What would you choose as the most Iconic factory kit or RTR slot car of the 1960s?
It may not be your favorite, or first, or best performer, but the one that most represents slot cars of the '60s.
For me, it's the Cox Cheetah in either scale.
What's yours?
Most iconic '60s slot car?
#1
Posted 04 June 2007 - 01:35 AM
Steve King
#2
Posted 04 June 2007 - 01:41 AM
Mike Boemker
#3
Posted 04 June 2007 - 03:22 AM
Slots-4-Ever
Brian McPherson
REM Raceway
"We didn't realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having FUN!"
#4
Posted 04 June 2007 - 05:34 AM
Remember, two wrongs don't make a right... but three lefts do! Only you're a block over and a block behind.
#5 Bill from NH
Posted 04 June 2007 - 08:58 AM
#6
Posted 04 June 2007 - 09:50 AM
I'm also thinking the Manta Ray hit the market well before the Cuc? Am I wrong?
Gregory Wells
Never forget that first place goes to the racer with the MOST laps, not the racer with the FASTEST lap
#7
Posted 04 June 2007 - 11:23 AM
Remember, two wrongs don't make a right... but three lefts do! Only you're a block over and a block behind.
#8
Posted 04 June 2007 - 11:47 AM
Philippe de Lespinay
#9
Posted 04 June 2007 - 11:54 AM
After that nothing could be the same and still nothing has been invented to compete with that.
E., the Cuc König
Hi Brian!
#10
Posted 04 June 2007 - 01:08 PM
Is that the La Cucaracha chassis with the "tilting-wing" Chaparral body, Dokk? :?
I always thought that it was VERY sano! :mrgreen:
C-ya!
Jeff Easterly - Capt., Team Wheezer...
Asst. Mechanic, Team Zombie...
Power is coming on... NOW!!!
#11
Posted 04 June 2007 - 01:47 PM
My favorite cars to look at were the big and small Cox Cheetah and my favorite production car to drive was the super smooth Champion Porsche Carrera.
IMHO the print ads were more iconic than the actual slot cars. The early Revell Stingray and XKE ads, BZ Banshee, and Testor Marauder ads got the juices flowing. Early Aurora Model Motoring ads and packaging were really neat even though the cars didn't look anything like the artwork. 8)
8/19/54-8/?/21
Requiescat in Pace
#12
Posted 04 June 2007 - 01:55 PM
Kaiser Edolf is correct about the "La Cucaracha" being the most charismatic vintage slot car, but only in YURRUP and especially in Italy and Switzerland where thay ran them competitively until copies were made by various companies. The 2E "Mag" was a virtual unknown there by the time it came out in the USA and Japan.
The "regular" 2E RTR with IFC frame is quite common, while very desirable for the collector, but its price today is a mere 25 to 35% of the "Mag" version, and if you happen to luck onto a mint, sealed "Mag" kit, the last one sold on ePay brought $12,600 . . .
Very few are known to have survived intact, while most of the assembled cars seen on the market have been absolute trash and sold for anything from $800 to $2,500.
Not a cheap collectible . . . Cucs are definitely priced in a more affordable range!
The Cuc Kooks Klan sub-level 2 secretary,
Philippe de Lespinay
#13
Posted 04 June 2007 - 02:12 PM
That mag chassis is impossible to keep on the track, just good to keep it in a cupboard.
E. King CUC
PS: Watch what we will be racing at the CUC Festival in Udine in a couple of weeks in conjonction with the Proxy Thingie race.
#14
Posted 04 June 2007 - 02:29 PM
8/19/54-8/?/21
Requiescat in Pace
#15
Posted 04 June 2007 - 04:49 PM
While the Cox 2E is a beautiful car and the holy grail of collectors, it's not an icon, because it was an outdated dinosaur when it came out, and nobody wanted one! (ditto for the Gurney stocker). It's just a little too esoteric to be an icon, i.e. representative of a whole movement.
