# Newbie on board



## Ligier Runner (Nov 29, 2004)

Hi y'all! :wave: 

New to the boards and wanted to introduce myself. My real name is Pat. Father of two beautiful kids and married to one outstanding and understanding wife. Play guitar in a local band and collector of all things too expensive to buy and too bulky to store.

I've recently made the decision to get back into the HO slot car scene and resurrect my old cars on a brand new Tomy/AFX track which I'm going to build in the basement. Going to go with a 4 lane 5 x 9 layout at the very least. Looking forward to getting into the Super G Plus cars as well.

Used to race pretty seriously in the early 80's as a kid and went to events and such. Briefly dabbled with it again in the early to mid 90's but lost interest due to widespread disinterest in HO at that time (everybody else was getting into 1/32).

Gonna have some questions for you fine folks as I go through this. Any help is appreciated.

My first question is: When I was into it in the old days, we basically had magna-tractions and g-plus'. Now I'm seeing SRT, Turbo, and Super G's in the AFX line. What's the difference between these three and should I avoid one type and not waste my money if I stumble across a sale or two? I've read nothing but good things about the Super G's but what about the other two?

Thanks!


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## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

Well, let me be the first to welcome you to the board! Always great to see fresh mea...I mean, um, new people on board.  

I'll now turn your questions over to the more learned of us, as I lnow little about SRTs, Turbos and whatnot. I can tell you that the Super Gpluses are wicked fast, much faster and hold the track better than magnatractions. I got 4 of em in my race set and use em as rail cleaners before I pull out my Tjets and Xtractions. (Johnny Lightning Magnatraction clones, if ya didn't know already)

You'll find a lot of REALLY knowledgable guys here. Its one of the more well attended of the various HO boards. :hat: 

Enjoy.

Trev


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Shadowracer said:


> I got 4 of em in my race set and use em as rail cleaners before I pull out my Tjets and Xtractions. (Johnny Lightning Magnatraction clones, if ya didn't know already)
> 
> Trev


Trev,
That's what I use my lifelikes for. They can get those rails taken care of before I run my Tjets & MTs too.  

And welcome back to HO slots Ligier Runner! You'll find alot of help here, just ask. :thumbsup: rr


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## doctorslotcar (Jul 25, 2004)

Cool. welcome to the forum.its been good here. met some great guys. check out our chat wednesdays at 8 pm central.hope to see ya there.


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## Sundance (May 5, 2003)

Welcome to the board. Where in Northern Indiana are you? We have a club that races in Elkhart,Goshen and drag races in Millersburg. :wave: 

Sundance


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## Captain Fred (Feb 19, 2000)

I just bought my first SRT. It's a red Daytona. I haven't even run it yet, but on the magnet test(when I place it alongside a SG+ on a piece of track and turn it upside down and shake it) The SG+ adheres to the track. The SRT falls off. I guess the SG+ has stronger traction magnets. The motor on the SRT looks just like the can motors in the Tomy Turbos. They don't have the timing adjustment switch, like the SG+ either.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Welcome to the board Pat!

My advice is to get a couple of each type of chassis and give them all a try. The following is a list of all of the widely available chassis varieties that I can think of off the top of my head:

For AFX Style Bodies:
- Aurora AFX
- Aurora AFX Magnatraction
- Aurora AFX Specialty (for special bodies)
- Aurora AFX Magnatraction Specialty (for special bodies)
- Aurora G-Plus (narrow and wide)
- Aurora Super G-Plus (narrow and wide)
- Aurora Super Magnatraction
- Johnny Lightning XT (~AFX magnatraction clone)
- Tomy Turbo (narrow and wide)
- Tomy Super Racing Turbo (SRT) (narrow and wide)
- Tomy Super G+
- BSRT G2
- BSRT G3
- Slottech T1 (with Tomy clip)

For TJet Style Bodies:
- Aurora TJet and Wild Ones
- Aurora TuffOnes
- Johnny Lightning ThunderJet 500 (~Aurora TuffOnes clone)
- Model Motoring ThunderPlus

For TycoPro/Tyco Style Bodies
- Tyco 440
- Tyco 440-X2/X3 (narrow and wide)
- Tyco HP7 (wide only)
- Tyco HP440 (wide only)
- Slottech T1 (narrow only)
- BSRT T2

For Likelike/Rokar Style Bodies:
- Rokar M5
- Lifelike M-chassis
- Lifelike T-chassis

Notes:
- Narrow chassis usually (but not always) are for mounting F1/Indy style bodies.
- The Tomy Turbo and SG+ F1/Indy bodies are not interchangable.
- The Tomy SG+ and BSRT G3 chassis is narrow only but uses an adapter clip to mount wide AFX style bodies. 
- The Tyco chassis only fit the type of body they were designed for but there are sedan style Tyco bodies that fit the narrow chassis.
- Some Aurora bodies were designed exclusively for the G-Plus chassis and will not mount on Tomy chassis.
- Aurora Super Magnatraction is somewhat hard to find.
- There are aftermarket adapter clips available to mount AFX style bodies on Tyco chassis and vice versa.

