52 replies to this topic

[Ron Hershman]

... but in fact I don't have that 1980 one! I've seen a couple on eBay, but every time I try to bid, it's one of those "US only" auctions! You don't happen to have an extra by any chance? (Who was that published by in fact?)

Don, I only have the one copy. It was published/edited by Ray Hoy and printed by Misty Mountain Productions, Ojai, CA. If you ever see another on eBay, bid on it and if you win it, have it mailed to me and I will then mail to you if it's a US only auction.

[don.siegel]

Thanks, Ron! In fact, I already have a couple mailing addresses in the US - these were sellers who didn't even want to accept a bid from overseas, even with a US mailing address! (Welcome to the global world, Americans!).

Anyway, it gives me something to search for...

Don

[TSR]

It appears it is Jean-Pierre Jaussaud according to the text, if my French is any count..

But that's not Jean-Pierre's helmet either...

Don, I do have the Marco Bossi's book... I bought it in 1983 or so...
And I have confirmation about the electric car we discussed, that now stands as the very first commercialized rail-racing car, 4 years before the American Lionel, and that is going to throw quite a wrench in the established history!

[Rotorranch]

But that's not Jean-Pierre's helmet either...

I must ever so humbly disagree, Dokk...



Please note the dark band around the top of the full face helmets.



Note the same dark band on this drivers helmet.

I deduce the driver in question is indeed Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. From the 1979 Aurora F1 series. Also take notice of the French "colors" on the front wings in the larger pic above.

I do apologize for the thread drift. It's not often one gets the upper hand on PdL.

Rotor

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Years ago chatting with Jose Rodriquez about steering systems, the Journal came up. I mentioned that my copy had vanished several moves before, so Jose found one in his place and sent it signed to me. Kept apologizing, he did, about its inadequacies which was a typical thing for Jose!

Fate

[TSR]

I deduce the driver in question is indeed Jean-Pierre Jaussaud.

Not so sure because Jaussaud always wore a day-glow red helmet... in fact the same color as the STP cars...

But everything is possible because he and another French guy, Claude Bourgoignie, ran in the Aurora series.

[chaparrAL]

NO! It's S. Solo!

[TSR]

Al, that's really cute.What is that thing anyway, a McLolaren?

[chaparrAL]

Its Aurora G+ and I think they called it a McClaren.

[don.siegel]

UNITED STATES - CONTEMPORARY

Now we move back to the USA, and more or less modern times, by which I mean from 1980 onwards. But first, a slight transition with two related books.

In 1970, just a few years after his second edition of Model Raceways and Roadways, Louis H. Hertz was back with this book on building and collecting model cars. Slots only get a few mentions in here, but they are in the index, and there are a couple pages on using clear slot car bodies to build static display models.



Then we jump ahead to 1978 and our old friend Robert Schleicher. There are few specific references to slot cars here, but a lot of indirect stuff, and quite a bit of material on Ron Klein, who sculpted quite a few of the Russkit and AFX cars. And since we'll be hearing a lot more from Bob, I've included his bio and photo - quite a handsome young devil!




Commercial tracks had a small revival in the 1980s, and for awhile there were a couple competing magazines, including of course Scale Auto Racing News, by John Ford, who put out this 80 page History of Slot Car Racing - Volume One - the Early Years. Sounds great, except that it was just a bunch of photocopies of articles from the 60s magazine, along with a one-page summary of slot car history by our own Rocky Russo (Prof. Fate), and a short afterword by John himself. Not really dated, but seems to be 1985 or 1986.



Two years later, John Ford's erstwhile competitor in the mag biz, Teresa Anderson, publisher of Slot Car Enthusiast, put out this directory of slot cars tracks, products and services, 1987. Her magazine didn't quite last 20 issues, and not sure if there was another edition of this directory, which was in a real pocketbook format.



It was over a decade before the next book for the large scales, and it fittingly came just as ebay was getting off the ground and the vintage slot racing scene was becoming better known. 95 pages on the classics of the Vintage slot car world by PdL/TSRF/TSR - Philippe de Lespinay (with a little help from your humble servant).



In 2002 another old-timer made his contribution, a 75 page autobiography, with a large emphasis on slot racing, by Ray Gardner, who was a major figure in the sport from the 60s onwards. I knew him as the president of TOA - Track Owners of America - where he was incredibly dynamic and hard-working. This is really a view from down in the trenches, from somebody who was both personally and professionally involved.



