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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Commercial slot car racing in the 1960's. Big eight-lane tracks with steering wheels and foot pedals to maneuver and control the cars. The tracks were manufactured and marketed by the US companies AMRC (American Model Racing Congress) and AMF (American Machine and Foundry). Their most famous model of track was the 155 feet long "Blue King", still popular to this day.
This King Street Hammersmith track was my venue, I loved the place, such fun, and raced most nights, they soon gave up on the silly steering wheels and used hand controllers. Was a bit expensive per hour. I bought my lovely orange "Stinger" there, new, in 66 and have it to this day, my best toy ever! Great to find this video! Thanks.
Oh yeeah - we always wore a suit and tie to slot car races. Always.
When this was filmed everybody wore a suit and tie for everything. Times change...
And smoked.
@@dtmracing1 not so much in the 60's. are you disabled, or just really young?
I think this was on the opening day.
My father, brother and I went to a track just like this most Saturdays, in the US, for two years, except we had no steering wheels, just a hand plunger. The plunger was your gas pedal and when you released it, the car stopped pretty quickly. They also had one Hill Climb track and if you were in the outside lane, you could hang the tail out against the rail and get through it damn near flat out. Fond memories. They actually had 4 tracks the first place we went until it closed but we then found another place, on the other side of town and ran there a year or so, before it closed. Mid teens in the 60's was great!
In the mid and late 1980s I would go with my friends to a slot car place called U Drive Em, tons of fun. Also no wheel just a handheld trigger.
Me and a buddy spent all of our paper route money on these in the 70s. We would walk downtown on Saturdays to a place called Bakers in Leavenworth KS. Upstairs toy dept floor had a 8 lane track. It was a penny a minute. It had red stools like you would see at a lunch counter, and you would plug in your hand trigger, that you owned, into the console in front of you. Great memories!
@ I'm just left out in the dark. There was big slot-car tracks all over Orange County and L.A., in the 60's and 70's, but I've never seen any with steering wheels; never even heard of such a thing, and you guys are all talking about it like its as common as minerature golf courses! Wow! Where am I? I must have been on another planet!
@@HegelsOwl I'm with you, a steering wheel makes no sense for slot cars.
@@HegelsOwl Yeah, never been to a track with a steering wheel. It's not as if you can physically steer a slot car?? 🤔
Just one of the entertaining things we used to do before the creation of the video games,
cell phones, and other electronic "stuff" that the kids are addicted to today.
Slot cars we’re so much fun back then ❤
i got a ford f40 for christmas in the 60s had a hand held control.... god some of those cars kicked my ass dont remember what it cost except the best track cost the most the place was on harper road in saint clare shores michigan
I lived in Pismo Beach in the 1960's. Pismo Raceways was our area and place to race slot cars. We had four giant tracks. I miss the wheel wintergreen liquid smell...
They sound like real cars, amazing.
I had a slot car track sey up in my home when i was about 10. Endless hours pf fun. Most us kids had one, great social activity and hobby. Sure miss those times.
Was it the Aurora Model Motoring set? The first generation ran on AC voltage that caused interference with Dad's TV...not good. Soon to follow was the DC voltage version with the ThunderJet cars and the rest is history.
@@drakefallentine8351 the first one I had was model Motoring and the power pack had batteries thank God my dad had a bad recharger for D cell batteries
I've been around slot car raceways since I was 12 years old, now I'm 67 and I've never once heard one called a parlor.
yeah same here...
Well your world may be small? No?
@@john2914 Lol you came all the way here just to be a sarcastic minion !
@@Abacab965 Im not sure why you think what I said is shocking and sarcastic? I hope I didnt insult you. Lets not talk again.
My people call it Maze
I was obsessed when I was 14. Had a renegade with custom magnets and the first neoprene tires.😄
I had a slot car like this when I was kid. I still have my HO cars and track. Yes it still works
Can you show us???
@@marcelojaviertwt I will have to dig it out. We see what we can do.
We used to have slot car tracks all over our town, I loved it, every waking min during summer vacation I was racing my slot cars.
its still an addiction for me
Them were the good old days. every Saturday.
