664 replies to this topic

[Bill from NH]

Bob, yes, that is the Lancer "Porsche Coupe." There's nothing McLaren about it. IIRC, the coupe didn't have the strengthening ribs over the front wheelwells, but the Lancer open cockpit Porsche  did. Your photo shows them and so does Rick T's in post #122. Tomorrow, I'll dig out my Lancer Porsche bodies and see if my mind is playing tricks on me. I'll post my results here.

[Bill from NH]

Okay, my mind  was playing tricks.   I dug out a couple Lancer Porsche bodies I airbrushed 40+ years ago. My Lancer Porsche coupe does have the strenghtening ribs over the front wheelwells like the Lancer open cockpit body does, however, those on the coupe are smaller & shorter. I already knew that the rears of these two bodies was different. I'll have to see if I can get more of the Porsche coupes, I like how they look, even if only a door stop.

[don.siegel]

Yep, a very impressive car, thanks Rick & Rodney! 

 

Don 

[dc-65x]

Here's another beautiful car from Rodney's stable:

 

This Mclaren is one of my favorite slot cars.  I added features to the McLaren to make it a Mk 8B.

 

 

 

 

McLaren and Scarab.  What a difference a decade makes.

 

 

This car utilizes a shaker plate is a term from the 60's that refers to the body mounting plate mounted loosely to the chassis. 

 

 

On the McLaren chassis, the  body mounting plate is held on loosely with three screws.

 

 

Beautiful car Rodney, especially the subtle "fogged" paint job. Thanks for sharing!

[dc-65x]

Here's another of Rodney's projects, a Porsche 935 K4. Here's a full size one:

 

 

Here are the details from Rodney:

 

I wanted a Porsche Kremer 935 K4 slot car to complete my collection.  
The Kremer 935 K4 was the last gasp 935 race car.  GTP cars were starting to be raced.

 

With the real K4, the uni-body tub was tossed and a tube frame car was constructed.  This resulted in a lower car than a K3. 

 

The only way to have a Kremer 935 K4 1/24th scale slot car was to make one.  I modified a Martini 935 (Moby Dick)  kit.  A picture of my Martini car is below:

 

 

The finished body with driver weighs 1.5 ounces.  The windows are thin Lexan.  The interior is also thin Lexan.  I still need to add lights and light covers:

 

 

I finished the Kremer 935 K4 Porsche.  Additional decals and lights/covers where added.  The tail lights are light pipe LEDs.  The kill switch was made with wire and the extinguisher lever was made from brass.

 

 

 

 

 

CHASSIS

 

The chassis is a shortened Plafit stock car chassis.  Thanks for the chassis Ron.  The chassis was shortened by cutting off about 3/8" of the center section.  The shaker plate was reshaped and the front axle carrier was shortened and notched to allow for the short wheel base chassis.  The motor "u-bracket" was raised with a number of hand cut brass and aluminum shims.  This allows tthe use of the tall rear tires.

 

 

 

WHEELS

 

The wheels and tires are beautiful BRM brand metric set screw wheels and inserts.  They are made for their Porsche 962 kits.  The rear tires are modern sponge tires.  My local hobby shop stocks these parts.  The faces of the aluminum wheels are painted black before the inserts are glued on.

 

GEARS

 

The car uses metric wheels and bearings.  Axles are 3mm.  So the types of gears that can be used are interesting.  The objective is to have a very low gear ratio.  A low gear ratio is needed for the high RPM Falcon 7 motor and the high car weight.

 

Metric gears available are 34 tooth crown gear with an 8 tooth pinion.  Gear ratio 4.25 to 1.  Only good with Euro low RPM high torque motors.

 

The 3mm wheels can be reamed out to 1/8".  Modern gears available are Parma 35 tooth crown gear with an angled 7 tooth pinion. 5 to 1 ratio. Not bad with a Falcon 7 motor..

 

I chose to use modern drag race gears.  The 3/32" spur gear center is reamed out to 3mm.  I ruined 2 gears on the car before I realized the chassis "u-bracket" had a hypoid gear effect.  The hypoid effect allowed for the motor to be raised above the motor shaft center line (weird).  I replace the bracket with one that had the axle center line with the motor shaft center line.  I stole the third gear out of one of my drag race cars since I ruined my spare gears.

The drag race gears used are a 58 tooth crown with a 9 tooth pinion.  The gear ration is 6.4 to 1.  About right for heavy car with a Falcon 7 motor on a road course.

