314 replies to this topic

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

A NEW class! 16d sidewinder brass rod SMALL cars! Grin. P...look, if you can find me a body and parts, I will do you a car you can drive.

I think that is the new class, though. Sports racers derived from small stuff. Lotus 19, Cooper monaco, Lotus Ferrari, Lotus Porasche, Brabham and so on. Sidewinder russket 22s (we can all get them from BP!).

Professor motor has the replica russkit wheels.

Fate

[TSR]

Rocky, I don't know if we need a new class but those smaller cars should be fun. Lotus 23's, BT5 and BT8's, Elva MKVII, Porsche RS61, Cooper bobtail... MMMMmmmm...

[havlicek]

...how about just sidewinder Mabuchi 16D? Ooo oo, can they be rewound as in the days of old too...or should I just keep aiming at building a thingie?

-john

[idare2bdul]

I've got a couple bodies for this proposed class already. I was just going to build them for fun. For horsepower a C can wasp would be fun.

[TSR]

Yes, Mike, it is really vintage too...

[idare2bdul]

Vintage??? As are your beloved FK's? If you remember I was suggesting 16D's would have been more vintage from the onset. You missed my attempt at humor. A wasp would be a bit fast in a car that size. Our jail Door motors would be a better match.

[Duffy]

Okay, I see the train wreck coming. DON'T call it a class, don't go all racy on us--not yet anyhow. That way lies chaos, we haven't settled in with the mainstream JD yet and we really need to.

But we can cook the idea.

Call it...an "Event." A niche? --A happening? Spit on the rug and call the bat a custard? "...And if EIGHT people put their cars on the track, sang a chorus of Alice's Restaurant Massacree and walked out, why, friends, they'd call it a MOVEMENT..."

And just run where you are, talk about it, let the interest happen as it will. Have ad hoc races. Two guys bump on the track with their 64s, y'got a race. Do Blog shootouts. If it grows, it goes.

And, okay Fate, I'm callin' you out! Rocky always claims he of all the world can write a boilerplate Rule, it's all yours, buddy.

What's a sidewinder?

Duf

[Tex]

Leave the "racing class" behind as a paradigm and focus on...... the "slot car convention". Under such auspices, it is acceptable to show up with different cars, whatever floats yer boat, and be on the track at the same time. No trophies. No "winners". Just like-minded enthusiasts having fun.

[idare2bdul]

We don't need to turn everything into a class. The convention format is a lot of fun. You run cars that would be shelf queens and unrestored period cars and everything in between

[Duffy]

That works fine. Talked a little with Fate last night, starting with the quip "The Rules are: there are No Rules." Basically went downhill from there. But, a non-event (okay, Convention then) gives us a chance to mess with some stuff we might not have tried otherwise, just because that's where the buzz is.

Duf

[TSR]

Vintage??? As are your beloved FK's? If you remember I was suggesting 16D's would have been more vintage from the onset.

An amazing comment. Are we talking pre-1967 Mabuchi or 1980's Parma?
Also and for the Nth time: D3 is not "vintage", it is "retro". Since you are constantly screaming that FK's are retrograde, I guess they make the retro grade.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I propose that, as freinds, we rebel agains the "class" idea. Lets do some cars. If we can race them at the convention, cool. Perhaps even as a support class for the "jaildoor". But not a REAL class. just us, for fun.

I would offer as motors, those cases of Russkit 22s that BP has. Period 16ds, allowed to upgrade to the second gen endbells, factory winds only OR an agreed upon wind that John or I do so that the non motor guys don't panic.

The small cars.

Just for US to play. Survivors acceptable. Dynamic chassis are acceptable. And on.

oh, 3/8 x 7/8ths rear, 1/4 x 3/4 fronts. 1/16th all around clear. Sidewinder OR inlines only.

Fate

[Duffy]

Okay.

How 'bout width? If it was just me, I'd use what I found in the photos for the car I'm building. But that's just me.

It'll be interesting making a chassis with real bearings! I think I remember how...okay, I'm off to Tam's to look for reeely ratty Cooper Monacos.

Duffy

[Duffy]

Mildly ill and laying around (gathering energy to get to Slots-A-Lot this evening), I poked about looking for suitable 1964 "Lost Cause" cars and the shells to go with 'em. In addition to the Tom Anderson bodies we know of, Howmet TX has graciously supplied me a .doc of the whole BfB line; with the caution that it may not be 100% reliable, which is all right since most of those cars weren't either. Anybody wants a .pdf of that list, ask me.

And, given the 3/8" max rear tire, now I have something to do with the other slice of all those 1" wide donuts of soft rubber I couldn't bear to throw away! O it is good to hoard.

Just have to find the motors.

Duffy

[havlicek]

... any 16D, any wind, any endbell (Tradeship), bearings, bushings whatever. Who cares about the particulars if it's just for fun? Besides, the faster ones will probably vaporize first!, leaving the slower ones to "win".

(I still think that red Brabham sidewinder is cool as all getout!)

-john

[Horsepower]

That picture does not look like a TTX-150 to me. Am I wrong? It looks more like a 26D or a 160D.

