$4.19

The price sticker adhered to the plastic case is more red than orange. The case is comprised of a black base to which the car is securely attached and a clear plastic top which showcases the beauty of this object of my affection; at my age then, nothing captured my imagination more.

I’m not certain how old I was at the time I was scoping out this car. Let’s see what I can remember: it was before Magna-traction, a new chassis design that utilized the already existing magnets in the rotor by exposing them through cutouts so the cars would ‘cling’ to the tracks better (when Magna-traction came along, the cars jumped in price to $4.55 - a virtual king’s ransom!); it must have been after my best friend Stephen clued me into the King - that is, Richard Petty; and I had been into AFX slot cars for a little while already. It was the early ‘70s.

The little beauty caught my attention at a store called the Palace of Sporting Goods, which was located on Chestnut Avenue, within walking distance from my house. There was one summer when I would walk daily with my cousin Darryl to our favorite stores along an old section of Clayton Road: first to Top Notch Variety; then sometimes to Iron Horse Hobbies, whose owner wasn’t too fond of us kids walking into his store until we were a bit older; and finally across Chestnut to the Palace of Sporting Goods. I never did know why a sporting goods store would sell slot cars, but there they were inside the glass case that was set in the middle of the floor.

The one I was eyeing was perfect: it was the Plymouth Road Runner model, with the number 43 on it... naturally, it was Richard Petty’s car! The colors were blue and red, and although a race car fan would assume it had to be those two colors (or all blue), I’d seen photos in my prized AFX catalog that showed the same #43 Road Runner model in the colors yellow and orange... yellow and orange? Gross!

So I remember looking and admiring this car day after day until I summoned the courage to buy it - courage probably being measured in dollars and cents. I was thrilled with what turned out to be one of my lifelong prized possessions. And to better mimic Richard Petty’s race car, I applied two small ‘STP’ decals from a stash of decals I’d collected from old plastic modeling kits that fit perfectly on the rear fenders of each side.

I wonder now what would have been the effect had somebody else bought this slot car while I was hesitating for so long to buy it myself? Maybe I simply wasn’t thinking of that as a possibility. Or the $4.19 was a lot of money and I was looking for an excuse not to spend it. In the end though, when I was ready to buy it, there it was sitting in the case waiting for me.

Sure, there were the Sizzlers (other cool electric toy cars) that I loved playing with; there were the SSPs that were fun - the fastest car in the neighborhood was the purple Laker Special I had bought for my brother one year as a gift; and the usual Hot Wheels; but my favorites were my AFX slot cars. I can still picture the celebrity race drivers that endorsed Aurora AFX slot car racing: A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, and Jackie Stewart. I spent hours sketching how I would put together my pieces of track when I tired of my current layout, always trying to make it evenly divided for each of the two lanes or ‘slots.’ Being on the outside lane was actually faster because you could hug the rail and not wipeout as was so easy to do on the inside lane.

I have my cars still, all kept in the blue colored plastic tackle box I bought so many years ago. I don’t remember where I first read it, but it was recommended that the best way to store and carry slot cars was in a tackle box, the kind used for fishing. Shopping around for one took some time too - it had to be just right. The metal ones were sturdier, but clanky and heavy, so I knew that plastic would be better. Some boxes were naturally too expensive, besides being too garish and fancy anyway. I wanted a simple, clean design, and I found it. It’s medium blue, with a white handle on top, and two white trays inside. And they were right, the trays are divided at the perfect width to hold AFX cars.

There was also the plastic white latch in the front - what to do with that? Oh yeah, it needed a sticker! Which sticker? Do I put on an A’s sticker or a Giants sticker? In the end, I went with the Giants.

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I wrote the above for a writing class I am taking. I got some very nice comments and suggestions for edits, many of which I made. Thanks to my instructor and classmates! I took photographs so readers can see my prized #43 Plymouth Road Runner, as well as my other AFX cars and the case I keep them in. Regular readers might remember that I wrote a musing about this subject awhile ago.

Sharp-eyed observers will see that I have a G-Plus car in my collection. And yes, I used to switch out chassis and shells all the time, so I don't know anymore just which chassis originally came with my Richard Petty car. As one might have noticed, the chassis I have with my Road Runner right now has a couple of extra welds which came with a special model that originally sported 'headlights.'