Auburn Rubber Co. Race Car Toys (13 Views) M60 Home     Toy Gallery     Auburn Gallery

This, the first of the Auburn race cars, is the 300 lb elephant in the room. It just dominates all the other auburn racers. It is 10 1/2 inches long, red with silver exhaust and grill, and a driver all in white. It looks to me that the driver has a scarf blowing out behind him like a WWI flying ace. The body is narrow and rounded at the grill, then opens over the engine, and begins to narrow again behind the driver's cockpit. There is a large, rounded vertical fin at the very rear of the car. The large tires are white. Racing! Worldwide, the noise, the crowds, and the pervasive scent of excitement and danger characterized the pursuit of triuphant speed and survival. After the Great War of 1914 - 1918 auto racing seemed to have a life strongly affected by uncertainty, as it was in the memories of bursting shells, merciless cacaphony of machine guns, and the rough and often horrific comraderie of life in the trenches. The years of the Great Depression enjoyed racing as Rome had the Circuses and gladiators fighting for life and for freedom. Racing remains little changed today: knowing the drivers, knowing the cars, and knowing the sound of engines and tires screaming. How could Auburn lost by producing a fine line of race cars? The were sturdy, brightly colored, and drove handily with the kid at the wheel going 'Vroom! Vroom!'?<br> Yes, they sold. Oh, how they sold!
Front quarter view of the 10 1/2 inch long open racer. With the somewhat spaceship design the race car is primarily red with silver on the front grill and on the both sides just behind the driver. The body of this racer is very aerodynamic with a green tail fin and two rounded equally aerodynamic fenders at front and rear. These have green, tear-shaped highlights, and the hood has a green highlight along the center line. The cockpit and driver are silver, and the wheels are white. The exhaust pipes come out from the hood (three to a side) and run along to the back edge of the cockpit on both sides of the race car. The number 7 is painted on the sides of the hood. The windscreen is silver, steering ring black, the dash red. A big, splendid toy! Rear quarter view of the same car.
Front quarter view of the 10 1/2 inch open Indianapolis racer. The body is long and skinny, painted red with silver along the lower sides front and rear where the stabilizer bars are shown. There is also silver at the back of the cockpit. The silver exhaust runs along the right hand side. Auburn is lettered along the sides of the hood just above the silver colored hood louvers. The wheels, about an inch and a half in diameter, are black. The driver is wearing a silver top and helmet. He has flesh tone paint for his face and hands, and is wearing black goggles. The windscreen is silver. Rear quarter view of the same car.
Two smaller racers, the AR05 and AR07, made by Auburn are seen here. One is deep red with black wheels, the other bright red with white wheels. The dark red racer has exhaust on the left with two hood hinges on the lest. One the bright red car has exhaust on the right. One has a more rounded rear than the other. The grill on the dark red version is smaller than the other, which is longer and more swept back. The drivers' cockpits differ, with the dark red being deeper and more rounded at the sides. Both are 4 3/4 inches long. Both also came as 6 1/2 inch versions. The same racers in a more dynamic arrangement.
The same racers in a close-up of the differences in the cockpits and the rear body shape (one rounded, one straight. Front quarter view of the midsize 6 1/4 inch long open racer. This red race car has a low, wide, silver barred grill, the number seven on the side, silver horizontal louvers at the midpoint, the bottom one of which extends to the rear where it joins rounded, silver rounded ridges that sweep around the rounded back end of the body. The driver sits in a deep cockpit. There is a rounded fin at the midline of the body at the rear. The driver is silver with a red and black helmet. The white tires are large, about an inch and an eigth
Another front quarter view of the same race car. Front quarter view of an unusual red and a green Auburn open racer. They are 5 1/4 inches long, roughly two inches wide and and inch and a half tall. At the rounded front is a silver grill that looks very much like a creepy smile. There is a hood ornament above the grill, also silver, and behind it a round silver circle that looks to be where a number would be painted, though none is. The windscreen and steering wheel are silver, the driver body color with silver highlights. The driver's seat top is integrated into an aerodynamic feature that continues to a point at the rear of the racer. The very rounded front of the car ahead of the driver becomes part of the low, almost flat back of the car. There are raised front wheel fender panels, and larger rear wheel panels at the rear. The wheels are small and black.
The same pair of open racers seen from the rear quarter. From this angle the broad, flatten body is very pronounced. A 3-car mold of the ar08 open Auburn race cars before trimming and paint. The molded race cars are black rubber. The flashing around the cars is removed by tumbling, buffing, or die cutting.

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