Slot Car Racing

[Steve Holmes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eleIkvR9oeg&feature=related

Remember Slot Car Sets? If you're under 30, its possible you have no idea what I'm talking about, but from the late 1950s through the early '80s, just about every boy (and a few girls) owned a slot car set at some time in their childhood. These days, most kids go for gaming consoles over slot car sets, and the average age of most slot car set owners is somewhat older than it was in the '60s, but the hobby still enjoys a strong following.

Slot car racing was an evolution of rail car racing, in which the cars were guided along a raised rail in the track. Although both forms were being marketed simultaneously by the late '50s, slot racing eventually won out, due to its ability to allow the cars to slide on the corners. Scalextric were one of the pioneers of the hobby, with their 1:30 scale, and later 1:32 scale model cars, and the first to mass-produce the complete sets.

Stirling Moss was apparently an enthusiast, according to this early short documentary.

[Steve Holmes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csc6FendZlE

American company Aurora created the much smaller HO scale, which was quickly copied by several other manufacturers. Its much smaller overal size made it popular due to it taking up less space in the living room. And its cars looked to be travelling faster. Aurora were also responsible for the hugely successful 'pancake' motor, which replaced widely used 'vibrator' motor. Here is an Aurora commercial demonstrating their HO products.

[Steve Holmes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFi6AFr7iKs

Using celebrity race drivers was a common ploy for attracting buyers, and a highly successful one, as Peter Revson demonstrates.

[Steve Holmes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqvziLOanKY

Attempts to branch out and offer new and innovative products included everything from Tyco's truck sets, and Nite-Glow sets, to Aurora's 'slot-less' tracks, which never quite took off despite the obvious advantages.

By the late 1970s, the slot car craze was nearly over.

[nigel watts]

I remember getting a new Scalextric slot car set for my 15th birthday. One of the best presents ever. Gave me and my mates many many hours of fun. I still have one or two of the cars but the track is long gone.

[Shano]

We had a huge Scalextric set at home. Liberal applications of mum's sewing machine oil to the corners produced interesting tail-out powerslides and lots of spins. At Hunter's Corner in Papatoetoe there was an upstairs slot car track - huge and very fast. It was a commercial track but they had a club there too. These were quite common then, late 60s.

We used to build our own cars, mostly from kitsets but with hot-rodded 26D and 36B (memory partial failure there) by rewinding the amatures. We added more windings I think. Superlightweight plastic bodies with heaps of downforce and wide super-soft foam tyres.

Those things moved like lightning, until you lost downforce and they'd fire off the track like missiles. I built a car based on Grahame Harvey's Elfin 400, taking the shape from photos in Motorman magazine. Unfortunately balsa wood was just too heavy and even with a hot-rodded 36 engine it could barely move itself off the start line. Looked good though.

Good times.

[Steve Holmes]

Cool stories guys, and yeah, the sewing machine oil trick was a popular one. I burnt out an engine in one of my cars from over doing the sewing machine oil, it ended up all around the track.

[Shano]

There was even a mobile slot car track set up in a large trailer that went to beachside funfairs during the summer. You paid for some time and used their cars (you could use your own if you had one). The one that used to come to Orewa had a wicked banked corner at one end.

[kiwi285]

We must all have had a set during our time. We started off with a purchased set and then built our own from two 8 x 4 sheets of chipboard and the track was routed out over a couple of weekends. There were about 8 of us and we all ended up scratch building our own cars with home made chassis's.

I used to import plastic moulded body shells from the UK. We had some great cars and most were painted in colours of NZ race cars where applicable.

Then like most things it got too serious and expensive !!

[Murray Maunder]

"Then like most things it got too serious and expensive !!"

Yes I can put my hand up and say I helped take slotcar racing out of the hands of Joe Public. We used to import Mura motors from USA to relegate the Hitachi 16Ds to the rubbish. We built brass tube and pan chassis with floating pans and outriggers, side winder and anglewinder "rear engine" setups, did "hot rewinds" etc.

