Our second house in Monterey had hardwood floors covered by area rugs. The eight or ten inch margin running between the edge of the rug and the baseboard provided a wonderful place to run the collection of Dinky and Corgi toys in the Imagination Grand Prix. While my brother David and I both had cars, these races were activities that definitely had to be done alone. There was no room for disputes about the realism of one car beating out another. These things were determined by the touch of adolescent fingers on the bodywork as I moved the car through the corners. Two things were paramount to winning these races. First, the tires had to be soft and pliable enough for grip on the hardwood. Second, the suspension was very important. Dinky Toys had a rigid axle threaded through holes on the bottom of the car. Corgi’s, on the other hand, had springs on their axles so that they could actually lean into the corners. Maserati or not, the MG simply out handled it in my twelve year old mind.
Dave and I must have had about thirty of these cars. We’d get one or two in our stockings for Christmas or for birthdays. These would be supplemented by a supply whose source I cannot remember. Most of these beautiful little cars were abandoned as we grew up and became interested in the things that older boys lust after: girls and real cars. It was no longer a good thing to have these toys in your room. Fortunately, Mom saved some of them. They went into a toy box that was used by the grandchildren when they came to visit. Tires were lost and suspensions were trashed. Paint jobs were destroyed as the cars were moved outside into the dirt for rough little hands.
As I move into the second half of my life, I have again started collecting toy die cast cars. I haven’t found myself racing them on the floor like in the old days though. Not yet. They sit in the cabinet in my den, representing more disposable income than I freely admit to my wife Stephanie. If you look closely at the back of the cabinet, behind the newer cars, a couple of our originals survive. I still have the BRM…although the number roundel on the front of the car is nearly gone…and the tires, after all those hardwood floor grands prix, are heavily worn on the outside edges. Bridgestone Hobbies, on Sandy Boulevard, sells 1:43rd die cast cars and trucks. In kit form or already assembled, there is a much larger selection than we ever had back in my youth. Every so often, in the cabinet at the back of the store, they will have for sale some Dinky or Corgi car which has found its way from the trunks and shoe boxes of old Boomers like me. I am never amazed at their high cost considering all the enjoyment that they must have provided other boys of my generation.
By Christmas of 1961 the nature of toy cars had changed. Strombecker had released one of the first, if not the first, 1:32nd scale slot car set. The cover of the box showed a D-Jag and a 250F Maserati racing around a figure eight track. The driver controls were, in today’s terms, digital. Drivers controlled their cars by using a push button that plugged into the bottom of the track. Mash the button down and the car went flat out. Let the button off and the car coasted to a stop. The hot set up was to feather the throttle by rapid, intermittent taps on the button. The track featured clip on fencing that went around the outside of the curves and provided a safety net for spin outs. Unfortunately there was enough of a gap between the fence elements that the tire or wheel well would catch. After the first couple of hours we didn’t use the figure eight layout. Although fair from total distance, it was hardly realistic. One of the first Strombecker accessories that we purchased was a green clip-on shoulder for the outside of the curve. This allowed for some outstanding power slides. Engineering changes at home were classic car science. The main issue was getting the power to the ground. The tires were not the multicolored soft gum variety to be seen in the early 70’s. Their back end was very light, and since the front end was in constant contact with the track through the slot, the resulting traction was very poor. To reduce the friction coefficient in the front end, the wire contact brushes were trimmed and the guide shoe was cut down. At the back end, under the body shell, we placed modeling clay with embedded pennies. The power of the motor and the handling characteristics of the body and frame combination dictated the number of coins. Or so we thought. The final modification was to run the tires over fine sandpaper.
Slot cars were such a hit that imports from the British Isles could be found at the better stores. Companies such as Revell and Monogram began marketing cars and sets of their own. Unlike today’s computer software for racing, cars were compatible from track to track. Try running a game from an x86 machine on a Mac.
