33 replies to this topic

[TSR]

As promised in another thread, I took detailed pictures of the car that surfaced recently at auction, and acquired for a King's ransom by the LASCM.
The car is indeed an early factory test shot of the most celebrated slot car thingie on the planet.
It was located in Tustin, California, only a few miles from its place of birth, a 440-ton injection-molding machine right off Warner Avenue in Santa Ana, in March of 1966.

Designed by a lady engineer by the charming name of Millie Naeff, it was inspired by the Lola T70 and approved by Cox's vice president Bill Selzer.
Several prototypes were built, including some with a specially produced clear-plastic vacuum formed body. Recently, Millie sold original prints of the body and one of the clear bodies, as well as a very early production model and various paraphernalia.
The injected clear car came from the son of a former employee at the R&D department. Below is part of the body design, one of the very few such drawings that survives today:



Without further due, here is the beast:





And yes, it is translucent, but not quite as much as a vac body!



The chassis is standard early fare, except for a few details.





The front axle cross tube is nickel plated. Was it supposed to be produced that way? Both ends are machined, not simply hacked with a Dremel disk, so one wonders... Cox of course introduced a whole rack of nickel plated brass tubes and shapes the same year. The LASCM will pay BIG money to anyone who will sell such a rack in excellent condition to us.



Note the early chassis with no side-mounting tabs, machine-screw affixed pivot, ball-bearing (VS later needle-bearing) front wheels and very narrow gray sponge tires.

Now we have these three early models:



From left to right: the early vac body, a translucent orange early test shot in the as yet to be complete mold (there are no holes yet for windshield, roll bar, gas caps and under the chrome injectors) and the Tupperware body.



More and clearer pictures of the vac body for the usual "body snatchers"

[Horsepower]

Thank you SO much for a look at this beautiful little piece of history! In regards to the nickel front axle, could it be that the Cox engineers had boxes of nickel plated tubing around because they were part of Cox part sales? Maybe the builder thought it simply LOOKED great and went well with the silver aluminum finish? I am almost sure I have at least one Cuc (out of thousands I own ) that has the same nickel front tube.Whatever the case, thank you!

[flem1959]

My Dad bought one when I was a kid.
It was the first "real" slotcar we had.
It would be really cool if someone could start stamping out reproductions.
It would be an awesome entry level retro-spec class.
Might be a big hit like the Flexi Car was.
It might be the next big thing in slotcars.
Somebody with stamped steel expertise could do it in .030.
Make it with a lexan body and put a Falcon type motor in it.
It would probably work pretty well with modern tires.

[Pete L.]

Doc,


Really great find...never knew that those things existed !

I like Mike's suggestion about redoing the Cuc as a stamped steel flexi type RTR. A clear body manufacturer already does a clear body Cuc and the self sticky stripes are readily available on ebay and I believe that Champion still has some of those Cox type driver busts...retro for the masses !

[Kim Lander]

Thanks Dok,
These pictures are wonderful to look at, lots of history there, we in the slot world are blessed to have you and your memory of this great hobby, I hope one day to be able to visit the LASCM, until then I will savor the tid-bits you slip to the dogs....Kim

[Old pink can guy]

wow dok! you just took me back to when times were good. Cheveron supream was only 25 cents a gallon 113 octane. thanks Ken.

[One_Track_Mind]

Thank You, Philippe

Very nicely done.

Much Appreciated.

[32Deuce]

Hi Dokk,
I remember the motor, braid & rubberband missing and the rear tires look like a better set than what came with the car. The chassis looks better too. Can you get into the restoration a bit? Is that just a stock Cox 16d?

Great info BTW,

Thanks,

Z

[TSR]

Hi Mike,
When the car arrived, I cleaned up the body and chassis, fitted a standard but correct TTX150 motor and a NOS red rubber band as well as a set of very early (and harder) Cox "Superflex" braid that I had kept all these years (what a perfect car to use them in!)
I also fitted a set of the earliest tires that had been run very little. I did not even clean them up.
I did not want to do more to the car but the most important part is of course the body! Fortunately it has no damage, so we got lucky there.

[Don Wedding]

Dokk, Here are some of the Color varations I have come acorss. The 2 Pinkish bodys have a different tint from one another, One is more translucent.

Also the 3 Cucs in front that include the Lil Cuc, all have the same Purple metal flake in there bodies.

Did they mold the ones with wings on the front later by modifing the mold.

I have the First issued translucent Orange Cuc that is not pictured and the Super Cuc with the chrome dome.

What other colors were issued. I have seen A silver metal flake Cuc sell on Ebay about a year ago that went for 600.00.

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[TSR]

Don,
When the body mold was modified to produce the "Super Cuc", the standard Cucaracha bodies received the same treatment because... no choice. This explains the orange and purple bodies with fins.
However the purple bodies were sold separately, never as a complete car.
The same applies to any other color than orange: these were after market bodies. Only the orange ones came as a RTR, and were never sold separately. The purple ones can be lighter or darker, depending on their exposure to light. WARNING: do NOT leave them in a lighted area, they will lose most of their pigment!
By the way, you are missing a "Little Cuc" series 2 in this nice accumulation...

[Don Wedding]

Dokk, When you get time could you post a picture of the Little Cuc Series 2 ?

What makes it different from the 1st issue?

Are you talking about the REH reissue of the Little Cuc?

