Let's talk slot cars

I've been into slot cars since I got my first set on my 6th birthday. (Tyco will forever be close to my heart) I got my collection out to play with my kids and wanted to share.

So that's my "racing" box. It's mostly full of pairs of equally-matched cars to play with the kids, and they are all considered "modern".

So this is my first slot car, and I still race it. The front wings got snapped off decades ago, but it's always been fast. I probably have 50,000 scale miles on this thing...

Here's a pair of my earliest cars as well. These are Tyco 440X2 Lamborghini Countach's, and they are from the "Super Duper Double Looper" set, and yes, I have that as well. It's tough to get cars to do loops and climb walls!

Huh, I guess the seed for Miata love was planted early...

These are my modified racing cars. The Mercedes is a Tomy-ery A/FX Super G-Plus with silicone tall wheels and neodynium magnets. It's easily the fastest car I own. The NASCAR is a LifeLike M-Car, which is an odd an unloved chassis, with the same mods and while not as purely fast, it's got better grip, so it corners harder and is easier to drive. I got 2nd in a big youth slot car race in Maryland with it.

I blow collector's minds with this one! It was a neon blue C4 Tyco and I soaked it in Bleche-Whiteto repaint it and somehow the blue came off but it left the stripes! I loved the look and since Tyco never made a white C4, every time I show it people go nuts until I explain it.

This is a LifeLike Thunderbird Turbo Coupe NASCAR I modified into the street car and painted. It's won 2nd or 3rd a couple of times in Small Scale at IPMS model shows. I did it 15 years ago though, so I need to do a new one.

This is one of the new Auto World cars, and it's amazing! I *love* the new stuff and can't recommend it enough!

My kids and I have a bunch of 1/24th stuff, and we love it, but all the local tracks closed.

No pictures, but I have mostly T-Jets.  About a dozen cars, I guess.  I used to race at a hobby store in NJ.  Many of the racers are older and have been playing with these cars since the 60's.  One of them one the Aurora Championship back in 1962.

T-Jets are fun - not having magnets, keeping them on the track is trickier.

My problem is I don't have a track of my own, so I rarely have a chance to practice and tune the cars, the latter of which is an art.

All of my cars are stored upside down on pads so the rear tires don't flat-spot.

Love the things... but did you guys see the Grand Tour CHristmas episode. Their little bit on slot cars had me howling.

Got any glow-in-the-dark Super Cliffhangers Corvettes? Those Tyco sets were my jam.

Very cool that you kept them and can enjoy them with your kids.

Wish I'd have kept my A/FX slot cars. Not sure when they went by the wayside.

I do remember checking to see if the transformer was bad or one of my cars by sticking my tongue on the track and pulling the trigger.

Damn! Track was fine, and so was I after a while. Never did that again!

I was much more of an AFX kid.  I had a medium sized 4-lane setup that started life as an F1 set from the mid '70s.  individual transformers for each lane, so you couldn't use the "sudden lift so the other guy gets an oversurge" trick on your opponents.

I had maybe a dozen or 18 cars.  A few older Auroras and a couple of TYCOs, but mostly AFX G-Plus cars that had ll been massaged a litttle.

My buddy's father was a dirt track racer, so we built a bunch of custom bodies out of styrene sheet and tube to mimic the asphalt modifieds of the day.  Also, my dad was developing an oven-sized vacuum former, so I had a lot of lightweight ABS bodies that I cloned from my Hot Wheels collection.

Once my non-car-kid friends lost interest, my buddy and I used the 4-lane track to make a long 2-lane semi-permanent road course layout, with a little landscaping, and catch fences at the ends of all the straights.  Unfortunately, all this stuff is long gone.

If I was going to get back into it, I would do the bigger Scalectrix-type cars.  But I think if I do anything along these lines, it will be trains instead.

SaltyDog said:

Very cool that you kept them and can enjoy them with your kids.

Wish I'd have kept my A/FX slot cars. Not sure when they went by the wayside.

I do remember checking to see if the transformer was bad or one of my cars by sticking my tongue on the track and pulling the trigger.

Damn! Track was fine, and so was I after a while. Never did that again!

Thanks for the best laugh of my day! 

I remember the Super Gs as the fastest cars we could get our hands on.  You'd have to chase them a long way when they went off the track!

I still have a very soft spot in my heart for a Gulf liveried Porsche 917 from a Tyco slot though...

I used to spend hours looking at the slot car flyers as a kid.

Now I can look at my collection!

As a kid/teen I had a cigar box full of cars, maybe 20-30 and 3-4 sets worth of track banged together after I traded some 8 track tapes my uncle gave me to a friend for his slot car stuff.  Plus a drive-in Sunday flea market was a good source for cars in the early 80s.  I think it all got left behind in the parental divorce & leaving in a bit of a hurry, along with my old Star Wars stuff and baseball/football card collections.  (Someone bought a basement full of 70s/80s nostalgia).

