84 replies to this topic

[Vay Jonynas]

My first experience with Cox back in 1974(?) left me with a negative impression. My interest in slot cars at the time had been rekindled when a buddy of mine Gerry B. declared his intention to build a massive track at his father's counter top plant where he worked. There was plenty of room. I popped into McCormick's Hobby Shop on Oxford Street in London to see what old slot car inventory was still in stock. There wasn't much but the woman running the shop had put the remaining slot car kits up for sale. No Monograms but I bought a 1/24 scale Revell Lotus:

 

 

Evidently McCormick's had all kinds of new old stock kits at the back of the store behind the counter, Auroras and everything. Ms. McCormick only had limited space at the front of the store so she only displayed the new stuff that was selling. And all those times I was in London in the 1980's and never thought to ask her whether she had any old monster model kits still lying around. Groan!

 

But even after buying the Revell Lotus at McCormick's I still wanted to find some of the Monogram slot car kits I had coveted as a kid. I therefore hopped into my 1973 Dodge Charger and set out for the big city of Detroit. While the hobby shop on Seven Mile Road where I'd bought a couple of Monogram Ferrari slot car kits in 1965-66 was long gone, surely there'd be some Monogram slot car kits at the huge Hudson's department store on Woodward Avenue! 

 

I was wrong. Hudson's had no Monogram kits but they were blowing out a couple dozen 1/24 scale Cox I.F.C. from 1967 for less than half the original retail price. (In retrospect I wish I'd bought them ail! I had the money.) These featured what was in 1967 the radical new iso-fulcrum chassis which transferred weight to the rear wheels when accelerating and to the front guide post when slowing down to corner. These were all sold in a rather unattractive box where the car model - Chapparal 2D, Chaparral 2E, Ferrari or Cheetah - was merely checked off on the side of the box:

 

 

 

I bought the Chapparal 2D. Today though the much cooler-looking Cheetah would have been my choice:

 

But neither the Revell Lotus nor the Cox Chapparral was nearly as nice a model kit as the two Monogram Ferraris I'd assembled as a kid. I thought the Cox Chaparral was particularly shoddy looking as a scale model. The styrene plastic parts were thin and cheaply molded. The bodies were in fact chopped, channeled and streamlined variants of the real thing. Everything about the Cox Chaparral I.F.C. was designed for "go" instead of "show." I like more balance.

 

Moreover my buddy's enthusiasm for building a track quickly faded since the venture involved far more work than he was willing to do. With no place to race my new cars, I put them both away with my Monogram Ferrari in a desk drawer where they sat unmolested for fifteen years.

 

But I now know that I'd gotten a misleading impression from my first experience with Cox. The I.F.C. Chaparral 2D kit I'd bought was certainly not representative of the overall quality of Cox's slot car kits. 

 

[scooter_trasher]

Whether you despise, or feel the need to bash Cox, the La Slot Car Museum puts it in simple terms that yo may not agree with , but they're dead on right!

 

"Cox

The greatest name in vintage slot cars collecting. Cox built the best quality cars and kits from 1964 to 1969 and today's collectors appreciate that quality. Cox sold their cars in RTR and kit form as well as parts. Body and chassis kits, wheels, tires, motors, axles, guides and gears were all sold separately. The kits are especially cherished but the factory-assembled RTR cars in their original boxes are also highly valued. A Blue Chip invesment." LASCM

 

What you may not understand is the market Roy Cox went after, as an eight year old in the winter of 67-68 I was that market.

I had had a 1/32 home set either Strombecker or Elden , I don't remember, but I do remember how cheesey and junkie they were, with their skinny hard rubber tires. Fast forward to 1967 I was staying at friends of the family during my parents divorce, their oldest son was like a big brother to me, he had a MPC Mako Shark and pumped me up on how I needed to get one , because they rule the slot car track at Wayne Hobby. I get one and Dad takes us to the track , pretty car metallic paint, aluminum channel ladder chassis with drop tongue , 36D sidewinder, tall foam tires with white silicone tread, it was fast all right , problem was it was too light and high, it would flip instead of turn, at least my 1/32 homeset cars would break traction and I could keep them on the track. But that's what all the cars were in 1967, 36D sidewinders with aluminum channel frames and wheels tall enough that the spur gear could be big enough to let the motor clear the axle. The two exceptions were Cox La Cucaracha and the Dynamic inline F1 chassis, but those Dynamics were kits and they came with too tall tires, regardless an eight year old can barley keep the wheels on a pinewood derby car , let alone build a commercial slot car kit and those Dynamics everyone remember so fondly would bust the tounge when you nosed the wall.I bought a Cuc, cut the wheel wells mounted wide lo profile silicones, got a hot wound armature when my stock one died, ruled Wayne Hobby's track (in my age group) on weekend afternoons and never looked back. That was a one season deal, I moved and in 1968 the track scene crashed and I discovered Ruttman mini bikes!     Roy cox only made slot cars from 64-69 the market crash killed his business, with his new 250,000 sq ft factory and a wharehouse full of slot cars, so he sold and retired, after that it was only COX in name., but those four years Cox dominated the commercial slot car world, no one else was close and it was a trend setter, Tupperware plastic body you couldn't break, knife edge fronts with bearings front & rear , floating pans, lo center of gravity, front to rear weight transfer, ground breaking technology in 1967, the car that saved slot car racing , the parma  flexi, mimics the cuc chassis except for drop center, but put a  "BITE BAR" in the front and what is a Cuc, a two piece flexi with floating pans!