My first car was a Monogram Lotus 33 (Jim Clark #5) with injection moulded body and chromed wishbones etc and a 13A (slimline) Hitachi. Didn't compete with the F1 gurus of the time (about 1966 IIRC) but it was so pretty. Later came the clear bodyshell days, coming especially to mind of the 100 or so I built were McLaren M6A and M8A and Chaparral 2F, Cologne Capri, BMW3.5CSL "batmobile", countless Mustangs, TransAms and a Daytona Dodge Charger, Ferrari P4, Hillman Imp, Ferrari 312S.... I always liked to paint them in the colours originally raced in 1:1 scale though things like the Marcos Mantis and Alfa Carabo were more concept than racer and got the creative paint job. I remember being so taken by the opalescent gold/black of Graham Watson's Cooper S that I tried to emulate that on some concept cars.

We originally raced on a 5 lane 130 foot "road course" with scenery and flyover bridge. The club died and we raced at a commercial centre that had an 8 (from memory) lane 180 foot heavily banked US type road/banked oval combo which ate cars with the high speeds being achieved (I think the 1/32nds were topping about 1000MPH scale!)

It did get a bit serious - sadly. A lesson for racing in general.

[45DCOE]

A couple of Anglia slot cars I use to race against my son with. There use to be a guy in Palmerston North that had some vacuum formed bodies of A40 Farina and other Allcomers. There use to be a Custaxie and Zephyr Corvette. I still have the Zephyr Corvette unpainted. You can still by the Zephyr on Trade me.20242025

[bry3500]

Love that Breadvan..I have a large collection ( over 100) of slot cars , most from the 60s ..both 24th and 32nd scale.

[105angria]

awesome anglias Steve Ill get my resto pics and some of another Anglia sports sedan thats poped up in Mussle car mag and start a Anglia thread how do i collect all the Anglia pics off the other threads do i just blog this post ?

[Rod Grimwood]

Yep, they were great. Me and my bother got one for Xmas, could not work out why dad and my uncle were downstairs in the workshop with the door locked and we could hear them cheering and laughing between bottles. I reckon when santa delivered the set it was well run in. Remember the model Custaxie and I built a replica Mustang with BOAC on the guards and blue and gold strips and used to go over to the place in Takapuna and race on the big track. In the end me and dad built our own big 4 lane track down stairs (he was a builder so that helped) Big days with the neighbourhood guy's. It was under the old boys house for years and even when we had wiskers the cousins etc still played on it. (we did join in to be friendly) Actually still got an original Scaletrix Vanwell and Ferrari in my model collection.

[105angria]

the smell of a hot hand control and the awesome acceleration little green Lotus great stuff I hired a large 6 lane foldout mobile set with electric timers and opperator for kids birthday a couple of years ago massive hit with all the kids and they all picked it up real quick 4hours of fun

[105angria]

Show us some of youre work with the slot cars please Bry

[pallmall]

With the second coming of a slot car fad in the past 10 odd years there have been some fantastic slot cars produced even by the mainstream companies. I will admit to accumulating quite a large collection of interesting 60s and 70s cars which I doubt will ever see a track. The Lola T70 spyders and McLaren M6As from Monogram are great value at around NZ$70 and really do make great display models.

[bry3500]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y655Ha6aNjE

[Oldfart]

Tracks I remember; a huge complex in Rotorua with an amazing banked track, you had to be real fast to keep the back wheels as high as the slot, or it all jammed up and stopped. Other layouts too. One track had a lap record of over 18 secs. Eyesight needed to be pretty good to see it all!
Hunters Corner
Takapuna had a great one.
One down town Aucks on Fanshawe st, upstairs?
A club at Matamata, a farm owner had built a new house so the old one became the clubhouse. took down walls and made a HUGE track. The main straight was a scale mile!
Ah the smell of hot hand controllers.
The older I get, the faster I was!

[GD66]

Although living in Perth, I have a buddy in Melbourne who built a slot track a couple of years back, so I bought this natty pair and parked them at his joint, now whenever I go to Victoria for racing or fun I'm able to drop by and give them a gallop. And they go well !

http://www.homeracingworld.com/scalextriclegends.htm

[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.

10858

[Shano]

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

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......

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/P9130055.jpg

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...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/EGFSlotCars65.jpg

This is old fig 8 track still under house....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/P9130058.jpg

This is what remains of cars....some still same cars as 1965 pic....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/P9130059.jpg

[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...
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/EGFSlotCars65.jpg

This is old fig 8 track still under house....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/P9130058.jpg

This is what remains of cars....some still same cars as 1965 pic....
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/falcongtho/P9130059.jpg

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

[Steve Holmes]

Ross, what happened to that slot car set?

Also, do you know what happened to Dougs photos?

