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About Slick 7

Slick 7 products was started in 1980 by then top rated "Pro" Rudy Garriga
The company was started mainly to introduce the Silver Contact, still the finest silver contact available for high quality slot car controllers as well as a small number of unique, performance enhancing or  building aids.
Shortly after the start of the company, Rudy Garriga gained many victories in California, and in 1981 was the first to ever win the Nor-Cal and So-Cal USRA championship in the same year, and winner of the 1982 West Coast Championships
In 1982 Slick 7 introduced the first precision cut steel chassis for "Pro" level racing, this changed chassis building forever, as rapidly the art of hand cutting steel chassis died out with people turning to building Kits.
As the product line increased, Slick 7 introduced the first full line of scratch building components to scratch build slot car frames, as well as new chassis, which held world records and won National Championships from 1984 to 1988, then later in 1992, 1993 and 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999..
In 1987, the scale car was brought in from European club racing to the U.S. and Slick 7 was the first U.S. company to look into these new types of "Pro" level cars. Slick 7, then prototyped many 1/24 scale versions of the 1/32 scale European cars, refereed to as Eurosport cars.
By the late 1980's Slick 7 Eurosport chassis designs had won the 1989 European championships and Slick 7 had Eurosport kits available in 1/32 and 1/24 scale cars.
In 1992, there was a Slot car boom in California, and Slick 7 was the only manufacturer to keep up the demand of slot cars and slot car parts. Slick 7 doubled in size, and in 1994 bought a high speed wire EDM system dedicated to cutting high precision EDM chassis for the elite classes of slot car racing.
During this period, the sport of slot car Drag Racing gained popularity, and Slick 7 introduced new drag racing chassis, which were the lightest available, and ran consistent runs, making these chassis the threat to win any drag meet they were entered in.
By this time, Rudy Garriga was retired from racing, and had no sponsored racer support, so The chassis line was mostly supported by independent racers, with surprising results.
In 1993, after several years out of the winner's circle due to most top sponsored racers being forced to race the newly introduced chassis designs by their motor teams. Slick 7 and Zap products joined forces and teamed up with Texas independent racers like World Champion P.A. Watson and Leo Winters. In 1993, P.A. Watson set a distance record with the Slick 7 "Boss" chassis, and later in the year at the 1993 nationals, Slick 7 swept qualifying with Craig Landry of ZAP, breaking the world record and setting top time in Pro, Leo Winter setting top time in Gr-27 and Semi-pro for a Slick 7/Zap sweep of qualifying. In the race, P.A. Watson won the Pro main with a Slick 7, as well as Austrian racer Eduard Bartovsky winning Semi-Pro to complete a near total dominance by Slick 7 of the 1993 USRA Nationals.
 
Slick 7 products were back in the spotlight again in Feb. 1996, when Don Perko broke the World record again with a Slick 7 chassis, and a few weeks later set a new record again with a 1.759 second lap in Chicago.
Slick 7 continues to expand, in 1996, we have expanded into high energy cobalt magnet manufacturing, purchasing a 150,000+ gauss magnetizer and some of the world's best Samarium Cobalt material to produce improved magnets for motors currently available.
After Tracy Chin's win of the 1996 Scale Nationals, in 1/24 Eurosport, Slick 7 picked up one sponsored drag racer, Mike "Ace" Aceves and Eurosport driving phenomenon, Paul Gawronski to set up some of the most dominating times in our history in 1997.
The year 1997 has seen Slick 7 win the 1997 World Championship, over heavily favored (by the general public, which seem to repeatedly underestimate the Slick 7 product line) European entries, followed by a complete dominance of the 1997 National championships, dominance of the Western States Championships, where Slick 7 chassis were used to win Gr-7, Gr-27, I-15 and 1/24 Eurosport!
Paul Gawronski's had a great part in this, because our top of the line products combined with his great driving gave Paul his first Nationals in 4 attempts and since being sponsored by Slick 7 Paul has lost only once to team mate Tracy Chin...  Slick 7 racers did not lose a Eurosport race from Jan. to June 1997.
Since 1998, Paul and Tracy have parted ways, and new racers run for Slick 7 in Eurosport. But the Eurosport chassis development has accelerated and evolved to produce great handling cars in the Defender III and the planned release in 2000 of the Defender IV and the Cobra "3".
Gawronsky and Chin are no longer with us, but we have teamed up with the great Lee Gilbert to produce some of the fastest Eurosports in the business with the Speed Chassis and the new Cobra "4".
 
This Eurosport development has given birth to the Slick "ASP"  proving to be the most dominating GT12 chassis in history!, With that development, we have developed the K-1 a similar chassis, but much lighter for King tracks and Banked tracks, and the GTC, a Cobalt scale 12 chassis that is un-beatable on road courses!
 
In the drag scene, Slick 7 came to dominate that segment in 1997, setting 5 world records, and developing "The Flash" the lightest slot car chassis on Earth! at 10.2 Grams assembled!
In 1999, Slick 7 had had a part in winning many major events, in particular, the Global Nationals, where Mike Aceves finished 1-2-3-4 and Slick 7 chassis were in most of the top 8 positions.
 
In the area of Motors, Slick 7 developed a new line of magnets, based on new magnet materials which are heat resistant! Today Slick 7 makes over 40 styles of magnets for the cobalt motor classes and is the leading supplier of after-market magnets in the industry, allowing the racer to improve motor performance tailored to individual track power curve requirement!
Today Slick 7 magnets are the dominant after-market magnet, and the most commonly sold magnet by slot car distributors... just about everyone is running Slick 7 magnets!
 

In 2003, we see Slick 7 supplying the world's top racers with chassis and magnets to set World, European and U.S. records in open class racing.

We also gave birth to Slot Sports, a company which will focus on the home set cars and scale model slot cars. This company is small now, but we have hopes of applying all the innovations and business principles that has made Slick 7 what it is today!

In 2004, Bill Ianne broke the AA/FC world record, using the Slick 7 Flash II, This record, which has eluded us for years, allows Slick 7 to claim what nobody has claimed before, all records for Gr-7 racing, that is the Wing car 1 lap record, total lap record, Drag racing MPH record, AA/FC record, and AA/FD record are all held by Slick 7 chassis. This means that all Gr-7 records in Slot Racing, since multiple records were tracked are held by a Slick 7 chassis. Never has this been done before by one manufacturer!

Slick 7 continues to improve, and supply top quality products to independent racers worldwide, giving you, the independent racer an edge over the factory sponsored racer, who is forced to race his sponsor's product line as, since no one manufacturer has the best components for all aspects of the slot car, and none have the Slick 7 Products that give you that edge!

 


03/02/2014