12 replies to this topic

[Ted Bier]

So I have these 2 motors, both marked " Made in Japan " .

The tires are marked UNGAR, those hubcaps look M-B SL maybe !

Is this from Eldon, Marx, Lionel ?

Any guesses ?

THANKS !

 

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 

[Samiam]

Direct drive? I have similar looking ones that I got with a bunch of Pittman style motors. Some tested OK so they will go into powering scratch built 1/32 cars. 

 

They are sealed so maybe the IRRA should consider them for duty?   

[Ted Bier]

The more I look at them....I'm thinking these are for " Motorized " model kits !

[don.siegel]

Nope, these are indeed for early Eldon slot cars, that used direct drive, in "Indy" type cars. Eldon seems to have taken over the early Ungar line, introduced in 1960, so not sure if the Ungar cars also used this setup. 

 

Here's a photo of the car and its chassis, along with a few more complicated drive systems! 

 

 

 

Don 

 

 

[Mark Mattei]

Hi Don, you know, if we put this effort into something of consequence, we could do some damage. Never mind, Im going back to playing with toys. Onto the important stuff, this car has an Ungar Special sticker with Eldon wheels, the wheels are not ribbed like the tires in the first post but both have 7.50-15 on their sidewalls. More in next post. Mark.

Attached Images

• 
• 

[Mark Mattei]

This 1960 Ungar Motorized Hot Rod kit came with a small fold out product flier showing the Auto Race Set.

Attached Images

• 
• 

[don.siegel]

I know what you mean Mark - I am the acting president of our building's owners' board, and putting some effort into that... well, we may go bankrupt soon, but at least I'll have made my contribution to the History of Slot Racing! 

 

I notice here, and saw this before, that the cars in the Ungar leaflet are not quite like the ones shown, since they have sort of a squared off fin, not rounded, like the drawing of the racer kit. Were the cars in the earliest Ungar sets more like the ones in the drawing, or was that just an artist's fantasy? The Ungar 1960 flyer in color also shows these cars with the square fins, but ... heck, here's the photo! 

 

Don 

 

 

[Ted Bier]

Very nice pix, cool slot car history ! Ungar , hmm !

[Alchemist]

Wow!

 

That's the first time I have seen this type of slot car from the 60's!

 

Excellent photos!

 

Thank you for sharing gentleman!

 

G

[MattD]

The Ungar set was the first slot car set  I had.    Poor battery power, poor controllers, poor everything.   The Eldon products were obviously better.   The Eldon products I have had over the years were cheap, but they probably were a decent toy in the early 60's.   

[don.siegel]

Not the first Eldon set I had... I think it was from late 62: the Gold Cup set, with the two "Ferrari style" sports cars, except mine had worm gears, which must not have lasted very long, because I've never seen that version again: they quickly switched to a conventional contrate gear setup. 

 

I think it lasted about 3 days before one of the cars broke... and that's when I found out I liked fiddling around with the cars as much as racing. 

 

That gave me a lifelong prejudice against Eldon, but in fact a year or two later I saw a Selectronic set at a friend's, and it seemed to run pretty well. 

 

Don 

[MattD]

Is that Ted Knight in the Eldon ad above?

[ajd350]

Is that Ted Knight in the Eldon ad above?

Thought that same thing...