WRAM! Any impact to the bumper would send doors, hood, trunklid, and wheels flying (usually where you'd never find them). You could get several different types, including Buggem (a VW Beetle), Tough Tom (pickup truck), Boss Henry, and Blast-Em; the Classy Crashers luxury cars (featuring the Luxury Limo and Sedan Royale) made the scene a bit later, during the Watergate hearings if I recall correctly. I was hopelessly hooked on these things as a kid, and now Crash Week is giving me flashbacks!

Yes, as part of Krider Racing's plan to compete in every form of vehicle racing from Pinewood Derby to Lunar Rover Hillclimbs, the Racer Boy has become a total slot-car junkie. Check it out at Speed:Sport:Life.

I hadn't thought about this fine game- a staple in the Martin family during the mid-1970s- for years, until I spotted one at a yard sale not long ago. The goal is to lie your ass off about the value of the clunkers on your lot, while avoiding getting caught in those lies. Definitely worth a buck to the yard-sale seller! While this game didn't get as much play as Touring (some of you may know it better as Mille Bornes), it still made the heavy rotation in our game schedule. You might need to watch Marshal Lucky to get in the right mood for what's to follow…

The lid of the plastic card holder shows the cigar-chomping, Purina-checkerboard-wearing car salesman taking the little old lady for a test drive in the Stingray. Nice burnout!
Of course, that's the "after" picture; here's the "before" shot on the game's box. Note the lot full of big Detroit iron. Technically, this game was published the year before the Malaise Era began, but it fits so well with the general Nixonian grimness of the ensuing decade that I'm granting it honorary Malaise status.
The game's money was your classic 70s deal. How many Parker Bros games got the exact same currency back in the day?
The game featured a deck of 24 cards, each representing a different used car. Each player would get some cars for his or her lot, and each player held a different list of values for each of the cars. The goal was to sell your junkers for top cash, while busting your competition for their lying ways.
Since the game was released in 1972, the most valuable cars tend to be 1971 models.
Here's one of the 8 value listings, which you kept secret from the competition. Great entertainment value to be had in matching them with the cars!
You can also buy insurance for your used car lot, but sometimes you'd get burned. Woe be unto the player who thinks he has fire insurance when a rival has hired thugs torch his lot, only to find out he's got Fly By Night Insurance Co. protection against roving bands of chickens!
Let's look at some of the cars now. Here's one I wouldn't mind owning now!

So here we have a Revell Gaga Rat Fink model. It'll set you back 126 bucks, but you'll be the only one in your prefecture with the Japanese version of the Revell Drag Nut kit.

Sure, you can get the regular Drag Nut kit for $35.99, but the Gaga appears to be in a larger scale. Does it come with the American-flag decals for the car, or must you paint them on? Either way, welcome to Model Car Hell!
[eBay]

While a genuine Revell Deal's Wheels kit would be a lot of fun- you can't argue with the awesomeness of High Bloatation tires- the prices are pretty steep. Anyway, I've got my own full-sized Hell Project to deal with, no time for Model Car Hell. Well, that's what I thought until I found this 1:16 scale RHD first-gen Honda Civic kit on eBay last week. Not only is it a non-worshiped car in a weirdly large scale, it comes with a nicely detailed CVCC engine! No time to build model kits, uh-uh, no way, nohow, I told myself repeatedly… and somehow I refrained from buying it. Big mistake- some lucky bidder picked up The Coolest Model Kit Ever for under 30 bucks, and I'm kicking myself.
[eBay]

In 1973, there was the Shot Wheels Wacky Packages card, parodying our beloved Hot Wheels toys. Naturally, every kid back then- me included- would have killed for a real Shot Wheels car.

Matchbox fans weren't neglected by Topps, with Mashbox cars appearing soon after Shot Wheels. After nearly two decades of simmering in one artist's cranium, the concept became reality. Here's what this Hot Wheels site has to say:

Started in 1989 by J.P.S, a San Diego artist, who collected Hot Wheels and Matchbox.
The concept being a packaged version of the Wacky Package Sticker.
The first one created was the Lemlin, to match the car pictured on the sticker.

He also made Mashbox, having a similar wacky card with an actual trashed Matchbox car inside of it.

Some of these have been recreated by others over the years.

In 2006, J.P.S. begain re-issuing some of these as well as some new models. All on updated cards.

[HWRedlines]

(Hat Tip to Jack!)

Do you remember those Xmods R/C cars featured during the Jalopnik Christmas list right? I've been into them for a few years. Anyhoo, it's common for people to fit model bodies on them to have cars beyond what radioshack sells.

Everyone from 13 year old kids, to professional car painters do these sorts of conversions. Think of it as, your old model car that actually moves. Some are even able to do a full interior in the car bodies. Typically very shiny cars you'd see on the show room floor.

Not me. Nope. After seeing your beat up Impala model many moons ago, when it came time for a competition, I knew what I had to do... Build a "Trailer Park Special" car, and stand out from the show cars..

And here it is, paint fade and all. I just won $50 in a compitition with it, saweeet..

The inspiration behind the Honda Racer came from a combination of "Honda's racing heritage with Hot Wheels' reputation for speed, power, performance and attitude," according to Guillermo Gonzalez, a senior designer at Honda R&D Americas.

The motor in this racer is a ridiculous 20-Liter VTEC V10 (that's a two-liter of Pepsi per cylinder) inspired by the 1967 Honda F1. This only makes us ponder what would happen if Honda put this kind of imagination into its real conceptual car design. [Nihon Car]

Here's how he describes it:

Slot Car Wall Sculpture:
This is just a small example of the idea. Old HO Slot Cars and Track are easily found online. This set up [about half of the track I got] cost me around $100. Track layouts are practically infinite. Its just hanging there so I can take it down, plug it in and enjoy the excitement of Slot Car Racing *anytime.

This novelty comes in the H2 variant of the Hummer and is available for $24, in packs of a dozen—just in case the first five or ten don't get quite huge enough for you. [Grow Hummer via neatorama]