95 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

That's quite a track! So you stayed with HO finally? 

 

Don 

[Vay Jonynas]

Started with a Strombecker track for Christmas in the late 60s.

Can't believe how cheap a track was 60 years ago compared to todays prices.

 

 

 

I love the Cheetah! And that's a fabulous track configuration. I wonder if there's any reason why it wasn't or couldn't be replicated as a full size wooden track?

 

 

 

Early 70s it was HO at a neighbors garage.

Still have a track in my garage now.

 

 

Good stuff! Do you host any kind of club races on some sort of semi-regular basis? If not, you should because you've got a great track.

 

[993]

This is long but here goes...

 

Basically in the 90s got restarted in the hobby.

1.First it was a big HO plastic track.

2. Then for 2 years a 2 car garage size 4 lane routed 1/32 copper tape track with bank turns and landscaping.

3. Then back to HO plastic track.

 

4. Then for a couple years a commercial 1/24 scale 8 lane Olgilvie Hillclimb with a footprint of a 4 car garage. 

Hosted races and a couple of points series.

It was too much, took up too much room and on the biggest night we had 30 racers.

The big 1/24 Hillclimb is now in Florida and painted black.

 

5. Then a 2 car garage size flat track 4 lane routed 1/32 copper tape track for a couple years.

6. Took a break for a few years and then started with the plastic HO track again.

 

7. Last summer picked up this Viper track that fits nicely in the 2 car garage.

Now the perfect number is 8 racers for drivers and turn marshals.

I like to run races with very short rest breaks between races.

I was an air traffic controller for 30 years so I like to run the track at it potential.

More racing action, we can talk while we race.

Yes have hosted local HO racers in the area.

Plan to do more of that, had to cancel a race last month due to the local positivity rate in San Diego.

I like IROC races with less magnetic downforce at 13.5 volts sometimes more if we have good drivers and cars. 

 

I also like to share it with non racers that amaze me although they lack experience most still drive very well.

Having some friends and their kids racing occasionally is entertaining too.

Today I find a slot car track is such a fun group activity compared to all the video games that are more common now.

 

Finished garage, plastic floors, bright lights and a ductless mini split with heat and AC and a 4x16 Viper track.

It made my 2 car garage into a comfortable racing room.

The Viper track is called the Game Changer.

Because it came with 3 extra pieces of routed track that allow it to be changed into 4 different track configurations.

 

My wife likes the slot car tracks, I told her I could race slot cars for a year for what it costs to race my full scale cars for a weekend. lol

[don.siegel]

Thanks for the info and pix - really nice setup! 

 

Don 

 

PS: looks like you still race the big ones, however... 

[Courtney S]

Ok you have to tell more about the big cars. I raced TA from 90-93. I had a Roush mustang , a Gentalozzi Olds, then a Riley Camaro.

[993]

Ok you have to tell more about the big cars. I raced TA from 90-93. I had a Roush mustang , a Gentalozzi Olds, then a Riley Camaro.

Those are serious cars. Let's see photos of your race cars.

 

The 10 was a privateer out of New Jersey named Jerry Kuhn.

He built it and raced IMSA GTO and Trans Am in 88 and 89.

23 degree 358 620hp.

That history makes the car eligible for the Monterey Reunion.

This year we have 40 80s GTO cars racing at Reunion this August. 

 

The 5 car was built by Weaver.

It was Andy Porterfield's last race car.

18 degree 358 740 hp.

I race it at So Cal tracks with other amateur racers.

my you tube page.

[Les Boyd]

A friend had a plastic track at his house, and we started building cars for better performance. Then in downtown Arlington, Texas a commercial track was under construction, we watched one evening as thet routed a section and could not wait to see it finished.
Then two years later in Carmi, Illinois a track opened there with an AMF Hillclimb, and I was hooked. I would plan to be racing every Saturday. Trying to get to the track at least a couple of times a week.
I build my first routed home track in 1967 when I was in Nikes, Michigan. It was a two lane modified paper clip with copper tape.

