Slot Cars

"Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection" (itsalwayssteve) 01/06/2015 at 15:15 • Filed to: None

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Maybe this is a post for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! but did any Oppos play with/race slot cars as kids?

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These were my favorites, and I wish I still had some of them:

Tyco Porsche 908 in BF Goodrich livery. I remember getting this with a track that went up the wall. It also included a Lamborghini Countach. I don't know if it's true, but my dad told me that these Group C cars could go 200 mph and could actually go upside down at that speed because of the downforce they produced.

I also had the Dukes of Hazzard set, with ramps that could jump, and a General Lee and lights on top of the cop car:

When I was about 9, my uncle gave me a bunch of his old slot cars and taught me how to rewind motors and fix the cars without having to get an adult. I got a shoebox full of parts, including quality pressed-brass gears.

Some of the cars he gave me became classics, too. These are apparently in demand in slot-car circles. I wish I still had them, so I could hang out with my nephews and built slot car tracks...

I had a Trans Am AMX:

and a Bill Thomas Cheetah, with silver-painted velocity stacks:

and a Petty Charger/Roadrunner set:

And a Mustang that kept losing its grille/headlights until I used model glue to get it put back together properly - it was just like the one below but green.

I find it odd that most of the pictures I can find of these old slot cars are tiny photos from old Ebay auctions.

Finally, I have one of the stranger ideas from Tyco back in the 80s - The TRX racing set — consisting of two cars - one powered, and one tethered. I had these exact Firebirds. It didn't work as well with the jumps from the Dukes of Hazzard set. Plastic bodies flew.

Mattbob > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 15:29

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heck yes I did! I had an old stingray and a porsche that my brother and I used to race. We stopped when we burned through the brushes and couldn't get more. I miss that set! I recently helped my girlfriends dad set up an old knight rider set he dug up from the early 80's. The tires were rock hard so the cars kept flying off the track.

This set!

505Turbeaux > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 15:33

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I still have an ancient Aurora set my dad had as a kid. I still love running that S1 E type jag around smelling like it is on fire

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > 505Turbeaux 01/06/2015 at 15:39

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Just the mention of that smell... smelling a bad alternator brings back memories of racing slot cars with my cousins in my basement until far too late for a 9 year old to be awake.

505Turbeaux > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 15:40

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oh yeah, like the smell of a long dormant VW, it will never leave you

Destructive Tester > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 15:44

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You're making me really miss my old slot car track. I can't remember the scale (they were the ones about the size of a Hot Wheels car) but I had a metric crap-ton of track, a Jaguar XJR-7 (with that beautiful green/white livery), Porsche 986 (Rothman's livery!), a F-40 (my favorite), a Countach, a Porsche 911/930 Turbo, and a Corvette ZR-1. Between the magnetic grip and the traction from the tires, those little bastards flew around a track!

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Destructive Tester 01/06/2015 at 15:51

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They were HO scale — about 1/64 or so. And it sounds like you had the sets that came out about a year after I stopped playing with them. I was at the hobby shop pretty frequently when dad was working. He would buy sets of tires and other stuff — we had a set of foam tires for some reason, as well as some white-letter good year licensed jobs.

zeontestpilot > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 15:51

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I am in cohoots to get some slot cars for my daughter. Since I am an adult, and I don't really want anything; I may just ask for a set for my bday, and just give it to her.

philipilihp > zeontestpilot 01/06/2015 at 16:02

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I support that!

Brickman > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 16:04

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Only slot cars I had was a F350 racing set. Who races a F350 :P

Just like this one.

zeontestpilot > philipilihp 01/06/2015 at 16:11

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I already got my parents to buy her/me Hot Wheels tracks, :).

Destructive Tester > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 16:15

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That's what I wanted to say but wasn't 100% sure. The bigger cars and tracks were cool but you could just fit so damn much more track in a room with HO cars.

I think I had enough track to require a second power point to power the whole track (probably not the best idea and I didn't know better at the time, but luckily I never learned the hard way).

Now that I've done some research, I had all AFX track and preferred Tyco cars. Wow, looking at the prices for sets I'd have had a pretty penny in track pieces!

EL_ULY > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 16:19

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I know I had one but don't remember which one. I remember it had a mean hairpin that went up the wall

Nobi > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 16:32

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Hell yes. I still have an old Aurora Willys like the one pictured below. I've also got a fairly new red and black '69 Camaro kicking around somewhere.

TotallyThatStupid > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 16:47

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...but did any Oppos play with/race slot cars as kids?

Define "as kids"... I still play with them. Over the last several years I've had several setups. Tomy/AFX in the garage:

SCX Compact (1/43) in the garage...

... and in my last office (been posted on Oppo before):

Some of my favorite car shots:

The next layout will be in my basement, permanent with full landscaping. I have a 30x108 inch space to work with, so there will definitely be some height to the setup. I'm leaning toward the HO-scale, since I think with only 30 inches of depth the corners could be too tight.

Wurrwulf > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 17:16

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In late '80s/early '90s my dad was big into 1/24 scale slot car racing. He hand painted his car bodies and ran them at a couple tracks around the New Orleans area. When I was 3 or 4 he built one for me that was fast enough to hang with the pack but slow enough to never have to lift. He would just hang me trigger and have me work on my reaction time for the start. I've still got a bunch of participation ribbons and a couple 3rd place ribbons.

Fond memories that I'll always remember. The smells, the foam tires, the hot-ass motors. Next time I'm at my mom's, I'll have to see if any of his old stuff is tucked away somewhere.

Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 18:06

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Had a pretty cool HO set as a kid. I particularly remember having this Porsche 908. I was the fastest car I had.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 18:08

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I used to play with a slot car set when I was little... but it was falling apart.

I bought a new set a few years ago... but it was a total piece of shit. Bad contacts on sections of track was the main problem right out of the box.

I was thinking of getting a new set, but this year for XMas, I 'gave' my son a 'coupon' for 10 Go Kart races. So we're gonna do more realistic racing instead. But maybe for his birthday...

XJDano > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/06/2015 at 23:13

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I recalled the fun a had a few months ago and went to eBay and bought a few track sets for about $30-50 each. I set one up and the whole track needs sanded from non-use and storage.

I put them back away and I have them when my kids are a bit older.

axiomatik > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/07/2015 at 17:02

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Wow, memories. I had one of these. Actually I think I had 2 in different liveries. Hard to remember now 25 years later. I also had an awesome yellow 2nd-gen Camaro given to me by a neighbor.

Shiyal > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 01/13/2015 at 12:24

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Mom sold all my "Choose you lane" track at a garage sale for a few dollars. :(