# Do you remember?



## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

I know I have only been a member here for about a month & a half. But there has been a lot of heated discussion going on the past couple of weeks I do not know if this is just normal or just something that just happened. 

Anyway I want to hear from you what was your earliest memories of slot cars & what has brought you to this point in your life to keep you tinkering, building, creating, racing & overall enjoyment of the hobby.

For me I remember getting to follow my older brother to his friend's house. Now my older brother was 9 years older than me so getting to follow him anywhere was a treat I was probably about 5 or 6. So that would make it about '79 or '80. 

Anyway back to seeing the guy's setup it was on a pool table with plywood on top I think. Anyway it was a oval. Just like I remembered from my Dad & my Uncle had taken me to "The Winchester Speedway" I remember seeing the cars he had some were in various states but the ones I remember most were the ones painted like the local heroes cars. There was a Buddy Armel a Denny Bonebrake & many others that I do not remember. So to fast forward a few years later. We got a TCR race set & then the simple figure 8 tyco set. I remember running probably 1000's of laps around both, we got a couple other sets & accesories for the Tyco stuff. But we never got anything else for the TCR setup other than the General Lee & Roscoe's car. So when my younger brother & I got older we left all of the stuff sit in the closet.

So now I go way forward to a couple of days before my 39th birthday & I thought you know what? I wanna get a slot car set for my 6 y/o daughter & I to enjoy while she is on summer break. I am a stay at home Dad. Not by choice though I am disabled not confined to a wheelchair but I have a really screwed up physical situation. Anyway this was something we can do together to make up for not being able to run & play with her by sharing my long lost of slot cars & racing in general.

I have had a great past couple of months learning about this hobby & so much I had not known. And the things that I remembered from being a kid. We are all still kids at heart, if we weren't we still would not be fooling around with our cars & tracks anymore. 

So come on take a few minutes & just think about your first time. And share it with us.


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

I remember my brother and I saving up until we got the $20 or so it cost for an original T-Jet set out of the Sears catalog. I think it was 1965...I was about 8. That was the over/under set with steering wheel controllers (still got them), the 20 volt transformer and the indy cars. He added cars and track & we ran the heck out of them. About 5 years later he was well into high school and had forgotten about slots. Christmas of 1970 I begged for and got one of the first A/FX sets on the market. Had the blue Daytona charger and the white Camero T/A (still got both) and that was it. I was hooked. By that time I was working in my dad's grocery store sweeping floors and racking bottles (the good old days when a 12 year old could find an honest job and make a little change) and began building my collection. Took a few years off for college, then got married. My wife already had 2 boys 5 & 6. I remember the first week we were married I went back over to mom's and packed up all my slot stuff and brought it home. You never saw 2 pair of eyes as wide as my son's were. Now I'm breaking in their and my daughter's kids. Even got one of my son in laws hooked. We have a huge permanant layout down in the cave that we race on all the time and have other guys over from time to time. Great hobby. My SIL says it's the cheapest one he's ever been in (his main interest is hunting and gunsmithing). Here's the cave:










Looking forward to hearing other's stories!


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

I got my first HO slot car set for Christmas. Aurora with a turquoise Jaguar XKE and a yellow Buick Riviera. We believe it was a conspiracy between other parents in the neighborhood because 5 of us got HO sets at the same time. All were Aurora except one, he got a TYCO.

We brought all our sets to my house and set up a HUGE track in the attic. We had not figured out jumpers to the far side of the track or one power supply per lane yet. That lasted until my Mom couldn't stand listening to us stomp around above her. We eventually went to everyone's house until we got kicked out.

I had already been building model cars for a while, so messing with the slot cars was an extension of that.

Out of all the guys in the neighborhood, I was the one that took it serious. I bought more cars, worked on them more, modified them more, etc... I was the first one to put silicone tires, AJ's Golden Falcons, on my cars. No one caught on and couldn't figure out why my car was so much faster, especially accelerating and cornering. That is until we were all at the local hobby shop and the owner let me know more of the tires were back in stock.

