75 replies to this topic

[MSwiss]

One of my customers made me aware of this place earlier today.
 
It's located on the (fairly close) outskirts of Downtown Chicago (less than one mile from the Gold Coast/Magnificent Mile, and the most expensive shopping in Chicago.)
 
"Part Airbnb, part hotel, part hostel, part local hangout, it lives within the old 11-story Borden Dairy Depot warehouse at 312 W. Chestnut Street and overlooks a private park."
 
Looks like it has two Dadd's six-lane tracks, that are either new, or nicely refurbed.
 
More info: HERE.
 
                                   
      
 

[Matt Sheldon]

Are those old gym bleachers to spectate?

[MSwiss]

They are, but I'm not sure they are in the same area as the slot car tracks.

[PCH Parts Express]

Looks fancy. 

[Eddie Fleming]

is this a raceway shop or some kind of recreation area?

[MSwiss]

Definitely the latter.
 
That's why I put "raceway" in quotations. LOL.
 
In the pic, the track doesn't look like it's been run.

[Bill from NH]

Are those old gym bleachers to spectate?

 
Forestville Raceway in Forestville, CT, had bleachers for this purpose in the early '70s. I've heard the owner's original plans were to charge fifty cents per person. This raceway also sold tropical fish.

[MSwiss]

Another view of the tracks;

 

[Mike K]

I read about this elsewhere on the internet. It's part Airbnb, hostel, apartment building and social club. Interesting concept aimed at millennials?

[MattD]

Nice tracks, I wonder where they will be next year?

[MSwiss]

I called them, just to get some info, if I'm asked about it.
 
Their plan, at least at first, is to use the tracks for private parties, once they get someone to "run the game."

[MSwiss]

Nice tracks, I wonder where they will be next year?

Matt,

You, of course, are entitled to your usual "dark cloud" opinion about the future of raceways, but I was kind of hoping this would be a "Hey, there's hope for slot racing", feel good, kind of thread.
 
IIRC, you normally comment about slot racing facilities being under-financed and sort of dumpy.
 
This certainly seems like neither.

[Samiam]

This place is definitely unique. Hotel, hostel, hangout, raceway, activity center. Very Retro.

Reminds me of the track scene in "Pulp Fiction". I want to see what the place looks like full of people. The crossover contact will expose people to slots that otherwise may have never known it existed.

[MSwiss]

Good point on the "Pulp Fiction" comparison, Sam.
 
I wonder if that inspired the owner(s).
 
And yes, everything helps.
 
Reading up a little bit more on it, they credit Chris Dadds as the track builder, as I suspected, by the lane striping on the driver's panel.
 
I'm kind of surprised he didn't post something about doing the builds on here or OWH.

[MattD]

As you say Mike it's my dark cloud opinion. I wish it was otherwise.

I can only wish those great-looking tracks were in a shop run by you or somebody like you. But it doesn't seem like that's the case, especially if they are trying to find someone to "run the game." Is that what they call slot racing, a "game"?

[Samiam]

I don't think "racing" is their goal. Looks to be more of an entertainment/recreational atmosphere.

Where are the pinball machines?

[MSwiss]

As you say Mike it's my dark cloud opinion. I wish it was otherwise.

I can only wish those great looking tracks were in a shop run by you or somebody like you. But it doesn't seem like that's the case, especially if they are trying to find someone to "run the game". Is that what they call slot racing, a "game"?

 

Thanks, Matt.
 
Needless to say, slot racing is just a tiny portion of their deal there.
 
I've contacted them, offering to get them connected to someone who could run "the game," or at least train someone else, how to run "the game."
 
FWIW, not real often, but along with the kids, I've had the birthday party hostess ask me when I'm going to start the game(s).

[Robert BG]

I think this is definitely a great thing for slot cars and hope they do well with it. They really have a way to open a lot of new people to slots and theirs a good chance at least a few will funnel into other "real" raceways.

 

Ideally with the right person they could offer a few different levels of cars to the clients and if a enterprising raceway owner hooked up with them to help them out chances are it would be a win for both parties involved.

 

Lets face it, as racers we generally don't like the "party"crowd but they do create a buzz and get new racers through the doors and I don't know about you but they almost always are having a ball.

 

I wish them the best of luck and hopefully a raceway will team up with them and help each other out. 

[Dave Crevie]

They must be planning on supplying the cars and controllers. I also wonder if it is going to be staffed.

This is the first time I have seen a slot track as a facility for a hotel, or whatever the other use is. It looks like there are lockers in the back for a pool, or exercise facility.

It will be interesting to see how this works out.

[MSwiss]

Yes, Dave.

See my posts #11 and 17.

I had Larry in mind as someone would could possibly help them learn the ropes, but I got a call from another retiree, with some slot car experience, willing to offer some training.

I think his name may rhyme with Harry Poolitch. LOL.

[MattD]

Maybe they will be smart enough to get Mike to come and set up and run this. If they don't get somebody equally qualified, I don't think they will bump the needle on our hobby. Get somebody in there to explain, help, and publicize the hobby like we know it and it might lead to some people getting seriously involved.

If all you have are flexi-cars and when something breaks, they just give you another car, nobody learns the finer points of slot racing. If cars are not maintained to have good and equal performance, it isn't conducive to people racing and having fun.

Maybe if they would have a group of local racers come in one or two nites a week to run cars, show cars, explain cars and give some technical advice/lessons they might get sustained interest and be more than an oddity.

Educating and help new people learn and become successful is probably the best way to expand numbers.

Our outlaw Monday night group is the only night anybody comes in and just plays and runs for fun. Anybody with vintage stuff is usually directed to me and they will visit on Monday nights.

