91 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

This crazy build all started when Victor emailed me that he had some new bodies on his web site. When I saw the reproduction Russkit Iso Grifo I had to have it. I already had some wheel inserts, a gas cap, and a drivers head for it and the body itself is a real beauty:



Here are some pictures of the real car. I've always liked the looks of this car:



Oh my goodness, now THAT is 1960s road racing . Here's some more:









Some more color shots of the cars today:







I think this picture was taken right before the car takes a wall shot and gets totaled. What a crime to destroy a car like that today... well, in my opinion anyway:



OK so I've got this bitch'n Iso Grifo body and lots of neato pictures of the real car... now what ? Ooh, ooh! I remember seeing an Iso Grifo in a Rod & Custom race report:



There it is, number 7 in the concours podium:





Are there any Iso Grifos listed in the tech sheet :



Nope... Hmmmmmmmmm... Russkit built a production twin motor 4WD version. Maybe Mike Morrissey, Captain of Team Russkit, built an experimental twin motor racer? It would have been slower around the track than the conventional single motor racers of course. Maybe that's why it's never surfaced... until NOW!

To be continued...

[TSR]

The Iso Grifo, designed by Gianpaolo Dallara, is one of the most beautiful automobiles ever created in my opinion. While they were never competitive with the Ferrari GTs or Cobras, they were plenty fast with their Corvette engines. I was involved at Le Mans with the # 1 car you show, driven one year by Pierre Noblet and Jean de Mortemart, then Jean-Marie Vincent who was not only a decent race car driver but also an avid slot car racer and ran in our team in 1967.
Russkit did a splendid job with the body. The Russkit model came in several version, a very rare one being the one with a controller and Russkit "25" motors, in a huge "Trak Pak" box.
lovely machine, rarely seen at auction nowadays, but there are fortunately some bodies around.

[dc-65x]

Hi Philippe,

Yup, that's the Russkit production car I remember. "May I have it?" Probably not never hurts to ask, right Edo!

Anywho, this build is going to be another one of my "What If" builds. What if Mike Morrissey built a 1966 twin motor racer as an experiment for Team Russkit. Hey it sounds like fun to me . Fun because every time I go to Eddie's Slotcar World I take some laps with my Novi:



It's a replica of a twin-motor racer my raceway owner Leon Pardee built back in 1965. It's a real HOOT to drive. You can get huge drift angles and the front wheels pull you through the turn.



This car has "Germans" for tires so it handles a little loose. I wanted to have a new car to drive with foam tires with more bite to see how it would handle. A low slung multi-rod frame design from 1966 should help too.

Here are the parts for the build, less motors. Our repop Russkit wide rear wheels and standard rear wheels for the front, Russkit motor brackets, Dynamic 1/8" X 3/16" bearings, Cox Quick Change guide, 31t rear gear and 29t front gear, some unknown 8t pinion gears, and some braid that's probably 1968 or so but I might as well use it up:



Before I can start soldering I need to open up the Russkit brackets to fit 7/32" bearing tubes with Mr. Milling Machine:



Here it is in my Rick's Jig. The rear is jigged for 15/16" tires and the front for 7/8":



The first rails are laid as close to the motors as I could:



The motors are allowed to angle down and touch the jig:



Here's the starting point from which to build the finished frame on:



Onward...

[Alchemist]

Very cool build, Rick!

Over ten years ago I had an opportunity to restore the body and paint on a 1968 Iso Grifo street car. I concur with Dokk - the body design is gorgeous!!

[HarV Wallbanger III]

Cool build, Rick! I still have a couple of the Russkit Black Widow cars still both with Russkit 22s. Not sure if they ever put the 23s in them???

[One_Track_Mind]

watching you build slot cars!!

Thanks for sharing.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Rick, I have a black widow frame if you want it.

I have a complete rtr Lotus that I show as a slot curiosity.

Fate

[idare2bdul]

"...Russkit Black Widow cars still both with Russkit 22s. Not sure if they ever put the 23s in them??? "

I think they only came with 22's, the 23 being a better motor. The story I heard was that the car was an attempt at getting rid of their surplus 22's and that when the car became popular more 22's were ordered in error.

