Poor Boy's Race Track by Matchbox Motorway
Matchbox put this set out back in the 60's.I discovered these sets a couple of years ago and have been looking for a decent one .Finally found one and hope to update it with better power and controllers.Should be here in a couple of days .We hope to document the restoring of the set and get a few videos of it running.The set looks like a slot car set,but is designed to run die cast cars on.Has a slot that a spring runs thru.The cars then have an added pin to the chassis and you can race your collection.I plan on using this as a working display to show off some of our earlier Hot Wheels.I know that the bread and butter of RLD is down hill racing,but this should be fun.I'm a 58 year old kid that always wanted to run his Hot Wheels on a track...Stay tuned.You may want to check out some of the you-tube videos..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI9zyhs7u8s&t=43s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7mvgmy44G4
Rusty H
Discussion
Well we got the set in.Repaired the box.Made a table.Cleaned up the slot channel with 50% alcohol ,fixed some wires ,cleaned the track , oiled every thing up ,straighten some springs and added a clip to one,and greased the gears.I still plan on adding borders and guard rails.But hey the Poorboy's Race Track is working.This is already fun.Yes a tad loud but not as bad as I thought it would be..Cool to see a die cast car racing around the track..
Rusty
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So the Motorway just made use of normal off-the-shelf Matchbox cars? So you could use your existing collection to make them "motorized" and race? Nifty idea...
- Yes sir,just tape a pin onto the bottom of the cars and away you go.. — Rusty
- Cool. Not great for racing per se but fun all the same to see cars going around. My kid would love it. — redlinederby
- Well That is true,but one can race one car against another like slot cars..But more fun to see several run.. — Rusty
This thing is fun.Neat to see die cast cars sliding sideways thru the curves..The set has a limited supply of pins and the old tape is dried up.We have found that thumb tacks will work for an average height car.We are also using the chrome tape used for duck work.Works great..
Rusty H
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I had one of these as a boy, I am nearly 66 now, live in the UK and it was a lot of fun back then. However I used my old Matchbox cars with the metal wheels so never got any decent performance, it was called Matchbox Motorway and in the UK a motorway is simply a Highway not a race track. Great idea to use Hot Wheels and try for some racing takes it to another level
I had one of these... not alot of fun for a kid when his friends had slot tracks. Was kinda cool on its own but could not compete with the Aurora tracks for fun. But it is a great bit of nostalgia! Thanks for sharing!
From 1966 Sears Christmas catalog... every kids dreams were in that catalog!
Very cool. Have fun on that journey, should be a lot of fun and rewarding.