RARE FIAT ABARTH PP-142 SELLS FOR £133-70!

Here is the Holy Grail of Powertrack cars, the quite excellent and exceedingly rare Fiat 131, PP-142 produced for Powertrack Plus.

It has appeared on ebay and has 6 days left to run at the time of writing. Bidding is currently £21 but I expect this to reach a price that will define the maximum for a Powertrack car.

There has been some curious bidding activity - noticably, Saabs are becoming a little passe, and not reaching the £30-£40 figures of last year.

The Yellow Escort was very exciting as within about two weeks five cars appeared and all went for very hefty prices - the highest going for close to £60.

Bidding is no indication of true worth though, as some bargains can be had; while other cars - most notably the red Escort - get revered as being rare when actually it was very common on both sides of the Atlantic.

Get bidding on the Fiat though - its very tatty but could well be a hens tooth...lol!


LATEST UPDATE! THIS CAR SOLD FOR £133-70 ($260!!) 8 people bid 24 times to win this. This is more than the second recent sale, that of the Saab 900 PP-139.
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TRACK FOCUS 2: CURVED TRACK

The curve track for Speedtrack consisted of a standard 9" Curve that bent through ninety degrees. These could create both right and left turns easy enough. The more expensive sets also employed the forty-five degree curve, which was exactly half the regular curve.


With the introduction of PT-8000 (the four lane system), Matchbox designed a new curve, the 12" Curve, which bent through forty five degrees only.

Two 12" Curves could run around the outside of a standard 9" curve.


The 12" curve was available in the USA but it was never included in any of the sets, and a four lane version of PT-8000 never materialised in the USA.


SPEEDTRACK:

14-37-21 1 Pair 9" Curve 90 deg. (With crash barrier)

14-37-71 1 Pair 9" Curve 45 deg.

14-37-70 1 Pair 12" Curve 45 deg.


POWERTRACK:

PT-202 1 Pair 9" Curve 90 deg. (With crash barrier)

PT-205 1 Pair 9" Curve 45 deg.

PT-214 1 Pair 12" Curve 45 deg.


POWERTRACK PLUS:

PP-202 1 Pair 9" Curve 90 deg. (With crash barrier)

PP-205 1 Pair 9" Curve 45 deg.

PP-214 1 Pair 12" Curve 45 deg.

TRACK FOCUS 1: STRAIGHT TRACK

The track supplied with Speedtrack, Powertrack and Powertrack Plus was exactly the same. As slot racing goes, the track was very well made and very good qulaity, though it is fair to say some aspects of the track connection have succumbed to time - but that said, generally the track is durable and easy to keep clean.

The Straight sections were available in the following lengths:

SPEEDTRACK:

14-37-20 Straight 9"

14-37-22 Straight 6"

14-37-72 Straight 15"

POWERTRACK:

PT-201 Straight 9"

PT-204 Straight 6"

PT-206 Straight 15"

POWERTRACK PLUS:

PP-201 Straight 9"

PP-204 Straight 6"

PP-206 Straight 15"

OLDSMOBILE UPDATE...

Okay, regular readers will no doubt be keen to see how Craig is progressing with his Oldsmobile project...

The answer is - very well...

Erm...very well indeed! Still no word on delivery but isn't it a corker? I'm not a fan of blacked out wheels but this really works - a real Darth Vader stealth special. I can hardly wait!

But hey? What's this? It's a godamn Lancia Stratos man! Is Craig just teasing me?? Watch this space...

COPTER CHASE SURFACES AT LAST...

A big thanks to Matchbox Stalwart, Mike who tipped me off about this US ebay sale. It is - finally - photographic proof that the Copter Chase set existed although Mike in fairness has stated previously he has seen tired examples on ebay at least twice now.

This particular set sold for over £70 excluding postage. That is serious money considering its not a great example. The box content looks decidedly sparse with regard to the track but the vendor states the cars are still boxed.

Evidently, the helicopter chassis is boxed, but the bodyshell of the copter and the rotors are supplied separately. This set appears complete though, with the copter body moulded in silver (see contents photo top left).

