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Whittaker Brothers Le Mans flyer (on 1d Play)

Thanks for posting these, Rippy. What a pity some of these machines posted by Rippy and TF have not been recreated for modern arcades. At least you would get a feeling of money's worth when playing.

Definitely a decimal update, this one.
I remember it well. The white car (occasionally) paid 1/-.

And black & red paid 2d, green paid 4d, yellow 6d...

There was a greyhound version, and also a Kentucky Derby one, featuring sulky racing.
Whether or not these versions were also by Whittakers remains to be seen. The coin-slot industry has a long history of different makers building the same thing.

Whittaker Bros. made a Grand National, Kentucky Derby and Epsom Derby horse racer. These were all variations of the Le Mans above, with a linear race track, like Paces Races, the first game of this type. Their modern version of Kentucky Derby still takes this form.


The Greyhound racer I remember playing had a circular track. I wonder who made it.

The Greyhound racer had an oval track, with an extra, non-playable track just for the hare, which I thought was a nice touch.
The Whittaker Le Mans had a strange pseudo-figure-8 track, which suggested that it crossed-over in the middle, which it didn't. It was a single, endless track with a 'winning post'. Cars were fixed to an endless Renold's-type chain which ran below the slot in the track.
There were other race games with a 'normal' oval, having separate tracks for each runner.