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Who raced slot cars in the 60s ?


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#101 Macca

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Posted 12 May 2016 - 10:53

I didn't race slots in the 1960s (other than against my dad) but I had a Wrenn Formula 152 set with two Coopers and a Ferrari and a custom layout fixed to a 6ft x 4ft sheet of ply. The cars were AC I think, with a vibrating magnet and ratchet, so were a bit slow and temperamental.

 

See:

http://www.wrenn152.com/

 

It happens I have several old copies of Model Car from the mid-'60s to early '70s, so if anyone is interested in having them please pm me.

 

 

Paul M



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#102 RTH

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Posted 12 May 2016 - 14:06

After 45 years Davie Brodie has been immortalised in 1/32 Scalextric with an accurate representation of Run Baby Run

 

pict0369_1.jpg



#103 2F-001

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Posted 12 May 2016 - 16:00

Wow, that's fame...

 

I had a scratchbuilt 1/32 Twin Cam Escort, but it never looked as smart at that… in part because it was way, way too fast and powerful a) its size, b) its driver (me) and c) the tracks it ran on - so it spent much of its life in the wall or on the floor!

It had something like a Team Cukras Mura or a Champion Green can motor in it (I forget exactly); rather silly in retrospect.


Edited by 2F-001, 12 May 2016 - 16:01.


#104 Wirra

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Posted 13 May 2016 - 03:15

Are the wiper positions correct?



#105 kayemod

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Posted 13 May 2016 - 08:11



Are the wiper positions correct?

 

No they aren't, probably the Chinese version.

 

run-baby-run-1969-the-most-successful-fo



#106 kayemod

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Posted 03 June 2016 - 15:22

The name probably won’t mean a lot to most TNFs, not unless they were active slot racers in the north of England back in the 1960s, and come to that 70s, 80s, 90s, and more recently, but Chas Keeling succumbed to his latest heart attack a couple of days ago, aged 78. Chas, that’s all he was ever known as, was one of the slot racing greats. One of his best remembered creations is pictured below, his Harvey Aluminum Special, all hand-built, hand lettered etc, the car is 1/32nd scale, so about 5" long. At one meeting I attended at Ashton club, he won the main event with this car, and after that he won the concours, I doubt if that’s ever been done before. So Chas was no mean driver in his day, but he’s best remembered as a model engineer of some renown, he made almost every component of this car, and almost all the others he raced, all by himself, even the wheels and probably the tyres as well, but he’s best known for his business activities, he ran SCD, Slot Car Distributors, right up to his death, if you needed tyres, wheels, chassis components etc, he was the man to go to.

 

chas.jpg

 

ed03ae98-138d-49d9-90bb-c3bb7fc79d0e.jpg

 

The first time I met Chas was at the original Halifax club, their track was on the top floor of an old building, probably something connected with the wool trade, access was up wood stairs that were so steep it was almost like climbing a ladder, but back then it was one of the fastest tracks in the Country. Chas was a slightly forbidding figure, always a black suit, black hair slicked back, to a teenage me, he looked a bit like Peter Cushing as Dracula, but unfailingly patient and helpful with novices like me, I don’t think anyone ever had a bad word to say about him. He was still racing a week or so before his death, he attended two events in Scotland over the last bank holiday weekend. A nice man, a competent racer in his day, and one of the most gifted model engineers the sport has ever seen. RIP Chas, you’ll be missed.


Edited by kayemod, 03 June 2016 - 15:26.


#107 KBY191

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Posted 04 June 2016 - 22:04

I went a few times in the early 1970's to a track in a shop on Rutland Road Box Hill Vic known as Tom Thumb. It was a figure 8 layout, maybe even two shop fronts. I accompanied a good friend who was much more into slot cars, We would catch the train from Blackburn with his latest brass tube and wire creation anxious to see if its was faster than the previous version. Forty something years later we are still playing cars, only now on 1:1 scale.



