For the several weeks this forum has been my bible as I try to catch up on what I have missed in HO since my last epiphany in Ron Esterline's garage as a punk kid trying to keep up with real racers.

It seemed to me that somewhere in the land of the web and the multitude of links I have gathered and viewed that there was a place that made sense of the time lines and transfer of property.

I need someplace to go that can help me better understand the differences between various cars and manufacturers. Like what is the difference between a non-mag AFX (last car I ran) and a X-Traction AW? And where does Johnny Lighting fit in?

I have to say that the people in this forum are great. Most forums have more than 3X egos than they needs. Egos around here are like ghosts.

The AFX nonmag is for the most part an old style Tjet with a different mounting system. The magnets were inside the chassis thus shielding them from any pulling properties to the track rails. The Magnatraction by AFX and the Xtraction by AW have the motor and the magnets sitting lower on the chassis, and the magnets are exposed. This gives a bit more magnetic pull to the rails which aid in keeping the car on the track. While these are no "suction car" like the other brands (which can drive straight up, and upside down) They do give a little help in drivability.

As with every other thing under the sun, some will swear by them, and some will swear at them. Some of them (the AW) ones are hard to tweak just right. From what I've read, some of the earlier issues had warped top plates. Most of the bugs have been worked out of the later releases, but some of the older versions are still being sold new. They're still a decent bang for the buck slotcar to cruise. The majority of my stable are AW/Tjet cars and chassis. Yes, some are finicky..especially when I'm too lazy to clean the track. Most of their problems stem from my failure to lap the gears, they never get broken in, (the kids always drive the same cars..go figure) and dirty pickup shoes. I also have made the mistake of leaving the oil bottle on the table a couple of times, and their first assumption is they need a "fill up"..

All in all, about the same performance (give or take..It fluctuates) as an old AFX chassis.. A set of silicone tires, some O-ring fronts, a little tweaking, keeping 'em clean and loosening the gear-train up a little and you'll be ready to have fun!!

Xtraction is a clone of a magnatraction.

JL=johnny lightning, the diecast brand from the 60's. long story short: a guy in the 90s realized there were several 60's brands, such as polar lights (models) and johnny lightning (diecast) where the trademarks had been abandoned. he revived the trademarks and found factories in china and started selling models and diecast.

after a while he began to make injection molded slot car bodies on pullback chassis in god awful colors (lime green, peptobismal pink, an unattractive brown, purple, etc). the bodies were 2 styles, one AFX mount and the other Tjet mount. they sold for maybe 3-4 dollars, and were pretty popular despite the colors (they were slot car bodies of high quality for a low price).

after several different releases, JL released a slot car chassis based on the tough ones (a tjet with different gearing). with a body they were about $12 or less, and ran fair after tweaking. after several releases, the Xtraction (magnatraction) clone was released.

the owner (Tom Lowe) eventually sold the JL diescast brand to a big diecast company, and kept the slot car line for himself. he started a new business as Autoworld (AW) and kept releasing tough one clones and magnatraction clones with new body styles.

Welcome to the board.. :thumbsup:
The AW cars are at best IMO an attempt at recreating the Aurora cars. The arms are hotter,, the magnets are stronger, but the gear train is a mess.. (sometimes that isn't all bad).
Ego's.. well that is the downfall of most boards.. Rest assured Hankster don't allow flame wars, name calling, general badmouthing members. For the most part everyone here will help on any question you have. Many are diehard tjet fans but will step up and help you with an AW car in a heartbeat.
There are other boards on the web with lots of information, you will find them, when you do , you will find members from this board posting on them.
Overall.. if you want a home, well you found it..
Come into the chat room on wed nites, for a great roundtable of information we talk about slotcars.. not the weather..
Chris

Welcome to the board.. :thumbsup:
Come into the chat room on wed nites, for a great roundtable of information we talk about slotcars.. not the weather..
Chris

Friday nites ain't half bad either...:thumbsup:

You WILL learn ALOT on this site.

If I had any good advice...snicker....it would be troll along with the current threads and postings; then dig around in the archives on the topics that interest you specifically.

A lot of guys have a variety of cars from the different eras. Personally I have a bit of everything from the original vibrators to todays lightbending drywall cutters. Buy what you like... collect what you love. It's really quite simple. :thumbsup:

Slot Chat is weds night. We also gather and gab informally on fri night. Most of the eggos have been permanently toasted here. 'Cept for me and Coach ...they keep us around as examples of how not to be. We're actually harmless.

