Us men are weird creatures. I used to play tcr with my mate Brian when I was around 11 to 12 in 1980. I love all my modern tech. But watching this brings back great memories. No computers, no internet no mobile phones. There's a part of me would choose to go back in an instant.
Thanks for the memories

aged 14 i received a tcr set from my uncle at christmas. I wish i could go back and tell my younger self to look after it.

Ye Gods man!! This brought back amazing memories. I got the red box set that you had for Xmas when I was about 10 or 11 years old and I just about wet my pants on Xmas day! What a present that was! This was by far the best present I ever got as a kid. Thanks for the memories dude. I grinned like a Cheshire cat all the way through your video 😂

I loved my TCR! The jam car was shocking to be fair

I absolutely loved my TCR set. I had the big set with an oval within an oval with two jam cars when I was 12 in 1979. My mate had the truck set and we used to link it all up for a huge circuit. You had to be careful putting it together because of the track joining pieces, very fragile and you had to keep the track ultra clean with a 2p coin back then, lol. The thing that killed it for me was the expense and availability of the pick ups and tyres on the cars, as they used to wear out fast. I still have a couple of sets in the loft that I bought for nostalgia back in the early 2000s when Ebay emerged, I might dig them out. Wow, it's all flooding back now, thanks for the video.

I had one of those. They're great fun. They're also very fragile. Those controllers are a rheostat and a polarity commuter. The lane changing is by changing the polarity of the tracks which reverses the rotation of the motor. The cog powers either the left wheel or the right wheel and that makes the car jump tracks.
Very easy to fix. You can change the tires with o-rings

I remember the TV adverts, but this is the first time I've seen the reality. There was a "jam car" that was a truck whose trailer acted as a ramp for flying overtakes. Might be worth looking out for one of those, as it should be either fun or frustrating.

Remember a cousin having TCR in the 80s, was so impressed as with the small scale track you could build great circuits and pretty sure it had a computer controlled 'ghost' car you could race again, plus lights.  This was the mid-80s 🤩

Brings back memories of a mate who had TCR when I was a nipper. I always wondered how it worked, ingenious in it's simplicity! I think it fell out of fashion as it was more expensive than Scaletrix and was limited in cars you could get and for the UK it was more American bias.
For another system you may not have heard of and similar era, check out Matchbox Race & Chase. My grandad got me one for Christmas in early 80's I guess and it was awesome. The main feature was it had a button on the top of the control which reversed the cars direction in a U turn. The tracks had extra run off on the corners to allow the car to back up and turn around and guard rails elsewhere to stop it falling off. The track also had a teeter 'see-saw' jump bridge which could be a bit of pain. You got two cars, a Chevy Stingray and an America Police car all complete with headlights and Police car with red lights on top. The idea being the Police car to chase and stop the other car by knocking it off the track. With the run off areas on the corners though you could get some drifting going on.
Anyway thanks for the video, brings back fond memories.😀

I never owned a TCR track but remember seeing the commercials on tv and being fascinated on how the cars could change lanes.

Wish I still had my set from when I was a kid in the late 70’s It was the one with the glow in the dark rails and the Zig zag corvette jam car.

I got one of these sets for Christmas when I was 12 and they were brand new.  It was something of a minor hit for Ideal Toys in the US.  I'm not surprised you didn't hear of them in the UK though.  Ideal Toys were not a major player in the toy industry in the US, most of their toys were kind of on the cheap side compared to the giants like Mattel or Tyco.

As you've noted, the power supply is an AC unit.  The diode in the controllers is essentially a half-wave rectifier and sends either the positive or the negative half of the AC sine wave to each car.  Being the kind of kid who took my toys apart often, I figured it out pretty quick.

As others have mentioned, the pick-up shoes were kind of a weak point.  The rails on the track are pretty thin steel and would quickly wear slots in the shoes, at which point power to the car could get spotty.  The tires were pretty thin too, and since the cars were always doing the One Wheel Peel they could wear down pretty fast.  New tires have something of a cone shaped profile to them and the wider part of that cone should always be to the outside.

Now a driving tip:  That lane change feature has an interesting effect, as you've seen.  The cars will always run to the outside of any curve.  But you can use that to an advantage.  Run into the curve in the outside lane.  That keeps your car powered since they always coast when changing lanes.  But when you enter the curve, switch to the inside lane on the controller.  Why?  Because while your set to the inside lane the outside tire is driving the car in the direction of the turn, thus pushing it away from the outside wall and reducing friction on that wall.  You'll still run in the outside lane, but you'll run through the curve faster.  I learned that trick by accident while racing my friends.  It can be a significant boost in a curve.  I hope you get to enjoy these cars for a long while.  I know I had a blast with my set.

Excellent Cover Story and Rebuild.   Thumbs Up for Ideal back in the day.  Long Live Scalextric.

I had this for Christmas when it first came out in the 70's, I had the cars with lights. I'm in Britain, One of my friend's had the same set the same Christmas. We used to combine the 2 sets to make a massive track.
One car uses centre and left rails, the other uses centre and right rail. The cars only power one rear wheel at a time, which causes the cars to push up against the track sides. When you flick the switch, the motor reverses and powers the other wheel which causes the car to change lane and push against the other wall. The cars move to the outside lane on corners, unless the other car is in the way.
Cheers, Rich

I absolutely remember this being advertised on TV and I REALLY wanted it, but it was too expensive, so I ended up with PowerTrack for Xmas that year.  (Also I was convinced as a kid that the cars went at 300mph, but the ad actually says 300mph scale speed)  🙂

I had one when i was a kid. Badass track

I had one in the late 70s. It was fun for a while, but had too many issues. Frustrating at times. It got returned to the club book company I bought it from after a while and I replaced it with a huge scalextric set. I built a table that took up half my attic space and made scenery including mountains out of paper mache etc. Loved it.

Always wanted this toy as a kid, but couldn’t afford it but it’s good to see it again I remember the commercial👍🏼

I had TCR when I was a kid. Loved it. The problem was getting spares - especially tyres. The pickups would wear quite quickly (you'd get a groove worn where the track contacts the pickup). If you get a chance to buy the black Trans-Am, go for it. That thing rocked. When I raced that, it beat anything else I had. My memory might be rusty, but I think they even had a block car that could randomly change lanes?

Always wanted this looking in the catalogues back in the early 80’s.
I ended with race n chase but being a only child at the time there wasn’t much fun chasing yourself 😂