Identity of this chassis and car

[mattb]

Anybody know the maker of this chassis and the cars in this range? Late Aurora 1/32? More pix in a followup post.
MSC858.jpgMSC860-B.jpgMSC859.jpg

[mattb]

MSC862.jpgMSC860.jpgMSC859.jpgMore of the 1/32 pix.

[dreinecke]

All Aurora chassis. The Lambo is a model, the green M6 looks like a toy. The Gulf colored Mirage - I'd take that off your hands - last of the Aurora repops I want to do!

[mattb]

Thanks Dave. Those are not my cars, I was only consulted to see if I could help identify. I relayed info about you and possibly casting the Mirage to the owner.

[chrisguyw]

Hi Matt, The orange McLaren M12, and the Blue mirage #20 are both Aurora cars from their original 1/32 release. These are the keepers in the lot, and they are worth a few bucks.....particularly the Mirage, as you don't see many, and fewer that are in really good shape.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[chappyman66]

Yup, the orange McLaren is often seen in the company of the Ferrari 612 which for some time was the only model of that car.
The Lambo looks like the Monogram snap tite body missing the rear wing.
Not sure about the green (T70?) one. Maybe something like a Zee friction toy body. Their Chaparral is oversize too.
The Mirage....now that's rare and cool. I have never seen one in person, but would like to if it ever gets repopped......

[mattb]

Thanks guys, I think that is all the info I need. I made it known that there is interest here for the Mirage. If I can work something out to get it, I will and it can be cast by one of you. I'll do my best.

[RichD]

It looks like Aurora had several types of 1/32nd scale cars, some of them were made by K&B and were smaller versions of their 1/24th cars. Those were sold in '66-'67. These use a different chassis and motor that I had never seen before. The only familiar thing is the pickup shoes, which are the type used on their O scale cars. The orange McLaren was sold in '70-'71.

[mattb]

The original A-Jets were the K&B/Aurora products for the 1/32 market back in 65. Not real sophisticated by todays standards, but they were good reliable cars and not at all like the plastic junk sold today. The A-Jets used standard slot car parts and would run on any regular slot car track. The wide rail stuff (like the pictures) was released later in the 70's/80's, I'm not sure when. I have no reference material that shows them. I am not sure why Aurora decided to reinvent the 1/32 slot car design. The wide rail must have sold in very small numbers and there is not much of it around today. Since the company allready had a nice track designed and manufactured, the new design seems like some stupid management decision.

I have some A-Jet track and am setting up a track for a Christmas gift for a grandson this year. It is nice with a deep slot, same width as Monogram and Revell. Good fit and good connections.

An interesting side note about the later wide rail track. It was among the stuff that was to be sold in the big Aurora tent sale at REH back in the summer. I guess there was a truckload of it. It was all the Aurora stuff they offloaded to REH. If anybody remembers the flyer for that sale, track was $3 or so for a box of curves and $4 for a box of straights. A case was priced under $25. The sale was cancelled and a big Aurora collector bought everything. He told me he threw away all the track as he had zero response from anybody wanting to buy some of that track.

[RichD]

I had an Aurora/K&B Ford GT back in '65 and it was fast enough to run on a 220 foot commercial track.