Now, Mike at Slotzpartz contacted me too, to say he has a mint example of the Copter Chase set. He maintains the copter body is very lightweight but the armature connecting it to the powered chassis is vulnerable. Apparently, the copter could be rasied and lowered on its arm by activating the U-turn button on the handcontroller. The Helicopter and it's chassis were not able to perform U-turns.

One final highlight of this set was a drop down 'road block' barrier. This was activated by U-turning the Van or the Police car into a trackside fire hydrant. Knocking that would twitch a connecting rod and deploy the barrier. Clever stuff and thanks to both Mikes for letting us know more about this intriguing set.

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As for the winner of this item, I hope they find it complete and maybe they'll drop me a line to let me know what they think of it...

MY LAYOUT - PART 1.

I have been asked how to buy a Powertrack set. It's a logical question and the best way to answer it I suppose is to give you a brief history of how I got started - both first time in 1979 and the second time - erm, 2007!





Christmas '79 was a big push for Matchbox and Race & Chase was the toy for Christmas. I was ten and very much in the target audience. Father Christmas knew it too (god bless him) and got one down our Chimney.



I have to say it was a load of fun and never let me down. Totally reliable it proved to be and it had a fair old play for about two years or so. Race & Chase, as an 'off the shelf' solution is a great set to start off with.





Come 1981 my interest was brought to boiling point with Powertrack Plus. Barely advertised, I stumbled across it in a Department Store and (I guess) wouldn't let my mother go home without it, coz (surprise surprise!), Father Christmas hit the bulls eye again...



That was my PP-9000 and easily the best toy I ever had. It has a rather kitcsh loop that was a bit gimmicky but in practice the whole thing worked a treat, I bought an 8x4 ft sheet of Chipboard and made a huge track - and added the track accesories and cars over the next couple of months.



By the end of that year I had moved off slot cars into radio control cars (Tamiya) and didn't give Powertrack another thought. Of course, much later I dug it out of a box with my Uni mates. I was amazed to find that although half of it had disappeared, what was left worked just as well as the last time I used it!



Anyway, away in the loft it went and it diminished through various house moves until only a few cars were left.

I put these on ebay last year (above) and they went for about £35. At the time, I thought that was excellent but I was surprised at the number of responses I was getting. Having not even looked at Powertrack on ebay I was somewhat surprised at how many other items were available.

Now, there is another aspect to this as my daughter, aged 4 (then) had a Mini Clubman racing set her Aunt had bought her. She loved it but it was a travesty - being neither precise or easy on the eye. It soon broke and my daughter was rather unhappy about it.

That's when I bid on a PT-2000. A small little layout for my daughters room that could be put on a board and slid away out of site when not in use. Including Postage it cost me £8.

It was very good and needed remarkably little work to get it going. The cars stuttered to begin with but soon got in their stride. That was it, I had to 'just buy a little bit more'.

So, we now have a large layout on a board in my study that folds down off the wall. It's 12v but there is not a single piece of stripey track to be seen. My original desire was to have banked curves but I ran out of room for those. I also junked the accesories I planned to use too, the Y junctions and the cross overs. Only the 15" crossroad and the lap counter remain.

All told I bought and sold around 10 sets and acquired alot of good and bad track. I picked up a particularly nasty PT-4000 where every track had rusted through, but as the Renault supplied was the rare yellow/black version this was no hardship.

The layout is one of those projects I dabble in when I can be bothered. It also has my daughter's trainset on it so she makes me get it down quite often. I doubt it gets much attention but I have certainly enjoyed putting my collection together and I think I will make back all the money I spent acquiring the parts if I come to sell it on someday.

After rambling on I realise its probably worth me doing a proper buyers guide instead? I'll add it to the list...

RARE CHANCE TO ACQUIRE THE 1000...

I'm not in the habit of trying to promote peoples ebay items but I must pass comment on this because it doesn't come up too often.

The Speedtrack Grand Prix 1000 was the largest of all the Powertrack sets. This set stands out because it is a 1977 set and seems in pretty fair condition for its age. 1978 versions had four cars but this set has the ever present Porsche 911 & Corvette duo.

The cars are in beautiful condition and are the very rare white wheeled examples. The Corvette even has the stripes on the doors.

