[museum]

                                      This just came into the slot car museum in Houston Texas . Its a 1/32nd scale Gakken race set. The box is huge ! Its 43 1/2 inches long by 19 inches wide. The set was made in 1965 in Japan. The set contains 2 Lotus 30s, 1 gold chrome and 1 silver chrome.The chassis are made for the 1st time in Zircon, a type of plastic which is advertised as lighter and stronger than other types of plastic. Gakken slot cars are very different from all other slot cars in that they were advised by the Tokyo Institute of Technology which is mentioned on the lower right hand corner of the slot car set.. A Professor of engineering by the name of Dr. Shigeo Okeya who is credited with 15 patents helped Gakken develop the cars. I show a photo of him as he appears in the slot car set manual. Gakken also made the set with non chrome Lotus 30s. They also made a 1/32nd scale Lotus 30 in a kit form and a 1/24th scale Ferrari 330P-2 ,both with the Zircon chassis. Later they made a 1/24th scale Ferrari 330P-2 and a Lola T70 with an aluminium chassis that is stamped with the letters PI which we also have at the museum.