31 replies to this topic

[Mad Mark]

Great-looking cars!

[Martin]

Thank you, Mark.
 
Sometime I think nobody else cares about these small details I seem to want to get correct.
 
But I was not completely happy with the Dynamic driver in the Red Ball car. Yes he fits, yes he is low, but he is sitting too far forward and he is not what Champion used.
 
So what did Champion use?
 
This is what I came up with. You take a Russkit Eagle driver, cut the back motor detail off. Then you warm up the Styrene and hold it onto a warm 26D can.
 
Next. I think Champion repopped that driver for their own use. You can tell this because they lost a lot of detail in that process.
 
The head is also a repop of the Cox head molded in one piece and a little smaller due to shrinkage.
 
Pics coming soon, if anybody cares?

[TSR]

Just a quick check of Philippe's listing: the Red Ball Special is not listed as a complete car, but Champion offered a lot of sports and F1 kits with their choice of body...

 

Don, the American Red Ball Spl Indy car is listed as "Re-issued in 1968 with 'no body choice' with Honda F1, Lola T90, Harrison-Ford, Ferrari F1, stock #141."

Champion never sold the car as the "American Red Ball Spl.," merely used the Pactra body and, sometimes, the decals.
Available at first in 1967 with the Ferrari 3-liter F1 body, then the Harrison-Ford Indy body, then the Lola T90 Indy body, all with Mabuchi/Champion "507R" or Mabuchi/Champion "601," then "607" when it became obsolete and Champion needed to move the remaining inventory.

Re-issued again for 1969 as "No Body Choice GP RTR" with Mabuchi/Champion black painted "5001" motor.

[Martin]

IMO,the driver in the middle of this pic would be the correct interior in the Champion cars. I did not have an extra, so I had to reverse engineer one from parts I did have. Explained above.

 

Notice how small the Dynamic driver and base is (on the left) by comparison. What remains of the driver on the right is what came with my car.

 

[Martin]

Happy with this driver and the his position in the car, with a bit of heating, re-shaping etc.I got it to fit  I can now move on.

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[Flathead]

Driver looks good Martin, are you not tempted to heat the solder joints and slide the front end of the chassis forward to match the wheelbase the the body?

[Martin]

Yes I am. I will revisit that. Thanks Lee for saying something about that

 

Not sure this would be so easy?

 

Its plated for starters and you would have to do one side at a time?

 

It could mess with the front body mount tube?

 

These are the reasons I have avoided doing this job.

 

If I have another chassis I will give it a go?

 

But for now I will hold off.

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