664 replies to this topic

[Martin]

Love the Dynamic G.E. mid engine(motor). Glad to hear its runs good

[Slot Car Rod]

Here is a Mike Steube chassis McLaren Mk8 that is part of the Oakland Speedway collection.  This car was owned by Les and Tom Amos, owners of Oakland Speedway.

 

The early C-can motor has a Steube armature and blue dot magnets.  The wheels are Associated 1/8" axle type.  Orange tires were used back then.  The body is Lexan.  Les ran green dyed jet flags.  The Steube chassis has four .047" main rails.  The common size used back then was a couple of .055" rails and a couple of .047 rails.

 

Rodney

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[Martin]

Great slice of slot history. 70 ish?   You said it has 1/8" axles.

What date have you got on it Rodney? Maybe 69.

Nice car

[Slot Car Rod]

Martin, my guess is late '69 early '70.

 

Rodney

[Isaac S.]

Still looks great. Body is still very cool. 

[old & gray]

Beautiful car. Frame and body remind me of the car I ran at Parma in 1970.

[Tex]

the use of the Cox gear dates it somewhat... when did Fass gears come in vogue? I "think" we were using Fass gears by Summer of '71.

[Bill from NH]

The original Fass spurs  fit 1/8" axles. By 1970 Fass was putting a 3/32" I.D. machined brass spacer in his spur gears so they could be used on 3/32" axles too.  I don't know exactly when Fass started making gears, but I would think it was in the late 60's. Tony P. might know. East coast wing cars were running 64 pitch gears  & had dumped the chassis motor bracket before the West did. The first wing chassis I built in '70 had 1/8" axles, a motor bracket, & Fass gears. I never ran 48 pitch Cox or Cobra spurs on wing cars, but the Gilbert chassis series in Car Model used Cox in '72 & '73.. I've never built another brass chassis with a motor bracket or 1/8" axles since. 

[Slot Car Rod]

Here is a Lee Gilbert chassis McLaren Mk8. The front axle is 3/32" and the rear axle is 1/8".  Note the 1/2 or 1/3 drop arm.  The spur gear says Jet Gear.

 

The motor is another early C can with a Steube armature.

 

Rodney

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[Slot Car Rod]

Here is a beautiful Lola T70 coupe.  The chassis has a steel center section and split pans.  Mura A-can motor with bubble gum armature.  Champion wheels. 

We are looking at around late '69.

 

Rodney

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[Slot Car Rod]

Going back in time a little bit from the previous cars is this Lola T70.  Love the fogged paint job.

 

This one is powered by a Mura B-can motor.  Is this the milled can version?

No plumber tubes on the chassis.

The body is a long nose Dynamic. The usual green dyed jet flag.

1/8" axles with Associated wheels.

 

I hope posting these mildly restored cars helps with your restorations and period builds, and brings back some nostalgic memories.  

 

Rodney

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[Bill from NH]

The milling I'm familiar with is on the inside of a B-can, The inside of the top & bottom has a concave grinding the length of the can. You'd have to pull the endbell for a good look. Rick can tell you if they had any other milling work.

[dc-65x]

Here are the 5 basic B-cans I am familiar with:
 

 

 
From left to right, the first version has .040" thick sheet metal, 2 small vent holes per side and one square hole near the comm:
 

 
The second version changes to one rectangular vent hole per side only. It still uses .040" thick material:
 

 
Now things get more interesting. The third version gets the top or the top and bottom milled down usually to .020" thickness:
 

 
Here's a comparison of the standard and "20/40" milled can showing the difference in height which is pretty dramatic:
 

 
The fourth and I guess final attempt at making a successful Pro motor was the "circular milled" can. It is also milled but to .030" top and bottom and goes back to 2 vent holes per side. Vents in the sides of the can for brush cooling were also added. They also added an axle clearance cutout and releaved some of the back of the can on one side for can drive applications. I think this version was the last ho-rah for the "B" in the Pro races:
 

 
The cool thing is the milling of a .560"+ diameter feature inside the can inline with the armature to increase clearance between it and the can:
 

 
The last version I have is what I call the "C-can of B-cans". It has a lot of features the famous Mura 2-hole C-can has. It's made of the same .030" thick material. It has the nice axle clearance cut out and the bearing support area on the back of the can is much smaller. I thinking this one might have been more of a "Group" motor like the NCC 20 this can came from:
 

 
Another big thing is the can is shortened quite a bit from the previous 4 versions .995" length to about .945". Here's how much shorter the final version (in the middle) is:
 

 
A disclaimer : This is just my small sampling of B-can evolution presented for entertainment only .

