History
This page will tell you the History of the
Posillipo Slot Club
where all this was born
The Posillipo Slot Club was founded in Naples at the end of 1965 by two brothers, Geppino (Gey) and Claudio (Cla) Savarese.
Posillipo is not just the name of the area where Gey and Cla have always lived. In ancient times, it was a place where the Roman Empire would come to rest and have fun. More recently, from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, it hosted numerous Formula 1 Grand Prix races. Famous names like Ascari, Fangio, Villoresi, Surtees, and many others raced on the winding track located at the top of the Posillipo hill.
Gey, the older brother, was the first to encounter a type of slot cars of the era. In the early 1950s, a now-defunct Italian brand created a game called "Otto Volante." Two small cars, each powered by an AC motor, moved on a figure-eight track. The cars, one red and one blue, ran separately on the track, guided by side barriers. Speed was controlled by two independent knobs on the power transformer. The Otto Volante was not expandable and remained as it was. At that time, Cla was very young and, rather than appreciating the cars, he saw them as objects to take apart. Taking things apart was a strong trait of his.
Gey was the mind behind creating various types of races and designing and building both the hardware and software for race management.
As early as the 1970s, the track featured an analog and digital lap counter with lap times, race records, traffic light start management, and false start detection, even for rolling starts, with penalties or automatic blocking of the guilty driver.
In 1964, it was Cla's turn. His Christmas gift that year was a Scalextric figure-eight track. From that moment, the "Track" grew slowly but steadily. By the next year, the four-lane track extended over twenty meters and was permanently set up at home. The official date of PSC's founding is December 27, 1965, when the first nine races of the year's championship were recorded. Since then, all races, track records, and annual rankings have been documented and preserved.
The principles that inspire the PSC are:
- Driving Skill: The fastest driver should win one type of championship.
- Car Preparation Skill: The fastest car should win another type of championship.
- Fairness:
- Races are determined by drivers and cars, not by chance. No PSC races involve marshals.
- All drivers should have the opportunity to win some races. Many types of championships are held throughout the year, each focusing on either principle 1, principle 2, or a mix of both.