35 replies to this topic

[Champion 507]

Have you ever seen or heard of a three-motor slot car?
 
Okay, some people are talking about crazy builds in other threads, I might as well show you mine.
 
I built this about ten years ago but have never posted it anywhere until now. The only one who knew about it has been Bill from NH, but he hasn't seen it either.
 
This is my version of a car I saw probably in late 1965 or early 1966. The guy bought three K&B Wildcats ($9 for motors back then was a TON of money so I thought) and made a three-motor car in the same basic configuration as you see here, but he built his chassis differently. I don't remember exactly what it looked like, other than there were two inline motors in back and one sidewinder motor in front.
 
All three motors are stock Mabuchis painted up to resemble Russkit 22s (tribute to Russkit's Black Widow two-motor cars). Rear gears are 8/32 and front gears are 10/40, all for a 4:1 ratio. Rear pinions are Parmas and the crowns are Monograms. Front pinion is a brass one from ??? and the spur is a Cox. Guide is a Dynamic. I think the wheels are Cox 5-40 thread with ??? knock-offs. Tires are Parma donuts.
 
Main chassis rails are 1/16" x 1/4" K&S brass strips. Rear motor brackets are spliced-together REH repops. Front motor bracket (I think) is a Mini Wheels (not sure).
 

 

 

 

 
I also built a four-motor car which you can see HERE.
 
I have several other multi-motor cars planned for the future. You ain't seen nuttin' yet!

[Jairus]

Doug, I bow to your brilliance. 

[slotbaker]

Neato... How does she run??

[Champion 507]

Jairus, I bow to all the treasures you've built and posted here on the blog. I guess if we bow too much we'll probably hit our heads.   Thank you for the warm compliment. It makes my day.
 
Steve, I asked the guy back in '65 the same question when I went to re-slot his car the only time I ever saw it. I'll never forget his response... "About like a one-motor car".
 
The local track had a Paperclip track ten years ago when I built this car and I ran it for a few laps. I wasn't wanting to de-slot it at all, so I was driving with extreme caution, so I never did any hot laps with it. But the guy was right. It runs like a one-motor car... except one-motor cars don't weigh 6-1/2 oz. like this one does.

[slotbaker]

That makes sense.

I figure that if one of the motors is faster, the slower motor(s) would slow it down a bit, and conversely a slow motor could be helped a bit by the fast motor(s) so it averages out and any extra performance is consumed by the extra weight.
 
Good fun though.

[Champion 507]

Steve,
 
The theory that was 'splained to me was you put the faster motor in front so it will help pull the back motor through the turns. If you put the faster motor in back, it's always going to be pushing the front motor through the turns, thus spinng the car out much easier. It still makes sense to me today.
 
What I perceive to be the fastest one of the three is in front of this one.

[slotbaker]

Yeah that was discussed in the six-wheeler thread, and it makes sense to me as well.
 
I did a 4WD in the '60s using a double-ended 36D inline front and back, which was pretty simple to do.
It went OK, but definitely not a world beater. I used smaller crown on the front.

[Champion 507]

Steve, I too did an inline two-motor 4WD Indy/F1 car with endbell drive (Hi, Bob) Mabuchi 16Ds. I rewound the motors and everything. It did okay. I was mostly a mid-pack also-ran. I didn't have the big bucks and my practice time was limited too, but I had fun. It always made me have to try harder.

[slotbaker]

I remember seeing an article in a magazine where someone joined two FT16 motors together, can to can, making a common shaft with endbells each end, and I think it was for a 4WD.
 
I thought it was interesting and can't remember exactly how it was done, but both cans had the ends cut out then joined making a tube.  It looked pretty wild with wires going to both ends.

[don.siegel]

Yep, Steve, that was from Model Car & Track and is actually posted on here somewhere... don't think he ever got it into a car though. It ate a lot of amps!
 
That's a very nice build, Doug. I'm surprised it only weighs 6-1/2 ounces though! Probably a very solid runner, with great brakes...
 
Don

[Cheater]

Those stamped Monograms crown gears have got to be just about the worst crown gears ever made. I can tell you didn't run this much, because the pinions aren't "trenched" too badly.

[Hworth08]

A nice, clean build. Really nice!

And Greg, hard to believe but a lot of those steel ring gears were actually good! The black and some silver colored (Russkit) pinions were a decent steel, though not near the quality of today's steel, that if broken in correctly made a good, very quiet mess. Don't mate the steel with a brass pinion though! The early steel pinions didn't mate as well with Cox type gears as brass did either.

[SlotStox#53]

Awesome build, Doug! Certainly fits into the crazy build category. 

Really neat idea!

[dc-65x]

Cool car, Doug. You can't have too many motors. Everybody knows that, "More is better!" 

[Champion 507]

Thanks, guys.

 

Steve, I also remember that article. I give that guy an A+ for creativity and worksmanship.

 

Don S., yes, it has a ton 'o brakes. I had to use what gears fit and had on hand at the the time, rather than the ratio I wanted. I think a ratio of 3.2:1 - 3.5:1 would work better.

 

Cheater, yeah, those weren't the greatest gears to put in this (see above reason), but it's amazing how smoothly they mesh and sound. You're right, it would just be a matter of time before they ate a Panama Canal in the pinions.

 

Don H., I remember the black Revell steel pinions used to wear so badly back in the day. To me, they wore about as easily as brass ones did.

 

Paul, I have more waco builds planned. No, I am not, nor have ever been on drugs. 

 

Rick, I have certainly acquired a lot more motors since I built this. I didn't want to use up a bunch of my "good stuff" on a novelty car, so I chose there. And it was kind  of a tribute to Mrs. Russell's two-motor idea.

[don.siegel]

I've seen a twin engine car or two combining an inline and a sidewinder, but never a tri-engine model, at least not since the Lockheed L1011...

 

Don

[Bill from NH]

So that's what the monster looks like!  

[Champion 507]

Hahahaha   You knew about it for so long, I bet you had given up on ever seeing it.

 

Well, what do you think?

[Bill from NH]

Doug, the chassis seems to be built pretty strong. It did come out nice. I had forgotten about seeing it.

 

I'm keeping a copy of the photos in case I want to build something similar or a modified version using more modern motors. The only multi-motored slot car I've ever driven was a friend's 4.5" Flexi 2 with twin S16D motors and a JK Volvo station wagon body. Surprisingly, that car handled well on the 185' Engleman. You might call it's owner eccentric, he also used Vasoline to mask off his windows when painting. 

[Champion 507]

Thanks, Bill.

 

Maybe one of these years I'll get around to painting the body and finishing the darned thing.

[Champion 507]

I also built this before the three-motor car:

 

 

Click here to see the entire story:

 

http://scratchbuilt....gallery075.html

[John Gorski]

Both Very Sano Doug..  

[dc-65x]

I love the four-motor car, too. One of those is on my build list. 

[SlotStox#53]

Cool car, Doug!!

 

Rick, a four-motor car after your triple axle car... perfect. 

[McAllister]

Fearsome build, Doug. Very innovative!