Slot cars?

[rugerjunkie]

Anyone on here into slot cars? I have not had a track set up since I was a kid. My dad built a multi level track on a sheet of plywood that we would set up on a pool table for race days and had so much fun with them! I had a bad a$$ nomad wagon that would clean house back then! Haha!

Fast forward...

My girlfriends 2 1/2 year old son loves anything to do with tractors or cars. I take him for rides on the old Oliver 1850 whenever I can and am actually a better tractor driver now that he has showed me how to do everything! :) And I am also the one who always ends up playing cars with him. Most of the track set ups today are crap and battery operated for this or that cheesy function for matchbox style cars or worse...ones that only work with a track designed for their cars and they wont work with the popular sized ones like a matchbox. So all we really use are the simple tracks for matchbox cars and set up our tall ramps and jumps , etc since he gets a kick out of "letting em fly"!

Id like to get a slot car set up going for him now. Id want to find something that can be regulated down or else I know he will just pull the trigger to see them fly off the track! Id assume things havnt changed much. Are the cars and track still the same scale? Any suggestions on a certain brand? Or any other tips for someone that hasnt been in the hobby for 30+ years?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[graygun]

It was big in the mid-60s where I was living then and I had some 1/32 cars and parts. I rewound some motors but the increased rpm would mean they lasted a short time. You could do things to help,like replacement bearings.

The place I went to had four large tracks and a drag strip with a variable power supply. I think it would go up to 40 or 50 volts. You could get some very quick runs,especially if you didn't mind sacrificing the motors. Pay a dollar/hour and go to it.

 

[Dan in MI]

You've left out a lot of details from your youth. What scale? If you don't know, hand size or fit in your palm?

If you look a lot of towns still have a track hidden somewhere.

HO scale (fit in your palm) is fairly compact and may work well for your current situation until you decide how far to go. Try running at 6 or 8 volts to slow things down.

 

[graygun]

I don't know what's available now.

 

[BlkHawk73]

I had these as a kid:

Got it for a present and little by little ended up with a bunch of different vehicles and all the accessory kits. You'd drive the vet into the accessory and diff actions would happen. Logs would empty into a trailer, rocks into a dump truck, an airplane would fly, a conveyor belt would load crates... Hours and hours of fun that tok up the entire living room.
Surprisingly, my son has had zero interest in any. Diff generation.

 

[rugerjunkie]

My old stuff had to have been HO scale. They were similar in size to matchbox cars.

Im also pretty confident that he will have a lot of interest in something like this. He is a NUT when it comes to toy cars and tractors! I remember how big my eyes got when I saw the track my dad built and know my little buddy would love it too.

 

[Dan in MI]

I figured you had HO when you said Nomad Wagon. That was a popular car in the Aurora AFX series. (I had one too)

It's all about how far you want to go. With a kid that age it's going to be purely about racing.

A quick search on "HO scale slot cars" brought up options on Amazon. Looks like $100 to get a complete set. You could also check flea bay for HO scale stuff. As I guessed above Aurora AFX is probably what you are familiar with.

I once had about 50 cars and nice semi permanent tack when I was an early teen. Kinda wish I had it all back every now and then.

 

[rugerjunkie]

Kinda wish I had it all back every now and then.

Isn't that the truth!! If I had a fraction of the stuff I destroyed when I was a kid! I had a lot of farm toys , both ertl and tru-scale. Seeing what some of that stuff is worth now...dang!

On another note...

I dont care as much about which scale but more on something that is going to work good. Just like teaching a kid to fish...if you arent catching any they wont be interested for very long. Plus I think this is kinda a toy for me too! There are a few big hobby stores within an hour or two from home and Im close to various ones when Im out away from home working so I'll start hitting them places and see what they have for starters.

 

[Kevin]

Rugerjunkie:
have you considered perhaps R/C cars? I know you said your girlfriend's son is only 2 1/2, that might be a little young I suppose. Model train, maybe? He would probably have as much fun setting up a track as he would racing cars around it.

 

[Fox Mike]

It was big in the mid-60s where I was living then and I had some 1/32 cars and parts. I rewound some motors but the increased rpm would mean they lasted a short time. You could do things to help,like replacement bearings.

The place I went to had four large tracks and a drag strip with a variable power supply. I think it would go up to 40 or 50 volts. You could get some very quick runs,especially if you didn't mind sacrificing the motors. Pay a dollar/hour and go to it.

Was that track in Annapolis? If so, I too have run cars there. Used to be some SERIOUS 'drivers' there.

