I’m always on the look out for vintage slot car items that are “mostly” intact for the Speed Inc Retro Review articles. While on vacation, my wife and I stopped at a few antique shops and I stumbled across what looked like a really nice Eldon Race Set box. Now I stay somewhat reserved when i see something that looks good, as the box could be empty or missing the cars or key parts that make the set unique. But not so this time! This was literally a time capsule with not only everything from the set being present, but in really good condition. So with some minor negotiation, the set was mine and heading back with us our journey home. So when I say everything was in really good condition, we have to remember, this race set is from 1968 and some things have aged (like the tires), but the track, controllers, power pack and the cars in general were complete and just needed some clean up. Oh, and some replacement tires!
So I did a little digging and found a similar Eldon Race Set in the Sear’s Christmas Wish Book and it sold for $24.99 USD back in 1968. From what I can find, the set was available in stores as well and carried over through 1970. I imagine this item filled a number of Santa lists back in the day and seeing one of these Christmas morning was something you did not forget. Let’s see what comes in the box.
Now to be fair, this is what I saw when I opened the box from the antique store. I’m sure it was more neatly arranged when new.
But here’s the contents all laid out and it was all here. So I won’t cover the cleaning process, but that was the next step before I started assembling the layout.
Even the paperwork survived. The instruction flyer and parts list was a rarity to find in itself. This set included walled-banked turns and a decent amount of track. You got a lot of racing action in this little box.
The Eldon track assembles with a hinge type connection. You hold the pieces at a slight angle, push them together and let them lay flat with a click. That said, this did bring back memories of the how the track will separate after some racing activity as the cars push and pull the track connections with use. Nothing major, but it does happen. This is the first set I remember having quick plug-ins for the controllers, but you still manually attach the power pack wires at the terminal track.
When I was a kid, I thought these controllers were so cool with the “speedometer” set in the top. As you pull back on the trigger, the needle points to the “speed” you were moving. It was also a great distraction causing plenty of wrecks because you were watching the speedometer and not the car!
Let’s take a look at the cars. The set came with two GT prototype style racers in the Ferrari P3 and the Porsche Carrera 6. Both cars were in fairly good shape only needing a good cleaning and replacing the tires. I eventually replaced the pick up braid as well, just to get everything tuned up and running at its best.
Eldon Ferrari P3 Coupe
Eldon Porsche Carrera 6 Coupe
The layout of this track provides for a lot of racing action. With the walled banked curves and multi-level bridges and underpasses, you have a lot challenges to keep the racing interesting. It brought back some fun memories racing on my friend’s track and getting some racing action in another scale beyond the HO scale set I had.