135 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

I was in a group of Atlanta slot racers who were ill-treated in a similar chicken excrement manner.

Back in the early '90s, a group of Atlanta-area racers car-pooled over to a raceway in Birmingham, AL, for a big race. There were five or six of us: me, Ray Gardner, Mike Asher, maybe even Cozine and Bill Temple.

While on the road, we called the raceway for directions and indicated that we were en route to race in their event. We arrived within the hour and only then were informed that tech had closed five minutes before our arrival. After a brief bit of discussion, we were told we were not going to be allowed to enter the race. The irritating part of the whole deal was that they hadn't bothered to tell us when tech closed when we called for directions.

So we all got back into Mike's mini-van and drove two hours back to Atlanta...

You can bet that none of us ever set foot in that raceway again.

[tonyp]

This chassis predates the one above. All the measurements are the same and it is the same build except for 1/8" axles front and rear.

Instead of two rails of flat wire, this has one .063" flat wire rail and one .047" rail.

This could be one of the last 1/8" axle cars Bob raced.

[tonyp]

The East Coast Car Model Series ran stock cars as one of the classes. One of the stops that year was Tag Powell's Mini Wheels Raceway in Highland Park, NJ. This may be the car run there by either Bob or Chris Vitucci.

The track was a 220 foot Engleman, fairly smooth, but the drivers panel had loose contacts on some of the controller hook-ups. If you moved your controller your car would stop, I remember this cost me the Amateur A Main.

Wheelbase, 4.5"
Guide lead, .825"
Pans, .025"
Drop arm, Mini Wheels 1" wide with two .063" rails soldered to each side
Center section, two rails of .063", one each piano wire and brass rod.
Plumber rail, .063" piano wire.



Famous Emott taperd two-rail chassis design. Besides working great these were some of the prettiest chassis designs ever. They just looked right.





Here you can see the guide stops made by slotting and bending down part of the drop arm tongue. The rail on the front of the plumber rails pushes down on the drop arm when the plumber raises up in the back.



Hinge on front of pans keeps them from dragging on the track. Front axle tube is heavy-duty tied.



Triple strands of Marklin train wire was used to get power to the Kean Kan motor. Pin tubes are soldered to the tops of the hinge wire. Weldwood contact cement can be see on the front of the pans where lead was used.

[tonyp]

These two frames show the development of the East Coast sidewinder. They are probably only six months or less apart but you can see the change in drop arm width and number of rails. The top has a .750" Cobra drop arm and four rails while the other a 1" Cobra drop arm and three rails. Bob had already started to taper the center sections.

Mearurement for both chassis are the same.
Wheelbase, 4"
Guide Lead, .850"
Drop arm, .063"
Pans, .025"
Rails are all .063", each chassis has one piano wire rail.
Plumber rails are .063" piano wire







The top chassis appears to never have been used. It still has markings on the rear of the bat pans showing where to put the lead weights.

These are probably some of the earliest Emott sidewinders that still exist.

[tonyp]

Bob, I am sure you and Jerry putting the cars in paper bags in Texas did nothing to sway the vote. Jerry could be quite an arse sometimes; well, most times... LOL.

Hey, I love you but if there was a way to keep you and Jerry out of a race I know how I'd vote... It's a shame they did not let you run because I remember seeing that car run at Nutley... LOL...

[TSR]

Jerry may have been a difficult character but he sure was a heck of a good racer, let's give him that.

Bob was always a gentle person with the mildest manners, but one of the great heroes in the history of slot car racing. Certainly one of the best thinkers as far as how and why something would work. :up:

[tonyp]

Howie and Jerry were the two best drivers I ever saw race. Jerry was just a bit of a jerk a lot of the time. He was easy to dislike.

Jerry would destroy you in a race then leave his car on the track afterwards so people could try it. Usually no one could make more than a lap or two without deslotting. Basically his cars ran as poorly as they looked. He was just a master at driving them.

Another Jerry story is when practicing he would put lead inside his body up high so the car would want to tilt over all the time. He would practice like that. When he teched in he would remove the lead and his car would be super easy to drive.

Howie was one of those people who could pick up a controller and any car and run it at the limit within one or two laps. He was amazing...

[Ron Hershman]

I was told, or heard or read, that it was a quarter that he taped inside the body when he practiced.

[Bob Emott]

Yes, Jerry did tape weight inside his body for practice...

And Tony P's story about Jerry letting other drivers try his car after the race is VERY true. After one race where he thoroughly whupped everybody by 20 laps or so, he offered to let me try his wnning car... IT WAS JUNK... I was a reasonably good driver but I could not drive his car AT ALL... It was awful... And it looked like he built it with his feet...

Jerry didn't even have a Dremel tool until I went to his house to help him one day. He would cut holes in a drop arm or bat pan by drilling a hole in the brass with a hand drill and then using an X-Acto knife to carve away the excess material. He cut his piano wire with side cutters and then ground the cut ends on a big floor model grinding wheel. He never cleaned his chassis with SOS pads or anything similar so they were always rusty...

When I asked him why he didn't clean up his chassis, he said that when they looked like junk and he beat us with them in practice, he had us psychologically beaten before the race ever started... Smart guy! With his driving talent and his "I can beat ALL of you ANYTIME" attitude, he was on a par with Howie as the best driver of his time and maybe of all time...