When I was old enough to ride my bike down to the local slot car shop, I bought a Monogram 1/32 Lola GT. Then a Monogram 1/24 2 in 1 kit with a Lola Can-Am and a Cobra Daytona Coupe. Eventually I acquired a Cox 1/24 Chaparral and a Chaparral 2D. Shortly after that the slot car shops started closing down.

When I got married and moved out of my parents house, I left all my slot cars, models, and magazines there in the attic. All the HO stuff I owned fit in a suit case, so I took it with me. SOS, parents had a garage sale and sold all my other stuff.

I stuck with the HO slot cars all these years and started racing, building and collecting all scales of slot cars. I never got into serious racing except a Vintage Race Night SCJ organized. That was fun because I could combine my model building with slot cars. I was more interested in making my cars look good then going fast.

HEY WAKE UP!!! I know some of you are probably asleep now. When your face hits the keyboard you can go to the next post.

Marty
Marysville, OH


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## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

Beast is that foam insulation tiles for the inside & outside of you track? That is a greqt looking setup. And a cool story!! We used to p/u cans to recycle for $ after bottles stopped being worth anything. Btw for me nothing tastes as good as cold pop from a glass bottle!!


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

Thanks! The border is Woodland Scenic HO scale foam railroad roadbed split in half. The larger black areas are tool box liner mats that Harbor Freight sells in rolls...stuff glues down nice and flat. 

http://www.harborfreight.com/solid-nonslip-drawer-liner-65565.html

That pick is a couple of years old. We have made one very important addition since...a kegerator!

BTW: love both yours and Mary's story.


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## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

Marty I think was a great story, especially about the tires, thats funny.


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## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

I also forgot to add we had a place that opened up that was near my middle school. That had 2 commercial tracks. One I remember was a Blue King. The other one I cannot remember. Anyway we got my Dad to take us there the 1st trip we rented cars & after that I had to get one it was a flexi with a clear body with a GP body. Then I got another body that I made into a wing car. I am gonna have to look for it the next time I go to my Mom's house.


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## slotnut (May 14, 2009)

Hey fostbitten we are in same area. Drop me an email . Lets talk.


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## clydeomite (May 5, 2004)

I read all the post and remember all the good time I have had with slots. The Christmas display at the Sear- Roebuck toy dept Lionel hill climb- The slot track nest to the Mc /donalds Burger joint ( mom would go there and get in the longest line so I could stare thru the window at the cars and track.- Vernon Shiffers basement Saturday races with all the kids from school - The Jr high school drag races in the gym- working at " Turnpike raceways In hi school- Taking 10 yrs off in the 70's and reconnecting in 1982 when a track opened with the old Celebrity Daytona track- traveling around the nation racing wing cars in the 80's and 90's - then back into Ho and into the present drag racing Ho and 24th scale cars. and geez I'm only 60. How long can this go on? Reminds me of the Grateful dead song " Oh what a long strange trip it'z been" . I remember when I was young and running 2 cars on my figger 8 Strombecker track thinking " if I could do this the rest of my life I know it would make me happy" Be carefull what you wish for it might just happen. 
Clyde-0-Mite :wave:


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## 9finger hobbies (Mar 11, 2008)