[Steve Holmes]

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

Wow, Bry, post more pics! These are awesome! I just love the Cheetah's. Where did you get the bodies from?

[Ross Hollings]

THe track at the Auckland Car club was broken up and dumped !!! As regards Dougs photos,I saw him a year or so ago on the Goldcoast and impressed upon him the importance of them .Looked into getting them scanned etc and the 8mm [great shots of mini races at Pukekohe ] but the cost was quite high for me to get them done,there are slides and movies,also gymkhanas with John Crombie in his beat up ,well used MiniCooper.Even some up at Murray Firths orchards where we used to test our little cars before the hillclimbs,[I think of the noise we use to make !!!!!]
Ross H

[Oldfart]

PM sent Ross

[bry3500]

Wow, Bry, post more pics! These are awesome! I just love the Cheetah's. Where did you get the bodies from?

The 2 x 32nd scale cars in the previous pics were complete Cox kits Steve. The black one was bought as an unopened kit, the blue one made from bits. The 24th scale one was assembled using a 60s vac formed body and Cox running gear. The Blue #3 in the following pic is a Strombecker

[bry3500]

more

[bry3500]

and some more

[Oldfart]

All on a very Low tech display surface Yeah Right.
Great set of cars.

[bry3500]

that low tech display surface came courtesy of 105Angria and his wonderful furniture designs ;)
http://www.mapinternational.com.au/products/sofas/flow/

[bry3500]

ebay Cox Cheetah
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1-24-Cox-Cheetah-Slot-Car-/261096052902?pt=Slot_Cars&hash=item3cca8998a6

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Bry, I just love those. Do you still get to use them much?

[Steve Holmes]

THe track at the Auckland Car club was broken up and dumped !!! As regards Dougs photos,I saw him a year or so ago on the Goldcoast and impressed upon him the importance of them .Looked into getting them scanned etc and the 8mm [great shots of mini races at Pukekohe ] but the cost was quite high for me to get them done,there are slides and movies,also gymkhanas with John Crombie in his beat up ,well used MiniCooper.Even some up at Murray Firths orchards where we used to test our little cars before the hillclimbs,[I think of the noise we use to make !!!!!]
Ross H

Thanks Ross, too bad about the track.

Yeah I've heard of a few people who have interesting collections on slides, but the cost to convert them is pretty significant unfortunately. Slides really make for amazing images, their clarity is incredible. Most of the images in the Steve Twist collection on here are from slides. I hope one Doug gets them converted.

[Steve Holmes]

Check this out. Its late 1964. The tv show is I've Got A Secret. Special guest is Stirling Moss. From a nation-wide slot car racing competition, contestants were whittled down to four finalists, who would compete on tv to win a new Ford Mustang, and a $2,000 scholarship. Ford are obviously sponsors, as all the slot cars are Ford's. Slot car racing was BIG in the '60s! The kid who won looks neither very excited to have scored a brand new Mustang, which had only just been released a few months earlier, nor old enough to actually drive the thing!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9MZXw-xoI4

[jnr356]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBXQWwxoUAs

[Steve Holmes]

Check out Batman and Robin's impressive layout.

19970

[Chris Radisich]

Slotcar racing as it started out in the 60's, scratchbuilt cars raced on routed wooden tracks is still alive and well in many countries across the world.

I started out racing when I was 5 years old, introduced to our local club in Henderson, Auckland by my brother Paul who was racing there at that time (1970). That club is the oldest in NZ (dates back to 1962) and is actually one of the oldest surviving in the world still racing today. Denny Hulme was a patron to the club, and Paul was added as a patron in the 90's.

You can find the Henerson Minature Motor Racing Club online at:
http://www.hmmrc.co.nz
and on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/HendersonMiniatureMotorRacingClub

There is a New Zealand Slotcar Association which has run National Championship events every year for 49 years, only 1 year short of the oldest world nationals, those held in the UK. You can find it online at:
http://www.nzsca.co.nz/
and a list of currently operating clubs in NZ
http://www.nzsca.co.nz/Clubs_new.htm

There is still a very active scene here in the USA where I live these days, with around 200 commercial raceways still operating. Some resources to find raceways can be found at:
http://slotblog.net/forum/74-raceway-list/
and
http://www.oldweirdherald.com/owh-raceway-directory
The most active forums are:
http://www.slotcartalk.com/slotcartalk/forum.php
and
http://slotblog.net/