 

[graygun]

It was big in the mid-60s where I was living then and I had some 1/32 cars and parts. I rewound some motors but the increased rpm would mean they lasted a short time. You could do things to help,like replacement bearings.

The place I went to had four large tracks and a drag strip with a variable power supply. I think it would go up to 40 or 50 volts. You could get some very quick runs,especially if you didn't mind sacrificing the motors. Pay a dollar/hour and go to it.

Was that track in Annapolis? If so, I too have run cars there. Used to be some SERIOUS 'drivers' there.

It was " Four Corners" in Silver Spring where routes 29 and 193 cross.

 

[Rook]

I remember going to a local slot car track when I was 14 and 15 years old back in the mid 60's in knoxville, TN. You'd pay for time by the half hour or hour. They had a row of stools beside the track with a place to plug in your controller. The track was approx. 5 feet wide with about 6 or 7 lanes as I remember. I had a Cox controller that was red clear plastic with a yellow cord that I used to control my Cox Cheetah similar to the car in the photo below.

When they came out with the white silicone tires I had to have a set. Those things would hug the track like your car was on rails. People carried a bottle of mineral oil in their tackle box to clean those tires with between races. :) I believe the cars were 1/24 scale if I remember correctly.

 

[CGDustDevil]

Man.. Slot cars!? I used to have slot cars back when they 1st came out. Loads of fun. But I fell in with bad company and got mixed up with a 1% biker club and that was the end of that! ;)

 

[Don Lovel]

I loved the HO set we got as kids, 4x8 sheet of plywood with as much track as we could fit into every inch of that sheet of wood and three levels of over passes and also had a HO scale 1/4 mile drag strip.
I had a Mack dump truck, faster than any of my cars. But my favorite car was a 69 Buick Skylark GS with big tires on the back, it was just an awesome looking little muscle car all jacked up in miniature, it ran good on the drag strip too.

 

[wiz1997]

We had the HO size cars and trains.

My Dad took a sheet of 1/2" plywood and framed under it a bit more strength.

The plywood could be raised up to the ceiling of the garage for storing.

When we were ready to race or run the train we would lower the plywood, using a boat winch and pulley system, Dad had mounted on the wall and set it down on saw horses.

Tracks could be screwed down and left setup on the plywood.

Cover it with a sheet of plastic, hoist back up to the ceiling, done and out of the way.

I still have some of the train cars and the locomotive but they look like you would expect after being abused by three boys.

Race cars and track were given away to a family friend.

Our garage was the hot spot of the neighborhood for both kids and their dads.

 

[rugerjunkie]

I still have a good collection of HO train stuff and tons of toy tractors and equipment but it has been boxed up for quite a few years. I dont think it will come out for a while yet...the 2 1/2 year old is a little destructive yet. His name starts with a B and his nickname is Lil B...and I call him Lil B Dozer! Haha!

Its cool reading the replies and hearing about everyone elses experiences with the cars,trains,etc...good stuff!


Here's a pic of the little guy at 1 1/2 years old out on the tractor with me. He's a lot bigger now and tells me how to drive it!

 

[powder smoke]

I remember going to a local slot car track when I was 14 and 15 years old back in the mid 60's in knoxville, TN. You'd pay for time by the half hour or hour. They had a row of stools beside the track with a place to plug in your controller. The track was approx. 5 feet wide with about 6 or 7 lanes as I remember. I had a Cox controller that was red clear plastic with a yellow cord that I used to control my Cox Cheetah similar to the car in the photo below.

When they came out with the white silicone tires I had to have a set. Those things would hug the track like your car was on rails. People carried a bottle of mineral oil in their tackle box to clean those tires with between races. :) I believe the cars were 1/24 scale if I remember correctly.

X2 Yes I remember going to Eddie's Pocket Billards he had a track in the basement.
IIRC rent a slot by 15 min. increments. Chaparral is what I ran loads of fun.
Fairly large car maybe 10 or 12 inches long not sure exactly, long gone now. ps

 

[wizofwas]

I still have my 1/24 scale slot car and Cox controller. The car is a Ferrari 250 GTO highly modified to make it go faster, to not much success. I do remember that we had a few tracks that we could go to but the two most popular ones were the one down by Pontiac by the Rolladium on M-59 and the other one was in Drayton Plains on Dixie Hwy. IIRC, it cost $0.25 for each 15 minutes.

 

[redhawker]

Used to do that. Got my first one when I was about 12 or 13. It was just after "Goldfinger" came out and I still remember it. It was James Bond's car. An Aston Martin DB-5.