[Courtney S]

This is all I have currently but this is my 93 Riley promo shot.

 

Great Car

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[993]

This is all I have currently but this is my 93 Riley promo shot.

 

Great Car

 

Good looking race car. Where did you race it?

My friend had a similar body, mine is different where the front hood and bumper split, although they look the same.

I have all the body molds for both cars, takes up the entire loft.

 

Got a new set up on both cars recently that really suits me.

Typically we ran something close to 600 front springs and 400 rear.

I took the 5 car out last time with something different for me.

250 front springs and 500 rear.

The front shock rebound is maxed out so it's called jacking down the front end.

The car remains more flat less body roll/weight transfer.

 

Before we can put it in the trailer we have to dial out all the front shock rebound.

Or it will bounce in the trailer and jack the front end down and loosen the tie down straps.

My race shop owner was an engineer for Richard Childress racing and he has added new life to my race cars.

Both cars are getting new engines this year so I'm in it for a couple more years.

https://www.bryansracing.com/

[993]

 

[Vay Jonynas]

I got started with an AMT Turnpike set. Those came out in 1962 but I didn't get one until 1963.

 

 

No, I got more to say. This was strictly a home track used by myself and a younger brother. I bought extra cars and parts but not more track. The truth of the matter is the track was such a PITA to set up with all the clips and snap-in strips I sold it after a year. Its inital appeal to me was that my collection of AMT static kits, for the most part, fit those race chassis using just four screws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting! I never had a slot car set as a kid. Were many of the sets in the 1960's a real pain to assemble? I know the Scalextric sets these days are a snap to assemble.

 

In general how would you compare the AMT Turnpike slot car sets quality wise to the Monogram, Revell, Strombecker and other ones sold at the time? My impression right now is that the Monogram ones were the best.

[Paul Menkens]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Monogram ones were the best.

I had an Aurora 1/32 set and it was great, the cars were rugged, smaller copies of the 1/24 with Challenger motors, the biggest differences were that they didn't have drop arms (big deal) and had threaded wheels. One big advantage the Aurora track had over some of the others (Strombecker and Eldon for 2, don't know about the others is that it had deeper slots, so I could easily run any car that I ran at the raceways on it,  I still have my original figure 8 plus another one I picked up at a yard sale, I also have a good amount of those other 2 brands I mentioned and there's no comparison in quality. The Aurora track did have clips, but there was no need for them.

[MattD]

The first vintage lot item I found locally was an AMT set with the Thunderbird.   It was in good shape and was in the local sale paper for $35.     I put it together one time and tried to run the car, but tires had no grip so it wasn't worth all the work.     I decided real quick that it was a "Rube Goldberg" idea.    Way too complicated to be much fun compared to simple slot car racing.   I did see in an early magazine a guy had a big layout and used copper tape to convert to a regular slot track.   Good idea.

 

I always wonder how successful AMT would have been in the slot market if they had just come out with a traditional track setup and a couple universal chassis that would fit most of their model cars.     In 62 most every boy had AMT models or wanted them.    To build them on a slot chassis and race them on your own slot track.   I believe it would have made AMT the leader in home slots.    Price would be a consideration, but definitely it would have been cheaper then the engineering and production costs  of the Turnpike sets.       The last AMT slot car products show that over the last 60 years they haven't learned much!  

[don.siegel]

The thing is, that early in the game (1962), it wasn't so obvious what would work best, and that a simple approach would win out: AMT probably got a little too ambitious for their own good, but maybe they figured that was the wave of the future - and in a sense it was, but 10 years later, with R/C! 

 

What they really didn't calculate was the "price point": the basic set was something like 50 bucks, and it only included one car! Another car  and controller was $12 or so. I saw the demo set at the Chicago Auto Show, in 62 I think, and that's what I wanted for Chanukkah, or maybe the Scalextric set from England, as a budding snob, but my parents must have looked at the price and I wound up with an Eldon Gold Trophy set! Probably about half the price, but one of the cars broke a week later... Anyway, even at $50 they might have made it, but with 2 cars and a simpler system. The wide track would have been an advantage. 

