# Indefatigable - you need to know this word.



## mr_aurora (Oct 18, 2005)

In 1962 Aurora was feverishly developing a new chassis design as the vibrator chassis was proven to be difficult to tune to run correctly. A promotional flyer shows a picture of an Atlas Corvette, a Penn Line Indy car, and Lionel/Marx Thunderbird coming down the track and the NEW Aurora THUNDERJET is clearly in the lead.
The text in the flyer is awe inspiring especially 52 years later. it says:
*One second ago, these cars, made by four different companies, were all even at the starting line. And then we threw the switch! The one in front, the one designed to stay in front.... is powered by a new miracle motor... THUNDERJET 500. Guaranteed to out perform every other slot car on the market. FAST... The Thunderjet 500 is just about twice as fast as the best rotary motor now available. (Our new speed control units have had to be specially designed to brake it's runaway power). Laboratory tests prove that a Model Motoring car with a T-jet 500 under the hood will exceed the speed of sound in scale miles per hour. QUIET....Actually sounds like a real engine idling! No annoying hit and miss scratchiness, no tininess, Just the sweet, smooth, subdued purr of power! RELIABLE....Indefatigable is the word for the Thunderjet 500! Aurora has been developing this motor over a 2 year period, but now it's phenomenal performance qualities have become a matter of record. A test oval track was set up in our model shop and a standard Model Motoring car with a T-Jet 500 motor started its rounds. THAT CAR IS STILL RUNNING, still going strong after 2,000 hours, over 3,000 actual miles! All we did was change the tires and replace the pick up shoes....ONCE!*
Indefatigable, look it up! It's amazing how Aurora was able to predict the future and note that they coined the word T-Jet right away. Simply amazing - Bob Beers


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## neorules (Oct 20, 2006)

Kinda reminds me of something a caveman would experience when he found that the round stone wheels would blow the doors off the square wheeled cart.


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## TUFFONE (Dec 21, 2004)

The car in the second lane from the right looks a lot like a Penn-Line. Wasn't 1962 the year that they put their slot cars out?


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## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

I thought a pen Line Indy ran on a bigger track. I want one of those


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## swamibob (Jan 20, 2009)

Hey Bob;

You need to make a poster out of that ad! I need one. 

Tom


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## RjAFX (Oct 26, 2014)

Indefatigable ..... SlotCar word of the century.


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## TUFFONE (Dec 21, 2004)

vaBcHRog said:


> I thought a pen Line Indy ran on a bigger track. I want one of those


The power rail spacing and the center slot in Penn-Line track look to be the same as Aurora track would have. The plastic part of the track is a bit larger(similar to Aurora O scale track) and the lane spacing is wider.


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## pshoe64 (Jun 10, 2008)

I thought the Watson was a Marx car. I think they did the Watson and a Harvey Specials in HO.

-Paul


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## warnergt (Feb 9, 2000)

The Royal Navy Battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable (1909).


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## TUFFONE (Dec 21, 2004)

pshoe64 said:


> I thought the Watson was a Marx car. I think they did the Watson and a Harvey Specials in HO.
> 
> -Paul


 They did do those type of cars. I figured that the Marx car was in the far right lane. An Atlas car in the far left lane. Add in one Aurora car, that still would leave one more different manufacturer to make four different types. That would be the car in slot number two. Indefatigable...what a concept!


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## pshoe64 (Jun 10, 2008)

My guess on the cars were (from left to right) Atlas Corvette, Aurora "Thunderjet" ('62 Ford?), Marx Watson Indy racer, Lionel Thunderbird. But just a guess.

-Paul


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## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

Marx Watson Indy racer were 1/32 scale


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Looks like Marketing couldnt figure out how to draw a sonic boom ... giggle... so they photo-shopped light bending behind it.


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## pshoe64 (Jun 10, 2008)

vaBcHRog said:


> Marx Watson Indy racer were 1/32 scale


Marx did a Watson and Harvey in HO, but looking at my reference photos the nose on the Marx is not the same as the ad picture. But the Penn Line is a dead-on match, good eyes gentlemen.

-Paul


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## TUFFONE (Dec 21, 2004)

pshoe64 said:


> My guess on the cars were (from left to right) Atlas Corvette, Aurora "Thunderjet" ('62 Ford?), Marx Watson Indy racer, Lionel Thunderbird. But just a guess.
> 
> -Paul


I don't know but maybe someone here does. Did Lionel make HO slots as far back as 1962? I am not sure when they started their line. I believe that Tyco started HO slots in about 1963. Just pondering what the possibilities were in 1962. If Lionel did make cars in 1962, is it possible that they were actually faster than a T-Jet?


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

TUFFONE said:


> I don't know but maybe someone here does. Did Lionel make HO slots as far back as 1962? I am not sure when they started their line. I believe that Tyco started HO slots in about 1963. Just pondering what the possibilities were in 1962. If Lionel did make cars in 1962, is it possible that they were actually faster than a T-Jet?


Yessir, it's true. Some Atlas and Lionel cars could hold their own. What they didnt have was the monsterous factory support in the way of spares and hop up support; from both the factory and privateers.


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## FullyLoaded (Apr 19, 2006)

pshoe64 said:


> My guess on the cars were (from left to right) Atlas Corvette, Aurora "Thunderjet" ('62 Ford?), Marx Watson Indy racer, Lionel Thunderbird. But just a guess.
> 
> -Paul


 My guess is that the Marx is on the far right with the T-bird being their 1962 replica with a more formal and ribbed roof compared to the later 1963 version with the sleeker smooth streamlined roof. The latter being the one that REH reproduced under the American Line banner. The Indy is probably a PennLine as stated before and I'm not sure what is on the far left.


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## mr_aurora (Oct 18, 2005)

A couple of things. The word indefatigable is of English origins which figures based on Aurora's tie-in with it's T-Jet designer Derek Brand. Warnergt's battleship picture is a British ship. The cars used may or may not be production ones as companies were known to use each others prototypes as employees were stolen away regularly due to the competitive nature of the business. Lionel and TYCO in NJ, Penn Line and Marx in PA and Aurora in NY


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