I guess I'd have to go for the Cuc too, because it was all over the place at the time, inspired copies, made a small name outside slots, etc. And . . . It had the Cox cachet, which separates it from the Manta Ray, and it has held its value better than the Manta Ray - and there's even a cult springing up (don't ask me, ask the Thingie Kingie).
I would also think of the Cox Ford GT, Lotus or Chaparral, as very, very typical cars of the time, and still linked with the image of slot racing. You have to go with Cox, since it's become a generic name for big slot cars.
But I have a soft spot for the first series of Monogram 1/32 cars too, Bob, all little jewels (but no one particularly stands out), and of course the MPC Ferrari-Lancia - the world's fastest production slot racer!
Not to mention that you guys are so (non) small-minded: did you all forget the Aurora T-Jet Indy Racer and Hot Rod? Now, who didn't have one of those at some point?
Don
#16
Posted 04 June 2007 - 06:13 PM
I think that's pretty right. Most of my recollections of iconic slot cars are the stylised cartoon like ad's that we drooled over in the magazines, especially down here in Australia. We didn't get to see real life versions of some cars that you guys had.IMHO the print ads were more iconic than the actual slot cars.
Monogram 1/32 cars. Yep, loved the Lola.
Edo picked the Cuc. :shock: What a surprise.
All the cars mentioned so far are certainly memorable, and iconic.
Looks like the Cuc is in front by a nose.
Steve King
#17
Posted 04 June 2007 - 06:49 PM
I think the Cuc's place was as an anomaly for the hardcore racers at the time.(I just got crossed off Edo's Christmas card list)
I would vote for any of those wonderful over-engineered mag-framed beauties. I had the 1/24 Ford GT myself. But I suppose the Chaparral sticks it scrawny little neck up the highest. It's hard to argue with that one as an icon.
But if the prices weren't so high and therefore it so visible, would Monograms move up a step?
C.A.R.S. Vintage Club
“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
#18
Posted 04 June 2007 - 07:42 PM
Of course the real car could only be a disappointment on the track, but it still says everything there is to say about the peak of the slot car era, with wild styling, an outrageous mechanical gimmick designed to provide a marketing edge, if not a performance one, and fantastic packaging.
I think that no car I ever managed to see in the flesh during that period could compete with the mystique of the ones I could only imagine for the next 35 years.
Regards,
Stephen Corneille
#19
Posted 04 June 2007 - 08:13 PM
Seemed everyony had a Cuk. If things were slow at the track we'd sometimes pull out our Cock Roaches and have a race!
11/6/54-2/13/18
Requiescat in Pace
#20
Posted 05 June 2007 - 11:44 AM
I would guess it's one of the most recognizable slot cars (trucks?) from the era.
Was it made by Classic?
Rob Rieu
#21
Posted 05 June 2007 - 12:15 PM
Philippe de Lespinay
#22
Posted 05 June 2007 - 12:57 PM
Regards,
Allan
#23
Posted 05 June 2007 - 01:14 PM
I think the first version of the Adams & Sons fully-suspended chassis was priced at $24.95, the MKII version at $19.95. Don Siegel can confirm that, I don't have the time to look it up.
These two are iconic to only the very few who actually know of their existence . . .
The MRRC 4WD cars are indeed a bit more to the liking of the UK residents.
The Swiss and Italians are stuck on the "Cuc", as well as many Americans.
But in the realm of things and as a historian of the hobby also watching the marketplace, I have to say that the Cox Chaparral 2E in its "Mag" version has to be the most desirable car, and the prices obtained at auction in the past 15 years clearly show that on a worldwide basis, out-performing any other slot car consistently, even the very iconic Scalextric Bugatti T59, by about twice as much.
Philippe de Lespinay
#24
Posted 05 June 2007 - 01:41 PM
Now, if you want to talk about the ultimate expression, that's different, and I would definitely nominate the Adam & Sons Quads ($19.95 introductory offer, retail price, $24.95).
Allan, I definitely have a soft spot for the MRRC 4WDs, but again, maybe a bit too specific to the UK (although some of us in the States dreamed about these, too).
Don
#25
Posted 05 June 2007 - 01:43 PM
Philippe de Lespinay