And that leads us back to Robert Scheicher, who has turned out a book every 2 or 3 years since the turn of the century (2001, 2002, 2005, 2008), along with his Model Car Racing magazine (often the basis of these books). Despite some of these titles, especially the first one, there's almost nothing about the 60s in here - Robert is Resolutely forward looking and doesn't want to wallow in the past - unfortunately for us! (Hi Bob!)









Now, that doesn't really seem like a lot over some 30 odd years, especially with a relative revival in the hobby, and the many books coming out in England. But this is not the whole story - in fact there were quite a few other books published in the States, but they were all about ... HO! Which is only logical, since that was and I think is still the biggest market - something we large scale guys sometimes tend to forget. So I'll be covering the HO book scene in the next installment.

Don

PS: Ron, turns out I did have the 1980 publication after all - that's what happens when you have a thousand or so mags and books - you tend to forget what you have! And Gary, thanks for reminding me about the Rayline stuff, I had forgotten that too, and really appreciated your help. Now you see why everything I have is down on paper!

[Rotorranch]

Not so sure because Jaussaud always wore a day-glow red helmet... in fact the same color as the STP cars...

But everything is possible because he and another French guy, Claude Bourgoignie, ran in the Aurora series.

Sorry P. You are mistaken.

http://www.jean-pier...collection.html

I think that shows otherwise.

I posted that before, but someone decided to edit my previous post for me.

Screw it... I'm done.

Rotor

[Cheater]

Jeff,

I deleted your link because it goes to the same picture you posted. There are some other pictures of what looks like a vintage race, but I missed their cogency to the discussion. I guess you wanted the name in the URL to appear... Sorry!

Knowing you as I do, it never entered my mind that you needed to "prove" your claim about the group of helmets being Jaussaud's.

[rodslot53]

Sorry P. You are mistaken.

http://www.jean-pier...collection.html

I think that shows otherwise.

I posted that before, but someone decided to edit my previous post for me.

Screw it... I'm done.

Rotor

Jeff,

The car shown in the Aurora advert is No.22, whereas the Jassaud car is No.23. I think Phillipe may be correct in the driver was Claude Bourgoignie, although Philip Bulman raced a TS20 in various races including the 1979 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

The SARN book was commissioned by John as a 5 part series for his magazine back then. It came out of an odd conversation at JimHTs track. It went this way: John was promoting the mag, his wife was there to run the Texas Series race, and I was talking to him about "types of racing that didn't involve wings and G7". He said, "Only slow guys run that stuff, who cares?".

But I won that race.

So, he approached me with "OK, you aren't slow, talk to me about old racing and slower types of cars". And then asked me to do the articles.

Ironically, I had had the same conversation with Bob while working on one of the above books by him. We were working on a wargaming project for Kalmbach, and he couldn't understand how anyone who did pure 1/32 pure scale models with his club could do those stupid wing cars at the commercial track!

Don, you and I love these cars and the like. But outside of US, I get a lot of talk from people who insist that only one narrow niche is THE way to race. For Bob, thingies are "right out". Grin. Think of all the fun they miss out on.

Fate

[Rotorranch]

The car shown in the Aurora advert is No.22, whereas the Jassaud car is No. 23. I think Phillipe may be correct in the driver was Claude Bourgoignie, although Philip Bulman raced a TS20 in various races including the 1979 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch.

Actually, Rod, I think we are both wrong, as the car number in the original pic was #52.

And my sincere apologies to PdL, as I was chasing the wrong car!

From the helmet, it does appear it was Claude Bourgoignie in the original pic. I still can't find the #52 though.



Zolder Aurora AFX F1 1979 - Claude Bourgoignie Surtees-Cosworth TS20
Photo nabbed from:
HERE.

Rotor

[don.siegel]

Don, you and I love these cars and the like. But outside of US, I get a lot of talk from people who insist that only one narrow niche is THE way to race.

Amen, Rocky...

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I think I still have the galleys to one of the schleicher books, maybe more. But I should tell you a story on Bob!

We were in Denver at a used book store and a customer had piled up a half dozen of Bob's books. I thought this remarkable and asked the guy about his stack.

"I am a HUGE fan, I just love the way the guy does these things".

I asked if he had met Bob and did he care. The guy almost melted like a teen age girl at a Betles concert!

So, I pointed out Bob, and suggested he get an autograph.

Bob is remarkably shy, but did the signing. And complained at me for ratting him out for months after.