 

Good point about the interchangeability of all those AMT models, Matt. That part didn't especially attract me (I wanted European GP and sports cars!), but it definitely could have helped. There were quickly articles about converting the AMT cars to conventional tracks and some small company even sold converted cars at a discount after the system tanked. 

 

They did come out with some pretty good cars later in the game, but the ugly bodies in 1/32 vacform and the 1/25 scale of the bigger models were both drawbacks in the market. 

 

Still haven't built up any of the more recent models... 

 

Don 

[Vay Jonynas]

 

They did come out with some pretty good cars later in the game, but the ugly bodies in 1/32 vacform and the 1/25 scale of the bigger models were both drawbacks in the market. 

 

 

Do you mean the 1/25 scale as opposed to 1/24 scale was a drawback?

[don.siegel]

Yes, it meant the cars were slightly narrower, and they also seemed smaller than the other 1/24 cars - because they were. Not really sure this was a drawback in terms of sales, but maybe a bit for the handling. 

 

Don 

[Clyde Romero]

Eldon slot car track

Battery power

I think it was 1963/4?

 

Clyde 

[Vay Jonynas]

Early '60s, of course, the ubiquitous O-scale Lionel train. Which today sits in a display cabinet.
 

 

 

Like most others, I started with trains in the '50s. Had a really cool Lionel setup running in the basement. Moved to HO in the early '60s because I could put more 'stuff' on the same sized layout. I still have everything packed away very neatly!
 

 

Like many of you other fellows, an electric train set was one of my gateway drugs to slot car racing. Back in 1961(?) a good buddy of mine received a Lionel HO train set with a steam engine and a helicopter launch car for Xmas. I was so enthralled with his set that I tried saving up for a similar set myself with some of the fantastic operating cars but I didn't get very far since I was always collecting bubble gum baseball, hockey or whatever cards and my nickels and dimes were quickly spent. Here are some pictures: 

 

 

 

 

Coincidentally my spouse as a little girl had a similar Lionel HO set with a steam engine employing smoke pellets, a bobbing head giraffe car and an operating log dump car.

 

I currently have a small collection of vintage Lionel HO cars from the late-1950's to the early-1960's including helicopter, missile and satellite launch cars and the bobbing head giraffe car.

 

My other gateway drug was styrene plastic model car kits by AMT and Revell. The first model kit I built was one I received in 1961 or 1962 at the John Labatt Limited employees' kids Xmas party at the old London Arena (whose main use by then was for roller skating, roller derbies and NWA wrestling):

 

 

While we waited for Santa to make his appearance, we got cake, cookies and ice cream and were entertained by a wonderful magician.  Every child's name was then called and we each received a wrapped present such as a model kit together with a boodle bag full of candy treats including a box of Cracker Jack and package of Mackintosh Toffee from Santa. It couldn't get any better than that for a kid at the time.

 

The kit I received was definitely an AMT 3-in-1 car model but I'm not sure exactly which. It may have been this Chevy Nova:

 

 

 

Or this Chevy II:

 

 

I got glue marks all over the body of course and it only looked good from a distance....

 

Therefore when I saw this ad in a copy of  Boy's Life magazine in 1964 I was primed and ready for slot cars:

 

 

I mean model cars that you built and then could actually race?! Wow!

 

[don.siegel]

Good story, thanks for sharing! 

 

I guess my history was similar: a short adventure with trains, a couple glued up model cars and planes and then, boom: cars you could race! 

 

Don 

[993]

Sharing a graph of slot car history I copied. 

Even though the peak has long passed I still enjoy slot car racing now as much as I did on my first home set in the late 60s.

 

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[Vay Jonynas]

Interesting graphic! Where did you find it?