 

Road Tests

 

The 935 K4 has great traction or bite.  The car does not tail out or plow at all.  You could feel the good amount of down force from the 935 K4 body.  With the short wheel base, the car turns in fast.  The gearing makes the car very easy to drive.  In contrast, the similarly long tail Martini 935L tails out when pushed (not much down force).  This car does not drive like a big car.  Falcon 7 motors have a broad torque curve.  The drag race gears are very smooth.

 

 

 

Great car Rodney. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Next up will be another Porsche. This time a 914 E Production road racer......

[dc-65x]

Here's Rodney's Porsche 914 he spoke of:

 

I finished a Porsche 914-4 EP SCCA racer.

 

Tamiya lacquer paint.  Old Dynamic decals (clear coated with floor wax).  Cox driver. Aluminum tubing roll bar (hard to bend without kinking). Windshield tinted with yellow armature dye. 

 

 

 

 

Body is mounted "loosely" to body. The body ended up weighing 1 ounce with driver.  Overall car weight is 4.7 ounces. Tires were cut down to about 1" in diameter.

 

Classic '68 Mabuchi motor.  Russkit wheels and wheel inserts.  Cox guide and spur gear. Modern foam rear tires.

 

 

Note how small a 917 is in comparison with a 914 (last picture).

 

 

Very cool Rodney, Thanks! 

[dc-65x]

Here's another of Rodney's cool cars. This time a Brabham BT8. Here's Rodney's description of the car:

 

I completed the Brabham BT8. This car uses the beautiful slot car body I got on eBay. It looks like a factory-painted sample Lancer body. 

 

 

 

 

A simple brass chassis was built. Revell wheels along with French urethane tires are used. The motor consist of a Russkit 27 can and magnets with a Mabuchi endbell. This combination houses a home-rewound 16D armature.

 

 

 

A picture of the original car. It's really beautiful, the way cars used to be before air control... kind of like what happened to slot cars... but I digress:

 

 

Thanks, Rodney! 

[don.siegel]

That's beautiful, and very impressive. Nice find on the body, too. 

 

Thanks, Rodney! 

 

Don 

[TSR]

Great little slot car! The body is not by Lancer, but by Shark, and exists in both 1/24 and 1/32 scale. It was crafted by Ron "von" Klein. It is not really that accurate but looks really good regardless.

Shark never painted their bodies, so this was likely painted by one of their wholesaler customers, and from the color scheme, I would bet that it came from "Tiny's" in Anaheim, California, as Tiny made RTR cars using their own aluminum chassis with various bodies including MDC and Shark examples.

The picture of the full-size red car is of... my former own, that has been for sale by a dealer in San Diego for a while.

A few years back I put one together as a small clone of my own full-size ride, using a Cox brass chassis and a FT16D motor:





I love BT8s, of which only 12 were built, one of them fitted with a Japanese Prince six-cylinder engine (that will later be appropriated by Nissan) and a very nice coupe body. I especially like Rodney's that is so much "sixties"...  looks so cool. Thanks, Rick, for showing it! 

 

[dc-65x]

Latest project from Rodney in his words:

 

Work in progress- factory painted MAC Javelin.
 

 

I wanted the car to look like a factory RTR or kit car so I modified some Riggen.Champion chassis parts to make a Tran Am chassis. 

 

 

The wheel base ended up being 4 1/8" for this car. I measured a Lancer Javein and the W.B. measured 4 3/16". The rules for Trans Am slot cars called for a 4 1/4" W.B.

 

 

Champion wheels and inserts.

 

 

Champion and Riggen parts used to create a Trans Am chassis with a 4 1/8" wheelbase (they never made a Trans Am chassis). Champion chrome can 16D with a Lenz 28 single armature.  White Dot magnets with Champion magnet shim.  36D motor brush heat sinks. Mura motor lead wire. Cox spur gear.  Trued French rear tires. 

 

 

Completed MAC Javelin with a factory RTR or kit car theme.  Factory painted body.  Cady and Dynamic decals. Champion wheels and wheel inserts. Rare Lancer stock car interior with full face driver helmet.

 

 

 

Cool car Rodney, thanks!

[dc-65x]

Rodney's latest restoration in his own words:

 

Rick,

 

What is going on with this slot car?  Look at that huge motor hanging out the side!  The car is a STP turbine car with a wild motor/chassis set up.

 

I have owned this slot car for decades and decided to finally restore it.

