95 replies to this topic

[TSR]

I think that he said it all!

[Arne Saknussem]

Got one of the early Triang Scalextric sets imported to US (Dad found it in NYC). We spent hours on the living room floor making different circuits. Later, we found a local dealer and pretty soon we had a four-laner going in the basement.

I had a D Jaguar, Lister-Jaguar, Vanwall, and Lotus front-engine F1s, later a pair of rear-engine Coopers.

[qtupro]

A friend took me to Beloit Raceway in the summer of 1981 to play with slot cars. WTF is a slotcar? Well, I found out and had to have one. He got me hooked up with Jim Mayer and got me an I-15 (box-stock type wing car) and my first race was the 1981 Nats. Been addicted ever since.

[turim]

Around 1961, I got a 1/32 set with magnets that held the cars on. I then got into the HO stuff. My friend and I had about 200 feet of track and several transformers set up in his attic. I eventually stumbled upon a commercial King track with esses that I started on. I used to assemble kits for the owner in exchange for track time and parts. I soon bumped into guys scratchbuilding, copied them, borrowed their jigs, and started to solder chassis for the track owner to sell.

I also flew gas engine planes with a guy Ralph, who opened R&S Speedway in Bayonne. I helped him build the track and we eventually had a money series going on with some other raceways.
I stopped when girls became more important! I think during a divorce I stated racing at Bob Emmott's BIR Raceways in Union. Tony P was building wing cars and incredible steel chassis in the back room. I went from basic to Group 27!

I quit for about 25 years and have recently gotten back into racing the East coast D-3 series thanks to John Gorski and "Noose". I have met some really nice people and have never raced with such good drivers before.

I have bought controllers and cars for my son and daughter and hope they will get half as much fun from slot cars that I have gotten and continue to get from this hobby.

[Flätsix]

Like most people in their mid-30s I got my start on a Tyco set my oldest brother bought me. I think I was maybe ten or something. I would also check out a book from the local library on slot cars, can't remember the title, but I remember the author building a 1/24 Cobra Daytona with a vacform body.

There was a comercial track in Del Mar next to a golf driving range by the fairgrounds. I must have been pretty young still because the track looked big and fast . . . kinda get the same feeling looking up at the flagstand from the pits at California Speedway today.

Anyhow, fast-forward to this year. I've been checking out all the cool little 1/32 ready-to-wreck cars for some time, but would never pull the trigger on buying a set. So I get a call from a racing buddy one day, "Hey . . . you wanna come over and race slot cars?" He had bought a routed track off of somebody and set it up in his garage. Oh man . . . I was hooked hard. Jim from Nomad (Hitler Channel: Modern Marvels) came over and pretty much brought his entire stock of RTR cars and I left with a nice little Fly Vic Elford/Monte Carlo 911. This was my first hit off the slot car crack pipe . . . now I have about twenty RTR cars (mostly Porsches) and I'm on my third scratchbuilt. I even sold off one of my race cars to make room in the garage for a wood track.

I've been lurking here for awhile and found this place through scratchbuilt.com. Many hours have been spent sifting through all the great threads.

Ciao,

[Cheater]

This was my first hit off the slot car crack pipe . . .

LOL!!! It is addictive, isn't it?

Allan, if you're not a writer, you missed your calling.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Only 20?

Fate

[Cheater]

Hey, Rocky, cut Allan some slack, will ya?

Doesn't sound like he's been in the hobby nearly 50 years like you!!

Give him a little time and he'll have a couple of hundred cars, too. LOL!!!!

[stumbley]

Couple hundred? Piker!

Have a look-see at THIS . . .

[rvec]

Guys,
In 1959, the family was shopping and we stopped at a hobby shop to check out the latest selections of plastic model cars. At the age of 12, model cars were a favorite of mine. In the front window of the store was a display of Scalextric slot cars on a figure-eight track. Wow, model cars one could race!! The only gift I wanted for Xmas was a set of slot cars.

I was not disappointed. Dad bought us the largest set of Model Motoring, HO scale available. For the next several years we added track and set up countless race courses. Most of our friends came over to race. Later I began racing Flexi cars, Group 12, and Intl 15s. My boys got involved in the hobby and enjoyed Flexi cars and drag racing. As I became more involved with my career I gave up the hobby. The cost and time involved with being competetive in Intl 15 was just too much.