In Australia there are still a few raceways surviving. The oldest is Hornsby Slotcars in Sydney:
http://hornsbyslotcars.com.au/
and a good directory of Australian tracks is at:
http://www.slotcartracksaustralia.com/

Lots of activity throughout the UK and Europe as well with the UK Association site at:
http://www.bscra.co.uk/

There is also a world body, ISRA, which holds a yearly world championship, which for 2013 is being hosted in the Ukraine:
http://www.isra-slot.com/

There are many many different forms of slotcars, from the plastic track cars that are collected and raced all over the world, to the more specialist wing aero cars (covering more than 110 feet per second, or 75mph in real speed) to brass and piano wire scratchbuilt chassis cars. Just as in real motorsport there are many many different forms and classes, all with their own race venues, rules and groups that race them.

Here are a few videos showing a couple of the many different types of modern slotcar racing.

A video taken in Helsinki at the European Wing Car Championships, and gives a look at the racing, plus a look around the pit area as competitors work on their cars. These are the fastest slotcars on the planet, covering the 155ft Blue King track (A world standard layout design and length) in under 1.5 seconds. They are very dependant on aero to keep them on the track as they weigh around 45 grams in total.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II8hXA16_ZA

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[Chris Radisich]

A world endurance race promoted by Italy's NSR using NSR plastic molded 32nd scale cars like the ones most people are familiar with

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUX4j4w94wI

These cars are plastic chassis and injection molded bodies and run generally on plastic molded tracks like the traditional Scalextric type tracks

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[Chris Radisich]

A different type of racing at the 2010 IMCA Model Car World Championships in Belgium, with entrants from 30 countries where we raced 24th scale screw together chassis with carbon fibre bodies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lSwk6-ev6U

These cars are pretty hi-tech with laser and edm cut chassis pieces that must be held together with small screws and nuts. The bodies are highly detailed models, but made of out carbon fibre to ensure lightweight and strength. The Europeans competing in this type of racing are real scale modelers and the body detail is incredible.

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[Chris Radisich]

Some footage from a Retro race in Columbus Ohio I was at a while ago on an original American Blue King track that has been at this same location since the early 1970's. Retro racing using scratchbuilt cars built form brass and pianowire with lexan vacuum formed bodies is amongst the most popular racing here in the USA currently, with classes for pre 1970 Indy/F1 and Can-Am cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1_6WP_YB2k

These are a direct attempt to re-create the cars of the 1960's and 1970's that evolved originally from the kits that were sold in the 60's and 70's by companies like Cox, Aurora, Strombecker, Monogram etc and raced by the slotcar pro's of the early 1970's.

Retro F1 Matra
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Retro Can-AM TI-22
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[Oldfart]

These are great Chris, must be time to have some more tracks in NZ again!

[Michael Clark]

I've just discovered this site - of course I was envious of the owner of the Indy Roadster and the Bruce McLaren Group 7 car in NZ's national racing colours.

There are two tracks that I specifically recall as a young lad - one was somewhere in central Auckland and the feature of it was a loop. The other venue was in 'Old Papatoetoe', just off St George St on Shirley Road. The track seemed to take up the entire shop and I could hardly wait to one of my own.

I'm guessing that turned on Christmas Day 1966 - the cars were Lotus 16s - one emerald green and the other one yellow. Before long I had a pair of GT40s (one white with a black bonnet and other pale blue) but the best ones I had were a couple of Can-Am types - one mid blue and the other orange. And no, the orange one did bot resemble a McLaren at all!

At about age 11 or 12, Robert van Gisbergen and I spent hours racing slot cars - I guess we'd be doing that 'on line' these days.

[Frosty5]

I've just discovered this site - of course I was envious of the owner of the Indy Roadster and the Bruce McLaren Group 7 car in NZ's national racing colours.

There are two tracks that I specifically recall as a young lad - one was somewhere in central Auckland and the feature of it was a loop. The other venue was in 'Old Papatoetoe', just off St George St on Shirley Road. The track seemed to take up the entire shop and I could hardly wait to one of my own.

I'm guessing that turned on Christmas Day 1966 - the cars were Lotus 16s - one emerald green and the other one yellow. Before long I had a pair of GT40s (one white with a black bonnet and other pale blue) but the best ones I had were a couple of Can-Am types - one mid blue and the other orange. And no, the orange one did bot resemble a McLaren at all!

