19 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Of the slot car and slot racing groups on Facebook, one of my favorites is Slot Racing Oldschool, as a great deal of historical info keeps popping up there, much of it new to me.

 

As a US-based racer who primarily played with 1/24 cars, the rarities of the 1/32 world are largely new to me. This thread has been crafted from a series of posts made to the above-mentioned group made by Richard Hills, a contributing editor to Slot Magazine in the UK, who kindly granted permission for the re-use of his material. What you read below are largely the posts Richard made, with minor editing to his comments, along with the excellent pictures that relate to each post. The quoted texts are Richard's words.

 

Perhaps PdL has a chapter on Riko is his long-awaited book that he will post here to give a history if the Riko brand, which seemingly was the trade name of a company called Richard Kohnstam Limited.

[Cheater]

"By request from a group member, here are the most common Riko kits. 

 

First, the Competition. This is my original, with (badly soldered) pin tubing added, a Scalextric motor replacing the Rikochet, and a better contrate gear because the pressed steel one mashes up pinions. The Alfa 33 body is still around somewhere. 

 

Incidentally I later had a Saturday job as a 17 year old at Taylor and McKenna, Aylesbury. You don't know what busy means until you've worked in a toy shop at Christmas..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cheater]

"The first of two of the rarer Riko kits that launched many a British kid from the lounge floor home set along the road to 'proper' slot car racing in the 1960s. The card is mine from 1968 or '69 and came with an M8A, the chassis is a recent years eBay acquisition. They originally came with white sponge rears."

 

 

 

 

 

[Cheater]

"The Riko anglewinder (why did they call it a 'Sideliner')?

 

My Ford Escort ran in the public sessions on the ECRA B track at the 1970 Model Engineering Exhibition. Beside me in the queue was Ronnie Spencer Jr. Familiar with top slot racers via the pages of Model Cars magazine this twelve-year-old kid bracketed such guys with the football and F1 stars of the day. My Escort flew for a minute until the rear axle tightened up. Tony Condon (on pits duty) grabbed it and put it right, but by then the heat was over.

 

This again is a recent-ish replacement via eBay, but the card is my original."

 

 

 

 

 

[Cheater]

"The correct motor - Rikochet - for the Riko Competition Series slot car kit."

 

Photo: Tony Davey

[Cheater]

"That the Riko GXL was the last slot kit we can tell from the decimal currency price tag, making it post-14 February 1971. The Riko Rocket motor succeeded the Riko Whip; it's another ballraced can Mabuchi FT16D but the can is a yellowy metal colour. By now bodies were wider, hence the need for the soft alloy body mounts.

 

The card and car are from different kits, the car is clearly a Porsche 917 but does anyone know the difference between catalogue numbers R1611 and R1620? See the back of the card."

 

 

 

 

[Cheater]

This concludes Richard Hills' Riko material, almost all of which is new to me. Hopefully I have brought the material over correctly and if not, that Richard will chime to straighten it all  out.

 

Thanks again to Richard for giving me permission to post his material here at Slotblog.

[n.elmholt]

My first "real" slot car was this Riko chassis, which was a big step from our ususal Scalextric and Fleischmann cars. Me and my newly-diseased friend bought one each in 1968 and entered the world of club racing the same year with these cars (not with much succes however). :-)
 

 
Both are not the originals which were lost many years ago. The Ferrari is a replica of my friends car and the other is an eBay find.
 

 
A Danish ad from 1968
 


And a review from a Danish Motor magazine.
 
I have a bit more Riko stuff in my collection:
 

 
And I also have some different NOS chassis i unopened bags as well a a few spare, included NOS white rear tyres.
 
Most of these chassis were POS, but we loved them back then. :-)
 
Niels, DK

[Cheater]

John Goldsmith posted this Riko info to Slot Racing Oldschool. He says, "It comes from a Model Cars Magazine supplement called Slot Motors, dated 1968..."

[Richard Hills]

 
Niels' post is interesting because two of the cars he shows are those I didn't. The Super Series came out, if I remember correctly, a few months before the Trophy Series.
 
The inline F1 with the round motor - called the Rikominx and shown in Niels' post - is by far the rarest to find today. The only one I don't have.

[Bill from NH]

Someone posted a photo of the F1 Rikominx chassis and round motor online eight or ten years ago. It might have been Graham Windle, but I'm not sure.

[SlotStox#53]

Some great information and pictures of the Riko cars.
 
Riko were very popular in England alongside MRRC back in the day.
 
Found this a while a go on SlotForum and thought it would go well here. Pictures of all the Riko motors with their appropriate names.
 

[Richard Hills]

Very useful pic. #53, thank you. Now I can immediately differentiate between Rikochet Mk I and II.

[Cheater]

Found this a while a go on SlotForum and thought it would go well here.

To give credit where it is due, this was posted at SlotForum back in 2006 by Phil Smith in the UK.

The original image (below) was scanned from a 1968 catalog of Riko motors and Phil added the motor names to the image to make the reference.

[SlotStox#53]

Thanks, Greg, couldn't remember who posted it, all I could remember was where I found it.

The only motor I've never seen in the metal is the rare Rikominx.

[Cheater]

Paul,

 

You (and others) might be interested how I located the original image.

 

I went to images.google.com and uploaded your picture from post #12. Google then located everywhere that picture appears on the web.

 

There was only one place, in a June 2006 thread at SlotForum, which I reviewed and found the image I placed in my post #14.

[SlotStox#53]

Cool information, thanks!  

 

Didn't know you could do that! Very handy, but scary at the same time. 

[John Secchi]

Still quite a lot of Riko bits out there in the UK.

 

Phil Smith always has some Racewell (Riko sold the accessories range under this name) parts on his stall at swapmeets.

 

Chas Keeling (SCD) sometimes turns up at vintage meets with NOS bits he's found in his workshop; for example he once had several sets of ballraced front wheels in both 1/32 (R401) and 1/24 [R402] as shown on the list printed on post #14.

[autoavia]

Great to see the cards and lists again.

 

My first raceway car was a 1/24 Monogram Chapparal 2 Can-Am which also included a spare Porsche 904 body bought secondhand from a friend. He had told me about a really big slot car track near home and lent me the Chap to run there. I think it was a ploy to sell it as he had bought a 1/24 Ford Galaxie.

 

I later bought a new 1/32 Riko Ferrari P4 with the Riikochet Mk1 from our local cycle/model shop which I ran for quite a while with the P4 body and later with a Wonderland Dodge Daytona body - the theory at the time was that the longer wheelbase should be more stable.

 

Still have the Mongram Chap with both bodies but can't find a windscreen, intake trumpets, or roll bar for the Chaparral body to restore it. The screen is the main problem as I can probably make the other bits.

 

The Porsche body is coming along and a couple of weeks ago the chassis became a runner again with a NOS 36D I have had for 40+ years. The 1/32 Riko chassis and motor are also running again and I have a second Riko chassis I was given in the '70s with a Rikochet MK2 which seems to run when it feels like it and act dead the rest of the time.

 

Like I keep telling my other half - you should never throw anything away which may be vaguely useful in the future.. 

[Allan Feldman]

Tony,

Try Phil Smith or look for the static reissued 2D Chaparral kit from Revell/Monogram. The last reissue had a painted drivers figure.

Regards,

Allan