[TSR]

No, the REH version is something different altogether.
Cox issued the first "Lil' Cuc" with a TTX50 motor (Mabuchi FT13UO) in 1966. In 1968, Cox issued the new Daytona Series 1/32 scale cars with thinner gauge Lancer vac bodies. At the same time the gray tires from the Lil Cuc over American Mags wheels became black, and the motor changed from the TTX50 to the Cox NASCAR 3600 (FT16D size).
To accomplish this, the chassis was modified. The Lil' Cuc" body could not accommodate the new motor, so the body mold was heavily reworked to fit the motor. At the same time, the separate gas caps were deleted, now directly molded in the body. There is a significant visual difference between the two bodies and the two models.
The new model did not get a new stock number and was sold in the same box as the previous model. These are "series 2".

The REH bodies were molded in 1970 from the same tooling after Cox had shut down their slot car business, but from a plastic mix that no longer had the metalflake chips in it, and the REH models did not of course have the self-adhesive stripes or Cox side decals on them.

[flem1959]

I think the La Cucaracha has a kind of timeless beauty.

A .007 repop would make a great retro class body.
Personally, I think the Coupes that they use in retro flexi are really ugly and I think the La Cucaracha would be much more retro, and way cooler. Stick a clear 1/2" spoiler on it, and it will probably work just the same as any other body in that class.


Just my opinion, from an old time slotracer who has never run retro yet.

[Don Wedding]

Mike, Here is a Cuc that I modified with a front spolier and rear wing, it runs very well and hugs the track. On a 95 foot hill climb I can run under 6 seconds .

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[One_Track_Mind]

Just my opinion, from an old time slotracer who has never run retro yet.

Mike,
We need to change this! Contact ME!!

You'd have a great time running the retro style version cars.

Sorry, for thread drift PDL.

Don,
what type front wheels are on that Cuc?
Like the looks of the rear spoiler but that front one?! EEEkkkk!!

[32Deuce]

Dokk, I'm sure it's been covered again and again but, could you get into what wheels/tires were used on the cucs as they progressed through each year?

Did they ever use the "mags" on all four, from the factory? I have some with them, just didn't know if they were original equipment. I've also seen a couple different types of the front ball bearing wheels.

Thanks!

Z

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Some years ago, as a package deal, I acquired a good basic orange cuc that I have never run! Recently, the one of the local track owners and a couple locals had me help them restore their cucs and are talking a RACE. Of course.

Charlie has been oogling the D3 chassis on the wall, and we might finally do something locally, but it would be ironic if this tracks first retro was for cucs!

Remind me, philippe, isn't the stock wind of the NASCAR motor a 110/32 versus the standard TTX150 140/34?

Fate

[Don Wedding]

Mike,
We need to change this! Contact ME!!

You'd have a great time running the retro style version cars.

Sorry, for thread drift PDL.

Don,
what type front wheels are on that Cuc?
Like the looks of the rear spoiler but that front one?! EEEkkkk!!

They are just standard O ring fronts with Parma sponge on the rear.

[TSR]

could you get into what wheels/tires were used on the cucs as they progressed through each year?

Original 1966 issue with translucent body and early box:
-narrow rear wheels and gray sponge tires, ball-bearing fronts. Both have smooth conical hub design. Tapered rear axle.

Later 1966 issue with standard box and opaque body:
-wider rims with wider gray tires, needle-bearing fronts, same hub design.

"Series 2" 1967 issue with front fins:
-straight rear axle with setscrew wheels with conical hub design, black sponge tires, same fronts as later 1966 issue.

Did they ever use the "mags" on all four, from the factory? I have some with them, just didn't know if they were original equipment. I've also seen a couple different types of the front ball bearing wheels.

Cox sold a chassis kit that included threaded 5-40 narrow American Mags rear wheels, extra narrow American free-wheeling fronts, and this could be assembled to an RTR or aftermarket body, so yes, it is possible. Also it would be easy for a customer to buy the parts separately and install American Mags rear wheels in aluminum with the black sponge tires, and a set of the same design in aluminum or magnesium fronts from an IFC kit or purchased separately.
However, I am pretty sure after years of digging that actual RTR may have come that way from the factory in the very last issues, that would of course use the "finned" orange body.

Remind me, philippe, isn't the stock wind of the NASCAR motor a 110/32 versus the standard TTX150 140/34?

Rocky, heck if I know. I never paid any attention to such details, because on most of the early cars, it simply mattered little compared to making these horrid piles to first handle properly or stay together after minor shunts. Mild motors helped!

[Horsepower]

Rocky, heck if I know. I never paid any attention to such details, because on most of the early cars, it simply mattered little compared to making these horrid piles to first handle properly or stay together after minor shunts. Mild motors helped!

Piles? Piles? Blaspheny, I say! Well, maybe not. Anyway, they handled better than most average kids could build.

[TSR]

Piles, Gary, piles. You could make circles around them using a stock Dynamic chassis fitted with a 26D and a Russkit Lotus 40 bod...

But don't misunderstand, I AM a Cuc lover...

[One27ray]

Mike, Here is a Cuc that I modified with a front spoiler and rear wing, it runs very well and hugs the track. On a 95 foot hill climb I can run under 6 seconds.

Don,

I like your upgrade on the Cuc.

i-ray

[Mr. Frank]

Ray,

You need to add a huge front wing on a Cuc...

Mr. Frank

[Horsepower]

Piles, Gary, piles. You could make circles around them using a stock Dynamic chassis fitted with a 26D and a Russkit Lotus 40 bod...
But don't misunderstand, I AM a Cuc lover...

Yeah, there's a saying on the classic rock music station I listen to that goes "It doesn't have to be GOOD to be a CLASSIC!"