Do You Remember Nordic in Southall, Nordic/ Titan Options

[Mick Kerr]

It would be great to hear from other "slotties" that remember me.

Hi Roy,
I can certainly remember racing against you at Nordic.
I went to most of the 'British Open Championship' races there in the late '60s. Did quite well at some of them.
Used to go there with Ron Jones (never could figure out how he could see through those glasses), Fred James and Paul Amos.
There are a few other names from that time that are still racing. Stan Alton, Trevor Crout (master model maker for GT Models), Dick Smith, Mick Langridge (used to go there with Roger Finlay from Littlehampton), and you'll already have seen John Wells' name on here.
We still regularly see, and buy from, Chas Keeling at SCD and Charlie Fitzpatrick at Betta & Classic.
Do you race slot cars in Australia? There seems to be a pretty active slot community down there.
Cheers.
Mick.

[Paul G Strange]

Hi all! I used to visit Nordic in the late 60s/very early 70s. It was a magical place! What great memories!
I lived in Norwood Green, Southall, so the track was very local to me. I was probably about 10 or 11 when my friend Derek Garner first mentioned it and told me what an incredible place it was.
I went along with him a week or so later and I was gobsmacked by the size of the circuit, the enormous banking, the huge back straight, the tricky hairpin and the devilish esses, let alone Max the enormous Alsatian dog! It was an amazing circuit, it was friendly and completely mad, and I felt very honoured to race there.
The huge banked bend - and the angled straight that led into it where the drivers all stood - was a masterpiece. I couldn't believe the speeds that people were achieving on it, and the quality of racing seemed very high to me.
I also felt very much out of my league.
At the time I didn't have anything that was at all competitive. The fastest thing I had was a Riko chassis with a Richochet motor and an Airfix Escort body on top of it, and and on that huge track it was about as much use as a milk float! My friend Derek took along his Can-Am Ferrari angle-winder with a brass chassis, possibly from Wonderland Raceways, and had a little more success.
We visited as much as we could (and as much as pocket money would allow) during the late 60s. It's possible we may have borrowed some house cars - or maybe friendly people lent us cars - because gradually I got to know the circuit more, although I remained a back marker.
Then I went away to a boarding school, so I stopped visiting regularly. However I did try and get there during the holidays.
I remember scrimping and saving for months. Slowly but surely I managed to finance a Team Bog anglewinder chassis with a Mura Group 20 tuned motor, orange sponge tyres and a Titan Jag XJ6 body, and a MRRC black hand throttle.
I think it took me 6 months to a year to put that little lot together. Not bad for a 13-year-old!
One weekend, during the holidays, I competed on a Sunday morning at Nordic with that car. I came fifth - out of sixth - in my four races, and that was my lot for the rest of the day, but what fun!
I think that may have also been the last time I went to Nordic because within a year or so we had moved to Suffolk, and I never visited ever again.
Somewhere in our move to Suffolk my wonderful Jag XJ6/Team Bog chassis car got mislaid. That's always been a sadness to me. However a few years ago I managed to come across a clear Jag XJ6 body, which may have been a Titan one. Sometime I'll get round to building it, but I can't imagine I will ever be able to source a Team Bog chassis!
So thanks to everyone who's contributed to this wonderful thread. Nordic really gave me the bug for slot racing in the late 60s. It was an amazing and very memorable slot-racing circuit!

[ArJayAytch]

I can't imagine I will ever be able to source a Team Bog chassis!

Paul: Bogs do occasionally turn up on ebay although sellers frequently don't recognise them as such. Was yours an open class one or the more common Formula 32? If the latter I think I have a spare you could have. Thinking about it I'd guess the former because a XJ6 would have a longer wheelbase than the 8' (3") F32.

Team Bog was the late Stewart Wyatt; 'Superhornets' on this forum is Tony Condon who was a contemporary at the North London club. Ian Fisher was too, he's still a very active BSCRA racer I see regularly and can tell tales of those days. Have you seen Tony's book on the history of slot racing in Britain? There's quite a bit about Nordic in there.

Richard
Luton SCC

[oldgitwells]

Hi all! I used to visit Nordic in the late 60s/very early 70s. It was a magical place! What great memories!
I lived in Norwood Green, Southall, so the track was very local to me. I was probably about 10 or 11 when my friend Derek Garner first mentioned it and told me what an incredible place it was.
I went along with him a week or so later and I was gobsmacked by the size of the circuit, the enormous banking, the huge back straight, the tricky hairpin and the devilish esses, let alone Max the enormous Alsatian dog! It was an amazing circuit, it was friendly and completely mad, and I felt very honoured to race there.
The huge banked bend - and the angled straight that led into it where the drivers all stood - was a masterpiece. I couldn't believe the speeds that people were achieving on it, and the quality of racing seemed very high to me.
I also felt very much out of my league.
At the time I didn't have anything that was at all competitive. The fastest thing I had was a Riko chassis with a Richochet motor and an Airfix Escort body on top of it, and and on that huge track it was about as much use as a milk float! My friend Derek took along his Can-Am Ferrari angle-winder with a brass chassis, possibly from Wonderland Raceways, and had a little more success.
We visited as much as we could (and as much as pocket money would allow) during the late 60s. It's possible we may have borrowed some house cars - or maybe friendly people lent us cars - because gradually I got to know the circuit more, although I remained a back marker.
Then I went away to a boarding school, so I stopped visiting regularly. However I did try and get there during the holidays.
I remember scrimping and saving for months. Slowly but surely I managed to finance a Team Bog anglewinder chassis with a Mura Group 20 tuned motor, orange sponge tyres and a Titan Jag XJ6 body, and a MRRC black hand throttle.
I think it took me 6 months to a year to put that little lot together. Not bad for a 13-year-old!
One weekend, during the holidays, I competed on a Sunday morning at Nordic with that car. I came fifth - out of sixth - in my four races, and that was my lot for the rest of the day, but what fun!
I think that may have also been the last time I went to Nordic because within a year or so we had moved to Suffolk, and I never visited ever again.
Somewhere in our move to Suffolk my wonderful Jag XJ6/Team Bog chassis car got mislaid. That's always been a sadness to me. However a few years ago I managed to come across a clear Jag XJ6 body, which may have been a Titan one. Sometime I'll get round to building it, but I can't imagine I will ever be able to source a Team Bog chassis!
So thanks to everyone who's contributed to this wonderful thread. Nordic really gave me the bug for slot racing in the late 60s. It was an amazing and very memorable slot-racing circuit!

Nordic was also the first "proper" track I ever visited, most probably 13 at the time, in my many years of racing afterwards it still holds the most vivid memories, an incredible place to discover slot racing.