How did you get started in Slot Cars

[Ember]

Some fabulous stories so far. I feel privileged to be able to share in them. Thank you. And apologies in advance for my typical long windedness.

My two older brothers were the first and only boys of the generation in my father's family. My Grandmother spoiled them rotten. There was destined to be a train set turn up under the Christmas tree. But, two boys could not be expected to unwrap one gift (Gran thinking....) so alongside the large box containing the biggest HO railway set she could find there was also another large box containing a Tri-ang Minic Motorways set.

As the only girl in the family, and much younger besides, I was never allowed to play with those beautiful little cars. On the rare occasions I was allowed to join in the fun I was given control of the train and the boys would take great risks trying to zip the favourite cars (a black Jag 3.8 police car and a light green Humber Super Snipe) across the level crossing in front of the train. The sets were always stored on top of the wardrobe in the boy's room and I could never reach to get them down to play with them on my own. But I spent a lot of time standing at the base of the wardrobe looking up longingly at the box.

Fast forward to a home of my own and working. I had the room and the money I was going to buy myself a slot car set I had always wanted. I went to one of the large toy stores not far from where I worked to investigate. Then the choice.... AFX or Scalextric. For the same price as the Scalextric basic figure 8 set I could get a huge collection of AFX track and cars. So, I bought two box sets, skid pan, banked curves, chicanes and hairpins and struggled home with them on the train.

When I got home I took the boxes into the unfurnished lounge room and got to work unpacking. My (now ex) husband wandered into the room wondering what on earth was going on. He laughed hysterically at me crawling around on the floor clicking bits of track together, and strolled back to the living room and television set. He came back half an hour later wondering when dinner was going to be, so I reluctantly left construction and went to deal with the evening meal. As soon as dinner was finished I was back in the lounge room to finish putting together my massive track. Finally completed it was time to get the cars out. I called him in, placed two cars on the track, handed over a controller and excitedly gave the count down. The cars shot off like cut snakes, blitzed their way around the very long track and were back to the start in no time. But there was no joy in them. The cars were too fast, too stuck down to the track. Not like I remember from the little Minic Motorways cars. The track got played with for a month or two. The other half enjoyed using it to torment the two young kittens we had at the time. But I was disappointed. After a few months the track got packed up for the last time and the boxes stored in the back room and were forgotten.

Fast forward in time again. I've survived a nasty marriage break up, run away to the country and clawed my way out of depression. I've a new relationship with a wonderful man who has two young boys and they are allowed to spend Christmas Day and the holidays with us for the very first time. What on earth do I buy for Christmas presents for an 12 and 14 year old? Wandering past the toy shop on my way home from work I looked in the window. They had the Scalextric Top Gear Powerlaps set for sale. Perfect. I went home and discussed the idea with His Lordship. It took a couple of days to convince him, but eventually I got the OK to buy the set as a gift for the whole family. But two cars between four of us would not be enough. While searching the net to see if there were any Morgan slot cars available I discovered Auslot. Time spent reading various threads there taught me there was more than Scalextric. I bought an SCX Morgan Aero 8 for His Lordship and a Mercedes 300SLR for me from one of Auslot's sponsors.

Come Christmas day the set was broken out and set up. By the end of the day His Lordship and I were still driving when the boys had gone to bed. By the end of the second day he was as hooked as . By the end of the week there was more track on the way via eBay. By the end of the second week the table for a permanent track was already under construction.

That's four years ago.... And the love affair continues. The hinges that were to allow the track to fold up against the wall have never been tested. The track itself is still a work in progress. I have befriended some wonderful people, and managed to meet a few of them in person. I have invitations to visit people in New Zealand, UK and the US. I have built little cars that have traveled the world. And I write for a magazine dedicated to the hobby. What's not to love about slot cars?!

[Dodgefarmer]

Up here in Canada we had the Eatons and Sears catalogs that were that were loaded with slot car sets. Having watched the recently released Goldfinger I wanted the Goldfinger set for Xmas. I received an Eldon set with a split window vette and a mustang. Over the next 4 or 5 yrs I built the set up and had it mounted on a 4 x6 table that I would slide between my bed and the wall when not in use and would drag onto the bed EVERY night after my homework was done. I gave the set away after I got a drivers license and never gave slotting another thought until we bought the grandson a $10.00 Artin battery set about 4 yrs ago. Now 3 grand later and still no track (wife claimed the slot car room for a guest bedroom so I am renovating the rest of the basement for a slot car basement) here I am.