I'm sure there's others I'm missing. On the magnet car racing front the most popular chassis today are (alphabetically):

- BSRT G3
- Slottech T1 and Panther
- Wizzard Storm and Patriot P3/P3 Scorpion

The biggest new thing since the 70s/80s in my mind is the very wide variety of custom bodies available. Most of these customs are for the TJet chassis. There are a lot of custom lexan racing shells out there too that will fit anything with the proper mounting system, but for custom hard bodies the TJets are by far the most popular right now.


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## Ligier Runner (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks for the welcome and all the good info! I've been doing a lot of surfing for HO related sites and have come across quite a few that provide worthy tips and knowledge.

From what I've discovered, I have about three SRT's or Turbos that I purchased in the 90's according to chassis print "blowups". Also have a Rokar that I recall not being too impressed with.

I'll have more questions that I'll try and post in the appropriate forums as I go along here.

Sundance - I was just in Goshen on Saturday and stopped at Maple City Hobbies inquiring about Tomy/AFX track if that tells you where I live.  I'm actually in Milford to pinpoint it for you.


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## Sundance (May 5, 2003)

Did you ever run with NIHOPRA in the 80's? Hope to see ya at the track.

Sundance


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## Ligier Runner (Nov 29, 2004)

LOL....THAT'S it! I could not remember the name of that group for nothin'! I could remember HOPRA but I knew there was more to it than that. Yes I did run at a couple of their events. Walked away with a trophy from one of them in the novice class or amateur...whichever it was. With that I got a free ride into the class above that and subsequently had my doors blown off but it was fun nonetheless.

One of my friends that ran at the time (and later got into R/C racing heavy) was a guy by the name of Dean Neusbaum or Newsbaum. Not sure how you spell it. Wonder whatever happened to that guy? Anyway, I digress. 

I'd like to hit a few tracks and events just to check things out but it'll be awhile before I'm ready for anything like that again. The guy at Maple City said they had a track in the basement but I didn't ask him any details.


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## Sundance (May 5, 2003)

Clean Dean Nusbaum . He lives up by Middlebury ,not racing anymore. I think I am the only one still racing from that time. I was alot younger than. We race super stock, box stock, Magna-traction stock cars and JLTO at Goshen. We race JL sprint cars, v-mods (t-jets) Dirt lat models on my Max Trax in Elkhart. Whats your last name if I may inquire as Dean and I were real good friends. Raced RC with him and he pitted for me when I was racing carts.
Sundance


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## Ligier Runner (Nov 29, 2004)

This is too wild. My last name is Fraley. Dean used to come over to a guy's house by the name of Dale Schrock in Goshen who had a 4 lane Watkins Glen layout completely landscaped. Dean gave me my first "real" controller to use with the slots and I still have it to this day. This was back in 1980 and we raced like that for about a year or so until he got into the R/C side of life and abandoned us. LOL

If you ever talk to Dean, tell him I said hey! Don't know if he would remember me. I've wondered for years what happened to him. He was a good guy who I enjoyed hanging around and learning from. Dean's the guy who convinced me I was good enough to run with the boys from NIHOPRA. I always remember him running that Saudia/Williams G Plus. LOL

I'll have to find the time and get up to Goshen some night when you guys are running and take in that intoxicating slot car smell and that beautiful sound of them again. :thumbsup:


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## Sundance (May 5, 2003)

Well Pat if I remember correctly I ment you once years ago. I was never at Dale's ,but I do know him. I talk to Dean every ounce in while, so I will pass the word on. If we have a week-end race I will post it here or on yahoo group HO-Elkhart. We run clases that don,t take alot of work. Dinners ready got to go if you know what I mean. Later Tim


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## A/FX Nut (May 28, 2004)

Welcome Ligier Runner, We race on Thursday evenings at Maple City Hobbies in Goshen. Stop by if you can this thursday and say hello.


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Pat, welcome to the Hobbytalk forums :wave: 

It's always nice to see people come back to the slot car hobby.......and it's also cool to see that you're making contact with old slot friends. :thumbsup:


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## Ligier Runner (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the welcome I've received. Seems like there's some good people around here and I'm sure to learn a lot from you folks.

Tim - By all means when you can, tell Dean I said hi. Tell him the upstart kid that kicked his a$$ every Thursday night still remembers him. LOL...


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