17 replies to this topic

[Mr. M]

Car Model had a column where readers wrote in and asked technical questions. The author was Tom Malone. Who was he? Where was he from? I vaguely remember reading that he did not race and was more of a bench tech guy. Does anyone have contacts with those still around that "worked" for Car Model?

[Cheater]

Chris,

This is an excelent question.

As best I can tell, Tom Malone has no exposure in the hobby after the the early '70s.

Did anyone here know Tom personally?

[Bill from NH]

Someone on here two or three years ago said they had run into Tom during their travels. When asked some question(s) about slot car racing, he refused to answer. Maybe a 'search' will reveal who this was.

[Cheater]

I did a little Googling and found nothing FWIW.

[DOCinCanton]

I have about ten issues of Car Model magazine from the '60s and one issue from 1972. I believe that Tom Malone had articles in the '60s issues.

[TSR]

Tom Malone wrote for Rod & Custom, Car Model and other period publications. His last technical article appears in 1970 or so if I recall. Don Siegel can give us an exact date.

Thing is, Tom addressed subjects that were nearly irrelevant to actual on-track racing, exposing theories that were a bit smoking and while interesting to the aficionado, had practically zero effect on actual production or racing in the day. In other words, lots of verbiage for not much at the end of the day.

[JimF]

Among other things, Malone was a proponent of of an arm winding configuration that he titled "The Malone Torquer". IIRC it proposed a longer stack rather than shorter, more wire turns rather than less, and taller gearing rather than lower. Those concepts were more or less diametrically opposed to the trends at the time. I never met him, don't know where he hung out, nor anyone that raced with his motors.

 

I remember reading his motor articles and he seemed to have alluded to some success but he may have a legend in his own mind.

[Mr. M]

Thinking about this some more, I remember that in one response he mentioned that he had a partner that actually went to the track and ran the car. This response was about a G20 car and making the point that a blueprinted motor with attention to details of like getting things straight would make a profound impact on total laps.

 

Sounds like he was more of a bench guy that could write.

Chris

[Dennis David]

I don't think he was alone in this respect. Still it gave us the feeling that what we were doing was important enough to write and talk about so for a young boy this was enough.

[Mr. M]

Well said. It was a big thrill to see your question in print.

Chris

[Dennis David]

Yep

[DOCinCanton]

FWIW, Tom Malone's articles appear in my earliest issue of Car Model magazine May 1968 and my last one April 1972. So he had at least a 4 year run at contributing to Car Model magazine.

[don.siegel]

I'll check this out as soon as I get some time - just turned everything upside down because a French model car magazine is doing an article on my "slot lit" collection! 

 

I always liked Tom Malone's articles and columns too - seemed impressive to a youngster. He never claimed to be a racer; I believe he was an electrical engineer, or at least that's the impression I got. He did the first major article on motor rebuilding, a four part series in R&C, concurrent with the first R&C road race. 

 

He started in Rod & Custom, moved to Car Model, and I think he did a stint at Model Car & Science also - musical chairs, like a lot of writers at the time. 

 

He also did an article or two on "fun" type cars - 4WD, differential, etc. 

 

Don 

[don.siegel]

Haven't found everything yet, but here's Tom's first Q&A column in Car Model, from June 67. 

 

As near as I can tell, his first article was in Rod & Custom, December 1966, the first in a four-part article on "The Compleat Mabuchi". Thought I had remembered an earlier one, but haven't found it yet, nor when he switched to MCS... 

 

Don 

 

PS: just did some more checking: the Tom Malone column continued in Car Model until August 1972. At the same time, starting in July 1968, he also started writing "The Tech Sheet" column for Model Car & Science. Not sure yet how long that continued, but strangely enough, after a year or so, he no longer had his byline in MSC, it was just The Tech Sheet. And in Car Model, for the last couple years, it was almost solely questions about HO that he answered. 

In the first MSC column, he says he was called in by a company to figure out why a gyro wasn't working, so definitely some kind of engineer, maybe electromechanical... 

 

 

[sidejobjon]

Car Model had a column where readers wrote in and asked technical questions. The author was Tom Malone. Who was he? Where was he from? I vaguely remember reading that he did not race and was more of a bench tech guy. Does anyone have contacts with those still around that "worked" for Car Model?

Yes I talk with two Patrick Dennis " Mister Tyco Pro & Howard Kilgore would write HO column also.

[Mr. M]

Can you see if anyone that was on the editorial staff has any contact with these two? They might know more about Tom.

[TSR]

The diff between Pat Dennis and Tom Malone is that Pat's hyper competent cars really worked.

[tonyp]

When the new Car Model would come in we would sit around at lunch read his answers and make fun of them. Like PDL said he was clueless on what was actually going on in the actual world of Slotcar racing.


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