169 replies to this topic

[hiline2]

No intent to wander off here but thought this photo I just saw on FB of some Padlock rails would be interesting, no more detail then this photo so far to share, "Fred" was the owner at a Swap Meet with these recently.

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[dc-65x]

Rodney's latest dragster project:

 

Rick, how about a 1/32 mag dragster from 042 magnesium?

 

 

Wiith the Dremal, I cut betwwen 1/2' to 3/4 inch at a time.  Dremel set at low speed and a little cut at a time to allow for cooling. Also safety glasses, 3M particle dust mask and the shop vac running...

 

 

RVM magnesium wheels and German tires from Rick are used.  Wheels will be polished.

 

 

Mock up of 1/32 mag dragster

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished the 1/32 magnesium dragster on the track. Aluminum body and Cox driver figure.  Aluminum body epoxied to the frame rails.

 

 

Here's a view of the underside:

 

 

1/24 verses 1/32 comparison picture.

 

 

Way cool Rodney! Thanks for sharing.

[dc-65x]

Here's Rodney's track report on the 1/32 scale mag winder:

 

Ron and I got the drag strip display up and running again!

 

Update on the 1/32 mag dragster.  Time shown for the 1/32 mag dragster is with only the first 3' of the track cleaned of tire goop. The dragster had lots of nose weight added to plow through the glue.  Also used my road race controller to roll the car off the line.  With a clean track probably .3 seconds faster. 

 

Colman fuel used for cleaning the rack is now illegal to buy in California so I will be conserving the Colman fuel.  Eric thinks there is an environmentally friendlier track cleaner.  We will look into this...

 

 

 

 

That's fast, especially for a "little guy"!  Thanks Rodney

[dc-65x]

Here's Rodney's latest drag racer in his own words:

 

Rick,

 

I am working on a Mustang using one of Ron's resin bodies.  The resin body is a model of a real car called Phony Pony:

 

 

I always wanted to build one of these Mustangs since I saw one in Car Model Magazine back in the 60's. Here's the Car Model magazine cover:

 

 

I copied a dragster frame some one built as a model.  The Mustang is about 1 1/4" shorter (wheel base) than the dragster:

 

 

Got new decals in the mail yesterday.  I just applied them:

 

 

With decals made with an Alps printer the Mr. Clear may have thinners that are too strong.  I used good old Testers lacquer on the sides of the Mustang:

 

 

 

Ran the Mustang at Eddie's today. Some wheel spin off the line with the Mustang.  Lower grip glue conditions today (which I like).  Glue board or wider tires would have helped.  Tires used are 5/16" wide:

 

 

Times attached.  Great fun.  Single magnet Group 20 motor really screamed:

 

 

 

 

Beautiful car Rodney, thanks for sharing it with us

[dc-65x]

Here's the latest build from Rodney's workshop, in his words:

 

Rick,

 

After a couple of years, I completed the Pro Mod Camaro slot car. I never built a modern drag race slot car until recently. Thanks for building tips from Ron and Gary.

 

 

 

 

I ran it at Eddie's today with an old road race Group 12 motor and a quad magnet Group 20 motor. 

 

 

With the group 12 motor the times were 1.30 at 46 MPH.

 

 

With the Group 20 motor, times are shown (low 1.1s at 58 MPH). 

 

 

The first run with the group 20 motor resulted in one of the rear tires coming loose. No problems with the second set of tires. 

 

 

The car is very consistent. The simple chassis when screwed to the body forms a very stiff platform with no flex. The wheelie bar is set up with the car assembled. 

 

 

 

The group 20 motor really screams.  Gearing is 10 to 58.

 

 

The drag strip run off glue was not stopping faster cars so the old towel trick was employed.

 

 

Next up, Pro Stock Cuda

 

Thanks, Rodney! 

[SlotStox#53]

Love the Pro mod Camaro. 

Some serious detail work going on! First time I've seen a modern slot dragster with a screwed-on body.

Great job and thanks for sharing, Rick and Rodney. 

[Slot Car Mods Magazine]

Really dig the vintage drag cars...

 

[dc-65x]

Thanks guys. Here's another Camaro from Rodney. This time it's a street-strip version:

 

Gary talked about building a slot car of an early street car Chevy hot rod for driving on the road course.  This got me to finishing another slot car project I started a while ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

For the drag strip, the mufflers unbolt easily.

 

 

 The removable air cleaner is shown also.

 

 

 

If I had a zillion dollars, I would like to build a real car like this slot car Camaro.

 

Me too Rodney, me too! Thanks for sharing!

[hiline2]

That is one snazzy rear differential !

