346 replies to this topic

[Mike Steube]

There has been alot of interest in the R&C magazine Sport Car races of 1966. I'm going to try to organize a race later this year using the jail house door chassis' of the Golden Era. DC-65X and Jairus have built some beauties here on the blog. Dig through those threads and take a look at their work. True Scale Bodies have a few bodies that are period correct. The Lotus 40 and the Lola T-70 are two that I can think of. This race should give those of you who were there and those of you who weren't a taste of the begining of So. Cal. Slot Car Racing.

Rules:
Spaced rail, Jail House Door chassis. A maximum of 5 main rails on each side of the drop arm. (5 railer) No tapering of the rails, straight rails from the front to the rear connecting the axles. A maximum of 2 outrigger body mount rails. The drop arm maybe no wider that .750". No more than 2 main rails may be laid side by side. Using 4 rails per side, 2 rails side by side, then a space and another 2 rails side by side is ok. See posted pics for ideas, Billy Steube's R&C coupe car. Please keep your build in the spirit of "1966 to early 1967". Remember, your chassis should reflect an old time jail door.
Half rails front and rear are not to be used. An L rod brace connecting the bracket to the frame rail is ok. These old cars had 1 piece rails connecting the front and rear axles.
Materials:.062" brass or bronze rod. . Brass tubing for axles and body mounts. Brass strip is allowed only for the three sided motor bracket and will not be thicker than .040". No brass strips or plate allowed to brace or add weight to the motor bracket as we do in D-3 and IRRA racing.
Brass rod drop arm. No brass strip or plate for the drop arm. A bushing or tubing may be used as a guide pivot.
No batpans or side pans. Solid body mounts only. Again, a maximum of 2 outrigger rails per side.
Motor bracket. Period looking three sided brass strip bracket. The brass strip will be no thicker than .040". No hypoids. Motor may not be closer than .550" to the center of the rear axle. Motor may slant down to the .062" ground clearance at the motor can brush end.
No piano wire main rails. No piano wire front axle braces. A piano wire u brace may be used inside the motor bracket to brace the bracket and protect the crown gear.
No ball bearings. No axle bushings. Tubing front and rear axle carriers only. 1/8th" side to side slop of the front axle in the tube is ok. ( Cukras Slop)
Overall width 3" inches.
.062" clearance, front and rear.
Maximum ready to race weight limit is 130 grams. The adding of lead or the round brass style weights used in the 60's will be limited to the drop arm only. No lead or brass weights may be added to the chassis in any other place.

Tires/wheels/axles:
Fronts, .875" min. dia.x .200" min. width. The R&C rules say, no o-ring fronts. Back then o-ring fronts were very skinny. I'll allow o- ring fronts if they are wide enough, minimum of .200" wide. Rears .935" min. dia.x .500" maximum width. 1/8th" axles front and rear.

Bodies, no coupes:
True Scale Lotus-40 and Lola T-70. More to be added.

Spoilers:
R&C and Car Model Mag spoilers are legal. No wider than the body. .500" long in the front and .625" long in the rear. ( 1/2" long front and 5/8th" long rear.)

Guides:
Modern or period. Nuts and screws, both ok.

Motors:
TSR-D3 or Falcon-7


RACE DATE:
To be determined.



http://slotblog.net/...11756&hl=steube

[TSR]

I am in!
I may even race a true vintage job... built by some guy in the day called Mike Stubborn or Steubester or something like that.

[Bob Emott]

Coumt me in ..!!! And I'm sure Tony P and many will build cars for the race also.... Tony and I have talked often about our wish that there could be a series based on the old car model rules and I would hope that this would not be a "one off" race.... On my part, the race would be a proxy race, as I would mail my car to the raceway for someone to drive but it would be fun to build the car(s?).... I have every copy of Car Model magazine (and Model Car Science and Model Car and RacingI will check my stack of Car Model magazines as I am sure I have the copy with the rules....
Maybe there could be races once every couple of months for the "jail hous cars" along with the regular Retro Series races.... The cars would have to be patterned after cars that were shown in ine of the national magazines....
Another great idea from the mind and memory of the one of my hero's, Mike Steube..!!!

[Tex]

I'll do my best to send a car for someone to race!

Ande these may be the rules... from Steve O'Keefe's "Independant Scratchbuilder" website...........

http://www.theindepe...s/1966RandC.htm

[tonyp]

Clap, Clap, Clap.

I wish we could do something like that out here but I'd probably have to build all the cars. LOL

[gascarnut]

COOL!

I am IN, and I know of others who will want to be in on this too, notably my buddy in Montana, Jim Hansen - he is already building stuff like this.

Now, can we also perhaps have a sub-class for real vintage stuff? I have a period frame that I want to build up with a Butyrate Revell T-70 body, but it would run with an endbell mount 16D, like a Russkit 22 or 23 - how about some rules for those?

[Noose]

I forsee lots of Lotus 40 and LolaT-70 bodies needing to be done!

[gascarnut]

Plus a few McLaren M1A and M1B too, I would think!

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I have been proposing this for the annual spring convention!

Fate

[Larry Mattingly]

Now, that would bring back memories...

Aside to Tony P and Noose...

I 'unofficially' propose it for the Nov. race at Keystone in place of JK Spec.