About eight years ago I saw the current crop of 1/32 scale cars. These were great - so detailed. I decided to build a wood track with Magnatech braid. About the same time I met some Oregon builders on the internet and got hooked on 1/24 scale hardbodies. I now have my own track here in Oregon and continue to enjoy the hobby.

[macman]

Saw my first slot tracks in '63 at a hobbby shop, then got a 1/43 Aurora set, (big HO), then started going to a great Tom Thumb in Biloxi, MS, in about '65 . . . Last time I ran my old stuff, was in '70 in New Orleans . . . Had various HO sets in the '70s. Then had another HO on layaway in '86 whan someone at work told me about a 1/24 track, Pensacola, FL . . .

Yes, I was hooked again and it was goodbye to those silly HO toys, hello to REAL slot cars . . . this eventually led to five-hour drives with a buddy to Atlanta to Tim Ferguson's Purple Mile and the '90 Nats. Met Cozine, Gardner, and a whole bunch of other people, including John Ford, who I went to work for. Moved to TX, worked on SARN four years and had a blast. Left in '94 for Charlotte, NC, and marriage. Was inactive til 2003 when I went to Div II Nats and have been doing some racing since.

Have always been fascinated by the "old stuff" since I got back into it in '86, and think the internet is great for the hobby. Currently into thingies . . .

Great topic and hi to all.

[edworth]

Methinks there is a pattern forming here . . .

Some blogger has a tag that reads . . . "It's never too late to enjoy your childhood". I'm thinkin' that's the case!

[johnford]

OK, I think I've told this somewhere before, but it's a slow day and I just finished the latest Bulldog video . . . go to UTube and search for Zydeco Bulldogs.

But I digress . . . It was 1957 and I was a pinsetter at the local bowling alley (before Brunswick invented the automatic pinsetter). After work, I would go across the street and help clean up the back room of a bar which had a nightly racing "sporting event" where the guys would put cars on a large oval rail track. The cars were carved out of balsa wood with various motors and most with a large D cell battery for power. They would put the cars on the track, behind a 2x4 with the power on, and then remove the 2x4. The last car running won the pot. I got to stand by the back door a few times and watch. I was hooked and went home and took apart the Lionel train set to make a two-lane rail track. Much more fun than crashing the train off on the corners. . . .

[GSBell]

Sometime in the early '70s, my YMCA Indian Guide tribe took us on an outing to what I believe was Crash & Burn on Roscoe in the San Fernando Valley. Someone either lent us cars or we had to rent (hard to recall I was probably 6 or 7 at the time); regardless I was hooked. My brother and I pulled out a set (a real basket case) and tried to get it to work, to no avail. I think we needed braids and tires. However, it took what seems like years to get back out to a track. When we finally pushed to get the home set up and running, my dad found Circle-T in North Hollywood and took us out one Saturday afternoon to inquire about parts for the home set.

Needless to say, when my brother and I saw a real slot car track we were hooked. I was hooked on getting a Womp-Womp but my brother did some shopping and found a WhisperJet back out at Crash and Burn. He had the paper route and the funds to buy his own car so he chose that piece of junk over the Womp. My brother was quickly disappointed and gave up and gave me his junk. I was disappointed too but figure out a way to unload the car on someone else (sorry) and bought a Womp at Circle-T.

Raced off and on through Jr. High and High School years but virtually stopped when I found guitars, bands, and girls. I did however search out tracks in my late twenties and eventually went back out. I still have a few Womps and an old “GP 20/27” Circle T era car built by Joe Mowry.

[montegofreak1369]

My first taste of slot car was in '71 or '72 when I got a Revell 1/32 set. Didn't last long...

Around '78 or '79 I would ride my bike from Whittier to Earle's in Bellflower. Would stop off on the way at Downey Archery Lanes on Bellflower and Rosecrans (originally a bowling alley, now a professional building, argh!). Never bought any slot car stuff there though (argh! again). Would peek in at Bellflower Raceway, didn't go in though, until...
May 1, 1983... my 22nd birthday... my first time on a commercial track (Bellflower).

