Hello, Those guys look familiar. "Holy sh…. It is Batman and Robin in plain clothes." The TV series was very campy and we all watched it with a laugh inside. But, that photo could have been in 1963 when all of So Cal took on the slot car mania times. In almost every small neighborhood shopping centers, a hobby shop opened up with a showroom, parts dept, and an area for a track that looked like the one in the Batman photo. For us in Bixby Knolls, there were several small shops we liked and played with those little 1/32, 1/24 race cars of all kinds. Yes, we modified the motors, made our own custom tubing chassis. We used ball bearings in the chassis, tires and motors for more power, plus speed. Jnaki Most of the shops were for road racing. But several miles north of Bixby Knolls was the local favorite hobby shop with some notoriety. (J&J Hobby Shop.) It was the Lion’s Dragstrip of slot cars. There were the “big” names in the world of slot car racing competing with the likes of us, teens, for top eliminator in the very quick scale model drag strip races. The top racers with their custom machined chassis/motor set ups.. If you blinked an eye or turned to talk to someone, the race was over, before the sentence was finished. 1 second times were a common place. The scale model dragstrip had large soft pillows at the finish line to cushion the cars when they needed to stop. It was like a finger disappearing into a bowl of mashed potatoes or whipped cream. For those that could not make their own custom brass tubing frame chassis for all of the clear plastic bodies, there were ready made chassis available. Some came empty with no motor and others had stock Mabuchi motors for power. These were introduction versions so all could participate in the highly addictive hobby. Other options were full Sidewinder model kits, ready for assembly. Being avid teenage hot rod folks, we built our own brass tubing frames and added custom touches here and there in the way of faster speeds. Yes, some cars got damaged when stopped by the huge pillows, but it was minimal. Check out the threads on slot cars and it was a wonderful time. We got to build a race car or two, cost little money and had fast builds to go against the top guys in the popular activity. Note: My old wooden slot car carrying case with several rear engine Sidewinders and a few sporty cars with modified Sidewinder motors were inside. But since the whole shebang went out of favor, it lay dormant in the garages of our houses. So, one day, a neighborhood kid had nothing to do and dropped by for a visit while I was clearing out the garage storage shelves. Since he had nothing to do with his friends, I gave him the whole slot car tackle box with the cars, transformers and in the same cabinet, several feet of track. All he had to do was assemble the track, hook up the transformers and push the button for some fast drag racing action. And, smell the custom Wintergreen solution that had permeated the wooden box drawers and the different parts. Pay it forward... YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
