537 replies to this topic

[elvis44102]

i must belong too a subset of a subset....i enjoyed "racing" when we were on a smaller flat track racing similar cars...that said once we got to the big tracks i enjoyed building more, motor

 

chassis the whole works..being only 15-16 then i always built cars for Bloodworth and sometimes Simerka, cause i got motor parts from them...but it was a challenge against the clock and track

 

more so then actual racing. i know i was never the best driver but the best that i saw seemed to have eyes in the side and back of there heads and could avoid collisions during a race (not me)

 

so i was a slot car building enthusiast!!

[pn6]

Its been 2 years since anyone posted to this thread so my story may go on deaf ears but I thought Id add in my remembrances.

My parents first introduced me to slot cars when I got a Model Motoring AC car set for Christmas at about 8 years old. Those noisy vibrator cars set the hook and I was ready to be reeled in.
The next year my dad convinced my mom that a homemade track in the garage that folded up out of the way of her Studebaker Hawk housed in there was a great idea for me to play on and stay out of trouble!!
I remember him hand cutting lumber for the bench and track then rolling that copper tape down for the power pickups in the hot garage and me dreaming of running on this magnificent 1/32 scale track.
My first car was a 1/32 scale Ferrari Testa Rosa and that baby screamed around that track. Of course my dad and his buddies who also had garage tracks were whooping on the kids but that wouldnt always be the case.
Feeling the pressure from mom to get that thing out of her garage so she didnt have to move her car out when we wanted to play dad ordered a Monogram 1/32 set from the local toy store for the upcoming Christmas. Unfortunately the dummy at the store called the house to tell dad the set was in and guess who took the message!! When I told dad he was as deflated as Id ever seen him and since the surprise was out they changed my present to some other stuff and a Monogram 1/32 Ford GT. Yes!!! Ten minutes after unwrapping it I had it out in the garage painting the hood dark blue putting it all together so I could run it on our track before it was gone.
Fast forward another year and a friend of mine had just got a 1/24 scale Cox Chaparral and was running it at the local track. I went there with him one day after school and was totally in love with the place. That night I asked dad if we could go race there in front of my mom and after exchanging glances he said yes.
Still in the early years of this hobby he thought the 1/24 Monogram Chaparral would make a good runner on Kit Car night which was held on Friday nights each week. Not having a 1/24 scale car he got mom to buy me one too.
As is well documented in this thread things were moving pretty fast back then. Many companies were pumping out scale replicas of the golden age cars and by 1966 dad and a buddy had bought the local track. The previous owner had the full line hobby shop a few doors down from the slot business and wanted to sell both off as I recall.
The racing was cheap and we had two tracks. The larger we used with our school slot car club and I began racing every Friday night on the shorter Race course. Besides kit car night we had a Tuesday night Rewind night for anything you wanted to race. At that time I remember bullet shaped tube chassis with F1 bodies were the rage and of course a rewound arm or hot motor. Friday nights remained Kit Stock! By then the heavy and clunky chassis cars were pretty much out classed even with sponge tires and lexan bodies.
Russkit Carrera chassis kits were on top for awhile then an old guy showed up with a kit legal Asp and blew everybodys doors off. He was so fast and cagey that hed get way out front then on the last lane heat hed slow down and stop just before the finish line on the last lap. As soon as the next guy finally came across as the winner hed zip across in second. Why you ask? First place was a trophy but second paid $2.50 in store credit!!! He basically raced for free for months until my dad talked my out of my aging Russkit and into a Dynamic Sidewinder Ferrari 330. He said this car can beat him and you can do it. After some failed attempts I bought a Lancer Ford MKII and regeared it and away I went. Turns out the old man was a big help to my success as everyone else was mumbling this fix was in as the owners kid was cleaning up but he drove my car and inspected it and I got a big thumbs up from him and the rest.
Somewhere along the way I also drove a La Cucaracha for a friends little brother. His dad wanted him to race his big brother but he was just too young and couldnt compete. His dad got the idea for
Me to drive this kids car and hopefully win enough to get one of those fancy colored Cuc bodies on the card. After winning the kid his first trophy the next week I pulled to old man trick and waited for second so the kid could get his new body. He was exstatic!!

