Slot Car Racing

[Steve Holmes]

I actually had a very early Cobra Daytona slot car kit, similar to this. Even when I bought it I could tell it was a very old kit, that was back when nobody collected this stuff. I really wish I'd been smart enough to have kept it.

[Shano]

Showing my age here, I had one of them too. I painted it metalflake gold

Then I copied Graeme Harvey's Elfin off some photos in Motorman and built a balsa wood replica body that I put on the Daytona chassis - trouble is, balsa is very heavy so I had my first lesson in power to weight ratios. I wish I knew where that car had gone because it looked fantastic idling round the track at Hunters Corner in Papatoetoe. I think it may have succumbed to one of my mother's "tidy-up" splurges.

[kiwi285]

I used to import vacuum molded bodies from England of all the fancy cars that we would never see here in NZ. I also built some balsa bodied cars - a Ford GT 40 Mk II, a Lola T70 and a Sunbeam Rapier are a couple that I can remember. These went on old scalectrix chassis's.

All my equipment disappeared too and I don't remember selling any of it although I remember breaking up the chipboard track that we had for years.

[Homer]

I built my own track replicating Monza from scratch, made a real tidy job of it, including most grandstands and gravel traps. Its alot more enjoyable than clicking a couple of pieces togther, I had it on a hinge in the garage so you could just fold it down and have a play, unfortunatley it all came down in the earthquake. There was really nothing worth salvaging on it. Bit of a shame but its a good excuse to do another one!

[bry3500]

If anyone is interested, my mate Ged runs Melbourne Model Raceway and has a large range of slot cars including vintage cars and parts - Cox, Scalextric, V.I.P etc
http://www.melbournemodelraceway.com.au/slotcars.html

[Russ Cunningham]

Odd thread for a motorsport forum but made me think back to my pre teenage years when instead of putting my hard earned dollars into buying stick magazines I spent the dosh on slot cars and other boyish interests. I've just had a quick look and whilst the
Vanwell and Lotus cars have long since disappeared, I did find an unpainted, vacuum formed fast back Anglia body and a very early Porsche F1. Does this qualify me as a collector of historic race cars??????????????? (The investment in stick mags came later)

[Steve Emson]

I also had the Scalextric sets as a kid. Dad had a 3 lane track built in downstairs at home which was heavily used. We put lights on our cars and did long distance night races and all sorts of other things.
At one time Rod Collingwood did a slot car challenge as part of his Dulux Mini promotions. I was lucky enough to win the final for Manurewa and had to go into the Farmers in town for the 'big' final showdown. i didn't win and am not sure where I finished.

One of the big Auckland slot car tracks ended up in the basement of the house across the road where we lived. I got to race on it a few times. The house next door to that is where Richard Brockelhurst lived who raced XU1's and a Falcon GTHO. The house next to that was where Graham Crawford lived who did a lot of slot cars also. He bought the Schick Datsun coupe from Cook, the one Francevic also raced against me. Graham also raced it against me once or twice. I even drove my Pacific up this Street once. But back to slot cars,....lots of fun was had by all.

[Steve Holmes]

Any of you guys got photos of your old sets? Anybody still have a set? I've been thinking of building another one.

[Steve Holmes]

If anyone is interested, my mate Ged runs Melbourne Model Raceway and has a large range of slot cars including vintage cars and parts - Cox, Scalextric, V.I.P etc
http://www.melbournemodelraceway.com.au/slotcars.html

Wow, some impressive stuff on there!

[Steve Holmes]

Odd thread for a motorsport forum but made me think back to my pre teenage years when instead of putting my hard earned dollars into buying stick magazines I spent the dosh on slot cars and other boyish interests. I've just had a quick look and whilst the
Vanwell and Lotus cars have long since disappeared, I did find an unpainted, vacuum formed fast back Anglia body and a very early Porsche F1. Does this qualify me as a collector of historic race cars??????????????? (The investment in stick mags came later)

Gee Russ, did they have stick mags back then? Just so you know, original copies of the first issue of Playboy are apparently quite valuable.

[Ellis]

My best ever result at Le Mans......



3 person team.
Son set fastest lap at about hour 10.
Used 3 sets rears
Same engine
Porsche

Tried 3 or 4 different body shapes in prior testing and Porsche was quickest...same chassis/engine

[Shano]

Any of you guys got photos of your old sets? Anybody still have a set? I've been thinking of building another one.

Unfortunately no although I had a camera then. Just never thought to get photos of ordinary day-to-day things. I often think how different the corner dairy would look today and I wish I had taken a lot more images (although it was expensive in those days, especially to a poor schoolboy.)

[Ellis]

This was the fleet in 1965...


This is old fig 8 track still under house....


This is what remains of cars....some still same cars as 1965 pic....

[bry3500]

That coupe looks interesting - scratchbiult?

[Ellis]

We had a small private club (20 members approx) in 1965-8 in an upstairs area of an old freestone
warehouse building (in Launceston CBD) with a total track length of approx 100-120ft and 2 lanes.
It was plywood covered in carborundum for grip.
We used to buy 1/24th plastic kits and build chassis etc.
The coupe is a Willys and the big white car at rear of pic is a Plymouth.
The White sports car is open GT 40 (Cox)
The smaller 1/32 cars were used at home.

[Steve Holmes]

This was the fleet in 1965...


This is old fig 8 track still under house....


This is what remains of cars....some still same cars as 1965 pic....

Allrighty, now we're getting somewhere. Some photos! Awesome stuff. The Willys coupe looks cool. Is the Mini on the bottom row one of those ones that had the full rotating slot that would allow the car to be spun around and driven in any direction? I used to have a pair of Brisca stock cars that had that function. Bought them at a second-hand hobby store in London.

[bry3500]

Ok sorry about picture quality , but here are a few pics of my Vintage Slot Car 24th scale collection. I have about 50 and a lot more in 32nd scale

[bry3500]

a few more - Sunbeam is scratchbuilt from an old sedan kitset , with a 60s Maruso Jap chassis and a Cox engine - goes like the clappers

[Oldfart]

Very cool, oh how I wish I had kept my ones! Yet another loss, like the Meccano, Hornby trains, Shell annuals and...... (as well as over 1000 B&W photos I took in the late 60s at Puke, Baypark and various club events)

[Ross Hollings]

When the Auckland Car Club moved to its new premises in Stoddard Rd Mt Roskill,the lower portion was undeveloped,a slot car track was built down ther e with the major work being done by Doug Wentworth,a ACC member who did hillclimbs and gymkhanas in a very nice red MG midget.[I should mention that Doug who now lives in Queensland has a great collection of race car photos and 8mm movies of the pukekohe big and club track.
The slot car track we built down there was quite large and was used for several years till the lower portion was developed.
Just to mention, Doug Wentworth was also a great amatuer photographer,a large amount of the photos in the ACC club magazine durin the 60,s were supplied by him and as I remember it some went into Motorman,Peter Bruin aslo borrowed his gear and took some brilliant shots ,especially at Chamberlain Rd hillclimb.
Ross H