537 replies to this topic

[Mark Wampler]

Commercial tracks only existed temporarily out of pure emotionalism.  Slot cars were THE hot button hobby.  The large foot print of tracks vs paying sq ft rental space could not be sustained.  Sales of cars, parts kept the momentum going for a few years. By the end of '68 shortly after angle winders came out, tracks closed up like dominoes.  The ones who were determined to stay open usually had to downsize and replace tracks with pinball machines and later arcade games with one remaining track. 

[MattD]

Is it true?  Slot car racing has faded?   Actually while commercial raceways are becoming like dinosaurs and may not be long lived, the home racing scene with 1/32 is pretty solid right now.    If there is growth it is in that area.   It may have already peaked, but it is still the largest segment of slot racing.    It remains a viable oiption to playing with slots for most anyone.

[gatormark]

Bottom line..playing with toy cars was never meant to be a business...same thingvtoday. Ya wanna make a million in slotcars...start with two million

[Pablo]

Your slot cars may be "toys" to you, and it's your right to call them whatever you want.

 

Toys are big business, it's a fact.

 

My slot cars are not toys.

 

So I respectfully disagree with your statement 100%.

[Martin]

Mark Said

"By the end of '68 shortly after angle winders came out, tracks closed up like dominoes"

 

So angle winders killed slot cars,

 

[Bill from NH]

Maybe it was the orange tires. 

[Ecurie Martini]

Maybe it was the orange tires. 

 

There may be more than a grain of truth in that simple statement.

 

Look at the fading fortunes of NASCAR: In the 40s 50s and even beyond, you could go to a dealership on Monday and buy a Chrysler 300, Olds 88 or Hudson Hornet that,  with the exception of numbers, looked like the car that won the race on Saturday. Today NASCAR is a collection of cookie cutter bodies, all fitted to the same profile in the name of equity and distinguishable only by stick on badges.

 

In the late 60s, the commercial slot racing scene was becoming dominated by speed at any cost missiles that had morphed well beyond even a passing resemblance to real racing cars. My impression, from reading this forum, is that while the pace of change may have slowed the direction is still the same.

 

It was certainly the “orange tire effect” that spelled the end of my slot racing activities in 1965. They were awakened from their Rip van Winkle slumber by a local 1/32 group in 1995.

[Tim Neja]

I've said it before--but I think the simplest explanation to the death of slot racing is the COST of slot racing.  There were not enough rules to racing class's back in the day and it evolved quickly into a "technology" investment race!  I went racing in 1962 for a cost approximately $50 for my WHOLE program.  A couple of cars--controller-some spare parts.  I checked with a good friend when I came back to slot racing in 1997 and asked him what his "Open program" cost him to race for a year!  He replied he spent $25,000 in the past year developing his open cars including the motors/tires etc. that it cost to race!! WOW! If I'm spending $25k on a car to race--I'm going to be SITTING IN IT!! 

[MSwiss]

$25K is an extreme case....especially back in 1997.

 

As GM at Koford, my parts were free, and I never went through anywhere near that much stuff in 1 year.

 

In 1988, I won both the World's and Nat's, and ran in 41 G7 races.

 

I don't think I went through $5k in parts, that year.

[tonyp]

Slots started as a fad in most parts of the country like the hula hoop, people came in to run their cars on the tracks. Not caring of doing serious racing, just having fun with friends and family.

When the fad wore off only serious racers were left and since lots of shops were based on renting every lane from opening to closing time expenses could not be met. The supermarket sized building rent was the biggest issue.

With shops closing left and right off the street customers were afraid to invest in the hobby because tomorrow their investment could be worthless.


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[don.siegel]

Well Tony, no... slots started out as a pure hobby in basements, dens, attics and clubs and that morphed into the commercial racing scene which really was a fad. 

 

We're kind of back to the origins. Commercial slot racing, as much as we loved it and as exciting as it was at the time, was just a small aberration in the whole history of the hobby - which reaches back to 1912 or 1955, depending on how you define it. 

 

Don 

[tonyp]

I meant the commercial side of it. I started out racing at home myself.


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[pn6]

Back in the 90s when we moved our mostly full line hobby shop to a more populated central tri city area we added a full size slot car track and drag strip. On that track I ran some laps with wing car before hauling out my 60s stuff. Talk about zero fun! You couldnt follow it with your eyes and it didnt look like any race car or street car so my interest was zero. Yes technology helped ruin a good thing and floor space cost finished it off. The drag strip made more money because everybody wanted to build a drag car or 2 or 3 or!!!
Today my favorite car is a Russkit slim chassis with a home set 16d and a BRP Lancer body on it. Slower than the hard body cars and more fun to me. We didnt need the speed when we were kids to have fun and I dont think most kids would care about the speed now. Home set racing is where its at more because cars are readily available and look like a real car! Home set 1/32 cars on a commercial track would be good fun I think!

