Back in 1969, I was running on Oakland Speedway's hill climb-style track. The track was made of plywood and was very bumpy. Perhaps the biggest bump on the track was the "launch ramp" located at the exit of the big banked turn. I would have to "clutch" exiting the banked turn to prevent the car from de-slotting. Obviously, lap time would be lost by doing this "clutching."
I noticed an older kid who had a slot car that would accelerate around and out of the banked turn without his letting up for the bump. The car would rise up on the bump and crash back down without de-slotting! I asked to see his car, and he showed it to me. His car had a Riggen chassis with an extra chassis pivot. Later on, I built one for an Amateur Class car that featured an extra hinge to handle the bumpy track.
I wanted to build a replica of the extra chassis pivot car I saw back then. A well-used Riggen extra pivot chassis was purchased, cleaned, and repaired. It was heavily corroded, but luckily not rusty. A Mura A-can motor was re-built for the car. The motor has what looks to be Certus magnets and shims. The armature is a machine-wound Mura. The motor draws lots of amps but does run cool.
The car handles well, and power is similar to a car with a good NCC20 motor.
A used Russkit Elfin body was cleaned up and repaired for the car. The painted driver/interior is a modern one.
Russkit velocity stacks were supplied by Victor.
Riggen wheels are used along with Mid-America rear tires.
The car has the same look as this car from an August 1969 Model Car Science magazine.
I could not find this Riggen chassis in any magazine. It is similar to this Phase lll chassis I found in a 1969 Auto World catalog though.
Note, the ad says, "with an added pivot in the middle of the frame so the whole thing bends to handle better on some bumpy tracks."
