47 replies to this topic

[Chris Burlew]

Hello Larry,

 

Yes Dan was winding arms during the Bicentennial. Dan was a "padawan" of Mr. Bob Green of MURA fame and so Dan had been around a good long while by then.

 

I recall my first try at winding an arm, I think it came as a kit and you wound it and glued the comm onto it and you had a start on a motor. I struggled with the concept as I am not gifted with manual dexterity and when it was done I saw were you could mail the arm to MURA and they would finish and balance the arm. Well I did not believe what I had done was all that bad, but MURA sent me back one of their armatures, brand new in the bag and as a very young kid I was over the moon. The end of my rise to fame as a motor builder...!

 

PS. Hello Mike I will do my best, but I have always found my writing and telling of tales bothers some people. I can only tell you that I do not intend to offend folks. I am in Sales and I had a manager once tell me "Chris, please do not respond to folks with an email, as apparently you can not see the brutality of your writing." I will do my best to re-read everything, but please if I get out of hand just cut me off. Sincerely,  Chris

[Chris Burlew]

Hello Mike,

 

I am curious who started this Slotblog web site, would that be you?  Perhaps it is an organization that owns it? I see a lot of the folks I raced with have passed away and those that have not like Phillippe do not appear to be on line, at least not since 2006 or there abouts. I am as usual 10-15 years too late to the party....  typical really.

 

Do you have a blog story that details how the blog got started?

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[MSwiss]

Cheater, the current owner of Slotblog, can relate the history of it, if he wishes.

 

I'm just a moderator and a friend of his with ZERO financial stake in it.

 

Although , a few years back, someone pointed out that Westmont,  the town my raceway is in(and now my home), is somehow listed as the "location"  of Slotblog. 

 

This was most likely a prank done by someone who was kicked off of Slotblog or left on their own volition.

[Larry Labounty]

Chris I really enjoy your posting always learn from them. Someone once told me that they stack the Lexan sheets, on a mold and pull 10 bodies at a time. I thought that would affect the quality of the body if that was true. 

[Bill from NH]

Stacked sheets would make each body a different size. I've seen photos of multiple molds set side-by-side & 6-8 bodies pulled from a single sheet at once, depending upon the size of the vac former machine. 

[Chris Burlew]

Hey there guys,

 

No stacking the sheets. There are a number of reasons why that would not be good, but suffice to say the machine MAC got from Lancer and the one we had at Outisight Designs was a table with a platform that was roughly 24" x 24" and you would screw a plate to the vacuum machine table top with the mold glued to the top of the plate. There were in fact no sheets, but we bought Lexan in a roll  and pulled the lexan out over the top of the table with the molds on it and then clamped the lexan down and rotated the heat over the top of the lexan where it was heated. Then at the proper moment that frame holding the lexan would drop down over the very hot molds and the suction or vacuum would begin until the body had been pulled into place. With what little bit of a memory I have left we generally would run six molds at a time, unless we were running some HO or 1/32" bodies and then it was a free for all.

 

The first 5-10 "pulls" would yield a clear body, but with lots of dust on the mold it was not as clear as it would get as you got into a rhythm running the machine.

 

I think you could make a machine to pull one body at a time and run sheets of lexan, but that was not what we did in the old days.

[Phil Hackett]

Just in case anyone is wondering who Foamy is.... He is Dennis Hill and he's doing well in Torrance, California....

 

Chris, Frank Pretzman was the one that made it possible to start Sonic Products. John Geddes and I were racing pretty much every weekend and found the tire costs getting out of hand. A fortunate sale of the remaining Riggen wheels, rubber and some body molds to us by Charlie Holland, General Manager of Riggen at the time, gave John and I a large amount of rims and tire doughnuts to play with (something like 6000 wheels and the matching amount of rubber. Riggen had been sold and the new owner abandoned a large amount of raw material).

 

We were happy just making our own tires but one night Frank called me up and asked if he could buy 200 pair of the tires we were making. It turned out that that tire worked well for his track. We thought we hit the jack pot: getting paid for what we were already doing! "Sonic", which wasn't an official business yet, probably sold 1000 pair to Frank over the next year or so. I'd deliver the tires on a Tuesday night and watch Frank paint bodies in the "backroom" while discussing politics, world events and traded slot car gossip. He frequently talked about the "mail slot" and the $50 bill with a name attached to it. I don't know if that was true but he certainly made it sound that way.