Aurora-Tjet-Wild ones-tuff-ones-AFX-AFX magnatraction,
G+.Then Aurora gets bought out by Tomy.Tomy Turbo car-
Super G+-Turbo SRT-Mega-G. Just skip the middle and buy
a new Mega G. A great looking ,no fuss,good running car.

Welcome to our nightmare.....the Darkside as it is sometimes called (affectionately of course).......where gravity is left to the Diecasters.

Just try a few different types of cars. See what you like. Stock Tjets are probably the slowest....the Magna/X Tractions are a little faster with a little more gripping power due to the exposed magnets. And the others just get faster and faster with exteme magnetic gripping power.

So, just have fun with 'em.

Also, be sure to take advantage of the search function. Odds are, a question has been asked before..(though we will happily answer again!!!). This is also great for really cool stuff besides general info. Let's say you're inspired by someone's track and you want to see more.. You can search that person's posts and if they have a track build thread here on HT you can find it. 1976 cordoba's is an awesome one to check out. He goes through almost everything on his table including the sweet lego pit buildings!! Same goes for tjd421's and Joez's!!! Lots of great info for present and future uses! Everything from routing your own track to landscaping to you name it!! :thumbsup:

The "Darkside?" So we're the darkside? How did that happen? I thought that diecast were the "darkside." After all we can use "the force." The electro-magnetic force.

Actually the diecast guys are a pretty good group too;-)

For the several weeks this forum has been my bible as I try to catch up on what I have missed in HO since my last epiphany in Ron Esterline's garage as a punk kid trying to keep up with real racers.

It seemed to me that somewhere in the land of the web and the multitude of links I have gathered and viewed that there was a place that made sense of the time lines and transfer of property.

I need someplace to go that can help me better understand the differences between various cars and manufacturers. Like what is the difference between a non-mag AFX (last car I ran) and a X-Traction AW? And where does Johnny Lighting fit in?

I have to say that the people in this forum are great. Most forums have more than 3X egos than they needs. Egos around here are like ghosts.

Did you use to race with Tom Bowman?

Roger Corrie

I was visiting my Grandparents for Indy '72. I was just a dumb kid from Texas. I called Ron up from a listing I had seen in one of the slot car magazines. He said to come on over and he would show me what they were doing. I put my best cheesy modified car on his track and he smoked me. He then proceeded to go through my pit box that I had taken with me and found an A/FX car that I wasn't really running much. He practically built the car for me. At the time he was using a brass hand built floppy pan like the Super II. He sold me a lexan body and told me to go get some Super II magnets at the local hobby shop. I showed back up at his house for a race a few days later. Of course I still got smoked. I was in awe of the other racers.

I think that they felt sorry for me and gave some loot anyway. They said they liked the paint job on the car. What a great experience and I had a great time. Went back to SA TX and smoked everybody in the neighborhood. Nobody wanted to race on my track anymore and that's how the hobby died for me.

I wish there was an icon with a tear. Now go get your tissues.

There's hope for you ohno50.
There's going to be a huge swap meet in Dallas, TX. on March 7th.
It's going to be held at Dallas Slot Cars! So bring all you got: HO, 32nd, 24th, 43rd....
More info at www.dallasslotcars.com
Rich :thumbsup:

There is > :cry:

There's hope for you ohno50.
There's going to be a huge swap meet in Dallas, TX. on March 7th.
It's going to be held at Dallas Slot Cars! So bring all you got: HO, 32nd, 24th, 43rd....
More info at www.dallasslotcars.com
Rich :thumbsup:

I am planning on coming. There is one possible conflict. Won't know for a week of so.

I could fit what I got in my shirt pocket-practically. Which is one of the reasons I would like to attend.

There is > :cry:

Of course I only looked at the ones at the bottom. I'll be sure to add it with my next sob story.

For the several weeks this forum has been my bible as I try to catch up on what I have missed in HO since my last epiphany in Ron Esterline's garage as a punk kid trying to keep up with real racers.

It seemed to me that somewhere in the land of the web and the multitude of links I have gathered and viewed that there was a place that made sense of the time lines and transfer of property.

I need someplace to go that can help me better understand the differences between various cars and manufacturers. Like what is the difference between a non-mag AFX (last car I ran) and a X-Traction AW? And where does Johnny Lighting fit in?

I have to say that the people in this forum are great. Most forums have more than 3X egos than they needs. Egos around here are like ghosts.

Amen. This is a GREAT community of hobbyists, and all friendly... to each other and newcomers. Thanks for the thread, ohno... for folks like you and I, to get this information refreshed to us is extremely helpful.

Looking forward to the Superbowl Sunday show next week (LI). I will put my name on a nametag and hopefully run into some of you...