There is a ton of track here and okay, while it's not brimming with features it will certainly be a good launchpad for someone to start Powertrack with. You may have to junk the electrics but I suspect without too much fettling this set is a bargain for around £10 + shipping.

BARRIER DREAM...

I find the standard Armco crash barriers supplied with Powertrack frustrating. Sure, they look good - much like a proper Armco, but the scale is rather large for my tastes.

When I was planning my layout I found that the standard items were going to be rather obtrusive in some key areas, and I really wanted to have brand names on both sides of the barrier.

So, I had some fun creating my own. This allowed me to use both existing 'period' brands and newer, more exciting brands that my daughter will be familiar with - a six year old has no concept of Jagermeister!

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I printed the logos out on label paper and then stuck them to Cardboard. It seemed to work well enough provided you pre-bend the cardboard before applying the sticker. A much better result came from using Plastic Card.

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Using three or four dabs of superglue it is possible to then stick the barrier to the side of the track. In use, these seem to work very well and resist the flying tails of my wayward Corvettes...

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The result is an excellent up to date crash barrier, with logos to suit your tastes and style.

I have four template sheets that I use and I mix and match from these. I have tons of work ahead in finishing my layout so it is all very much work in progress.

TYRED?

I was contacted last week by a chap called Mike. Mike runs Slotzpartz, who you may have seen on ebay a thousand times. Mike is a big TCR fan and has dabbled enthusiastically with Powertrack.



He stocks lots of parts for Powertrack and holds stock of various HO/OO parts that may work for Powertrack too. Of these, the most sought after items are tyres. The tyres supplied with Powertrack are excellent. The performance is superb and they are more than just a rubber compound.



However, I think it is fair to assume Matchbox hadn't envisaged a thirty year life for these sets so it's no surprise many tyres degrade and perish, depending on where they have been stored.



I have a variety of tyres and find some have turned oily and 'melt' onto the wheel, while others dry out and crack, depending on the compound.



I tried a variety of solutions but Slotzpartz have come up trumps with these 'pre-trimmed' tyres. To put them to the test I used the worst performer in my collection, the humble yellow Escort. The video shows what happens when the tyres harden and lose traction, the car skips and stutters but ultimately doesn't go anywhere.





Fitting the Slotzpartz tyres immediately remedies the problem.

The catch? Well, only one and that depends whether you're a racer or a 'Shelf Queen' King..



The width? Not sure why it isn't possible to cut these tyre full width but I'm guessing they come in finite sizes. It means that the tyres are slimmer than the wheels which looks ok for racing, but looks rather sad for display.



Of course, common sense prevails and surely the best thing here is to race the car with the Slotz tyres and if you're really passionate about it - (and I'm not!), refit the originals for display...

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY!

Ye-ha! The 30 year old hand painted Corvette turned up this morning and I'm dead chuffed with it! Sure, it looks a bit rustic but it actually looks very appealing in its orange and grey livery.

I was slightly surprised it was more matt than gloss in finish but I think it works well, gloss might have highlighted some less savoury aspects of the original Corvette moulding.

The car was painted '30 years ago' by a chap called Bob, who I suspect just liked Vettes (or else thought that Matchbox had done a piss-poor job of it!).

I thought I would photograph it duelling with the 12V Corvette which is close to being one of my favourite Powertrack cars - these cars are certainly striking. How could Matchbox have just painted them white? Grrr...

Respect the Vette...

CASTROL PORSCHE 936?

Perhaps I'm a day late for April Fool but this raised one bushy eyebrow the other night. Ebay continues to offload PT-4000 sets by the bucket load and this one was mildly curious because it has GTX written across the back of the Porsche 936.

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Now, I immediately assume that someone has put the Castrol GTX logo from the crash barrier on the back of the Porsche but I have a nagging doubt that I have seen this done before.

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I'm just slightly curious that maybe there was a version like this? Can anyone confirm or am I just kidding myself?

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Maybe I've fallen foul of my own April Fool's joke?

LANECHANGER MONZA UPDATE!

A big thank you to Darren Holl who (a while ago!) sent me his excellent Monza photos. The photos I added to my feature weren't the best but these are as close to Powertrack porn as I'm likely to get I suppose...