 

Those tires were popular enough that Ron Granlee inquired about distributing them through Speed & Sport. This is where the slippery slope started and Sonic was organized (and vastly under capitalized) to make slot car tires which we did until we seized production in the year 2000.

 

There is so much unrecorded SoCal slot car history and I'm glad you have told part of the stories of MAC and Outasight.

[Bill from NH]

Phil, my favorite fronts for 4.5" stockcars in the day were Sonics, I had them for both 1/8" & 3/32" axles. I don't recall if they came in different amounts of firmness or if they were all one firmness. So, some of your tires made it east to New England.

[Phil Hackett]

Phil, my favorite fronts for 4.5" stockcars in the day were Sonics, I had them for both 1/8" & 3/32" axles. I don't recall if they came in different amounts of firmness or if they were all one firmness. So, some of your tires made it east to New England.

 

Not to drive this thread off-topic: those front tires had rubber that was used in athletic shoes. When Nike, New Balance, Reebok, ect. stopped making shoes in the US that rubber became unavailable and substitute rubber wasn't the same. That's when we stopped production of that product.

[Chris Burlew]

Hello Phil,

 

Oddly enough I was thinking about you guys at Sonic the other day. It happens I went into Piranha Raceways the other day and all their tires are black.... what happen to orange tires?

 

Do you still have a biz selling to the raceway distributors?

 

Good to see someone is still around!

 

Chris

[Dave Crevie]

Vacuum forming clear sheet was essentially invented for blister pack packaging. Back in 1962, a family friend was working for Arrem plastics, whos primary product was blister packs. Vacuum forming had already been used in the hobby and toy industries. It would soon take over slot racing.

 

https://youtu.be/r5F...wAQHpc7RGlzKyLU

[Mr. M]

Not to hijack this thread, but what was in the Sonic bottles sold as gear and bearing oil?

[Phil Hackett]

Not to hijack this thread, but what was in the Sonic bottles sold as gear and bearing oil?

 

I don't recall ever selling gear and bearing oil BUT John and I used pharmaceutical grade mineral oil (don't ask where I got it... they're no longer in business), so *maybe* there was a sample of of this running around. There were some counterfeit products that used our logo so maybe that was an example.

 

(EDIT:  I just remembered: was the oil in a needle oiler? I had sourced the needle oilers and received a sample from them... that was an extremely small amount and some of those oilers might have been shipped.)

 

I never wanted to sell oils or liquids.

 

Chris! Was that the race where the SF crew used Beautox glue? After Beautox appeared Neil McCurdy of RevTech came up with Mother Neil's Brickwall. That never was bottled for sale or used outside of testing but it worked as advertised. In fact, the "glue" tore rubber off the rims on the first pass. 

[Mr. M]

It was a needlepoint oiler for sure! Was this mineral oil?

[Chris Burlew]

Hey there Phil,

 

I never expressed it but I enjoyed the time I spent with Neil from Revtech. Do you know if he is still around? I thought he had a day job working for "Panovision" the movie folks with their uber fast cameras. Perhaps he is still doing that or perhaps just retired.

 

There were a great many brands of "glue" used at Monaco for the race in 77, but I never used anything that Neil had put together. It sounds like a little bit would go a long way. That day the guys from Fogsville seemed to have had one gallon containers as we were literally swimming in glue, in both the corners and the connecting straight bits. What a mess they made.

 

Thanks for the memory of Frank Pretzman. I can still see him with one of those long brown thin cigarettes hanging from his mouth, great man!

[MSwiss]

Somewhere he moved to the Chicago area to work for Bosch.

 

Shortly after he arrived, he called Koford Engineering back when I was GM there.

 

Remembering his name, I spoke to him for a brief time and then passed him on to Stu.

 

Unfortunately, I recall that Neal passed 3 or 4 years ago.

 

The Slotblog search feature works really well.

 

I quickly found the article where Mike Brannian mentioned it.(post #19)

 

http://slotblog.net/...-car-armatures/

[TSR]

What Chris did not tell you, is that at one USRA championship race in 1972, he set a new national (and at the time, world) distance record on an American "Blue King", turning 499 laps.

