In 1966, they get in the door by acquiring Stormer, an already long-established slot car body manufacturing business.
As their accountants do not fail to notice, another slot car company in Santa Ana, by the name of "Competition Hobbies," has been purchasing a sizable number of bodies from Stormer.
A visit by Pactra executives results in the acquisition of the Competition business, which had devised a brass-rod, tubing and plate chassis production line allowing a complex soldered assembly to be performed in an effective manner, the pre-formed parts set in jigs and fixtures, the joints painted with liquid solder and the assembly going through a "tunnel oven" that melts the solder. The chassis are then dumped into a bath that cleans the soldering paste, and a drying process is the final operation.
These chassis use a split front axle made in Japan, so the front wheels rotate independently and have a fixed guide post, but no drop arm. Competition added a Mabuchi FT16D motor painted dark metallic gray, their own aluminum wheels and GRC front tires from Gardena Rubber, and molded black-rubber sponge tires on the rear wheels.
Pactra commissioned Competition to build another line of chassis for their own kits and RTR models, but with a drop arm and using the more expensive Igarashi "Hemi" motor obtained from Strombecker. Wheels are supplied by Riggen, and while the GRC front tires are retained, Riggen provides molded black rubber tires for the rear wheels.
The Competition bodies are painted in a single color, while the Pactra bodies are hand detailed and have decals applied at the factory.
This goes along for the whole of 1967, but as the whole hobby is now in perilous decline, there began a mix of parts between the two companies: some Competition RTR and kits are now sold inside Pactra packaging, and eventually share the newer iso-fulcrum chassis devised in the last months of 1967. The other components remain the same.
Then Stormer goes bankrupt, and Pactra/Competition had little choice but to purchase bodies from Lancer, the only company left that is selling to manufacturers.
And this is when things get complicated, as I explain in the book. There are cars advertised in dealer sheets that have never surfaced, while others exist of which there is no trace whatsoever in period publications.
So there are a dozen or so cars that are "hybrid," using both Pactra and Competition parts or packaging, and some that appear to be "one-offs" as only single example have so far surfaced.
One such example is this Cooper-Ford, still using the Pactra/Stormer body. But this (so far) unique model in mint condition has features not seen on any other Pactra model: its motor is a Testor "Turbo Mk 1" with a Pittman-like brush array on a zinc die cast endbell, and mounted through a typical motor bracket, never used in other Pactra cars until their late 1967 iso-fulcrum chassis. The front axle is also a "solid" unit, instead of the typical split axle used in all other Pactra and Competition chassis.
The LASCM, has in its vast collection, over 200 Pactra and/or Competition models, new in original boxes, or new and unboxed. But none has a 'hybrid" chassis like this one, which also has several small differences such as body-side reinforced mounts for screws, never used on any other Pactra models.
So, one-off prototype? Production model in very limited numbers?
Another "hybrid" is this "TITAN II BAT" kit, packed on a Competition tray, but with a Pactra outer box:
This uses all the standard Competition bits, but what of the RTR version, with this Pactra iso-fulcrum chassis, while retaining its Competition specific motor, tires and wheels?
Makes collecting interesting, does it not?
