53 replies to this topic

[dc-65x]

This is my first "Lost Cause" racer for the possible Proxy race (to be determined). I'll be using the word imagine lots because this is all just for fun and what's in my head.......

Here's a link to Sir Duffster's "Lost Causes" post:

CLICK HERE

I am imagining it to be a car for the top sports car class since it is a rear engine prototype racer, the Roger Penske Zerex Special. His first "unfair advantage":







It will be based on the beautiful hand carved mold from the Viceroy of Vacuum, John Dilworth. Also pictured is a Lancer driver, Russkit Driver head, Russkit Cooper wheel inserts, Ulrich decals and an aluminum roll bar and exhaust pipe:



I'm going to at least try to match the speed of the slot cars to the speed of the real cars. For example I want this car to be faster than the Lotus 11 and even the Chaparral 1 "Lost Cause" sports racers I'll be building.

So, I imagined this car to have a fairly powerful motor of the late 1965 or early 1966 variety....say a Strombecker Hemi.....rewound like this old EBay find on the top left:



I'll be rebuilding it with a NOS 1968 Mabuchi arm and magnets. That should give me a pretty reliable motor with some decent grunt from the .8 ohm, 65T of 30 ga wire arm with mild timing. Here's the rewound arm that was in that Hemi and the Mabuchi arm below it:



This is about the hottest motor that I currently imagine in a "Lost Cause" racer. As such a body of the later version of the Zerex Special with the Olds V8 would be a better match. But, hopefully, just as in horse shoes and hand grenades....close counts .

I also imagined the frame to be of the pre-late 1966 "jail door" variety. But this body is so small, only about 3 1/4" wheelbase and 2 1/4" wide . What to use to make the little rocket "hug the road" like a "wide track Pontiac"? I've decided on this old used Dynamic frame with a little, well a lot of help from the good folks at K&S Metals:



Since our friend Pablo already tumbled a Dynamic frame to "shiny goodness" I decided to Micro blast mine:



I think it looks nice and neat. Now to chop up that hunk of brass and build the motor.....

[Duffy]

If y're packing that much power in there, you oughta call it Lost & Found!!

Well, it's gonna be darn cool in any event, Rikky; and just to show how great mimes think alike (but don't talk about it much), here's a little gobbet I picked up off eBay this week:




I know little of its provenance & pedigree, it's in great shape & with an endearing naivetee that leads me to suspect it's by some young dude--the instruments on the flat under the windshield, for instance, and the kinda preemptively-defensive "Zerex" on the sides.




I imagine the Velcro body mount puts it at least at Apollo 1 vintage.

Anyway, having gathered a sampling of Dynamic chasses myself now, I'm gonna be interested in the bashing going on here & should be contributing some of my own soon.

Duffy

[Pablo]

[dc-65x]

Hey Duffy and Pablo, is it Dynamic Frame Month . I haven't messed with one for a long time so it should be fun.

Duffy I saw that car on EBay. Glad you got it.

You're right about mine having a lot of power for such a little guy. But, as soon as I saw John's Zerex I knew I had to have it for my rear engine prototype Lost Cause racer. I'll be counting on my K&S "handling package" to tame the beast .

[TSR]

The Zerex-Cooper is one of my favorite cars for very personal reasons of course. It certainly was a very effective racing car, not only winning the Times GP in 1962 but finishing in second place in 1963...

Cooper T53
Chassis # F1-16-61




Roger Penske in the Mecom-owned Zerex Special at Brands Hatch in August 1973.

Built for 1961 US GP. Briggs Cunningham (US) 1961 for Walt Hansgen and crashed at US GP - Roger Penske (US) 1961 and maybe used in libre racing by Penske and by Timmy Mayer 1962. Rebuilt as Zerex Special late 1962 with 2.85-litre Climax from Cooper T54 Indy car (won at Riverside, Laguna Seca and Puerto Rico in Oct and Nov 1962).
Sold to John Mecom 1963 (nine races in 1963 and early 1964 including wins at Marlboro, Cumberland and Brands Hatch) - Bruce McLaren 1964 and rebuilt as Cooper-Oldsmobile with 3.5-litre Traco-Oldsmobile V8 (four wins from five races including wins at Aintree, Silverstone, Mosport and Brands Hatch).
Sold to US owner late 1964 and not seen again until appeared at Nassau Speed Week December 1966. At some point imported into Venezuela by the late Leo Barboza and raced there. Subsequent history unknown.


In 2005, a replica of the car, probably in its late 1962 form, is being built in the Northwest USA.

[Duffy]

Duffy I saw that car on EBay. Glad you got it.

Yah, when it wasn't bid way out of my range I figured you lot Knew Something I Didn't. Still, coming from a scratchbuilding sentiment like I do, the Dynamic-bashing thing appeals to me as a divertissement and I'm looking forward to some of it.

Duffy

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

The "clue" in these bodies is easily seen in the cockpit. Simply, in 62 Penske (my hero) had a F1 car with a streamliner body. The rules required that there be two seats on either side of the centerline, and roger put his seat about 1 Inch off center, and a tiny inaccessable seat under the body work!

They enforcers insisted on a change to a proper cockpit. So, the frame was modified, and widended to have two proper seats. The red body just purchased is the single seater, the one Rick is using is the later two seater.

