52 replies to this topic

[Bill from NH]

We are looking for an Ng (built by the brothers Ng of San Francisco) as well as any hand-built controllers in small production made before the Parma Turbo was issued in 1974. Cash waiting.

Do you have one of Maury Beaudou's from CT made in the 1971-73 (?) timeframe? It is essentially a brass contact block in the Parma handle with a hand-wound nichrome wire resister located in a box near the controller clips. One of the first external resistor controllers, but the resistor didn't hang from the handle.

[TSR]

Bill,

We do not have one. However we have limited the collection from origins to the end of 1973. So we would love to get one only if actually PRODUCED (as in "production", not a one-off) and built BEFORE the Parma Turbo was issued, i.e.1974.

Best regards,

[Ron Hershman]

The metal trigger was mounted on a steel cotter pin and the whole thing was simply too hot too handle under power, and the solder joints in it kept melting from the heat, the brass plate then falling inside the handles. I simply had too many issues with it.

Wow, that thing had to be like what??? 350 degrees to melt the solder??? It's amazing the Lexan handles didn't melt first, let alone the insulation on the wires.

[TSR]

They did!
Several times, the plate simply fell off inside the controller as the solder melted... the controller still would work but the power microswitch no longer did, of course.

I have found all the pictures while filling my new computer with old documents, so I will make an illustrated little side story with both Parma, Cotton, and Gorski controllers as well as the prototypes of the Turbo aka Ice Box...

[Steve Deiters]

I think one of the reasons the plates kept coming off was it was difficult to get a good solder joint between the cadmium (?) plated steel frame and the brass plate. The mechanical design of it was not so good either with a big bending moment (in several directions) on a poorly-bonded joint. Pile on top of that increasing number and larger diameter wires packed into the very confined space of the handle and you had more negatives at work than positives.

[TSR]

Most certainly true. I think that Cotton, Gorski, and other builders took the time to file the steel frame so the problem did not come up as much.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

I sometimes forget that Ron wasn't "there" in this period. Maybe we need to show a few melted controllers to him.

I wish I still had the MRRC I melted in '63! I THINK I still have the Cox with melt hole handle, though. In the dark ages, when I was having to have people go to a track to buy parts cause no one would mail order, I replaced several handles of melted controllers. Downrated them for club racing loaners.

Toasty in winter!

Fate

[TSR]

Dan Bloodworth worked at Parma at the time and was a damned good racer, winning the 1971 Parma Nats if I recall correctly. A heck of a good guy, too.

[Cheater]

Correct, and it's worth noting that the 1971 Nats was the first USRA Nats.

[tonyp]

LOL. I remember the trigger getting so hot and you would get blisters so bad it would be painful racing. Many a race I had to wrap my fingers in mystic tape to finish the race.

I never melted off the microswitch plates because I could solder better than the old ladies at Parma, but the shunts to the wiper arm would always melt off.

Before Parma went to the Lexan handles they would melt all the time and as an added bonus when you burnt your hand on the hot dripping plastic and dropped the controller, the handle would explode into pieces. The good old days...

[TSR]

Now you know how I felt!

Tony, I should have built you one of those Ice Box jobs at the time. Sorry I did not...

[tonyp]

LOL, I just remembered on some tracks with hot power the controller would actually smoke while you were using it.

[TSR]

And the smell... no wonder we have brain damage!

[Ron Hershman]

Dan Bloodworth worked at Parma at the time and was a damned good racer, winning the 1971 Parma Nats if I recall correctly. A heck of a good guy, too.

And Dan was the reason for "employment contracts" at Parma.

[Rick]

And Dan was the reason for "employment contracts" at Parma.

TMI!

And the smell... no wonder we have brain damage!

That explains it,

[LindsayB]

Interesting. Coming from a different country (Australia) I raced with a Russkit controller and had the same issues with heat. My approach was different. I cut up a set of car points and used them as the full power contacts.

Pulled all the resistance wire off the resistor, wrapper it with brass strips (about seven) which were then clamped with screws. On top of the controller I mounted connector block that had seven connectors and then pulled apart my mother's old bar heater and pinched the resistance wire and put that in the blocks. After that I never had any issues with the trigger.

This really was nothing new because we were doing the same thing to MRC controllers, this would have been early '70s. I remember because the MRC controller had this brass ring that the plunger went in, the brass ring was supported by plastic and the plastic would melt. The MRC controller was the controller of choice in OZ until the early '70s.

[Mike MacDowell]

I read this some time back before I became a member and finally remembered I wanted to clarify a couple things.

First, these photos ARE of the upstairs manufacturing area of Parma Model Raceway. The raceway did close during 1973 and we moved to the building on West 130th in Cleveland, but the cramped quarters seen in some of the photos make it clear that the manufacturing area needed some more elbow room... and thanks to the landlord, we got it. I forgot how small it was but couldn't have been more than about 800-1,000 square feet. As this article hit the street in January 1974, I'm sure there was some delay from when Bob took the photos, wrote the article, and had it published. Cool to see it again after all these years!!