#108 E1pix

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Posted 04 June 2016 - 23:53

The name probably won’t mean a lot to most TNFs, not unless they were active slot racers in the north of England back in the 1960s, and come to that 70s, 80s, 90s, and more recently, but Chas Keeling succumbed to his latest heart attack a couple of days ago, aged 78. Chas, that’s all he was ever known as, was one of the slot racing greats. One of his best remembered creations is pictured below, his Harvey Aluminum Special, all hand-built, hand lettered etc, the car is 1/32nd scale, so about 5" long. At one meeting I attended at Ashton club, he won the main event with this car, and after that he won the concours, I doubt if that’s ever been done before. So Chas was no mean driver in his day, but he’s best remembered as a model engineer of some renown, he made almost every component of this car, and almost all the others he raced, all by himself, even the wheels and probably the tyres as well, but he’s best known for his business activities, he ran SCD, Slot Car Distributors, right up to his death, if you needed tyres, wheels, chassis components etc, he was the man to go to.
 
chas.jpg
 
ed03ae98-138d-49d9-90bb-c3bb7fc79d0e.jpg
 
The first time I met Chas was at the original Halifax club, their track was on the top floor of an old building, probably something connected with the wool trade, access was up wood stairs that were so steep it was almost like climbing a ladder, but back then it was one of the fastest tracks in the Country. Chas was a slightly forbidding figure, always a black suit, black hair slicked back, to a teenage me, he looked a bit like Peter Cushing as Dracula, but unfailingly patient and helpful with novices like me, I don’t think anyone ever had a bad word to say about him. He was still racing a week or so before his death, he attended two events in Scotland over the last bank holiday weekend. A nice man, a competent racer in his day, and one of the most gifted model engineers the sport has ever seen. RIP Chas, you’ll be missed.

What a fabulous tribute, Rob.

#109 kayemod

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Posted 05 June 2016 - 12:18

Here's another Chas Keeling clever creation from some time in the 60s, his ATS F1, once again, apart from the motor almost everything was made up from parts he made himself, finished off with a hand-beaten dome over the engine with eight tiny injector trumpets inside. Chas assembled a box from aluminium sheet around the motor, all Araldited together, examined close-up it's possible to just make out the glue lines. Then he ground, filed and polished to end up with what you see here, a fully functioning scale model that was fully competitive as a racer, it's sitting on the table in front of him in the first pic in my earlier post.

 

ats2.jpg

 

 

ats3.jpg

 

The term "master craftsman" is used often these days, and rather too freely in my opinion, but that describes Chas to perfection, he built that car in just a few days as well, almost all with hand tools. For anyone whose slot memories go back far enough to remember these things, a K's Mk 1 motor, Eldi contrate gear, a VIP slot guide and O ring tyres, the only bought bits on the car.


Edited by kayemod, 05 June 2016 - 15:30.


#110 Patrick Fletcher

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 11:14

Chris Amon lives not far from here!

http://www.stuff.co....vered-by-police



#111 opplock

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 12:08

I'd heard that he now lives in Taupo. I did live in Feilding until I was 21 and last visited in April. An old friend of mine living there has a large collection of model cars but I doubt that the Nascar stuff would be his. He is interested in the 50s/60s Scalextric cars. 


Edited by opplock, 30 June 2016 - 07:53.


#112 Collombin

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 20:12

ed03ae98-138d-49d9-90bb-c3bb7fc79d0e.jpg

Given the effort that must have gone into making this exquisite model I hope the answer is "yes", but did Graham Hill ever actually drive that particular car? (the real one, not the model!).

Edited by E.B., 29 June 2016 - 20:13.


#113 Bumblyari

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 20:46

The dimensions of this car made it popular with many slot car racers in the mid 60's although few would have matched the craftsmanship of this particular one.

 

It was probably an article in Model Cars magazine where I first became intrigued with it and I seem to remember reading that Graham Hill tested it but didn't race it. 

 

Funny how I can remember that but not who won last week's GP.



#114 Barry Boor

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 20:57

It was Rosberg.

#115 Collombin

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 20:59

He certainly drove the sister car (the red 83) at his rookie visit to Indy in 1963, but I had no inkling of him driving the 82 car as well - if not, then maybe a bit of artistic licence was involved here, the blue one being arguably much nicer looking?

#116 Bumblyari

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 21:21

Ah, you may well be right. Having just dug out the article (which features number 82) it says he was down to drive one of the Harvey Aluminum Specials but not which one. My memory's obviously not as good as I thought it was.

 

Thanks Barry. What was Rosberg ?



#117 Barry Boor

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 22:17

You claimed not to remember who won last week's Grand Prix. I was just jogging your memory. lol

#118 Bumblyari

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 22:56

I bet you cheated and looked it up though.

 

Actually the picture reminds me of a beautifully drawn plan I once saw published for a 4WD Escort using the same principle but with both contrates on the same side of the pinions.