[TSR]

it is not a story, it is true and was clearly explained in my first book, from Jim Russell's own lips.
BUT, the last Black Widow car issued, the Iso Grifo, was fitted with a different chassis from the other two models, the Lotus 38 and Lola T70, as well as... Russkit 23 motors. Some last-last-last issues were fitted with the Russkit "25', an American-made motor that had a die-cast Zamak endbell.

The Russkit 23 uses the same can, magnets and armature stack/commutator as the "22", but uses the 1965 upgraded endbell with brush heat sinks, different brushes and springs and a hotter wind specification.

[dc-65x]

Thanks guys. Nice to have you along for the ride

Rick, I have a black widow frame if you want it..........

Thanks for the offer Rocky. I've got one too but it's so much more fun to scratch build one .

So here WAS my plan. Two pairs of rails with a space in between kind of like Mike Steube's #5 Chaparral in the race report:



Between the pairs of rails WAS going to be for a 2-rail per side drop arm with space on either side...........She's a no work

I was also going to use the simple body mounting method shown below but........She's a no work either At least the U-shaped axle bracket braces were OK:



So why she's a no work? The drop arm flexed side to side WAY to much as I now can see in hind sight (which is 20/20 ). I added a third rail to the drop arm.....



.....nested right up along side the inner pair of frame rails. First problem solved. Oh, I decided not to do any hand or wire wheel polishing on the frame during the build. I'm just going to sand any crap-O-la off of the rails and throw the finished frame in the tumbler:



No more flexing drip arm:



The U-shaped center rail on the drop arm serves (hopefully) as a lead wire guide......



.........and a drop arm down stop:





Next up, the body mount problem and fix.....

[Jairus]

Lots of engineering goes into it huh? More than twice as I see it.....

[dc-65x]

Hi Jairus,

Yup, more than twice as much "fiddling about" but it keeps me out of trouble .

Speaking of trouble, the body would need the wheel arches cut mucho beyond their trim lines to allow the body to sit flush with the bottom of the chassis. On "Dawn of Time" Pittman type cars and the like I just bend the pin tubes up until they connect with the body. On 1966 R&C Pro race cars I don't see that as being "Korrect"......although nothing about this project is really "korrect" . But, doing that still bugged me.............so I did this:



This is a 1/32” thick strip of 1/4” wide brass with lightening holes to reduce weight above the lowest part of the chassis?



The will allow me to raise up the body mounts to connect with the bottom edge of the body:



With those plates installed next came the "high-rise" pin tubes. I cut them to length and let them hang out past the outside of the plates. A piece of 3/32" tube kept things lined up during soldering. Laying down on the jig to the right are one sides pin tubes and 3/32" alignment tube and to the left the parts installed on the chassis:



Huston, we have body mounts:



Next up the finished chassis........

[havlicek]

Hi Rick,

VERY cool build as always! As Jairus mentioned, doing two motors is more than twice the engineering, but you make it look easy...and beautiful! Will you be using the same diameter tires on all four corners so the final ratio is the same front and back?

-john

[dc-65x]

Hi John and thanks. For tire diameters I'm going to run 7/8" fronts and 15/16" rears so the car will have the same look as a conventional R&C race car.

I had to do some cypher'n just like Jethro Bodine... "whoa doggie, look at that boy cypher!"



So.......a 29T in front and a 31T in back should work.

We'll see.....

[Hworth08]

I lost track of the gear ratios that I believe were caused by different size front/rear tires.

Full size 4-wheel drive farm tractors are very precise to have the front tires turning a bit faster than the rears. That is so the slightly faster turning front tires can steer the tractor. If a 4-wheel drive farm tractor starts sliding sideways a person can generally straighten the tractor by speeding up. A bit unsettling at first but it works.

We also used to gear the front axle faster on 4-wheel drive pulling trucks for the same reasons.

