664 replies to this topic

[Martin]

I would be interested to see lap times "with and without" wings.

[Slot Car Rod]

Here is the full sidewinder car I built when I was in high school. 

This one is also a B-can full sidewinder car.  There is enough room around the motor endbell to allow for removal and servicing of the armature.

The front axle is suspended from a center pivot that has two small coil springs.  Two torsion rods were added for more control of the front axle.  This setup allows the car to lean in the turns. The main rails are round wire ground down on one side.

The body is a Lancer Porsche coupe with spoilers added.  The rear spoiler has four side dams.  The four side dam setup seemed to work better than the conventional two side dam setup in the "S" turns our local track had.  The front spoiler was added much later.

 

Rodney

 

 

[Martin]

You are prolific Rodney. A lot of  interesting feature on this one.

[Isaac S.]

Beautiful car, body and Associated wheels give it a good look. Are those modified Steube Associated Pans and Drop Arm? 

[Slot Car Rod]

Thanks. 

Isaac, you are correct on the drop arm and pans.  Here is an unmodified set.

Rodney

 

[Isaac S.]

Cool, did you split the drop arm for more flex? 

[Slot Car Rod]

Isaac, yes.  When the chassis was first built, the axle was mounted conventionally and the drop arm was not split.  The car did not have enough flex.  The main rails were sanded to make them thinner and the drop arm was split to allow more flex.  The car still did not have enough flex, so I then "floated" the front axle.  Finally, the car handled.

Subsequent cars I built had front suspension.  My "pan car," built around '72-73, also had rear suspension like an RC car..

 

Rodney

[Isaac S.]

Makes sense. This must have been one of the first cars with the various front suspensions. Much earlier than the diamond. 

[Slot Car Rod]

Mike Quan built this Mercury Cyclone stock car and gave it to Les Amos, the owner of Oakland Speedway.  The car is powered by a Champion 601.  Look at the 64-pitch gears.  The body is a Lancer.  This car led to a popular 36D stocker class at Oakland Speedway.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

[Isaac S.]

Nice, like the Cobra wheels. 

[Slot Car Rod]

Good eye, Isaac.

 

Looks like a scale Graham Hill driving.

[Isaac S.]

Cobra and Associated wheels are some of my favorites. 

[Bill from NH]

Nice vintage stock car Rodney. It looks like the motor box was originally sized for a 16D. I'm not familiar with the Oakland Speedway 36D stocker class. Do you have any of its cars that you could show us?

[Isaac S.]

I think these are what he's talking about-http://slotblog.net/...6d-anglewinder/. 

[Slot Car Rod]

Bill, here are three stockers:  Robert's Torino Talladega and two of my Dodges. We ran them on an American Orange track.  Motors were stock back then per the rules.  Since then, I have replaced them with hotter 36D motors.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

These are great Rodney, thanks for showing them. The only other 36D stockers I recall is the class Monty Ohren started at Buena Park prior to retro racing, some 15-20 years ago .They ran both stock & rewound motors. I once had a big sheet of decals like your number 81s. I can't recall whether I used them for slot cars, model kit building, or both. That twin motored car looks heavy. How did it run on a track? Was it built for a particular track? I like the variety of chassis that were used.

[Slot Car Rod]

Bill, on a modern road course, the twin motor car was 1/2 second slower than the anglewinder car (lap times around 9 seconds).  All of the cars were built for an American Orange track back around 1971.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

The Orange is one of my favorite layouts because you can race both scale cars & wing cars on them. I've raced  both weekly scale cars & Grp. 20 wing cars on the Orange that was at Modelvillle Hobby. In the late '60s & '70s we had a couple dozen of them here in New England. Today they're all gone, but the hard body club/home group I sometimes run with does have a 4-lane  Mini-Orange track.

[Pablo]

Rodney is "The Man"      

[Slot Car Rod]

Thanks, Pablo.  Bill, the Orange will always be one of my favorites also.  With the stockers, you could slide the rear quarter panels off of the gutter lane walls for faster lap times. 

 

Here is a Lotus 40 that I finished up recently.  I purchased a Lotus 40 body on ebay.  It may be a Lancer brand.  The box it came in does not go with the body.  I got the body to fit on an original unrestored Lancer chassis I had.  Yellow Poly-S paint with Russkit decals and Dubro screens were used.  Panel lines are semi-gloss acrylic paint.

 

 

 

Mabuchi/Champion 16D motor with rewound armature and Arco magnets added.

 

Can factory notched.

 

Weldun crown gear and Cox guide are used.

[Alchemist]

Hi Rodney!

 

My "pan car," built around '72-73, also had rear suspension like an RC car..

 

Will we get the opportunity to see this car please?

 

This is a phenomenal thread of your cars Rodney!

 

Please continue to share!

 

Ernie

[Bill from NH]

The Lancer sports car chassis has shown up on eBay a lot in the past five years, Much more often than the similar looking Lancer F1/Indy frame, When they appear on eBay, the seller often doesn't know what he's selling. 

[Slot Car Rod]

Thanks, Ernie.  Here is the suspension/pan car from around 1972-73.  It was built in the era of large side dams and spoilers (start of wing cars).

 

To make up for the lack of "air control," a more sophisticated chassis was needed.  I came up with a brass pan chassis with center pivot rear suspension and independent front suspension.  The car is also close to a full sidewinder.  The brass pan would lower the center of gravity, and the suspensions would allow for chassis flex.  The front body mounts are located at the front corners.  I wanted the downforce of the nose of the body to push down on the front of the pan chassis. 

 

Associated Nissan body.

 

 

 

Center pivot mounted to motor can.  Motor is a stressed member. 

 

Pivot consists of 3/32" shaft and ball bearings along with a strong truss.  Coil springs and torsion arms control movement.  The Mura C can motor was updated in the '80s.

[Bill from NH]

Interesting chassis. Rodney, was there an easy way to tune this chassis for various tracks once it was built?

 

Was that body originally a Kirby Nissan?

[Slot Car Rod]

This one worked well out of the box.  It was tuned with a little bit of lead added.  The car was built for a 220' banked track with S turns in the infield.  The car also works great on a modern MTT track with modern tires added.

 

The bodies have "Associated" embossed on the back, and came in Associated packages.