 

Contra-rotating propellers maybe but not wheels.



#119 Wirra

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Posted 30 June 2016 - 03:55

Finally dug out a couple of snaps of my Warwick Farm layout. Purchased circa 1963 and, as shown here, set up again for my 50th. Even that's now ancient history. 

 

Looks like I bought a couple of new cars for the occasion - I think the yellow one is a Jordan. The setup certainly needed more runoff at Creek with some inexperienced controllers. A lot of throttle control was required and as more alcohol was consumed the more time was spent replacing cars in the guides. Note the crossings.

 

Slot%20cars%20WF1%20mod_zpseng63jq8.jpg

 

Slot%20cars%20WF2%20mod_zpstiauzajw.jpg


Edited by Wirra, 30 June 2016 - 12:01.


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#120 Barry Boor

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Posted 30 June 2016 - 05:08

Excellent, Wirra. I've built dozens of different circuits during my 58 years of racing but I never built W.F.

So sorry about that chap in the lower picture. Has he had cosmetic surgery now?

#121 Dennis David

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Posted 13 October 2016 - 05:16

Check out the recent updates on my Slot Car History website http://www.slotcarhi...ar_history1.htm



#122 bill p

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Posted 13 October 2016 - 09:54

Check out the recent updates on my Slot Car History website http://www.slotcarhi...ar_history1.htm


Very interesting DD, brought back many great memories from the 60s. I recently raced on a Blue King at Rohnert Park which has rekindled my interest, the slot car bug is not dormant any more!
Thank you, DD

#123 Kingsleyrob

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Posted 12 January 2024 - 12:10

I first became interested in racing when my parents bought me a Scalextric in the mid sixties. It had a Lotus and a Cooper. Do any of you in the UK remember the TV show that used to re-enact each GP in the late 60's with slot cars? It was an amazing show to an early teen and actually what made me want to get involved in racing right then. I was 10 or 11 years old


I’ve just had a trip down Memory Lane and this thread surfaced.

Nemick I recall the programme, Tom Tom. Apologies if your question has already been answered in the intervening years.

Some info here: https://en.m.wikiped...Tom_(TV_series)

Rob

#124 Sterzo

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Posted 12 January 2024 - 14:12

Well, you know what happens if you revive an old thread... Coincidentally, I was searching the web last night for slot clubs, wondering if I could find anyone who wanted a couple of large boxes of old slot cars, model kits and enormous quantities of "bits". Don't want money, would just rather not consign the stuff to landfill.

 

I started with the tinplate Scalextric in the late fifties, joined a slot club in Cambridge in 1962, but moved away to London three years later. Wasn't keen on the trend to overwidth bodies and orange tyres, so in 1972 a group of friends and I started racing again on a "home" 2 lane circuit, with strict rules about scale, and three categories of car: up to 1935, up to 1953, up to 1960. We would have called it the Vintage Slot Car Club, except someone else had already used the initials. Last raced in 1996.

 

Some of my own models have already appeared on the forum here: https://forums.autos...made-historics/

(These are not included in my box of disposables, as I keep half a dozen on my mantel piece).


Edited by Sterzo, 12 January 2024 - 14:13.


#125 GregThomas

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Posted 12 January 2024 - 20:08

Semi pro racer back in the day. There was a thriving scene in the South Island of NZ and i believe a similar level up north too. I did once lead a SI team north to race in Wellington - with mixed results not unrelated to the level of hospitality.

I have nothing left of that era. Everything was sold at the time to finance the purchase of my first roadrace bike after which I lived in the standard motorcycle racers level of poverty.

 

There are a couple of graduates from that time and place worth noting.

Chris Lambden was a Christchurch racer who moved to Karts and then to F5000's. He's now best known as one of the driving forces behind the S5000 Australian single seater class. Which I see is having major problems directly linked to the Aussies love of saloon cars.

 

Chris on moving to Karts saw what a dogs breakfast the organisation was. He approached Ian Love who had organised most of the serious interclub and Island slot car championships and demonstrated efficiency and an intolerance for bullshit. Ian went across to Karts and forged an impressive career both at NZ Kart Sport and Oceania Federation level.  He died a few years back having caught Legionnaires disease stewarding in Indonesia. i believe at one point he was Oceania President.

 

Not quite the Ross Brawn level but big fish from a small pond.