61 replies to this topic

[Allan Feldman]

Now I known why I cannot find any of these slotcars! I like the idea of raising them on blocks to stop the tyres from flatting. Or in my case a Tamiya P2 Ferraris rear tyres turning shiny and distorting 

[Don Wedding]

Here is some more eye candy , Matt The box with the Chaparral 2E is the same one you reproduced and got from you 20 years ago . All the cars in that box are my runners when I go to a track and show the new guys what vintage slot cars looked and ran like . The 2E still runs great even after a few wrecks and the Wing operates as well. You made some very good bodies.  

[Don Wedding]

Here is some more eye candy , Matt The box with the Chaparral 2E is the same one you reproduced and got from you 20 years ago . All the cars in that box are my runners when I go to a track and show the new guys what vintage slot cars looked and ran like . The 2E still runs great even after a few wrecks and the Wing operates as well. You made some very good bodies.  

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[Martin]

Don you reminded me of the race boxes we take to the track. Nice pro cars by the way.

 

This is my race box, with the Vintage cars that we raced at SCR in  Rohnert Park California.

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[MattD]

Don, you're still winning.   You have an impressive collection.      The guys that I race with don't care about the old stuff at all.    They weren't involved back then.   I guess that makes a difference.   Even though I was only a commercial  racer for about a year or so, I got interested in the stuff I saw in old magazines and before long I learned as much as I could about the stuff from late 65-68.   That started it all.   

 

There are guys  that have made 2E bodies a lot better than those bodies I made  25 years ago.    My stuff was crude.

 

Here are the two boxes I take, depending on where.    Not vintage, but mostly just old style slot cars and hard bodies.

 

These are hard bodies that I used to run on the local track.   They all run great on my track, but they wouldn't last long on the shorter track I have.    Too many opportunities to get crashed.  Not like being on a King where you can stay clear of wrecks a lot easier.    The blue 37 Chev actually goes int he other box.  It is setup for oval track racing and left turns.

 

 

This box has cars I take to another guys house to run on his oval or dragstrip.   The painted bodies don't travel, they are just stored in this box.    There is also a primered 55 Chevy that is usually in the box, but it is home on the work bench.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MattD]

Old Indy cars.  7-8  factory cars, mostly  resin  bodies I've made.    All are set up for racing and are replicas of old Indy cars.  .

 

This case is down at the slot car track garage and it's a combination of resin and vac formed bodies.  

 

[Martin]

Prolific Matt, your collection represents a life time of building and collecting. Nicely done.

[MattD]

I still have a bit more, but Don has a really nice collection and has worked hard to get really mint cars.    Martin has more stuff boxed up and hiding from us.

I appreciate seeing what other guys have and their displays,  big and small, new and used. 

 

I sold off 50%-60% of my stuff back around 2000.   A lot of this is collected for the second time.  I paid less for most of it this second time.

[boxerdog]

Don you reminded me of the race boxes we take to the track. Nice pro cars by the way.

 

This is my race box, with the Vintage cars that we raced at SCR in  Rohnert Park California.

I was lucky enough to get in on the last few years of VMRA. That was a great way of meeting a terrific group of racers and having a LOT of fun using up old slot cars. I'm still using the 2005 mouse pad!

[Martin]

I had one of those, must have worn it out. Have not seen my mouse pad for a while. Can you take a pic of that. I have several cars in that line up.

 

Sure do miss Mark and the guys. I still see Frank now and then.

 

David do you have pics of your old cars?

[Mad Mark]

Man do you guys have the treasures! all my cars are in sandwich bags stored away so the tires don’t rot out.

[MattD]

Mark, I try to use shims to set my cars up so they set level with the rear tires not touching.   I get screen door trim at Home Depot and  cut  pieces 3-4 inches long.   The new cars I build have silicone coated tires.         A lot of the old cars have typical useless tires.   

 

Great to see what you other guys have and the displays and race boxes with the jewel like quality of those cars Don and Martin have in their boxes.   I would have thought more guys had some vintage stuff they would share, but I guess we are a small part of this forum.

 

I bought this at the local flea market with the intention of making a real slow drag car drag car that would get a big handicap.   

Found a similar vac body on Ebay and put this together to run in our weekly races.

I got the driver from the original inspiration and am going to make a copy to fit the vac body.

 

[MattD]

Here's something I did a few months ago.   

 

In So. Indiana hydroplane racing has been a big part of racing history.   From Madison to Evansville there is a lot of history of racing on the Ohio River.   Madison still has the Regatta and Evansville still has annual racing.

 

The U6 Miss Madison is the boat and story  the movie "Madison" is based on.   While the movie is not very accurate, it is accurate that this under financed, old boat sponsored by the city actually won the Regatta in 71 against all the big teams.    

 

It is a 1/48 model, while the 36 is 1/24, but they look good together.    I have a 1/24 Miss Budweiser and may build it as the U6 in the future.   