 

The car features a home made back-bone aluminum chassis.  The sidewinder motor set up features an idle gear to move the motor location forward.  I had to rework the rear axle assembly to allow the spur gear to be soldered to the rear axle.  The car was built with Loctite holding the gear to the axle.  The Loctite did not hold.

 

The large motor has a Ram 850 armature with a Pittman brush assembly along with a Kemtron Bronco magnet setup.  Ball bearing are used throughout.  The armature is epoxied and balanced.

I replaced the simple aluminum wheels and tires (Germans in the rear) with Revell cast wheels and urethane tires.

 

The body came with the clear Shelby Turbine body shown in one of the pictures..  I used a Lancer STP Turbine car body instead.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SlotStox#53]

Just ..... Wow

Amazing design and build with that hunk of ally chassis! How the rear axle gear and the pinion run inside the central spine...

[dc-65x]

Here's the latest "save" by Rodney:

 

 

But first there may be an interesting connection with a topic on the LASCM website about Russkit and Ron “Von” Klein and this car of Rodney's.

 

Here's a link to the LASCM piece:

 

Russkit’s last days, or what could have been…

 

Here's Rodney's description of his project:

 

Rick,

 

All of our discussions regarding 1966 slot cars led to this Hamill SR3 slot car build.  I finally built a chassis for the old/used 1/32nd scale Hamill SR 3 body.  

 

The Hamill body looks like a smaller version of a 1/24th scale Lancer body and looks very "1966".  Note the flared fender lips.  The used body was cleaned up and the paint touched up.  Exhaust pipes were made from cut down 1/24th scale pipes. Intakes are made from tubing.  The roll bar is electrical wire.  The rear view mirrors are made from pins.  The interior motor hump is made out of tissue and resin. The dash and side panels are scrap aluminum.  Russkit numbers were applied.

 

This is the body I had trouble figuring out what motor to use.  Not much room for a motor.  Years ago, I tried your short 16D.  It was too tall.  A can drive 16D was finally chosen.  The can drive motor left more room for the driver figure than an endbell drive motor. The motor is a mild rewind.  The armature is balanced and epoxied.

 

A simple brass rod chassis utilizing a Revell motor bracket was constructed.  The axle bearings were moved forward on the bracket.  There is a short drop arm for the guide.  The chassis was originally built "square"  It was then modified to fit the old body.  The body wheelbase is slightly longer on one side.  The original body pin holes were re-used so the chassis body mounts look almost randomly placed.  It took four times longer to fit the chassis to the body than to build the chassis!  Nothing on the chassis sits square any more.  A Dynamic quick change guide fits under the nose nicely.  

 

E.J.s wheels and tires look nice.  I will try some Paul's rear tires once they arrive.  Real Revell wheel inserts are used.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

Thanks Rodney!

[JimF]

Awesome to see that Rodney is still "at it". I used to see him pretty regularly in Vallejo and it was always fun to see what he brought along on any particular week. I've missed seeing him there over the last year and a half but then I don't get there much myself anymore either.

 

Keep on keeping on Rodney, always great to see your stuff.

[dc-65x]

Rodney's BRE 510 Trans Am racer in his own words:

 

 

I finished off a BRE Datsun 510 1/24th scale slot car.  It only took about 5 years to complete.  

 

A Revell model car kit was used.  Paint is Tamiya lacquer.  A chrome paint pen and acrylic semi-gloss black used for details.  Semi-flat enamel grey used for wheel spokes.  The windows are glued in flush with model airplane canopy glue.

 

A shaker pan chassis was constructed from a Parma FCR chassis.  The front axle has suspension with coil springs.  The front suspension allows the front tires and guide flag to be placed close to each other.  When the car is cornering, the suspension "gives" so the guide flag remains planted in the slot.  H&R wheels and tires supply grip.  The car is powered with an H&R blue motor.

 

Rodney

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Rodney!   

 

[dc-65x]

Here's the latest from Rodney's stable:

 

1/25th scale fantasy Corvette C8-R

 

There have been rumors of a mid-engine Corvette since the 1970's.  There are even spy pictures of a mid-engine Corvette test mule running at the Nurburgring.

 

Here is the MBM mid-engine Fantasy Corvette C8-R.   The finished Fantasy Corvette C8-R body is totally an MBM creation with amazing design and workmanship.`

 

I hope the real mid-engine Corvette will look as good as this MBM version.

