63 replies to this topic

[yomama]

Recently I acquired a dozen or so 'Model Car & Track' magazines off eBay, and they are interesting to read, but don't touch on racing. What are some of the other magazines of the '60s, primarily ones that following the pros and racing?

[Keith Tanaka]

Cal,

The first magazine to start the pro slot car races was the May '66 issue of Rod and Custom magazine.

The following year, Car Model magazine continued this pro racing series.

The May '68 issue of Model Car Science was the first of the MCS race series which continued the slot car magazine race series.

All of these pro races were covered by Gene Husting and the races were run in SoCal. These races were run bi-monthly. I don't recall how many races were run each year (six?), but the race issues were two months apart.

Of course there were other races across the country, but these three magazine race series are what most people remember from the golden years of slot car racing.

Keith

[don.siegel]

Right, Keith! Not much to add to that, but starting in 1968 or '69 Car Model also had a special "racing" section, from two to six pages, that covered races around the country in short articles. This lasted a couple years, through '71 or so.

In '67-68 the short-lived Model Car & Racing magazine also had some coverage of the big Arco races sponsored by Champion.

Model Car Science also had a fairly regular NAMRA column in those years for East Coast racing.

And there were also the "newspaper-magazines" put out by Mike Morrissey and his successors, Model Car Racing, Model Car Journal, Miniature Auto Racing (??), etc. These were pretty much hard-core pro racing papers.

Don

[MG Brown]

"Car Model" magazine had quite a few articles on model car (slot) racing events of the day... including the infamous Lee Gilbert building article.

This article has sound building principles that could be applied to D3 construction.

The Car Model Magazine archive (all 9,338 pages) is now available on CD! Kudos to Roger Miller for the work that he put in to make these vintage articles available to us. Even more laudable is any proceeds from the sale of these CDs goes to charity!



I own a set of these CD's and I feel that they are worth having.

Get your copy at: RMT Customs

[Vay Jonynas]

During what years was Car Model magazine published?

[don.siegel]

1962 to 1974.

Car Model was a small size bimonthly for the first year or so, then went big and monthly in September, 1963. It got very big from end 1965 to early '68 (bound, not stapled), which will give you an idea of the "golden age" of slot racing (when all the major manufacturers bought ads!) At the end, it was struggling to survive and came out irregularly - it changed hands in '73 or '74, but couldn't make it.

Model Car Science had the largest circulation though, about 250,000 at its peak.

Zeb, the current Model Car Racing has nothing to do with the older Model Car & Racing magazine; but curiously enough it's published by Robert Schleicher, who was the most prolific author in the old mags of the '60s. And the old Model Car & Racing magazine was the rebirth of an earlier mag, Model Cars Illustrated, from '63-65, which had a couple nice articles from "Deadly Dudley" on the cars they were running at Polk's Hobbies in New York city at the time - but no race coverage!

The articles by Gene Husting on the R&C, Car Model, Model Car & Science races were the best - definitely worth reading!

Don

[Jairus]

Model Car & Racing magazine is written and published by Robert Schleicher (Jr.) the son. He is NOT his dad, who published books on the stuff during the '60s and '70s.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Jairus... err, No.

The little Bobby Schleicher" who was in MCS, MC&T, and other mags in the '60s is the same person doing the current MCR.

And it will tickle what little sense of humor he has when I tell him THIS one.

Fate

[don.siegel]

Thanks, Rocky! I kinda thought that was wrong, but I knew you'd set the record straight...

Don

[MG Brown]

When I met Robert at the iHobby Expo last year he looked to be the right age to be "the original"; but I wasn't sure of this!

[Jairus]

I spent a week with the same last year in Chicago at iHobby. Robert shared a booth with Gregg and I because his Railmodel Journal magazine is published by Golden Bell Press alongside Model Cars magazine. Robert didn't spend much time in the booth because he was walking around hawking the slot mag since that piece is printed "outside" of the Golden Bell Press envelope, much to the chagrin of the owner.

Now, I do sometimes get things wrong... but Rob and I talked slots a lot during that week...
Did I get the slot mag wrong? Are there currently two Robert Schleichers out there publishing two different slot car magazines?

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Bob and I have been buddies for decades. We did some wargaming books together about 30 years ago.

Only the one.

I haven't seen any mags except MCR, and John's SARN (been buddies with him for decades as well... I think? since '81)

There have been other mags more pro-oriented, but I haven't seen anything or heard about them in some time.

Fate

[Jairus]

I was the subject of a joke.
When in Chicago Robert told me that the guy who published all those articles and books in the late '60s and '70s was his father because HE, Robert, couldn't be old enough!!!
He said it with such a straight face that I BELIEVED HIM!

Well, I just got off the phone with him... and... with egg on my face I was wrong! There is no other Robert Schleicher than the original and the books on model car and track building... and slot racing were actually written by the one and the same!
He got a good laugh out of this by the way.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

Bob was doing a book for Kalmbach on wargaming. I was freelance. One of my regular employees told him about me and than I lived close; I was in Denver, he was in Boulder.

At that time I had about ten sets of rules out under my own name, and had ghostwritten a few dozen more. I had recently finished a set of rules for "Star Trek" that was issued with the first Trek movie (Paramout paid well!).

So, I get this phone call... you gotta know Bob's voice. He affects a melodious deeper tone than normal, trying to sound professorial. "Hello... I am Bob Schliecher and you probably don't know who I am... but... " And I interrupted with "Actually, I know exactly who you are".

Silence. Silence.

"err... How?"

See, for Bob this could be a dangerous place, but I won't tell stories out of school.

"I am a long-time slot car racer".

Oh.

We did some work together, and have done some since. But mostly, we enjoy each other's company.

His is only half joking about the "younger" thing. For one thing, he started very young in the business. For another, he IS that vain.

Fate

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

No, no Avalon hill.

One system I did as a flight sim for the USAF, I also did as a simpler version for commercial publication that has done well, uses Models and three-wheeled trollies to "fly" the aircraft. The techies at Lucas Arts were fans of the game and got permission from me to use the system in the time/motion generator for their CGI events.

Thus, where you see something flying in a "dogfight" in a Lucas Arts sourced vid or movie, it is the child of my game mechanics from this period.

Very off topic, though. Zeb, if you like Bob's Magazine, just turn to the editorial/credits page and see who is on the staff.

R

[don.siegel]

Interesting stories, Rocky - I assume Robert/Bob/Bobby doesn't read the forums... If it's not indiscreet, how old is he anyway? (I'm 55 - full disclosure!)

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

He is older than you and of retirement age... grin.

Fate

[gascarnut]

So now you know who to blame for the spelling and the grammar...

[Jairus]

OUCH! Dennis... Bob may not have been a regular reader of Slotblog in the past... but he knows about Slotblog.net after we last talked!