537 replies to this topic

[Uncle Fred]

Maybe you caused it Bill?

[Bill from NH]

Are you going to blame me for the demise of the hula hoop & CB radios too Fred?  

[Dennis David]

Good riddance to CB Radio ... long live amateur radio! (HF UHF/VHF)

 

N6CRJ

[Phil Hackett]

Jairus,

That would imply that there was only one generation growing up, not the case...
In my own case, I saw EVERY ONE of my "home" raceways closing out one after the other, pushing me somewhere else until there were no more.

 

 

Jairus,

That would imply that there was only one generation growing up, not the case...
In my own case, I saw EVERY ONE of my "home" raceways closing out one after the other, pushing me somewhere else until there were no more.

 

Sorry to drag this off the bottom, so to speak, but Philippe I know of at least 3 tracks that closed that were doing alright until the local Redevelopment Agency bought up the land/building the track was in:

 

Speed & Sport in Lynwood

Rosecrans in Compton (twice bought up from underneath, as a matter of fact)

Monaco Raceway in Buena Park

 

The track on the Redondo Beach pier operated by the City of Redondo Beach was closed because the unit became more valuable rented to a restaurant than continue to be a slot car track (the pier is city operated and is the lessor of the pier properties). So, I guess it wasn't making the money other uses would make, so you might be right here.

 

I would guess that Revell Raceway in Westchester actually made money but because the lease expired and because Revell was exiting the slot car business that raceway was closed in 1970.

[Uncle Fred]

Are you going to blame me for the demise of the hula hoop & CB radios too Fred?  

 

Hula Hoops have faded?  Nobody told me!

[Samiam]

CB is dead? No wonder I can't get a radio check.

Copy?

[gjc2]

I stopped racing in 1967 when I got my driver’s license. I had a ’62 Chrysler waiting in the driveway. While I was beginning to play with 1/1 scale cars the few local tracks I knew of closed. I had no idea that there were any raceways still around. It was almost twenty years before I learned that commercial slot car racing still existed.

[sub006]

I think womps and thingies killed the chance of scale racing taking hold in the U.S. as it did in other countries. Skinny scale-width tires of fairly hard rubber and non-rewound motors that produce scale speed and last for months are more challenging and fun to drive "on the edge" than a robo-car that almost drives itself.

The high point for me was reading about a 24 hour race run in England around 1965 on the same two days as the 1/1 Le Mans event. Four teams from different towns ran scratchbuilt vintage Jags and Aston Martins on a scenic four-lane track, with lane changes, pit stops, working headlights and lighted buildings in a darkened room during the night hours.
Sometimes a slow but consistent "turtle" would win a long event because it did not need engine changes, just as in real motor racing.

Model railroading continues to survive, with hobbyists spending years and tens of thousands of dollars creating personal scale worlds. Slot racing might mature and thrive on elaborate member-supported club tracks if we could move away from the "toy" aspects.

[Phil Hackett]

The Robo-cars you refer to didn't exist until the 90s. The tracks were crude enough that the cars couldn't be at full speed all the way around. It wasn't until new tracks were designed and built for ultimate speed that "Robo-cars" became possible. 1983 was the start of the first real new tracks in 15 years and the start of the "speed" tracks.

 

I too have enjoyed Enduros far more than the timed sprint races. The one 24-hour race I was involved in was won by the slowest, most consistent car on the track. It just made laps and never broke and was easy to drive.

[Dyno-Don]

The question was Why did it fade so quickly in 67-68? that struck me as funny, as we bought our store in 67 and operated it until the end of 1970 when a greedy landlord wanted to bump our rent by a huge amount. The irony is the building sat empty until it eventually was sold to the state and became the unemployment deportment. Through a comedy of errors we moved into two different buildings and never reopened - but it had to do with the real estate, not the hobby.

 

We had done thing to keep it affordable, like race classes for all different kinds of cars. Stock "Box kit" cars, over the counter only parts, motor restrictions etc. We had width rules and minimum ground clearance - again trying to keep things more affordable, and it worked. We were packed most every night and all day on the weekends.

In fact one of our tracks (the Regal 90) we limited as to what type of cars could run on it, along with restrictions on our monarch 100 as to certain times only. This seemed to work real well to keep kids without big budgets still having fun. The Imperial 150 was open to any cars. 

 

We also did other things that some of the visiting racers didn't care for, like no application of Tiger Milk or MooGoo or other traction enhancers directly onto the track. This not only kept the tracks much cleaner but kept down costs and put the speed in the hands of the better drivers, not just "Glueing" the cars to the track. We warned ya once and kicked you out the second time, whether you had track time left or not. Over time most everybody came to like the rule.

