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Just thought id get a little thread going on the age of young slotters.
On the weekend , my grand kids were down , with mom and dad of course.
The eldest is 4 the other is 2 , both boys.
Anyway even at 2 the sight of the track and cars was a mesmerizing time for the youngest. Even mom came down. Of course ,y daughter has races with me since here early teens, now mid thirties. So Joseph decided he didnt need Poppas help and ran my Camaro , 1 off and i said you need to slow down on the corners, half hour later no other offs and he and mom were now doing battle in the Artin Stockers.
Meanwhile my namesake Robert not quite yet 2 was on my lap holding the controller with 2 hands Running the White TA Camaro, i had a finger behind the trigger to limit the speed , i could feel him squeezing and releasing the trigger. Not one off in a half hour.
He followed his car with his eyes and eased up on the corners, but really squeezed on the straights , i know if my finger wasnt there he would have been too quick into,the corners. We were all laughing so hard , my son in .aw came down to see what was going on. This all transpired on Monday a holiday we have called family day here in Ontario. What a blast we had full of fun and i was amazed at what Joseph and Robert were doing. The voltage was not reduced, still at 10.5 so it was even more amazing.
What a great family day. So at What age do they start ? Good question .
All the best
Bob

Absolutely nothing wrong with them racing at that age. My grandson raced with me when he was 3. A couple offs and he had the hang of the Artin Mercedes. He is 6 now and can do much better.

The kids are a challenge, they can get fast pretty quick if they have the concentration!

Very well done!

IMHO the little ones rather enjoy anything as long as you are with them. They just want to play and don't have much preference as long as you are playing along with them.

Raised 4 around these old tracks and now have 3 younger grand kids. All of them enjoy it and like to race with "Papaw" any chance they get.

My oldest son has interest in the hobby but he has his taste in miniature. He has an eye for the scale RC, but enjoys building and racing a slot car now and then.

They may not care much at first, but it stays with them over the years. It's priceless times.

I started when I was 43. I'm now 57. Still got a ways to go...

I started out with an Eldon track with only two lanes. My eldest grandsons were interested in it and I wanted to play too so I made a three lane wood track only to have the my Daughters and son-in-laws got busy so I'm still on the side line.

This gang started at 3-5 years old where myself started at 10.

Harry has touched on a very important part of promoting the hobby with the young ones. Its playing with Pawpaw that makes the magic happen. When the kids get a hug from Pawpaw for their excitement about running cars, there is a very powerful magic at work.

I started at about 8 with an Eldon set. My Grand Daughter though has been interested since she was about 18 months old. I give her a Magnet car and she has grasped the concept of pressing the trigger makes the car go. I won't call her a racer just yet.

Cheers


Dan

I think children should not be introduced to slot racing until they have front teeth. Otherwise, their smile is really goofy looking and they will be embarrassed when they get older and see their pictures. My grandson started at about 2 years old. He held the Professor Motor controller backwards and used his thumb to squeeze the trigger. He had a big smile all the time , except when he crashed the car. Then he stopped smiling and just giggled.

Strombecker, Age 11... Same year my dad bought that brand new MGA and the family started going to Dunkirk, Watkins Glen, and Mosport with the South Towns Motor Club.

Guys
These little ones are so into having fun, when I picked up a new set with the Camaro & the Mustang (HO set), we set it up on the dinning room table with all the leafs in like at Thanksgiving dinner.
they couldn't wait to get the controllers in there little hands. :music-rockout: :music-rockout:
We were running the AFX TOMY Mega G Cars on the lowest setting, the little lady took to racing like a duck to water she was having a blast. :auto-driving:
The other day she wanted to know when she was going to get her pit box for her cars. :o
Guys take the time to work with these little wonders they will have good memories and you will to.
Believe it or not I can still remember the first model car my Wonderful :auto-checkeredflag: DAD and I built, it was a 55 Chevy.
I painted it a ugly dark green color, it wasn't my best work but he let me do it all by myself, he kept it in his work shop forever until I was a teenager then I got rid of it one day, he wasn't to happy with me but I didn't want any of my friends seeing it, if I was to bring it up now he'd remember it and he's 87 now, (can you say memories)
Sorry for the long post. :violin:

bigman :flags-waveusa:

About 5 years old.

Adding this photo that I drew when I was about 6 years old. It's the Revell track that my Uncle Rob and I used to race on when i was a kid.

Mr. K, you da man. that's excellent.
you've gotta be from my generation, or close to it anyway.
looks like F1's, too!
speed

well, Doc, I'm in my 60's, so I've got about 20 years on you.
that's still a good drawing.

good luck with the move!
will we see a new section on the eventual rebuild?