New Zealand Slot Car Racing history and pictures wanted from the 1960's and 70's
I'm looking at writing a piece on the early days of Slot Car Racing in New Zealand from the 1960's and 1970's. This was the first golden age of Slot Car Racing and I was involved in it with a group of young school mates. Coming from Auckland, we had two great commercial raceways that I recall well, as we ran our cars on them many times. "Pit Stop" was upstairs off Queen Street where the old "Regent/Plaza"? Theatre was and later "McDonalds" replaced it. This was haloed ground to us. It was a somewhat dimly lit mecca, that had three big wooden tracks. The atmosphere was fantastic, with great pictures on the wall including a beautifully painted picture of Graham Hill's 1966 Indy winning Lola. In the flood lit glass cases at the counter were all manner of exquisite looking slot cars for sale.
We also raced at Martin's Toy Shops, Custom's Street track that featured a complete loop, and if your car wasn't quick enough it would fall from the top of the spiral...
"Pit Stop" was the meeting ground though and it was run by a young guy I recall, who was very cool and drove a Holden Monaro, which just about made him capable of walking on water from a young boys perspective then. We were also into all the wonderful slot car kits available at the time from legendary makers such as Monogram, Cox and the great Japanese ones like Tokyo Plamo. There was also a very vibrant Kiwi slot car gear industry at the time, with various manufacturers such as "Checkpoint" and Royal and several others.
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has photograhs of this era, particulary of the commercial raceways in New Zealand and of the cars and equipment available at the time. My name is Gerard Richards and I can be reached by e-mail on mairangiman@hotmail.com I also look forward to anyone posting anything interesting on this thread if they have it. Thanks
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My tribute to boyhood hero Red Dawson
My blue and gold '67 Shelby Mustang. Yes it is a slot car, based on Pioneer blank slot car kit. The number 35 is hand painted and the hand ain't as steady as it was 40 years ago, but end result looks okay. Takes me back to my boyhood each time I lay eyes on it.
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My Dennis Marwood '69 Camaro Slot Car built 1971
This clear plastic '69 Camaro, modeled on Dennis Marwood's Rorison Racing version that came to NZ in Dec 1970, I built in 1971. It has a Mabuchi FT 26D motor which was a bit of a killer motor in the day. Rather amazing I still have it.
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Porsche 904 GT in Winfield cigarette colours
This Porsche 904 GT slot car is a pretty rare beast. It was based on an Atlas chassis and was marketed in NZ by obscure company called RSL. This car is survivor of mine which I've had since 1970. It was painted gold in 1972 with stripes taken right off a Winfield cigarette packet. The original Hit 1000 motor, was replaced early in the piece with a Mabuchi FT 16 motor which gave considerably more performance.