Book on 60s slot car racing

[SSVDP]

My friend has been working on this book for over ten years. It is finally going to print and should be available in Sept give or take the time for the boat ride from the China co printer.
It’ll be a big hard cover book with 400 pages and 750 pictures, estimated cost will be $75.

 

[Hellrats]

Oh my, that brings back memories. I remember a place we went to called Play Land Park. It was on Route 241? Even after the park closed down there was a building in the back that had a 6 lane track we ran cars on. All of my AMF cars would last the race but my Tyco cars kicked ***! If you could keep them on the track... LOL I'll be watching for this to come out. Should be fun!!

 

[Hellrats]

Oh yea.. and that smell! The electric smell, if you know what I'm talking about then you have been at one

 

[mopar head]

Oh yea.. and that smell! The electric smell, if you know what I'm talking about then you have been at one

And the smell of tiger milk, they called it , for traction.
Fun for all ages...

 

[moparmat2000]

Never was old enough to race the big scale when they were around, but always wanted to. Raced HO scale when i was a kid. This stuff is still around AFX is still making some bad assed stuff.

Heres my Tomy AFX HO scale 4 lane i built out of 2 lane sectional plastic track. Track rails are soldered, and track is glued, screwed and bedded together. Power taps are soldered and everything is run underneath the table top. Made it as close to a routed track as i could. It runs a digital trakmate lap counter on a windows 95 setup dell desktop. Has four 21v power supplies. One per lane, and is wired for 3 wire control with dynamic braking. Controllers are Parma 60 ohm 3 wire units. Made controller holsters out of scrap stainless steel and black lexan

 

[Cal Tonsley]

Met my good buddy at our local slot car track over 35 years ago, this was where I introduced him to Chrysler’s with my Mercury Silver R/T Charger!
We’re still good friends today and he’s got his own R/T Charger now plus a 2 Door Hardtop and I’m currently building my Valiant Hardtop (aka Dart). Pictures below, including a shot of the Euro Blue King slot track we used to race on!

 

[Hellrats]

You dudes got some cool looking car across the pond

 

[70 Buster 340]

My friend has been working on this book for over ten years. It is finally going to print and should be available in Sept give or take the time for the boat ride from the China co printer.
It’ll be a big hard cover book with 400 pages and 750 pictures, estimated cost will be $75.

View attachment 1715343322

I know PdL also and yes we've been waiting patiently for his second book.

Scratch building slot cars is so much 'fun'.

A bunch of guys worldwide race by proxy by sending our best creations to travel and compete here in the US and around the world.

PdL (the author) got to race my car when the traveling show stopped in So-Cal for "The Race of Legends".
It/we went to Australia, England, Germany, Spain and more places I can't remember right now ...
This car was built to "Rule the World".

In the Mix of "Thingies"

On a tour of London.

The final round.

 

[Hyper_pak]

This is great! I was lucky to race my Cox Cheetah and my brothers Cox Lotus on pay tracks in DC in 65-66. What great fun that was, and I still have my Cheetah! I built a 4 lane AFX track years ago and that was cool too. Lots of great memories, thanks for the post.

 

[SSVDP]

I know PdL also and yes we've been waiting patiently for his second book.

Scratch building slot cars is so much 'fun'.

A bunch of guys worldwide race by proxy by sending our best creations to travel and compete here in the US and around the world.

PdL (the author) got to race my car when the traveling show stopped in So-Cal for "The Race of Legends".
It/we went to Australia, England, Germany, Spain and more places I can't remember right now ...
This car was built to "Rule the World".
View attachment 1715400639
View attachment 1715400643

In the Mix of "Thingies"
View attachment 1715400657

On a tour of London.
View attachment 1715400642
The final round.
View attachment 1715400646

I’ve always gotten along well with PdL but for many he is an acquired taste.

 

[moparmat2000]

I was into 1/32 scale running on the10 lane pay tracks for a short time in the early 1990s. Ran a Parma flexi car with aero aids on it. I put the chassis on a diet with a drill press to take more weight out. Used a small digital scale to see how much before and after. Used a titanium rear axle to make it even lighter. Will post pix of it if I can find it. I also have a brand new unbuilt old 1960s Revell 1/32 scale 289 cobra kit. I wish we had a 10 lane commercial track out my way. What fun. Then I moved, no tracks where I moved to. I ended up using my old 4 OHM Parma controller on my 4 lane HO scale track and soldered in a 60 ohm variable resistor for the smaller HO cars.

 

[moparmat2000]

And the smell of tiger milk, they called it , for traction.
Fun for all ages...

You must be old. I never heard of tiger milk. We used stuff called oil of wintergreen, and gorilla snot for traction adders.

 

[Big_John]

A slot car track just opened not far from me. Back in the 90's, my two sons and I used to race at a couple places that closed. I dusted off some of our old stuff and have been over there a couple times now.

Blue King track, similar to the one posted above. They also have a drag strip.

 

[70 Buster 340]

I was into 1/32 scale running on the10 lane pay tracks. Ran a Parma flexi car with aero aids on it. I put the chassis on a diet with a drill press to take more weight out. Used a small digital scale to see how much before and after. Used a titanium rear axle to make it even lighter. Will post pix of it if I can find it. I also have a brand new unbuilt old 1960s Revell 1/32 scale 289 cobra kit. I wish we had a 10 lane commercial track out my way. What fun. I ended up using my old 4 OHM Parma controller on my 4 lane HO scale track and soldered in a 60 ohm variable resistor for the smaller HO cars.