I still have my H.O. slots they are still great enjoyment. Thunderjets,AFX,Tyco and Lionel as well as some Bachman cars.
They had one of these at Fort Campbell, Kentucky that I used to visit regularly.
love this stuff
The 1/24th scale cars were popular in the US and usually located in a Hobby Shop where you could purchase all the latest West Coast developments such as silicone slicks, deep rail guide pins with down force springs, gears galore, plenty of DC motors, car bodies, aluminum chassis, and air-cooled hand controllers. The old cash register really got a workout when the Saturday night gang showed up to race! Did I mention all the Slot Car magazines available to promote the industry?
I still have my 1966 Slot Car and controller that I purchased and raced it in Columbus, Georgia on a weekend leve
I did this when I was a kid and I don't remember cars going this fast. Prety amazing.
Look up the winged cars they have now and you’ll be blown away. Can barely see the things.
I play this when i was child. That fun
I had scalextric when I was a kid….fantastic fun! Used to have the old Tyrell 6 wheeler car and many others, would no doubt be worth a fortune nowadays if I still had it!
I still have the old Scalextric set that the Three Wise Men gave me on Christmas...
Wow, the Tyrell 6-wheeler...still my all-time favorite F1 car. Need to see if I can find one for my Scalextric set.
Haven't been to a track like that since the 70s when my step dad was stationed on a air force base in ill.
this is my first time watching slot car racing
I've never heard of a slot car with steerable front wheels! That's what the slot was for...steering your car!
I thought the same thing. I don’t think that steering wheel did anything.
That wheel can't be controlling anything. The cars had no mechanism and no signal possible. The slot controls direction only. Some very rare models had front wheels that followed the track. Those old cars could actually go very fast with the banked track, and off course you simply boost the voltages ⚡️
They stopped using them shortly after. I was there most nights. (Kings Road, Hammersmith 66)
I remember going with my brother back in the 60s he used to build them rail cars and such I would watch him build them soldered them together and such I’m 64 now haven’t seen these since brought back old memories
Lot of fun, I remember !
I used to go to a track not unlike this one 6 lanes and it was FUN a lot of fun, the kids today just would not know how to handle a slot car track, the place I went to even had night time races which were a ton of fun as some of the cars had working headlights on them. You could paint the cars any color you wanted, and the wheels you could get were made for the type of track you were on. Yeah these were were a lot of fun back in the day
I went to tracks in the late 60’s and got my first Slot car set in 1971. “The Eldon 100”. Over a 100 layouts. You can still buy it on eBay. So many memories. 😅
We had a big slot car shop/track in the town I grew up in during the mid/late 60's in Titusville FL. The place boomed for several years during the manned space race years, but then it was gone when apollo got canceled. Great times to grow up.
I raced at home with my *AFX* cars and track in the 70's
This brings back some old memories.
God , I had cars thus big when I was a kid, Metal fabric brushes for convection, only 2 lanes . Still have no idea where it us today . Cool times
In the 60's every Saturday morning I went to the YMCA to swim then to Bickle's bicycle shop in the afternoon, They had a slot car track cost 50 cents an hour yep the good old days.
I remember seeing one of these as a kid in the 60's. Cool!
Oh Yeah ! Many Great Memories ! Of Course No one Ever dressed up like these folks at the Club !
Had so many great times, shame it fell out of favor.
I got hooked on slot cars on the Navy base in Yokosuka.,Japan. There was always racing for trophies. I still have a couple of cars. They are over 50 years old now.
There was a slot car track called Tom Thumb by my house, it was great.
1991 i found out about slot cars....figured out how to short out the track and made a 80mph ramp 🤣😬 had alot of sheetrock holes 🤘🏁🤣🍃
I had a Scalextric set in the early 60's. The tires were hard plastic and the track sections were rubber (?). The cars were tin and the driver was rubber.
I remember them!
I raced on that same layout in Atlanta in the 80s. Hitting that first corner was always a thrill. The bridge was complex, but the final curve was fast across all 8 lanes.
