Reliving My Younger Years - Slot Cars …

[WD Pro]

Well I had started to clutter up the hobby thread (https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/other-hobbies-passions-other-than-the-mustang.153458/), so thought it best to start one specific to slot cars.

I’m not a racer or a model builder, I’m just an older guy trying to claw back some of my younger years, and collect the toys that went with them …

Although all my content will be Scalextric, please feel free to add any content that’s relative to the topic / slot cars in general

I will start by adding my posts from the other thread :

Me and my brother were really into Scalextric in the early 80’s, and then stupidly sold the multiple sets and parts that we had (probably when we hit our teens).

Fast forward a few years (1996) and I got bought a the Escort Cosworth set which I still have today (generic photo) :

Well our youngest (8) had been asking me to dig it out and as the weather was bad, we’ve spent the afternoon playing …

That got me searching for info on my old favourites, and I found this which has three different of them on the same page (I had all three red ones) :

That tempted me to browse eBay, and I’ve just snagged this :

Interestingly, the same seller has this …

WD

Well, tonight I have :

• Burnt out the pinion on my white cosworth
• Put new braids on the yellow cosworth
• Started to refurbish the wheels from both cosworth’s
• Bought this for its mint bumpers and chassis, so I can start to recreate my red car

What madness is this, and is it acceptable to blame it on you guys and this thread …

WD

That’s another step closer to recreating my favourite red car …

WD

Well these aren’t the quickest of cars, but they are a lot of fun

This one worked straight out of the wrapper, not bad for 42 years old and still on its original (now very hard and plasticky) tyres :



The motor has noticeably improved and so have the tyres - but it will get new tyres, bearings and braids

WD

WD

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[WD Pro]

So this is where I am up to with creating my old toys …

I have been paint filling, and refurbishing wheels, the edges have also been flatted back to get rid of all the curb rash :

The Cosworth front tyres will stay original, the rears have been swapped to grippy slicks, and the silver wheels are off my old Porsche 935 turbo (sadly, I have no idea where the rest of the car went) :

One of the front Porsche wheels had a cracked hub, but this little jig worked really well whilst I ran Cyanoacrylate in and let it cure :

The sidecar is done.

• Full deburr - especially around the front pickup and where the wires rotate, it’s really smooth now.
• Rerouted the wires - lots of movement and no catching on anything.
• New ball races - glued (RTV) into the chassis and onto the axle.
• New pinion (old one was split).
• New grippy tyres (old ones were hard).
• New braids.
• Full detail … lol

The chrome on the wheel edges was damaged / coming off, so I flatted it off. I think it looks quite neat :

This thing is tiny, but quite quick and a lot of fun :

All done :

I’m on the fence about touching up the silver race suits - judging by the condition of the rest of the body and the claimed ‘unused’ or ‘new old stock’ models I’ve seen for sale, I think they might have actually come painted like that from the factory, rather than it being a bit of patina ?

Until I can find a better solution, here’s how it will get stored (I knew those little desiccant packets from the covid tests would come in useful for something … lol) :

Total cost (initial purchase, bearings, tyres, pinion and braids) = £17.80

That’s cheap for one in this condition, but still twice what they were new back in 1982.

WD

 

[Balr14]

It is always good to see another old slot car racer rejoin the hobby. I raced scratch built cars back in the 70s. I got interested in them again when I saw the track that sold on BAT for $65k. I bought a Scalextric set, which lasted about 1/2 hour. Then I was hooked again. That was about 3 years ago. I have now built 4 or 5 tracks and have about 50 high ends cars. The current tracks are 60', 3 lane MDF and 90', 3 lane PVC. Compared to some others, I'm a real light weight. I know guys with 100' 4 lane tracks and 300 - 400 cars.

If you are serious about this, please join us at https://www.hrwforum.com/

 

[WD Pro]

It is always good to see another old slot car racer rejoin the hobby. I raced scratch built cars back in the 70s. I got interested in them again when I saw the track that sold on BAT for $65k. I bought a Scalextric set, which lasted about 1/2 hour. Then I was hooked again. That was about 3 years ago. I have now built 4 or 5 tracks and have about 50 high ends cars. The current tracks are 60', 3 lane MDF and 90', 3 lane PVC. Compared to some others, I'm a real light weight. I know guys with 100' 4 lane tracks and 300 - 400 cars.