And around the same time my dad took me to a local shop with tracks for HO and 1/32 and 1/24 cars.  I had a "womp womp" car or two, he had crazy fast 1/24 cars with giant clear air dams all around.

I tried to get into 1/32 recently at the hobby store, but after the first year I seemed to lose interest in going back out after work.

Here's a little closer look.

And the other side:

Here is one of my favorites, a rare Model Motoring (repop and original Thunderjets done in the original style with high detail work, very nice) 1969 Camaro Penske/Donohue Trans Am racer:

From the same guys is the polar opposite 1969 Camaro "Grumpy's Toy", a famous Super Stock drag car:

Some highlights include an original Aurora Thunderjet Mako Shark in tan (fun fact: Aurora bought surplus plastic from telephone manufacturers, hence the high number of tan, teal, and white car) that I scored at the Portland Swap Meet last year, that came along with a "Tuff Ones" (Thunderjets with larger back tires, racier colors, and stripes to compete with the Hot Wheels look) Dino Ferrari racer.

And finally for now, one of my all-time favorites, and my first real T-Jet, a homemade Ford Galaxie NASCAR. What makes this so cool to me is that it wa originally done in the 60's, including a crude interior tub with a rollbar and driver. The real shame is that it was a teal one originally, which in mint condition is worth several hundered dollars as that color is very rare in that model, It goes like stink! (And yes, the roof fell off and I need to do some mending).

Let me know if you guys want more.

Love the old T/A cars.

BTW - there's a company called Road Race Replicas that makes Minilite style wheels for T-Jets that would look great on those.

I loved those things in the early to mid-80's, spent HOURS playing with them.  Bought the huge mega set for my boys 4 years ago and it wound up never being used, so I just sold it a few weeks ago. 

I still have an early '80s RX-7 (blue and silver) in it's original packaging.  It was my favorite car, I used it endlessly...it probably has 25,000 scale miles on it.

Ive got a setup in the basement. it started small but grew to it's final 11'x3.5" size.

There are a couple T-Jets, a bunch of AFX's, and a bunch of Lifelike stuff.

It's just too much fun.

My new Display

Slot Car Display by macauspit, on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/14687830@N02/38980055184/in/dateposted-public/

somebody needs to take a track to the Challenge and set it up so you guys can race slot cars at night!

In reply to cfvwtuner :

Nice setup! I wich I had the space to do a permanent layout. Looks like a good track.

In reply to Spitsix :

Want to trade some of those?!?  Also, the shelf with the wrenches as the supports is wicked cool! Nice collection!

stroker said:

somebody needs to take a track to the Challenge and set it up so you guys can race slot cars at night!

 

Back in the day we ran Scalextrix cars after-hours at the Challenge. 

I just went slot-car drag racing today! I have a plethora of 1/24 scale model car bodied slot cars for both the road course and the drag strip. It's a lot of fun- my Dad and I used to do it a lot more 15 years ago, but we still go to the track on occasion. I also have the glow in the dark Tyco 40 ford and 57 chevy (I think) HO scale set that my wife and I pull out on occasion. Got it at a garage sale for $5! Complete!

Javelin said:

In reply to cfvwtuner :

Nice setup! I wich I had the space to do a permanent layout. Looks like a good track.

Check out this site: http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/ and look at the "Tuckaway 25" layout - designed to fit a maximum of 4-lane track onto a 30x80 solid-core door..

In reply to Ian F :

Wow I just fell down a rabbit hole. That's a pretty good site; I'm impressed.

I don't have any slot cars but think I should get some for a 3 year old to play with. I had a set years ago but think I donated it to the thrift store. Seeing what some of them sell for now I wish I still had it!

My dad had lots of AFX back in the day, I remember digging them out of the basement and playing with them when I was a kid (in the 90’s).  They were old but they still worked.  There’s a local hobby shop now that has slot car stuff, I want to stop in there again and buy a bunch of brushes and stuff.

Now we get into my favorites.

The original A/FX cars and Super G-Plus from Aurora were the golden age of slot cars for me. The early cars slide around and the later ones go like stink, bu the bodies, oh the bodies. Capri, Deka Monza, Ferrari Daytona!

The detail just got incredible. This Ferrari (312 IIRC) for example, look at the fender vents, they are open! In 1/87 scale! Mirrors, driver, rollbar, the open scoops, the detail in the paint scheme. It's like a miniature model car, but factory done.

Selection of different Porsche 917 Can Ams.

Klayfish said:

I still have an early '80s RX-7 (blue and silver) in it's original packaging.  It was my favorite car, I used it endlessly...it probably has 25,000 scale miles on it.

Like the far one in this pic?