 

I completed the MBM Corvette C8-R body as a slot car.  A Revell Corvette C7-R body was also made into a slot car so I could compare the current Corvette with the fantasy one.

 

Both cars have Scale  Auto chassis, Plafit wheels, and NSR motors.  Multiple sets of wheels were made to test different tires.

 

 

Cars shown with Corvette BBS wheels and lettered medium compound urethane tires.

 

 

Soft compound tires below

 

 

 

 

 

Body mounting system shown below  

 

Tire test with one pair of sponge tires and three compounds of urethane tires.  Medium compound Paul's Urethane tires worked the best.

 

 

Scaleauto driver figures

 

 

Scaleauto chassis

 

 

Engine detail

 

 

Corvette-style dash

 

 

MBM workbench

 

 

Great looking cars Rodney. I hope the real C8 mid engine Vette looks as good as your model!

 

 

[TSR]

Beautiful cars, all.
That Paxton Indy car's chassis is a real beauty. The engineer/builder should however have added a forward mount for the guide flag to make its handling far more stable than it likely is, as short cars can be twitchy, especially when there is a big boat anchor of a DC85 hanging from its side! 

[dc-65x]

Thanks Philippe. Rodney is indeed an incredible scratch builder and restorer.

[dc-65x]

Beautiful cars, all.
That Paxton Indy car's chassis is a real beauty. The engineer/builder should however have added a forward mount for the guide flag to make its handling far more stable than it likely is, as short cars can be twitchy, especially when there is a big boat anchor of a DC85 hanging from its side! 

 

Rodney took Philippe's tuning advice with great results. He describes the modifications below: 

 

I refined the STP Turbine for better driving as PdL suggested. 

 

The car had front end chatter with the guide behind the front wheels and the previously installed Paul's soft compound front tire. This problem was cured by relocating the guide to a conventional location and changing the front tires to hard compound Cox tires:

 

 

The added brass arm extends the guide to the normal position in front of the front wheels:

 

 

The car handles great and is fast. 4.5 second fast lap.

 

The special motor in the STP car had so much brakes the rear wheels would lock when brakes were applied.  A simple change to a soft RAM motor brush spring solved the brake issues.  Now the car has the normal amount of coast when the brakes are applied.

 

Thanks Philippe! 

[TSR]

I am very honored that Rodney not only listened to my recommendation but acted on it.
Rodney and Rick, you need to take a trip to Los Angeles and visit the LASCM. It is awesome, paradise on earth for slot car enthusiasts.

[dc-65x]

Rodney's latest project is a wild modified Scarab MKIV. Here's a standard Monogram version:

 

 

Here's Rodney on this his build:

 

The body is a Monogram that has been flaired with Corvette fender flairs and spoilers added. 

 

 

The windshield is from the junk parts box. 

 

 

A Chaparral like engine was added. 

 

 

I had louvers on the top of the nose between the tires and later removed them.  I do not know where the radiator air exits on the real car.

 

 

A Versitec SS101 motor powers the car. These motors seem to be built to be assembled once.  They are very difficult to work on.  It takes about an hour just to re-install  the motor brushes and brush springs!  

 

 

The brass chassis has a Champion drop arm.   Cox magnesium wheels add to the look..

 

 

Very cool Rodney! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[dc-65x]

Here's the latest build from Rodney:

 

In 1966, there was a slot car race that covered 600 real miles.  How long was this race?  It took 51 1/2 hours of racing! That is 14,400 laps on the track. The race was held at Family Hobby Center in High Point, N.C.

 

 

One of the highest quality slot car manufacturers back then  was Champion of Chamblee, GA.  Their motors powered the top four cars in the race.

 

Amazingly, the third place finisher was a stock production Champion Chaparral 2A.  This feat would be like a showroom stock car finishing well against race cars at Sebring.

 

 

Champion motors and other components were available on the west coast.  Their kit cars and ready-to-run cars never seemed to make it out west though.  I remember seeing the cars in magazines only.

 

I collected enough parts over the years to complete a couple of cars sans body.  I never could find a factory painted body until recently.  The Champion silver/grey Chaparral 2A that I purchased was in decent shape.  Well, I finally completed a Champion of Chamblee Chaparral 2A kit car.

 

 

 

The motor in the car is the hot rewound 707 36D motor.  The motor is factory rewound and balanced, and has the powerful Champion Arco magnets and magnet shim.  Also featured in the motor are the Champion endbell,springs and motor brushes.  There is also a ball bearing on the can side. Champion/Weldun 64-pitch gears were used in the kit car.  The spur gear is a collet fastener type.