But he would never win any awards as the most popular driver... But, when you knew him personally, he was quite a nice guy. You just had to understand that Jerry was Jerry and accept him that way. I was glad to have him as a friend...

[Cheater]

You just had to understand that Jerry was Jerry and accept him that way. I was glad to have him as a friend...

 

LOL!! That's exactly what I say about Philippe!!!

[TSR]

Greg,

Thanks a lot!

[Jairus]

[idare2bdul]

It's harder to say nice things about PdL because he's still alive.

OK, I hate to admit it but as misguided as he is, I like PdL and he has been and still is an asset to slot racing.

[loudspeaker]

Let's be real, Jerry did not compare with Howie as a driver.

 

And Howie's ability to pick up a controller and in one or two laps be running at a record pace: I suspect it is still there.

[Slotgeezer]

... and still is an asset to slot racing.

 
Truer words have yet to be spoken...  :up:

[Tex]

Interesting reading about Jerry Brady. I never knew him and had only read bits and pieces about his personality, mostly negative.
However, I like what I've read about him as a RACER. Purposely handicapping yourself during practice and having to deal with a lesser-handling car, only to remove the handicap before the race so that it gives you the feeling of being locked in... excellent.

And being just as good if not better than the next guy with a crappy-looking car (both body and chassis) WOULD dishearten most other drivers... again, excellent strategy.

And, lastly, letting the other guys actually DRIVE (or attempt to) the crappy-looking car and find out that it is also a crappy HANDLING car that he just beat you with... talk about demoralizing! I never knew Howie Ursaner either, and maybe Jerry was or wasn't as good as Howie, it still sounds like he was a formidable competitor.

HEY! MY chassis don't look very good! And MY bodies don't look very good! Now I just have to learn to drive better... a LOT better. :think:

[Bob Emott]

But he couldn't sing worth a damn... One or Howie's peculiarities was he would sing to himself while he drove... He didn't sing any special song, just nonsense... or sometimes he'd just hum a bit... It was a bit distracting... and he knew it!!!

Howie was also one of the very early converts to the Russkit controller. One day, at practice for a major race, I picked up his controller and offered to oil the trigger hinge of his controller because it was squeaking like mad... He grabbed it and said, "Leave it alone..." He knew it squeaked and knew it would throw of the timing of someone driving next to him... Squeak... squeak... squeak as he accelerated and braked... A little bit sneaky but effective as I can attest from trying to drive next to him...

 

I ended up building one of my first customized Russkit controllers for him which had a tubing and piano wire hinge that didn't squeak... But he still sang... LOL.

[loudspeaker]

I never realized about Howie's singing or the squeaky controller. Interesting, you learn something new every day.

[Cheater]

At the 1990 USRA Nats at Georgia Hobby Center, my old racing budddy Mike Asher entered (AFAIK) the only Intl 15 race he ever ran. While he was driving, he wore a Sony Walkman and listened to music. I was not present but am told that Jan Limpach was really freaked out at that, and that he kept glancing over at Mike and shaking his head.

Must have helped, as Asher won the race over... Limpach!

One of these days I gotta ask Mike what music he listened to during that I-15 championship race.

[Uncle Fred]

Howie's singing I don't recall either but he did have a knack for coming up with the best equipment... even if he had to borrow it!

[Tex]

When's the next TX Div. III race or did you have it already and just not tell us?

 

It's tonight. I'm a bit apprehensive, though, about the attendance. A post was made in a thread about the race, asking who would be there. I responded. Me. Myself. And I.

 

The first TSRA race of 2007 is next weekend; I don't know if TSRA race preparations are taking priority. I was planning on attending the same TSRA race but I haven't got my armatures back from being serviced yet.

 

I'll let you guys know what happens.

[Tex]

Singing? Squeaking? Music?

Sounds like a lotta head games were going on... anything for an edge, eh?

[tonyp]

OK, this is probably the rarest of all Bob Emott chassis, an actual "semi-production" chassis. Not sure how many Bob actually made but if it was 100 pieces that would be a lot. Do not have the actual chassis, just this photo.



Mono-rail (.078") design with Parma front nose piece and pans.

This, like most low dollar chassis, uses just a plumber setup for the pans, a design first done by Bob a zillion years ago. The original cars with this pan set-up used an .020"? piece of wire for the cross piece so it was super flexible and the pans still moved in a floppy manner. This pan setup was originally tried right after the "low CG" era to eliminate the hinges and make the chassis easier to build.

I have a steel chassis "B" can car of Bob's with a plumber only setup I'll post pictures of later this week.

[Ron Hershman]

At the 1990 USRA Nats at Georgia Hobby Center, my old racing budddy Mike Asher entered (AFAIK) the only Intl 15 race he ever ran. While he was driving, he wore a Sony Walkman and listened to music. I was not present but am told that Jan Limpach was really freaked out at that, and that he kept glancing over at Mike and shaking his head.

Must have helped, as Asher won the race over . . . Limpach!

One of these days I gotta ask Mike what music he listened to during that I-15 championship race.

 

I'll have to look, but I thought Dick Pelletier won that race. Limpach either didn't race or if he did, he raced in the Pro class at the '90 Nats.