I had pieced together a Revell Mustang GT-350, Ranalli chassis, 36D motor, and unknown tires as I was determined not to run those ugly little cars with the tires hanging out the sides like lowriders nor those uglier cars with the wings hanging off the sides. Put the car on the track, watched go down the bank perpendicular to the slot, skate around the track like it was on ice, put it up, went to the counter and bought a Womp. Witnessed my first USRA race there later that month (or was it June?). Also saw Pops' last race at Rosecrans a month later, after which unemployment forced me to hang up my controller. Did not stay away completely, helped resurface that ancient T-slot hillclimb at Bellflower, would sometimes marshall at The Val in Rosemead.

I 'returned' in late '86 at Charlie's in Hawaiian Gardens, raced my first USRA race there in January '87 (Boxstock 15), started racing International 15s shortly thereafter, was number three qualifier at the '87 Western States in Sacramento (I-15).
Helped set up the original SoCal Raceway in Cypress, CA, on Lincoln and Moody.
Became SoCal USRA treasurer in February, 1989; held that position until December, 1990, quit racing slightly before then.

Left L.A. in May 1991, pretty much stayed away until... November, 2005. Green Flag in Hesperia (or is it Desperia). Wayne Shaw, Monty Ohren, Chris Radisisch, and Bob Scott managed to talk me into doing this again. Raced GT-1 form then until September, '06, made my ignominious wing return at the BP 500 in October (Boxstock 12). Limped along in that class, finally getting my first USRA podium at Slot Car City in Vegas in March, got talked into One Motor Open in June with much happier results, (two races, two podiums).

Have also been doing a little drag racing. Now I gotta start in on my 36D NASCAR.

Maybe sometimes you can go home again...

[Mark Wampler]

Winter, 1964, 8th grade, boarding school. One kid told me about slot cars, so one weekend we went to Pico Rivera and here's these little cars going around a track and tons of kids everywhere. Pitman 706s with rubber bands under the drop arms, good for wheelies.

Next year, I was full on. Got my Cox Chaparral. Just a local kid that liked to race. Didn't know any of the heavy weights in racing. They were old back then.

[slowjim]

Strombecker Road Racing set, with the D Jag and the Testa Rossa, Christmas, 1962. Then two years running Monogram and Cox kits at a commercial track. Fell out when the Thingies started coming in (being a 1/32 and a scale guy). Off and on for a few years, then, whenever the interest re-emerged, the track closed before I could get going, until 2004. Have had the jones ever since.

Worst decision? In the '80s, my mom asked me if I wanted my old slot car stuff, and fool that I am, I said no. Off it went to the local Goodwill.

[ViperJerry]

Mid-'60s with a Revell (I think) set for Christmas. Parents had a big basement, so I tried to duplicate a King. Got it up to a 27' long straight away, but did not know about taps and big power supplies. Cars started to slow down, especially if both lanes were running.

Started to walk to the Hy-Way Hobby House in Ramsey, NJ, on Rt. 17. Would go on the weekends. Dropped out for a long time, got back ten years ago. Finally got the King (real one). It was worth the wait.

[artbycheri]

I heard stories from my brother that I was born behind a bank of a blue King track but I know it isn't true. But I remember that my dad Bill Steube Sr. was "finally" out of the hospital after the motorcyle accident where he lost his leg. My brothers came home with a slot car box and my dad said to them (you all remember how he would look you in the eye and say it in just a certain way), "What you got in the box?"

That was all she wrote. From that day forward Dad was building in a small shop on main street in Paramount, CA. Then we bought a track with storefront. Then we started meeting all the other "geeks for speed". It is a shame that I don't remember as much as I should and I am so sad that I lost two great treasures (my dad and brother, Bill Steube Sr. & Jr.).

Hey, by the way anybody remember my mom, Bunnie? She passed ten years ago and is buried next to my dad on a nice place overlooking the Snake River in Asotin County, WA.

But on the light side I am just stoked to find this website. Talk about old home week. Write back, guys, I promise to not be a brat like I was is 1968

PS: After Dad died my mom ran into, believe it or not, Herb Wade. They were married for a while and lived in Rogue River, OR. Anybody heard from him?

[Vay Jonynas]

What really drew my attention to slot cars initially were the full page ads that Monogram ran in Boy's Life magazine touting the company's first generation cars - the '34 Ford Coupe, the '36 Ford Coupe, the '40 Ford Pickup, the '55 Chevy, the '58 T-Bird, the Duesenberg, and Mercedes. Not only did this ad spark a lifelong love of slot cars, but of mid-thirties Ford coupes as well!

