21 replies to this topic

[Regis4446]

Here are the parts of my dragster, made for fun, as in the mid-'60s.
It is made of sheet aluminum of thickness 0.4 and 1.8mm, and mahogany.

The engine is a Strombecker Devastator.







My inspiration.

[Don Weaver]

!!!WOW!!! Beautiful craftsmanship...

Don Weaver

[Mark H]

That's going to be nice. I love the wood.

[boxerdog]

Very nice! Please keep up the pics.

[xbox]

Super, Régis. C'est très beau.

[havlicek]

Lovely!

-john

[Steve Deiters]

Seeing that article from Rod & Custom on the dragsters makes me hope there is a section on them in PdL's new book. While I never took part in that niche of slot car racing, I always enjoyed reading about and viewing photos of the west coast dragsters.

Workmanship? Side rails milled from aluminium and/or magnesium plate, ball bearings retrofitted on padlock motors, re-profiled motor laminations, rewind formats limited only by ones imagination... the list could go on and on.

If anyone has photos of these brutes from the era, I'd appreciate if you would post them. They really were 36 volt projectiles!

[don.siegel]

Great work, Régis.

Where does the mahogany go, as the main "body" of the dragster? I know you mentioned on the French forum that you saw this setup in a photo somewhere, but that doesn't ring a bell at all... Anybody else? There are been a few carved balsa dragsters, but very few Mahogany Missiles!

I'm with you Steve, never did these at the time, but was always very impressed by the workmanship, especially for the magwinders, and all done with drill presses, files, and maybe a Dremel...

Régis, all these dragsters used the laminated pole motors like the Ram DC850 or 857 at the time. The Devastator type motors with integrated axles were used on the earlier generation of drag cars (mostly the Pittman DC704 and variants).

Of course, Strombecker does make its own "Destroyer" (not to be confused with the "Avenger").

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

The Pittman 704 and clones by Ram and Strombecker were primarily short course road race motors.

Fate

[idare2bdul]

I had Pittmans and Rams but never did get a Lindsay. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished build!

[Regis4446]

Thank you all for your compliments.

Testing was very disappointing last night, that's what I thought. With this Strombecker motor, the dragster is very, very slow.

That's okay, we'll replace the motor another day.

Here is my interpretation of slot drag racing in 1965. I like the combination of wood and aluminum.

[endbelldrive]

Beautiful! I love the small details as well as the overall fit and finish.

[idare2bdul]

Embrace slow. In today's drag racing, bracket racing is the biggest class. If you can go under 3 seconds in the scale quarter mile you can win. Slow cars often drive the faster car drivers into red lighting and losing the race. If you want to go faster I've seen people put Neo magnets and more modern armatures in these motors.

How did you make the louvers?

[Regis4446]

Thank you for your comments and advice.

I made a Bugatti 35 with the machine to make the louvers

[Jairus]

Beautiful construction and detailing.

Makes me want to build another woody wagon. (I love wood.)

[Gator Bob]

Regis,

 

I missed this post as the car show was over before I joined slotblog.

 

Outstanding workmanship. In concours judging .... It would be a 10 but the louver treatment makes it an 11.

 

Beautiful car .. slow is good, fans get to see it for a longer period of time!

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Regis4446]

Many thanks Bob for your comments.

[Gator Bob]

Regis,

 

We still want to know more about how you do the rivets and louvers. Please.

[robbovius]

wow thats kewl! nice ;-)

[SlotStox#53]

Stunning car and superb engineering & build!! Love the old style dragster

[Gator Bob]

tRuE-dAt.

[Regis4446]

Thank you friends

I can not find the pictures, I'll do other