The track went the way of the rest and as I was only 12 at that time I couldnt really go anywhere to race unless dad was so the cars got packed up and after we moved to a new house dad built and HO scale track that had some trains as well. The garage was bigger and not as room was needed for a good sized track so we played with those from then on.
Because we were Scale racers we used the steering wheel controllers a speed matchers in our racing. Using their resistor to set the power then using our regular controllers to race. We would warm up on our 2 lane Aurora shod track and match speeds on the long back straight then line up. To keep score we would run a simple Lapper race. Once you were lapped it was over!! Easy.

You can point the finger at a lot of things as to why its all but gone compared to back then but its really the times. Manufacturing was making new discoveries and better tooling which was opening up new possibilities for the almighty dollar. Tracks take up a large space and make no money. The quote racers dont spend much either. Why have to go to a track to run when you can buy an RC car to run in the street or a U/C plane from Cox the fly at your school. I stayed with racing at home and flying until high school when I went full RC with the earnings from my part time job. Motorcycles came next then my Bug and of course girls took my money too!!
It boils down to cost per square foot. In my various careers I would up at a hobby shop in later years with a dirt track outside. Same thing there. The track drew the spectators and racers but the big spenders raced in there backyard drinking beer and having a great time. The track was twice the size of the shop and even going full line it was a loser. After getting a deal on a different location we actually put in a 1/24 road course and drag strip along with the full line shop. If that area had been full of product it would still be open but square footage costs eventually killed that too. Racetracks need revenue from every source they can. We even ran some tests using Tamiyas TamTech 1/24 RC cars on the slot track but those cars were a niche market and faded too.
Technology has opened up more doors all competing for the same dollar.

I still have my Russkit and Dynamic and will probably hang onto them a while longer. Since dads passing Ive sold off some of his stuff including a Cox mag chassis sidewinder with a Lola GT on it and a Russkit with a T70Coupe on it along with his original Chaparral chassis that had a Monogram 904 body on it.

Ive been selling of stuff to by better computer stuff because Im sim racing too!!

[don.siegel]

Thanks for sharing - always good to get a few more viewpoints! Was this all in SoCal too, or did you move there later? 

 

Don 

[pn6]

I am born and raised in San Bernardino and still here. The closest track to me now is Buena Park. I went there a couple of months ago and got my fix of running my old stuff. So much so that I bought myself a La Cucaracha on EBay pretty cheap so I can go back and play with old stuff again!

[Ecurie Martini]

My entry into slot cars in 1958 was occasioned by the confluence of two different experiences: a long history of model railroading with its emphasis on scale appearance and heavy involvement in the 1:1 SCCA racing scene. My exit in the early-mid 60's is chronicled in the "History" narrative on my web site, ecuriemartini.com, excerpted here:

 

All went well until one night, a competitor showed up with a rather rough looking Porsche G.P. car - with two 703's stuffed into the rear and dual wheels at each end of the two rear axles. It was fast. My observation that it bore little resemblance to any know car fell on deaf ears. (the counter argument was" no, but it might have been"). Others were inspired by the success of the "road warrior" and, in the ensuing weeks, more and more bizarre arrangements appeared. This was, I suppose, the beginning of the "thingie" era. I began to build a "super car" based on a Globe industrial 6 volt motor that would turn 20,000+ and still fit in a scale body but it was never finished. In 1963 Ecurie Martini packed its cars, carefully cushioned, in their metal traveling boxes. Unfortunately, one of the casualties of this cessation was the aforementioned 1/32 300SLR which was designed to answer the handling criticisms leveled at U.S. cars sent to England to compete by proxy. As I walked away, I strolled into "The Model Ship Chandler's" and bought a ship model.

 

While certainly not the sole cause nor even a major factor, I think this transformation probably "turned off" a number of other like-minded modelers.

 

I visit this site regularly and often shake my head with a bit of "what might have been" regret when I see beautifully done models "slammed" onto elegantly engineered and fabricated chassis carrying tires that, in both size and appearance, bear little relationship, aside from being round, to the real thing.

