Anyone into Slot Cars ?

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Mopower71

Mopower71

Speed Demon
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I know there are quite a few Modelers on the board, just wondering how many are into slotcars.
Home tracks, commercial, HO, 1/43,1/32, 1/24.
What do you have what are you running?
What did you have?

I just started getting back into running at a commercial track.
Dug out my old ones from 20+ yrs ago, and a few of them are still good. Some got trashed from storing them in the top of my garage. Man it must get hot up there.
Anyway, I am getting my 13yr old son involved in it, seems a better alternative to video games. And come to find out, one of his friends from school races at the same track.
I ended up buying a few cars off of e-bay, just to get him, and me, started again.
I'm getting the itch to break out the soldering iron and brass tubing and show him how to build a chassis.
We picked up a few Flexi 1's 2's and a Champion chassis cars.
Had to buy a new controller, as my Parma 2 ohm Tiger controller was trash.

And for my birthday I ordered a Sprints Plus car with the Parma Deathstar 16D motor. These cars look like there going to be a hadfull, and a lot of fun.

Sprint.jpg
 
Fun topic Mopower. I just recently came across my XL tackle box of AFX cars from 27 years ago. I can't believe how much stuff I had. Probably about 20 cars and tons of parts. I use to wind my own armatures as well as modify the commutator(sp?) brushes. I found several controllers that were hot stuff back then (with variable speed control). There use to be a toy store here in town that had a 110 ft track with four lanes. We use to go race there every Saturday morning and race for parts/cars, etc. (prizes given away by the toy store). I use to race in all the classes (stock, MagnaTraction, G-Plus, Super G-Plus & Rare Earth). Anyone remember rare earth magnets?

After finding these, I went down to the same toy store and found that slot cars are no longer one of the more popular toys these days (big surprise). The slot car section which probably use to take up close to 400 sq. ft. is now reduced to a display that i no more than 10 sq. ft. One brand that I have been eye balling though is Carrera. I believe they are 1/43 scale. The kits/tracks/cars are really expensive but very nicely made. And ... they have some really nice Mopars to (even a couple of wing cars).

Speaking of Carrera slot cars, here's a couple of links:

The new Hot Rod Collection (look at the car in the header): http://us.carrera-toys.com/index.php?id=532&backPID=532&tt_news=33&L=0

Check out the Carrera Mopar Wallpaper (first image on the page):
http://us.carrera-toys.com/119.0.html

Petty Racing Kit: http://us.carrera-toys.com/5688.0.html

Power Performance Kit (w/a '06 Charger): http://us.carrera-toys.com/7762.0.html

Checkered Flag Kit: (w/a '70 Hemi Cuda): http://us.carrera-toys.com/3052.0.html

Winged Warriors (of course, both wing cars): http://us.carrera-toys.com/3042.0.html

Massive Power (all Mopars): http://us.carrera-toys.com/3062.0.html
 
I was just talking to a friend about this topic the other night. Great memories of countless hours racing our AFX cars in his basement, be it on an oval, road course or dragstrip with a pillow at the end lol. We also had a local hobby craft store that had Saturday morning racing. Good times.
 
How can any self-respecting car guy NOT have fond memories of Aurora cars! Me and 3 friends pooled all of our track and built a 4 lane layout on a 4' X 8' table connected to a 2 1/2' X 8' table in my parents basement. We had a 14' straightaway and a power pack per lane, and my parents would complain about the interference with the TV. Tons of Life-Like brand trees and shrubbery and that miserable fake "grass" that got every where. We did paper mache hills and had plug-in controllers all around the track so we could corner marshall our own races. We had an extra refridgerator back then in the basement that was right at the end on that straightaway. You should have seen all the dents in the door from flying cars.

Yeah, I remember... Aurora...Tyco-Pro.....Riggen.... scratch-built brass pan chassis... Auto World catalogs....silicone slicks.... aluminum hub foam tires....advancing commutators....winding armatures.... drilling lightning holes in gears....soldering.... burning yourself on soldering irons....brushes and pick-up shoe springs flying off into never-never land....


Thanks for the memories! I wish I took PICTURES!
 
I used to have one of the big old sets that my Uncle gave me. I had a 68 Charger, and a late 60's Chev pick up. I would ride my bike about 6 miles down to the hobby shop to buy brush material. I could afford about 4 feet of brushes, and a car model with my allowance. Great memories.
 
My first Aurora HO set had the vibrator motors in the cars, they wern't very fast but we had a lot of fun with them. I think I still have some track left in the attic some where.
 
Did someone say slot cars???

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This is a 1/32 Scalextric track set (well, two actually) with a variety of cars from different companies and eras. Many of the old Mopars are Eldons from the late 60's... they run quite well on the new track but the handling leaves much to be desired! ;)
 
Yes I am.
Slot car racing is affordable, simple and a lot of fun!
I used to write about slot cars for Toy Cars & Models magazine, that is until they stopped publishing it in January (it was a really good magazine in spite of having a small column by me!).
My wife & I get together with friends about once a month, the women do scrap booking and the guys head to the basement to race slot cars, it's usually 1/32 scale cars on a four lane track. We casually race the Carrera '69 Chargers and '70 Superbirds... A LOT! We don't count or time laps just have fun.
There is a fantastic selection of slot cars that are scale models and new stuff is coming out constantly. I'm not sure where to start so check out www.HomeRacingWorld.com and
www.SlotCarWorld.com for advice and products.
The most important thing I have learned since I was a kid is that the power supply is the most important item for making sure that you have control of your slot cars.
 
GTX
Carrera has 3 different sizes. 1/43, and the other 2 are actually the same size The 1/32 and the 1/24 use the same track, but different power supplys and the 1/24 has an additional border that fits on their track.
Oh, they also have a digital version also, in which you can run more than 2 cars on a 2 lane track. it has crossover lanes that you change lanes with the controler.
 
I have one of the Carrera Mile Miglia tracks set up in my basement. I bought the set at a good price, Without cars, off of e-bay, about 2 years ago.
I picked up a few Scalextric Subaru's and 2 others just for some home racing fun.
 
I have a few AFX cars & other slot cars now. I remember going to the big track and racing them when I was a teenager!

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thats what me and my friends raced.A/FX i still have alot of them and still race.me and all my friends would throw in 5 bucks and run 10-15 laps.10 bucks on the big race. lots of fun.8)
 
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