Carrera Slot Car Racing: It's a long way from Aurora AFX
As with so many of my automotive-related interests I acquired my joy of slot-car racing from my older brothers. They were playing with Aurora AFX cars and tracks in my earliest memories (the first Aurora sets were introduced in 1971) and I was happy to take up the cause when they outgrew the activity. If memory serves, it was about when they could start driving real cars. I finally sold all our remaining cars around 1999 on ebay. I was shocked when the random collection brought $110.
Now I've fallen back into the hobby with the new Carrera race sets. These have been around since 1963, started by Hermann Neihierl in Germany. I'd never heard of them until I saw a race set in a hobby store that had a 1969 Dodge Daytona and 1970 Plymouth Superbird on the box cover. A little more research uncovered a wide range of cool cars and track types. I finally broke down and picked up a used set off ebay several months ago, and I've added a couple more sets in the last few weeks.
I know there are several other modern slot car track systems, including Scalextric, but I find the Carrera model range the most interesting and best looking. Besides the cars you see here I have a "Petty Blue" Superbird and I'm eyeing the wireless controllers Carrera offers. This topic is far too large to properly cover in a single post, but I can say the kids love racing these vehicles as much as I do. However, in typical toy-car irony, the best performing model in this group is the 1967 Mustang, and the worst is the Ferrari Enzo.
- Posted by
- Karl Brauer February 11, 2008, 7:00 AM
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- Cars in Entertainment
I loved the Aurora AFX. I had three 1970 Camaros light blue with purple stripes. An AMC Ambassador Police car and several race car versions. Loved these. Now that I have a new son, I should look into them again.
Now if I only had a separate room that the wife wasn't aloud to go into.
One of the last public slot car businesses is in a mall in San Antonio (Magnatech).
http://www.slotcars.org/magnatech/
I never played them growing up, but my mother's husband used to. We went down there and played a few hours. It was fun.
I also saw other Carrera Slot Cars on another site which you guys might want to check out.
http://www.carreraslotcar.net/