There are actually two basic kinds of books: those dedicated to slot racing, and those about model cars or model making in general, with a chapter or more on slot cars. There are also the contemporary books, meaning those treating slot racing at the time of publication, and those treating slot racing as a historical subject, starting with Roger Gillham's first book on Scalextric, published in 1981. For now, I'll just be concentrating on the "classics", the books from the '50s to '70s covering slots as a contemporary activity, starting with the cradle of its all, England...
The first to cover electric model car racing, first edition 1957, second edition 1959. Half of the book on electric rail racing, half on gas rail racing, still popular at the time... the second edition mentions slot racing, since VIP and Scalextric were already out, but still considers rail racing the "noble" sport...
Then a long time lag, and three books all came out in 1965 (perhaps the high point of the slot fad...), starting with our old friend D.J. Laidlaw-Dickson, along with his fellow Model Maker/Model Cars alumnus Vic Smeed, and Kenneth Gee, who wrote on various hobbies.
In 1967, there was a sort of a book, the soft-cover Model Cars Encyclopedia, published by MAP, who also published Model Cars magazine and many other hobby publications. As it says, an encyclopedia of model car racing terms, from Ackermann steering to Zinc spraying, and a very mixed bag of contemporary items and totally out of date stuff (like Lindsay motors).
The last of the classic 60s publications was this book by Phil Drackett, who seems to have been a rather prolific writer of the time, for motor sports and related fields - not too well known in slot racing I believe. Despite the 1968 date, it could have been written in 1965...
And here's the American contribution, starting with a little pocketbook that doesn't really belong here, but since it's a real book, the first in the US to mention the new hobby (1961) and has a chapter on Model Motoring, I've included it - turns out Aurora was very active on the promotional side, a good hint for some of the current manufacturers...
Then the first real book in the country covering slot racing, although still giving a pretty big part to rail racing. Richard F. Dempewolff was the Executive Editor of Popular Mechanics, which had some of the first articles on rail/slot racing in the country in the mainstream press, behind only Rod & Custom and American Modeler/Young Men. Published 1963, with a UK edition in 1965.
A year later, from the doyen of the toy/hobby industry writers, Louis H. Hertz (who actually published an article on early model car racing systems back in 1945, in a model train publication). His historical information is excellent, as it should be, but you can tell that Mr. Hertz wasn't really a "slotter" - he speaks in odd tongues (model railroad gauges) and still thinks that model roadways are important vs model railways... But there was a second edition, in 1967, somewhat updated to include more on the commercial raceway phenomena... Mr. Hertz, the floor please!
Now the book that started this whole idea of a slot library and perhaps the best seller of the crowd, just judging from how many copies seem to pop up on eBay! Published in 1965 and written by Bob Braverman, engineer, model builder, and motorcycle racer, and Bill Neumann, editor in chief of Rod & Custom (where Bob wrote a lot of his articles).
Now another one by an old-line hobby writer ("free-lance illustrator and designer"), Paul Plecan. First printed in 1965, but this is actually the third printing, from 1974. Released in both hardback and soft-cover versions.
Back to pocket books: a volume in the Skillfact Library series, at a buck a shot. A general survey of the hobby, like most of these books, published in 1966 by Editors & Engineers Ltd., of New Augusta, IN (sound like a cult to you, too?)
On into 1967, when the slot fad begins slipping - but the publishers don't know that, because these books have been in development for probably the last year!
1967, Irwin Stambler, mainly a science writer. Another introduction to the hobby, with lots of photos from the manufacturers, and a Russkit frame on a Russkit jig that's out of date...
Another star of the group, first published in June 1967, and having gone through at least SEVEN printings by October 1973, when this copy was printed. It also came in a "teacher pack" with eight copies of the book, a cassette and film strip, but I'll add a photo of that later, once I get the hamster powering up the digital camera... This is a real kid's book, and of course in the end the little brother wins the Big Race on the commercial track! (with his little ca 1963 Eldon car that wouldn't even have survived the first banked turn...). Check out the cover photo and wonder why commercial slot racing was only basically a fad in the USA....
Looks like 1967 was a good year - here's another one from Aurora, again a general introduction, but a very good one, and about as up to date as you can get for a book at the time. No author is credited, but a lot of the cars used as examples were built by Bob Braverman... And strangely enough for this HO specialist, HO is barely mentioned - of course by this time, they had bought K&B, so maybe they were trying to promote that line, although indirectly and very discreetly!
Another excellent book from 1967, by Robert Schleicher - yep, the same one who publishes the current magazine Model Car Racing (or maybe his father? - hi, Bob...). At the time, it seemed kind of out of date, with all that emphasis on scale and hopping up kit cars and RTRs, but now it's a treasure trove of information! Published by Van Nostrand, a major publisher like a lot of the other books from the time...
Then we leap ahead two years to 1969, and one of my favorite oddballs of all time. A book called "How to Build Model Cars", with small chapters on plastic kits and powered models and a lot on slot cars - but as if the previous two years didn't exist. No mention of anglewinders, dominant by 1969, or even floppy body mounts or any other vaguely modern development. About as late as he gets is a Champion wire chassis and a brass rod and strip chassis - and check out that diagram on the cover! Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you gotta wonder what his target readership was!
Then on into 1970, and another old-line hobby writer rears his head. This book was originally published back in 1956, when it talked about everything but slot racing (or the already in existence rail racing) - but the new edition from 1970 - just in time to miss the boat! - adds a chapter on slot-car racing... Published by Funk & Wagnalls, so that's alright with me!
And the last of this series in the original generation of books, jumping ahead to 1979, from our friend Mr. Schleicher. Like Minnie Minoso, he will have been active in 5 decades pretty soon... Sign of the times, the book covers slot cars in all scales, slotless cars, and electric and gas R/C racers...
As soon as I catch my breath, I'll add some of the more recent stuff...
Don
