A Visit To the Vault
Keith Tanaka, a pro racer from the 60s / 70s era, recently took a tour of the slot car museum construction site and the museum collection. Here is what he had to say:
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting with Scott Bader and seeing the slotcar museum (under construction). Scott was a great host and was very patient in showing and explaining some of the slotcar collection. The time flew by as we spent about six hours looking at just a small portion of the collection! Not only was I impressed with this great slotcar collection, but Scott’s genuine commitment to build a great slotcar museum.
I was blown away by what I saw. I had no idea one person could amass (thanks to Philippe’s hard work over several decades) such a large, high-quality slotcar collection of every conceivable vintage slotcar produced. This collection is what one would expect to see in the Smithsonian.
The collection runs the gamut of slotcar parts (motors, gears, wheels, tires, bodies, controllers, etc.), scratchbuilt scale cars, scratchbuilt pro racing cars, kit cars, model kits, and ready to run cars. A very large collection of Gene Wallingford 1/32 scale cars is but one of many outstanding scale collections in the museum. Wallingford’s craftsmanship was outstanding and represents the typical high quality I noticed throughout the museum. A collection of Pro slotcars was also present. Cars built/raced by famous racers from the ’60s/’70s, such as Morrissey, Cukras, Steube, Anderson, Warmack, Ursaner, PVA, Emott, PdL (yes Philippe!), etc., etc., are present with many others being sought. Besides slotcars, there is also Len Vucci’s Team Russkit racing jacket and Len’s special Team Russkit slotcar box with some vintage Russkit cars inside. I remember seeing a black and white photo of Team Russkit (Mike Morrissey, Rick Durkee, Ron Quintana, and Len Vucci) posing in their Team Russkit racing jackets, so it was nice to see the light blue jacket in person for the very first time.
Scott has done a great job in organizing this massive collection. Since the museum is under construction, the collection is boxed, labeled, and organized. Everything is catalogued and easily found within seconds. Because the collection is so large, Scott has his garage and a room in his home filled with boxes full of items. Each item is individually packaged to protect and preserve. Another part of the collection is kept in the “vault”.
After seeing these items, Scott and I walked over to the museum site nearby.
The museum building is a very large two story structure. The top floor has some parking spaces, a large open display area for 1/1 racing/collector cars as well as room for a slotcar track and museum area. There is a car elevator (for 1/1 cars). The first floor has more room for 1/1 cars as well as a machine shop area and workshop. At the back of the first floor is a “vault” door.
The biggest surprise of the tour was when Scott showed me what’s behind the huge vault door. Philippe wasn’t kidding about the size of this massive storage room. Besides the heavily-fortified walls and door, the storage room is humidity controlled with an air filtration system. No need for air conditioning since this vault has a “tomb” like location. Inside, there is tall shelving on each of the walls
Large boxes occupy every inch of shelf space. Each box is labeled with a familiar name (AMT, Cox, Dynamic, K&B, Monogram, Revell, Russkit, Strombecker, etc.). Before showing me the contents of some of these boxes, Scott showed me some vintage slotcar boxes. One in particular belonged to Jose Rodriguez, Jr. This large box interestingly appears to be what the old TV repairman used when visiting your house. As you open up the split top, both sides were what used to store the small boxes of vacuum tubes (remember those?). Inside was a myriad of slot car parts. In the bottom compartment, there were dozens and dozens of small plastic boxes each filled with a particular slotcar part (pinions, gears, axles, guide flags, screws, washers, wheels, tires, etc.) and meticulously organized. Jose was a master scale slotcar builder and his slotcar box shows he was also very organized.
Back to the large boxes lining the walls of the storage room. These boxes contain boxed ready to run cars or kit cars. All of the popular slotcars of the past as well as rare slotcars are well preserved. The quality of these boxed cars is impressive, truly top collector quality.
There are also “display” boxed cars. These are what the slotcar tracks and hobby shops used to display on their shelves. While in this room I asked Scott if he had any controllers. He immediately opened some boxes to show me a ton of controllers of all types and makes. He wasn’t sure of what controllers he had since all of his time on the museum has been concentrating on the cars.
A lot of hard work and long hours have gone into this museum. We are very lucky to have someone like Scott (with Philippe’s expert assistance) who has personally devoted his time and money to develop what I believe will be a great slotcar museum that we all can be proud of. We are soooo lucky!
Scott could use some help. He will continue to improve the quality of the museum, but he needs collectors and slotcar racers/fans to contact him if they have any vintage slotcars which can enhance this museum. Pro slotcars in particular (especially any which were built by the legends of slotracing) representing the golden years of pro slot racing (’66-73) are needed to enhance the current collection. You can contact Scott at Electric Dreams.
I can’t wait until the museum opens! I’m sure there are a lot of oldtimers (and others) who appreciate the hobby who are anxious to see it. Hopefully, Philippe’s new book will be published by then! The grand opening will be a very special moment in the history of slotcars!