Widening the cockpit made the car chassis more flexy and it didn't work as well. One of MY fanasies was this. In '63 watched The Cooper/Cobra with Dave McDonald lap the field including the Zerex in second (in mecom colors). What if it had NOT been modified?

Grin.

Oh, and this car is part of how Philippe and I came to be friends. Another story.

The Car you bought on Ebay looks like the first edition of the dynamic for the DC 60 series which puts the bracket contemporary with the car you are modeling! If one of our "circuit" is the Pebblestone track, the DC 60 "something" MIGHT be a better motor for that track than the Hemi!

I need to dig out my survivor, figure out my new camera and.........

Fate

[endbelldrive]

You guys are killing me..I tell ya!

[dc-65x]

..........If one of our "circuit" is the Pebblestone track, the DC 60 "something" MIGHT be a better motor for that track than the Hemi!

"More Power! arh arh arh!"

[TSR]

Time for the Penske-Pittman-Cobalt mag... the Unfair Advantage...

[Hworth08]

I had the chance to meet Mr.Penske I guess 4 years ago at the Nashville Super Speedway during the Indy race. We got our tickets from Citgo that included passes to go anywhere except pit road during the race.

We were in the garages about 3 p.m. when the cars were doing some kind of test where they start their engine while the car is on jack stands. It was hot and I found a spot out of the way but in a breeze of a fan.

Mr. Penske walked in and asked if he could share the breeze! I'm not much of an Indy car fan and didn't know who Mr. Penske was to see him but found him to be a nice and plesant person. My son had been taking pictures and came over when he saw me. He asked me if I knew this fellow OWNED the car we standing behind.

The old saying that you could have knocked me over with a feather sure did apply. That's the richest person I've ever talked to and I didn't know who he was!

[dc-65x]

The hemi’s can bearing was worn and chipped on the ends and basically looked like grunt. I had to modify a new bearing to be the same size as the original so it would fit the Dynamic frame adapter bushing. I decided to turn down a new Mura can bushing. In order to hold the bushing by the tiny flange I bored a blank collet (“pot chuck”) to fit:



It worked “Slicker than snot”:



A live center applying pressure helps keep the bearing in place during cutting:



Here’s the stock bearing on the left, new Mura in the center and modified Mura on the right. Below is the burr I used to remove the stock bearing:



A new stock Hemi can on the left and the used can with the modified Mura bearing soldered in place. The StayBrite silver solder polished up and matches the chrome (or nickel or whatever) plating on the can:



Time to stuff that can……………

[Prof. Fate]

hi

If you can, reinforce the can on the inside around the bushing. This is a big problem with the motor. Either the bushing failed or the mount around it spun and then failed. Limited with the endbell brushes just how hot you could do the motor. In the day, not using the dynamic bracket but the Dubro universal, just put in a bigger bearing.

As might be expected, I don't think any of mine have survived till modern times, the motors I mean, chassis I have and run regularly, but with modern can drive 16ds.

Fate

[Horsepower]

That's simply amazing, Rick. Not only do machine fix a problem to perfection but the end result looks better than the original ever did! Truly remarkable.......

[dc-65x]

Hi Rocky,

The Hemi can is super weak and most used ones I have are ruined from sheet metal screws used to mount them to the chassis. 2-56 nuts soldered inside the can solve that problem. Like you said the stock bearings are junk too. The modified Mura soldered in should take care of that too.

…. Not only do machine fix a problem to perfection but the end result looks better than the original ever did!

Thanks Gary, I remember watching my best friend Phil (a master prototype machinist) in amazement has he would carve metal into whatever shape he wanted. Anything he wanted he would simply (for him) MAKE. We had the same interests and hobbies and every “widget” I would buy ended up being a piece of junk. He would make his own “widget” that looked and worked perfectly.

I’m no “master” like Phil or Sir Duffster but I do enjoy messing about with machining goodies for our favorite hobby .

[Tex]

Man, it must be nice to be a "toolman"... and have the tools to do it! Rock on, Rick!

[tonyp]

HE is a tool isnt he. LOL...

[Horsepower]

HE is a tool isnt he. LOL...

......if by tool, you mean computerized robotic hands.

[Tex]

HE is a tool isnt he. LOL...

Myself also having the first name of "Richard", being called a "tool" isn't a bad thing considering our most common nickname.

[Bill from NH]

Gary, what do you have? A name of the week?

[Horsepower]

Are you refering to me, Sir? Naw, this is the first time I ever changed it. The old name just seemed more appropriate on the knife forum. Hey Bill! I had to have PdL help me that too. What a spaz, eh? Besides, if you like Mustangs HORSEPOWER is a better fit also. Subtract a couple of vowels and it even fits on the license plate.

[Bill from NH]

Gary, I thought you were a new guy at first! Before Switchblade, didn't you use the name you had on ebay? Or was that on the other board?

[Jairus]

That is some very nice work Rick. The bearing would be well received if avaliable for sale. I know a couple motor builders who would like a few, if they were available.

[proptop]

Cap'n Rick...your work is jewelry





I thought HORSEPOWER was a new guy too...must be Switchblade's twin brother?

Bill...I remember it was (might still be) Grislightning on OWH?

[Bill from NH]

Tom, your memory is obviously far better than mine. I've been "Bill from NH" ever since my woodworking forum days on Compuserve in the early 90s.