At about age 11 or 12, Robert van Gisbergen and I spent hours racing slot cars - I guess we'd be doing that 'on line' these days.

Michael, the one you refer to in Central Auckland was in Queen St and if the memory bank is correct it was either beside or above the old Regent theatre. Seemed like hundreds of steps to get up there. Yes, the loop was awesome and there were always several casualties if the power was decreased just at the top of the loop. The other one in Old Papatoetoe was in Station Rd near the railway Station. Shirley and Station Rds merged into each other. Only went there a couple of times and memory has faded a bit as to what the tracks were like. Certainly in my era there was much wheeling and dealing with cars and high powered motors.

[Oldfart]

Also a massive complex in Rotorua. The banking was so steep if you weren't going fast enough it would jam the guide.
Another one in Customs St Auckland, near to Gore St.

[Michael Clark]

What years do you reckon all this going on Frosty? I'm guessing 66/67 in which case I would have been 8 - so when I say the track in Old Papatoetoe "...seemed to take up the entire shop...", I am making that comment based on being only about track height.

I do recall considerable carnage on that 'loop' as well. Great memories..

[Oldfart]

My guess would be the commercial tracks were around in 64, based on when I went there, certainly by October 65 (when I had finished School Cert exams in Matamata I was allowed to train to Auckland and buy my Triumph Tiger Cub and I took a couple of cars in my bag) and were probably starting to fade by 68 ??

[Frosty5]

What years do you reckon all this going on Frosty? I'm guessing 66/67 in which case I would have been 8 - so when I say the track in Old Papatoetoe "...seemed to take up the entire shop...", I am making that comment based on being only about track height.

I do recall considerable carnage on that 'loop' as well. Great memories..

Yes Michael, it would have been around that era, possibly a little earlier 64/65 for me anyway. I would have been 14/15 then and there was a great trade in slot cars when I was at Otahuhu College. I actually purchased a partly built track from one of the teachers and lengthened it to around 5 metres x 1.5m wide. 3 lanes which tapered as it climbed a series of "hills" and down a long straight heavily banked. Great memories that's for sure. Gave that away, work and my stock car took over as well as my road car and flagging at Puke.

[Oldfart]

I have just been trolling the web, very cool site slotraceshop.co.nz, also has links to groups around the country, track pics, build guides etc etc. And how to build tracks!

[Jeff]

I'm "young" compared to some on this great website :o - born in '66. My earliest memories were trying to stand on stuff to be tall enough to watch lunchtime slot car racing at my dad's work ( NZBC TV studios , Shortland street , Auckland ) in about 1970.
Being apprentice electronics technicians meant slot cars were very "hotted up " and the track was very impressive.
Roars of laughter would erupt as a car with a rewound motor would have a meltdown or billow smoke or just run backwards...
I recall the track being about 6 lanes and well built.
Competition was extreme with cars being built from brass wire or piano wire all carefully soldered.
Off the shelf parts were rare - Martins toys in Customs St had a range and there was a slot car track upstairs near there.
I well recall tyres made from old jandal rubber and other "experimental" materials !
Weight was always an issue with old slot cars.
My brother and I had scalextric slot cars as soon as we could squeeze a controller and a huge layout.
As we got older we moved to Aurora AFX cars but I didn't enjoy them as much.
Later in life I had another go with "modern" cars at Henderson Slot Car club and slot car drag racing ( very fast - and reactions need to be also )
Funnily enough there was a bloke there who had worked at NZBC and raced against dad in the old days !
Dad couldn't believe it
Good , simple fun for all ages. I wish we had the lovely Scalextric cars that are available now , back then.
My favourite old cars were the mini cooper and Porsche 917 long tail

[ERC]

Dad bought a "Wrenn 152" system (1/52 scale rather than Scalex 1/32).

Motors were effectively ratchet and pawl controlled by contacts and just an on/off controller. Unlike the traditional motors, firstly, these ran on either 12v DC (like most others) or 12v AC! AC was faster and also, because they were ratchet and pawl, they freewheeled, but the motors soon got a bit warm. Driving them required split second judgement as to when to release the power and then put it back on.

Dad would go into town on a Saturday morning and see if the normal 25/- cars had been reduced to 5/- as ex demo models! We ended up with 62 cars. I had seven, my brothers one each and dad had the rest.

Eventually, Wrenn produced DC only motors. Shame.