Fate

[don.siegel]

Great story Rocky!

HO HO HO

Welcome to arguably the most prolific part of the publishing scene - and just about all of it since 1990! What's amazing is that for 30 odd years, there were essentially no books published on HO scale slot cars, probably the biggest part of the market in the US. There were quite a few handbooks and magazine articles, but even there, the general complaint was that HO was the forgotten scale, considered more as a toy than a hobby. Anyway, as books became cheaper to produce in the 1990s, first with photocopies, then with color photos, the HO guys made up for the gap....

First, a quick look back at the first book published in the US with a chapter on their new Model Motoring slot cars, by Aurora Plastics Corp., from 1961...



From there it's quite a jump, to 1974, and Volume 1 of the Aurora AFX handbook, first of three volumes. I generally haven't included this type of handbook here, but in this case it seemed appropriate - and also shows how involved Aurora was in promoting the hobby!



Another nearly decade long jump, to 1982, and here's a book for young people on model cars, including a chapter on HO slot cars.



The same year, an HO book from England, which I posted a bit earlier, not sure why...



And then we get to 1990, and the beginning of the photocopied/self-published era, when there seem to have been quite an active market of HO collectors and racing, all communicating via newsletters, etc. - including this directory of collectors, with the addresses and phone numbers of hundreds of collectors - and then Volume 2 for the value guide. I have a Volume 4 of the value guide, but don't know how many the co-authors Howard Johansen and Bob Blakely did altogether.





In 1993 came the advent of What It Is! publications, by Keven Timothy, with a series of pocket type guides - I don't think I have all of these!





Two more from this series, in 1994:





1993 also saw the first edition of the Complete Color Guide to Tyco HO Slot Cars, by Dan Esposito. A second edition followed in 1996, and had grown from 32 to 68 pages.





1995 was a pretty busy year, including the first "real" book, by a major hobby publisher.

But first, a very useful book on all the tips and tricks for restoring Aurora HO cars - a good idea considering what we all did to our T-Jets back in the day...



Another identification and price guide, with all color photos - can any of our HO enthusiasts tell us how the valuations have held up?



And then the Greenberg's Guide to Aurora Slot Cars, by Thomas Graham - one of my favorite books of all, because it's very well researched and written. An excellent portrait of the birth and death of a company and its favorite product. Tom would do a second edition of the book, but much longer, with prices and for a different publisher, in 2003...





Now we begin to get out of my depth, with Bud's guide to Tomy HO cars - I think Tomy took over AFX, but not sure! Mostly B&W photos but also a color section. Premier edition from 1998.



A couple new additions in 2000, starting with John Clark again, and an interesting compilation of Aurora design patents.



Then a new book by a major collector, Bob Beers' Complete Color Guide to Aurora HO Slot Cars. 160 pages, all color photos...



A slim volume came out in 2006 on Marchon MR-1 slot cars - and if I was already confused about Tomy, this one came out of left field!



Last one, a very curious contribution from the Netherlands, published in 2008, about AFX in international markets, 1974-1983, by Albert Driessen. This is labeled a complement to the Bob Beers book and there's some good info in it, but he really should have had it checked by an English-speaker! Oh well, that's the way of the Globish world these days...



Tomorrow, back to the cradle of it all, England and Scalex Inc!

Don

[don.siegel]

Before we go to England, here are four HO booklets/handbooks I forgot from yesterday. First, an HO model car racing handbook, by the editors of Car Model magazine, from 1967. I've also shown the back cover, which has a beautiful HO layout, probably Scottsborough raceway, subject of a multi-issue article in Car Model.





Moving forward a couple years, 1970, the HO racing speed secrets from mail order catalog company Auto World (for our non-US or younger readers, Auto World was an extremely important part of the racing scene in the 60s and 70s and survived till the early 90s - and of course the trade name is still around). Written by Jerry (Jaroslav) Broz, a Czech who moved to the United States and was an engineer for various real racing teams besides his model car activities.



A couple of enthusiasts were already doing their own little booklets in the 1970s, like this HO Racing 101 by Allan Gaber, from 1978 - cars at the time were essentially Aurora AFX and Tyco.



And somewhere in between the latter two, I believe, was this undated booklet by one Glenn Yancoskie, 1970 Auto World Model Car Champion.





