Well, I didn't have Pike's Peak but I had HO gauge slot car tracks. They were great fun........as long as they worked. Of course, young boys could tear up an anvil with a rubber mallet. Right? Surely, you know about slot cars. If not, Google it up. I remember when there were commercial slot car tracks for the serious slot car racers. You carried your stuff in a toolbox, along with different compound tires, parts, etc. and went racing!
I was just watching slot car world championships on youtube last night. Held somewhere in Europe I think. More advanced than back when I ran them. The good old days.
Marx, also. The tracks were brand specific as far as I remember. AMT had a larger scale version, 1/25?
There were Japanese made knock offs, too. Before China, Japan was the king of cheap toys. I had one, it was powered by 4 C batteries the best I remember. Had two powered chassis, and four snap on bodies. Dollar General sells the Chinese knockoff version, bought my grandson one. It looks a lot like the Japanese version I had 50 years ago, just different cars.
Not only did Lionel make slot car sets...American Flyer did as well. My parents bought me this set because I was "hot rod crazy". A.C. Gilbert/American Flyer 1/32 Stock Car Race...I still have it The cars sorta looked like '32 Fords and had Flathead V8s. They use a magnetic guide instead of a slot in the track.
^^ Jack, I realize you're still a youngster but I find still having that set is very kool. Actually, I dig the box more than the cars. My old man was a shipping & receiving guy for a chain store named Zayre and brought home a 1/32 scale set that featured two 1940 Ford coupes, one red and one yellow. The plastic was so think you'd have to hit them with a hammer to damage them. That couldn't have been later than '60 or '61. I remember when the AMT 1/25th set came out. I couldn't imagine a set-up that large. I only saw the ads, though, never an actual set.
Yep!.... The ones I have are Aurora thunderjets and A/FX... All have the old school pancake style chassis.... Lots of those have the matched "Super II" magnets that I found on ebay....
Yeah, the AMT set was big bux at the time and never caught on. Revell sold a 1/32 set that if you bought the optional snap-on aprons could run 1/25 on it also, you could also run 4 lanes with the right parts IIRC. I remember the HO Marx now that they were mentioned, but those were never as fast as the Aurora or Tyco.
I was born a car nut, and I usally got whatever I ask for at Christmas. Back then, you didn't get toys all year long. But Christmas was a whole different story. So I ask for, and got the AMT 1/25 slot car set for Christmas. { Thank's Santa } I was building all the 3 in 1 AMT model cars. So I really LOVED the new large Slot car set. I also went to all the rental tracks, and raced with my friends too. Then when in high school. My friends and I all had HO layouts at home. We raced each other on different nights. After high school. They all grew up and went their own ways. But not me. lol I still loved them, and never stopped playing, and building. When came Carrera started making their 1/24 layout. I started building them. Much better than the old AMT set. I've enjoyed building, and raceing with my first two grandkids now 14 and 9 years old. I now enjoy racing almost daily with my 5 and 3 year old grandkids. My Dad at 90 years old, still likes watching us play. I'll never grow up. Slot Cars are just alot of FUN ! Okay Jack here's a few photos from my PC.
Slot car racing is alive and well in my house... And for now dad is still king. Kid is learning fast tho.
Oh yeah Mitch, still a kid who loves his toys...have about 150 of my Japan tin cars on the Vintage Tin thread... { VINTAGE TIN } | Page 2 | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com) Your '40 Ford slot car set was also an A.C.Gilbert/American Flyer set from the '60s...the box art was a little deceptive (no Vette). This '60s set actually has the Vette...but probably didn't sell too well with mundane box art, and a truck.
A long time ago I bought a slot car set at Western Auto, I believe. Seems it had what looked to be 40 ford coupes as the cars. Figure eight setup and the cars had to jump the lower part of the track and had some guides to get them back in the slots. Marx or Eldon? Can someone help refresh my memory on this? Thinking maybe 59 or 60 years ago. Thanks, Dennis
That looks close. The one I had, the cars actually jumped over the lower portion of the track. I sure don't remember it being American Flyer though. Been a long time ago. I had a early Strombecker before this set that came from Sears.
Just about everyone made a "daredevil jump" set (Tyco, Marx, Strombecker, Eldon etc.) but I'm not aware of a set that had '40 Ford type cars...you stumped me on this one.
Thanks for the reply. Like I said, been a long time ago and I may not be accurate on the cars. I do remember the guides on the landing side of the jump to guide the cars back to the slot. They didn't always work and you would have to put the cars back on the track. Wish I could remember what I paid for it. Took all of my lawn mowing money to get it!
I've still got about 60 feet of Aurora track from the '60s. Haven't set it up for a long time. As a kid my brother and I had the track set up on a 4x8 sheet of plywood. Three levels of track, had to run two transformers or the cars would stop on the back. Probably spent more time fixing dead sections of track than racing.
Back to the Pike's Peak Hill Climb set, it's gotta be awful rare if no-0ne yet has one or even pictures of one.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...ghtspeed_banner&referralCode=messenger_banner She won't ship it.
My brother just picked up a old Marx Ho Matterhorn Speedway set....it even came with a picture of the original owners playing with it supposedly only used a couple of times then they went to trains. Looks similar to the pikes peak lay out except its got loops, he said the card board mountains a perfect condition as is the rest of the set...I'm working on making it mine.
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