This is one that kinda fits both categories...
The Japanese manufacturer Kyosho has produced a line of 1/28 R/C cars called MiniZ for some time. These have some of the most gorgeous bodies molded in plastic this side of Larry Flynt's girls.
My good friend and partner in crime Jim Armstrong, a great AZGR slot racer and master model builder, came across one of these, the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B Group C. Jim wanted to build it himself but sold it to me and so I decided it needed to be done properly in his honor.
Rapid Rick Schoenfeld, another AZGR racer from Tucson, had seen a web site that listed a slot chassis made specifically for these bodies and offered by a company called PN Slot, Inc. I started searching and found only one for sale in the US. So I bought it.
It's a nicely-made PlaFit type chassis made of stainless steel. It came with 3 mm axles and bearings all around and one of the nicest guide flags this side of Slick 7.
Before Cheater kicks me off of the 1/24 board it would probably be a good idea to show a couple of pix to demonstrate that this baby is much closer to a 1/24 than a 1/32 and there is no 1/28 safe zone!
Here it is with a couple of 1/24 BRM cars.
And here it is with the Slot.it 1/32.
So back to my damaged youth and the "twist".
The body came mounted on a dummy chassis, ready to mount on the R/C chassis or just sit on the shelf collecting dust.
After looking at it and the Slot.it toy for a few weeks I decided that my Big Daddy Ed Roth and a few other youthful influences had taken over and this sucker would look a whole lot better with bigger wheels and tires. The Great Egg knows I'm no purist!
And besides, why should I do it the easy way?
So I decided to mount up the incredible BRM Toyota GTP wheels shod with IndyGrip IG3101 killer tires.
No big deal. Right? Wrong. They slid right on to the 3mm axles but stuck way out from under the body.
After some measuring and Belgian lubrication of the gray matter, I figured that if I bored through the outer rim of the wheel that I could drill and tap the inner portion of the hub and then turn off the outer hub where the set screw is normally found.
Everything worked well except I used the 3 mm set screws from the BRM and they stripped right out. Not enough TPI (threads per inch) for the thinner-walled inner hubs. Roger Gunning, my travel partner to the MS Friends event at the Petersen, suggested I step down to a 2-56 set screw and those did the trick for the second set of wheels. I have over a hundred laps on the car so far and they are holding torque perfectly against the flats I ground on the axle. (Axle Flats... is that a country band?)
Milling through the rim, ribs, and all.
Turning off the outer hub.
Here's a couple of shots of the chassis;
This baby is heavy! 195 grams total. Fighting weight for a BRM is 180.
I haven't run it on one of the bigger tracks yet with the 1/24 cars but I did run it on my 1/32 track and was doing OK against a Scaly Camaro with a magnet.
I know it is odd but I like the way it turned out.