Randy

[chappyman66]

As with many, I got started because my father was into slot cars. In our house, we had a Sears/Marx 1/24 scale set with the Chappy and Ferrari 250. My sister and I would race on the living room floor....she always had to have the Ferrari, so I always had the Chapparal. Hours and hours with that set.......but I never got so see or play with his "good cars". Until one day we went to the commercial raceway in St. Paul....Van's Hobby and I can still smell the oil of wintergreen. :D
That was when I learned the wonder of Monogram cars and rewound motors......of the MPC Dynocharger and the Cox Lil Cuc. I was completely hooked. I had my own car, a Strombecker Porsche in the 2 - piece package. It was my pride, though I didn't know how slow it was at the time. Years (high school and college and after) intervened while I had interests elsewhere. Then finally in about 1996 I was living in north Minneapolis and found another raceway. After excitedly putting new tires on the Dynocharger (and finding they had not nearly enough grip for the high speed bank of a modern track) I ran the old cars sparingly while assembling newer 1/24 scale cars. Over the next 10 years the Sears set made appearances my various homes. In 1999 I got started in 1/32 with a great group in Columbus OH (the CLAMS) and learned the benefits of basement racing which have continued to this day. Plastic Artin, and now my first routed track....great to have a wonderful group to share and benefit from!

[RazorJon]

My love of model race cars started in 1970 we lived in Madison IL and my brother-in-law Jerry was into slots he would work for months on a car kit building it to race on Saturdays at one of the local hobby shops, within 15 miles I think there was 10-15 tracks. I was to young to race so for Christmas I would get a HO set and had a nice set up after 3-4 years in 73 we moved out of IL to Robertsville MO and I did not have the space for a perm. track, and at 15 I was building my own 1:1 car a 1967 Nova II no more slot cars

2006 I was at one of the malls in St.Louis and they had a 250 foot 6 lane Ninco track and I did a few laps, my Twins birthday and X-mas was getting close so when the wish book came I ordered the biggest track they sold, when I got it I could tell it was crap so I sent it back, a few weeks later I found a hobby shop down town, they had SCX,Scally and Carrera sets, being out of it and not having Internet I new this was the way for me, the sets were just a little more than I wanted to spend, asking the clerk he told me of a swap meet going on the next day.

The next day with cash in hand I went to the swap meet, a guy had 4-5 carrera sets for sale I got the Carrera 40th anniversary set it came with 2 porsches the man let me have any car he had for 15.00 I got the Carrera black Dodge with the dirt on the back fenders, getting it home I built an 8X8 foot table and set up the track, my twin Girls on their 7th Birthday had a blast, the joy and laughter lasted all day long, we raced that track for weeks, the wife joined in and got hooked, she told me to call the guy I got the track from and see what else he had, I got 11 more cars and 6 sets of #2 curves and some straights, so the table grew, for my birthday and fathers day all I wanted was track, and the table grew. One day my wife said " We need a longer straight so you can open the cars up" so being the fine husband I am I went wall to wall 40 feet 2 inches. Today our tracks footprint is 40 X 16 its 175 feet long 4 lane about 70% landscaped we have about 150 cars.
thanks for all the cool stories

[dreinecke]

Man! These stories are great!

[Dangermouse]

[Nor Cal Mike]

Great Stories all. Christmas of 1962, my parents gave my younger brother and I a 1/32 Sears Marx set. I can place the date because I remember the rental house that we lived in then and that the Cuban Missile Crisis had recently happened so that would have made me 10 years old. The Marx set that we had was the one with the green Maserati Birdcage and some kind of red Ferrari. They were cool because they had front wheels that steered. The controllers looked like a car console with the shift lever being the throttle control.

We only lived in that house for a year before my parents bought their first house. I think it was about 1964 when the first commercial track opened in our town and my dad, my brother and I were off to 1/24 cars on big wooden race tracks. It was the board tracks that cemented slots into my mind as THE way to race slot cars. We went to the commercial track for about a year before my dad decided that we needed to build a wood track at home. We built about a 12ft. X 6 ft, three lane modified figure eight in a laundry room addition built onto the back of our house. The track was built out of scrap wood that my dad had scrounged up including the 1/4" plywood that became the track surface. We cut the slots with a jig saw and screwed the puzzle like pieces on a wooden framework to form our track. You could see the floor through the slots!. The track had swoopy banked turns as was the style of commercial tracks of the day. Our house became THE hangout for the neighborhood kids. My dad became the extended neighborhood father as he was always mixed up in what was going on. I later got into real cars, girls and then life so the slot racing fell by the wayside for many years

My dad died in 2006. I don't know if it was a trip down memory lane when I was checking out a 1/32 Riggen slot car that my dad had bought years after I had left slot racing. That car somehow got me to thinking of slots again. I found modern 1/32 slots on Ebay, but I wound up with a base Carrera F1 set. I ran that set all of about 10 minutes when I knew I wanted to build another wood track which brings me to where I am today. If I were to take anything away from this, I wish I would have rediscovered slots a little earlier so that I could once again have played with them with my dad. He would have liked that.