Total Control Racing


Total Control Racing was a toy brand from Ideal which debuted in the late 1970s, similar to slot car sets, with approximately HO scale cars that operated on a slotless track.

Description

The plastic track contained lanes of three metal strips about 2 mm wide, which made contact with a configuration of two brass pads on the underside of the cars, providing power. The brass pads could be arranged in one of two possible configurations by the user. Whichever configuration a car was set to would determine which two of the three power providing metal strips were being drawn from and, hence, which of the two controllers was for which car. The plastic track had two such lanes, and cars could change lanes with the flick of a switch on the controller. TCR sets came with "jam cars", a slow moving drone which both racers had to avoid crashing into. Like Matchbox's Powertrack, some cars featured lights.
The first sets consisted of up to 4 Formula 5000 cars. The track was wide enough for two cars side by side and had raised edges along both sides to prevent the cars from leaving the track. No more than one or two cars could be controlled and raced. They were controlled by the user by means of a trigger controller which also carried a toggle switch. When switched up, the car would travel in the outermost lane of the track, when switched down, the car would travel in the innermost lane of the track. By this means, the user could genuinely overtake their opponent by switching lanes at the correct moment. The two remaining cars were 'Jam Cars' which would run around the track when either or both of the trigger controllers were depressed. The Jam Cars were slower than the racing cars and had front wheels that were fixed to steer permanently left or right. This meant that a Jam Car was relatively easy to pass, or manoeuvred automatically out of the way as you approached.
The first generation of cars worked on the principle that, when the lane changing switch was flicked, the motor of the car would reverse direction, sending the power to only one of the rear wheels. The resultant bias of having one driven wheel forced the car to run in one or other of the lanes. Later, more complex generations of TCR cars steered by means of the reversal of the motor triggering the steering mechanism of the front wheels to be fixed left or right. These later cars have driven power to both rear wheels and had much greater performance than the earlier generations. If scaled up to actual size, a TCR car would run along a straight at perhaps 350 mph and corner at not much less.
The original sets consisted of only two different types of track part. A 15" straight and a 90 degree bend. Later sets added 45 degree bends and 10" straights. More elaborate sets included a 4 lanes wide straight that allowed you to drive off onto a second track or a pitlane, a banked corner where the centrifugal force generated by a fast moving car would allow it to run off from the electronic power strips onto a banked extension to the outside of the corner and, from a Dukes Of Hazzard TCR set, a ramp and jump.
Subsequent editions of TCR vehicles included articulated lorries, ambulances, dune buggies, trucks, go-karts and numerous replicas of road cars and many famous cars from film, television and motor racing. As can be seen below, many car companies and famous brands allowed TCR licence. Each of these different editions of vehicle sat atop an identical chassis and drive train.
In use, as a toy, TCR was compromised by three factors.
  1. The speed of the cars, when they were working well, was so high that the possibility of overtaking another car was very low. The cars were all thrown to the outermost lane in every corner. Because of this, the outermost lane in an oval track would always be the fastest lane to run in. This meant that the cars being raced were using the same lane of the track, often nose-to-tail. The act of changing lanes along a straight to pass your opponent would cause a relative drop in performance as the cars left one set of electric strips in the track and steered across to the other. This effect meant that all but the slowest of opponents could not be passed, even along a significant straight..
  2. Due to the raised edge along the outside of every piece of track, a car would almost never leave the track from going too fast. Whilst this did prevent TCR from having the stop/start, run-to-fetch-a-spun-vehicle nature of Scalextric, it did mean that a TCR race required no particular skill and the user of the faster car would always win..
  3. The cars themselves were relatively delicate and only worked properly within a narrow margin of track cleanliness and overall car wear. The brass pads or shoes on the underside of the cars were easily knocked off and quick to wear away. An entire chassis of a TCR car would sag after many hours of use, causing it to drag along the track and lose performance. Dust and lint would gather inside the chassis around the moving parts, causing a great drop in performance. Tyres, shoes and motors all had a short life and required frequent servicing and replacing. This might not be unexpected in a toy that is running at a high speed, with constant friction and subjection to the battering of track sides for several hours. Numerous spares were available, but expensive. Whilst the cars themselves rarely lasted, the track pieces remain indestructible to this day.

    Withdrawal

The product was withdrawn from the market in the mid 1980s.
TCR may have failed next to its most obvious competitor Scalextric for these and other reasons. TCR cars were matchbox sized and much smaller than Scalextric cars. This did mean that more track could be laid out in one room.
TCR was also doomed by the new regulations for child safety. The system required at least 2 amps to correctly drive all the cars and jam cars used. The original set released in the early 1970s gave the customer a 1/2 amp transformer which was reported to give children electric shocks when they went to fix a stalled or 'de-railed' car. As a response Ideal changed the transformer in the mid 1970s to a 1/4 amp transformer; this was barely enough to run one car, when players used 2 cars plus the jam cars it was very hard to maintain the rhythm needed to keep the cars rolling properly with such low amperes. Sales for the product dropped off dramatically because of the change. Tyco had the same problem with the first Command control sets. In the 1990s Tyco revamped the system. They bought the rights to 'TCR' from Ideal and were able to lower the voltage to increase the amperes and skirt the child safety laws. This gave the customer a 1/2 amp back, for 3 years Tyco tried to make a go of the command control revamp called 'TCR' but it never caught on, stalls and derails were always a problem. It is not until you run these systems on custom power supplies that give the racing set the full 2-2.5 amps of power it needs that it really shines.
In the UK the amps problem seems to be slightly different, for example, the Zig-Zag Jam Raceway set had a 3/4 amp power pack. There are higher amp sets that contain mark 3 cars such as the later Crossfire, these sets have an 'uprated' power pack which is 20 Volt 20 VA which equals 1 amp.
TCR sets are now relatively collectable items on internet auction sites. Many spares in original packaging, as well as entire sets, individual cars and smaller selections of track are sold to collectors.

