Hi I am pretty new to the slot car world but I am getting a Aurora AFX slot car track. I have some old T-Jet cars (1/64 scale) that i will be running on it. But I was wondering if the Johnny Lightning cars will be able to run on the same track? Also what other cars will i be able to run? I think tyco..... please help me thanks

Shawn

the JL cars can run on it. also afx, tomy, tyco(hotwheels) and i think a few other brands.

check out this site so you can catch up to speed :thumbsup: http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/

:wave: Hello Shawn, Welcome to the boards... :wave: There are a bunch of great guys here that can answer most all of your questions. This site (http://webguys.org/ficus/slotcar/introduction.html) is for people new to slot car racing. And there are many many more out there. Have fun...

Jeff

Thanks a lot for the replies everyone. Looks like since the track will be compatable i'll be bidding on some more cars off ebay haha. I had a track when i was younger, and was recently looking for it. Only to find out it probably got thrown out by my mother :(

Kelze, he only HO cars that don't run on Tomy are Matchbox, and any brand of slotless cars......unless you modify them with a guide pin.

Almost all HO slot car brands will run on any brand HO slot car track with very few exceptions. The only incompatible ones I can think of off the top of my head are Ideal and Matchbox, both long since out of production niche products.

Rehashing nostalgic names and products is a common theme you will see over and over again in this hobby. It is very confusing and convoluted.

1) The original Aurora is long gone but they had a ton of unsold inventory that is available to this day. This is sold as "new old stock" or NOS.

2) Tomy bought the naming rights to "AFX" and "Aurora" so any newer products you see advertised with those names are really made by Tomy. Tomy no longer sells slot cars and race sets directly into North America. They sell only through one exclusive distributor, RaceMasters.

3) Another new slot car company sells products under the "Model Motoring" name, something that also used to be associated with Aurora. The Model Motoring cars originally came equipped with NOS Aurora TJet chassis but they later produced their own chassis called the "ThunderPlus."

4) Playing Mantis, producer of the Johnny Lightning (also a rehashed name) diecast cars produced a line of slot car bodies mounted on throwaway pullback toy chassis. The "ThunderJet 500s" line fit on Aurora T-Jet (screw on) chassis and the "ThunderJets" line fit on Aurora AFX (snap on) chassis (and most Tomy chassis that use the AFX mounting system).

5) Playing Mantis later produced two lines of slot cars using the Johnny Lightning brand name. The first line, ThunderJet 500, was a near copy of the old Aurora TuffOnes T-Jet. The chassis is slightly different than the Aurora model they copied, enough so that some Aurora bodies and JL pullback bodies don't quite fit right of them and not all parts are interchangable. The second line was called "X-Tractions" (or XT) and they are near copies of the Aurora Magnatraction AFX style chassis. The XT chassis fits any body designed for the Aurora AFX and Magnatraction but some of the component parts are not interchangable.

6) Playing Mantis got bought out by RC2 Corporation who continued to sell the Johnny Lightning slot cars for about a year and a half. They later sold off the slot car line to the founder of Playing Mantis, Tom Lowe, who started up a new company (Round 2) to sell these slot cars under another rehashed legacy name "Auto World." This venture is just starting to get off the ground and it sounds like they will continue the two slot car lines that Playing Mantis started and add additional new products as the company comes together.

7) Mattel bought the naming rights to the Tyco slot cars. There is still a fair amount of older Tyco inventory on the market. Mattel made few changes to the Tyco line at first and continued to ship racing inspired sets and cars. In the past couple of years Mattel has killed off most serious racing inspired sets and cars and has instead concentrated on bringing out small oddball sets that follow movie themes (Batman, Dukes of Hazzard, etc.) and other such things. For serious racers and collectors Mattel has all but destroyed the Tyco legacy.

8) Life-Like started off producing slot cars that followed the Rokar M-Car standard, which was a decent magnet car chassis. They later started producing a cost reduced chassis called the T-chassis that still uses the same body mounting scheme. The Life-Like bodies are limited to mostly NASCAR inspired or North American sedans although a line of Australian racing sedans is also available. The style of the Life-Like bodies has changed dramatically over the years. It's hard to tell they all came from the same company. The earlier ones are very much like the Rokars, long and thin. The later ones are wide and stubby, and in some cases bulbous. Life-Like was recently acquired by Walthers, of model railroading fame. It remains to be seen what Walthers will do with the slot car product line but rumor has it that there is some sort of dialog between Round 2 and Walthers.

The moral of the story is that you have to look behind the names to understand what's really there...

Kelze, he only HO cars that don't run on Tomy are Matchbox, and any brand of slotless cars......unless you modify them with a guide pin.


Count also the Minic Motorways as they don’t run ony Tomy/Tyco tracks even if they are not slotless.... ;) (I mean the latest series, as the first serie will obviously not run on any HO tracks but Minic track)

In fact, their pick-ups system, unique and special, is not the same width

Older model motoring track has a very shallow slot.The new
model motoring track has non-magnetic rail. Atleast the
batch here does.AFX new or old is the prefered plastic track
in ho stotdom.The older the better,you can make up to 8
lane layouts and vary the radius's more than any other brand.

Hi all, I'm new to the game too. I used to have a track some 30 years back and just recently purchased the Big Block Battlers for my 5 year old. I am an old game landscaper and plan to do this hobby with him. Pleas ebear with me but I have a few questions of my own:
1.) Do the Johnny Lightning Fast and Furious slots work on Tomy AFX track too? I get confused on the 'magna traction', etc.
2.) How well does that 3" hairpin turn work? Looks like cars would fly off of it really easily.
3.) Is there a site out there that can show me pics of some of the less known track pieces? I saw a sight selling a 90 degree intersection and was wondering what it looked like and how that worked...also was wondering what the overhead lap counter looked like.
4.) Does anyone know where I can get that red/white curve? That looks like it would help keep cars on the track when I make faster turns.

Thanks for any help!
Nightshade

Look here..........http://www.toyracecars.com/index.php?cPath=26&osCsid=72cd7bfe463f43e2d97c80ee6ff72328

Should help you out a little.

JL fast n furious cars are Xtractions, which are Magna traction clones. Just 25 years newer.....

The hairpin doesn't work with the Xtractions/Magnatraction cars. The pickups don't follow the rails. Other cars work OK. I have a hairpin, and only played with it for a few minutes......definitely would not work it into a permanent layout......

The red/white curbing ("fisa" curbs) is part of the Tomy hairpin and chicane sectons. There are many other ways to get/make curbing.....

Go here for starters......

http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/

That may be the 34,864,493'rd time that site has been linked......

Thanks for the info on the hairpin turn! But, please remember that I am new to this. Xtractions? So the Fast & Furious slot cars will work on Tomy AFX track or it won't?

I see many people using a program to make track layouts....is there a site to download this?

Again, many thanks for all your help.

Yes, X-Tractions will work on Tomy track. And keep those hairpins, as the Auto World X-Tractions will have the wider pickup shoes (like the ones on the Back to the Future and Mopar sets) these will let the XT's handle the hairpins.