It will also require "balancing" the RPM of the two motors with gearing but most likely a slot car will be the most secure handling if the front tire rotate a bit faster than the rears. And the fact that it is such a juggling act may well the reason only one motor is most often in a slot car.

[Jairus]

I guess that sort of logic totally escaped me when building the STP Turbine car. I just ran both front and rear axles at the exact same speed and kept the tire diameters same front and rear. Oh well.... but it makes sooo much sense to have the front axle turn slightly faster. (My next 4-wheel drive car will use belts!)

I love the look of your jig. After less than a year of use with mine and more than 2 dozen chassis... no amount of cleaning and block sanding can rid it of the acid stains.
But it is still my favorite tool for building these speedy wonders and still very accurate now that I have NEW AND IMPROVED jig wheels by R-Geo!

Build on Cap'n, your doing a beautiful job!

[dc-65x]

.....It will also require "balancing" the RPM of the two motors....

I did buzz up all my 1968 Mabuchi motors and picked two that my "ear bone tachometer" said sounded the same . More on using a '68 motor in a '66 car later.

.....most likely a slot car will be the most secure handling if the front tire rotate a bit faster than the rears.....

Interesting point. I do feel, from driving my other twin-motor 4WD car, that the front wheels are helping in the handling department (in the "fun factor" for sure!). I'll bring some different gearing options to the track to experiment. Thanks for the tip .

My next 4-wheel drive car will use belts!

Hey Jairus, did you see Bob Braverman's 0-ring drive 1/32 4WD Mini he built in the 1960's? A belt drive should be a fun project .

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

For a while Parma sold a womp with that set up. I always thought the motive was to use up all those cheap whisperjet belts!

Fate

[TSR]

The Russkit Iso Grifo has the same tire diameter on all four corners. That is of course until the rear tires... wear!

[dc-65x]

I just finished up the wheels and tires and I'll show them next. But first here's the finished chassis fresh from the tumbler:







Onward to Der Wunder Rubber.......

[Jairus]

Looks almost production like.
Jairus very impressed!

[Hworth08]

The Russkit Iso Grifo has the same tire diameter on all four corners. That is of course until the rear tires... wear!

Philippe, I'm sure the Russkit factory spent hours on each car to be sure the front motor turned about seven percent more RPM than the rear to ensure their cars performed properly! Or not?

Rick, that's a fine looking frame! The body mounts are extravagant but I do wonder if you have a method of determining their width.

[Horsepower]

I lost track of the gear ratios that I believe were caused by different size front/rear tires.

Full size 4-wheel drive farm tractors are very precise to have the front tires turning a bit faster than the rears. That is so the slightly faster turning front tires can steer the tractor. If a 4-wheel drive farm tractor starts sliding sideways a person can generally straighten the tractor by speeding up. A bit unsettling at first but it works.

We also used to gear the front axle faster on 4-wheel drive pulling trucks for the same reasons.

It will also require "balancing" the RPM of the two motors with gearing but most likely a slot car will be the most secure handling if the front tire rotate a bit faster than the rears. And the fact that it is such a juggling act may well the reason only one motor is most often in a slot car.

Tom Malone did an article about that very thing in Car Model. He said exactly the same thing, Don!
Rick, that chassis is really a work of art. Are the bearing tubes so shiny because they are tinned, or did I miss something here?

[dc-65x]

The body mounts are extravagant but I do wonder if you have a method of determining their width.

Hi Don. Do you mean how wide to make them for a given body?

Tom Malone did an article about that very thing in Car Model. He said exactly the same thing, Don!

Hey Gary, do you know which issue that was? I'd like to look it up .

.....Are the bearing tubes so shiny because they are tinned, or did I miss something here?

The tops of the tubes are tinned. I touched the soldering iron's tip to the top of the bearing tubes to get joints for all three frame rails evened out at the same time. I usually sand the tinning off but it was so smooth and even I thought I try leaving it on. When it came out of the tumbler it was so shiny .........I like shiny .

[Horsepower]

Oh yeah, shiny is where it's at! I'll try and find that article if I can. I can't remember which issue so it's gonna take some lookin'!