Slot cars were big when I was a teenager. We had a couple of big slot car track stores close to us. Big store with big tracks and 4 to 6 lanes per track. I built our own frames & motors for my cars, my brother's, and a couple friends of ours. Wound motors from scratch. Buy a basic shaft, different shells to choose from, 3 or 4 pole plates to stack up, contactors, brushes, etc, etc. Wound wire on the poles depending on whether you wanted torque or just high rpms. I took my Erector set motor and built a motorized winder. Went out in the shed and took an old bale counter from a baler that we had on the bench. Connected it to the Erector set motor & counted the wire wraps needed for the armature. Used to balance them on a pair of razor blades. Lightly drill the armature on the heavy side until it was right. Then coat the wire windings with epoxy. Frames were brass tube, round or square, soldered. Started out with brass bushings for wheel bearings, but later went to miniature ball bearings. If you could work with aluminum tubing, you had much lighter frames.

Lots of fun for a couple of years. I think it's a dead pastime now. Just memories.