# Time Travel Affects Slot Cars



## TjetBill (May 8, 2010)

I returned to HO slot car racing nearly 10 years ago and I still can't get over how much the passage of time has affected my impression of speed. 

In the 60's and early 70's, the kids I raced with would do anything to hop up our T-Jets to get more speed. We were really lucky to have decent hobby shops in our town and a couple of near by towns. We could score Auto World, Champion, Laganke, Lancer etc. parts and bodies. We used all we could get. We jumped right onto the Tuff Ones and AFXs. We had to hop them up as well.

Now, I'm an old geezer and I find that stock T-Jets seem just fine. I have some of the newest cars I am happy running them. I just find it funny that I really enjoy running the stock T-Jet that bored me when I was a kid.

The Time Tunnel must have warped by perception of speed. Am I just totally wierd or do some of y'all have the same experience?


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## Super Coupe (Feb 16, 2010)

Running the stock T-Jets is fun.They drive kind of like a real car. You go around the corner a little to fast and the back end kicks out a little,straightens out,and away you go.With a Gplus or other fast cars there is no kicking out.It just flies off the track,off the table and lands 20 or so feet away on the floor.But you give a little chuckle,pick up the pieces,and go for a few more laps. It's all fun. Just gotta keep the trigger pulled and hope the shiney side stays up.


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## smokinHOs (May 30, 2006)

*Old timer travel...*

Bill, you've come a long way and didn't go anywhere... LOL

I got started in the hobby when I was six (in 1980). My brother bought me the #6 AFX Camaro w/ stars and stripes. Shortly after that I ended up with a HP7 set with the two firebirds followed by a JcPenney (or maybe Sears) two pack with the BF Goodrich Tyco (HP7) P962 and Lambo Countach (440x2). The speed of that Lambo was awesome. Yeah my older brothers had a couple 440x2 as well, but that red lambo was mine. In 1990, now 16 and driving I found Nankin Hardware in MI. The parts for the SG+ (Tomy) and Tycos were beyond my comprehension. Everything you could imagine, Wizzard, Slottech, Quicker Engineering, and MADD. I saved and bought parts trying to go as fast as I could...

Now it's 2010 and I have a pitbox of the blurrrr cars and I love them. But you just can't get away from lovin' those silly stock tjets sliding around side by side- actually watching one car slowly overtake the other next to it on a long straight. I think the best part of racing the "slower" stuff is that it is much more like real racing. You feel like you have more control over how fast the car is getting around the track and smash your face together as it almost comes out of the slot... You get to watch the race as you drive. 

-Marc and Marcus


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I had a couple tjets but I didn't "get" them. I liked my magnatractions, and when g+ and 440s came out, I got them and literally ran the wheels off them. Now that I've dragged my toys out of the closet and started playing again, stock tjets are my favorite... I keep telling the kids I like them best because magnet cars are like little rockets, not cars...

--rick


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I wish my parents started me and my younger brother on slots earlier. Our first set came in about the time the AFX sets hit the stores. Had I known about T jets then, I would have been collecting them. Pity I didn't find out about them until just a couple years ago...  Better late than never I guess.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

TjetBill said:


> The Time Tunnel must have warped by perception of speed. Am I just totally wierd or do some of y'all have the same experience?


Had the same odd experience when I jumped back into these awhile back. Still get a kick out of those original Tjets and Afxes. Although I kinda like adding the silicone tires on the rear of the Tjets.  Still a blast! :thumbsup::thumbsup: rr


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

when i got my first set i was six or so,a figure 8 strombecker 1/32 set.i never really had anyone to race with,and never got another set.when i got back into slots 30 years later,it was a freebox of tomy track with four cars.2 srt's and 2 turbos.i couldn't believe how fast they were!i think i spent more time trying to find loose pick up springs than i did counting laps!i got into tjets after that,and enjoyed the tuning aspect of them.i like how simple they are to work on and the drifting of course.you actually have to drive them!i like pretty much anything i can find with a guide pin now,and am into every scale,but tjets are just nifty.my favorite two cars are my dash vw van,and my willy's.but i just was given a strombecker cheetah,so i guess i have a new favorite,even if it isn't the fastest car i have.it is a blast from the past to have one that i may have owned when i was a kid.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Nuthin' like a good brodie*

Ahhhhhh nostalgia....smells like old dude spirit!

I know because I are one.

Super Coupe's observation strikes home for me. Yeah the darn T-jet IS cool because it has a similar power to traction ratio as the 1:1 cars I started driving on. Just a gut feeling but I dont think it was engineered that way by accident. 

Respect of horsepower, considerations of traction vs the penalty of the ditch.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

The pancake cars are my favorites as well. My favorite magnet car is the Tyco HP-7 because most of the ones I run do not have much magnetic downforce so the speed is limited. The other thing I like about pancake cars and the HP-7 is that I can work on them without cursing the ancestry of the designer.

I want to get a track with a lower level of downforce. I believe that will bring all the magnet cars down to a more manageable (and for me, likable) speed. The only reason magnet cars can be driven fast is the downforce; reduce the downforce and the speed (and launch angle) will come down.

But for all around enjoyment, right now it's pancake cars and HP-7s.