I grew up around slot cars , my earliest memories are of my dad's 1/25 scale cars in a glass door cabinet in my parent's first house. I'm told that I took the cars out and ruined them by playing with them. I was 3 then , so I don't remember this happening.
My Grandfather owned a bicycle shop in Oak Lawn IL. called "Bob's Bike Shop" and had a 1/25 scale figure 8 track with a bridge in the middle that my Dad , uncles and other neighborhood kids would race on. I kinda remember cars that did wheelies would sometimes get hung up under the bridge. The track was dis mantled before I was big enough to race.
As I grew up I remember HO scale tracks everywhere we would go. My Dad had a Tyco track set up in our basement. We had the Corvette and T-bird curve huggers and several other cars. We also had the most ingeneous piece of track ever invented.... The the track that allowed a car to intersect a train track ! We use to put that track at the end of a straight away and derail the train with the cars.
My uncle was very big into slot cars well into the late 70's. He always had the coolest cars. Aj's brass pans , silcone tires , bumpers and windows removed and really thick laquer paint jobs. He had a track at his house as well as at my grandparents house. We spent uncountable hours racing T-jets , AFX , Tycos and probably some others.
If my uncle were still alive , I'm sure he would be a part of our group.
My brothers and I HATED Thunderjets !! They were prety junky compared to the newer cars that wre coming out. We use to run the T-jets around the track and take turns picking them off with a BB gun. I would have never thought that I would be dedicating so much time to them later.
I have more memories than what my typing skills will alow so I'll end it here. I enjoyed reading everyone elses memories and am glad to share some of my own.

Sam


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

My dad had a small oval that he would break out before Christmas for a few years in the late 60's... to take the edge of us anxious kids. I liked them but I was more interested in Hotwheels, Johnny Lighting, Sizzlers and Ideal's Class A Crash Course. I got my first AFX set for Xmas in 1975 and was hooked on them (and Cox cars) until 1980. That's when I discovered girls and devoted more time to sports (baseball and tennis). It wasn't until Nov. 2001 that I rediscovered them. I lived on the waterfront in Hoboken, facing the Twin Towers and had a front row seat to 9/11. Like many of us, especially here in the NYC area, I felt a malaise for a long time. I was in Toys R Us in Times Square, looking for a present for my nephew, and came across a LifeLike set. I wound up buying 2, one for him and one for myself. That was it, the cat was out of the bag. I guess it was comforting to find something from my childhood to take my mind off all the military helicopters flying overhead with search lights blazing through all of 2002, the sense of loss, insecurity, etc. I jumped in with both feet and went crazy amassing as much as I could. Since the birth of my daughter in 2010, I've slowed down a bit... but I'm collecting, just much more discriminating now


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

I got a Gilbert 1/32 fig-8 w/ 40 Ford coupes (blue & Yellow) 4 Xmas...
when I was about 7.. (1964-ish)....
Dad & I ran 'em til they just fell apart (3 -4 years).....

still have the working transformer, speed controls, & bridge supports....

my bucket-list goal, is to restore the set (cars & track, guard rails, & maybe the box...

slowly but surely :thumbsup:

Bubba 123 :wave:


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## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2010)

Back when I was 5 my older cousin had a slot car set. I was completely amazed at cars the size of my beloved Matchbox ( did not like the Hot Wheels) could move on a track by pulling a trigger. I received the Tyco Nite-glow set that Christmas of 1981. I was hooked. The local hobby shop All-In One Hobby at the Southgate mall had guys that were super nice to me. I'd break my car and they would fix it for cost of parts only to my parents and even had patience enough to teach me a 6 year old on how to assemble my then HP-2 and curvehugger cars. 
The next Christmas I received the glow in the dark super cliff hangers set and my Dad built me a 4x8 slot car table to build my tracks on in our basement.
I would buy fix and resell doubles of cars I had with my local hobby shop and friends. I even raced at Hank's Beloit Bikes and Raceways, and Cudahay News and Hobbies. Although I did get yelled at a ton by Hank (reminded me of my Dad) at Beloit Bikes and Raceways. . He was nice enough to help me out with my bike and even showed me and sold me some Super G-plus indy cars so I could compete against the faster guys. I would sweep the floors for him to barter for track time.
I received dozens of sets as my family and friends knew I was into slot cars and received US 1 sets, turbo trains and 4 at one time of the largest sets they made in 1988. Thanks to my aunt working at the local Toys r us. They were Christmas returns that had been written off and supposed to be tossed out. She hung onto them for me.
I proceeded to get a new set about every Christmas till I turned 16. It was all Tyco for me. Life happened and they were just being moved with me in boxes that were taped up since 1992 so I stored them in my parents attic.
My Daughter found them in 2006 when my parents were moving. I brought them home and setup a boxed figure eight with all hi-banked turns. She was hooked received the police chase set for Christmas and still plays with them. She is now going on 12 and sports is her life. Thank God I now have a 3 month old Daughter now that I get to teach about slots.


