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Pete Shreeves Reminisces About the Glory
Days of Slot Car Racing
Reminisces of the “Heart Car”
The Blue Car
I recently came into possession of a blue Grand
Prix slot car shown in the photos. It reminds me of my first
experience owning a seriously fast slot car. The blue car is
kit-built with a 16D in-line motor and the original Riggens
Riverside tires on threaded axles. The distinctive knock-off hubs
and black anodized rims are unmistakable. The silver can motor
with the Mura sticker on it probably dates it as a very early Ron
Mura product since it isn’t balanced, shimmed or anything beyond
what I remember in the old ‘buck’ motors. I suspect this blue car
is better balanced and more drivable than the similar car one I
owned which had an American Eagle motor. The Eagle was more
advanced and way too powerful for such a light car.
The “Heart” car
You have to sympathize with the parents of youngsters trying to
stretch a budget to provide their energetic children with
worthwhile toys and entertainment. You can see them today shopping
through toys-r-us or Best Buy trying to find their way through a
bewildering array of consoles, wii devices and games that range
from ‘barney’ to “slasher” fare. It had to be the same for parents
of the baby-boomers who were introduced to slot cars in the middle
‘60s. The hobby was exciting and a wholesome place for youngsters
to play with each other but the technology behind the counter was
extremely varied and the price of the more competitive equipment
was well beyond family entertainment level.
I
had been introduced to slot cars by a friend around 1964 (3rd
grade) and was given a 1/24th home track for Christmas
a few years after that. My parents must have noticed that I
continued to play with the track and that I had friends who would
actually come over to play with it as well. I came from a big
family and there was very little money for cars so I made the best
I could with what I had and cast-offs from friends. My dad showed
me how to work on the cars and picked up the occasional extra
track piece to extend the layout. My parents provided occasional
rides to tracks for me and my friends but there was little money
available for cars or parts.
Some time in the Fall or Summer 1967 my mom decided it was time to
buy me a better car. I remember my mother, my racing buddy and
myself standing before the glass case at Hobbytrack in Levittown
(Long Island, NY). There were several new cars in boxes as well as
a vast array of boxed motors, frame kits, controllers, tires,
track goop and the “splatter” of stuff you will find at any slot
track to this day. The track was probably only less than a year
old so most of the material was new. Clearly, I was no scratch
builder (yet) so we looked only at the complete cars. The box fare
was on the order of 36D COX Chaparrals and Fords GT-40s and
probably a few complete but not-quite scale, (bagged rather than
boxed?) Champion of Chamblee machines with the early soldered rod
and pan chassis. Those competitive cars were very expensive so it
wasn’t a shopping option. Beside the new cars there were a few
used cars built by local racers who were probably trading up to
the more advanced bat-pan machines.
My
friend and I still don’t agree on who saw the Red Lola on the
shelf first. He insists that I bought the car out from under him.
The narrow, low, blood-red machine looked sinister. It seemed to
have a truncated shark-like body with the in-line drive train
sticking out the back as Gran Prix drive trains did. No front or
rear wing was in evidence (in case anyone wants to research the
precise vintage). The car looked fast and we had been watching the
up-scale racers sling similar open wheel machines around the track
at speeds we could only gawk at. At $25, it was more expensive
than most of the production cars on the shelf. After looking
around, I asked my mother for the little red car.
Mom looked at me and grimaced. That was a considerable part of the
family budget. I can only imagine what $25 worth of groceries
would look like in those days. Mom decided to make an economic
lesson out of the encounter by telling him that $25 would buy half
of a swimming pool for the back yard and that I had to decide
which was the better deal. Long, hot, boring summer school-breaks
were the bane of everyone’s life in those days and a pool would be
a god-send. Even so, I asked for the car. She may have seen it as
a selfish impulse or an important sign of my commitment to the
hobby. Either way, she bought the car for me. It was not my first
slot car, just my first good car.
As
things turned out, it was a disaster. I had committed the standard
rookie blunder of buying in over my head. The car was light,
powerful and extremely quick in acceleration. It was also
extremely hard to control since the open wheel configuration
“springie thingie” had nearly no cornering ability. The first lap
I took was also the end of the day because I promptly rocketed it
off the high bank, through the protective netting and crashed into
the wall beyond with great force. The impact tore off a rear wheel
which we never found. It was a fatal blow since I couldn’t very
well turn to my mom and ask for a replacement set of tires after
she had just relinquished all her food money for the week! The
racing session for the day was ended as abruptly his mom’s
patience.
It
would be weeks before the car could be fixed and I could attempt
another stint behind the wheel. New screw-on tires and an axle
were provided and my dad patiently provided a lesson in the use of
an Allen wrench to adjust the gear mesh. With a little care I
could navigate the car around the track. Then I could explore the
car’s power a little longer each lap on the straight-away. The
car’s blinding acceleration was sufficient to provide a rush of
fear when it was punched down the straightaway. The expression
“Oh! My heart!” was transposed into the car’s nickname the “Heart”
car.
As
time went on the “Heart” car got converted into a pan chassis
machine with a GT body. Where various pieces ended up is lost to
memory. The two photos at right show the transition from in-line
springie ‘thingie’ to pan chassis and then to the angle-winder
with spring side pans.
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