In the early summer of 1965, I was able to get enough money from my dad to purchase the 1/24 scale Monogram Ferrari 275P I saw at the hobby shop on the north side of Seven Mile Road just west of the Southfield Expressway in Detroit. He was always in a good mood while we went visiting with my uncle in the Motor City!

By the summer of 1966, I had upgraded to a 1/32 scale Monogram Ferrari 330P/LM, a much better-running car with its sponge slicks. I once again purchased this kit at the hobby shop on Seven Mile Road in Detroit.

My local track was upstairs at Cowan Hardware on Dundas Street in London, Ontario. The entire floor actually functioned as a hobby shop but there didn't seem to be any other Monogram kits for sale, or many kits of any sort, just the desultory RTR thingies like the Cucaracha. Eastown Hobbies on Dundas Street East had a bigger track but I wasn't oriented to the east end of town in those days. The miniature golf emporium in the plaza on the northwest corner of Oxford Street and Adelaide Street also opened a slot car track on its premises by the end of 1966. The best hobby shop with the most extensive selection of kits of all sorts though was McCormick's on Oxford Street, just east of Richmond Street.

Does anybody else remember the Monogram ad in Boy's Life or these hobby shops and tracks in London and Detroit?

[team burrito]

All righty then, here goes. My love of slot cars came in '68 or '69, way after the boom and only a few tracks remained in the Bay Area.

I was racing HO cars at the time when a friend let me try his 1/24 car. After five minutes, I said "HO cars suck!" and I was hooked. My home track was Edna & Jerry’s in San Francisco and that’s were I met the Flying Aguirre brothers, Al Chuck (Owl Chump), Gene Fong, Steve Kessler (Spiderman), Jimmy and Johnny Ng (of KNG Controllers), Henry (Hippo Krit), and Keiji Kanegawa (painter supreme). Other tracks in the Bay Area were Oakland Speedway, Family Hobby in San Leandro, and Mission Speedway in Hayward. I dropped out in '71 because I was riding the buses at night and the Zodiac killer was at large (kinda’ scary).

Fast forward to 1992, slot cars were back and they were so much better and faster than before. I started with wing cars, then moved to scale racing. My home track then was Slot Car Junction in South San Francisco, just five minutes from my house. They had a 150’ MMT flat track that was both horsepower and technical, a challenge for any driver. It was there where I discovered vintage racing; it wasn’t very fast, but it looked like they were having fun.

They closed in 1997, so Mark Manion and I created VMRA (Vintage Model Racers of America) and moved the vintage race program up to Slot Car Raceway in Rohnert Park. Fastrax was also part of the program until they closed in 2000.

VMRA still continues at Slot Car Raceway on the last Sunday of the month except for December. Doors open at 8:30 am and racing start at 10:00. They are located at 305 Southwest Blvd in Rohnert Park and the phone number is (707) 795-4156. Check out their website for more information.

[n.elmholt]

In Denmark, Scalextric was the track to have, as Fleischmann was too expensive and Revell too "exotic".

I replaced my HO train with a Scalextric track around 1967 and together with a good friend we started "serious" racing on a 50 meter six-lane wooden track in a nearby town in 1968. Our fastest cars then was a British 1/32 RIKO with a 16D motor and we were blown away by the other drivers' scratchbuilt cars :-)





The car on the pictures is a replica of the RIKO I built a couple of years ago for my friend's 50th birthday.

I have just taken up racing again four months ago after some years pause due to illness.

Niels, DK

[gjc2]

I played with slot cars in the sixties but didn't race competitively. I went to Aurora Raceway in Hempstead, New York. It was a large raceway with four tracks on the first floor and another three in the basement (owned by the same company that made the HO cars).

I lost interest in slot cars when I got my drivers license in 1967. Through the years I had very fond memories of slot car racing but didn't know there were still any raceways around until the mid-eighties when I learned about a small raceway in Valley Stream, NY.

I bought a Womp starter set, started racing in their weekly program, and I was hooked. I found out that there were at least four raceways on Long Island plus several others close by. Now my home track is Slots-A-Lot Raceway in Franklin Square, NY.

Here's a video I made of Slots-A-Lot Raceway.