67 replies to this topic

[slotbaker]

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?

[idare2bdul]

The Manta Ray. It seemed like everybody but me had one.

[One_Track_Mind]

Cox La Cucaracha all the way!! . . . :up:

[Tex]

I guess I have to go with the La Cucaracha also, although I never had one. I had a Cox Chaparral 2B which is somewhat iconic but perhaps riding the early wave of slot car popularity. I think the 'Cuc was riding its wave of popularity during the zenith of slot racing.

[Cheater]

Manta Ray for me, if you include the "iconic" tag. It's the best-selling RTR slot car of all time, is it not?

I'm also thinking the Manta Ray hit the market well before the Cuc? Am I wrong?

[Tex]

Yes, both the Russkit Porsche Carrera and the Manta Ray were definitely iconic also. Where is Prof. Peabody's WABAC machine when you need it?!

[TSR]

The one that EVERYBODY really wanted but often could not get:

[Edo]

With all due respect but there is nothing which reaches icon status like the Cox Cucaracha! That was and actually still is the apotheosis of slot cars: a true icon.
After that nothing could be the same and still nothing has been invented to compete with that.
E., the Cuc König

Hi Brian!

[Slotgeezer]

I think I agree with Dokk . . .

Is that the La Cucaracha chassis with the "tilting-wing" Chaparral body, Dokk? :?

I always thought that it was VERY sano! :mrgreen:

C-ya!

[endbelldrive]

It's a toss-up for me between the Cox magnesium Chappy 2 and the Iso 2E.

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)

[TSR]

No Jeff, this one it the real Kingie: the 2E "Mag" with magnesium frame. It is the most sought-after, most expensive PRODUCTION vintage slot car ever issued.
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,

[Edo]

Cucs are still raced now all over the world in original state and in CU form.
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.

[endbelldrive]

May not exactly be iconic but the 1/32 Monogram cars with the Series 1 chassis were good performers and good-looking, too.

[don.siegel]

Well, you're all right - except Philippe!

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

[slotbaker]

IMHO the print ads were more iconic than the actual slot cars.

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.

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.

[edworth]

Well it seems that while a model doesn't seem to have won. One mfg. certainly seems to have risen to the top. Cox.

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?

[stevefzr]

I have to agree with Steve. We'd see the magazine reviews in US mags and wait for the cars that never made it here. The one that I lusted after but never saw (until eBay of course!) was the Classic Stinger. I won many virtual races (in my imagination) using that flip-up wing to fly past everyone on the entrance to the corners.

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,

[Hworth08]

In my area the Cuk was no doubt the king of RTRs. Cut a hole for a 6 gram brass weight on the guide, cut out the area around the motor so it didn't sit on top of the motor, then add brass tubing spacers to tie the rear axle assembly together to survive a crash. Along with regular tuning the cars weren't bad, at least in an all-Cuk race.

Seemed everyony had a Cuk. If things were slow at the track we'd sometimes pull out our Cock Roaches and have a race!

[Rob Rieu]

How about the Lil' Red Wagon?
I would guess it's one of the most recognizable slot cars (trucks?) from the era.

Was it made by Classic?

[TSR]

BZ.

[Allan Feldman]

I take your iconic cars are all 1/24th USA based. And do not get me wrong I love the Cox, Monogram, etc., cars. But over in the UK surely the most iconic cars are MRRC series of 4WD cars: the Mecedes 154, the Indy Novi, and I think still the hardest one to find, the Felday 5. Although you had the 4WD Black Widow series by Russkit. The only other quarky car that I would like would be the Adams chassis that I know Don races. But as they must have been astronomically expensive at the time, $29 in mid-'1960s. I think that the introduction of a well-made inovative product like the MRRC 4WD cars at 54/-, although expensive, was not out of the reach of anyone who had the talent to build them.
Regards,
Allan

[TSR]

Allan,
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.

[don.siegel]

Yes, but . . . Philippe, collector value does not mean iconic! The Cuc, and a couple of other cars, are instantly recognizable as emblematic of the slot car boom, which is not the case of the 2E. Lots of people saw, heard of and/or raced the Cuc - definitely not the case of the 2E. Iconic also means accessible and representative, not the case of the 2E, but applicable to the Cuc, Manta Ray, or Cox Chappy . . .

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

[TSR]

I was just trying to keep the price of the "Cucs" down to a reasonable level so that poor Kaiser Edolf, over-taxed by the Swiss establishment, can afford to buy a few hundreds of them. 8)