34 replies to this topic

[Larry Horner]

While Ford and Ferrari were battling it out at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, something else transpired that seems to get little attention. Specifically while the GT40's took all the podium spots, a gaggle of 2 liter Porsche 906s finished 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. Quite the achievement when your competitors have engines over 3 times your size! And with much ado about the Ford’s 40” roofline, few realize the 906’s were over an inch shorter. Don’t get me wrong, I love GT40’s as much as anyone but I also think the Porsche 906 is an absolutely gorgeous car and they definitely have the racing cred to back up their beauty.

 

With this premise, it makes since that when I built my tanglewinder chassis awhile back, I purchased a JK factory detailed Porsche 906 body for it. And while this is actually a very nice body for a mass produced item, I thought the venerable 906 deserved better so I put a Ti22 body on the tanglewinder and set the 906 body aside. Then I saw Rick’s jail door Lotus 40 build (http://slotblog.net/...-door-lotus-40/) and decided I just had to make my own all brass jail door chassis and thought it would be the perfect platform for the 906 I wanted to create. And so the journey began…

 

First step was to find a 906 I wanted to replicate. And scouring the web, I found this beauty which has a relatively simple paint job and very few gaudy sponsorship logos. This would be my muse:

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[Larry Horner]

The chassis build itself went pretty smoothly. I wanted to use a 16-D motor to keep with the period of the chassis but the only 16-D motor mounts I could find were by REHCO. These are perfectly fine but required my inner rails to have a 7/8” spacing. But I couldn’t find 7/8” brass strip so for my drop arm, I either needed to mill down some 1” strip or use a 3/4” drop arm. I choose the latter which I think actually looks kind of cool as it carries the 1/16” spacing theme thru to the drop arm. Also I wanted to use duffys but I don’t have any of those either so instead I’m using what I call poor man’s duffys, namely an inner sleeve inside the bearing support tubes.

 

One curious artifact of the 7/8” rail spacing is the way I like to make my drop arms. Specifically I like to have a riser underneath the down stop which has the added benefit of assuring the arm remains centered and stable at all times. But since this riser needs to be 7/8” wide, it dictated that the drop arm be 1/32” thick where the riser is mounted. This in turn dictated that the drop arm is actually a composite of 1/32” thick components.

 

As for liberties, I am using a Swiss 2 degree tongue guide because I love them and I had some on hand. I’m also using ball bearings as I was using those even back in the day (sorry Pablo). The final chassis has a 4” wheelbase, 7/8” guide length and weights in at 57 grams.

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[Bill from NH]

Nice looking chassis Larry! You did a very good job cleaning it up. It'll make a fine race car.    

[Martin]

Pure perfection

[Pablo]

I love everything about it     

[slotcarone]

Beautiful chassis Larry. Vintage style with some modern added in!

[Isaac S.]

Very nice! I really like it.

[Eddie Fleming]

Look at that first photo. The driver is huge, or rather the car is very small. 

[MSwiss]

Larry,
Awesome job on the chassis and thanks for the props on the tongue.

Eddie,
Yes, as mentioned in that recent Slot Car Rod thread, those late 60's, early 70's Porsche's are small.

I think we get faked out my the size of the bodies, made to fit standard 4" slot car chassis.

The JK 908 is probably about 1/21st scale.

I've mentioned this before but one of my sister-in-law's was involved in the bonding of a Porsche 906 and a front engine Chaparral, for one of the Walton's.

The numbers that seem to ring a bell were $640K and $835K.

IIRC, the Chaparral was referred to as 001 or 002.

[Larry Horner]

Thanks for the props everyone! Sadly my work team has notified me that I've got a long weekend ahead of me but I will give you an advance look at where this is going. I bought a clear 906 body and decal set from JK. But while I have managed to become relatively proficient at chassis building, I am decidedly NOT a painter. So at this point, I contacted Jairus who agreed to take on the task. And this is where things get really interesting...

[Phil Smith]

Nice looking chassis Larry! You did a very good job cleaning it up. It'll make a fine race car.    

 

Yes a super job of cleaning up the solder. How did you do that, Larry?

[Larry Horner]

Thanks Phil! So I have a secret weapon in cleaning up my messes ... Dennis Samson (www.samsonclassics.com). Once, I am done making a mess, I sand all the globs off with progressively finer sandpaper (600, 800, 1500) and then ship it off to Dennis who first soda blasts them and then tumbles them. This results in a silky smooth mat finish whose look I love and which I find is more durable than polished brass. I also love the look of polished brass too but for me, it never seems to stay that way for long. To quote a Yamaha ad from the dawn of time, 'Different Strokes for Different Folks'!

[Jairus]

Nice work on the chassis, it looks glued together.
A little careful visible soldering is not a bad thing tho.... just saying.

 

[Bill from NH]

Dennis is a very talented builder. In my opinion, he's one to the top 5 or 6 chassis builders in the US & has been for years.