 

The chassis is made of aluminum and can accommodate various wheel bases.  There is a large brass weight that retains the guide flag.

 

The original rear tires were blue in color.  I am running black urethane tires.

 

 

Note the driver figure is mounted below the vacuform interior and the driver head is mounted above the interior.  Very unique.

 

 

The car is very easy to drive and the motor is very fast and has great brakes.

 

Rodney

 

Very cool Rodney! 

 

[Bill from NH]

I had two of these Champion RTR 36D cars in late 60's. (1967 & 68) They had many weekly races, as well as a couple traveling series, & two 8-hr. endurance races on them. They always ran well & never slowed down. My two cars came with black foam tires which were changed to silicones, because they were the only tire legal locally. Both my cars came with painted Lancer bodies, a flat paper interior, & a white molded driver from the waist up. One of my 707s had ball bearings at both ends, It's endbell was molded with a nipple over the bearing area, something the bushing endbells didn't have. I got that BB motor purely by accident. The track owner said he ordered just one BB powered car that sold $5 more than those with bushing motors. When his order came in, each car was packed in identical type boxes with nothing telling him which box had the BB motor car. A couple months later, we noticed my endbell was molded differently than the others. The trackowner never ordered a second BB powered car, but in hindsight, mine wasn't any faster than all the bushing powered cars anyway.

[TSR]

Nice job. The car came in "semi RTR" form (the customer still had to fit the body on the chassis, which was not that easy as some of the bodies provided by Champion were a hard fit on the large chassis...) in this type of packaging:



The "High Point 600" was Champion's first known involvement in an organized racing event outside of their Atlanta's base.
It is interesting to compare the time spent to cover the 600 actual miles, and the time the Champion team spent to cover 1000 miles over the 80 hours on the oval track at Santa Ana Raceway the same year, with three cars that were effectively identical to the "High Point"  winning Chaparral.
Two of the three cars used in that (today still unbeaten) record survived and are on display at the LASCM in Los Angeles.









 

[dc-65x]

It's the mighty (expensive!) Globe this time from Rodney:

 

The year was 1966. Slot car racing was big with raceways in almost every city.  During this time period, the most expensive and exotic slot car components were made by an aerospace company Globe/Versitec.  

 

 

From LASCM:

Globe Motors was based in Dayton, OH. and was a supplier to the US Government for extremely hi-tech small electric motors to precisely power the fins of cruise missiles under DC power. Instant hi-torque and hi revs were necessary, these small round permanent-magnet motors running at a constant 25000 R.P.M. under 12-volt, and providing power to the fins through a clutch system.

In 1964, when the slot car boom really hit town, Globe created a division in their company to handle this new and promising side of the business. The new company was called Globe-Versitec.

Globe took one of those missile motors and introduced it to the slot car world as the Globe SS81. The SS81 was an 18-volt, 1″ diameter round motor with a 5-pole sealed arm, a very well built commutator with actual welded wires, an Alnico round magnet, shunted brushes, and two good quality caged ball bearings.

 

 

The Globe Versitec motors sold for a whopping  $14.95!  Hamburgers at the KwikWay fast food that was down the street from our raceway were 24 cents and a bag of fries were 19 cents.  Like most kids, I could not afford one of these motors.

 

I collected enough parts to build a couple of Globe/Versitec slot cars.  The two cars are shown below. The McLraren is also factory painted.  I do not remember what brand it is.  I could not find one in the LA slot car museum listing.

 

 

 

The beautiful Chaparral body is a factory painted Lancer brand body with a factory black wing.

 

 

 

 

The round can type Globe motors would rev to 40,000 R.P.M.on 12 volts.  They were precision made and complex in construction.  The complex construction made them very difficult to rebuild.

 

 

 

 

Globe/Veristec produced two versions of chassis for their motors.  One Version had an inline motor configuration and the other version had the motor mounted sidewinder style.  The green Chaparral 2G is an inline version and the red McLaren Mk1 is a sidewinder version.

 

The motors are high revving and gearing of around 4 to 1 worked the best.  Other motors of the era had less R.P.M. and a gear ratio of about 3 to 1 worked best.

 

The cars are fast and have good brakes with proper gearing.

 

Rodney

 

Great looking cars. Thanks Rodney