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

I really like hearing everyone else's stories so bump it up and more of you chime in.


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## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

beast1624 said:


> I really like hearing everyone else's stories so bump it up and more of you chime in.


:thumbsup:+100 interweb points to you Sir.

@ Jeep just wait until your little one gets big enough to play with your tracks & your older one will be there to play again too


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## StephenDresty (Sep 21, 2013)

yes i do


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## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

Bump.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

> _*Beast1624* sez:_ The larger black areas are tool box liner mats that Harbor Freight sells in rolls...stuff glues down nice and flat.
> http://www.harborfreight.com/solid-nonslip-drawer-liner-65565.html


Beast -
What's the thickness of the HF liner material? 
The catalog link doesn't say.

-- D


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## Black Oxxpurple (Jul 3, 2011)

Approx: 1/8 inch........



Rob


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

*I've said it before, but it's worth repeating...*

When I was a kid, it was always trains, trains trains. From Christmas '72 through '74 that's all we (me and my younger brother) got for our birthdays and on Christmas morning. On Christmas day in '74 we found an AFX set in front of the fire place. All I can say is snap loc track sux!! Funny thing is we had a 4 X 16 table in the basement.. You'd think we would have mixed the slots and trains....  Nooo!! The track was set up on chairs in another part of the basement, and needless to say didn't last too long. It didn't help we never heard of red oil!!! What was left of the cars, trains, etc all got stuffed in a trunk when the house sold and got passed to our nephews, and for the most part disappeared. I did salvage a few remnants later in life.

Flash forward to 1986.. Married, and sharing a condo with the brother in law, I got a wild hair and a fresh credit card.. My biggest table to date.. 8 X 12! I bought 3 AFX sets, a bunch of trains, and extra slots. My first US1 trucks were a must have, and I was doing my first customizing. Believe it or not, I even tried LEDs, though no one bothered to mention the need for resistors... POP!!! Yes, I was lighting up cars, though it was rather crude... kinda like my enamel brush paint jobs!!  Moving a year later put the table in the dumpster, and the divorce a few years later had me selling all my train stuff (for a huge loss). I did keep the cars and slot car track at least (the guy didn't want them).

Flash forward again, this time to 2008. New wife, new state, Silly me went out and tried again. The table (find Stump City in the track forum sticky post) was dreamed up, and old memories were rekindled. I was amazed by the internet, and how accessible stuff was, though some of the prices were way higher than I expected!! This was only supposed to be a train table!! My kid got 3 sets from me for Christmas (he was way too young to use them at the time) and was finally old enough. But then something funny happened... My brother in law is a picker, and found a box of L&J track, with some guard rail, a transformer and a couple steering wheel controllers. These got dumped on me, and the search was on for more track and slot cars. 

Believe it or not, I didn't "discover" T Jets until the summer of 2008!!!! Makes me wish I was born a few years earlier!! I also discovered Flame Throwers, which sadly disappointed me. The hoods glowing killed it for me, so I decided to go one better. LEDs were no longer available in 3 flavors and 2 sizes... Time to experiment!!! My first project was a custom Mini Lindy Chevy Van, the first 1:1 car I had and loved, was accidentally found while scouring the bay for HO train stuff. I really lucked out because the Mini Lindy I won was even the right color... GREEN!!! The Dremel came shortly after and I was in business!!





