664 replies to this topic

[Gator Bob]

Amazing cars all ... Go Rodney !

[Regis4446]

Very nice work.

TALBOT LAGO is one of my favorite brands.

Here almost even (another version) seen this weekend in Paris at the exhibition retromobile

[dc-65x]

Cool looking car Regis. I can see why the modeler chose A Talbot Lago as his subject.

[dc-65x]

TESTING AT EDDIE'S

 

Testing the Talbot Lago. Changed to 3 to 1 bevel gears. Much better than the Wilson gear set up. Very nice driving car. Amazingly, the RP77 makes the car jump.

 

 

1959 Lister Costin Jaguar. Resin body with an early Revell aluminum chassis.

 

 

 

Re-cycled your Lola. Shown running with an Eddie painted and detailed Ferrari 512M.

 

 

Purchased the Johnny Mac dragster that was entered in our proxy race. Thanks Johnnie.

 

 

Found out the armature was timed and running in the reverse direction. Turned the motor around and cleaned the motor and zapped the magnet. Re-built the drop arm assembly, added the "gas tank" weight and changed the wheels and tires. Lightened the spur gear. This car is sweet and is a very simple build. You may want to share this one to show how simple a dragster could be built.

E.T. reduced from 2.6 to 2.1 seconds. With a clean track, E.T. would be .2 faster.

 

 

Rodney

 

Thanks for the update and cool pictures Rodney

[Lone Wolf]

Rodney, all beautiful. Amazing .5 improvement on the rail. Love the "Moon tank" weight with the gas cap. Very cool.

[Tex]

Nice rail dragster!

[dc-65x]

Here's Rodney's latest project. He said it was inspired by my podium placing Car Model Magazine Concours Porsche 906 roadster. Thanks Rodney!

 

The body is a LS model kit with a Monogram Ferrari windscreen.

 

 

Rodney's comments:

 

Check out how light the body.

 

 

U bracket is made out of two brackets for strength.

 

 

Chassis is constructed of brass rod.  Lots of Russkit parts used. 

 

 

Old Lenz armature was installed in a Russkit 23.

 

 

 The finished car is very light.

 

 

 

The Porsche 906-8 balanced out with some weight added to the drop arm.  This is a slot car to really drive.  The tail swings out slightly when pushed.  For a lack of a better term, a sophisticated drive.  The Lenz armatured motor has a wide torque band over its large RPM range.  Lenz used to advertise 100,000 rpm motors.  Well this one really buzzes up.  The gearing is 7/39.

 

 

Great car, thanks for sharing Rodney!

[SlotStox#53]

Truly beautiful car Rodney!

Looks like he even used Russkit decals judging by the yellow backing .

Nice simple brass rod chassis, just something about a car as neat & simple as this

With Lenz power too !!

[Tex]

I've NEVER seen that body before! At first, I thought it was a mistake as the side intakes look very McLaren MkII-ish, but there's no mistaking that front for anything but a Porsche.

[dc-65x]

Rodney's latest project in his words:

 

George Follmer drove a highly modified McLaren Mk 8 at historic car races.  The car was nicknamed the "McLaren from Hell" because of the extreme measures taken to maximize performance.  This is the subject for this build.

 

A Champion chassis is modified for the larger diameter tires.  The chassis is leveled out by making it as flat as possible.  Everything is lined up in a jig. On the block that is made from a piece of track, the front wheels just clear the track.  The front wings are slightly bent up at the corners.  This allows the car to lean when cornering before lock up occurs.

 

 

Tires are cut and trued on a Hudy tire machine.  Rears are about 1 1/8" diameter and fronts are about 1 1/16" diameter.  Fronts are H&R HRW2712F and rears are Pro-Track Drag Racing #242.  These are regular rubber tires and not natural rubber tires (not #N242).  Natural rubber tires are too soft for these large cars.

 

 

 

The motor is a Champion C-can with an older Mura X-12+ armature.  The older Mura X-12 and X12+ armatures offer a lot of torque and good rpm and also run cool under road race conditions.

 

 

 

The body started as a Resilient Resin "wide" McLaren Mk 8.  This one is 3 1/4" wide.  Fences, wing and front splitter were added. 

 

 

 

 

The body and wing are ground down to be thin and light. 