Next, while I can't speak on all the specifics of who got credit for what at the time, or what was written, the only story that ever held any traction over time was that Philippe was the original designer of what became the Parma Turbo. But it is true that A LOT of time was spent in prototype stage and final design issues for tooling and production purposes. As Steve said, Al Gombach was instrumental in assisting Dad at this stage as a loyal customer, friend, and someone with that knowledge. (Side note: it was not until MANY years later, like late '80s, that Al would come into Parma on Fridays to hang out and visit with us after he retired). In additon, I remember a local racer named John Amorati spent many evenings in Dad's basement workshop making numerous versions of prototype parts and controllers while it was being perfected for tooling and production. He later became a dentist I think.

Thanks, Mike

[Jon Laster]

An aside, why was the Parma spider called a Parma Tiger? I always wondered...

Oh, and anyone remember the bike race in Ken MacDowell's back yard after the 1973 Nats?

Jon

[Ron Hershman]

Because Ken's dog was named "Tiger". So the spider was named Tiger.

[Steve Deiters]

I think it goes back even further than that. As I remember Ken's youngest, David, was doodling, as little kids do, and drew that spider and his dad asked him what it was and he said it was a Parma "tiger". The name stuck and the dog which showed up latter was named after the company mascot.

Good branding... here it is still being talked about over three decades latter.

[Mike MacDowell]

Interesting question, Jon.

Sorry, Ron, but Steve is right that the dog was named after the "Tiger"... we even had a guinea pig named Tiger before the dog.

However, Ken designed the Spider back when he was airbrushing "wierdo" shirts and floppy felt hats before slot cars. The Parma Tiger grew out of that during the raceway days. As the story goes, the spider dressed like a tiger was kind of a goof, inside joke for the local Parma crowd because in the mid-'60s a local Cleveland Friday night horror movie show was hosted by Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson later of ABC announcer fame and father of Paul Thomas Anderson - director of Boogie Nights, etc.) and they made a lot of fun of certain ethnic groups that populated Parma, one of the biggest suburbs... like they all wore white socks, had chrome balls or pink flamingos in their yards, etc... so the spider with the mean tiger looks became the Parma Tiger.

And the mini bike race in our back yard is etched in my mind clear as day. If it was '73 then I must have been 11 and all the famous pro racers I saw in the magazines were hanging out at my house... how cool. They were like my sports heroes of the day in the slot car world. Philippe posted an email I wrote him a few years back either here or at OWH, but the basic story is...

We had a little Honda 50 minibike and it must have been a cookout the day after the Nats where we laid out a course in the yard that was kinda like a King layout around some trees, etc. And of course everyone had to have a turn and we started timing laps. After a few rounds somebody (PdL said it was Jan Limpach I believe) ran into some bushes and a fence and broke something.

So then it was on to bicycles. My mom and dad had basic crusier type bikes... coaster brakes, no speeds, and after some "testing" the guys decided mom's bike was better because it was lighter and must have had gearing such that it was easier to "accelerate" quickly. Well, after a few riders someone broke the chain "punching it" out of a corner and I think that was the end of the racing for that day.

If anyone remembers any other details I would love to hear them.

Thanks,

Mike

[Russkid]

I used to rent track time on the upstairs track, before the production facility took its place. One day, my dad bought me a used Hawk Lancia from the shop for $6, and I took it upstairs to run. I owned it for about 10 minutes before I turned my head and someone lifted it. 'Tis OK though, I have two mint ones now.

I was there one day when a kid climbed onto the Parma King to retrieve a car, and put his foot through the track on the main straight. He was out the door with his stuff before anyone could catch him. Ken and the guys ran for some masonite and had the hole patched and the track back in order in about 15 minutes. Everything seemed to happen very rapidly in that place.

I remember the races on the figure 8 during the days of the Forest City Stock Car Association. I wish someone would do justice to that
period by posting some images of one of those stockers. Hardbodies, wire chassis, spongies, usually 36D power.

The six-lane road course track was cool. 1/32 F1 series races were held on it, Pittmans and Mabuchis. What ever happened to the six-lane track?

I didn't have much moola, and I had to make ad hoc bodies for my Cox mag chassis out of aluminum flashing material. People gave me the hairy eyeball when I ran that thing. But I didn't give a tr@nk!n pl@nk!n gefrapnel..

Keep the memories alive...

[MG Brown]

I am a bit surprised that with all of this talk of the Parma "Tiger" that no one came up with an illustration.

So - I jogged down to the "Basement of Doom" and found a couple of examples.

Here's a half of a controller handle with the "Tiger" applied.



A little closer... see the tiger stripes on the legs?



As I recall the sticker showed up on more than controllers (as Cheater mentioned), here's an example:



Somewhere I have a much used '70s vintage 8/10 ohm Parma-based microswich controller... I'll try to dig it up if there is interest in seeing it.

[Russkid]

As concerns the microswitch controllers, my memories from 1972 are that kids were making their own microswitch controllers out of Russkits or Parmas. One switch for full blast, and another for brakes. These were the tiny micro-switches, some with little rollers on the blade, some SPST, others were DPST.

[Russkid]

The LASCM has in its vault just about every production controller ever made, plus many hand-made "pro" controllers like the only known Gorski still in its original box, a Cotton, several Parma micros, and of course the original Ice Box. We are looking for an Ng (built by the brothers Ng of San Francisco) as well as any hand-built controllers in small production made before the Parma Turbo was issued in 1974. Cash waiting.

I just picked up a mint-in-box Mura. Cool.

I also have one of the worthless, yet still powerfully archiac Gosen controllers. You know, the one which requires two hands to operate, and you can have it on full throttle, and brakes at the same time.