 

EM

[nomad2race]

Alan,

 

Good to read your musings again, in fact, I visited your site thoroughly again just now.  I have been spoiling to visit for one of your local races and imagining how nice it would be to host you at one of mine again... I am in Little Rock Arkansas now,  Most of my collection and two wonderful tracks suitable for cars you enjoy are in my home.  They see club use about twice a month and I am finding a few locals with interest and skill in our lost art. I am always up for a visit from anyone interested in slot cars, especially of the vintage and scale nature, Please let me know if there are any circumstances that could bring your here or any events that I should attend that might include you and your friends.

 

Jim Cunningham    

[Ecurie Martini]

Jim:

It's been a while - probably last time in San Diego when I was out there on business - 15+ years ago.

 

We run an "irregular" regular season of about 2 meeting/month on home tracks from NE West Virginia to south central PA just north of Harrisburg.  Info on schedule etc is here:

 

https://www.tapatalk...slotracingclub/

 

Let me know if your travels take you this way.  (Same applies to anyone else on this site who might be interested)

 

Al

[Dave of '60s Lancer]

I am born and raised in San Bernardino and still here. The closest track to me now is Buena Park. I went there a couple of months ago and got my fix of running my old stuff. So much so that I bought myself a La Cucaracha on EBay pretty cheap so I can go back and play with old stuff again!

 

WOW...San Bernardino

I grew up there and eventually went to work for Lancer Company for 13 years as a pattern maker.

Did an article in this section several years ago about being a pattern maker there.

It's on page 4 titled "LANCER HISTORY by an original pattern maker - ME".

It was fun talking to the guys and explaining what the "FAMILY" of Lancer Company was like in it's day.

 

For those of us in the professional part of the hobby that watched the quick demise in the hobby, were in

total agreement that the expansion and fast growth of the professional part of the racing ruined it for the

hobbyist racers and weekend racers.

They couldn't compete and the racing by professionals became so well publicized and promoted, that the

hobbyist racers just withdrew and the hobby took a nosedive very quickly and never recovered.

 

Nothing against the professional racers, it was just cause and affect, and the sport plummeted.

By the middle of 1969 Lancer was laying people off and the owner John Brunson was looking for another

way to stay in business.

Lancer eventually got into a variety of craft items to produce and life went on without slot racing as it once was,

and without me when I moved away to another state with my family in 1977.

 

My 2 cents

Dave Susan

 

[Tim Neja]

This is a thread that will only die when we do!!    I think the most simple explanation of why racing died is the lack of rules limiting the COST of racing!! I started racing at our local slot track in 1962.  Ten years old at the time--at Costa Mesa Hobby Shop on a track that was designed to run your toy cars on--NOT race!  The place was so busy with kids running their cars--they never had time to hold a race!    In 1964- Ted Schultz opened "Miniature Freeways" on Newport Blvd.  It was a larger track designed specifically for racing.  Long swoopy turns--hand built by Ted.  I raced there until 1966--when two things converged.  I went to High School, and the COST of racing went up 15-20 times in just a couple of years!! There really were practically NO rules then to stop the rush to better technology to go faster all the time.  I used to race on my meager work earnings and my ""allowance"!  By 1966-- I could no longer AFFORD the best race motors or all the tires coming--new bodies etc etc etc.  So I stopped slot racing--and in a couple of years--built my first REAL race car--the one in my avatar and went NHRA drag racing.  So I never went back to slot racing until 1995-- and later more seriously when D3 came around and it became FUN again with a limited budget!!  Still fun after all these years!  

[Martin]

Dave, I hate to disagree, but for me I looked up too, and wanted to emulate the pros.

 

The pro racers inspired me and I studied what they were doing. I wanted my cars to go and look like there's. I wanted to understand why they could go so fast.

 

For me, at 17 it was motorcycles, girls, college and travel that got my attention.

[don.siegel]

I have to disagree as well, but also agree in another sense. 

 

Dave, you were in the midst of a hotbed of pros, but remember that probably 90% of racing went on in areas where pros were not even ghosts - like where I was in a neighborhood in Chicago. We competed among ourselves, not against pros, unless you wanted to take a long car ride to one of the suburban tracks where the hotter guys ran - and we didn't drive yet. 

