34 replies to this topic

[TSR]

yes, of course that is another issue! But what would a good book be if not for making the reader discover an all new previously unknown world... and one can fill his mind with dreams!

[Vay Jonynas]

Truth!

 

[TSR]

One thing regarding the pictures: if you take a magnifying glass to them, the definition is truly incredible, you can increase the picture X 10, and the detail comes out as good as if it was an 3000 pixels image on your screen! I don't know how they do this, but it is a tribute to modern digital technology. This was printed and bound in Santa Barbara in California and not in China.

[Vay Jonynas]

The printers of Santa Barbara clearly have a skill set that puts those others to shame.

 

:;

[Vay Jonynas]

I re-read pages 25-32 chronicling the explosion of slot car racing in 1962, the factors behind the crash of 1967-68 and the rebirth of the 1990's. I found myself nodding again and again saying "That's right!" because the things we've been discussing on this board for the last seventeen years are all there nicely encapsulated and illustrated in a few pages.

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

The birth of commercial slot car raceways started in the state of Maine during 1967-68. We did not experience the crash that everybody likes to talk about.

[TSR]

So Bill, you guys were that far behind, hey?

[Bill from NH]

I was building model cars before then. And I had an AMT Turnpike set to play with.

[Vay Jonynas]

So if you've been accumulating slot car stuff for 35 years or more as I have, you're probably hazy on the details of where and when you acquired any specific item and in some cases precisely who manufactured a certain item. Therefore when I looked in one of the drawers where I keep slot car stuff and saw a burgundy Mercury Comet body with a white stripe together with a loose bag of parts, I was momentarily confused. Then the memory of acquiring the parts for a cool Mercury stock car from Philippe at Electric Dreams back in 2000-01 started to resurface. But I wasn't sure whether it was produced by Cox or AMT.

 

To answer the question, I reached for my trusty copy of Slot Car Dreams in which I keep 34 pages of the 48 page Appendix that I printed off the web. Well there was no need for the Appendix because I immediately found my Comet Cyclone GT pictured in Figure 47 on page 39 of the AMT section of the book. AMT had sold loose parts to build a Comet Cyclone GT Indy Pace Car in 1966! Unfortunately AMT included no instructions. Since my building skills are still only those I had as a fourteen year old following instruction sheets I'll need to use the instruction sheet from my AMT Lola T70 to try to make sense of how the loose parts go together!

 

 

Here's a couple of good pictures from the web of a finished AMT Cyclone GT Pace Car:

 

 

 

Thanks to Philippe's book though, I know to begin my assembly of the chassis with the Lola T70 instruction sheet!

 

[TSR]

Vay, I am sure someone here must have one of these kits and the instructions to help you.

 

However, a simple way to proceed is to push the brass inserts in the body mounts and then assemble the body mounts on the assembled chassis.

 

Then, fit the body over the mounts, line up the wheel openings to the wheels by extending the chassis from its assembly screw, and apply a little liquid glue between the body and the mounts. Let it sit for a while so that nothing moves!

 

Remove the body and apply more liquid glue on the inside of the body.