(:
The layout is called a King. It is the most widely used track in commercial slot car racing to this day.
But the steering wheels... with slots... wtf
When I was a kid in the sixties, my buddy and I used to rewind our motors to three volts and run them on a twelve volt , eight lane commercial track. It didn't have steering wheels, we just had controllers, but was a great track in Burnaby BC.
Born in 60 had about 5 of the cars and a controller. We had a large track in Santa Monica CA. So much fun.
A group of us have two tracks. Both are digital with computerized race software. Digital cars allow up to ten cars at a time on the same track.
I had a track as a kid. Back then it was two tracks and only two cars at a time.
Now with software it keeps account of your position, calls for fuel stops, maintenance, tires. If you ignore stopping in the pits you get your car slowed down.
With digital you can set speed, braking, acceleration. Today's slots are no way near the tracks of the 60s.
Digital tracks allows for lane changes for passing. Every car is individually controlled even if everyone is racing on the same track.
in 1966 slot model cars were slow...
today slot model cars were so very fast speedy
Look how everyone is nicely dressed.
There was such a track with 4 steering wheels in the amusement park in Appelscha. It is true you really had to drive, as turning the wrong direction stalled the car...
Slot cars don't steer, only acceleration. I had a Scat Pac drag strip set when I was a kid, a long straight away with a Christmas starting tree and they were 4 speeds. So two drivers had to shift at the right time and not lose any momentum, the 30 foot or so to a flag that signals the winner. Equipped with two 1970 dodge challengers, orange and purple. It was cool.
Wonderful wonderful
We had a couple of these track places in our town in the mid 60s they only lasted about a year or two.
REMEMBER GOING TO STROMBECKERS IN
PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN THE
MID 70S ,
HAD A TRACK JUST LIKE THAT
WAS ALWAYS PACKED WITH PEOPLE ,
HAD MODEL HOBBIES FOR SALE AS WELL.
HAD TO PUT 20 CENTS IN THE SLOT TO PLAY .
CORVETTES WERE THE CARS I THINK .
HAD TO GO UP THE OLD WOODEN STAIRCASE ON THE 2ND OR 3RD FLOOR ?,
OLD FEDERATION BUILDING ON BARRACKS STREET .
this was fun you could have fun walk into a place had this put your car down and race
I made the same car noises. Hialeah Hobby Shop had similar setup in the 60's . Great times.
Do you remember crown hobbies ?
@@dimbulb2410 One down South on Coral Way , still there.
I remember hearing about these but never saw one. I have family that had cars that used to take them to certain tracks. Cool stuff
we had a "fleet" of about a dozen cars. My favorite was the Batmobile modelled after the Adam West TV show. My dad & I would go from NJ through Queens & onto Long Island to go to commercial tracks, plus we had a set of double tracks at home. My uncle owned Coney Island Hobby, and we'd go in and I'd get either models to build or slot cars when we visited. At about age 8, I traded in my extensive Lionel o27 trains - a BIG collection- for the race cars. Only later did I realize I lost a HUGE investment for my childhood fancies. Oh well!
had the same exact track at the raceway when i was a little kid but those slow store bought cars like shown in the video were primarily what you got when you rented a slot car from the raceway. the cars the regulars ran all had custom chassis we built ourselves with race motors and custom foam tires that used traction compound and were more then twice as fast as the ones in the video kinda like is now days with rc cars which i still do .....
Started in 1963, right now I'm finishing my aluminum chassis Cobalt motor group 7 new fresh car for my buddies to see what it's like to go under 2 seconds a lap on 155 ft King track.
And to think, the world record on that type of track is at 1.286 seconds. . . .
In 1962 my dad’s best friend sons had a AMF Slotcar set home size, but it wasn’t like this giant raceway. The plastic track was gray and the pickups fitted in a tunnel like groove where the cars wouldn’t come off the track. The controls were console steering wheels that if you didn’t steer correctly in the curves the 1972 Ford Galaxy 500’s would spin out but not off the track. Do know of this Slotcar set I described from back in the day? My first Slotcar set was an IDEAL Route 66 with two 1962 Corvettes, I’ve been Slotcar racing ever since and I’m 75 now. Racing with my son and now my grandson, got 90+ feet of Carrera Digital Track running 1.32 scale. Appreciate your posting this kool video from across the pond.
