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The Lost Tracks...


axman

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Nice shot of Don & Myself @ The First Fishers Ghost Cup In 1987

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You & Don look very young there Steve! :D

Don was the owner of the Thirroul track where I started my slot racing in the early 90's which I think was one of Kim's builds.

He was a great bloke & helped me out in the early part of my slot racing & always remember his good advice that I have passed on to many a new racer.If your serious about slot racing get a good hand controller.

I've still got that Parma 2 ohm Turbo controller but has been modified to a multi adjustable sensativity & break to suit all types of slot cars from Group 12's to Scalextric.

Cheers Jimmy

To finsh first,first you gotta finish

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Hi Everyone.. I thought I might as well show you "The Lost Mobile tracks" ... A great way to promote your slotcar club, shop or Raceway... Over the years I have built quiet a few and I have found they are the perfect promotion tool for a raceway... Its a lot easier to take the track to the people than spend heaps on advertising trying to get people to the track. I would take these to school fetes, markets, special events etc. I always had flyers to hand out for where the Shop was and a couple of nice cars to show potential racers.

 

The 6 lane ( Blue surface) track was built on an old caravan chassis, the other, 7 lane (grey surface) was built on a custom made chassis using rolled SHS . AN easier option is to build on an old boat trailer. I've got a pic of one some where... I'll scrounge around and find a pic of it....

 

u8rkXfZ.jpg

 

owqDtXo.jpg

Edited by axman
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This one was built on an old "tinny" trailer.. The Banked turn right hand side of the pits "hinged" up for transporting so it was nice and short to fit in a normal garage. (The other end of the track hung over the drawbar) I also built one that stored in a high side trailer but it was a pain to assemble by myself (even though it was all in lightweight ply) Sold that one to a guy in Sydney that had jumping castles.

I found Womps or 1/32 scale cars the best size for this application. Hmm, Nope. Looking at the pic closer (it was a long time ago!) This one actually is the one the Jumping Castle guy bought. Everything fitted inside the trailer for transport and had a tarp to protect it.

 

 

VazaJ40.jpg

Edited by axman
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Kim,

 

Absolutely fantastic - even today I would love to drive on one of them and just be part of all that excitement. You must have had a smile going all the way round after a day like that.

 

Well done mate, the eventual downturn in slot racing could never be laid at your door.

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

'The older I get the faster I was.'

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Thanks Jan.... Yep, continual promotion is so important. There is a high rate of attrition with 1/24th Scale Slotcars. Back then we just did'nt have the range of slotcar product to sell. About all guys could do was buy another Wompy or Flexi Body.. or burn them selves out trying to go too fast with expensive motors. This flyer is typical of what I used to handout. I only wish the range of 1/32 and 1/24th scale was available then... I would have been building some awesome tracks for the scale racers... and with decent stock to sell i'm sure the doors would have remained open longer.

 

baGT74a.jpg

Edited by axman
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Kim,

 

The slot car business makes me think of the old farmer that was asked how to make a small fortune ...... He replied; 'start with a big one mate'.

 

I suppose the modern slot centre is staying in business with kids parties and passion, even with 1/32nd plastics as it is.

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

'The older I get the faster I was.'

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Hi Cam.... yes... Well sort off. In 1975 Brian Ashmore and I tracked down an American Raceways Royal 95 which had exactly all the same turns (except for the bank) as a King track. It was complete with all the equipment - steering wheels, lap counter. track timer ... like every thing. It had been in storage at an airconditioned bowling centre.. and was in very good condition. We moved it to Lightwood road Springvale and with the help of our amazing Quickslot Racers spent 6 months building it to be Australia's first Blue King. Everyone wanted to race on that track.. It was the first time we could compare our lap times to the americans. A few years later when I decided I needed a life outside Slotcars it was moved to Sydney and was the track Wayne Bramble had. It's documented somewhere else on this forum ( to Garry J's amusement) the Bank was built TWICE as steep as it should have been. Some idiot put in print the bank was 60 degree's... Trouble was, that was 60 degrees from VERTICAL... American Speek for 30 degrees from flat on the floor!. After snapping 2 banked turns during construction we eventually got our track built but always wondered why it looked so wrong! Here's an old article from Mini Wheels while it was being built. There is a strong rumour that indeed Australia got a few Blue Kings but by the time they arrived on our shores the Slot car craze was on the way down. The importer destroyed and dumped the tracks under customs supervision to avoid having to pay the import duty...