Don

[don.siegel]

UK

Back to the cradle of modern tabletop racing, England (and a bit of Wales). As usual, before starting a look at more contemporary publications, I want to take a look back at some 60s stuff (mainly because I forgot to put it in earlier). Model Cars magazine put out a number of special booklets, along with their regular issues, and these are two examples, the Slot Motors book from October 1968, and the Volume 1 of a three part series on Motor Tuning from December 1969. Half of the Motors book talked about motors that hadn't been used in several years, but these days it's very useful - good thing they didn't delete the K's for obsolescence!



Now, on to the "post glory years" and the discovery of Vintage, which was mostly the subject for the next 20 years, and by Vintage I mostly mean old Scalextric! There had been various articles on vintage slot cars over the years (even back in the 60s!), but the first book to come out was of course by Roger Gillham, the first in a long series on Scalextric. The first edition was 136 pages, all B&W photos, and a lovely color cover that I still think is the best of the lot... Not to mention that when I found this at a swap meet a few years ago, it also included a clipping of the Page 3 girl who collected Scalextric, with her collection artfully arranged on her bare body... (that photo is elsewhere in SF). I've also included the latest, 7th edition, called The Ultimate Guide, from 2008, now all in color and with 360 pages! This is of course the main source for Scalextric collectors, and it's also improved over the years, now even including pictures of the chassis!




Next is probably my favorite of all these books, A History of Electric Model Roads and Racetracks, 1908-1985. by Roger W. Greenslade, with a first, numbered edition published in 1986 and a second, unnumbered edition published in 1990, each with 1,000 copies. The photos are in B&W of course, the layout and organization is a bit haphazard, but what a goldmine of information! And Roger also has very firm ideas on what he likes and doesn't, and expresses himself very clearly! One of the nicest things is that he's open to just about every form of model car racing (well, except Thingies, but he shows those too), and this love for all types of slot racing comes through in his book. Plus, he was one of the first to delve into the history of the hobby, and has quite a bit of good information on the subject, although we've also learned a lot more in the 20 odd years since then. Bravo RWG!



Next, an odd little booklet published in 1999 by somebody named Paul Sheen, a rather moving little fable called The God of Scalextric, 15 pages long.



Back to Scalextric in 2001, with Rod Green's Story of the World's Favourite Model Racing Cars. Published by a major imprint, HarperCollins, and more of a regular written history than the catalog approach of the Gillham books. All color photos of course, a list of cars at the end, and 192 pages long.



Then, in 2004, I believe, a book by Welshman Jeff Davies, Built With Passion, the Story of Rail Racing. Published by John Ford of SARN, 79 pages, in magazine format, with a specially commissioned illustration by Steve Francis on the cover. I contributed to it, as did a number of other people. The way it was printed is a bit of a mess, with a disorganized layout and a number of typos, but on the plus side, there's a lot of good information in there, including reminiscences by some of the early rail racers, plus photos of some of the very impressive cars involved. The rail track that Jeff and buddies built originally for the meeting at Brooklands in 2000 is now in the hands of another enthusiast, so perhaps the "Rail Revival" will continue...



1997, and Scalextric is 50 already... they commissioned Roger Gillham, of course, to write the officiel 50th Anniversary Book, and it's a nice year by year recap of Scalextric highlights, set against major events in the real world... I believe this came as a special set with a car or two, but fortunately there were quickly separate copies to be had.



The same year also saw the consecration of Scalextric type plastic car racing, with a handbook written by Dave Chang. Can't really say anything because he's a felllow moderator on SlotForum, but it's brilliant!



In 2008, "real" slot cars finally got their turn, as Tony Condon, long-time racer and former national champion, published the History of Electric Model Car Racing in Britain. Although not ignoring Scalextric, this is really the story of ECRA/BSCRA style racing in Britain, including the technical evolution of these cars, which I found the most fascinating part (see the review on SF for more details). There's also a full recap of all the Nats and other major races and an embarrassing photo of Derek Cooper - what more could one ask for?



The following year, 2009, saw a short 55 page book on Scalextric, by Jon Mountfort, mostly an exercise in 60s nostalgia, although it kind of covers the other decades too.



That year also saw another book on BSCRA style slot racing, but this time a real contemporary book, designed to introduce readers to this style of racing, especially in clubs (whether slot or Scalextric style). A very good overview of our sport/hobby as it is today, by Colin Jackson.



Slot Racing met Celebrity in 2010, with The Scalextric Handbook, part of James May's Toy Stories. To tell you the truth, I was prepared not to like this, as a reaction to the whole celebrity thing, and the little I'd seen of James May, but it's actually a very enjoyable little book, and his enthusiasm is contagious!



