34 replies to this topic

[Bruce Wayne]

I was only 10 in 1966, but around '70 had begun to frequent  Raceway X (citation needed*CRS:laugh2: ) on Badillo Ave right across the street from BPHS sports field in Baldwin Park, Ca. By hanging out there, and from reading period magazines, I found that all the big guys raced under Team names, so I came up with the imaginary "Team XX" for me and my two best friends that dreamed of racing in the just passed R&C series. 
 
 Being only a kid on a low income budget, and by working in my Dad's dimly lit and meagerly equipped garage, using a particleboard jig bought at the raceway (instead of an RTR), with what I can only imagine as being side cutters, files, a hacksaw and/or tin snips and a Weller, had scratch built my first frame. It was a piano wire/brass anglewinder based on a period magazine article (CRS again, but don't think it was Keith Tanaka's). But, if it had been a few years earlier, it might have been made of all brass with an inline motor configuration
 

 
Most of the inspiration for the rear end design comes from the two pictures of Bill Steube Jr's frame in PdL's Photos and inspiration from the LASCM post. Although at different retailers, we both happened to be working as Volvo techs in southern Ca, during the 90's, so I came to meet and know Bill Jr from the local Volvo factory technical training sessions we regularly attended together. We never talked Slot cars too much, but do remember he told me once they would coat their tires with glue then put them in a Bell jar under vacuum so it would penetrate to the core.

He was a truly gifted intellectual with many talents, and it was sad news to hear of his early passing. I would like to pay him some small tribute with this chassis.

 

 

[mdiv]

Beautiful chassis and I love the history.

[Bill from NH]

Nice chassis build, Bruce. I still have a Bill Jr. built anglewinder that I got from Ron Granlee (Speed & Sport) years ago.

[gluebomb]

Nice story.

 

A beautiful chassis and a fitting tribute - thanks for sharing.

[Steve Okeefe]

That's gorgeous, Bruce, just gorgeous... keep going.  

[SlotStox#53]

One sweet-looking chassis you've built there, Bruce.  Thank you for the back history of Team XX.   Very nice tribute .

[Pablo]

Very nice, Bruce   GO TEAM XX   Beautiful chassis

[Bruce Wayne]

Thanks guys, appreciate your kind words very much.  

 

It's build features a lot of the tips and tricks learned from the awesome builds shown here on the Independent Scratchbuilder and Slotblog, and uses references from both their vast archives to help in its design, so much of the credit has to go back to Steve, Rick, Greg, and everyone here who contributes, 

 

Thank's for the challenge and the opportunity to share and participate.  

[Bruce Wayne]

A big reason a Lola was chosen for this Proxy is because a scan of the First Race report found that Bryan Warmack took 2nd place Concours with his T70

 I feel very lucky to have raced with and befriended Bryan over the last few years in the SCRRA Retro Can-am races held at Buena Park Raceway. As well as being one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet, he is a multi-talented engineer and craftsman. Often competing in the A main, yet overlooked in Concours, his cars are always as clean and sharp as a pin! I think it's only appropriate and worthy that his name get's mentioned here a few times, I may very well call him to see if he remembers what color it was, but at least  would like to use his number and similar sponsors .

 

That, and I had the body in stock

No reference to who made the body as it was bought loose some 15-20 years go at a Slot Car Swap Meet. Don't think it's vintage, but it must have been their Competition version. It is so thin...that the rockers only measure .004"! 

 

 

 

FYI contacted Tom Anderson for a spare body and some wheel inserts and he reports that he is unable to fill any orders at this time.

[SlotStox#53]

Look forward to seeing the finished paintjob Bruce ! Very nice choice in bodyshell..

[Tom Eatherly]

Bruce,

That build of yours is fantastic! Props to you and your idea of why to proceed. Billy would have been proud. And you are absolutely correct about Bryan. The man has talent indeed.