[dc-65x]

Here's Rodney's update on the Street-Strip Camaro on the drag strip:

 

 

The Camaro slot car was built to emulate a street/strip car. So a lower powered Falcon 7 motor was chosen to power the car verses using a faster S16 motor.   

 

On the drag strip, the Falcon 7 powered Camaro was launched off the starting line by gradually applying  power using my road race controller.  This launch technique is needed with the Camaro since the Camaro is neither  slip joint chassis car or a wheelie bar car or a long wheel base car.  The slip joint chassis Barracuda could be hammered off the line.

 

There was more tire glue on the strip than last week (I got 1.0 second E.T. runs with the pro mod Camaro today).  I brought along two compounds of Pro Track drag tires to try.  The harder of the two compounds worked better with the heavier tire glue conditions.  The hard compound tires had had  a whopping  .2 seconds faster E.T. times than the softer tires. The harder compound tires do not load up as much glue as the regular drag race tires.  Cleaning the tires after every run and rolling on a very slight amount of glue resulted the best runs.

 

 

 

 

The Camaro drove nicely on the road course.  There was no rear tire hop even the soft compound drag race tires.

 

Thanks for the update Rodney

[Uncle Fred]

My brother had the same car in 1968. Z28 Bronze with Hooker Headers and traction bars........4:56 gears.  He raced Howie's 427 Vette on up to about 100MPH on 164Th St in Flushing Queens NYC.  I was riding with Howie and we just beat my brother by about half a car length before reason prevailed   Howie had a 427 with Tri Power but had disconnected all but one carb to save on gas. Sunoco 260 was more that .30 cents a gallon!

[dc-65x]

Fred, why am I not surprised that it was Howie at the wheel of that Vette

 

Here's another of Rodney's latest projects. It's a pair of Pro Stockers:

 

Rick and Jerry,

 

I made a pro stock Cuda with no wheelie bars.  The chassis is a short version of a slip joint chassis.  Powered by a road race X12 motor.  I tried a Super Wasp motor, but as Eric said, not enough power to go through the track glue.  The Super Wasp turned 1.9s.  The X12 turned 1.5s.

 

The Cuda looks like a real pro stock car off of the staring line.  The whole body raises up off of the suspension.  No "60 foot" times registered with this car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just completed a Dodge Challenger pro stock car.  The motor is located forward and a drive shaft is used.  There is so much traction on modern drag strips.  Without wheelie bars, cars want to pop wheelies.  The front mounted motor should keep the nose down.

 

I also revised the chassis on the Barracuda.  More movement was added to the slip joint chassis and new front wheels were added.

 

 

 

 

Here's the latest track test done yesterday at Eddie's:

 

Today at Eddie's:

 

The slip joint chassis Cuda turned 1.443 E.T. at 44.01 MPH.  Times varied between 1.4 to 1.6 E.T..  I piled on more lead weight on the front of the chassis to make it run more consistently.  There is a lot of lead on the nose of this car.  This car is powered by an old road race group 12 motor.  Both compounds of drag race tires worked about the same on this car. 

 

The front motor Challenger needed the hard compound tires to push through the track glue.  The soft tires really bogged down the S16D motor.  This car is very consistent.  I ran three 1.62 E.T. in a row.  Some lead was added to the front to keep the nose down.

 

Conclusions:

I wonder if short wheel base slip joint chassis cars really work at all.  The chassis has a lot of slip joint movement.  I had to pile so much lead on the front of the car. to make it work. 

 

The front motor car works well and is very consistent.  I will build a group 12 powered front motor pro stock car next.  We will see if the additional power provided by the group 12 motor will work as well as the lower powered Falcon front motor car. 

 

I really like these early pro stock cars.  They look great going down the drag strip.

 

Thanks Rodney!

[SlotStox#53]

Totally love the Cuda and Challenger
They really have the look

Always wondered how slip joint chassis work & still can't totally grasp it Wonder if they'd work with a padlock? Hmmm.

[hiline2]

How well is the weight transfer on the    "The front motor Challenger"     ?

 

I dont see any ballast of any kind on the rear axle.

[dc-65x]

Hi Paul,

 

Here's Rodney's response:

 

The front motor Challenger slot car has great rear tire traction.  The car works a little better with hard compound drag race tires.  Lead was added to the front to keep the nose down and for the car to register at the "60 foot" mark.  Picture attached showing how much lead was added to the front.  The front motor car I am currently building has the motor located even further forward.