[Vay Jonynas]

 

Whether you despise, or feel the need to bash Cox, the La Slot Car Museum puts it in simple terms that yo may not agree with , but they're dead on right!

 

"Cox

The greatest name in vintage slot cars collecting. Cox built the best quality cars and kits from 1964 to 1969 and today's collectors appreciate that quality. 

 

 

And I certainly do appreciate their quality these days. Partially as a result of the Slot Car Dreams book, several Cox slot car kits including both a 1/24 and 1/32 scale Cheetah, a 1/32 Ford GT and a 1/25 Dan Gurney Ford Stock Car are on my list of most wanted slot car kits. The only problem now is being able to afford them at any particular point in time.

 

[Bill from NH]

I had two Cox race cars in the '60s. The were pretty to look at, as competitive race cars I had a strong dislike for them both. I'm not a collector,today one has been lost & the other remains in parts.

[Vay Jonynas]

I had two Cox race cars in the '60s. The were pretty to look at, as competitive race cars I had a strong dislike for them both. 

 

Did you prefer the products of some other commercial slot car manufacturer? Or did you simply not like any of them?

 

[Bill from NH]

Cox guides & some of their gears were useable. Their cars didn't handle well, thus other's products were more drivable. The Classic & MPC cars I had didn't drive well either. The Russkit Carrera drove well but the Russkit 23 motor was under-powered. I was able to build a competitive car using an International chassis & a Pittman 6001 BB motor. Most of these cars were run on a Mr. Raceways 145' Lemans track running in the opposite direction. That track was installed in a former residential building & only fit with the bank being in front of plate glass windows. The track was equipped with polarity switches, so we only drove out of the bank & down the straight instead of down the straight & into the bank possibly launching into the glass windows. I think all Mr. Raceways tracks came with polarity switches, at least the 4 or 5 I was ever on all had them.

[Vay Jonynas]

Not sure to which Team Modified car you're referring, but the one above is not one of them! 

 

The TM cars were clearly marked and had a different chassis, motor and rear wheels, as shown in the Cheetah below. 

 

Cox Cheetah TM-1.jpg

 

Cox Cheetah TM-2.jpg

 

Cox Cheetah TM-3.jpg

 

Incidentally, what were the changes to those parts? And did the changes result in a significant improvement to the car?

 

[don.siegel]

The chassis was the same as on the Chaparral 2D, allowing the gear ratio to be changed. The motor was Cox's Nascar, instead of the Cox 36D, probably about 5K more RPM. The rear tires were now glued and trued sponge on a threaded wheel. There may have been some other differences, but I don't know them offhand. 

 

I imagine that would have improved performance (especially the tires, often the first thing to be changed on the original cars), but couldn't tell you how much; I've only run one of these, and with urethane rears, since spongies and goop are not allowed on our tracks. They obviously weren't successful against the other cars out at the time, because they were poor sellers - altho by then the commercial slot racing market as a whole wasn't in good shape. But their magnesium chassis was already outdated by that time and 36Ds of any kind were dinosaurs. 

 

Don 

[Martin]

We learned quick back then. 

My first kit car was a 1/24 Revell Ferrari 250 GTO that did come with a 36D. It fell over in the first turn. 

Other cars were lapping me, so I traded it in for a Dynamic Ferrari 330 kit with the Lancer clear body and a 26D, Much better

Now I was getting somewhere. But soon after that kit car experience we all realized that scratch built chassis were the way to go. 

[Dave Crevie]

I think once guys found that adding a pan under the Dynamics die cast chassis, made it virtually unbeatable. That put an end to the adjustable brass chassis, and the mag Cox chassis, which was saddled with those big tires.