Slot Cars & Slot Car Tracks

Slot Car City, Las Vegas, NV

Slot cars have been around since the 1950's, and please correct me if I'm wrong. My first set in 1958 was more like a model train set with rails, but with cars. When I was 12, in 1965, slot cars and commercial tracks were becoming very sophisticated. There were very large tracks in local hobby shops (like the track above), with 8 lanes, from 200' to 400' in length, organized clubs and races . . . I became very addicted. There were thousands of hobby shops in the US, especially in California that had these huge slot car tracks. In humble Salt Lake City we had 5 hobby shops that had one or more of these large tracks. During the week, my friends and I would be tweaking our cars just so we could duke it out on the track on Saturday. It was a very cool time!

A NASCAR race at Slot Car City, Las Vegas, NV

In the 60's, 1/24 scale cars with all kinds of metal frames, including home built brass tubing, were the standard. They were built for speed with Mabuchi 16D, 26D, and 36D engines. At first the large 36D engine was the biggest and baddest. Later the smaller 16D, after heavy modifications, like trick winding and balancing of the armature, better bearings, and lower center of gravity for better handling was the king. Today, I think only Parma is the only manufacturer of these kings of speed.

Over the years, hobby shops with commercial slot car tracks would come and go, sometimes the whole hobby would die, then come back. I personally missed the last two resurgences from busy life as a grown-up. One day I was taking in one of our company computers to a repair shop and happened to notice a sign that said "Slot Cars" at a place called MRS Hobby Shop across the parking lot. I wandered in and have been hooked ever since.

Today, things have changed a lot. The biggest manufactures are in Europe, like Scalextric (England), Fly (Italy), SCX (Spain), Slot-It (Italy), and many more. The preferred scale is now 1/32, the main motor is Mabuchi type S (smaller and less powerful than the old 16D), but on the upside is outstanding detail. These cars are almost perfect copies of real cars that have actually raced and come in display cases! When I first saw one of these little beauties, I couldn't believe that you could put it on the track and it would go. It was just too painstaking pretty. Not only did it have all the decals and striping of the real car, but when you look inside, there is the driver with his name painted on his little helmet. Is that amazing or what! Here's a Porche from Slot-It:

Slot-It Porche 956

Another nice developement for our day is the quality home tracks from Scalextric, Ninco, Carrera, SCX (pictured below). They can be set up in minutes and torn down for storage just as quick. I have a Scalextric track that started out as a simple oval, that, after adding expansion packs and other track peices has grown to about 45 feet with banked turns and a 12 foot straight. My little Sis, who sometime brings her family to the commercial tracks with me, made my day by saying, "This is more fun than the commercial track." Your local hobby shop should be able to get anything mentioned in this blog for you. Here is nice SCX track you can get at Target:

Here are a few links if you'ld like to learn more:
Slot Car Illustrated: http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/
Slot Car Garage: http://www.slotcargarage.com/
Parma: www.parmapse.com/slot1.html
Scalextric: http://www.scalextric-usa.com/
MRS Hobby: http://www.mrshobby.com/
Slot Car City: http://www.slotcarcity.com/

Any comments are welcome