We played with them just about every night. Happy times. I brought all the cars and a fair bit of track and a pile of spares back to NZ when Dad died.

[John McKechnie]

In 66 /67 I remember going to the ones in Customs St, Old Papatoetoe and bottom of Onehunga

[Max Headroom]

I first raced Slot Cars at Scanlin St, Grey Lynn when Aurora AFX were sponsoring the NZGP. That's where it all started for me, first racer was a short wheelbase 911. We even did a 24hr race for Telethon one year. Think I must have been about 10 when I started. "Santa" brought a Scaletrix set for my daughter 2 years ago and the car collection has slowly grown, much to her delight.
Funny what they say about boys & their toys though, all true for me…...

[John B]

So that's where the #19 came from Kerry. Your toys have definitely got bigger! How's your new gearbox?
Cheers, John

[Max Headroom]

So that's where the #19 came from Kerry. Your toys have definitely got bigger! How's your new gearbox?
Cheers, John
Hey John,
Yes, Ferry Porsche's birthday, 19 September.
Coincidentally the COD for the 911 below is #1909
Still, you know how much of a Porsche nut I am, especially for the 911 variants.
Don't even ask about the gearbox, been in and out 3-4 times and still not sorted.

[Jeff]

Recently came across this interesting little article about Martins Toys slot car track in Auckland city

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[Jeff]

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[Oldfart]

Thanks for that Jeff, I spent a lot of pocket money there, even made the trip from Matamata just to be there as a 14 year old. Railcar was the mode of transport :)

[SPman]

"Martins - the mecca for modelers"
I didn't know they had a slot car track - I was a frequent lurker in their store in Customs street though, and think I bought a Cox Cheetah there.
Used to race in the big track up on K Road - along towards where Red Baron is now on the other side of the road - only stopped because I was doing my PPL, and I needed all the cash I could get - well - a Piper Cub, solo at Dairy Flat was $3.50/hr! - expensive!

[Jeff]

Oooh Railcars ! Lovely. The sight of the Silver Fern used to get the old heart racing :D



Thanks for that Jeff, I spent a lot of pocket money there, even made the trip from Matamata just to be there as a 14 year old. Railcar was the mode of transport :)

[Jeff]

Haha.. wonderful. Thanks SPman , I guess you could take away that decimal point these days and add a bit more money to that hourly rate of hire although a Cub is out of the question these days ! aaah tube frame, canvas and wire... Those were the days


"Martins - the mecca for modelers"
I didn't know they had a slot car track - I was a frequent lurker in their store in Customs street though, and think I bought a Cox Cheetah there.
Used to race in the big track up on K Road - along towards where Red Baron is now on the other side of the road - only stopped because I was doing my PPL, and I needed all the cash I could get - well - a Piper Cub, solo at Dairy Flat was $3.50/hr! - expensive!

[SPman]

although a Cub is out of the question these days Oh dear...still have a soft spot for the Cub...side slipping over the fence and stopping in about 300 ft at the Barrier, then watching the Auckland Aero Club planes try and stop before they ran off the end of the strip - it was an advantage learning on a decent plane on a grass strip (as Dairy Flat was at the time)....

[Jeff]

I was lucky enough as a kid to get a few rides in North Shore's Cub ZK-BKU ( then red and white ).
Stunned by the basic and spartan interior but amazed by the performance and handling.
If you learned in a taildragger at North Shore on grass you knew you could pretty much handle anything !
I recall BKU was damaged by wind in the 80's and written off.... Later to be replaced with another Cub which they may well still have ?...




Oh dear...still have a soft spot for the Cub...side slipping over the fence and stopping in about 300 ft at the Barrier, then watching the Auckland Aero Club planes try and stop before they ran off the end of the strip - it was an advantage learning on a decent plane on a grass strip (as Dairy Flat was at the time)....

[SPman]

I was lucky enough as a kid to get a few rides in North Shore's Cub ZK-BKU ( then red and white ).
.......
Here's BKU, mid 70s....for you.
There were 3 Cubs back in 67 - BQQ, BTV & BSK.
I liked BQQ - a friendly, dependable plane that you felt you could trust, although it flew port wing low. ZK-BSK on the other hand - a right bastard - never trusted it and the only plane I've had a partial engine failure on!
They seemed to disappear when I was overseas in the early 70's and BKU was the only one left.

