Holly Hill by Daytona Beach, FL . "The Race Place" Has a track scale Daytona speedway with a road course plus 2 large h.o. tracks...The old guys still do it and treasure their little toys like they have nothing else going on in their lives. I took my 7 year old boy there to have some fun and the first time he came out of his slot and hit one of the old guy's cars he barked at my little boy and I threatened to feed him his little toy car and I never went back...It's a shame those old dudes take that shit so serious...damn shame. Cool old hobby though!
Harmon's Restoration Parts in Geneva Ind.Good times while it lasted,slots seem to come & go pretty quick. Giz'
Here is a commercial HO track from the 60's, an Aurora Tub Track: The picture was taken a couple years ago in my garage. When the magnet HO cars came out this track was pretty much obsolete. With the higher speeds the racers wanted flat tracks with looooong straights. Home tracks now are bigger then the commercial track in the 60's! Marty
Here are a couple cars I built for our vintage races we used to have: http://www.professormotor.com/howmet.shtml http://www.professormotor.com/43valiant.shtml Marty
dang,i was down there at the turkey run this year,wished i had known about it. if i go back next year i'll carry my little bitty cars to play with.............er my high priced highly technical, hand built race cars with me. any more pic?
I grew up in Fullerton, Ca. Toms Bike & Hobby in Brea had a large Track. I wish I still had my Burnt Orange Mako Shark Slot Car with the sidewinder motor. The track was huge and had a very long back straight with a radically banked turn in the back corner. The cars would come around the last turn towards the racers. Right in front of the racers were 5 sharp S turns, and if you did not back off the control you would de-slot right in front of every body. Luckily you could place your car right there back on the track.
I looked for one of those for years after seeing a picture in a slot car mag. never saw a real one before now.
Western SFV ... I don't know if I'm doubling anybody up here ... There was a huge one on Topanga Canyon Blvd south of Ventura a couple blocks, in a building that was the Woodland Hills Post office in the early-mid 50s. That place was a gas. Big barn of a building, high ceiling, a monster banked main track and a smaller one off to the side. I raced there a lot. Seems like it was 25 cents an hour, but I could be wrong. There was a lot of older guys in the evenings and weekends and very fast cars. The best motor was a Chemtron (Kemtron?). The po'boy special was to run with a nail on the contacts, for guys that couldn't afford hand controls. It sucked, being all on or all off, and led to many an aviating slotcar. They'd boot you if they caught you using a nail. Later another opened on Ventura near Ernie Ball Guitars, a tad east of Corbin Village, north side of the steet. Not as big but rowdier.
It is not your typical banked turn. The end of the track is lifted up. BTW - Yes there are two Tub Tracks in this picture. The one in the background is my original as seen in the previous post. The other one is a reproduction Tub we used to sell. Someday we will get back into again. Marty
The places I remember (early to mid 60's) were on 55th Street in I think Countryside, IL, on Cass Avenue in Westmont, IL and in Warsaw, IN. The second track in Warsaw came from the Tiki Hut in Downers Grove, IL. A friend of mine and I were hot stuff on the Warsaw track,ha, ha (1/24 GT40 sometimes with a flat black 40 Ford fenderless coupe body and 1/32 Lola) and went to a track in Bremen, IN and got our doors blown off. Learned that tracks needed different tires. We ran silastics (sp?) while the Bremen track need spongies with goop on them. My wife still reminds me of that embarrassment to this day. Was fun back then when the cars looked like something other than flying shingles.