Chris was briefly my team mate in the Bill Steube Sr. "Team Checkpoint", and as I got badly sick that day and decided that I would pass on racing, I gave him my race car, and he made good use of it.
The car survived in morphed form as I used it a few more times that year, and is today in the LASCM museum collection with about 200 period pro-racing cars with history.

Chris was also kind enough to paint my bodies (I used a MAC "Ferrari 612" concocted with Lloyd Asbury).
After I quit racing in mid-1973 after the Nats, I lost track of Chris and was hired by Cox to help them fix the Eldon mess they had inherited.
I saw that Chris had begun the Outisight body business with Frank Pretzman, but my interest was no longer in slot cars and I did not return to even watch a race untl 1994, when the Nats were set in Van Nuys or near Van Nuys in California.

Nice to see that Chris is still around and doing OK. Here is the car he drove so well that day, without its body:



 

[zipper]

I must have copied it - looks so familiar!

[Phil Hackett]

Hey there Phil,

 

I never expressed it but I enjoyed the time I spent with Neil from Revtech. Do you know if he is still around? I thought he had a day job working for "Panovision" the movie folks with their uber fast cameras. Perhaps he is still doing that or perhaps just retired.

 

There were a great many brands of "glue" used at Monaco for the race in 77, but I never used anything that Neil had put together. It sounds like a little bit would go a long way. That day the guys from Fogsville seemed to have had one gallon containers as we were literally swimming in glue, in both the corners and the connecting straight bits. What a mess they made.

 

Thanks for the memory of Frank Pretzman. I can still see him with one of those long brown thin cigarettes hanging from his mouth, great man!

 

This reply is very overdue: Chris, unfortunately, Neal passed away about 10 or 12 years ago. After closing down RevTech, he went to work for Dremel, and for whatever reason, he left there and worked for Trinity RC for a while. Sometime during this period, he got married and later moved to Mississippi. He became very ill and passed on. I had great respect for him.

 

Little known fact: Neal McCurdy is the inventor of the Steady-Cam, now a standard piece of kit in Hollywood. Neal was an engineer at Panavision and, one night was watching a slot car motor break while dangling by the lead wires. He realized this was a cheap and simple gyro and designed the Steady-Cam from this. That next year, Panavision was awarded the OSCAR for innovation, and Neal was supposed to be the recipient, but his boss said no and that he (the boss) was going to the OSCARs.

 

Neal wasn't the most photogenic guy, but this was BS (in my opinion... and Neal's, too).... Neal left Panavision not long after this. If anyone has better info, PLEASE post it here, as I was told all this sometime after Neal left SoCal....

[stoo23]

Little known fact: Neal McCurdy is the inventor of the Steady-Cam that's now a standard piece of kit in Hollywood. Neal was an engineer at Panavision and one night was watching a slot car motor breaking-in while dangling by the lead wires. He realized this was a cheap and simple gyro and designed the Steady-Cam from this. That next year Panavision was being awarded the OSCAR for innovation and Neal was supposed to be the recipient.... but his boss said no, that he (the boss) was going to the OSCARs. Neal wasn't the most photogenic guy but this was BS (in my opinion... and Neal's too).... Neal left Panavision not long after this. If anyone has better info PLEASE post it here as all this was told to me sometime after Neal had left SoCal....

 

Hey Phil, Strange that this info' has turned up here in a Slot Car forum, again.

 

Whilst he may very well have worked at Panavision and worked on and created Panavisions (Later) version of the Steadicam™, called the 'Panaglide', the actual  Steadicam™, was invented and created by Garrett Brown, whilst working for Cinema Products (acquired & owned by Tiffen, since 2000) and was introduced and first used in 1975. https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Steadicam

https://www.redshark...f-the-steadicam

 

Panavision, being as they are and with the Cinema World ALL wanting to use the Steadicam, obviously wanted their own unit, so obviously set about designing one, which obviously Neal McCurdy must have worked on (eventually appearing some time in 1978), but saying that I am unsure of the Slot Car Motor 'Gyro' thing, as to my knowledge, (as with ALL versions of the Steadicam), they are Mechanical devices, not electro or electro-mechanical devices,.. there are NO Gyro's in use in the System.

