Motor sizes and racing classes

I'll take a stab here Rico. Years ago the standard of motors used for slot cars was a 36D.  They were BIG, like the size of the Radioshack motors NASTE uses. They were replaced by 26Ds which were slightly smaller and more powerful. They are no longer produced.  These were also even smaller motors close in size to the current 16D motors. The main difference between 16Ds and the super 16Ds is the supers have balanced armatures. The Falcon, Plafit, Cheetah series motors are even smaller than the 16Ds, but less serviceable. Each of the motor designations have a specific size and wind of wire on their armatures.

Here's some more info taken from:
History of Slot Car Racing....
The Short Story - by John Ford - johnford@slotmail.org
Scale Auto Racing News Magazine - http://www.scaleautoracing.com
Reference credits to: Rocky Russo, the late Jose Rodriguez, Phillippe de Lespinay, Dieter Bollinger.

"Revell and Russkit started improving the Mabuchi 16D, the literal ancestor to the motor in every slot car today; and they started importing the 36D. This was the same motor but much larger. The 16D motor was 16 millimeters high; the 36D was 24 millimeters high. I have no idea where the 36D part came from.The 36D was the weapon of choice on the commercial tracks for the next couple years. It was much cheaper, made similar power, and displaced the railroad motors on the commercial tracks. The smaller 16D was the motor of choice for the 1/24 racers building skinny Formula 1 racers of the period."

"In early 1969, Dynamic, long the standard in Formula III/Group 12 racing came out with a new car. The chassis was stamped out of brass and it was an ANGLE WINDER. This was the car that made "Group Racing" practical. It handled nearly as well as the scratchbuilt. It came with a 16D motor, good magnets, and #30 single wind armature very much like the one found today in the modern day ready to run slot car."

"Mabuchi came out with a new size motor, the 26D that was an attempt to compromise between the torque of the 36D and the speed of the 16D. But so many builders were working on 16D's, that the 26D proved to be a dead end."

"At the same time the manufacturers got together and agreed to limited class racing. The Classes? Group 12, Group 15, Group 20, Group 7 (open). For the first time, a racer could buy an off the shelf car, travel anywhere and be legal.
The classifications were set up like this. A group 12 ready to run car would cost no more than 12 dollars, a group 15 would cost no more than 15 dollars, a group 20 would sell for no more than 20 dollars, and the group 7 was named after the popular
Can-Am Group 7 class in 1 to 1 scale sports car racing. Just like its namesake, it was an "Open" class, meaning that as long as the size restraints were adhered to, there was no restrictions."

You're welcome Rico.

I'm pretty much out of touch as far as "commercial" racing goes. I'm pretty sure Group 12 is still popular because that's what most RTR flexi cars fall under. Other than that I'm not sure what's currently being raced, or where. Wing cars seem to be popular to some degree at most tracks from what I've seen and read. It might just depend on what a particular commercial track's patrons are interested in?

So, anybody out there want to tell us what they race at their local commercial tracks?