I like to watch the TV show Pawn Stars, where folks bring old stuff into a pawn shop to try and sell it. It’s interesting to see what people hang onto and get an idea of what it’s worth.
I just saw an episode where somebody brought in a box of slot cars. This got my attention. I grew up racing slot cars.
The shop owner actually set up a track, and he raced the cars’ owner with a couple of cars from his collection. These were HO-scale cars, though. Those little, Hot-Wheel-size racers never got me excited.
The 1/32 cars I raced were more than twice as big. So, yeah, they looked better, but more importantly, they handled more like racecars. HO cars were top heavy, their motors too big for their size. The cars I raced had paper-thin vacu-formed bodies and flat metal chassis, making for a low center of gravity. With the tires they ran, you could actually adjust them for oversteer or understeer and adjust your “driving” accordingly. You also could add weight in strategic areas, adjusting the chassis further.
That was a long time ago, but I bet racing them still would be fun. Don’t ask me where. There are none of those storefront slot-car tracks we used to visit. But if I had a million dollars – okay, after the Avanti, and the open-wheel trackday car, and the two-seat roadster, and...