 

195c7Ro.jpgThere is a couple of pics of the finished track in the "old pharts" discussion. post #1 by Pete Daniels and another of the same track by Steve post #51 after it went to Fairfield NSW. Maybe you guys could post those pics here in the "lost tracks" section. Regards,

Kim

Edited by axman
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  • 1 month later...

Found another pic today... When I was building tracks and promoting slotcars at shopping centres we used to often take along 3 lane "home" tracks (virtually built from off cuts of board left over from building commercial tracks) and run comps to win it.. but most often we sold them to blokes that wanted them for their "man sheds". Went to a night where a guy had bought one out Ipswich way and it was the loudest night of slotcar racing I had ever been to. The drivers were really bad, the beer was flowing and the traction was outstanding in the turns... from beer tracks... poured on the track for beer burnouts on the main straight. Sigh... Anyway, here's one of them I sold to a guy in a hobby shop thats had no beer abuse. The white strips on the braid (in the braking points) is so he could have cars circulating to get customer attention. running of a train transformer on a different circuit at about 9 volts.

TQdHbLd.jpg

Edited by axman
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i have fond memories of this track as well having raced womps on it when it was at Springvale and East Bentleigh and that banking was certainly the steepest and highest banked corner that i have ever raced on.

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At East Bentleigh i was racing womps every Monday night,i didn't get involved in other classes until the 1980's when Track & Hobby opened in Dandenong.I am still racing every Wednesday night at Mobile Raceways.

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I started at Huntingdale, then Springvale and East Bentleigh. Then got into motorsport, girls and allsorts of stuff. Now getting back into it again. Also raced at Moonee Raceway a few times as well as natnals at AMR in Adelaide and G&D Raceway in Sydney. Still have all my old cars from that era. Mainly Gr15 & Gr 20 Wing Cars. Also a few sedans all scratchbuilt. Those tracks were great.

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"The Bank" ... I cant believe how bad that corner looks on Pete Daniels post #119.

It looks so bad now on so many levels. I remember being shown by Ray Greig of Moonee Raceway or Ace elliot from Tom Thumb the "secret formula" for building a bank. To try the formula simply cut out of thick card ( about A4 paper size) the capitol letter "U". Make the "track" about 30mm wide then simply pull the 2 ends together and it automatically make's a perfect banked corner... than frame and fence to suit.

Just when I though I had it worked out my business partner at the time - Brian Ashmore who's maths's was much better than mine ( he actually paid attention in class) told me a perfect banked corner was "simply" half of a "tilted cone". "The Bank" the Quiksloters, Brian and I built ended up being a mis-mash of both formula's... thats why it does'nt look correct. Thankfully, I never used the cone formula again and subsequent banks built to "U" formula always worked great.

The best bank I ever built was probably never seen by most main stream racers... I got sick of routing tracks at one stage and decided to make moulds so I could have tracks replicated by someone else in fibreglass.

Ironically, the first of these tracks I sold went into a bowling centre run by a gentleman that was one of the 1960's AMF bigwig's who introduced American Raceway tracks to Australia. He came to me wanting tracks in fibreglass to match the standard finish Bowling Centre's use for their equipment . The pic here is a smaller version I made from the moulds as a promotion track for a while.. and yes.. the bank was great because in fibreglass the lead on could be quiet short to achieve the entry angle required.

HuzStkL.jpg

Edited by axman
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I must be getting older than I thought. I was too busy admiring the track to notice any pretty blondes. It is a nice looking track.

 

That an oxymoron if I ever saw one Tim, given your forum signature!

Hoo Roo

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