 

A lot of racing went on at neighborhood level, without a whiff of actual pros. 

 

But, indirectly, there was the trend towards scratchbuilt and faster cars, which we all followed, with the associated price increases. And maybe I'd look at the $12 rewinds in the magazines with envy, but I could compete at the local level with my own rewinds and a buck's worth of brass rod. I don't think the extreme competition affected more than a minority of raceways in the US. However, what it did was eventually force out all the mass market manufacturers, from Revell to Cox, and those were the bedrock of the whole fad aspect of slot racing. There are other factors of course, including the general atmosphere of 68-69, where other things seemed important. Yes, we turned 17 and 18, switched to real cars, girls, college, etc., but why didn't the next group of pre-teens take up the baton? Among other things, not too many raceways left, and...?? 

 

Slot racing returned to a niche activity, perhaps its natural role. 

 

Don 

[Zippity]

What an amazing historical thread

 

I wonder how many are still with us............................

[MattD]

This has been discussed ad nauseum, we all know it was a perfect storm of circumstances that killed the fad/initial popularity of commercial slot racing.   It wasn't one factor, it was many factors all hitting within the same year or two.

[pn6]

I was 11 when I first started racing at the local track and was oblivious to any type of pro racing going on in the country. Obviously any news came from word of mouth or the newspaper. My life then was school and play after school. Thats it. Once or twice a week at the track for a race was my racing scratch for that itch.
I remember trying Rewind night after using my winnings from Kit Car night to build a car when I was older (13?). The car was a hand me down chassis from one of the fast guys and the motor was slow. I ended up running my Dynamic Kit Car and did better than with my Open car!!

[Dave of '60s Lancer]

Hey guys

I know it may sound a bit oxymoron-ISH, but in a strange way I have to agree with all of you

in not all, but with some of your conclusions, especially all things coming together at the right time

to cause the downfall like REAL cars, GIRLS, and college.

 

Whatever caused it, the short time it lived, the ride was beyond wonderful and the memories are

fantastic for me.

Being at Lancer and all the many different experiences is something I cherish and will always hold dear.

 

The people, the smell of the hot plastic as it formed, the girls my age that worked there, (OOOWEE) and

all the pranks we played on each other.

It was a life far beyond just pattern making. We were having fun and enjoying life. A SWEET SIMPLE time in the 60's.

To me it's not such a big deal that I was a pattern maker there, BUT I got to be a part of something so COOOOL

 

It only happens ONCE in a life time guy's.

 

At 77 I'm still a kid of 20, young and healthy of heart and body - NO MEDS FELLAS and HEALTHY AS A HORSE, and I still have my toyzzzz to play with.

I think LANCER built that into me with all the TOYZZZ I played with there.

 

My name is Dave Susan, and my life is still FANTASTIC.

 

[pn6]

As with all racing most people want to win and if they dont they go find something else to do. As far as the tracks go its a simple fact that parts sales is where the money is made. Everyday business on the track was better when not racing. No winners or losers just driving with your buddies. Sure wed race each other but crashes and breakage was the norm with kids playing with their toys. Unfortunately kids dont have much money and having more than one car was almost nonexistent so Parts sales was slow. Tracks take up a lot of space so rents were higher than a regular hobby shop. Tracks didnt stock much else besides slot car stuff.
The best shop situation Ive witnessed was a combination hobby and craft shop where the help were very involved in their areas. The help were knowledgeable and the stock was extensive. Additional room for a slot track and drag strip wouldve been a good addition if they had the room. Cross traffic would be the key.
It worked when I managed a Hobby shop in the mid 90s. RC guys were jazzed over slot cars and slot car guys kept looking at trains and RC.

[gc4895]

I will only speak to my 1966-1971 active experience. Lots of tracks appeared in strip malls selling RTR (sort of!!!) equipment. Everything needed immediately expertise and attention to keep running. Only a few had sufficient numbers of 16 year old kids available to fill the expertise gap. First to close were the tracks with retail counters only. Soon, the lone survivor was a hobby store dedicated to trains, models, crafts, etc. Frankly, it used to make us nuts that we serious pimple-faced racers had to stand in line with moms buying colored pipe cleaners or old-farts spending incomprehensible amounts on brass German made steam locomotives. But the diversified hobby store who had the sense to staff up with 16year old kids to keep the RTR cars working survived. Until they dumped their 2 tracks out the back door in 1976. They survive to this day selling hobby materials and are owned by one of those 16 year old kids that fixed RTRs.

