3 hours ago
Hello fellow slot racers,
I have finally taken the plunge. I have joined this forum. Neither am I a newbie to the hobby, nor is this forum or are other slot car forums completely new to me. Although I never joined one, I’ve been reading posts on slot car forums every now and then ever since my return to the hobby in 2018.
But let me introduce myself first. Seeing my user name, you can probably tell I am Dutch. Yes, I am as Dutch as Gouda cheese. I wear wooden clogs; I like tulips; I put my finger in a dyke from time to time and I live in a windmill. Nah, just kidding.
Many years ago I was born in the vibrant city of Rotterdam (famous for its port, no longer the biggest in the world, but still the biggest in Europe). Nowadays I live in the city of Dordrecht, a 15-minute ride by train from Rotterdam.
In the late sixties my dad bought my brothers and sister a Scalextric set, which he rapidly extended. So, we ended up with a 4-lane track with all the bells and whistles. All Classic track of course. I still have it. I was too young for slot cars back then. A few years later I was allowed to race and I was hooked immediately.
At the time we were living in a small town southeast of Rotterdam. The town had a model/hobby shop; the shop sold mostly model trains, but also slot cars. No Scalextric cars, however. Well, we had some Scalextric cars from the original set and a few other Scalextric cars. I do remember a Ford GT40, an Austin Healey and a Mini. If I remember correctly, Scalextric cars were thin on the ground in the Netherlands in the late sixties and early seventies. If someone on this forum could shed some light on this, I would be most grateful. My dad couldn’t find them in Rotterdam anymore, so he bought a few Fleischmann cars instead. To get them running on a Scalextric track, all that was needed was a guide change.
Those Fleischmann cars were bloody expensive too, as I found out in the mid-seventies when I bought one myself. I blew 80 Dutch guilders (about €37/£32/$43 in today’s money, even more taking inflation into consideration) of my pocket money on that car, a Porsche Carrera 6. Other Fleischmann cars we had were a Ford Lotus 40, an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33, a Mercedes 280SL, a Cooper Maserati F1, a ‘Niki Lauda’ Ferrari F1 and a Porsche 911. In the early eighties I bought a Scalextric BMW 3.0 CSL, a Triumph TR7, a Mini Clubman and a Wolf WRS F1. All of them had those awful wobbly front axles. And for all the Dutch forum members: those four Scalextric cars were all bought at V&D. How about that for some Dutch nostalgia!
Throughout the seventies and early eighties, we used to race every school holiday. As my brothers and sister lost interest, I kept on racing with my friends instead until the summer of 1982. I can remember that very clearly because that summer The Rolling Stones were in town. I was fifteen at the time and other things were becoming more important. I packed it all in/up that summer. I put the track and cars in boxes and I put everything in the loft, where I found the boxes again when we had to clear out our parents’ house in 2017.
The track was still in good nick and everything was working. I went on the internet and to my surprise I found out that slot cars were still a thing ̶ so many brands! ̶ and that Scalextric were still in business. Who would have thought after all these years? Definitely not me. And then there was digital racing. That was all new to me too. To cut a long story short, I bought two big second-hand Scalextric sets, two new Scalextric cars and the biggest digital set Scalextric had on offer. I was hooked again. All thanks to Scalextric.
I am a home racer (having cars from different manufacturers) and a collector of Scalextric cars. What can I say? I like the brand. It’s nostalgia. I don’t have a permanent track at the moment because I don’t have the space for one. For now I’m just a carpet racer, but that will change in the future.
I think that I’m an oddball regarding real motorsport. I don’t really like it. That’s not completely true though. I kind of like GT3 racing and the BTCC, but only the highlights on YouTube. And to be really honest, I often find Formula 1 races quite boring, even though Max Verstappen is Dutch and on top of that a bloody good F1 driver. But still. I like slot car racing and that’s it. Slot car racing is all about having fun.
I do like that most slot cars nowadays are very detailed models, which represent real racing cars much better than they did when I was a kid. I agree with Dave Kennedy of Slot Car News: this is the golden age of slot cars and slot car racing.
I’m a bit of an anglophile and I’ve been to the UK many a time. I think it’s great that Scalextric are still alive and kicking and I wish the company well under its new ownership. I think I´ve read somewhere that the CEO and owner of Scalextric´s new parent company is a Brit. (I could be wrong though.) So in a way Scalextric is still in British hands and that´s a nice thought.
That’s my slot car history in a nutshell.
Enjoy your racing.