Not quite finished yet, since there are a few oddities to come... But there are already something like 130 entries on the Slot Library shelves!

Don

[don.siegel]

One more book, from 1967. In collecting, as in so many other areas, the French were ahead of the curve, but failed to hold on to their lead. The World Catalogue of Scale Model Automobiles, listing all kinds of model cars, from diecast to slot, as shown by the sample page... (whoops, what's that Eagle doing under Cox? - well, nobody's perfect!)





And then we get to the "extras": books or not? I don't think so, but a lot of people consider these "handbooks" as books. And since they were and are very important to our hobby, I'm listing some of the major ones here...

Car Model Handbook and Technical Journal, from 1963 and 1967, respectively. The latter is often considered the most useful book in the slot racing library, since it has lists of most stuff from 1967 - not all checked or comprehensive, but definitely very useful!





The competitor, from Model Car & Track and Model Car Science, two magazines by the same publisher. They did an annual handbook from 1965 to 1967, but mostly it was recycled articles from their magazines. I chose this one because I love that track!



A similar effort, from 1965 this time - a general review, but it also seems to be a trial balloon, to see if it's worth launching another magazine...



And the regular magazine format version of the Buyer's Guide, shown earlier in a bound library version in the books section. There were three of these, all from 1966 - which I consider the peak of the commercial slot racing fad. (but overall sales were higher in 1965....)



And in 1965, Revell was already publishing this "guide to fun & profit" for raceway dealers, just at the time they were launching their own commercial raceway operation! 10 bucks, a hefty chunk of change at the time, but since all those raceway owners were going to get rich, who cared?



This was a popular theme of course, and in 1991 Parma issued their own version:



... followed in 1995 by Development Associates, whoever they were! (from Topeka, Kansas in any case)



And well-known racer and track owner Paul Pfeiffer and his brother Mark came out with a more specialised manual in 1994, on wiring and powering commercial tracks.



And my last entry, unless I find some more, the Slot Car Mechanic, by Cliff Wheeler - all the basics of modern slot cars, in a series of about 7 booklets, $3 and 20 or so pages each... this one from 1999.



Thanks for joining me in my LIbrary. Whiskey and Soda for my guests please James!

Don

[Dennis David]

Don,

I've been away from this site for awhile and concentrating on some volunteer activities I've been involved with but this thread is a goldmine of information for a bibliomanic like myself. Thanks you for taking the time in sharing your library. Have you ever considered using LibraryThing? I have most of my library here: http://www.libraryth...me/Dennis_David

[don.siegel]

Thanks DD! Hadn't heard of that, will check it out - but I already can't keep up with all the books I want to read!

Don

[lucio]

something more about italian books:
this is not exactly a book, it's a special edition of Autosprint-mese (monthly) published in July 1966, dedicated to slot car: in 1966 and 1967 in every number of this magazine there were some articles about slot car and nearly in every number of the weekly magazine




did you know that the G.R. Williams book has been translate in Italian? it has been published in 1977 from one of the most important editors:



an inside view of the slot-car chapter in both the books:


not sure if this is the book that you mean about Policar, however does not have the name of the author, or publisher or a publication date and all about slot car, text and photos, have been copied from an article of Adriano Gatta published on "Quattroruotine" n.206 november 1997


and finally, this is just something more than a leaflet, 48 pages printed in 2007 about the slot car in Italy, clubs, shops etc.. and to describe the slotcars to who of it does not know anything


for what I have paid ($0.0) I have expected also the autographs of the authors

[don.siegel]

Grazie Lucio!

Is that last book still available? I'd love to get a copy ... and I'd even pay more than you did for your copy! I understand most of the cover, except for the I negozi - what are they negotiating, and why is it special... I also really like the ... fastastico mondo!

And no, I didn't know that they translated the Guy Williams book - what an odd choice! Looks like a straight translation too, not an adaptation - is the Italian any good? Somebody who knows the vocabulary? (for the opposite examples, see some of the earlier French and Spanish books...).

Thanks for the Polistil book too! In fact, I had forgotten about that one, and had no idea it was adapted from the article in Quattro... plagiarism or collusion between authors? (or the same author?). The one I listed was more or an annual catalog/annual report... I did have the Automodelli publication listed above, although mine is a photocopy (wasn't fast enough in Torino!).

Don