Me, I went off to college in 1971. I gave all my stuff to my racing buddies. I didnt walk back into a slot track until 1995 when I had a young son of my own. Never underestimate the need to offer service after the sale with slotcars. My view is this is an enthusiasts hobby, not suited at all to the general public.

[don.siegel]

Totally agree with you GC; that was one of the points I was trying to make - it's back to its natural role as a niche hobby. 

 

The brief fad was an aberration - in short, a fad! Still pretty amazing that hundreds of thousands, or even millions of kids and adults were building and racing these things. 

 

Matt, it may have been a perfect storm of circumstances, but it was inevitable, no matter what happened. Often compared to bowling, but bowling balls don't need their holes replaced, and alleys and rules are pretty much the same anywhere in the world. 

 

It also calls a mind a pet theory of mine: that slot racing is in permanent contradiction, since it's a hobby, by definition practiced alone, and also a competitive sport, by definition practiced in groups. 

 

Don 

[Eddie Fleming]

Talk about thrashing the deceased equine. 

[tonyp]

Once model car racing went from being a fad where whole family’s would come in and run their cars on the tracks booking all lanes from opening to closing, the “racers” the shops then had to depend on for income was never enough to keep the giant raceways open and they were the first to crumble.

Most shops I was involved with had a business plan based on the track rentals from opening to closing. Not only could they pay the rents on those supermarket sized buildings, the bank loans taken out to open them could not be met.

[Don Weaver]

I still believe it was "run what ya brung" that killed off the enthusiasm.  The feeling that "I can't possibly win" against the few in every raceway that had the money and talent to outclass the average racer.  What little bit of slotcar racing is left is done under a set of rules with organized racing using restricted classes of similar construction and parts.

 

Don

[Vay Jonynas]

simply put, all the kids that the slot industry of the early to mid '60's targeted, grew up, got drivers licences and started chasing girls.

 

 

That's missing the point though. Why was a new generation of eleven year olds not stepping up to replace the sixteen year olds who had moved on to more "mature" interests such as real cars and girls?

 

[Vay Jonynas]

I don't think that there is one reason why commercial racing ended so suddenly, but here is what i have seen. There were home sets made before commercial raceways. The home sets started out in 1/32 scale. As a child (born in '58) in the early sixties, as my older sister carted me around to her friend's houses, i saw many a 1/32 scale slot car track, along with train sets, in basements. Also in the early 60's the h.o. scale home sets were getting popular. So the slot car hobby started out marketed towards  home set racing.
 
   Then more hobby manufacturers jumped in (such as Monogram, AMT, Revell- note plastic model makers) making cars, accessories and race sets for home use. 1/32 scale clubs seem to have always been popular. The other dynamic is the boom of commercial raceways and now companies making 1/24 commercial slot cars and accessories. Then there were the slot car/model kit magazines. The slot car articles in these magazines seem mostly about 1/24 scale cars, and all of the racing articles were geared towards commercial track racing and building.
 
    Did all of these groups ever get together? Namely the manufactuers of home and commercial cars, race sets, and accessories, the commercial track industry, and the magazines which was the consumer's source of the current happenings in the hobby? I ask because of the 2 dynamics going on- the home set race set crowd and the commercial raceway crowd.
 
  As i look back to the 1965-1967 era of commercial raceway cars and accessories, it seems that new products werre being made so quickly, with constant improvements, that you could buy a car back then only to find that what you just purchased was not competitive in a race, which must have been very discouraging. The average person buying a rtr or a kit car could not compete with a scratchbuild with a rewound hot motor. Hobby manufacturers were creating a product line that did not match the serious racing at a commercial raceway, yet they expected their product line to be sold at a hobby shop-commercial raceway. Sales began to drop for these types of companies (e.g. Revell, Cox, AMT, Monogram) and small cottage industry companies making performance parts geared towards the more serious racer were picking up. 
 