 

Thanks,

 

Rodney

 

[dc-65x]

Here are some of the cars Rodney ran at Eddie's last Sunday for us to drool over:

 

Today  Eddie's

 

More pro stock action.  Anglia gasser.  Wire wheels on the Talbot Lago.  Wing Car Dragster!

 

Pro Stock:

 

The MOTOWN MISSLE and Sox & Martin cars have front motor chassis.  I finished detailing the Camaro.  I revised the slip joint chassis in the Rod Shop Cuda (not shown) and it really works.    The rear suspension/chassis has over 1/4" of travel.  More on this another day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anglia:

 

The Anglia gasser is made from a broken steel chassis.  I need to build a motor for this car.  The stock Parma S16D motor is slow.

 

 

Talbot Lago:

 

I picked up some Russkit wire wheels at last week's model car swap meet.  The wheels came from the same seller I bought the Talbot body from last year.  Go figure.

 

 

For more on this car check out post #74 here:

 

Talbot Lago

 

Spotted, wing car dragster:

 

I saw the wildest slot car drag racer today.  A wing car bodied dragster.

 

 

This car turned consistent .618 E.T. at about 78 mph

I have seen runs of .8 and .9 but never .6  Wow!

 

The builder originally had a funny car body on it but the car would not hook up  the horsepower.  So he mounted the wing car body.  Very clever.

At 78mph, the car does not stop in the glue.

 

 

Great stuff Rodney, THANKS!

[SlotStox#53]

You weren't kidding about drool worthy cars Rick

Rodney certainly has got building the Pro Stock cars down to a fine art, they look amazing. Love the sound of the slip joint cars as I've only heard of those in the top fuel dragsters & will look into how make them.

That wing car dragster is soooo cool begs the question as what the heck is in that motor !?

As for those Russkit wire wheels, will have to look out for a set as they'd be perfect to finish off a period car Just like getting hold of those Lola rims they did.

[dc-65x]

Hi Paul,

 

 

That wing car dragster is soooo cool begs the question as what the heck is in that motor !?

 

Wing car dragster motor:  Koford Hawk 19 Motor with Group 20 Arm

 

Rodney

[dc-65x]

Here's a follow up on the "Wing Car Dragster" motor:

 

Rick,

 

I met Mike the owner of the wing car dragster.  Mike bought the drag motor that is in the car used.  We took a look at the motor and the motor has a 25 single Koford short armature installed.  The motor also has neo magnets installed.

 

Thanks Rodney

[SlotStox#53]

Thanks for the update Rodney & Rick

Sounds a mighty powerful little mill

[dc-65x]

Here's the latest Dragster from Rodney:

 

The vintage "Canopy Dragster" that was entered in the V-Town Rumble proxy drag race has been restored.  Thanks to Ron, I am the new caretaker of the dragster.  This car was in the same collection as the "idler gear" dragster.

 

 

The car was disassembled and all parts were cleaned up and polished.  There are 37 magnet laminations per side on the Ram 857 motor.  Each lamination was sanded down to remove rust and then each was hand polished.

 

The chassis rails are magnesium.  Lemon juice was used to remove the deep oxidation.  Simichrome polish was used on the magnesium and aluminum parts.  A new drop arm was constructed and a period correct Cox guide was used.  The engineering and workmanship of the chassis is evident when reassembling the car.  Each component fits in perfectly to the chassis.

 

 

 

The front wheels were replace with new ones (originals deeply corroded).  The rear tires were trued.

 

I do not have the plastic engine for the car so I made a simple removable aluminum body for the front of the dragster.  The canopy was polished and partially repainted.

 

I noticed the motor was set up for running on 24 volts with a very heavy motor brush spring.  The car probably would have been faster at the proxy race with a lighter spring.

 

Very cool Rodney........thanks!

 

[don.siegel]

Wow, more than cool Rodney - outstanding! 

 

Love that "pinion in the can" semi-magwinder setup... don't think I've seen that elsewhere. What kind of times was it running? Seems like a short gear ratio too (high numerical) - was it doing wheelies? 

 

Thanks guys, 

 

Don 

[hiline2]

WOW !!  Ok a little stray, V-town proxy race ? where did I miss that ?? 

 

Oh !  the one back in 2014 maybe ?

[dc-65x]

Here are the links to the 2014 proxy.......fun time!:

"NorCal V-Town Rumble" in memory of Gene Husting - Drag proxy

Results! "NorCal V-Town Rumble" In Memory of Gene Husting - Drag Proxy

[SlotStox#53]

That canopy mag rail car is fantastic

Such a great freshen up of a unique rail... Love how much the endplates are lightened!! Pinion inside the plate is neat *noted* for a future build.

Thanks Rick & Rodney for sharing!!