Bill inNH,

Glad to read you knew Ron Granlee from "Speed and Sport". That was my home track back in the 60's. Ron was a very good friend and very helpful in getting me started in slots. Got to know a lot of racers there, like Mike Steube, Tore, Terry Schmid, Mike Kondor, [whom I bulit chassis' for till he hooked up with Mike Morrisey!]. Speed and Sport was THE place for a while.

[Bill from NH]

Bruce, your body appears similar to Lancer's '66 Lola T-70, Chevrolet. Lancer's would have been made of butyrate thicker that .004 on the sides. Your's could be a possible repop.

 

 

Tom, in the day, I did a lot of mailorder with Ron at Speed & Sport. I still have some of the Steube arms I bought from him. I was racing on the east coast back in those days.

[Tom Eatherly]

Bill,

Roger that. RG, a great guy indeed. Now, gimme one of those Steube arms, and I'll see if I can't squeeze that damn thing in my TSR!!

[dc-65x]

Sorry I missed this great thread until now

 

Beautiful chassis Bruce. Glad to have you aboard

[Bruce Wayne]

Thank's Cap't! Glad to be on deck 

 

Got a chance to talk with Bryan on the phone and it was sooo cool to hear him talk about his experience in the first race!

 

He was quick and able to recount that him and John "Tore" Anderson, who where best buddies and Thee Track Hot Shoes in their local OC Raceway, headed up the 5 to the First R&C races thinking they were going to clean house...only to find out upon entering that they were now in a whole different league!!! 

 

If you look at the pictures, you'll see they had some small spoilers on  their cars, but say's he was blown away by the diaplanes. seen on many cars

.

Not only that, but states his chassis was built as a space frame using the older single plate motor bracket with the motor and everything sitting up high, whereas  all the fast guys in qualifying had the latest bent-up Russkit motor brackets and everything was on the down low 

Upon asking about the color of his T70, he was quick to reply that it was Metallic Blue and that  he used dry transfers for the numbers. seems only too natural for a 15 YO in '66...Still got Second Place Concours 

.

Again, no Replica's of any one car being built here, but will take liberty and license in using what's easy and available to me as a youngster on a paper route budget  

[SlotStox#53]

Sounds like a really fascinating phone conversation ! Great to hear the stories of the cars & the race

Looks forward to seeing the car

[Jairus]

As always, building and data acquisition is 95% of the fun.  Loving your build Bruce!

[Bruce Wayne]

Thanks Jairus, I'm diggin' your builds too!

 

Planning includes rounding up all the proper parts and rolling stock too, right? We all know that good feeling of "Look what I got in the mailbox for the project" 

 

 

Huge thanks go to Rick for setting me up with some beautiful Russkit replica wheels, and the package included a sweet pair of reproduction Revell front tires to "boot"! 

 

For the "option" tire,  I'll be using modern rubber donuts from JK, trued to specs and narrowed to about the overall width of the rim.

 

Still looking for some sort of "prime" vintage tires or donuts. 

I do have two old sets of Vintage sponge tires, one white set one green, but they're mounted to threaded rims. Not sure if the Proxy Pit Crew wants to have to changes axles too? 

[SlotStox#53]

Nice little surprise in the mail

Is that any particular JK donut you're using Bruce ?

[Bryan Warmack]

Thank's Cap't! Glad to be on deck 

 

Got a chance to talk with Bryan on the phone and it was sooo cool to hear him talk about his experience in the first race!

 

He was quick and able to recount that him and John "Tore" Anderson, who where best buddies and Thee Track Hot Shoes in their local OC Raceway, headed up the 5 to the First R&C races thinking they were going to clean house...only to find out upon entering that they were now in a whole different league!!! 

 

If you look at the pictures, you'll see they had some small spoilers on  their cars, but say's he was blown away by the diaplanes. seen on many cars

.

Not only that, but states his chassis was built as a space frame using the older single plate motor bracket with the motor and everything sitting up high, whereas  all the fast guys in qualifying had the latest bent-up Russkit motor brackets and everything was on the down low 

Upon asking about the color of his T70, he was quick to reply that it was Metallic Blue and that  he used dry transfers for the numbers. seems only too natural for a 15 YO in '66...Still got Second Place Concours 

.