The 1/24th scale Parma Flexi Kar was a real game changer in this hobby. It's little brother at that time was the 1/32nd scale Womp Womp Car. The 'Womps' are still in action, modern non-Parma Flexi chassis designs have improved over the years and Parma as a company is in trouble.


Parma Womp Asphalt Modified I just finished.
These are a blast on a short oval.

 

[70 Buster 340]

You must be old. I never heard of tiger milk. We used stuff called oil of wintergreen, and gorilla snot for traction adders.

You missed out on the smell over Tigers Milk, smoking "3in1" and sewing machine oil.

That Smell - There is still one Oil of Wintergreen foam tire traction compound made by Trinity. Believe it or not BenGay works on foam tires too.

 

[moparmat2000]

Wow it's been so long I forgot the scale, I guess it was a 1/24 scale flexi car. Will try to find it and post pix of it with the swiss cheesed frame.

 

[halifaxhops]

Man did I spend hours in the basement playing with model motoring. Set it up when the kids were young no interest in it at all. Still have it all.

 

[moparmat2000]

Yep, we had Aurora model motoring when I was a kid. Local hobby shop Vinces Hobby House had a 6 lane Aurora tub track set up. I was a little young at the time. By the time I got into it. The tub track was long gone from the store. I still have my mid 1970s Aurora A/FX set I purchased with lawn mower money. The 4 lane one I built with soldered together rails and glued together was a newer Tomy A/FX track. The Tomy A/FX super international raceway came with enough track minus some 18" straights I got off evilbay to build the 4 lane I have. It comes with 2 power supplies, and 4 super G plus cars.

The cars that Tomy came out with snap onto the earlier Aurora bodies are the Turbo and SRT, and are really nice. The Tomy Turbo and SRT chassis are obsolete now. But 10 years ago we had a ball with em on my 4 lane track. We also ran old Aurora pancake motor chassis cars.

I built a badass pancake motored magnetraction chassis car. Used rare earth magnets, a mean green armature, aluminum wheelset, crown gear for a super ll, topped it off with a light weight lexan body with a snap in place body clip. Will dig that out and post a pic or 2. I used a chrysler lebaron ARCA series body on it. Got it to run as fast and handle as good as a modern Tomy SRT.

 

[mopar head]

You must be old. I never heard of tiger milk. We used stuff called oil of wintergreen, and gorilla snot for traction adders.

Old? how dare you! jk, Well if 59 is old then old I be

 

[moparmat2000]

51, so I musta just missed it. I am catching up to you though, some day I'm gonna pass you up.

 

[moparmat2000]

Heres some of my HO scale stuff. I couldent find my Parma flexicar, now I need to look for it. Modded and stock Thunder Jets, pancake magnetraction, and one of my Tomy SRTs. First car is the souped up auto world magnetraction chassis which is a knockoff of the old A/FX with all the mods I mentioned above in last post. A few more gems. I have some of my favorite Aurora Tjets. The cudas, one is a stone stock 1960s T jet, the other one is souped up for drag racing. The trans am is an auto world body I chopped to lower and lighten up for road racing with pancake motor chassis. Last but not least is an auto world 69 daytona body that's chopped and lowered onto a Tomy SRT chassis. I use thin brass sheet, and when the pickup shoes wear out, I solder new linings on them.

 

[mbaird]

I still have around 40 Thunderjet /AF-X / G-Plus cars and about 100+ ft of track. Most of my cars are well played with... lol

 

[moparmat2000]

I have also restored 1 of each example of mid 70s Aurora A/FX cars. This are shelf queens. I did a lot of hunting on evilbay for parts lots to do this, also found NOS Aurora parts and bodies at www.slotcarcentral.com I think he bought out everything from Aurora Plastics in N.Y. when they went out of business.

 

[Big_John]

I have also restored 1 of each example of mid 70s Aurora A/FX cars. This are shelf queens. I did a lot of hunting on evilbay for parts lots to do this, also found NOS Aurora parts and bodies at www.slotcarcentral.com I think he bought out everything from Aurora Plastics in N.Y. when they went out of business.

I've driven by that place a lot but never been in there.

I had the HO cars when I was a kid (still have them) but never really got back into it.

 

[moparmat2000]

When I first set up the 4 wall wart transformers I had 2 lanes that seemed a little quicker than the other 2. One guy racing on friday night always picked that one lane. So on a saturday I looked at the 4 transformers. 2 put out a lower voltage than the 21V. The lanes that were fastest were obviously 21V. I was going to find 2 more 21V transformers, however in the mean time in an interest of keeping it equal and more of a drivers race, I wired in 2 resistors to the two 21V transformers to knock em back to equal the output of other 2.

Next friday when we raced David wondered why his cars werent performing like they were on his favorite lane a week ago. I let him think he was off his game for a while then clued him in. Saying take a look under the table. When he did, he laughed. I made a guard for the resistors so nobody gets burnt on em. Look at what is written on it. I did eventually find 2 more 21V transformers, and disconnected this, but left the wires tucked in the wiring harness since it I thought it was pretty cool.