Speedway

Speedway was made by Southland Engineering, Incorporated of Santa Monica, California, and shipped to distributors starting in June 1963, as announced by company founder Harry Williams (also the original founder of Williams Mfg. Co.) in The Cash Box that month. Despite being an electro-mechanical coin-operated amusement, Speedway is explicitly not a pinball machine -- it is an arcade driving game in which two players use steering wheels to race miniature cars around a figure-8 slot car track under glass, with laps tallied on the backglass. The first player to complete 20 laps wins.

Priced at 10 cents per player, Speedway featured a formica-covered cabinet. Its auto-racing theme proved popular enough that a pinball machine with a similar theme, Midway's 1963 'Race-Way,' followed soon after.

Little else is documented about Speedway's specific design or commercial reception, but as an early example of a coin-operated driving game, it holds a notable place in coin-op history distinct from traditional pinball.