46 replies to this topic

[Hworth08]

Philippe,

The Roy Moody article was in the May issue. The first anglewinder 1/24 race report was in the July issue.

But John Anderson was supposed to have driven one of Gene Husting's anglewinders to twelve straight wins in weekly races?

I get confused!

[don.siegel]

I'm a little surprised nobody's mentioned this chassis/motor, which seems as amazing as the anglewinder. Extremely fine work, Mr. Moody! Took me awhile to figure out that it was not a magnet-less motor, but that the magnets were specially ground like pole pieces...

And yes, Don, the timing on the AW stuff doesn't really compute, but between lead-times, late reporting, and maybe a little spy vs spy stuff, who knows?

Don

[One_Track_Mind]

Don,

Can you identify this body? Would it be as the same as this one built by Chris Clark?

Bosmeck/Watson car

[One_Track_Mind]

Coming to the end of the chassis, I think Noose would have a problem with the lead on the bottom of these chassis trying to go thru tech!

The motors are not solid mounted; they're allowed to rotate or twist.

There are still some bodies to show.

I think these are a possible Riggen brass chassis? Would or could somebody confirm this?

[TSR]

Of course they are Riggen chassis, from 1969 to be exact.

The body is of the ubiquitous Veco/Auro-Hobbies Cobra. Must have been thousands out there, still plenty of them around it seems.

The Roy Moody article was in the May issue. The first anglewinder 1/24 race report was in the July issue.

But John Anderson was supposed to have driven one of Gene Husting's anglewinders to twelve straight wins in weekly races?

I get confused!

The confusion is due to the publication schedule of the period magazines. The sequence of events is clear as far as when all happened and how it happened.

This has been well explained before but will be said in fine detail in the new book.

[don.siegel]

Can you identify this body? Would it be as the same as this one built by Chris Clark?

Bosmeck/Watson car

Yes, I'm pretty sure this is the Auto Hobbies Cobra GT body (wasn't there some doubt about whether that was the body Chris was using though?) - but I was mostly interested in the motor, which is obviously a home-made job and a good one! Wonder if it was adapted from a Pittman DC196 type motor, entirely scratched, or what? I've seen a few of these "sidewinder conversions" on British cars, and they're always very impressive (I think John S had one or two in his box at Brooklands...).

Do you actually have access to these cars? I wasn't too clear on the actual status of this collection...

And yes, those last cars look like modified Riggen chassis, which would probably place them more in 1969 or so, I believe - I'm not at home, so can't check the reference stuff right now.

In any case, many thanks for publishing these pictures, this is a treasure trove!

Don

PS: P, speaking of the book, aren't I supposed to be doing some copy-editing...?

[Jairus]

Ah... someone suggested/asked Chris if that Cobra body MIGHT be something else. But I took both bodies out of their AUTO HOBBIES packaging during the chassis construction. They are indeed "Auto Hobbies" productions!

Now, we return you back to your regularly scheduled thread...

[Hworth08]

The motors are not solid mounted; they're allowed to rotate or twist.

I can only guess when the " floating motor" frame was popular at our local track, but probably early 1966. Several methods were tried with equal results... no improvement! But we were trying!

Great bunch of cars! Thanks for listing them.

[Ramcatlarry]

The custom Cobra motor looks to me to be the magnet from a Lindsey train motor with Pittman brush hardware and custom bearing supports. Similar customs were used in drag racing, and Gene Husting used Lindsey's - maybe he thought it would be worth a try. Is the armature skewed? Saw a lot of this type of front end design in the midwest clubs. Not all cars that turn up in collections are the best or winning cars - only that they have survived.

[don.siegel]

Keen eye, Larry - that does look about the shape of a Lindsay magnet, but that would also put this car back in '65 or so, well before the others. I looked a bit closer and it seems to be a five-pole arm, probably a Pittman (DC65X?). That would make more sense than regrinding a magnet too, although Roy Moody probably could have done that!

Jairus: thanks for the confirmation. I had seen the question and then couldn't remember in what thread to see if it was ever answered. Funny how the beautiful paint job changes our (my...) perception of the body shape. Nice chassis by the way!

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

P, you mistake my point. I am not asserting I KNOW who was first. As you know, I was in contact in the day with the players in the Midwest. And the conversations were AT THE TIME things, not some "I know something P doesn't'.

"Years".. actually P, the 26D came out in '66 and I am not sure that seeing THAT photo of a 26D being the first published photo is"proof" that the first actual anglewinder was a 26D! And I was definately NOT saying Schleicher was first, only the first article I remember in the mags ABOUT them was by Schleicher. He is no help on this as he has no real memory of anything he wrote in the day.

The first one I remember anyone talking about, oddly, used the shorter Eldon motor! Well, it used the can.

In the day, the fashion was, if you built, doing short 16Ds as full sidewinders. I did one where I used a shop drill press to drill an axle carrier INTO the magnet of a shortened 16D.

As with most inventions, I don't think the "first" one counts, but the one that caused "everyone" to start doing them. In the Midwest, the people I was talking to then were doing a lot of fun things that circulated in 1/32 club circles in America and were invisible in the rest of the world.

Gene had everyone building anglewinders.

Oh, and Brian, in the day, using the front axle carrier as the body mount in 1/32 Midwest circles WAS the common approach. And yes, you did need to pull the front axles. I did this as well, and I honestly cannot say WHAT I WAS THINKING.

Just don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But one by one, I got tired of it, and converted to more conventional mounting systems!

I don't know why we stopped doing the English/Southport "positive left" either. Or who was first!

