40 replies to this topic

[DOCinCanton]

If I remember correctly there was a guy named Smith who was originally from Canton, OH. At the time he went into business producing his U-Go slot car motors he lived in California. My memory is pretty bad, but I ran the U-Go's for about six months back around 1967-68. I recall burning everyone of them up, but they were very, very fast.

Help me out.

[Gary Mayeda]

If I remember correctly there was a guy named Smith who was originally from Canton, OH. At the time he went into business producing his Yugo slot car motors he lived in California. My memory is pretty bad, but I ran the Yuogos for about six months back around 1967-68. I recall burning everyone of them up, but they were very, very fast.

Help me out.

There was a company called U-Go products. I don't remember all he made. He did have chassis and parts. And was the inventor of tiger milk. I think he did have some motors. i think they might be spin offs of mura or lenz motors??

Gary

[DOCinCanton]

Gary, you are correct. It was Ugo. I only remember him in Canton Ohio back in the 60's and he was pushing his motors. I had no idea that he had chassis and other parts. However, I do recall Tiger Milk. I use to use it. Too funny. I wish my memory was better.

[Gator Bob]

Gary, you are correct. It was Ugo. I only remember him in Canton Ohio back in the 60's and he was pushing his motors. I had no idea that he had chassis and other parts. However, I do recall Tiger Milk. I use to use it. Too funny. I wish my memory was better.

Ugo Smith Products
Hayward, CA.

U-GO Tigers Milk - High speed commutator, Bearing Lube and Tire Cleaner (wow what a combo). One ounce/$.79 I still have it and just read this off the bottle.
He made the Best tires for a while, super soft/big bite, came in red and blue. Still have 3 NOS sealed NIP pairs and they are fresh enough to run today.
Some...recall of a motor line, not big sellers on the East Coast.

Funny...1960s MURA had Tigers Milk too but it was a tire dressing only "Do Not Use this on your Comm" I used some left over last night on a pair of 1960s tires going in the Dynamic Challange

[Gator Bob]

If I remember correctly there was a guy named Smith who was originally from Canton, OH. At the time he went into business producing his Yugo slot car motors he lived in California. My memory is pretty bad, but I ran the Yuogos for about six months back around 1967-68. I recall burning everyone of them up, but they were very, very fast.

Help me out.

Dokk,
Please help us out here, do you have any of these motors. Think I might have one (Can Bushing and Arm were changed out? Green wire/Green coating/Kirkwood comm, short stack Mura look) Orange Can, Black endbell, Mura "can in a can" style shim. Cleaned it up...It screems like a sy-reen.

1:1 Side Note -a crazy guy in the car club drag races a Yugo, runs 12.60s and drives it to the cruise in too. Saw him driving around town pretty regular all stickered up.

[don.siegel]

U-Go didn't really make it to the Chicago area either, but they were considered very high-speed motors at the time - high rpm, no torque, if I remember right, and they were associated with the Thingie crowd in NorCal. U-Go did a couple chassis too, mostly piano wire (or chromed something), and definitely made for Thingie type cars.

I don't think they had their own super-magnets, which limited their performance compared to Champion or Mura, but they were considered very hot rewinds.

The tires were all wide and low and funny colors - no pretense at being scale!

Don

[tonyp]

We used the tigers milk and the blue tires. They also made some white tires that were like rocks,not sure what thought behind them were. They never moved off the wall at the raceway. Motors were fast on our 220 track.

Tigers milk on the comm of my 65a made that thing haul ***.

[TSR]

U-Go Smith Co. of Hayward, CA, motors are red, both made from Mabuchi FT16D with endbell-side drive and FT26 with EBD and sometimes twin-shaft arms. Most of the U-Go motors used the same "silver-core" wire as the Mura motors of that time, and most had the same issues: melting endbells from too much heat generated from the hotter winds, so most U-Go motors ended in the thrash. So they are today much less abundant than period Mura or Champion rewinds. Also a lot less of them were actually made, so there is a ratio in what has survived.
U-Go ceased to exist before the new Mura and Champion American-made better motor parts appeared in 1968.

[Gator Bob]

U-Go Smith Co. of Hayward, CA, motors are red, both made from Mabuchi FT16D with endbell-side drive and FT26 with EBD and sometimes twin-shaft arms. Most of the U-Go motors used the same "silver-core" wire as the Mura motors of that time, and most had the same issues: melting endbells from too much heat generated from the hotter winds, so most U-Go motors ended in the thrash. So they are today much less abundant than period Mura or Champion rewinds. Also a lot less of them were actually made, so there is a ratio in what has survived.
U-Go ceased to exist before the new Mura and Champion American-made better motor parts appeared in 1968.

------
With Respect I ... Thank You !!!

[DOCinCanton]

Can someone please correct my spelling up in the title of the first post here. I am embarrased...

[Gator Bob]

Can someone please correct my spelling up in the title of the first post here. I am embarrased...

Doc,
No worry... Yugo and U-GO both made motors so the title still works . The Yugo's had much more torque BUT.. the U-GO's had more RPM and fit slot cars much better.