[sub006]

I have saved and prized just ONE slot car magazine issue all these years.  A battered, taped-together copy of the October, 1964 Model Car & Track, which illustrates two of my previous opinions:

 

1. Skinny scale-width tires of fairly hard rubber and non-rewound motors that produce scale speed and last for months are more challenging and fun to drive "on the edge" than a robo-car that almost drives itself.  (I'D STILL LOVE TO HAVE THE SIX BY SIXTEEN FOOT IMMACULATELY LANDSCAPED AND DETAILED HOME-BUILT 3-LANE LAYOUT WITH NARROWING SLOT CLEARANCE IN SOME PORTIONS.  TO KEEP THINGS EVEN, ONLY STOCK STROMBECKER CARS WERE PROVIDED FOR GUEST DRIVERS.)

2. The high point for me was reading about a 24 hour race run in England in 1964 on the same two days as the 1/1 Le Mans event. Four teams from different towns ran scratchbuilt vintage Jags and Aston Martins on a scenic four-lane track, with lane changes, pit stops, working headlights and lighted buildings in a darkened room during the night hours. (THIS WAS HELD BY THE ECURIE SPA MODEL CAR RACING CLUB.  THE WINNING CAR COVERED 7056 LAPS OR A BIT OVER 128 ACTUAL MILES AT AN AVERAGE SPEED OF 5 MPH.)

 

Maybe someone with a scanner might post the actual articles?


.

[don.siegel]

Here's the cover Sub - a great issue, and I always remembered those articles too. Of course, I always dreamed about entering a 24 hour race too - and when I finally did about 10 years ago I realized I didn't like it at all! I definitely need my beauty sleep..

 

There's also a column by Bill Sippel, in which he talks about Scalers vs. Thingie enthusiasts... yep, it was already in the air! . 

 

Don 

 

[Samiam]

 Don,

 Could you somehow copy the Scale vs Thingie article and post it ?

 

 I didn't think it started that early.

 

 Thanks

[don.siegel]

Here you go Sam... in fact, looking back through all my magazines, I pretty regularly find articles warning about the dangers facing slot racing, due to lack of organization, non-scale cars, etc. Some amazingly accurate looks at the future in fact, as it turned out. 

[don.siegel]

PS: if you're wondering about the use of the word "Thingie", this is the first printed reference I've found, From the Winter 63 issue of Model Car & Track. In fact, up till about 66, when Floyd Manley began proudly using the word "Thingie", they were more often referred to as outlaw, bandit, dream cars, etc. 

And for what it's worth the debate is a lot older, because the exact same thing happened to the gas-powered round-the-pole tether racers, where the "streamliners" quickly became favored... and led to lots of outraged editorials! 

 

[sub006]

And gas-powered tether racing (from the 1940's ?) remains a HUGE sport today, LOL.

 

Here's the cover Sub - a great issue, and I always remembered those articles too. Of course, I always dreamed about entering a 24 hour race too - and when I finally did about 10 years ago I realized I didn't like it at all! I definitely need my beauty sleep..

 

There's also a column by Bill Sippel, in which he talks about Scalers vs. Thingie enthusiasts... yep, it was already in the air! . 

 

 

 

Don 

 

THANKS, Don!  The cover shows the home track I was talking about with the challenging narrowing lanes.  And note how the race cars are stored in a detailed pit area.

Maybe you could post the mini LeMans article!  I presume the cars were 1/32 scale, but the story dosn't include that detail.

 

At 24 hour real-car races, the drivers take naps on their two to four-hour breaks.

 

The hosting "home team" cam in fourth (last) in the enduro.  I'd like to think they were distracted by all the estra work, laying a third braid to power the cars' lights, lighting the scale layout structures and pits, scrutineering the entries to narrow the field to four, etc.  Wonder if they ran another 24-hour event in 1965?  I'll have to Yahoo the club name and see...

 

-JIm

 

[sub006]

The wonder of the internet!  I hooked right up to a British blog called Slot Forums and landed at a "Slot Archaeology" site's forum post from November 2012.  A fellow named David Hack reported going to a slot veterans reunion dinner at a Leamington restaurant, "Wilde's Wine Bar ane Restaurant".

 

Upon arrival, the six "old farts" (his description) realized the restaurant was in the same step-down space occupied by the Ecurie Spa track 50 years ago.  His photo matched the exterior building shot in the 1964 MC & T article exactly!  So now we know the town where the 24 hour race was held.  Apparently the Ecurie Spa club no longer exists, but I'd like to think it hung on considerably longer than most mid-60's commercial race centers in the USA.

[don.siegel]

You're welcome Jim, glad to help! 

 

Just to set the record straight, SlotForum is not a British blog, but an international forum, founded in fact by a South African guy who lived in France! (although he's no longer involved). I believe it's the largest slot forum around. 

 

I didn't want to post the article here because it's long and not really relevant to the issue (and I'm lazy to boot!). 