 

 

Resin rockers were replaced with lexan sheet and Slick 7 body reinforcements.  The body is painted with Tamiya semi-black lacquer with a touch of clear.  This gives a deep black paint job

 

 

 

More to come.......thanks Rodney!

[Tex]

Really nice slot car to play with! With that X-12 arm, it oughta be a handful, like the 1:1 car!

 

[dc-65x]

Yesterday was track test day for the "McLaren From Hell". Here's Rodney's report"

 

Rick,

 

Tested the George Follmer McLaren M8 today.  Real E Ticket ride.  The car is real fast everywhere around Eddie's road course.

 

 

Gearing was changed to 9 to 48.  Weldon spur gear used. 

 

 

Gear was broken in over a 30 minute period.  Motor has a large torque curve and gearing lets the car really squirts through the short straights.  On the main straight, the car really flies.  Real Can Am car like.

 

 

As Eric says, the car has a great amount of down force. 

 

 

The Mario McLaren M8A was brought for comparison.  This car has the same running gear with a less aggressive body.  The M8A slides around the track a little.  This car has some weight added on the corners of the pans to make up for the lack of down-force.

 

 

Nice car, thanks for the update Rodney!

 

 

 

 

 

[dc-65x]

Here are some of Rodney's latest projects in his words:

 

Rick,

 

Carrera made a VW Käfer, “Group 5" in 1/32nd scale (red and yellow car).  In real life, these crazy Bugs are powered by V8 engines or VW/Subaru hybrid Turbo engines. 

 

 

I decided to make my own interpretation of this car in 1/24th scale.  Started with a 1968 Bug kit and a Porsche 935 kit.  Car is mocked up in the second picture:

 

 

 

Modified Plafit chassis is powered by a Falcon 7.  Chassis pan was lowered with hand cut aluminum spacers.

 

 

Beautiful BRM brand set screw wheels with modern foam rubber tires are used.  Pro-Track #242 drag race tires are cut from wheels with the old tire machine.  Cut half of the tire off of the rim at a time.  Reverse wheel on machine for second cut:

 

 

This car is fast and really handles.  Just added a little lead behind the guide and widened the front track to balance it out:

 

 

 

Next up is an odd one. It's an old Chevy eBay find. The builder called it a Chevy Impala Daytona.  Semi kit brass chassis was powered by a Ram motor.  The car was too slow wjth the Ram so a 36D motor swap was done:

 

 

Gear mesh is adjusted by sliding the motor and brackets fore and aft.  This car weighs around 11 ounces with either power plant!

  

 

 

The car is very smooth and is fun to drive:

 

 

Amazing cars Rodney, thanks for sharing them with us!

 

[dc-65x]

Track testing at Eddies:

 

First up is probably the last of the early 1969 stuff.  I think you may be getting tired of the early '69 stuff. 

 

I am finishing up with an Elfin:

 

 

The Elfin chassis probably took longer to re-build than if it was made from scratch.  the whole chassis was narrowed and motor box was adjusted so one tire would no longer stick out.  The chassis is typical for the day where the builder attached the main rails to the motor box any way possible:

 

 

The armature was replaced in the Lenz motor.  The car handles great and the motor is strong:

 

 

 

 

Lola coupe is a car I want to share with you because it looks so cool.  Eddie likes this one too.  The car is from New York.  I purchased this one years ago:

 

 

I rebuilt and cleaned up the Ferret chassis.  One hole Cobra open motor.  Easier to drive than a Group 20 car:

 

 

I also ran a Dynamic Lola T70 roadster with a kit Dynamic anglewinder chassis.  The silver wind armature seemed a little tired...

 

 

The Bentley Continental GT3 is the largest slot car I have ever built.  Body started out as a RC toy.  Windows are made of sheet lexan.  Victor gave me a Scholer chassis that worked perfect on this large car.  It is amazing how fast this car is:

 

 

Thanks Rodney!

[slotbaker]

 

I think you may be getting tired of the early '69 stuff. 

 

I don't think so...

[dc-65x]

Hi Steve,

 

Oops, I meant to leave that out but.........Rodney was wondering if I was getting burned out on the early 1969 cars. I kind of am. Not much interest in the 1969 MCS/USRA Road Race Series threads. Nobody else is building cars and I've been flogging the topic since July last year.