[Isaac S.]

[Slot Car Rod]

Thanks everyone.  So many variations of the B can.  The Lola has a first generation B can.

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[Slot Car Rod]

Rounding out this era of slot car racing is one of my favorites.  I have probably run this slot car more than any other.

 

This 1972 Ti22 bodied slot car has 13/16 diameter rear tires (out of an Aguirre brand package).  Also note the Riggen fronts cut down to 11/16".  These tire sizes are a change from the 7/8" rears and 3/4" fronts.

 

The conventional four rail chassis has .055" and .047" main rails and modified Steube/Associated pans.  Faas gears are used.

 

The motor is Steube C-can power.  

 

Note the air control.  The Mylar plastic wrap around rear spoiler and the front diaplane produces lots of down force.

 

Again, one of my favorites.

 

Rodney

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[TSR]

Lots of "B" variations in the desperate attempts to make it work... eventually it did, but the "C" was on its way and was immediately a far better proposition.

 

[Slot Car Rod]

We have four cars from the brothers Pat and Bill McNulty.  They ran at the A Street Speedway in Hayward, CA.

 

Cars and ribbons are from around 1972-74 according to Pat.  The bodies are Porsches.  Bill was a sign painter and painted the bodies. 

 

The twin driver car was built for endurance events.  It was originally powered by a Steube armature Group 20 motor.

Pat told me lights were installed in the nose of the Porsche roadster for the "nighttime" portion of the endurance races.

 

Hope you enjoyed viewing this batch of vintage slot cars.

 

Rodney

 

 

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[Martin]

Love his sign work. Lettering and paint work is so well done

Thanks for sharing.

[Bill from NH]

Yes, the paint work is striking!. Is it a combination of being done on both the inside & outside of the bodies? Jairus paints that way today. All four Porsche bodies shown are Lancer. The Lancer coupes were very popular on the East coast in the early 70's. The open cockpit Porsche were more popular on the West coast. MAC, then O/S, made those bodies after Lancer closed down. O/S still has some body molds.

[Slot Car Rod]

Yes, paint on the inside and outside with the McNulty cars.

 

Here are four Ferrari slot cars with PdL air control from the Oakland Speedway collection.  The orange car was raced by "Bus," a local racer.  As I remember, he was an AC Transit bus driver.  The blue car is the newest slot car Les Amos owned in the collection. 

 

Rodney

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[Alchemist]

Hi Rodney,

 

You have so many fantastic cars with such wonderful history attached to them.

 

I'm so appreciative that you willingly share what you have stored away in your "museum vault"!

 

So "Grand"!   Thank you for sharing Rodney!

 

Ernie

[Bill from NH]

It's neat to see the Monty Ohren chassis.

[Slot Car Rod]

I completed my Select brand Lola T70 LeMans long tail coupe.  The Select Lola body was purchased years ago and I never knew what brand the body was.  Thanks, Martin, for identifying the brand.  The body is painted with Poly-S.

 

The chassis was purchased years ago from a NorCal slot car enthusiast.  He said he purchased the chassis from his local raceway in 1969, and he claimed it was a Champion chassis.    

I have never seen one of these floppy pan chassis in any magazine or catalog.  The chassis components are like Champion parts, and the plating shows it is a factory-built chassis.  I have learned to "never say never" when it comes to this slot car stuff.  It is probably not Champion, but made by the same Japanese firm that made many of the plated slot car chassis over the years.  Front chassis damage was repaired.  The front axle was pushed in about 1/16 inch, and the drop arm joints were a mess.

 

The wheels and wheel inserts are Champion.  The dried-out rear tires were replaced.  I had to drill out a stripped set screw in a front wheel.  One front tire was replaced.  

 

The motor is made of some Champion 26D parts.  A rewound armature and Arco magnets are used.  Cox guide and a Weldun crown gear.

 

Rodney

 

 

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[don.siegel]

Great stuff Rodney. That does look a bit like the first Champion jaildoor, but with the floppy body mounts. 

 

Here's the first Champion jaildoor chassis, as claimed by the seller and confirmed in a Champion catalog... 

 

 

I think you're referring to Aoyagi (AYK), which did a lot of the Champion chassis, as well as many other parts and chassis for other American companies. 

 

I have another question, which you or Rick might have already answered. 

 

In NorCal, did the super-lightweight Choti-bodies cars only give way to these heavier and more conventional chassis with the anglewinder revolution, or was there an intermediate period? 

 

Don 

 

PS: looking back at my photo, not really all that similar and, above all, it doesn't have the typical Champion chromed motor bracket. It does look kind of familiar however...