Yeah. How did the mechanism work where the car would spin out but not off the track if you didn't steer it?
Who remembers the King Louie slot car tracks in Overland Park Kansas?(mid '60's) They had three race tracks. They also had an ice rink and a Bowling alley.
Good's times, old times
Arh, The '60's...........
Roger that!……I can smell them…….
Buena Park (CA) Hobby City-La Cucaracha!
I had a lot of fun
Butlins at Skegness had 4 or 5 tracks like this late 70s it was, loved it as a kid.
I did that as a kid in the 60s, BTW the starting line isn't at a bias. The outside track is longer than the inside track
I remember having one of the old TYCO two lane set's as a kid. Had so much fun with it. Then came along Hot Wheels ! Exciting for a while, but you had to make them do everything. No power on it's own.
Went to the back of the closet real fast. And drug out the old TYCO ! Then came along Girls and well..
🕶️🚬 ...
Anthony Michael Hall hasn't aged a bit!
We would go to BROOKLYN and race the slot cars.. 1970s
Ahh slot cars, the memories. 🙄😁
one thing i was taught as a kid never ever push down on the cars like this guy did that ruins the brushes on the front end 🤷♂️🤔
When it was actually fun
I had a mate in Launceston tasmania he was world champion in the early 80s.behind the wheel of a car he was fucking crazy
We had the same type of slot car racing at the bowling Alley in Weston-super-Mare many many years ago. Alas the bowling alley has been pulled down now
Bin there done that, I see there is more than one track the same as the one I raced on in St Paul MN back in the 60s
Suits, ties, well dressed,,, 🙂👍.
There was one like this at the Southern Cross Hotel Bowling Alley in Melbourne Aus.
That is the one I saw back in 1967, but too expensive to rent a car and controller.
Many AMF bowling alleys had a track for a while.
Preferred racing at my more local Pier St Altona track using my own Revell Shelby Cobra car.
I ra
There are still a few tracks around if you're lucky enough to live by one, in western Washington there's Pacific Slot Car Raceways, haven't raced in quite some time but it's still there, it's a nice place 2 tracks and a drag strip, probably 20 minutes from Seattle or Tacoma, I grew up in the 60's and raced at West Seattle Speedway and Hobby, great memories.
Never been in a slot car track where participants were in suit's.
More jeans and tee shirts atmosphere with Mr. Natural and pot leaves
" Womam driver, NO SURVIVORS! " LOL 🤣 ...
J/K .....looks like fun, and everyone is dressed to go to church to boot ......😁👍❤🇺🇸
My dad built an epic a lot car track in our basement in the early 70s. The adults would play for a while then the kids could play too. The key was control. If you went to fast it would definitely spin out, much like a real race car.
82ND AIRBORNE
" Keen Man!!...Keen!!
Those things were a pain in the ass, trying to keep them from flying off the track while attempting to race 😂
Easy on the gas grasshopper!!
The sound effects added. Hahahahaha.
Would love to try and see them keep up with this steering method with a wing car 😂😂
Way better than. Video games.
Lol I grew up with both you missed out
@@GreatBirdOfHope I was slot caring before there were video games. I had both too. I had ColecoVision.
That is cool
Slot tracks should be combined with coffee and donut shops . Daily Competitions .
What smart suits.
I wonder what happened to being well groomed.
Video ended rather abruptly ... somewhere exists a longer version
the guy looks like jim clark
Looks like a blue king!
They had something like this at Tom Thumb in Evanston Illinois in the early 80s
I love the engine sound effects, Tesla should take note.
That was cool, I grew up in the 60s with the HO cars. I didn't know they had these when I was young..
I was into HO slot cars BIG TIME as a kid!
The so called HO cars were about 1/64 th and mainly home use but the commercial Raceway and club tracks were mostly 1/24 and some ,1/32. Much more expensive but faster.
Suits and ties!😆
Let's race!
Nice