The history of the Carrera Slotcars
Tintoy magazine, number 5/96 & thanks to Boxenwart Seb.

Firm history Carrera

Based by Josef Neuhierl in the year 1920 in Fürth one manufactured the first vehicles. Car and armed forces vehicles with clockwork drive. From the 30's to the 50's one produced in Neuhierl a large number of very beautifully and high-quality sheet metal cars. Starting from center of the 50's one collected first experience with "the plastics processing" with the full-scale automodels of the STRUXI -series. In the year 1963 the first, in the meantime legendary Carrera Slotcar "universal 132" at the market was introduced. 1972 Carrera presented with the track switching system "servo 1:40" a world novelty. Start of the 80's Carrera came into financial difficulties. In 1985  Mr. Kurt Hesse bought the bankrupt enterprises and led it under the new name "Carrera Century Toys GmbH" again to the world top in slotcars. Today Carrera is a modern, internationally oriented enterprise with addresses in France, Spain and Hong Kong and world-wide market leader with slotcars.
Similarly as "Tempo" for paper handkerchiefs and "Nescafe" for soluble coffee the "Carrera slotcar" is in the German linguistic usage a synonym for slotcar-racing.

The way of the slotcar
The earlier sheet metal car of Neuhierl were either fantasy vehicles without concrete models, or they showed the real models, only very inaccurately. But one showed already at that time a preference for the streamline and fast cars of Neuhierl. As the pictures prove (unfortunately not to be shown, seb.boxenwart), Neuhierl Metalcars became the in course of time further refined and ever more the real model. A substantial improvement of the full-scaleness and detailing brought the transfer to the material Plastic ("STRUXI" - series). In the 60's Neuhierl stopped sheet metal toy production in favor of the new Carrera Slotcar finally.

New play ideas "Tempo", "Transpo" and "Servo"
Start of the 70's many manufacturers offered slotcars for children. To mention here Faller "HIT-CAR", Mattel "Hot Wheels", Match Box "Superfast " and Darda (produces still today similar courses). All courses of plastic rails with pulled up tractor margins and particularly easy-current automodels, which were brought either by a downward gradient or by catapults on speed, were common. Later feather/spring engines (Darda) or electric drives extended the play possibilities. Also Carrera offered such a course under the name "TEMPO".

Carrera "TRANSPO" completed the Carrera tracks in traffic and commercial motor vehicle area.
1972 Carrera presented the track switching Slotcar Servo140. This is to today the only course of the world, which enables both track-bound and free driving. To enable track switching  the fixed guide pins of the vehicles had to be omitted. The car is free on the track. The servo lanes possess sturdy guard rails, which hold the vehicles in the track instead of the Slots and guide pins. Roughly simplified a servo car steers always to the right or left and by the guard rail it's kept in the track. By a steering wheel at the speed governor the driver can control and so really overtake its car on to the right or left roadway. Each lane possesses 4 electric bars (in each lane 2 for each car) thereby after a lane switch the current-transfer to the car functioned further and the driver keeps control over the vehicle . By this technique a quite new play dimension opened !