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The 2nd part of the video is what got me thinking. does anybody now what the steering wheels were for?

you had to turn them the correct direction for the car to continue on

Well that would sure throw a monkey wrench into the mix. make you think if that was the way we still had to run our cars today

I believe there was some kind of deal that if the steering wheel wasn't turned at the right time, the cars slowed down. I'm sure somebody will post some info from personal experience.

Did they have foot pedals as well?

Oops, I guess I missed the video that answers that one.

If I'm not mistaken that was in England during the 60's.And you had to turn the steering wheels to guide the car.

Frankly, I find it refreshing to see that I am not the only one who requires all racers to wear a suit and tie. So many slot car enthusiasts wear crappy blue jeans and lousy t-shirts, it is embarrassing. It is time that more people give slot racing the respect it deserves and present themselves with a little more pride. It is called slot racing, not slob racing. BTW, I have proven time and again that if you wear a suit and tie while driving, your lap time will improve by about half a second over your best times when wearing blue jeans. Khakis and a nice sport shirt will improve your time by about a third of a second. When I started this rule everyone thought I was crazy, but as their times improved, instantly, they too became believers. We are considering renting tuxedos to hold our championship derby so we can wring the fastest times possible out of the wee cars.

I can remember when I was young, there was a vendor that had one of these tracks at the Carl Casper Custom Auto Show each year. It was a tough drive, but the owner always made it look so easy to drag the kids in for the coins.

My family and I were in a commercial for Tiny Tim's Raceway in the mid 60's. (Actually saw it at the Oak Drive-in) It was a family affair back then. When the commercial was filmed we were told to use the steering wheel track for the ad. It was more expensive so we never raced on it. It was a treat for me but to a young boy using a steering wheel and gas pedal lasted just past the 1st turn before I came off. You see me in the commercial just sitting there hoping someone will put me back on..Never happened.. :lol:

To answer the question though, turning the steering wheel to match the curve kept the car going at speed. If your input was too much or too little the car slowed. Never went back to that track, way to much to think about.

Nice memories.. :banana-dance:

Dave

I raced on one of those back in the middle 60's. the steering wheel had three positions and controlled the power to the straight sections, left and right turns so you had to turn the wheel to keep power to the car. there was a foot pedal for the speed control. it didn't last long before they did away with all that and just went to hand controllers. all the tracks I saw were large, either King tracks (like the one in the vid) or Monarchs, like one I saw in Florida that had also been converted.
Richie down at Modelville still has a couple of the steering wheels stands I think.
speedy