< back

Car Players

Home

Car tracking is where the whole thing began: the first commercially available 8-track players were introduced by the Ford Motor Co. in 1965 in a deal cut by the inventor of the 8-track, Bill Lear. Home players came later...it all started on the two-lane blacktop! After-market players were the way to go, though, because they were cooler looking and more powerful. Any way you slice it, car decks are the original -- and therefore purest -- form of 8-track listening satisfaction.

1979 Cadillac DeVille Factory In-Dash 8-track player  

Contributed by Yeruchmiel@aol.com

 

caddyRadio.jpg (73194 bytes)

Radiomobile 8-track player  

Contributed by Oliver Hennessey <ollie@dimera.freeserve.co.uk>

radiomob.jpg (20581 bytes)

Auto Sonic 4-track player  

Contributed by  Dan Jobin DJobin@kicker.com.

This machine is cool because it has the speakers built in to matching chrome boxes that are mounted to the sides of the tape player. The layout is such that it will straddle the hump in the floor of your car. The power connection is made through a cigarette lighter plug.

Auto Sonic Car Player

Panasonic CX-601EU

Quadraphonic 8-Track Under-Dash/Home Tape Player

This unit can play in the home "base" unit (has 110v ac power supply for house current), and the 4 home speakers would be connected to the back of the "base" unit. The unit slides out of the home "base" and slides into the car under-dash bracket for playing in the car. Also featured: an optional am radio pack complete w/leatherette-style case, that looks like an 8-track tape and plugs into the unit to make it an am radio. Year manufactured - 1972
Thanks to Darwin Heiser hemihead@getnet.com for this one.

Craig/Pioneer 4+4

This sturdy unit by Craig/Pioneer has worked year after year with no problems. Nice multi-colored track lights, and it has a huge amplifier, so it will really crank. Solid, functional, no frills, sounds great -- a true standard of 8-track audio excellence.

Craig/Pioneer

Craig 3133
Quadraphonic Home/Car Player

This quad player by Craig will work either in your car or your house. For home use, the unit slips into a faux-wood base that connects into your home quad receiver. For the car, it slides into a bracket on the center hub of your car (no under dash mounting with this baby). It's a bitchin' quad player that "can recreate the impressive sound of the concert hall or the wild atmosphere of a rock festival."* It also features an FM-only stereo radio (even in the early '70s most cars came standard with AM radio only). There's even a key to lock the unit in place in the car.

Dokoder Quad Deck
Ocean 8-track/Cassette/AM-FM
Model FX-008
In-dash Tape Player

Wow! Cassette and 8-track in one machine. The ultimate transition deck, when cassettes were taking over and 8-tracks were dying out but you still had a big investment in your track collection. I'd like to have one of these NOW, for that matter!

Ocean_8_track.JPG (10165 bytes)

*from the owner's manual

Click Here for QUAD auto players


Back to "Players We Have Known and Loved" page

Back to [CONTENTS]