The great thing here is that the Monza 'Number 1' at the top is not lighted. I thought all LC cars were without lights but this proved not to be the case. In 1980 Matchbox introduced lights, but this was only for the UK and certainly not for the US RPS Lanechangers.

The Monza here come with painted green headlights but there are many US examples that have painted silver headlamps.

Monza 'Number 8' is the lighted example and it's slightly interesting that Matchbox changed the car number only... If anyone knows of any chassis upgrades on the 1980 LC cars please let me know.

Lastly is the uber-horny Yellow Monza with the lights. Its the UK LC-103 but hell, I just love the look of it! The photo at the top of this post shows the car in action with the BMW M1. How common were these lighted cars? Any information welcome, but thanks to Darren for these great pix.

THE NEW OLDS...

Not content to sit on his laurels (or have his time ruthlessly curtailed by DIY!) Craig has again come up with a new bodyshell.

This time its not a remould but a brand new shell, an Oldsmobile 442 no less. Now, although I am a car nut and drive an American car I confess to not knowing the difference between an Oldsmobile and a Snowmobile, but this shell clearly is a 70's muscle car of the Plymouth Barracuda/Dodge Charger mould(!)

My initial thoughts were that it looked large, but in fact is not any bigger than the Police car. The photo shows it oozes detail, it's excellent. No doubt about it Craig has got talent and it's all looking very promising for when he gets around to my Lancia Stratos...

Or any of the 2008 BTTC cars, or the Ferrari 2886GTO, the Porsche 956, the Audi R8, or the Bugatti Veyron, the Lambo Gallardo - the list is endless...

Update: Craig has informed me he has some plastic problems and is trying to source better quality resin at the moment. The Oldsmobile will debut very soon and I'll try to give a review as soon as its ready.

You may have also noticed his 'sub-standard' quality shells being offered for sale; Craig says they are fine but need some work to finish them and prepare them for paint. As some of you wish to do that he may as well sell them on - and why not? If you have any examples of modified shells or other Powertrack Lanechanger mods please let me know..

A COUPLE OF ODDITIES...

Well, I've been rather slack of late, mainly coz I have DIY tasks to attend to! Just got a small amount of time to bung this in, which I'm sure you all viewed on ebay too. I don't think its any sort of official Matchbox Product, just a standard TR with its decals removed.

However, it's a departure from the norm and worth a comment because it does look rather nice...



And also this, which I did a Buy It Now for. I don't quite know why I bid for it really, but it's a curious little item and I suppose I was rather drawn to it. The Corvette is not my most revered slotcar but I like the fact someone has customised it and attempted to make it a bit better than the original.



I am also keen to see how good a job was made here as I fully intend to decorate my remould shells too, so hopefully this should encourage me to get on with it...

More to come - including that track feature - but this blog is very much a winter project so please stick with it. Thanks for all your contributions and please keep them coming!

THE ESCORT BUSINESS...

Remember Craig? He made me a sample Escort in Orange that I raved about? Well, he's been busy on a Jaguar and just look at this! It's a first off, made off an original Powertrack Plus car.

Black really isn't the best colour to photograph and I've just taken 64 photos of it to get this one, but trust me it doesn't really do it justice. The amazing thing about Craig's versions is not just the superb body detail but the quality of the window and light mouldings, which are exactly as the original. Bid with confidence when it appears...

Meanwhile his Escort programme continues apace, with a black and a white sample winging its way to me. Again, that black is superb. I am thinking I might decorate it with Mampe logos from the old Zakspeed livery or else Texaco like the Eggenberger Ford RS500 cars.

Here is a profile of the Escort, which really doesn't do it justice but rest assured its a very funky model to have.

Craig hopes to develop a Corvette next and possibly a Pontiac GTO. As long as my Lancia Stratos is in there somewhere of course..

SENTRON 9 - Beginning of the end!

Okay! It's not Powertrack but boy do I remember pestering my Folks for one of these! Unfortunately, they got me one - our local Newsagent had one on a high shelf and one day it 'disappeared'. Christmas 1980 it was mine. Oh boy, wow!

Let me just say that the only thing good about the Sentron 9 was the box. The artwork was cool and the Polystyrene lid quite titilating. The car though, was dire. I mean it, it was awful.