[Dave Fiedler]

Rick,

For what it's worth, I think 1969 was my favorite year for chassis development.

Love your stuff, and love Rodney's stuff.

Sano Dave

[dc-65x]

Hi Dave,

 

I love the period too. In my sub-forum I limited it to the first 6 races in the first half of 1969. The cars still looked a bit like real cars. There was a diversity in bodies used in the four different classes, Sports, GT, GP and Stocker. In the last half of the year the McLaren Mk8 and wrap around air control was pretty much all you see.

 

In the first half of the year there was also quite an evolution in chassis design from 6 and 8 rails with motor boxes and plumber on the frame rails to the beginning of the classic Emott 4-rail, no motor box and plumber on the 1 1/4" arm design.

 

But in the last half of the year chassis design gets more radical. So while my interest lies in the early cars, based on the limited responses in my sub-forum (link below), the majority of interest could very well lie with the later cars.

 

1969 MCS/USRA Road Race Series

[Tex]

Follow your heart, Rick; don't worry 'bout what interests others more. If the later cars interest others more, let THEM take the lead on that front.

[dc-65x]

Hi Tex,

 

I agree in that I'm not going to change the format of my 1969 MCS/USRA Road Race Series sub-forum. I still have more cars to build from that period. I'd gladly support a broader 1969 format but it needs to be in a different thread or sub-forum.

[dc-65x]

Here's a Corvette hard body build from Rodney:

 

Rick,

 

The purple Corvette is one of my favorite slot cars.

 

 

It is modeled after the Purple People Eater Mk lll 1959 Corvette.  It is a SCCA B-Production race car.  This successful race car was built by Nickey Chevrolet.

 

 

I wanted a full interior and full engine detail so I used the special mini-motor you built because of its small size.....Thanks Rick.  It fits perfect in the Corvette  (was to tall for the1/32 car).  A chassis with brass rod main rails was constructed and was built around your motor. The chassis has mass down low due to the solid brass main rails and thick brass motor box. 

 

 

 

The slot car body was wonderfully painted and detailed by Curtis Raitz. A Monogram pre-painted driver from a Chaparral 2D kit is installed.

The hood pin is made from a resistor lead wire.

 

 

The hood is hinged and when opened the "fuelie" engine is revealed.

 

 

Chrome Ulrich wheels with Paul's tires are used.  Cox spur gear is used with a Weldon pinion gear.  The guide flag is a Dynamic. 

 

 

The purple Corvette handles great.  Neutral handling.  Easy to drift. The motor you built has the same power as a 36D.  The motor has lots of torque and runs cool.  The car is geared low for Eddie's road course. Handling is better than a 36D car due to less mass with your motor.

 

 

 

Beautiful car Rodney. I'm glad the motor has a good home!

 

Thanks for sharing with us

 

 

[Tex]

Very nice!

[dc-65x]

Here's Rodney's review of his 4th of July on the road course at Eddies:

 

We had an informal 3 car race at Eddie's.  We ran every other lane.  I drove the yellow Chevy.  We raced for about 30 Minutes with these three.

 

 

The two hot rods were turning 12 second laps on the road course.  We ran with a three lane buffer.  No weenie tire cars here.

 

 

My yellow hot rod is the American Graffiti coupe. It has a Ram armature with spacer laminations installed.  Got this motor running pretty well. The Ram armature quit so another slightly shorter 3/32" shaft Ram armature was installed.  The extra gear is an alternate gear ratio just attached so the gear would not get lost in the mix.

 

 

These two go with my hot rod road race theory.

 

(The "hot rod road race theory" is that in the Dawn of Slot Car Time hot rods, jalopies and stockers were raced on road courses as well as the typical ovals, figure eights and drags strips we often associate with them today. This can be corroborated not only by our memories but the early slot car magazines)

 

 

The 1962 Hawk Monte Carlo is completed as well as the 1978 IMSA Camaro.  More on these another day.

 

 

 

That IMSA Camaro was made up from a zillion different model kits grafted together....MAN!

 

Thanks Rodney

[SlotStox#53]

Rodney works his again

Superb cars!! That Camaro mmmmmm...

[slotbaker]

Very nice, as usual.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of the 62 Hawk MC.