55 replies to this topic

[Bruce Neasmith]

Don,

If you have the ability to scan the six pages, please go ahead and do it so that others will be happy. Just remember that the article is twelve years old and I believe we have learnt more since. PdL has a copy just like you found yours.

Well done! Your filing system obviously is much better than mine.

Bruce Neasmith

[LindsayB]

Interesting - I drove for Team Testor / Hutchesson in Australia around the late '60s. In those days - they were scratchbuilt anglewinder chassis, with Mura motors and hand-would Steve Hutcheson armatures. They were at the time the quickest cars around. We ran sprint races and enduros.

All Grp 7 based enduros were either four or eight hours. There used to be some Team Testor / Team Hutcheson products on the shelf at during those days - but they were generally old stock.

[loudspeaker]

Hi Gary,

I don't know what this is. It looks like it was built about the same time but hard to say if it was before or after I built that chassis that I won with at Don's, which was August 1967.

This style of chassis: many multiple rods and heavy, was fairly popular both before and after that race. I would say, based on the plate drop arm, that it was considerably later. Sometime that fall (I believe) we started building with plate drop arms. I have a chassis that I believe I raced at the Atlanta Arco that December which has a plate drop arm.

I'm guessing, based on the bracket and overall look, that this was a production chassis, probably late '67, early '68.

All the best,

Sandy

[Gary Bluestone]

Hi Sandy,

Thanks for your comments!

Gary

[don.siegel]

Just scanned the Testor's history article by Bruce Neasmith and put it in the history section
http://slotblog.net/...lot-car-review/

Don

[ravajack]

Thanks, Don, much appreciated!

[Bruce Neasmith]

Don,

Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to scan and upload the olde article, and your kind comments.

At the time, twelve years ago, it was a fairly definitive coverage given space considerations in the
magazine, but as said before, we have learnt a lot since .

I guess we still all await the PdL book knowing that you no doubt have had a lot of 'fun' proofreading and editing it.

Bruce Neasmith

[don.siegel]

You're very welcome, Bruce - I miss that magazine! It was really an excellent combination of all things slot and a very good read...

And yes, you're right, I've been working on the railroad... uh, I mean the book, and it's slowly taking shape, but I'm still far from the "T" chapter...

Ironically enough, I'm also restoring one of the Testors Ferrari P4 cars, using an Electric Dream repro body - and I've got a friend redoing some aluminum body mounts, since they were cut off on the chassis I found! So no, it won't be MIB, but should still be a nice-looking car - and with that Testor Turbo MK II?? III?? motor...

Don

PS: Bertil, if you can find some copies of ASCR they're worth reading...

[Chris Barnes]

If I am not mistaken, that chassis was sold by Champion during the NCC days. It seems like we ran it as a 4" Stockcar.

Chris B

[TSR]

It is not a Champion chassis and of course, during the NCC days everyone had anglewinder cars, inlines were in the bin. The Champion chassis story is pretty clear and the link posted in a post above. It is not a Cobra, Phaze III, Lancer, Dynamic, Riggen, Pactra, or any of the well-known names. This was made by one of the smaller and largely unknown outfits out there, in both open-wheel and sports-racer models, and for the life of me and until I get back to LA and am in the museum's vault, I simply cannot remember the name of the manufacturer, but these chassis were marketed by Lancer. It is the only period chassis design featuring this weird oblique rail from the top of the rear-axle bearing and adjoining the chassis forward.
In a few days and after I get there, I will let you know which is the guilty party because I am pretty sure that the LASCM has some of those inside their original baggies.

Please note that the body mounting tubing is larger than the standard 1/16", because there is supposed to be a floating tubing INSIDE those larger ones. It is an early attempt to float the body, and was possibly produced after Pactra issued their own as used on their very scarce last chassis models and featuring that mode of floating the body in October 1967, and from every bit of its design looks like a last iteration of a "pro" inline chassis before the John Wessels designed tilting mounts that briefly appeared before the advent of the angle-winder chassis.

Here is the Pactra with those larger body-mounting tubing:

[Chris Barnes]

This is the chassis I was referring to. Similar but different. Well it has only been a little over 40 years.

