7 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

From the July 1, 2019, Arkansas Times:

 

Though Jim Cunningham’s home near downtown Little Rock is packed with cool stuff– including a huge steel rack full of vintage racing bikes, the toy car he bought the morning JFK was killed in Dallas, and a hairless black cat with the loudest meow you’ve ever heard – it’s the big slot car track that draws the wows.

 

The track writhes, black and sinuous, over pretty much the whole floor of Cunningham’s huge living room: 16 feet by 9 feet, with 65 feet of two-lane track poured into the space, wrapping in and around and through. Visually and technologically, it’s about as far as you can get from the little Tyco slot car set you may have received for Christmas as a kid.

 

 

Full throttle: Jim Cunningham’s slot car track is built for cars that are almost a foot-long, a far cry from the matchbox-sized, lightly-detailed hot rods you might have played with as a youngster.

 

Click HERE to read the rest of the story.

[Tim Wilkins]

I visited Jim's place in Vista, CA. Glad to see he's still promoting the hobby of slot car racing. 

[MattD]

Good story about another guy that really promotes slot racing and comes up with some good parts every now and then!

[Tim Wood]

Hey Jim,

 Don't know if you will get this message, Just wanted to let you know I still have those first Carerra 1/32 Corvette and F1 I purchased from you  at Nomad raceway Vista. I race at a friends club track once in awhile in Lake Forrest. Some of the Racers from Vista I'm still in contact with. Thanks for your Enthusiasm and getting me back into this hobby. Hope all is well in AR. Parents lived for 20 yrs. in Paris AR. If I make back to AR will look you up.

 

 

Tim Wood

[Bill from NH]

Before I read this article, I hadn't known Jim moved to AK. (5 yrs. ago) When in CA, he had a good collection of vintage scratchbuilt slot cars. I wonder if he still does.

[MSwiss]

Jim participated in a big vintage event at Prof. Motor event with the Brad Blohm/Nick Zuk crowd, in the last year or so.

IIRC, Jim won an event or two with some pretty dominating cars.

When in the Chicago area, Jim has gone out of his way to visit my raceway just to say 'Hi.' A very nice gesture.

Glancing over the article, I'm not sure how they came up with "160 mph and beyond," with what sounds like a wing car, but I've never heard of any slot car going that fast.

Maybe 100 with a wing car, and 150 with a drag funny car.

[Mbloes]

Weirdly, I met Jim from another direction – he painted a bicycle for me. You can see the Cyclart logo behind the bottom bracket:

 

[Cheater]

That Cunningham guy leaves a trail everywhere he goes, because he just drips with talent...