If you are serious about this, please join us at https://www.hrwforum.com/

Honestly, I’m trying to avoid another hobby / forum, and for good reason - you can probably see how easily I get sucked into something that interests me …

Between my fitness hobbies (Triathlon), my full size cars, and a busy family life, I’m pretty much flat out. I still have a kit car in the garage that I just can’t seem to get to at the moment

This current project is only about A) rescuing my old toys, B) replacing toys I had, but are now missing from my collection, and importantly C) playing / spending some time with my youngest daughter - who’s the one that kicked all this off.

I will be honest, model building / racing does interest me, but I will wait until physical limitations kick in forcing me to slow down or stop the swim bike run activities

Moving onto my Cosworth, the white car which came standard with the 96 set was my favourite, meaning it was pretty bashed up and worn out

The shell was pretty scuffed up (but better than a lot of what I see on eBay), the back tyres were trashed, I recently killed the pinion, and the wheels were scuffed.

I managed to find a donor car on eBay which had a great chassis and as a bonus, front and rear lights.

Strangely the magnet on the eBay car was glued in (from new) which meant the magnet pocket wasn’t folded over which is how every other Cosworth I have seen is typically done - one of my other Cosworth’s for comparison :

This was good as it meant I could swap the magnet to a stronger one, without the chassis looking messed up around the magnet pocket. I added this small hole :

So I can swap magnets by breaking the VHB tape / pushing them out from the inside.

I sanded the magnet pocket edges (they get chipped) and fitted a N52 2mm thick neodymium magnet with VHB :

I will see how it runs, and decide if I should swap it to a 3mm …

Whilst I was working on the chassis, I flatted the chips out of the front splitter and polished it up :

Along with the rear number plate locking tab. The tab should be satin textured plastic, but someone (not me !) had stabbed it with a screwdriver to remove the body, which is completely unnecessary on this model

A glimpse of a proper car in the reflection :

Axles finished - rims refurbished and painted, new rear tyres, new bearings, and rims glued to the axles :

Axles fitted. Bearings glued (RTV) to chassis and axles, then left to cure before clean up. The old motor is in place to position the axle. Shown with the donor motor and LED lights :

I went to work on the shell with 2000’s wet n dry, Meguiar’s Scratch X, and masking tape to protect the print when I was working close to the edges. The tip of the wing took the most time to get looking nice again :

From new (back in 96), I had already paint filled the front and rear bumper detail :

Once I had managed to fulfil the cats need for some attention :

I got the excess RTV cleaned off, then the donor motor and LED’s fitted :

Shell back on :

The paint filled wheels were worth the time :

Yes, I still have the original mirrors that came with the set :

New braids :

I’m not totally convinced I will need to upgrade to the 3mm magnet …

Light test :

Total cost (No initial purchase, bearings, tyres, donor car and braids) = £22.79

But that should drop to about £8 as I should get around £15 back for the (now running again) donor car. The donor car has had parts harvested / replaced / repaired to get my two originals back to a condition where I am happy with them :

WD

 

[CrazyHippie]

Well I had started to clutter up the hobby thread (https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/other-hobbies-passions-other-than-the-mustang.153458/), so thought it best to start one specific to slot cars.

I’m not a racer or a model builder, I’m just an older guy trying to claw back some of my younger years, and collect the toys that went with them …

Although all my content will be Scalextric, please feel free to add any content that’s relative to the topic / slot cars in general

I will start by adding my posts from the other thread :









WD

Yes, another recovered slot car fanatic here! I still have an AFX setup that's well-worn. 15 years ago or so, I discovered the custom-built, Lexan body super fast HO cars. Can't remember the name, but they stuck to the track, were almost impossible to see they were so fast, wore out super fast, and drew way too many amps from the power supply. I remember reading something like 20 amps and the power supply needed deep-well marine batteries to perform properly. Amazing.

 

[Balr14]

Well, if you stick with it, you will want more! Especially the track. Plastic track is so limiting and loud.

 

[Snakebyte]

Nice start to a thread. My first recollections was going to the local race track where 1/24th and 1/32 scale cars were raced. It may be dating my age, but back then there was a car called La Cucaracha that was pretty fast out of the box.