Joe


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## micyou03 (Apr 8, 2003)

My first set was a Tyco-Pro set, I think it came with the Pinto and Gremlin funny cars. My parents also gave me the Love Bus and AFX #11 White Charger. I remember walking to the hobby store about 4 miles away on seterate occasions and buying Tuffones. I remember buying the #2 Camaro, #21 Cougar and the #7 Firebird. I didn't even know they were T/As. I thought they were NASCAR at the time. My friend Nick had the #5 AMX, a lighted Chaparral and a Mangusta. I also remember going to Caldor for AFXs and Tyco.

I really like running Tuffones and T-jets now but I have to sat that my favorite to run right now are my SRTs at 12 volts, with the traction magnets removed.


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## kiwidave (Jul 20, 2009)

"smells like old dude spirit" Hehehehe!!!


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> Am I just totally wierd or do some of y'all have the same experience?


I cannot attest for your weirdness :tongue: but my experience is almost the polar opposite from a "time travel" or speed perspective. The older I get the more I appreciate the larger scale (1:64) HO cars and the faster ones - to a point. My favorite cars to run are box stock magnet cars and superstock race cars. If I just want to lay down some laps on my home track I will most likely grab a Super G+, SRT, Tyco 440X2, LifeLike, or maybe an occasional MT/XT. 

For my sheer slot car pleasure nothing beats friendly head to head competitive racing on a good sized track with fairly even cars and fairly even racers. A good racing experience is like reading a good book, you just "get into the zone" and the rest of the world just fades into the background and melts away. I think the faster cars and the speed make the transition to the "zone" easier - for me. With slower speed cars or when just running around the track without a timer or a challenge my mind will tend to wander and I'm starting to think about work, cleaning the garage, or mowing the grass. Just getting a lap counter/timer on my track was a huge improvement to my slot car enjoyment because it brings in the speed element that opens up a portal in the zone. Background music helps too.

From a collecting, modeling, appreciation of slot cars perspective I like TJets quite a lot. Not my favorites but they do make up about 18% of my overall inventory of cars. I really like the ones that are well proportioned, look like the real car, and sit properly on the chassis, which is tough with such a boxy brick chassis design. The JL/AW '70 Mustangs and '68 Camaros, Aurora Willys, Aurora GTO, Vega, Corvette Grand Sport, Chargers, and Ford Fairlanes do a pretty good job in this department. However, the best Tjet design in my mind is the original A/FX, pre-magnatraction era with the 1:64 scale snap-on bodies. Those are that cars that set the lifelong slot car hook for me even though I started with the original skinny tire TJets.


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## jlong (Feb 20, 2010)

Autoworld T Jets are the kicks for me. Great paint schemes and inexpensive. G+ especially because of the way they zip around the track. They look and sound old school and best of all produce old school electrical aroma.


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## Guidepin (Apr 25, 2009)

YA,love the smell,love the new AW bodies and also love to see the cars as they tear around the track! GOD bless T-JETS. GK


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## resinmonger (Mar 5, 2008)

Wow! I have a totally similar experience. As a kid, had hop up fever.

Now, I worship the T-Jet and figure it was *SATAN* that gave Tyco the idea to replace their worm gear drive with a pinion and crown. Thus was the inline motor of pancake doom spawned.

OK, I do have pretty near all of the current crop of cars but I done been gone awhile and have to get some exageration in. And I really do enjoy T-Jets more than I did as a kid. They be my favorites now. :freak: :dude:


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> pancake doom


The venerable flapjack will never go away. The Neanderthal cousin of the TJet propulsion system (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Jedlik_motor.jpg) circa 1827 was probably used to power race vehicles of the day. I'm talking pre-TJet, pre-Vib, and even pre-car. More recently there have been pancake powered 1:1 prototype race cars.

One nice feature of the TJet is that if you get to the point where you cannot even keep up with the speed of a TJet then all you have to do is remove the idler gear. Problem solved. :tongue:


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

:wave:
*RESINMONGER!!* 
Great to see your Hutt-mug again! I've missed you.
-- D


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

AFXtoo:
You sure that thing's from 1827? I thought I built in in Electric Shop class.


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## jlong (Feb 20, 2010)

Nothing starts the day off better than a T Jet burn out and power slide.


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## bobotech (Oct 6, 2006)

I'm new to this hobby after a 30+year hiatus. It was in the mid 70's when my dad gave me a magnatraction set that disappeared about 2 or 3 years after I got it. I would wistfully look at the newer stuff that came out in the 80s during my young teen years but I was more into computers and video games. Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago and I came across the same set I had as a kid in a thrift store in the box. No cars but all the track was there and some more parts. I then started scouring Craigslist and ebay. haven't bought anything off of Rebay but I bought/traded a guy for his motherload of tyco/afx stuff. Ended up with about 10 sets (all complete with track and accessories), several copy paper boxes full of random track/accessories/etc and 22 cars. 

Last time I ran cars was in the mid-later 70's. I don't even remember how fast those cars were.

So I started playing with the cars I got and I was blown away at how fast some of them are. The super g+ and so on. Wow. I really did enjoy driving the AFX cars, they are slower and fun to drift around the corner.

So I'm not sure which ones I prefer at this point. I guess the early AFX cars are more challenging and realistic to watch but the magnet cars are just so zippy fun.


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