 

You, the Operator and 'Wearer' provide ALL the Stability and the Steadicam, in effect, acts as an Extra 'Arm' with a Camera mounted to it.

Having been involved with the original units here in Australia, way back when I worked for the Cinema Products agents and having tried and used it myself, wearing one, unless you were also tall and Fit like Garrett, was HARD and a lot of work and even IF you were like Garrett, still a damn good work-out LOL

 

The 'Panaglide' unit was from reports Not nearly as comfortable to wear and Most uses of it often had CP 'Bits & Bobs' added to help and whilst it did work, it had More to do with the stupidly Light camera Panavision built to work with it that allowed it to do so.

 

The 'Panaglide 'Arm', was initially a Gas Shock fitted unit (to avoid Patent infringement) and was to all intents and purposes, a disaster. The Spring version, was a huge improvement but brought the Threat of Lawsuits from Cinema Products and eventually, the Vest & Arm were discontinued, with CP eventually agreeing to Sell Vests & Arms to Panavision for Rental.

 

Please understand I in No Way wish to belittle your friend's possible achievements but, having been involved in the industry at the time and this incorrect information coming up here a 2nd time, I simply wanted to provide the correct information, for those so interested.

Cheers

[S.O. Watt]

post="854506" timestamp="1718650826"]Chris, keep dropping these stories as your time allows. When I started wing car racing in the early '70s, the Lancer Porsche Coupe was the body of choice here in the Northeast, Then Lancer closed down & it became the MAC Porsche. I don't know if Parma ever pulled Porsche Coupes. If they did, we never used them. We went to an open-cockpit Dynamic Porsche & then a Lucas Matra. When the Outasight Ferrari (001?) became available we went to it & ran it into the '80s. I know Outasight came out with several other bodies during this time, because I got some from Ron Granlee, but the Ferraris simply worked. Ron Hershman owns Outasight today in Indiana. I'm not up on his current business since the last local raceway closed in 2010.
 
Steve Bogut was in the Navy rather than the Army. When he was stationed on the East Coast, I would see him sometimes monthly when he ran for Camen & worked part-time for Joel.[/quote]

Actually, Steve was in the Air Force and stationed at Dover, Delaware, for 3.5 years, working as a dental technician. He won the last LA race in 69 and then left for boot camp. We had done a little racing together in 68 and 69, plus we attended CanAm and TransAm races at Riverside and Laguna Seca. 

 

We won an enduro in 68 at Monaco on the Orange track, as Monaco was as close to a home track for us as any. There are a lot of stories from that short time.

 

I last saw Steve in 84 and then lost track of him.

Tom

[Phil Hackett]

Stewart,

 

Thanks for the information. I was told this a long time ago and some of what you posted has rattled some memories to surface and your info seems much clearer than I remember. All this anecdotal info I was told was 30+ years ago.

[Chris Burlew]

Hello All,

 

I see my old friend Philippe was on line and posted a picture. That day was very unusual in that his car was awesome as usual even when I was trying to drive it. I might have set a track record for qualifying as well, getting in the three second range, which was quick in those days. However the timing zone was on the straight, roughly where the controller hook-ups for the green lane would have been and as was my case when qualifying I could not get the car around the donut and the last top turn and onto the straight. The car would go through the last turn like a rocket and jump right out of the slot, never catching the timing zone. I think I did the fastest lap about six or seven times but never hit the timing zone with the car and so it was a strange start to the day.

 

I also recall due to a run through the semi I had to start on the White lane and finish on Red. I lead through the race at various points but when finishing on red I could see the body sliding over to the left as it went down the straight and mistakenly assumed the tires were coming loose, so I stopped to have them tightened. Wishing I had not done so and added a few more laps to that total.

 

I think the record might have lasted a week before Ernie beat it. hahahahahaha... my life as a slot car racer in a nut shell.

 

Philippe was and still is the very best technician I have ever met. His slot cars were heads and tails above anything I ever raced. I still have fond memories of trying to duplicate them when he had a small flat in Santa Ana, where I would build slot cars as he worked in the kitchen on his Yamaha two cycle motorcycles. Glory days for sure.

 

Thanks Philippe, hope you and the wife are both well.

 

Chris