For starters, the thing ran on 2 PP9 9 volt batteries AND 4 x AA batteries. It weighed a ton!. The plastic body and chassis creaked and groaned under the weight and the innovative 'infrared' control meant the thing couldn't be used in daylight! I had to go everywhere holding my hand over the bloody transmitter.

The remote was useless - think 'MB Bigtrak' without ANY of the fun! The poor Porsche 928 body, all curvy and 70's cool soon got smashed to hell coz it just ignored your commands. Mine got known as the skirting snogger...

The other great memory I have is the chronic understeer - or rather absolutely no steering. It had no grip, no power and weighed a ton. It was nothing to look at and was very expensive - around £19.99 at the time I think!

It's electronics were poor and when I took mine apart for the first time it never really performed properly ever again!

It was a turd, and the reason its here is because it's a reminder that Matchbox didn't always get it right and the losses incurred on developing something as poor as this led to the downfall of Lesney.

It's a shame then that Tamiya got it so right. Such was the dominance of R/C in the early eighties that it soon banished slot car racing from boys bedrooms and their imaginations.

PP-6000 RACE & CHASE 2

Well, a big thank you to James who's put his up on ebay! It's not cheap but it does represent a fabulous addition to anyones collection doesn't it?

If you look back at my PP-4000 suggestions I did write how adamant I was that the Silver Vette and New Police Car were supposed to feature in a Powertrack Plus set.

I also possess a pair of 12v throttles with the U-turn facility, but I was unsure whether Dapol had made this modification or Matchbox had.

Well now we know! By way of explanation comes this excellent PP-6000, which not only includes my predictions but also a few surprises. No, there is not my much anticipated crossroads but instead there is a single y-junction!

The concept is brilliant, it creates a siding for our Cop car to lay in wait. However, in practice the cars have to slow to negotiate the curve and accelerate to enter the dead end and effectively crash into the barrier. Hmm, you might think you reverse into the siding but that would mean you were going too slow and hence go round the bend.

No matter, look at the box art! So dramatic and exciting again. The artist who does these images is a class apart and clearly is distinguished in his field. As a graphics guy myself I can vouch for his talent and if anyone can tell me more about this illustrator or his work I would love to hear from you.

The PP-6000 is billed as Race & Chase 2, which is a slight surprise but clearly Matchbox thought Race & Chase was a strong brand too. For the life of me I never saw any of these sets in the shops, at exhibitions, in Catalogues or on ebay (until now) but James assures me he bought it on ebay not too long ago and has fixed it. It had been a lane down owing to a faulty terminal track which he has replaced.

The inclusion of the single Y junction is a limitation to the set layout and Matchbox had one obvious exclusion to the sets layouts (see below).

Other than that this is a class piece of kit. As I say, it's not cheap but I would say it is very rare. If anyone else has seen one of these (in the shops back in 81-82) please let me know.

PP-6000 Comprised:

1 x Police Car

1 x Corvette Stingray

1 x Terminal Track 9" (12v)

1 x Topple Bridge 9"

1 x Y Junction (RH) 15"

1 x 6" Straight

2 x 15" Straight

3 x 9" Straight

4 x 90 degree curve (9")

5(?) x Crash barriers

2 x 12v Hand Controllers with U-turn switches

1 x 12v (16-18v!!) Transformer

5 x Track aprons (no ends)

Bridge supports

Sticker Sheet

Retail price - unknown

A Big Thank You!

There you go! A big thanks to all of you out there who have contacted me about this blog, not least because of the huge amount of information I now have. It's fair to say that the biggest gap in my knowledge of Powertrack comes from what I don't know and most of you have sought to redress that.

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The biggest discovery thus far is the 1980 UK Powertrack catalogue. As Craig, the kind chap who told me about this said, it's hardly a catalogue as such, more a pamphlet, but what it contains is some pretty good stuff.

Not least, the PT-115 Disco Van, but also the Lanechanger cars which although still rare were (or were supposed to be!) standard UK issue.

There is also the introduction of PT-5000 and PT-8000 so I will be going back and changing the set introduction dates as applicable.