[Horsepower]

U-Go Smith Co. of Hayward, CA, motors are red, both made from Mabuchi FT16D with endbell-side drive and FT26 with EBD and sometimes twin-shaft arms. Most of the U-Go motors used the same "silver-core" wire as the Mura motors of that time, and most had the same issues: melting endbells from too much heat generated from the hotter winds, so most U-Go motors ended in the thrash. So they are today much less abundant than period Mura or Champion rewinds. Also a lot less of them were actually made, so there is a ratio in what has survived.
U-Go ceased to exist before the new Mura and Champion American-made better motor parts appeared in 1968.

So I shouldn't run my only U-Go 26D motor just for fun?

[Rusty Pinion]

I had one of those U-go motors once.....a 26D...that thing would scream right up until it melted down...LOL. I also had a bottle of U-Go Bloo Goo tire dressing.

[Bill from NH]

The Vitter has the best collection of U-Go Smith chassis, motors, & other products that I've recently seen. U-Go Smith products never made it into New England. Even the yellow Tiger Milk we first saw had the Mura name on it.

[TSR]

Can someone please correct my spelling up in the title of the first post here. I am embarrased...

OK, I be doin' it.
Done. Yugo first!

[Dave Larsen]

When I get some time



I'll post some pictures of my U-GO Smith stash.Most of the U-GO Smith motors were a metalic red in color, I have one that is orange in color

Dave

[Rusty Pinion]

When I get some time



I'll post some pictures of my U-GO Smith stash.Most of the U-GO Smith motors were a metalic red in color, I have one that is orange in color

Dave

We wanna see !!! We wanna see !!!!

[TSR]

U-Go Smith had a product line composed of nickel plated wire chassis designed mostly for Choti bodies for high-speed tracks, Mabuchi FT16D and FT26 rewinds with "silver" wire (and a few with red wire) motors, stiffer brush springs and "silver" brushes to fit rewound motors and sponge tires (mostly blue but also some odd unusual colors) on screw-on aluminum rims.
Later U-Go Smith motors were featuring "Uddox" magnets (whatever that was) and were wound for Mr. Smith with "Silvo-Core" wire by Bob Lenz.

The only catalog I know of are one-page flyers, but Dave may have some we are not aware of?

[Howmet TX]

I believe U-Go briefly sponsored a team here in the U.K. which ran successfully at Hammersmith Raceway. I'll look it up if anyone's interested; I'm sure there was an article in Model Cars showing a neat pair of M6As.

[DOCinCanton]

Philippe, thank you for correcting the title.

Like I said above, I think that Smith was originally from Canton, Ohio, or at least thats what I recall (And trust me, I recall very little from the '60s). He came into town one day and visited my home race track, and i started to use his motors. Oh my gosh, they were fast, but as stated above, they melted down the end bell before you could get to the end of the race.

[TSR]

Dan, that was the curse of the Mabuchi... the endbell were made of Delrin, one of the worst plastics they could have used to do the job.
In comparison, Igarashi (maker of the Strombecker and Pactra "Hemi") used a phenolic material that could really take some heat, but their round brushes were simply wearing too fast...

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

My texas friend Clay Parker has chastised me for not mentioning how easy it is to sand down gold dust brushes to fit these things. But when we were running them, pretty much anything else worked better, thus the odd mix and match motors with hemi magnets/cans with 16d or associated and tradeship endbells kludged on them.

The other problem with the "hemi" was that the can bushing fails a lot. But that is just another story.

Fate

[TSR]

The original Mabuchi brushes, both for the Ft16D, FT26 and FT36D motors never had an equal since 1966. When I was still racing, I ran my Retro Pro motors with shortened FT36D brushes as the comms live much longer and the motors run cooler.

[Champion 507]

I have a metallic red 16-D U-go can/magnets with the label still on it, a decent Mabuchi endbell, some silver wire, and all the rest of the parts to make a replica motor. I also have a NOS wire chassis for it still in the package and a couple pair of crusty U-go blue rear tires. One of these years I wanna build a car with all that.

Dok, you mentioned Choti bodies. Can you post any pics of them please?

A few U-go motors made it to us in north Alabama in 1966 along with the rear tires. I never owned any of it back then. What I have now was acquired in the last 10 years. A friend of mine, Bill Field, was the hot thumb at our local track. He and I went to junior high school together. He had the U-go motor and blue rear tires back then. I'm sure others did too, I just don't remember it.

[Vince West]

It was Bill Smith and Ugo Abrams. I started working there when I was a junior in high school. They paid for all my racing and supplied me with everything needed to enter a race, had th wear the UGO white shirt! I started making frames in my garage so they got me to make the frames for them. I could make a complete frame in about 2 minutes, it was a great set up. We raced Lenz motors only, I never saw a UGO motor. The Tigers Milk was Torco light weight motor oil. It was a lot of fun. The guys shaping the tires would end up with blue powdered rubber up their nose and all over them! I left them and went to work for A Street Speedway behind the counter. It was about 4 miles from San Leandro Speedway that was owned by Ron Mura. The blue goo was filled by hand pump 1 bottle at a time. That's about all I can remember, 55 years ago!