There's a slot car place in my town
 

Just found out about it. I have not raced slot cars since I was a kid about 55 years ago. So I stopped by the place to check it out today. Two big tracks, no one else was there. Talk about sticker shock!


1965:

Decent car - $10
Controller - $8
Track time - 50 cents an hour

Now:
Decent car - $60-80
Controller - $90
Track time $10 an hour

The worst thing about getting old is you remember how cheap things were.

But then I remember in 1965 I had to cut someone's lawn to earn $1

:leaving:

I shoveled the house up the block,corner property,full with sidewalks,front walk 12 stairs front and read and two car driveway .....$5.00......

We had several slot car tracks around here in the late 60's early 70's. One place even had a drag strip. My the mid 70'a all were gone. My first job in a grocery store paid 1.86 hr That was in 1969 :cert:

Yup. I'd get $5.00 for shoveling a driveway or mowing a lawn back back in the day.

I still have my slot car from the 70's that I used. I used to go to the WMCA in downtown San Diego after smoking some weed and drinking a few beers. What a blast. I'm sure my car still works, but I haven't found any local tracks around here in Woodland.

https://i.imgur.com/ZUggEBy.jpg

Damn I got a dollar and your older than me. What else did you do for the old lady? :bigears:

I still have a car from about 1965 that I built myself.
I had not even considered doing it stoned or drunk until reading your post.:shots: When I walked in the place I just felt like a ten-year-old except better funded this time.:yesnod:

I forgot you were in Woodland. I'm in Lakeport. We should meet up somewhere for lunch sometime. I pass through Woodland now and then.:seasix:

PM sent.

I grew up in the late sixties. Us neighborhood kids had the 1/64 scale set ups. I still have three complete A/FX tracks up stairs and about fifty or so cars. Raced them last with my kids in the early nineties. Thought about getting them out again for the grandkids. Here's a few I have in a display case and have more upstairs. One of the coolest things I have is a four way intersection.
Attachment 21006

Is 1/64th HO? I got into HO after the big slot cars around '65 or so. Got tired of riding my bike two miles to get to a slot car track then paying. HO we did at home. Some summer days my buddies and I would pool all of our track and build a giant course on the patio then race all day. Fun times. I remember the HO cars cost 2.98. I had about ten of them.

Well....ummmm....I did ahhh......:hump:

Being a pack rat, I have all my old stuff from the 60s and later on from the 90s when I raced a lot at a track in the DFW area. I even built a track with routed slots and copper tape during the 90s. Moved and had to get rid of it but was a lot of fun to build and race on.

Here's a pic of the track. About 55 running feet I think.

Attachment 21007

Attachment 21008

Have one of these too...

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/art...c_mantaray.jpg

55 feet is a 1/24th scale quarter mile.:yesnod:

You're right! Hadn't thought of that but the drag strip tracks were 55'. Built a car for that and made a few runs but never got into it.

I enjoyed the building as much as the racing. Built quite a few from scatch just for fun.

I'd like to get into it again but other interests and the track being nearly an hour away make it unlikely. And my 66 year old reflexes probably woudn't cut it any more. I may build another track for the grandkids at some point. Space an issue here.

Yep an old lady is just like a old tube of toothpaste. They might look old and wrinkled but if you squeeze hard enough you can get a little more out of them. :dance:

Nice I was to poor only had H.O. :sadangel:

"Handles like a slot car"...anybody still say that? :D

I wasn't driving age yet but I had to pump a lot of gasoline to get enough money to buy that Classic Industries Manta Ray.

Love that track.

Yeah, the size of Hot Wheels. Coolest thing we learned to do was make bodies from aluminum foil. Wrap it around whatever car we wanted, press out the wrinkles, color in the windows and add stripes or numbers with markers, and trim out the wheel wells. Scotch tape across the bottom would hold them on. When you hit a guard rail or another car it caused real damage. And if you ever flipped it, done deal!