 And that is why I enjoy 1/24 scale Hardbody racing- building a plastic model kit into a slot car, that performs much like a Cox, AMT, etc type of mid 1960s car did, and is real model car racing, like when this hobby became popular in the 60s.  And why I enjoy real 1960s-1970s original and re-issue slot cars (Aurora Thunderjets, AFX, Tyco pro, Curvehuggers, and similar).

 

Slot racing died because of simple economics!!  A LACK of adequate RULES to stop the "rush" to better technology and control the COST of racing toy cars!!  I started racing in 1961---cars were CHEAP--and of course -- not very good.  But -there were really no rules to control the cost of racing.  Manufacturers jumped in with nothing more in mind than making big bucks.  But-- the cost of racing went from 25-30 bucks in the early 60's to $HUNDREDS of dollars in the late 60's!! And with "open" rules--- the technological RUSH to improve meant the car you bought today was obsolete next week!!  Retro racing today has solved that problem, with RULES and CHEAP MOTORS!!   The same cars I built 5 years ago are still competitive today--at least on the flat tracks!! So racing is economically sound today---and out of control in the late 60's.  Heck,  the death of wing racing today is from the SAME THING!! It's TOO expensive to run an open wing car.  The need for RULES to control the cost of racing has always been needed.  Simple economics!!

 

All went well until one night, a competitor showed up with a rather rough looking Porsche G.P. car - with two 703's stuffed into the rear and dual wheels at each end of the two rear axles. It was fast. My observation that it bore little resemblance to any know car fell on deaf ears. (the counter argument was" no, but it might have been"). Others were inspired by the success of the "road warrior" and, in the ensuing weeks, more and more bizarre arrangements appeared. This was, I suppose, the beginning of the "thingie" era.... In 1963 Ecurie Martini packed its cars, carefully cushioned, in their metal travelling boxes.... As I walked away, I strolled into "The Model Ship Chandler's" and bought a ship model.

 

I still believe it was "run what ya brung" that killed off the enthusiasm.  The feeling that "I can't possibly win" against the few in every raceway that had the money and talent to outclass the average racer.  What little bit of slotcar racing is left is done under a set of rules with organized racing using restricted classes of similar construction and parts.

 
I tend to agree with you fellows. I think there were two main factors behind slot car racing plummeting in popularity in 1968:
 
1. Slot car racing technology advanced so quickly in the 1964-67 period that kids found their lovingly built cars to be uncompetitive if not immediately within weeks of purchase. Moreover by 1968 younger kids couldn't afford the best slot car technology that was available. Those prices were for adults. Nor could kids be expected to have the skills required to build or even tune the cars with the latest technology.
 
2. Secondly styrene plastic model building was the entry "drug" to slot car racing for most kids. The thought of racing a car you'd built yourself was really exciting! But with the advent of ever more aerodynamic bodies made of lightweight Lexan instead of traditional styrene plastic, the link to model building was broken.
 
Therefore a new crop of ten and eleven year olds didn't replace the fifteen and sixteen year olds moving on to other interests, e.g. real cars, guitars and girls. As a result by 1970 all three of the relatively small slot car tracks in my own hometown of London, Ontario had closed. 
 

Edited by Vay Jonynas, 07 September 2020 - 08:41 PM.

[MSwiss]

I don't remember there being that many 10 and 11 year olds at my local raceway.

I was probably near the youngest, at 14 or 15.

it went out because it's a bad business model and it ran its course as a fad.

without guys packed in there, and renting the track frequently, you just can't sustain that big of a space.

Lexan bodies had nothing to do with it. LOL

[pn6]

When I go to BPR in SoCal it's only been on open practice Sundays. I've been 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months and all I see is old guys like me in there. For this to continue there needs to be some re-introduction of young kids to this niche hobby. We actually had a slot car club in junior high which met at the local track every two weeks until the teacher bailed out on us. It was fun though , racing other kids from school with their run whatcha brung stuff. I hope their advertising of party rates and rentals at BPR brings in a younger crowd. We ran cars with bodies from our era ( and still do) so maybe a decent chassis/motor setup with a Civic or Integra or G35 body or something these kids today think is really awesome would get them excited!!

Paul