 

This week we had a return visit from a guy whose dad raced in the '60s. His first visit a month ago, I gave him price estimates on the old stuff he had. This week he came back with a couple vintage cars he tuned up to race with us. Two of us spent over an hour bringing him up to date, helping him learn a little more about car setting-up, and he was so appreciative, he said "I will be back next week." He really had fun and us taking time to help him made the difference.

 

We have a few guys that are new to it all and we finally decided we needed to have a couple basic lessons about slot cars just to get them going the right direction. Really basic stuff: soldering wires, difference in performance when you change gear ratio, mounting a body properly, guide flag depth, and front wheel height. Really simple stuff we all do in our sleep. We even have a guy who was a track owner and he didn't know how changing gears affected speed, or that a lot of motors are faster in one direction then the other! Such basic stuff, but if some local guys frequented this place and got people involved to this level, it might actually help it go in the right direction and not just be a fad and next year no one uses the facilities and it ends up a racketball court.

 

Plus any serious guys would buy parts from you, Mike!

[don.siegel]

Hate to say it, but I'm more on Matt's dark cloud here, although I obviously hope this pans out. 

 

I've had a few experiences with guys opening centers who had no real slot racing experience, and even tho this is not a center, the same lessons apply: if you don't have someone around who knows the basics, you're going to get into trouble very quickly. 

 

The first time was about 20 years ago in a resort town on the Normandy coast, where a guy had opened a summer/tourist type place with a very nice 4-lane Fleischmann track, rented for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, with a car. But... the track was way too difficult for beginners and long enough that going to get your deslotted car was a PITA. Secondly, he had absolutely no idea how to maintain the cars, or even where to find spare braid, etc. Don't think that place was around next time I passed through. 

 

Second was Le Slot Center that opened in Paris about 15 years ago, with a 6-lane Carrera track for 1/32 and an 8 lane wood track for 1/24 (Flexi type stockers). They did at some point in fact hire a slot racer who knew what he was doing, but then didn't keep their promises to him, underpaid him, etc., so he finally left.  They actually did pretty well at the beginning, by the way, selling an awful lot of cars (it was a ritzy area of Paris, where the guys had money), and for awhile had a good turnout for the 1/32 races (Wednesday evening), but struggled to get a good crowd for the 1/24 - among other reasons because it was on Saturday night! I and the other married guys tried to explain this wasn't a good idea, but they didn't listen... 

 

No, not exactly comparable to the situation here, but the constant is you need somebody competent to run things, sooner rather than later, and you have to treat them right and get them "invested" in the project, one way or another. 

 

Slot cars are not bowling bowls - they wear out, need tuning, etc. And races have to be quick, fun and fair... 

 

Don 

[Dennis David]

Scalextric is called a car racing game in the U.K. I wonder if you could run this as a game and actually have team races and league play.

I've always liked a setup like this as a club. Let's keep an open mind here. It's not like we have such a great "track record" unless your idea is to run a hobby into the ground ;-)

[Ramcatlarry]

I am going to be in that neighborhood tomorrow and hope to get a peek. Chis and I have met with a hostel staffer about a similar installation last summer and this may be one of several locations in the city. Urban Holiday Lofts is my contact info and a part-time job option might work.  
 
Race weekend rentals can be affordable for visiting racers for the Sano and other area races - if you do not mind a dorm-like setting...

[Chris Dadds]

Hi Mike, and everybody.

 

Yes, I know a bit about this, having met the principals and built the tracks.

 

Larry, this is the facility we were talking about. Robby is the partner who we did Coffee and Cars with last summer. He may not be in the facility when you get there tomorrow as their business model is to develop a hospitality venture then staff it with some really wide awake people to take care of the guests. Perhaps their operations manager Madelin will be on site. Introduce yourself!

 

They've done a very extensive redevelopment of the building into quite a nice hostel for younger international travelers. The whole theme of the development's decor integrates elements they've found from old gymnasiums and artistically integrated them into the public front end bar, bistro, hangout area on the first floor. The tracks are in the basement across from the kitchen area reserved for the hostel guests. The slot tracks seem to be the small part of this development that follows the "Ready, Fire, Aim" business model that so many successful creatives can pull off. I haven't yet heard whether the tracks will be open to the public or not, but I know plans are afoot for the registered guests to entertain themselves with slot racing. I noticed they have both Air Hockey and Foosball in the basement also. I suspect that with this new development having been open less than a month, management is still running the bugs out of the main business they know how to make work. I also suspect that if a group of guys wanted to make reservations to show up with their own cars, controls, and designated race director to rent all 12 lanes for an afternoon the staff would be accommodating.

 

Considering that the largest proportion of people exposed to these tracks will be absolute newbies, the ability to have it run a simple game with attractive, easy-to-repair cars was the driving factor in their design. Space was also a major consideration. It appears they'll be renting Carrera cars and Professor Motor controls. However, my being a reformed old school Speed Crazed Moron I kept the thought of short geared 1/32 Eurosports in mind as I laid out a UK Black and Cornerclimb to fit the available space. ;-) The slots are cut at 3.6" centers and follow my Real Racing Line through the turns. Being new tracks the recess is less than 10 thou. The surface is painted with flat epoxy for "no glue" racing and they are wired with a single balanced power tap to keep the power from the 90 amp Bulldog soft and even. There's even a means to reduce the power on all lanes simultaneously. Race direction and time sales is done through Carsten.s LapMaster system.

 

Considering the facility having food, drinks, and housing on site I think it could be a draw as a national and world slot racing destination if someone could build it to that level. We'll just have to wait and see what they do with it.