[Phil Smith]

Thanks Phil! So I have a secret weapon in cleaning up my messes ... Dennis Samson (www.samsonclassics.com). Once, I am done making a mess, I sand all the globs off with progressively finer sandpaper (600, 800, 1500) and then ship it off to Dennis who first soda blasts them and then tumbles them. This results in a silky smooth mat finish whose look I love and which I find is more durable than polished brass. I also love the look of polished brass too but for me, it never seems to stay that way for long. To quote a Yamaha ad from the dawn of time, 'Different Strokes for Different Folks'!

 

 

You're not the only one that loves it, Larry! Again just a great looking chassis.
 

[Bill Seitz]

The Porsches were not the only race cars that were small in the 60's. Wheelbases between 90" and 96" were common, and I believe even the later Can-Am cars were only 100" or so. However, as speeds increased and sanctioning bodies became concerned about broken legs in crashes, the chassis were lengthened so the foot box was behind the front bulkhead (the early cars had the driver's legs going through the bulkhead with his feet close behind the radiator). In the 60's a 4" slot car chassis was close to scale. Not so for the last 40 years at least. Most of today's race cars have 110-112" wheelbases, so 4.5" chassis is not even scale, though closer.

 

The Porsche 904 was the first of the highly streamlined 2-liter LeMans racers. They were beautiful race cars and dominated under 2-liter racing.

[Larry Horner]

And now comes the part of this project that was really fun. One of the first questions Jairus asked was if I wanted an interior and I said a card style interior would be nice and if it had the 6 velocity stacks in the rear deck, that would be nice too. His response was “No problem, I have a Russkit Porsche 906 that will work. And intake stacks are simple.” Then a couple of days later, he reported that he found some decals I would need and best of all, some wheel inserts to match the car in photo. Holy cow, I felt like I’d just won the lottery. Here are some pics he sent to me during the process. Jairus if you’re reading this, I'm just gobsmacked at how awesome this came out! And is the driver based on anyone in particular?

 

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[Larry Horner]

Also notice that Jairus is a way better photographer than I am!

[Pablo]

Awesome!

 

Larry, of all the chassis details my favorites are:

 

-Drop arm hinge and bite bar incorporated into one simple assembly

 

-Gizmo used to govern side to side movement of drop arm yet retain the spacing

 

-Use of square tubing

 

This car is one for the ages  Makes me hungry for NORCAL clam chowder and Frisco real sourdough 

[slotcarone]

Awesome!

 

Larry, of all the chassis details my favorites are:

 

-Drop arm hinge and bite bar incorporated into one simple assembly

 

-Gizmo used to govern side to side movement of drop arm yet retain the spacing

 

-Use of square tubing

 

This car is one for the ages  Makes me hungry for NORCAL clam chowder and Frisco real sourdough 

Use of square tubing--Thus my post about a touch of modern. We never used square tubing for those parts back then.

[Alchemist]

Hi Larry!

 

That chassis construct of yours is impressively splendid!

 

Such admirable craftsmanship Larry!

 

I really like the wheel inserts.

 

Jairus does phenomenal work.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Ernie

[Larry Horner]

Pablo, glad you like the chassis and if you're ever in San Francisco, Martin, Ernie and I would love to buy you a seafood dinner!

Pablo and Mike, it was Marty Stanley that first turned me on to using square tubing although Dennis uses it a lot too. In my case, I love that you can easily solder other piece on top of it ... in this case my pin tubes (moves them higher up on the body) and my drop arm stop. But I guess I was never really aware that it wasn't widely used in the past.

 

Ernie, thanks for the complements and I just put you down to buying Pablo dinner! and yes, Jairus does phenomenal work indeed!

[Larry Horner]

Once I got the body/interior back from Jairus, things took a slight change of direction. Specifically my intent was to try and locate a vintage Russkit motor but I also wanted to try out my new car and the only 16D I had lying around was a ProSlot Speedy FX motor which to be honest, I don’t remember buying and have never used. So in it went and that’s when I discovered it wouldn’t fit under the interior. But a nice thing about modern motors is that the leads are all on one side … so I flipped it upside down. And with the leads now at the bottom and the tapered bevel of the motor’s endbell, clearance was very tight but things did indeed fit. Sadly this means I probably won’t be able to use a vintage motor even if I managed to procure one. It also means that my lead wires come straight out the side to circle around the interior … it looks a little odd but it works great and the flag even self centers.

 

For the rest of the roller stats, I will be mounting the inserts to the Pro-Track wheels in the photos because they mate perfectly and look great but I probably will switch to a bit more performant tire when I test the car out at Eddies. I’m using a Swiss double flatted drag axel because they work so perfectly with Parma crowns which have set screws on both side. Gearing is currently 8/28 but I am open to suggestions (again, never used a Speedy FX motor). And the guide is modern too (JK) because I didn’t have any vintage flags. In any case, the car is very vintage in spirit even if it is sporting some new hardware.

 

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[Larry Horner]

And finally here are some shots of the finished product.

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[Pablo]

Fantastic! I love your new test block also! Looks like you went with 3/32 slot width?