[TSR]

I confirmed today at the LASCM that those chassis are effectively, by Lancer. They were subcontracted to a company in San Bernardino. There is an F1 chassis and the sports car chassis seen above.

[GearBear]

Interesting read. Especially since I have a version of that chassis sitting beside my keyboard with a orange 36d motor in it. It is missing the pin tubing mounts. One of the rails is broken loose on one side an is missing on the other. Mine looks very similar to the one Steve posted pictures of but without the outer 4 rails.

[Bruce Neasmith]

Hi , GearBear ,
Are you sure that the busted up chassis that you have is
actually fitted with a 36D motor . I would have thought that motor would
be too 'early' for the subject chassis . Is it pehaps a 26D , as there were
plenty of 'Orange' Classic branded motors that could have been fitted .

BRUCE NEASMITH

[Gary Bluestone]

Wow Mystery solved ! Thank you Slot Car Detectives !

[ravajack]

I confirmed today at the LASCM that those chassis are effectively, by Lancer. They were subcontracted to a company in San Bernardino. There is an F1 chassis and the sports car chassis seen above.

Wow! I've never heard, or would even have imagined, that Lancer was producing/marketing
anything other than clear bodies, an area where they certainly excelled as market leaders.
But chassis! Any chance to see some Lancer chassis with its packaging?
Any other unexpected items also labeled Lancer, like motors, tires, gears?

[stevefzr]

Lancer? Then assuming they're from the same era, I've finally found the right chassis to go under this body I've had kicking around for a few years:

[Maximo]

Wow, that's a beaut! An original Lancer Spoiler... Edo also has one.

Yeah, I too am surprised to learn that Lancer marketed a chassis. Any pictures of the packaging for that Dokk?

[TSR]

As I wrote in a post above, I cannot, and neither does Lloyd Asbury with whom I spent the day yesterday successfully identifying early Lancer candidate bodies, remember the name of the company that produced these chassis that were marketed by Lancer. The actually manufacturing may have taken place in a small company in San Bernardino, and the production numbers were not huge. Two major designs were produced, an "F1/Indy" chassis (illustrated below) and the sports car variation. Both have the same drop arm with notches to allow the soldering of the pin tubing with less risk of filling it with solder. Both featured the unique oblique tubing at the motor mount.
Lancer marketed these chassis along with a set of metalized injected plastic accessories for their bodies, that had intake and exhaust stacks.
The chassis at the LASCM museum is packed in its original bag:







Because of the huge body production numbers in the mid-late 1960s, and the relative scarceness of these chassis, it is a bit hard to fathom how many were made, but just as the late-production Pactra chassis of similar design, it is likely that only a few thousands were produced, and because of the advent of the angle-winder very shortly after they were issued, became instantly obsolete.

So there, you have it.

[ravajack]

Philippe,
Thanks a lot for the pictures!
You learn something new every day...
A bit peculiar that this part of the Lancer company history has been virtually unknown.
Until now!

[TSR]

I have the Lancer story down to the Nth detail in the new book, and I spent a day with Lloyd Asbury to refine some confusing details and demolish some of the false information that has been out there. I confirmed every bit of the information that will be published with two gentlemen who were there, one as the man who introduced Asbury to John Brunson, the other a man who worked there as a machine shop operator.

In another thread, I will show you the first body ever produced before the Lancer name was even created.

[ravajack]

Besides, also a little personal interest, as the company founder Nils Testor, like Johan Fredrik Strömbäck (Strombecker), was from my home turf...

As another side note, I think also the old hobby and part-slot racing companies Dubro and The Lindberg Line had a bit of
heritage from over here, founders Orville "Dewey" Broberg and Paul Lindberg also being of Swedish ancestry.

Paul Lindberg also had a beautiful daughter, Paulette Lindberg, a frequent cover girl on the Playboy Magazine during the
Golden Era of slot car racing in the late 1960s, both as a redhead and as a blonde...

[Gary Bluestone]

I think that is the best model Lindberg produced.

[don.siegel]

Great slot/model trivia Bertil, thanks for posting!

Don

PS: how did you find this connection??

[ravajack]

PS: how did you find this connection??

It was in an old thread over at the RC.groups forum:
Paul W. Lindberg. Legendary designer and plastic kit manufacturer
(Postings #4, #17 and #24)