[MattD]

[Martin]

A great range of interests there Matt. Slots, statics, trains, boats and guitars too! WOW

[Allan Feldman]

I have a question guys when i was younger (I am 69) and did not have the money The slotcar boom came. But the American cars always were much more expensive.I did get a 1/32nd Cox Ford GT and a Monogram 330P/LM But they were birthday presents.Nearly £5 each when Scalextric  were 35 shilling (£1 15 shilling) We mostly made do with Scalextic. I know that I think Steve in Australia had an easier time getting Tamiya slotcars than us in the UK. Was it just down to geographical places of manufacture and import costs? What Slotcars were rare in your area as a kid? And why was there such a boom in HO scale slotcars like Aurora in the USA was it to do with the right scale gauge for model Railroads?

Regards Allan

[MattD]

Martin, my wife did a poll this morning and asked me  what have I been doing a long time and I am still not very good at it???   Simple, been building slots and models for 60 years and still don't have the skill for the fine detail work like you and some of the other guys do.   I been playing guitar for nearly 50 years and still am not real good at that.   I do have fun doing all that stuff half-a**ed though!!!

[MattD]

Allan, when I was a kid of 14, the local track, really small, stocked Cox Ford GT's, I remember the Classic Manta Ray and the Banshee.   those were common at our track.   I quit before the really good cars showed up.    I never saw any kind of foreign product until the 80's when I got into collecting.

 

My good trading buddy in OZ says when he was a kid Tamiya and Hasegawa were everywhere and the American cars were expensive and not near as easy to find.    

[Phil Smith]

I somehow missed this thread. Wow! I had no idea some of you had such huge collections.

 

I mostly buy parts and only have 4 or 5 vintage cars. In fact I've bought more than a few cars and disassembled them for the parts.

 

But looking at y'alls cars I have to question what I've been doing. Any of you want make a guess as to how many cars you have?

[Don Wedding]

Matt , besides slot cars , Im a drummer , been playing bars since I was 14, had to have a special permit to be in there , since I was not 21 . Saw a lot of sites at a young age . Here is some of my equipment I have collected .

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[MattD]

Rock on!!!  Don I sold a 69 Les Paul goldtop 3 years ago and am all acoustic now.   I never played electric, it just sat on a stand and I figure my luck would be it would end up stolen.   I am a couch picker and other than yearly  Christmas party that I do some stuff with a few friends, I never play anywhere.   I can hang in with typical rock/pop chord progressions.   I prefer old time acoustic blues.

 

I do have a couple flatops and my prize is pretty well worn, but I have a Takamine I bought in 72 that all the guys in The Allman Brothers signed for me back in the 90's.   It was their music that got me interested in guitar back around 1970.  

 

Music is food for the soul!!

[don.siegel]

Yep, but I only listen. No talent for any of it, and everytime I try to sing, everybody tells me to shut up - including myself!

 

I'm an old lit major and have continued reading quite a bit - wanted to be a writer, but that never worked out. I have copy edited a couple slot car books however. About the same time I rediscovered slots, I also rediscovered ping pong - and have played competitively since. At 68 my ranking has slipped over the last 15 years, but I still enjoy playing - and eating pizza with the guys after a match!

 

Allan, those are some good questions.

 

I think the higher prices for imported stuff was all down to customs and other tarrifs. I have seen price lists from France in the 60s, and the prices are 2 to 3 times what they were in the States - the same as in most other countries. Back in Chicago, I was aware of other countries' slots, mostly Scalextric and MRRC, but that was mostly because the magazines talked about them. My first controller was the classic MRRC barrel shaped blue model, bought at Polk's hobbies in NYC. Getting anything from England took an extra effort, and there was plenty of stuff closer to hand. However, in a 64 interview, Alban Adams says that about half of MRRC's sales went to the USA.

 

Why was Aurora HO so popular in the States? Several reasons: 1) a good product; 2) lots of publicity, including mainstream magazines, which few other companies did; 3) the right product at the right time. They came along about when Strombecker and Eldon/Ungar did, but with a more complete system and probably better designed. I got an Eldon in 62, but it was a POS, and it was replaced by an Aurora Tjet set in 63, and that was my main interest for the next couple years, then gradually replaced by 1/32 and finally 1/24 commercial racing. It seems counter-intuitive that tiny Aurora would catch on in the great open spaces of the US, but even in big houses, space is at a premium, and kids just like kid-size stuff. Don't underestimate the contribution of the Tjet technology either - it's still in production nearly 60 years later!

 

Answer to another question: I've got about 2000 cars in my collection, mostly vintage, fewer in finished form than either Matt or Don above; plus hundreds of chassis and motors and thousands of parts

 

Don

[MattD]

Ping Pong, great.  Who would have thought it.   We did that at the parocial school I went to.  I was never much good, but there were some guys that were and they could slam that ball and keep it on the table.   

 

Interesting to hear what you other guys are into.   All us old farts have a lifetime of interests in many things.     I know Martin is into motorcycles and he is a talented fabricator that has designed and worked on a lot of special vehicles.     A bunch of guys like me and Don that play or try to play some kind of instrument.   A lot of these guys are really good, but no way they could make a living with it.    

 

We have the post Rich put on about growing up int he 50's and 60's and most of it is pretty common to all of us.    I guess we had a lot more opportunities than most kids today.   We were always involved with things we could do with out hands.   

 

Don, I read 2-3 books a week and it costs me lots of sleep!   I read for fun (mysteries) and for info (racing biographies).  

[MattD]

Some of Chris Cassidy's collection.

[chris11]

i have to get more cases for the rest of them

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