Quite a few of you have emailed about Tyrone Malone and his racing trucks. suffice to say alot of his images seem heavily copyrighted in the good old US of A but do check it out on google...

Alot of you are asking for a track inventory, and that will be coming. Powertrack fan Ben is trying to work out why the country of origin varies on the track and it's an interesting point. if anyone has any ideas let us know please...

Ebay is digging up some fine nuggets and for those of you who have read this blog inside out you will know how passionate I have become about the next item...

For my part is means I have to go back and revisit some of my views on what I've written, but that's all part of having this blog right? Keep your views and ideas coming in and hopefully I can keep this site interesting for a while yet.

Best regards,

Steve

PT-1500 - LESNEY'S SWANSONG

Okay, up to now the US & UK sets have been reasonably easy to nail down - and as we have seen Canada holds a few surprises for Speedtrack fans.

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But here we have the PT-1500. You may remember I thought this was a central Europe product but it turns out it was made in the UK for the UK as later as 1982.

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My solitary ebay bid turned out to be the winning one and I now have it sat in front of me.

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The Lancia Beta and Vauxhall Chevette on the box artwork were sketchy marker pen renderings. A small disclaimer on the box lid actually states 'CARS ILLUSTRATED NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF CONTENTS' . I expect Matchbox chucked in every 6v car they had left fairly randomly but this particular set appears with the excellent Fiat Abarth and Triumph TR7.

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The vendor swears he bought this set from Woolworths in 1982. In which case it makes it a 'bargain basement' product to sell off Matchbox stock. I suspect it might have been designed to a budget which might explain the poor track contents.

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Perhaps the most intriguing thing is the 6v electrics. I suspect Matchbox were flogging the remains of their 6v bits from catalogue mail order returns. By 1982 Matchbox were well into 12v(!) Powertrack Plus and heading for the wall...

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Aside from the frankly crap box art the box is half the height of normal sets and the pieces have been cleverly interwoven between a strong Cardboard carcass. no doubt cheap but along way from selling itself. Clearly, these boxes were fully vacuum sealed, unlike regular Powertrack cartons where only the base part of the box was vac-sealed. (This at least enabled you to open the box and then get annoyed that the instructions obscured the view of the other car in the set!)

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One final thing is the inclusion of new stickers on the crash barriers. Philips, Porsche, Dunlop and a new Martini logo make an appearance.

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PT-1500 comprised:

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1 x Fiat Abarth

1 x Triumph TR7

1 x Terminal Track 9"

4 x 90 degree Curve (9")

1 x Straight 9"

4 x Straight 15"

1 x Mains Transformer (6v)

2 x Hand controllers

4 x Crash barriers

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I suspect this set probably retailed under £15 in the UK.

PT-115 DISCO VAN

Okay, big thanks to Carl Clarke for getting in touch, Carl has a 1980 Powertrack Catalogue. In it is the 'missing link'. It's the PT-115, previously AWOL in my car inventory on the blog.

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As predicted, it is a Dodge Van and none the worse for that I might add. It's black with 'groovy seventies boogaloo disco' stripes. u'hu baby, check it out...

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What intrigues me is I haven't actually seen this version of the Van yet. Does it exist? Anybody out there got one? It's interesting as it is further evidence of a US Speedtrack car coming over to the UK, yet STILL the Stingray never made it Stateside.

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I am a fan of the Dodge van though and this goes straight to the top of my wanted list.

NEW ESCORT - WORK IN PROGRESS!

Some of you will no doubt have seen the Escort 'remould' advertised on ebay a few weeks ago. A Powertrack fan and ace model builder, Craig, has been hard at work perfecting his Escort bodyshell mould.

He thinks he's finally got it right and sent me this sample for approval.

Take my word for it that this is absolutely flawless! It may as well have Matchbox stamped on it!

He has even moulded the windows and the light bar. I have fitted my regular Escort to the new bodyshell to prove it fits - spot on!

Poor Craig is very busy with his regular work but is hoping to email me with more details. From the model I have in front of me he clearly is on to a winner.

I'm thinking of decals to go with the cars now... Rothmans Escort? Marlboro TR7? Martini Porsche? Jagermeister VW?

I'll post more details on this fantastic development when I get them, meanwhile I hope these photos get you excited.