8 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Here's a comprehensive article and well-researched about the rare Turbo Drive slot car arcade game, dating from the late '80s, on the well-regarded website, Forgotten Fiberglass. Forty feet of 1/32 track under a plexiglass dome. I never saw one in person, but am sure I'd have gone through several rolls of quarters very quickly if I had.
 
Geoff Hacker, one of the two owners of the FF website, owns this unit, which he uses with modern Scalextric cars.
 
"My favorite way to play this game is at night. Two fluorescent lights illuminate the track beautifully. These are part of the game and add a nice element at night. Turn the lights off in your gameroom, get something to drink, put “Le Mans” on the DVD player, and line-up your favorite slot cars to play along."
 
Turbo Drive Slot Car Arcade Game
 

 

[John Streisguth]

Too cool!!

[Tim Wilkins]

Kind of reminds me of the multi-level track someone on eBay was trying to sell a couple of month ago.

[Half Fast]

That is one very interesting article and game.

 

Cheers,

[don.siegel]

Ironically enough, I happened to switch on Pawn Stars this evening while waiting for a soccer game to start, and in the 5 minutes I watched, a guy brought in a Turbo Drive arcade game to sell! 

 

He wanted $3,000 for it, so the owner brought in an expert who knew all about the game: he explained it was the second version, without the chicane, etc., but that he thought collectors preferred the original version. Anyway, he said he saw these go at auction for 300, 500 or up to 800 dollars, but then said something about it maybe being worth $2500 to some collector. The set seems to work perfectly, which is rare. Dates from 1988 and they made 240 of them, but couldn't sell any more because it wasn't profitable enough for owners, according to the expert.  

 

So the pawn guy offers $1,000, and they agree on $1,100, the seller doesn't have much leverage, because he doesn't want to schlep it back home - it's a pretty big item. 

 

Just thought it was funny that I would zap on a station for a couple minutes and find a slot car item! 

 

Don 

[Mr. M]

I ran on one at Chuck e Cheese, never saw one since. That would have been before 1980. It was not very popular in the arcade.

[Mr. M]

And it was the one with the crossover! Wait, you live in Paris and they show Pawn Stars? How about a video snippet in French?

[don.siegel]

Sorry Mr. M, it was on broadcast TV, so can't show a snippet - even on regular non-pay TV (terrestrial digital these days...), we have about 30 stations here and that's a lot of air time to fill, so the stations buy rights to stuff like Pawn Stars (along with Friends and other better known shows), do voiceovers, dub or subtitle and broadcast in French. Along with Pawn Stars, a French station also shows the one about the storage lockers being opened and people bidding on them... 

 

If your's was in 1980, couldn't have been the Turbo Drive, since it came out in 1988; but there were a few arcade games from the 60s and the intervening years, so maybe another one? I did see one from AMF, shown in SF somewhere, that kind of looks like the Turbo Drive. 

 

Don 

[Mr. M]

Bad typing on my part, should have said before 1990, I am pretty sure it was the Turbo model.