A trip to Radio Shack netted me LEDs, resistors and some simple info..I had LIGHTS!!!! A month later I found Hobbytalk, and I've been at it since!! The only sad part is my beloved hobby turned into a life support system, and since the summer of 2010 has kept my head above water, thanks to more than a few guys here on HT. I would have drowned with out you guys!! I haven't made a car for myself for over 3 years now, and all that I had lighted for myself are gone, but that's how life goes..I just wish I knew about T Jets 40 years ago. Life would have been sooooo different!!!

By the way Fost, the bickering stuff is not the norm here. It is dragging on longer than usual this time, and I hope it finds it's end soon. There is absolutely nothing productive coming from it. We all know how most feel about a certain thread getting eliminated for a ridiculous reason. Hopefully, things will get back to normal!


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## chappy2 (Jan 7, 2013)

Thank you Slotcarman, real nice read. It amazing how a lot of us started with a figure 8 set under a christmas tree. I can still remember sitting for hours staring at the Slot Car page of the Sears and Roebucks Christmas catalog!


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## beast1624 (Mar 28, 2009)

Dslot said:


> Beast -
> What's the thickness of the HF liner material?
> The catalog link doesn't say.
> 
> -- D


D
Just measured a scrap that I had left and it is 1/16"


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## FOSTBITTEN (Aug 1, 2013)

chappy2 said:


> Thank you Slotcarman, real nice read. It amazing how a lot of us started with a figure 8 set under a christmas tree. I can still remember sitting for hours staring at the Slot Car page of the Sears and Roebucks Christmas catalog!


Oh you bet I am surprised I did not look a hole through our catalogs!


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## chappy2 (Jan 7, 2013)

FostB., The best part was my Ma wrapped up a hand me down tyco pro set from my cousin. My dad had to re-solder the 2 cars pickups Christmas morning before me and brothers could fight over the controllers to see who could go first!


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

slotcarman12078 said:


> When I was a kid, it was always trains, trains trains. From Christmas '72 through '74 that's all we (me and my younger brother) got for our birthdays and on Christmas morning. On Christmas day in '74 we found an AFX set in front of the fire place. All I can say is snap loc track sux!! Funny thing is we had a 4 X 16 table in the basement.. You'd think we would have mixed the slots and trains....  Nooo!! The track was set up on chairs in another part of the basement, and needless to say didn't last too long. It didn't help we never heard of red oil!!! What was left of the cars, trains, etc all got stuffed in a trunk when the house sold and got passed to our nephews, and for the most part disappeared. I did salvage a few remnants later in life.
> 
> Flash forward to 1986.. Married, and sharing a condo with the brother in law, I got a wild hair and a fresh credit card.. My biggest table to date.. 8 X 12! I bought 3 AFX sets, a bunch of trains, and extra slots. My first US1 trucks were a must have, and I was doing my first customizing. Believe it or not, I even tried LEDs, though no one bothered to mention the need for resistors... POP!!! Yes, I was lighting up cars, though it was rather crude... kinda like my enamel brush paint jobs!!  Moving a year later put the table in the dumpster, and the divorce a few years later had me selling all my train stuff (for a huge loss). I did keep the cars and slot car track at least (the guy didn't want them).
> 
> ...


is that a Bruce Gavins "Badd Dawg" van bod Joe ????? 

Bubba 123


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

No sir! Back in high school I purchased a mini lindy van for .39 cents at the drug store. It was blue, and I sloppily painted it green to match our 1:1 (then my dad's work truck). At the time of my 2nd round, I found out with a little convincing it would hang onto an AFX chassis and it got a little track time (I never did buy tires, so it sucked on the track).

This time around, around mid '08 I spent big money (about 15.00) on a NOS Lindy on the bay, lucked out with it being green, and did my first lighting job on it. The mounting method sucks, and the body is wired to the chassis, and the RRR wheels are awful, but it runs!! It's also equipped with my first NOS chassis!!


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