 

That track on the cover popped up again in several guises over the years in MC&T, and it looks like it was changed over the years too, including taking out the chicanes. Now, I was so naive, and not long ago, that when Le Mans announced they were putting a chicane in the Mulsanne straight (which is actually called La Hunaudière in French, but never mind....), I was somehow expecting to see something like this slot track! But of course a real chicane is just a very tight left/right turn in the straight, to slow things down.... Just goes to show how your grasp on reality can be perturbed when you grow up on slot cars... 

 

Don 

[sub006]

Don,

 

I'll freely admit I'm a life-long amateur at slots, their history, etc.  Thanks for the corrections, we do ned to weed out misconceptions and errors as they only grow and spread through repetition!

 

Wonder what happened to Robert Seibert's 65-foot lap home track?  It was a masterpiece, probably got tossed in a dumpster by the late '70s.  Imagine the challenge and fun of racing slow (true scale speed) but equally-matched Strombeckers on that beautiful course, no rewinds or other mechanical "secret weapons, just driving ability and strategy.

 

-Jim

 

PS: My quick, easy descripton of a chicane is "a squiggle in a straight".

[Dennis David]

A chicane is another word for a mistake.

[sub006]

Another error correction about the 1964 24 hour race in Leamington, England: The home team, Ecurie Spa, finished third, not last. Haven't been able to find records of any subsequent long races.

[Superbird]

Lets see.

Slot car racing started as scale home sets. It has continued to this day.

Then the merging of plastic 1/24 kits and commercial wood tracks started a revolution for boomers and took off. The boom ended but some tracks continued.

Manufactured slot car companies were displaced by specialty companies and scratchbuilding. Non-aero and wing cars became mature.

Then Flexis were invented. Scratchbuilding declined. Motor development stabilized and class racing (Flexi or wing) was the norm.

Old guys wanted to run old-style. Vintage racing didn't take off but 'Retro' new cars essentially became a specialty class like hard-body stockers or modifieds.

Meanwhile home track scale RTR after-market hop-up supplies have matured like the specialty companies of the early '70s.

Then digital technology was applied to plastic tracks to better mimic real racing.

 

The future looks bright!

 

Blending digital, R/C, and social media tech will revolutionize the slotty experience. Driving a digital slot car via live video is a better experience than R/C or a video game. You drive a car you built from the cockpit among racers you are in the room with. That sounds very appealing to me. The experience can be shared across social media in real time to impress your friends.

 

If you like the outdoors (and own land) step (remotely) into your R/C cars and have at it on a scaled race course. Again, social media and (finally!) TV coverage will be normal. Real racing without the danger and cost. Human builder-racers can become heroes like NASCAR drivers if they have what it takes to entertain remote audiences. Is the Speed Racer universe really so far fetched?

 

Superbird

[don.siegel]

Just one correction, SB.

 

Tabletop racing, as it was often then called, actually started as a club activity in Britain in 1955, and was pretty well established - as rail racing - by the time that Scalextric and VIP offered the first commercial slot racing sets in 1957.

 

This is probably what encouraged Scalextric and VIP to offer their products in the mass market; they knew that tabletop racing could be practical, because it was already a going proposition in clubs. The first US clubs (Kalamazoo, etc.) started in 1956.

 

I think you're a little optimistic about the whole virtual/digital experience, but that's because I'm a legitimate old phart... In fact, slots should have disappeared with the advent of R/C (all the early slot/rail guys really wanted a slotless, steerable system, but nothing was practical at the time), but something about the simplicity of slots allowed it to hang on - even now, when R/C has become much more affordable.

 

Don

[hiline2]

Some very interesting reading here, so allow me to toss in my knock-off wrench on my perspective. I was one of the 14 yr old kids who found the Hobby shop track (I did had a home Strombecker set already for few years). Started racing in the junior races. Worked my way up in points and experience, In stock box classes, then scratch built cars ( using dynamic chassis etc) Got into the "Club" of the local track. Was having a ball racing!  One day the Aeronautical engineers fro MacDonnell show up for a weekend race, their own club, so I got to turn marshal. Here were immaculate cars that were built to look like the real things! They weren't speed demons, any well built semi-scratch built would have smoked them but that wasn't what they wanted, they wanted real looks and decent driving, it was great to watch and see the craftsmanship in their cars. Life moved on, girlfriends, Real cars school and for some of us the draft (#41 here). To me I felt it was more the increasing cost to compete and yet have fun at the same time was at least my reason for walking away. Sadly I didn't even hold on to my "stuff" from then ( Oh how I wish I had, but don't most of us feel that way ?)  Im back in to it but still want to race the "old  stuff", Im not a wingy racer or even a retro racer. I do miss the 'old days" but hey that's what memories are for !

[Vay Jonynas]

Yes, but the crux of the question is why more eleven to fourteen year olds didn't take up slot car racing to replace the fellows like you who "grew up" and moved on to other pursuits.