But only watched friends race at the race track. I opted for an at-home 4x8 sheet of plywood scenic track setup racing HO hour, after hour, after hour. I used my Vacuform to make feather-light car bodies to replace the styrene ones purchased off the shelf. And then there was a vast variety of armatures, chassis, etc to spend your money on as well.

Great memories. Thanks for starting the thread.

 

[Balr14]

Nice start to a thread. My first recollections was going to the local race track where 1/24th and 1/32 scale cars were raced. It may be dating my age, but back then there was a car called La Cucaracha that was pretty fast out of the box.

But only watched friends race at the race track. I opted for an at-home 4x8 sheet of plywood scenic track setup racing HO hour, after hour, after hour. I used my Vacuform to make feather-light car bodies to replace the styrene ones purchased off the shelf. And then there was a vast variety of armatures, chassis, etc to spend your money on as well.

Great memories. Thanks for starting the thread.

I recall using those vacuum formed bodies, too. I think it got out of hand with sponge rubber tires and hot rewind armatures. There is a local slot car track, that started in the 70s, that still has an 8 lane, 150' track for1/24 scale, that cars were running 3 second laps on. That loss of realism was a big factor in the demise of the hobby. The cars they sell now are highly detailed and very realistic and motors are all pretty much the same tin cans. The tires used now don't grip like those old doctored foam tires... you have to have some driver skill. It's actually a lot more fun now.

The biggest change has been in controller technology. The better controllers have resistance networks that support a wide range of track voltage and motors, adjustable sensitivity and braking. Some have traction control, but that doesn't do crap.

 

[Strokerswild]

Good stuff!

When I was a kid, my Dad and I built a pretty cool HO-scale track affixed to a 4x8' sheet of plywood, which slid neatly under my bed.

I wish I had the space for a decent sized one today and fully landscape it.

 

[sirben711]

My dad and his two brothers had old HO scale tracks back when they were kids. They loved them. 20 years ago my dad and his brothers bought 4 sets of Carrera 1/32 tracks for us kids and for our grandmother. We each had our own track at home and one track at our grand mothers place - where we would go every weekend to see her.

Anyway, things quickly became competitive. One person would add an extra magnet to their cars to make them stick better. One would cut body parts off to reduce weight. One would buy a special high RPM motors. The arms race continued until the cars were glued to the track and super fast. Eventually we introduced rule sets / classes to race in to slow them down and make them more difficult to control, eventually that speed was gained back.

Some would be body style limited. Some would be weight minimums. Etc.

We had a wonderful time.

In these past two years I have rebuilt our wooden oval track. Ill post some pictures of our cars and tracks later. I really hope we can pass it onto the next generation. We were so clever in how we gained speed in those cars with our little modifications. Even when I was a kid, I preferred working on my slot cars than playing video games.

 

[Balr14]

Here's most of my car collection, about 60 cars. Most run really well.

 

[sirben711]

Here are some pictures of me and my dad building our Wooden track. The back straightaway is about 20 ft long.

We even had a switching mechanism for cars to come into the pit lane. Unfortunately, this no longer works correctly and has been removed along with the pits.

 

[Balr14]

Here are some pictures of me and my dad building our Wooden track. The back straightaway is about 20 ft long.

We even had a switching mechanism for cars to come into the pit lane. Unfortunately, this no longer works correctly and has been removed along with the pits.

It's funny you mentioned switches. I just bought 8 of them from a fellow HRW member. The quality is incredible. Now I have to figure out how I can use them. I think they can be tied into my Trackmate timer, so they work under program control.

What is that track surface made of? It doesn't look like MDF.

 

[sirben711]

It's funny you mentioned switches. I just bought 8 of them from a fellow HRW member. The quality is incredible. Now I have to figure out how I can use them.

Those look more heavy duty than ours!

 

[Balr14]

Honestly, I’m trying to avoid another hobby / forum, and for good reason - you can probably see how easily I get sucked into something that interests me …

WD

You get a lot of models in the UK we don't get here in the US. I would love to get 3 of the sidecars. But the prices they want on EBay, plus shipping from UK or Spain, gets pretty high. Plus, I usually do a lot of upgrades, so it adds up.

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