Fate

[TSR]

... the 26D came out in '66

Rocky,

Technically, yes. The Mabuchi FT26 motors were introduced in the market by Classic, the first company to have any, in October 1966. With publication lag, one may assume that they were first announced in July of that year. They hardly were available to anyone until January 1967. I do not believe that any magazine writer in any of the publications even mentions the new motor until early 1967.

Roy Moody told me in my long conversation with him in 1995 that he invented and built his anglewinder car in September 1967. He also said that the one pictures in MCS "was it". He did not remember at the time what had happened to it. The May 1968 article in which the model is shown was an old story that was used as a filler, as the actual event took place in November 1967 if I recall correctly.

The reason for this "side-saddle sidewinder" was simply a matter of meshing the correct gears while keeping the rear tires small. He had realized the potential of the larger but shorter motor in a 1/32 scale model car and used it to good effect in his local racing circles.

Gene Husting told me that he met Moody only after he had switched to R/C racing, meaning 1969 at the earliest.

Now Gene is at advanced age, has begun losing his memory, but is also a very proud person. In his "My life in CDs" that he generously gave to quite a few of us, he describes how he came to the conclusion that a sidewinder tilted to provide a more favorable gear ratio was the way to go. The story is quite fascinating but I have to express my doubts as him never having seen the MCS picture.

Again, the issue is always the same, who do you believe? So that is the way it will be printed, using the actual evidence and leaving all conspiracy theories opened.

Now I have to go for a few days, so please people, keep cool, OK?

[sportblazer350]

great thread, some fantastic historical cars here! Makes me feel that my recent purchase of a custome 26d powered 1/32 scale car is from this very same period of slot car history... .....guess i should keep it after all.

Will these cars be restored? looks like a LOT of work to be done......

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

P, I hope you can read this when you come back.

The problem with the mags is that of this sort of documentation. The magazines(and remember I was friends then with some of these guys) didn't see or comment on everything. In my area, the Pittcan and 26d both arrieved at the tracks about May of '66.

I have a time link here involving my personal life and schooling dates.

I briefly used the 26d for only a short time. And the reason was this: the Hemi!

I had to register for school august 1, involved a lot of testing by the state, then getting a loan for the tuition and books. by happenstance, I had 20 bucks left from the funds, and by happenstance, Competition Raceways in Salt Lake had the New Pactra Ferrari, and I bought it, built it at the track and ran it for stress relief. At that point, the chassis bent being tube. So I did a wire chassis, one you have driven that survives to today!

I have no idea why the mags or what ever hardly used the 26d until '67 that made the mags.

And I am not arguing that Moody was or wasn't first. I was just having coversations with friends like Jose and Schleicher over things we remembered because we were there.

it is sort of like how Bomker and Brannian and Ford and so on have conversations with me over the years about racing in the 70s and 80s. Being there.

This is more important to you than to me. I don't care who gets the credit. Or who was historically first. I see this as more in line of my some 15 or so years ago talking about Hagenbach, Dobson and Wallingford. Until Scott bought the collection, the bulk of what Wallingford had done was NOT in the mags.

And not famous.

Most of Jose's stuff didn't make the mags despite his column.

Fate

[One_Track_Mind]

Heres is the last of the chassis photos, it's a shame the "It" car was not there






Some loose bodies,with no chassis.... still have several pictures of those.










Thank you Rocky for the story telling timelines. It's really nice to hear from someone that was actually there.

[One_Track_Mind]

The last few bodies of the collection.

[endbelldrive]

Brian...I love this stuff!

[One_Track_Mind]

Bob...

Ever wonder the type or style of controller Mr. Moody used to power these cars?

Here they are:










Are they stock? or highly modified? I don't know, but it does appear the BZ had a little bit too much heat thru the wires.

[don.siegel]

Highly modified! Looks like he invented the external resistor too... Not sure I understand what slides on the BZ, but it looks like he was trying to get the heat out of the barrel. The Atlas seems to have been a popular controller in the Midwest, mainly because of the shape of the handle. Pete Hagenbuch had a couple articles on modifying these, but not to this extent! I think he rewired the resistor and other wires so it would handle more current...

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Don, I assumed from the look that it was a popular mod in the period to used parallel resistors for variable resistance.

Thumb controllers are a little slow and you need a lower resistor usually. So, wiring in a 25 with another 25 with a slide and a switch gave you an adjustable resistor down to a usable range. Lets you have different motors without a lot of controllers.

Fate

[endbelldrive]

[ajd350]

Hi all. I just found this site a few weeks ago and now this thread. As I looked through the pics, I was able to figure out who built these innovative masterpieces. As a child, I frequently got to watch Roy racing in our basement with the rest of the MMARC club. That was the official name of the 'Glenwood' club. My father was an early member through about 1969 when the time and cost involved with building ever more competitive cars along with running his own business and family ended his involvement. Roy was truly a one-of-a-kind guy with an amazing mind. He was also a great all-around guy. Since his passing I have hoped that his slot cars would be properly cared for. I am relieved to see that they are. In 1977 I was privileged to have been given his 3-lane track. I wish I had pics of it. We ran club races on it for a few years until I got involved in R/C racing, partially encouraged by Roy. At that point the track was moved on to another member of the group.

I actually got to watch several of these cars run, although I don't remember them specifically (I was 5 when my dad got our first Strombecker set in 1962). Roy's design influences were adopted throughout the club when they worked. I have a few of my father's early 60's cars and some chassis that were cannibalized for later efforts. He also has some of his other cars stashed away and expressed interest in checking out this site.