Just curious what others may think regarding the best track sets ever sold. (I am partial to four lane sets.)

Just my two cents:

Number 1) Tomy's Super International might be the best set ever sold. The concept of being able to make 18 or so different track plans based on famous tracks around the world is a great one. 25' of 4 lane track is hard to beat as well. The set includes such things as 4 color lane tape, tune-up kit and even body clips if one chooses to mount "wide" body cars on the G-plus indy width chassis. Two transformers in lieu of one to power the track is much appreciated. The box art makes the set very appealing as well. Whoever came up with this set and concept needs to be applauded.

Number 2) Sear's Roger Penske AFX Four Lane Raceway. This set was available in the 1973 Sears Christmas Wishbook. The set consisted of 18' or so of over and under track. This set split into about 6 feet of 2 lane. Many times a spliting 4 lane is not realistic or desirable but this one was plausable. The 4 cars included 2 matching Penske 510K Porsches (#6 Mark Donahue's and his team mate's #7), 1 UOP Shadow and Oscar K's orange AutoWorld McClaren. These pre magna-traction cars were a Sears "exclusive" and featured an added weight behind the front axle dubbed "Super Traction." A small Super Traction decal was afixed to each car. Set included one of those powerful hot pink transformers and is the only set I recall including little clips that held the track sections together to form the 4 lane.

Number 3) While not a true set the AFX Clubman was a great concept in 4 lane racing in which individuals or clubs could construct from available track pieces. The Clubman was to replicate the "Big King" layouts of Commercial 1/32 scale tracks. This was one big track and included an almost 11 foot front straightaway, a banked turn and a number of winding turns. It fit on two 4x8 sheets of plywood. The trackplan of the Clubman can be found in the AFX Racing Handbook from the mid 1970s.

Today, with the track pieces available, neither the Penske nor the Clubman can be constructed due to the lack of a 7" straight.

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

Good to step back and look at things once in a while. ....

My favorite out of these 3 is the Sears set. I give it the #1 spot. I have a real soft spot for the vintage Wishbook exclusives that Sears put out. Seems like they really cared about the cars that were in the sets. Always a famous name or two. Along with liking the cars I also liked the many different layouts that could be achieved. ( can't I just go back in time for a day or 2... paging Dr. Who ).

The Tomy S.I. in my mind is probably most noted for it's value. Not a big fan of the cars... I give it #2.

Clubman ??? I thought that was talcum powder? (I never raced on one so it gets #3)

nuther D

Well, the truth be known I favor the Penske 4 lane for the same sentimental reasons. I received mine for Christmas of 1973 when I was eleven. After about 3 months of looking at it in the Sears Christmas catalog it was great to finally find it under the Christmas tree!

What surprised me that morning was how that big race track pictured in the catalog could fit into such a small box. But it did and it provided me and my friends many hours of our first 4 lane racing.

My Penske eventually just faded away piece by piece over time. Thankfully, a few years back, I located a complete set on E-bay with the four original cars and the works. At 45 years old, I still enjoy just looking at the box!

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

Nice choices on the 1st two sets. Including the Clubman? Why not!
Even if it wasn't available as a set....
It is a "famous" racetrack...
Scott

Some great ones for sure. However, because this was my first MM lock and joiner track, mine would have to be this two laner that Sears had back in 69 or 70. Had banked Monza turns at two opposing ends, had three levels of height and a corkscrew to get you back down. Best thing, it had a Mach1 Mustang as one of the cars. The other was the Alfa Romero. Fit perfectly on the ping-pong table. :eek: rr

I liked the Jackie Stewart Golden Gate Road Race Set.

A Montgomery Wards exclusive. My brother and I got one for Christmas 1974.

Billboard gaurdrails (short) and a cardboard cut out of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We had hours of fun with it.

The cars we got with it were the Lola T260 Can Am and the Baja Bronco. Later dad and mom got us an Orange Nomad and Blue Dodge Daytona. Randy.

Jim--- I just spoke with someone from Huntsville that is building a track in his house. I can put you guys in touch if you'd like. Maybe Huntsville can become the new ho hotbed.

Great topic Jim!
My 3 favorite tracks are:
1 The afx figure 8 van set just because I convinced my younger brother that he absolutely needed it for his birthday instead of a train set. Not a great track or anything but it was our first set and custom vans were hot at the time.
2 A Lemans/Can Am set that included the old data race control centre. We bought it used from a friend to get the extra track and cars. Lets face it you can only race so long on a figure 8. But the best thing about it turned out to be the data race. It added a whole new dimension to racing and tuning our cars. Suddenly we could keep track of our race lap records. This led to flying lap qualifying sessions that would rival the month of May at Indy. Followed by 50 or 100 lap races with pitstops for fuel and tire cleaning. It was awesome!
3 Tomy released a 4 lane Lemans set in the late 80's that included the 4 lighted Lemans cars on a replica of Lemans. This was the set that got me back into slot car racing. I can't find any record of it online though and the box is long gone now but it was the international challenge track of the 80's.

