During the early days of Scalextric there were few clubs in the country, but most were inevitably in England, and organised with huge tracks. Not necessary deemed as a kids toy but more an enjoyable substitute for true motor racing, these tracks gave enthusiasts the chance to race like their motor sport heroes, drivers such as Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, Jo Bonnier, Dan Gurney, Jackie Stewart, Colin Chapman, Jack Brabham have all "had a go" and of course Jim Clark, who endorsed Scalextric in 1962. It is said that John Lennon was a particularly keen enthusiast. As we have said most clubs were organised south of the border, but locally there was soon to be at least one club prepared to look for interested parties in Scotland and to help these enthusiasts competitively race on a large track.
The first Dundee Slot Car Club was set up in 1964 by Alastair Macdonald, following a full-page advertisement in a local newspaper looking for like-minded interested people. It started off with a Scalextric layout being set up on the living room floor, and progressed to a venue situated in Burnside Street, Lochee. The venue was contained within a building used as a learners dance school, above a taxi cab office.
The pictures above show the 1964 club, with the left hand picture illustrating the track, and the right one showing some of the members. (from right to left, unknown, unknown, Derek Mollison, Alastair Macdonald, Les Macdonald, Christine ?, unknown) Any additional information on members in the picture or the club asit was then, would be greatly appreciated. Les Mollison was the mainstay of the club, and was a toolmaker by profession employed by the NCR in Dundee. Later Les went on into having an interest in Model Boats and radio controlled models etc.
In those days the magazine for the enthusiastic modeller was "Model Maker" which covered model boat engineer and cars, plus,new for the time, model car rail racing. With the subsequent growth in popularity of this form of racing the magazine changed to " Model Maker & Model Cars". These were the days of Eldi wheels, tyres and Scalextric and all other kinds of electric motors and home made controllers.
The first track the club constructed seems to have been based on articles from these publications. This was in the heyday of model rail car racing which used an actual live rail above the track. The guides and pick up for the powered sat over the track. There were then solid brass rails which were fitted into brackets, something along the lines of model railways, which provided you with a flat slot racing pick up using brass, which was easily bent to form the required contours. All this was then screwed to a ready made wooden hardboard track which was then filled with cement. This was then smoothed over to resemble a road surface. Very permanent. This was used for a while, but when the club wanted a table level version they graduated to using different materials. Hardboard track with slots cut into it and copper tape stuck down for the pick ups was used with all the major clubs in England, along with a good quality masonry paint to give it a road stoneish effect which was good with fast tracks was therefore adopted. This method is still used today by many clubs throughout the world.
The magazine separated into individual publications, "Model Cars" and Model Boats" "Model Engineering" etc, and started to get, and started to get commercialised. The club found it hard to encourage new members, and apart from the original members, few others joined, but came and went through the years until the club eventually disbanded.
In 1996 the club was resurrected by a local businessman, Roy Butchart, and again started from simple beginnings in the front room of his house. After a while the club gained access to premises and operated from the Charleston Community Centre before moving to its current venue within Stobswell Parish Church Halls in Albert Street, Dundee.
Over the years we have attended local exhibitions and providing corporate evenings for local businesses. Our current track, built in 2003, consists of a foldable 16 feet by 12 feet base board with 74 track feet of varied Scalextric track (Plexi and Sport). It is 4 lane computer controlled and with a current lap record of 4.5 seconds. The pictures below show layout of our track and the setting up process.
My thanks to Mr. A. Macdonald for the historical information which makes this article possible.
If you have tales or information on the original club in Dundee, or even slot cars in Dundee in general please e-mail us via our enquiries and contact page. We would love to hear from you.
I am particularly interested in any photographs of Dundee slot car tracks from the past, particularly at Barnetts and any Secondary Schools.
Phil Hall
Club Secretary
Dundee Slot Car Club
