMINATOR DRAG STRIP SET":

​

... I'm really bummed that I sold it

 

I had a track here in town until the inspector drove me out of business. He didn't like the fact that I had it all set up in a 100 yr old warehouse-really cool! I had a Blue King from Lug Nuts,an Ogilvie Hill Climb as well as an Oval for all the Nascar fans. I was going to build a drag strip but never got around to it. I still have a lot of cars,controllers,ect. I have a car built by the guys at DRS that has some special motor in it. It seems like there were only 3 or 4 of these motors that were ever built with 4 or 5 mags,ect. It is a special car and would have cost about $500. I traded some equipment for it. It has been awhile since I had a controller in my hands. My son and I used to run boxstock with a group that goes around the Tri-State area racing. Great group of guys and a lot of fun. I hope to get back into it someday when things settle down a bit. I should probaby sell the drag car as I will never run it and it would be a shame to waste that car.

 

The Eldon sets are very cool and I have a few of them just for collecting purposes but they were'nt the best quality. They were actually started as Ungar and I also have an Ungar set with red track sections that is identical to the Eldon stuff only older. Then in the late 60s Cox bought the Eldon molds and sold what they called "Cox Super Scale" which was also the same track but the cars had a sidewinder style chassis with the engine mounted diagonally. Another drawback of the Eldon stuff was there weren't many varieties of track available to build anything over 2 lanes. To build a home setup I've been collecting Revell track for years and have enough now for a fairly large 4 lane setup, just don't have the room for it in my house until I get my addition built. Slot cars are making a comeback with track available from Scalextric, Carerra & others but it ain't cheap. There are lots of new cars coming out all the time too. Here are some of my modern Monogram & Carerra 1/32 scale cars.

 

Downtown Wiley

 

We'd like to set up a store front speed shop here as soon as we have our new plant fully up to speed. Just to get our own parts at cost and maybe support the local guys a bit. I'v been thinking of incorporating a slot car dragstrip right in th espeed shop...it gives racers a chance to hang around more, and kids an introduction to the real thing. Most slot drag strips are home made; plywood, linoleum, and a craftsman router. Timing equipment and slot braids are over the counter buys.

 

Slot car racing is cool...!

Here in Minnesota, we have a raceway located in the basement of Scale Model Supplies on the corner of Lexington and Unv. Ave. They have a King road course, an oval, and a 1/4 mile track.



Here are a few of my 1/24 scale hardbody road cars. I in the process of building my first 1/4 miler.



Slotcar racing is fun! Support your local track!

Great post!

 

Those hardbodies look like fun!

I plan on making a family trip to StPaul next month and will have stop by.