I've got one of these race tracks complete with 2 cars...I picked it up at a local auction about 6 years ago. I have never set it up but think the cars are working. Neat demonstration and thanks for sharing.
I had this when I was young,it was my favorite toy of all-time! I did not have my Dad, I remember my Mom had a neck of a time of putting it together......well, I guess you can tell I wasn't a baby doll kid,.....LoL
I also had one of these tracks when I was a kid. The trouble was that the wire spring could easily get over wound and the car would break - common with those types of mechanisms. The "red thing" on the bottom of the cars, could be placed left or right and guided the cars to the appropriate lane to count the laps. You could by additional cars, but the product wasn't in the stores for very long. Eventually Hotwheels came out with rechargeable electric cars, but I never had a chance to try them out on my track.
I played with this set every chance I could. I had 6 cars (including both shown). Hurt myself a few times taking them apart to fix the spring. As in the video with the purple car, that spring needs to be rewound. Doable, potentially hazardous. Best racing set ever
I had this toy as a kid, it was great fun. You're missing a few pieces. My track set had 4 turns. Starting from the "pit" section, was 90 left, then a straight, then a 180 left, then a 90 right, then a 180 left and back on to the pit straight. Track was shaped like a big L. In your other video, you have some diagonal yellow pieces. Those were used in the 180 left->90 right->180 left at the end of turns to kick the car into the next (opposite direction) turn. The biggest piece you're missing is a splitter. One car would put the bottom tab on the right side, one on the left side. On the "pit" section, the first track section was the spiltter that would divert the respective car to the right or left. Then through the lap counter, then through the brake section. The player had to press the air compressor handle at just the right time to allow the car to proceeded through the brake section without slowing. If you didn't time it just right, the car would slow down (and you'd lose the race). After about 8-10 laps you'd need to grab the car and rewind the spring to keep going. One big comment is don't left the drive wheels spin freely. That can cause the spring to over move and break/bend the spring and damage the car.
The red pin that go under the cars determine which side of the track the car will bias. A straight section of track has grooves that catch the pin and direct the car left or right depending on which side of the car you insert it in. It's also required to click the lap counter. The instructions say to not wind the car anymore than 6 strokes of the large winder. One of the reasons this set was only made for a few years is that kids would bust the crap out of the cars. Track was flimsy too.
The smaller winder (the one he called a "hand-winder") came with the additional cars you could buy separately, so those two cars may not be the originals that came with the set. The mainsprings in the cars broke after a lot of use and rendered the cars useless. I had one of these sets and went through a bunch of cars. At one point I had four or six running at the same time. They generated so much centrifugal force that the track would scoot across the floor as the cars went through the turns. The air brake things were there to allow the kids to have input into what was going on. You had to squeeze that bladder at just the right time as your car passed by or it would slow down. I raced mine so much I broke some of the pegs off of the lap counter wheels, so I took it and the air brake off, replaced it with one of the straight sections and just let them run. Still my favorite race track set. I wish I knew where it ended up.
I am looking for a toy race set that came out in the late 60's and was different. It was a one piece track that blew out air and the cars were made of Styrofoam and they ran around the track. Does anyone know the name of this race set?