[Duffy]

John H:... any 16D, any wind, any endbell (Tradeship), bearings, bushings whatever. Who cares about the particulars if it's just for fun? Besides, the faster ones will probably vaporize first!, leaving the slower ones to "win".

Wull...oh.
--OH.
Wull, yah, if it's like READILY AVAILABLE we RUN it, right? (16D, right, I had to look it up, I'm a little slow.) Makes sense, and I'm sending off for some this week.

This's happening, guys. While I'm waiting for those Lotus 19 pops & variant pops, I just may have a Lotus 11 on the way to me. Be envious. Be very envious. If you're into that sort of thing.

Duffy

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Vintage.

Out of curiosity, in the north case at BP, chris had several cartons of Russkit 22s, anyone know if they are still there and how much?

Cool, would be to use period design chassis. In airplane circles, for decades, they have had a guy who is in charge of establishing venue. THAT is an option.

John, in the day, in those set ups, I don't think we got hotter than a 32s to survive. If you want to play, I can send you a couple arms! Not racing, NOSTALGIA!

Looking at the Brabham...It doesn't look like the TT150 to me either, but a modified earlier 100. If I remember my cox nomenclature, the 150 was endbell drive with the brass housing and floating bushing.

When we were racing bodies THAT scale, we didnt have the 26ds yet. When the 26ds came out in april 66, we had all gone to the flatter wider, but not quite "handling" thing of spreading the sides, flaring and so on. In those days, I had several "non starters" that still survivie for Lotus 7s, 11s and the like.

You guys are giving me the excuse to resurrect them.

Back in the day, I was wasting my allowed practice time on an orange track running a "jail door" type Lotus 7. I knew my "real racer" and the trackwell, and was just playing. A freind assumed it was a serious entry and thought I was trying to enter a 1/32 car!

Thanks for bringing this up, guys.

Fate

[TSR]

Looking at the Brabham...It doesn't look like the TT150 to me either, but a modified earlier 100. If I remember my cox nomenclature, the 150 was endbell drive with the brass housing and floating bushing.

Hi Rocky,
Actually it is neither one. The motor in that car is a "1968" Mabuchi FT16DBB with the aluminum ball-bearing housing and oval can hole.
The Cox TTX150 is always a Mabuchi FT16D with can-side drive. The only endbell-side driven motors issued by Cox were the TTX100, a Mabuchi FT16 (first version with rectangular can vent holes and no brush heat sinks, as used in the Ferrari and BRM F1, the Ford GT in both the 1/24 and 1/32 scale as well as the 1/32 scale Cheetah, all "series 1", and the TTX200 that was a Mabuchi FT36 without the brush heat sinks.
As far as the Russkit 22 motors (FT16, no brush heat sinks), yes they are readily available from BP as well as Electric Dreams.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

The point is that Duffy has ZERO retro stuff but wants to play with some of these small cars and wants to use a period motor. Thus, the question about the russkits.

One of my "lost cause" survivors is 3/32 brass rod and sheet with a 36d in it! Built in 64 for the cooper monaco/king cobra body.

Never competitive, but always fun.

Fate

[Duffy]

Not really a problem, I think. As Philippe's been saying, Vintage is not the same as Retro--so by the same token, Retro needn't necessarily include Period. If remaining Russkit 22s are so dear as to fetch $25 now, I can certainly be happy enough with an almost-like at $9.
And JohnH nails the sentiment: if it's for fun, the particulars become discussion points and not sticking ones! It gives semi-handy geeks like me a chance to muss with motors where I might not otherwise try, or to learn what was & wasn't done In The Day without it all descending into endless "Wull, but what IF Spartacus'd had a Piper Cub, then--" wrangles.

Gotta spring for some little car bodies, more important. These days, "Salaried" is just another word for "Fixed Income!"

Duffy

[Duffy]

Three weeks on, Life Gets In The Way, and tonight I'm ready to start bending rod: my Dylan-spouting buddy came through with a Lotus 11 and some motor bits&bobs, more than enough to make one semi-reliable mill for this little gem.

Working alongside a Genie-Ford and maybe a Howmet GT all simultaneous, this is one pow'fully small car. You see the wheelbase, and the track's maybe 2.3" if I don't find docs on wheel openings. This one will not be a sidewinder.

The wheels you see here are the beater set while I look for respectable rubber.Not in my budget yet. Besides, who's gonna see 'em under there?

Gonna loooove this. Goin' off to hit Tam's before bed...
Duffy

[Darkron9]

Hi

Vintage.

Out of curiosity, in the north case at BP, chris had several cartons of Russkit 22s, anyone know if they are still there and how much?

Cool, would be to use period design chassis. ..
Fate

Rocky,

I asked Lenore about those motors a couple of months back and she was asking $10 each for them at the time. The price might have changed since then.

Ron

[Keith Tanaka]

Rocky,

I asked Lenore about those motors a couple of months back and she was asking $10 each for them at the time. The price might have changed since then.

Ron

Rocky, Ron, I saw the Russkit 22's in the BPR display case this last weekend. They were marked $25 each.

Keith

[team burrito]

A hobby store had about 50 of those motors & I bought them all for the guys at SCR, about five years. I think they were 3 or 4 dollars each. I tried one & it was not very good at all, but maybe I was expecting too much.