I don't own a single slot car myself, but my brother has a very extensive collection (mostly 1/32 stuff I believe). Last I saw, he had a garage full of stuff - probably worth as much as all of my car stuff! Here are a couple of links to a couple of pages from his Blog - mostly slot car related, but also a lot of reference material relating to vintage auto racing. I am sure some of you will find it quite interesting (and there is some great photography!) http://www.slotforum.com/forums/blog/manitouguy/index.php?cat=56 http://www.slotforum.com/forums/blog/manitouguy/index.php?cat=45
We initially sold them for $1200. We lost money on the first ones we sold so we raised it to $1400. What did you get for your money? Glad you asked. You got the fiberglass tub in one or two piece model, the underside had wood (the original was a 4X4 we used two 2X4's) glassed to it for the legs to be bolted to, and wood glassed to the sides. The only difference between the original and the reproduction was the sides of the repro were slightly angled out (to aid in removal from the mold) and the Aurora logo was smoothed over. You had to supply the track and the legs. We also did not make any holes for the controllers or wires. That was left to the individual. We also worked with a track builder that made a routed track to fit in the Tub if youwanted a more modern track. My business partner and I both have Tub tracks. We were told by several people that they wanted one too. The problem was getting it into the house! People would tell us if someone made a two piece Tub they would buy it. We did an informal online survey and got very favorable replies. As luck would have it I found an original Tub someone had already cut in two on an on-line auction. I won the auction. Next I was at the Goodguys Nationals in Columbus and met a shop owner that made fiberglass bodies. We made a deal and the business was started. All went well until the shop broke our verbal agreement and we had to stop. A new mold has to be made before we can start again. Marty
We started racing slot cars at a track on Roscoe & Balboa around 1978. Met this kid about 14 years old there who was totally into it. We were all around 19-20 and learned he was into fast cars. Later he got into drag bikes....That little kid was Steve Johnson, of Pro Stock Bike fame......
i used to go to Uncle Kals Underground in Monrovia when i was a kid a few years ago. man i used to live there, i never really paid for anything becuase i used to win all the races and got fake money. the track owners got a team together to go race the nats at Buena Park Raceway (which is still open) i came in 6th but got some pictures off me in a slotcar magizine. then i got out off it came back after the track moved did some more then Kals closed which was the closest to my house so that was the end of it. heres my slotbox i have about 6 more cars in storage heres my dads from the 60s
Here's a couple of pics of my dad's old slot-car box and cars. I'm guessing circa 1966-67. I guess there used to be a track on Whittier Blvd. in Whittier east of the 605 fwy he used to race at. -Jeremy
I've still have my box just like that. I bought mine in a small shop in Mobile, AL around '70 or '71.
I race every Friday night during the winter, oval track, large road course, and drag strip. All tracks computer monitored for lap times, drag strip has the capability for bracket racing or heads up. We used to have 20-30 cars for bracket racing. This slot car track is in a hobby store in St. Paul,Mn.
Back in the late 60's I used to race the slots a "Bobby's Hobby Lobby " Main St . in Westminister MD . Also flew the "U Controll " planes back then too and was a member of the " Westminister Aero Modlers " for many years ! Really miss that place and the fun we all had ! There is a place in Hanover Shopping Center in North Hanover that has 2 slot car tracks ! It's in the mall at the Nascar store ! Owner name is Bob Teil great guy and has tons of Nascar & slot car goodies there ! The track is super fast !
I was in Holly, MI a few weeks ago and there is a slot car shop there, still open and with the track set up. Unfortunately it was at night and the store wasn't open. I will have to take my kids there some time. Mark
Anybody in Massachusetts, there's an operational track on Rte. 135 in Ashland. Modelville Hobby. Stop in & run a few laps. My son & I had a blast!
Buena Park Raceway is pretty cool. Haven't been there for a long time. Now that I know it's still open,i'll have to go back and check it out...
im 47, when i was growing up in west texas slot car tracks where every where. i was addicted straight off and never lost the interest, i wish i still had all my old stuff, i had a couple very nice frame jigs back then ..and all sorts of stuff. now the front room of my house is my race room, i built a 4 lane 40 even foot timed artin 1:32 scale track. im still addicted ... the store bought cars are unbelievable fast, but i still like building the old stuff... this is some of my stuff now days.
Cool cars,can you post a picture of your track? I have my revell track (3 sets combined into one) in my game room, just need to get a table built.
check out this site. http://www.oldslotracer.com/ home tracks all over the world. Here is what I am building now, make my own chassis.
Hey, Bad Bob. In the O.C., there was a HUGE freain' track at "Hobby City", if you remember where that was (I think it was around Westminster on Beach Blvd...). I didn't race, but my buddy used to, and I remember him "rewinding" his motors after just about every race...
Yeah,I remember that one...My mom's friend used to own that Doll Museum,so she would take me with her when she went to visit.
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