 

[Dan in MI]

I still have my 1/24 scale slot car and Cox controller. The car is a Ferrari 250 GTO highly modified to make it go faster, to not much success. I do remember that we had a few tracks that we could go to but the two most popular ones were the one down by Pontiac by the Rolladium on M-59 and the other one was in Drayton Plains on Dixie Hwy. IIRC, it cost $0.25 for each 15 minutes.

STAPELTON'S!!!! I'm pretty sure they were in the Rolladium building. Then they closed that shop and had a smaller one on Dixie next to the Dairy Queen. I dropped a LOT of paper route money there.

 

[rugerjunkie]

After looking around online , I think Im going to go with a 1/43 scale set. There seems to be more kid friendly stuff with Lightning McQueen and Towmater cars. Two of his favorites. And the cars arent high dollar so when one gets destroyed its not that big of a deal. Things can always be upgraded and tracks made bigger and better if he likes them enough.

 

[graygun]

I remember going to a local slot car track when I was 14 and 15 years old back in the mid 60's in knoxville, TN. You'd pay for time by the half hour or hour. They had a row of stools beside the track with a place to plug in your controller. The track was approx. 5 feet wide with about 6 or 7 lanes as I remember. I had a Cox controller that was red clear plastic with a yellow cord that I used to control my Cox Cheetah similar to the car in the photo below.

When they came out with the white silicone tires I had to have a set. Those things would hug the track like your car was on rails. People carried a bottle of mineral oil in their tackle box to clean those tires with between races. :) I believe the cars were 1/24 scale if I remember correctly.

X2 Yes I remember going to Eddie's Pocket Billards he had a track in the basement.
IIRC rent a slot by 15 min. increments. Chaparral is what I ran loads of fun.
Fairly large car maybe 10 or 12 inches long not sure exactly, long gone now. ps

I had one or two of those Cox controllers. I also recall some guys used a battery hooked in reverse polarity to the track for a type of power braking.

 

[mikem2]

Now that brings back memories.
My grandfather had one of tracks and ran races for many years. The power unit for the track was the size of a small refridg and controlled the power with a timer to each lane. Winding the wire to build motors and soldering parts. He built custom frames for cars and painted the car bodies. Guys would show up with their tackle box and a car all secured. Always replacing the contact brushes.

That was fun.

 

[TCGuy]

Here's a pretty nice HO scale setup I found on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/AFX-Raceway-Chassis-Tri-Power-AFX70289/dp/B003MUK32K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465405195&sr=8-3&keywords=slot+car+race+track+sets

 

[mikem2]

This is a great slot track

http://www.slotcarcity.com/?gclid=CIyF1L-Rmc0CFcUdgQoda_sODw


Las Vegas set up.

 

[rugerjunkie]

Thanks for those links guys! Now I have more homework to do!

 

[wizofwas]

I still have my 1/24 scale slot car and Cox controller. The car is a Ferrari 250 GTO highly modified to make it go faster, to not much success. I do remember that we had a few tracks that we could go to but the two most popular ones were the one down by Pontiac by the Rolladium on M-59 and the other one was in Drayton Plains on Dixie Hwy. IIRC, it cost $0.25 for each 15 minutes.

STAPELTON'S!!!! I'm pretty sure they were in the Rolladium building. Then they closed that shop and had a smaller one on Dixie next to the Dairy Queen. I dropped a LOT of paper route money there.

Yes, Stapelton's. I spent a bunch of money there. And it may have been a Rolladium building but not the same building as the one the rink was in. IIRC it was the building just east of the rink. And the one on Dixie was on the east side of Dixie right around Frembres. I was gone by the time Stapelton's closed up shop and don't remember any tracks around a Dairy Queen.

 

[MYBABYISA44MAG]

I had a serious set made by Stromberg??..Multiple types of cars, my neighbor had a similar set and we would run track all over the house...had many 500 lap races...had an electric lap counter...serious power pack with multiple settings...we modified everything we could for better speed, grip, acceleration, you name it.....had an indy car with actual steering....oh the memories

 

[Dan in MI]

Stapleton's was the one by the DQ. They shared a parking lot. 1/4 mile W of Frembes.

 

[wizofwas]

Stapleton's moved to Drayton by the DQ? I believe you as I don't remember at all, I was gone from the area by that time. And I only vaguely remember the DQ in Drayton. (If I wanted a DQ, I'd go to the one in Clarkston, as my dad built that one.) The track that I remember in Drayton was on the east side of Dixie in one of those buildings at the Frembres intersection. I know it was gone before Stapleton's closed shop at the Rolladium.