The car was introduced four decades ago, from humble beginnings of pieces of scrap cobbled together by Brand. Remnants from old washing machines, formica counter tops, and homemade magnets were the genesis for what is probably, no, definitely, the most revered product in the industry. It still holds that position to this day, and the appeal seems to be growing.

To put this all in perspective, we would like to present a time line of events from the year 1963. The world was a different place back then. It was larger, and perhaps simpler, but every bit as terrifying, I suppose. Let's head out.

It would be the last year of John Kennedy's presidency. His assassination would forever remove the naivety from the country. Soon the nation would be set afire with protests. Protests about war, race, and gender, all taking their demands to the streets in what was supposed to be peaceful events, but frequently was not.

The once dominant manufacturing base of the United States was gradually being eroded by foreign products. German and Japanese cars were making headway with a new generation of cost and environmentally conscious consumers.

The most important advancement in the history of mankind was in full swing. The Space Program. The space race brought feelings of anxiety and angst. The first woman in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Another "race" was the Arms Race. In 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was ratified by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. It prohibited testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in outer space, or underwater.

George Wallace is first elected as Governor of Alabama. This sets the stage for his open position on segregation, and the establishment of the American Independant Party. In 1963, Reverend Martin Luther King led the March on Washington. People came from all over the country. More than 200,000 people heard King's dramatic plea for racial equality at the Lincoln Memorial. Bobby Frank Cherry was found guilty of four counts of first degree murder in the last 1963 16th Street Church bombing trial.

Estes Kefauver (1903-1963), a United States congressman from Tennessee, won fame in 1950 as head of a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime. He was the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1956. He and presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson lost to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

Stan Musial, a first baseman and outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to his retirement in 1963, won seven National League batting titles. In 1963, Jim Brown set a single-season rushing record when he ran for 1,863 yards. He is selected the League MVP. Rogers Hornsby, an American baseball player, often called the greatest right-handed hitter of all time, dies in 1963. Sandy Koufax was voted the most valuable player in the National League in 1963 and the best pitcher in baseball. Mark MaGuire and Hakeem Olajuwon are born. Pete Rose joins the Cincinnati Reds.

James W. Whittaker became the first American to reach the top of Mount Everest. In 1963, astronomers using the Hale telescope, on Mount Palomar, first identified quasars.

Unofficial figures indicated that California passed New York early in 1963. Libya, as a United Kingdom, was formed. Morgan, Garrett Augustus (1877-1963), was an American inventor. He developed a number of devices, including versions of the gas mask and traffic light. The Fischer quintuplets were the first set of quintuplets born in the United States to survive early infancy.

Patsy Kline was at the peak of her popularity when she was killed in an airplane crash near Camden, Tenn. Bob Marley formed a group called the Wailers that included Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh. The British Invasion hits the Americas full force.

Jonas Salk was one of the inventors of a polio vaccine. In 1963, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies was established in La Jolla, California. The final test of the Saturn rocket that was to eventually take Americans to a moon landing. The ZIP code was instituted.

.First TV pictures transmitted from a manned U.S. space capsule, astronaut Gordon Cooper's "Faith 7." Because the picture quality is poor, only NBC carries the transmission, and on tape-delay, not live. CBS becomes first network to expand early-evening network news from 15 to 30 minutes. Tv transmitter remote control authorized by FCC.

I suppose when we look back, we view it as a rather simplistic time, but it was also seminal. Great movements, and scientific discoveries and progress marked this year. In the midst of all of that, one diminutive man, looking for a solution to his own small problem, designed and produced the best chassis that HO slot cars have ever used.