DutchKing66
I have finally taken the plunge. I have joined this forum. Neither am I a newbie to the hobby, nor is this forum or are other slot car forums completely new to me. Although I never joined one, I’ve been reading posts on slot car forums every now and then ever since my return to the hobby in 2018.
But let me introduce myself first. Seeing my user name, you can probably tell I am Dutch. Yes, I am as Dutch as Gouda cheese. I wear wooden clogs; I like tulips; I put my finger in a dyke from time to time and I live in a windmill. Nah, just kidding.
Many years ago I was born in the vibrant city of Rotterdam (famous for its port, no longer the biggest in the world, but still the biggest in Europe). Nowadays I live in the city of Dordrecht, a 15-minute ride by train from Rotterdam.
In the late sixties my dad bought my brothers and sister a Scalextric set, which he rapidly extended. So, we ended up with a 4-lane track with all the bells and whistles. All Classic track of course. I still have it. I was too young for slot cars back then. A few years later I was allowed to race and I was hooked immediately.
At the time we were living in a small town southeast of Rotterdam. The town had a model/hobby shop; the shop sold mostly model trains, but also slot cars. No Scalextric cars, however. Well, we had some Scalextric cars from the original set and a few other Scalextric cars. I do remember a Ford GT40, an Austin Healey and a Mini. If I remember correctly, Scalextric cars were thin on the ground in the Netherlands in the late sixties and early seventies. If someone on this forum could shed some light on this, I would be most grateful. My dad couldn’t find them in Rotterdam anymore, so he bought a few Fleischmann cars instead. To get them running on a Scalextric track, all that was needed was a guide change.
Those Fleischmann cars were bloody expensive too, as I found out in the mid-seventies when I bought one myself. I blew 80 Dutch guilders (about €37/£32/$43 in today’s money, even more taking inflation into consideration) of my pocket money on that car, a Porsche Carrera 6. Other Fleischmann cars we had were a Ford Lotus 40, an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33, a Mercedes 280SL, a Cooper Maserati F1, a ‘Niki Lauda’ Ferrari F1 and a Porsche 911. In the early eighties I bought a Scalextric BMW 3.0 CSL, a Triumph TR7, a Mini Clubman and a Wolf WRS F1. All of them had those awful wobbly front axles. And for all the Dutch forum members: those four Scalextric cars were all bought at V&D. How about that for some Dutch nostalgia!
Throughout the seventies and early eighties, we used to race every school holiday. As my brothers and sister lost interest, I kept on racing with my friends instead until the summer of 1982. I can remember that very clearly because that summer The Rolling Stones were in town. I was fifteen at the time and other things were becoming more important. I packed it all in/up that summer. I put the track and cars in boxes and I put everything in the loft, where I found the boxes again when we had to clear out our parents’ house in 2017.
The track was still in good nick and everything was working. I went on the internet and to my surprise I found out that slot cars were still a thing ̶ so many brands! ̶ and that Scalextric were still in business. Who would have thought after all these years? Definitely not me. And then there was digital racing. That was all new to me too. To cut a long story short, I bought two big second-hand Scalextric sets, two new Scalextric cars and the biggest digital set Scalextric had on offer. I was hooked again. All thanks to Scalextric.
I am a home racer (having cars from different manufacturers) and a collector of Scalextric cars. What can I say? I like the brand. It’s nostalgia. I don’t have a permanent track at the moment because I don’t have the space for one. For now I’m just a carpet racer, but that will change in the future.
I think that I’m an oddball regarding real motorsport. I don’t really like it. That’s not completely true though. I kind of like GT3 racing and the BTCC, but only the highlights on YouTube. And to be really honest, I often find Formula 1 races quite boring, even though Max Verstappen is Dutch and on top of that a bloody good F1 driver. But still. I like slot car racing and that’s it. Slot car racing is all about having fun.
I do like that most slot cars nowadays are very detailed models, which represent real racing cars much better than they did when I was a kid. I agree with Dave Kennedy of Slot Car News: this is the golden age of slot cars and slot car racing.
I’m a bit of an anglophile and I’ve been to the UK many a time. I think it’s great that Scalextric are still alive and kicking and I wish the company well under its new ownership. I think I´ve read somewhere that the CEO and owner of Scalextric´s new parent company is a Brit. (I could be wrong though.) So in a way Scalextric is still in British hands and that´s a nice thought.
That’s my slot car history in a nutshell.
Enjoy your racing.
DutchKing66
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