I did a refresher on BKU in the mid 70's, and scared the instructor shitless when I instinctively kicked it sideways just before the fence to wash off a bit of height, to yells from the back seat - I don't know if he'd ever side slipped the old girl - by the noise, certainly not from the back seat - he was a young guy who was probably used to using as much strip as needed - to us it was anathema - down and stopped before the X wind strip coming from the east, but by then DF was turning into another GA field........

[Jeff]

Superb ! Many thanks

[bry3500]

.. at home with Stirling! This is great..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRcLPkH3ksY

[Roger Dowding]

.. at home with Stirling! This is great..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRcLPkH3ksY

What would that be worth now, wonder if Stirling [ Sir Stirling ] still has it !! Wish I did ..

[Gerard Richards]

I am looking to try and track down any images people may have of early NZ Commercial Slot Car Raceways from around 1967 to 1975. I am planning to write an article on the early days of Commercial slot car raceways in NZ. I know that there were usually tracks in most towns throughout the country and quite a number in the major cities circa 1968-73. Photographs are very rare though, but someone did send me a couple from Dunedin which I now can't locate. Anyone also with photos of home tracks of the era these would also be helpful. If you can help, please can you contact me at: Gerard Richards e-mail mairangiman@hotmail.com ph 0273336642 Thanks if you can help.

[Roger Dowding]

From a North Islander - this from the South Island - Nelson Photo News .. putting this here Gerard but had to reduce size - will E-mail a the bigger version to you. Cheers.

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[Gerard Richards]

Hi Roger, thanks for that excerpt from Nelson Photo News, that is great and i appreciate receiving a scan of it at higher resolution. It’s a picture that conveys the scene how it was and the enthusiasm, we all had for slot racing in the golden era!

[ERC]

I got RSI from the Wrenn 152 system we had... AC motors, rachet and pawl (would also run on DC, but not as quick) so power either on or freewheel. Cars only lasted about 5 long laps at a time before getting too warm and having to be swapped until they cooled.

Still have our family set of about 60 cars - and heaps of track, but no 12V AC transformer! Later cars were DC only.

[nigel watts]

Still got some of my slot cars that last raced in the mid 60's

[ERC]

One of my favourite layouts. Note that with 1/52, it was more economical on space! The baseboard was on top of what was our model railway layout - which never got used again - and the whole lot on a 1/4 size billiard table in what became known as the Steptoe room....



Probably about 1964 or could be a lot earlier.
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The newer Scalextric cars are in many respects, better value than the 1/43 scale models. Check out the detail on this. Never been out of the box except for the photo... (Quite a few more in the collection.)
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[Gerard Richards]

Hi ERC, thats a really nice picture of your early 1964 home track layout. Would it be possible if you could send a copy of that image to my e-mail mairangiman@hotmail.com, so I could add it to my archive. It could also possibly be used in the magazine article I'm writing next year. Thanks if thats a goer.

[nigel watts]

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[John McKechnie]

Nigel...would car 34 be a MK3 Zodiac.nice fats on the back

[khyndart in CA]

Aw Nigel,
if I had known I could have popped in after classes at Morrinsville College.
Ken

[nigel watts]

Nigel...would car 34 be a MK3 Zodiac.nice fats on the back

Sure is, and it was my quickest racer by far.

[Roger Dowding]

Never had Slot Cars as a Kid,had a Hornby OO Model railway and my brother had a Faller set in 1;76 which we set up beside the Railway.
I did buy a Carrera 1;43 set in 2010 - never been assembled and used .. but display the cars.

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[Oldfart]

Our family went to Oz for a holiday in 64, when the import duties on lots of things, including slot cars were horrendous. I bought 10 slots in Sydney, some 1/24 and some 1/32, worth quite a bit. When we got to NZ Customs, "anything to declare" I said yes, I have a lot of toy cars, customs dude told me to go away. Duty would have been the value of 5 of them. Selling some paid for the hobby for the next year. Car dealer?

[bry3500]

https://drivetribe.com/p/is-this-monaco-track-replica-the-DCpFlbXUR1SjBsCUvNyG-A?fbclid=IwAR3H4LwMzoPL8BFqfKQBCieII3MK-zyXeU08R3n2zgzbeOihhxqpYNEgyXs&iid=BJvjAXcuQ8mZQArBmLdrDg&utm_campaign=main+&utm_medium=fb&utm_source=organic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=l0Arzh088OU&feature=emb_title

[nigel watts]

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