Sets

ENGLISH/EU SETS:
Classic sets -
Later sets:
Lighted blazers -
"Lane Changers" Sets:
GERMAN SETS:
FRENCH SETS:
French "Action" Sets:
ITALIAN SETS:
BRAZILIAN SETS:
US SETS:
Make/ModelChassisPaintjobNumber on carFeatured in SetsLiverysJam CarLightsPart NumberImage
Articulated LorryWhite Cab with Red stripes along bonnet to rear, Silver TrailerYesN/A
BMWMk 3White with red sill and blue band down wings Advert on Bonnet28YesN/A
BMWMK2,MK3Mostly red with white doors and rear wheel arches.90YesN/A
Chevrolet ChevelleMk2Silver and blackYesN/A
CorvetteMK2Silver with black chequer on bonnet with "Green Bios" on side-NoN/A
Datsun 280 ZXMk2Blue with red and white stripes on wings33PioneerYesN/A
Dodge Magnum Glow CarMk1Yellow with faint blue line around wings33-YesN/A
Dodge MagnumMk2Red Roof white midsection and yellow sills23HEMIYesN/A
Dodge Magnum Mk1Blue Wings red bonnet34-YesN/A
Dune BuggyMk3Yellow with red spoiler and bonnet-NoN/A
Ferrari TestarossaRed3-N/A
Indy JamMk2Black with white centre stripe down middle19Indy Jam Circuit-NoN/A
Indy JamMk2Red and white stripes on wings1Indy Jam Circuit-NoN/A
Indy JamMk2White with yellow stripe to right of driver8Indy Jam Circuit-NoN/A
Indy JamBlack8Indy Jam CircuitUnionNoN/A
Indianapolis 5000Blue with red and white stripes on wings8-NoN/A
JeepOrange with Black roof-N/A
Lancia StratosWhite3-YesN/A
McLaren F1MK3Red & White-NoN/A
BerlingoRed & Blue with yellow spoiler9-N/A
Mustang Mk1Blue with yellow stripes55Yes5A-1885N/A
PanteraMK1,MK2White with blue and red lines on bonnet and roof25Lighted Jam Speedway-YesYes3497-5N/A
Pinto MK1Red White and Blue77YesN/A
Chevrolet Camaro Z-28MK3Red white stripe through centre of car88-YesN/A
PorscheMK3Yellow with blue and white stripes down wings36Michelin Advert on SpoilerN/A
PorscheMK2Black with red and yellow stripe through roof88YesN/A
Peugeot 205Blue with red and white stripes on wings2 or 4Peugeot Turbo 16-N/A
PickupYellow with black bonnet and chequered roof-YESN/A
Police CarMK3White with black doors red lights on roof-N/A
Pontiac Trans Am FirebirdMK2,MK3Yellow with red bird on BonnetNoN/A
Racing RigMK1RedN/A
Porsche Glow in the DarkMK2Yellow with red Stripes on bonnet77YesN/A
Truck / TankerBlue with red and white stripes on wings-N/A
Triumph TR7Yellow with blue and white stripes down wings7N/A
Triumph TR7Mk1White with blue stripes down wings and blue roof7 N/A
Triumph TR7Silver7N/A
Chevrolet Super NovaOrange with blue bonnet231-YesYesN/A
Lancia StratosMK1,MK2Yellow3Lighted Jam Speedway-YesN/A
PanteraMK1,MK2White blue bonnet yellow and red wings11Lighted Jam Speedway-YesYesN/A
VanBlack with red and white stripes alongside picture on the rear panel.N/A

Cars TV/film themed

CarChassisFilm/TV ShowNo on CarFeatured in SetsLiverysJam Car ?LightsImage
Boss Hogg CarWhite Car with Black Bonnet and Sheriff's badge on the door Police lights on roof.Dukes of HazzardN/A
Boss Hogg CarWhite Car with Sheriff's badge on the door Police lights on roof.Dukes of HazzardYesN/A
General LeeOrange with the Confederate flag on roof and 01 on doors.Dukes of HazzardYesN/A
Pontiac Trans AMMk2Black with Knight 2000 in red on doorsKnight RiderRed center light-YesN/A

Accessories

This accessory combined the Speed Equalizer with a single channel voltage doubler. A 555 Timing chip circuit drove a voltage doubler that would give each car a speed boost, but only in one lane change direction. from the inside lane to the outside lane. This actually made racing more unfair, because each car started in either the inside or outside lane parallel to each other. On the first trigger pull off the line, the outside lane car would automatically receive a speed boost, while the inside car would not. Only when the inner lane car changed lanes to the outside lane would it receive its voltage boost.
Any car changing lanes from the outside lane to the inside lane would not receive boost. I think Ideal originally designed the super booster to provide boost for any lane change left or right, but cut the design in half to save on manufacturing and dropped the 2 extra circuits needed to produce a full boost effect. Since it was thought that the inner lane was always at a disadvantage to the outside line having the boost only help the car increase speed from the inside to outside lane change was supposed to make things fair. In reality it did not and required the player to bias the speed Equalizer bar more to limit a cheater using the outside wall centrifugal force to maintain top speed and not fly off the track.

Track specifications

LengthTypePackagingPart Number
10 InchStraightBlue Box3307-6
15 InchStraightRed or Blue Box
12 InchCurveRed Box3348-0
Crossroad Jump overComes with Rallye 1 Set

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