Great nostolgia here, I would liek to add the Tyco double 8 set for one reason only, I lived up the street from Tyco Canada in Toronto and a buddy of mine would pick these sets out of the trash at tyco and we could do what we wanted to the sets then lol.. Not always Sure he got them from the trash and not through a window lol..But man he had a stack of them and we all ran tyco track for a while lol....Was the set withthe chrome 908's in it, I do also remeber he had given us a few with the Pinto and Gremlin but I can not remeber what the set looked like.. was free who cared...


Dave

Great thread idea Norton.

My favorite track was the AFX set with the Semi and Police car. Got one for Christmas and then got some money for Christmas and bought another one. Those semi trucks and police cars with the blinking lights were a blast and still are today.

Had tons of track already set up in the basement before getting these 2 tracks. Man we would just try to make it all the way around my layout without wrecking...Yeah a time machine would be a great trip...take me anyone when you invent one please!

Just got 3 Slot Car Johnnies single trailers.....This is going to be fun. First gotta get some more work done on my layout. Willy's first then layout..then 3 single trailers behind a capable Semi....Should I go with the Peterbilt or Cab Over for the first run??

These pics from a Wards book.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/bobhch/abra3.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/bobhch/abra2.jpg

Bob...zilla

Seems like prices of sets haven't kept pace with gas.

My Number one set would be.... the AFX Monza Sprint Raceway from Sears in 1975. It came with a yellow Superbird and the Chevelle stocker. I also got a yellow Bel Air and a maroon Porshe Carrea as well.

The birth of an addiction...

I spent months looking at the Wish Book, dreaming of it's arrival. I even built little cut out bridges and overpasses out of cardboard in anticapation. (I wound up not even using them though). I fantized about setting up jumps and racing my friends. I was 11 and man was I stoked when I came downsatirs on Xmas morning and saw it. My dad set up a small layout by the tree and was playing with it when I came down. We played with that thing for days before I brought it upstairs and set the whole thing up in my room.

That Christmas, 4 or 5 of my friends also got AFX sets. We would collect all our 15 inch straights and bring them to school for drag races at recess. We would set up the longest strip we could and race. Gplus cars weren't allowed to race because only one kid had them, the rest of us had Magna Tractions. The kid also had them too, so he wasn't left out, only his gplus car was.

(a year later I managed to talk that kid out of that gplus car in exchange for 2 45 records... "Magic" by Pilot and "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John... man, did I get the better of that deal. In another trade, I got his mini motorfic car for a balsa wood airplane and a "Dock of the Bay" single :thumbsup: )

My second favorite set, The Tyco Nite Double Loop set from 1978. These were my first lighted cars, Chrome Porshe's... and I admit it.. at 13 I thought loops were cool. This would also mark the close of the first chapter of my addiction. In the spring of 79, I was 15, landed my first girlfriend ;) , started playing guitar, quit playing baseball and started making films with my super 8 set up. A new addiction was born :freak:

Now comes my choice for number 3... A set from Life Like with the Jeff Gordon car. The set wasn't super great or anything, but it rewakened my love for the hobby in the fall of 2001. I live near the WTC and I guess the set provided me with a measure of comfort. A reminder that once, all was well with the world and would be again. I bought the set at Toys R Us in Manhattan while I was there looking to get something for my nephew's birthday. I saw the set, bought him one... went back and bought myself one. A few months later I discovered ebay... and spend a fortune tracking down all my lost treasures of my youth.

Addictions can be expensive.
Why couldn't I have become addicted to salads instead?
:tongue:

hehehehehe

The set wasn't super great or anything, but it rewakened my love for the hobby in the fall of 2001. I live near the WTC and I guess the set provided me with a measure of comfort. A reminder that once, all was well with the world and would be again. ...

That hits home VJ... that really hits home. :( ... Sept 12th I went fishing on my brother-in-law's boat (Long Island Sound I'm in Southern CT 60 miles from NYC). You could see the smoke even from here. I'll never forget it. All the big freighters from NY Harbor were parked up here. A bizarre sight to behold and a dark period in our history for sure.

I was out of work at that time. All my job leads and prospects withered on the vine within 24hrs of the collapse of the towers. To cheer me up my wife bought me a Tomy Infinity set on my birthday (Oct 26th). From the day I opened that set I also felt a little comforted. That's when I got bit again too.

nuther D

Seeing the photos of the Montgomerey Ward Christmas catalog race sets was great. I wish I had kept all those great catalogs featuring so many great sets.

There are 2 books available which feature the pages of the Christmas catalogs containing train sets from about 1953 to 1969. One features all the pages of trains in the Sears Christmas Wishbook and the other features all the pages of trains in the Mongomery Ward Christmas catalog.

I had hoped the same would be done for race sets. A book could certainly be filled with race sets, both 1/32 and HO, from about 1960 till the mid 1980's or so.

With the advent of E-Bay I was able to once again have a 1973 Sears Christmas Wishbook. When it arrived, I carefully opened it to the slot car section and saw the 4 Lane Penske Raceway. It had been 30 years and I felt like Christmas of 1973 was coming all over again.

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

P.S. Neorules please provide Huntsville contact off list.

There's a book called BOYS TOYS that has many of the toys listings from the 50-late 60's.. theyn make one for Girl's toys too. I think you can them on AMAZON