Again, no Replica's of any one car being built here, but will take liberty and license in using what's easy and available to me as a youngster on a paper route budget  

        Bruce,

              Great talking to you the other day and sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you!  I am honored you would build a car with the Lola T70 I ran at the first R&C race. I searched through the race results posted by Rick Thigpen and saw that my Lola used the Cox 6 spoke GT40 magnesium wheels that day at Classic Raceway. If you use the Russkit wheels you can also use the Russkit Lola 6 spoke inserts.  I'll be watching here!! Great stuff!! 

                          Bryan

[SlotStox#53]

Just out of curiosity Bryan, can you remember if the front Cox wheels were of the free wheeling type or regular fixed ones?

What was it like racing on those huge tracks during the R&C events? They look a lot of fun but with plenty of skill/luck needed!

[Bryan Warmack]

Just out of curiosity Bryan, can you remember if the front Cox wheels were of the free wheeling type or regular fixed ones?

What was it like racing on those huge tracks during the R&C events? They look a lot of fun but with plenty of skill/luck needed!

     Paul,

        The Cox wheels were the 5-40 threaded axle type. Front and rear.

 

       Those huge tracks in Los Angeles like Classic were something completely different to Tore Anderson and myself. The Orange Co. tracks we were used to were much smaller. I don't really recall anything especially difficult about some of the long tracks except almost 10 second lap times!!  Like I told Bruce, the thing I remember most about the Classic race was the fact that Tore and myself went to the race thinking we were just gonna clean house!!  The minute I walked in the back door and stood next to the big bank (you can see it in one of the Classic race photos) and watched the cars run, I just thought, "Oh my God......," we might as well go home!!  These guys were just in another league!   I remember Mike Morrissey showing me some of his cars, including some stainless steel tubing frames, all with the super low CG frames and I was in AWE! Our cars were just OBSOLETE but I think Tore managed to qualify about 20th.

[Bruce Wayne]

Paul,

 

The donuts are "SBR Rubber" JKP-D14's, .Raw  they are 425" x 1.250". With these narrow rims, was able to cut them in half so you can get two sets of tires from the pair   Sure made a big pile o' black dust cuttin' 'em down to 15/16" though  !!

 

 

Bryan,

 

Always a pleasure talking to you! You have such a keen insight into the Hobby, then and now! Thanks for sharing your fantastic tech tips and priceless memories 

 

It would be nice to run down a real set of Cox GT40 wheels, going to need a second set of rims with Vintage tires anyway, so I'll keep an eye out for them.  

For the Russkit wheels, I've had a standing order for Lola inserts with Tom Anderson and finally got a request for payment so hope those ship soon. Ordered a spare T70 body from him too, seems he is the only one re-popping them right now so anxious to see how it compares with this one. Either way I'll do my best to build a worthy representation.

 

Most notable is that the photo caption say's you wired the engine. Can you elaborate on this? Was it the spark plugs or otherwise?

[SlotStox#53]

Thanks for that Bruce will have to grab a couple of those to mount up

 

Judging from your GoodWOOD Proxy entry I'm sure you'll have no problem in building a worthy representation 

[dc-65x]

 

 The minute I walked in the back door and stood next to the big bank (you can see it in one of the Classic race photos) and watched the cars run, I just thought, "Oh my God......," we might as well go home!!  These guys were just in another league!

 

 When Bryan said the above it was like deja vu all over again.....TIMES 100! When I walked into Rolling Hills Raceway to enter the 6th race concourse I was COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED. Local racer meets the big time, local racer gets smacked down, local racer stays local racer!

 

Maybe that experience is why I have such respect and admiration for the Pros of the Golden Era of slot racing......

 

Bruce you chose a great car from a great racer-fabricator to base your recreation on. I'll look into the Cox Ford GT wheels for you today and let you know if I can help.

 

Onward...