Might even get a controller in the hands of Emmot and Gross again...

LM

[Hworth08]

Here are the rules from Rick Thigpen's excellent site.

http://www.theindepe.....;C Series.htm

The rules will be listed in the second race report.

A "problem" could be the modern Falcon motors, they MAY be too fast to repersent the era. Testing will tell but perhaps one of the lowered powered FK motors might be more realistic??

[slotcarone]

Clap, Clap, Clap.

I wish we could do something like that out here but I'd probably have to build all the cars. LOL

I have a few built already-----oh wait I built them in '66!!!!

[TSR]

Mike,
I will help you with the body list.

[Keith Tanaka]

Hey Mike, I'm in.

The 1966 Rod and Custom race series was classic. Since no floppies or hinges (other than the drop arm) were used then (they were not used until 1967), the chassis building was a "challenge" to come up with a "handling" chassis rather than a "pile".

The larger/narrower tires, narrower chassis width and more importantly, 1/16" chassis clearance front and rear made it very challenging to build a good "handling" car. You had to drive these cars rather than "blip" or "punch it" in the turns.

It will be interesting to see how they handle the TSR D3 or Falcon 7 motors compared to the old 16D's.

The upcoming Slotcar Convention at BPR in April could be a good time to have an official race (including Proxy cars).

I know Paul Sterrett is all for this racing class since he's been wanting to race these type cars for a long time.

Hey Mike Morrissey, are you interested in building/racing these cars again

Keith

[Keith Tanaka]

Here's the 1966 Rod and Custom magazine race rules:




Oops, sorry Tex, I didn't see your link to the race rules! Tex's post is much better (text is easier to read).


Keith

[idare2bdul]

The Slot Car Convention at Buena Park March 20-22 2009 is featuring Jail Door chassis cars as a car people are encouraged to bring. We could do a car show section of tthe convention for these cars and it might be fun to do a King of the Hill qualifying race to let them strut their stuff. Let me know your ideas for these cars at the convention.

[Mark Wampler]

I could use a change in pace far as building. I'm not going any faster with what I've been doing, so maybe I can go faster by going slower, if that makes sense.

Retro bodies these days are designed for the 3.125 width. Maybe sqeezing them to 3.0 won't look too funny. I'd like to give it a try. If you stay with 1/8 axles, then you have a couple of points positive for those hate to sleeve crown gears.

If there are still plenty of original TSR motors out there, that would be more in keeping with the era. Falcon 7 and TSR D3's would likely be a handful for handling.

Seems to me that #30 wire was not being used in '66. even in rewinds at least not in small town Pismo Beach. Maybe #32 or #31. For sure there were no such magnets as in the Falcon 7's. A lot more rolling and coasting were the order of the day.

[Tex]

Man, I'd give up my 2009 Sano trip for this! (no offense, Mike)

[Keith Tanaka]

I could use a change in pace far as building. I'm not going any faster with what I've been doing, so maybe I can go faster by going slower, if that makes sense.

Retro bodies these days are designed for the 3.125 width. Maybe sqeezing them to 3.0 won't look too funny. I'd like to give it a try. If you stay with 1/8 axles, then you have a couple of points positive for those hate to sleeve crown gears.

If there are still plenty of original TSR motors out there, that would be more in keeping with the era. Falcon 7 and TSR D3's would likely be a handful for handling.

Seems to me that #30 wire was not being used in '66. even in rewinds at least not in small town Pismo Beach. Maybe #32 or #31. For sure there were no such magnets as in the Falcon 7's. A lot more rolling and coasting were the order of the day.

Mark, the very first R & C race had racers using #29 wire. In the 4th race at Checkered Flag Raceway in Torrance (my old neighborhood raceway!), Mike Steube was top qualifier with one of his Dad's motors (55T of #28 wire). By the last race at Rolling Hills Raceway in Torrance, most were using #28 wire.
Although we were using #28 wire back then, the 16D motors were much larger/heavier than the Falcon type motor and also had inferior magnets. It will be interesting to see what lap times these old style cars run with the sealed motors.

Keith

[Larry Mattingly]

Hey Tony P....

Diaplanes are legal...

LM

[tonyp]

You are getting me excited..

[Noose]

Mike Steube...

Let's really work together on this so we can get East and West and everyone in between on the same page for these totally with no exceptions. I think it's cool.

Larry M...
Sounds like a GREAT idea

Tony...
Now you could actually use this body...

[tonyp]

I have been waiting!

[Tim Neja]

Oh MAN--Noose-- I want that body!!! I'll be IN!! Sounds like fun!! If someone wants to build a car that I can drive--I'll do that--otherwise--I'll build my own for the event anyway and just put it on the shelf after for posterity! I'd love to race against the "Old Farts" with their style of equipment!!
Let's DO IT!!
T

[Tex]

The Slot Car Convention at Buena Park March 20-22 2009 is featuring Jail Door chassis cars as a car people are encouraged to bring. We could do a car show section of tthe convention for these cars and it might be fun to do a King of the Hill qualifying race to let them strut their stuff. Let me know your ideas for these cars at the convention.

NOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!!!! I have to attend a software user's convention beginning March 22nd and won't be able to attend the convention!!! AAAGGHHHH!!!!