The little cars were wonderful. After the first crudely scaled models, manufacturers developed some real beauties. These first cars were hard plastic that either snap fit or attached by screws with a metal or rigid plastic frame. An electric motor and a direct drive to a crown gear provided the propulsion. Fairly early on it was possible to change the final drive ratios, the tires, and the bodies from car to car. Eventually, injection molded transparent plastic bodies increased the number of styles available, but they never had the beauty of the hard plastic variety. I can remember several in particular. Of all of them, I believed Monogram to be the best. Their collection of Ferrari’s was awesome. They offered the de riguer 250 GTO. They also had a 250LM coupe and a 275P roadster. Later they came out with a beautiful Formula 1 model. Revell also had some nice cars. We must have purchased the Porsche 904, 289 Cobra, and King Cobra many times over.
Clearly the build-them-up and take-them-down tracks did not fit our grandiose plans. We persuaded my father to give up room in the garage for a track. Long and narrow, it provided the first opportunity to build up a scale raceway, complete with spectators and pits. We lined the walls with race posters from local events and with dealer posters for new BMC and Triumph cars. My father and my oldest brother had built a H-O scale railroad on a swing down table on the back wall. Eventually, and with a little unintentional sabotage from me, we took over this section and at last built a track that we could be proud of. Although the curves were from the original Strombecker pieces, we hand grooved and taped the back straightway.
I look back on those days with very pleasant memories. At times it would be solo, just out there practicing. Other times it would be Dave and I, racing in cars that we had built and painted to look like all the National and local heroes. Best of all were the weekends when we’d get half a dozen of us together to race.
Commercial tracks had followed a similar development cycle, but with 1:24 scale. These were the video game parlor equivalents of the late 60’s. Controllers, by this time, had gone to the full rheostat stage and the cars had "brakes" that would slow them down instead of free wheeling to the end of the track. Although they passed from the scene quickly, there is a bit of a resurgence of interest in the slot car hobby again. For home use, the 1:32 scale fell out of favor rather quickly and was replaced by 1:87 (or H-O). Although the principle was the same, the level of realism never matched the larger cars. Eventually, just as with the Dinky and Corgi toys, the slot cars fell out of favor in our home too. My dad took the table back over again for his trains and the slot cars were relegated to boxes sitting in the garages at Dave’s house and mine.
Where do I stand with the toy cars today? I have a pretty good collection of 1:43 scale including a half dozen or so left over from my days of the bedroom floor grand prix. It is possible to collect everything, but hardly practical due to space and capital issues. I try to keep my purchases limited to minimal categories: Porsche, Ferrari, and cars I’ve driven or admired. Actually, there is one other type. I never really outgrew my love of fire engines. While impractical to own the real thing, I have a collection of die cast fire engines too. Any habit can turn bad. It would be possible to spend lots of money on these toys. It is not uncommon for the well-crafted model to sell for prices in excess of one hundred dollars. It is necessary to somehow meter the outgoing cash flow if we want to eat and clothe the family. There are enough cars in ratio to the size of my den to necessitate a storage system of some kind. The serious collector would save the original vendor boxes, but I did not. I have some of the larger (1:32, 1:24, and 1:18) stored in a large cardboard box. I have done better with the 1:43 and 1:87 ones. One year Stephanie gave me a wooden tool box for Christmas. This Kennedy style box has a lift top and sliding, front access drawers. I can now rotate old favorites out of the boxes. In this manner my baby boomer collection can undergo subtle changes whenever the mood dictates.
Where can you get such wonderful little replicas? You can find some of the older Dinky and Corgi toys at antique shops if you are very lucky. Toy retailers advertise in the back of magazines like Autoweek and Panorama. There are stores that carry these toys in most big cities. In the Portland Metro area the best place to find these toys is Bridgetown Hobbies (also known as Military Corners) on Sandy Boulevard. It may not be possible to turn your automotive wishes into reality but you can realize your fantasies on a miniature scale.