[elvis44102]

the world was different in the 50s-70s..we had several baseball or football teams on any block..today i dodnt even see kids outside at all..look at the styles from those decades!! its not uncommon to see 50 yr old with a backwards ball cap now..really?..the numbers just aren't there..i am a history buff and forever look for links and such..its just numbers

[Vay Jonynas]

 

There may be more than a grain of truth in that simple statement.

 

Look at the fading fortunes of NASCAR: In the 40s 50s and even beyond, you could go to a dealership on Monday and buy a Chrysler 300, Olds 88 or Hudson Hornet that,  with the exception of numbers, looked like the car that won the race on Saturday. Today NASCAR is a collection of cookie cutter bodies, all fitted to the same profile in the name of equity and distinguishable only by stick on badges.

 

In the late 60s, the commercial slot racing scene was becoming dominated by speed at any cost missiles that had morphed well beyond even a passing resemblance to real racing cars. My impression, from reading this forum, is that while the pace of change may have slowed the direction is still the same.

 

It was certainly the “orange tire effect” that spelled the end of my slot racing activities in 1965. They were awakened from their Rip van Winkle slumber by a local 1/32 group in 1995.

 

 

I've said it before--but I think the simplest explanation to the death of slot racing is the COST of slot racing.  There were not enough rules to racing class's back in the day and it evolved quickly into a "technology" investment race!  I went racing in 1962 for a cost approximately $50 for my WHOLE program.  A couple of cars--controller-some spare parts. 

 

 

That's a pretty good summary of what killed the slot car racing hobby, or commercial slot car track fad if you prefer, in those two posts.

 

[Vay Jonynas]

the world was different in the 50s-70s..we had several baseball or football teams on any block..today i dodnt even see kids outside at all..

 

 

Indeed. It's sad. I see all kinds of baseball diamonds and even football fields with goal posts these days that would put any I saw as a kid in the early sixties to shame. My buddies and i would have loved to have fieds and facilities of that sort on which to play, but play we did anywhere and without any pesky adult supervision. But these days I never see the five baseball diamonds within 500 yards of my house used for anything but organized games with uniforms, coaches, umpires and all. Never do I see kids just playing for the fun of it.

 

 

look at the styles from those decades!! its not uncommon to see 50 yr old with a backwards ball cap now..really?

 

 

I can't even imagine my father wearing a baseball cap let alone one on backwards! Grown men wore fedoras until the mid-sixties.

 

 

[elvis44102]

Kennedy stopped the fedora..not slocars

[Pablo]

Slot car racing faded quickly because the raceways closed down without warning. No place to play.

 

Shame on the places that closed down without warning. No "going out of business" sign on the door. Nothing.

You show up to race and the door is locked.

 

Then another raceway opens up. You buy parts to race again, and they close down. No place to play.

It is still happening today, like a broken record.

 

With a very few exceptions like Chicagoland, etc.

[Ecurie Martini]

 
 
 
 
I can't even imagine my father wearing a baseball cap let alone one on backwards! Grown men wore fedoras until the mid-sixties.
 
 

 
I had (an still have, although rarely worn,) a Homburg.
 
EM

[Vay Jonynas]

Slot car racing faded quickly because the raceways closed down without warning. No place to play.

 

Shame on the places that closed down without warning. No "going out of business" sign on the door. Nothing.

You show up to race and the door is locked.

 

Then another raceway opens up. You buy parts to race again, and they close down. No place to play.

It is still happening today, like a broken record.

 

 

Sort of a chicken-and-egg situation though. The tracks close because of too few customers.

 

[NSwanberg]

Glue?

[tonyp]

The crash happened before the glue became a factor.


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[elvis44102]

good people were oversold the money-making ability of slotcars..that generation won the war bought house with family acquired savings from boom economy..Americans have plenty of pie in the sky get rich plans

[Michael Jr.]

I've got new racers coming every week still. That's one point.  It's early so I can't tell you how many stay with it but they are coming in and buying a car and racing.

 

To a person they all talk about how affordable this hobby is. They buy a RTR car and a Koford controller under $140

 

Most have already gravitated to a small group of racers and each small group has a pack leader that is herding his little racing group. I am promoting that approach tbh.

 

So I don't think commercial slot car racing is doomed nor do I think it is so expensive that people find it to high a mountain to climb. 

[Vay Jonynas]

I've got new racers coming every week still. That's one point.  It's early so I can't tell you how many stay with it but they are coming in and buying a car and racing.

 

To a person they all talk about how affordable this hobby is. They buy a RTR car and a Koford controller under $140

 

Most have already gravitated to a small group of racers and each small group has a pack leader that is herding his little racing group. I am promoting that approach tbh.

 

 

Do you meet with the pack leaders of each small group to work out "equitable" acceptable for that group's formal racers? Say such-and-such bodies, chasses and motors?