9 replies to this topic

[Mudhen]

I used to own a Lee Gilbert Eurosport car which I foolishly sold. Even without a cobalt motor (it had a strap 12), it was the fastest, best handling slot car That I had ever owned, (once I got my hands on a good controller, in this case a Ruddock D30), and I have always  wanted to get it back, seeing as to how rare a Lee Gilbert built chassis seems to be. I wonder, and this is my question, how do and did the designers of these rather sophisticated chassis come up with  the designs, and their complex flex patterns. Where were the first ones made and who made them?

 

Thanks,

Richard Marnhout

[Bill from NH]

Lee Gilbert was a racer in addition to his design & building skills. He designed what he ran & sold. He would farm out the machining of the spring steel parts. The chassis he used in the late 90s & early 2000s wasn't his first. If you dig through old issues of SARN, you'll find the layout of his earlier design. Lee also had a background of racing wing cars before he ran Eurosports. Slick 7 may have cut a batch of his latest design, but they sold their chassis cutting machines before moving to Texas.

[zipper]

My pal got a Lee chassis around 1974 to Finland.

[Jaeger Team]

Maybe that could help..

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[Mudhen]

The one that I got in around 2000 had more hinges and flex points, for want of a better word.

[Bill from NH]

Mudhen, please post a picture of the Gilbert chassis you have. When Lee came to New Hampshire in 2001 to run in our "Race of Champions" he brought along six chassis like those in post #4. I spent a couple hours with him as he mounted O/S Mercedes bodies on each one. One chassis was his personal race car, the other five were one-race rentals.

[Mudhen]

Mudhen, please post a picture of the Gilbert chassis you have. When Lee came to New Hampshire in 2001 to run in our "Race of Champions" he brought along six chassis like those in post #4. I spent a couple hours with him as he mounted O/S Mercedes bodies on each one. One chassis was his personal race car, the other five were one-race rentals.

Like I said,I sold itBut my memory could be fogged by looking at so many other chassis. At any rate, it was a truly magical chassis. But as I said in my original post, what was the progression of these chassis?

[Dominator]

I believe Lee made 3 versions of this design. I think that may be version 2.

[Bill from NH]

I missed the part of post #1 where you said yours sold it. Sorry! Greg Gilbert, now in Alabama, (no relationship to Lee) could probably provide much insight into the progression of Lee's chassis designs, since he raced them for years when he lived in California.

[SpeedyNH]

remember how his later euro chassis had that separate, floppy short guide tongue?  he actually told me that it was an error on his part to make that, but once he tried it it really helped so he kept it. 

think i still have one or two around somewhere.