There has been an “Urban Legend” making the rounds for many years concerning AMF’s (American Machine & Foundry) involvement in commercial slot car (model car) racing.
The debate over the facts has been hotly debated between historians and those remaining devotees of model car racing.
Some claiming that AMF purchased track manufacturer and franchised raceway orchestrator American Model Racing Congress simply to torpedo the hobby because it was threatening… bowling.
What’s the real story? Can you shed any light on this sordid affair?
I remember when I was a kid, there was a slot car track in my town, housed in the old pool hall. It had a huge track with banked curves, etc. You can’t get that at home without lots of money and space. The slot cars I had were the bigger ones, and I don’t recall there even being home tracks for them. God, I can still remember the smell.
Anyway, it just seemed to die out; I had no idea bowling had anything to do with it. My guess is that more entertaining forms of entertainment came along and the market took care of it.
Sounds like a company whose core product was hobby/leisure just expanding to diversify a little. Can’t bet all your money on one hobby/leisure, so spread it out.
I think AMF ruined a few companies along the way, such as Harley Davidson and a boat manufacturer or two, so maybe they wanted people bowling instead of riding their Harley or fishing on weekends…
Kids were not real big on bowling back then that I recall.
Sure the tracks and cars were bigger for slot cars but remember Mom and Dad had to pay for the races and the home tracks were not that expensive to buy. I got a slot car for Christmas around 65 or 66 but I think it died out pretty soon after that. We moved in 67 and I don’t think I went to a track after that - but maybe there were none near our new house.
Hold on there, slot car racing is actually far from dead - indeed even here on Long Island there are a number of slot car racing venues (hopefully this fairly recent Newsday article is accessable).
While slot car racing is not especially my thing, I like model vehicles and dioramas in general, and so keep it in mind - a number of years back (perhaps over a decade now) I was walking around downtown Glen Cove and saw a store front slot car race venue (the store was longer front to back, and so the tracks were oriented that way). Later on, I saw another one a few years back on the south shore - I think these guys rent an empty storefront for a fixed period (God knows we have plenty of empty retail space around Long Island), set up some modular tracks, run races over a period of months (often in conjunction w/ Birthday parties and the like), and then move on.
The Willis Hobby venue in Mineola (in the basement level of a large Hobby Shop), however, has been around for many years, and is pretty popular.
The number of Bowling alleys around here has declined over the past decade, so that’s not really booming either.
AMF had a bunch of recreation-oriented businesses, including Roadmaster bikes. They almost ruined them all through incompetent management, so I don’t think slot-car racing was particularly targeted or bowling was particularly favored.
Which was my point. They ran their share of good companies into the ground, and it was unlikely to be an attempt to boost bowling and/or ruin save slot cars venues.