247 replies to this topic

[TSR]

I am happy with that. 

A little controversy sure woke you up... 

[Howie Ursaner]

David told me that somewhere he has a car that I built and raced. He says that i walked up to him one day at Cobra, where he worked and I showed up once a week to collect my check, and just gave it to him. He told me how much that meant to him and he never forgot it.

 

He told me he took that car to a raceway around 2000 and it was super fast and blew up. He is looking for it. I told him he has to find it!!

[dc-65x]

Howie...

 

 

I've been looking at the wheels in your Coupe picture...

 

 

I came up with these that I hope you'll like:

 

 

 

I'm "ASSuming" you ran blues?

 

I wish I could just order from the Autoworld catalog the exact things on the car but sadly...  

[Uncle Fred]

That's why you needed a 427 Vette, to race to the Bronx to pick up your check!

I remember making a trip to Cobra with you... 

[Samiam]

Hearing these stories from the guys that were there is awesome.

 

Someone should put all this in a book.

 

Philippe, do you think you have a third book in you? And it is great to have you back from your European vacation.

[Howie Ursaner]

Those are the wheels and blue rubber it was.

[dc-65x]

That's great news, Howie! I'd rather be lucky than good.

[SlotStox#53]

You don't need to wish about ordering from that catalog, Rick! Your slot car parts emporium seems to have pretty much most items you need for such builds. 

[dc-65x]

Hi Paul,

 

I've been saving those hard to find Weldun wheels for the "right" car. I thought they looked pretty close to the wheels in the picture of Howie's car. Like I told Howie, "I'd rather be lucky than good!"

[dc-65x]

I've added Howie's story of how his "unbeatable car got beat" at the Arco Nats to the first post in this thread. I should have included it to begin with... sorry. It's also shown below:
 

There is a great Car Model multipage article on this race posted earlier in this topic. I won the Coupe race and was tied in points with Cozine who had not won a race. The final race was Sports Cars and I was TQ with a 2-minute run. This gave me an extra point to put me in the overall lead. When they called drivers to the race I saw a child put my car on the track and the car was walled and destroyed before I even plugged in my controller. All I had to do was finish fifth to win overall but they did not give me any time to fix the car so it was launching in the bank. That is how he won. Phil won the race. I would have most likely won. Same car as the Coupe, which was pretty unbeatable there.
 
A lot up for grabs, hometown crowd in Atlanta, conspiracy theories abound, they would not give me time to fix my car. They did not want me to win. I was crushed. They were happy. End of story.

[Dennis David]

Yeah, you were definitely in the lion's den in Atlanta.

[Half Fast]

It's amazing how cutthroat the Pro racing was in the good?? old days.
 
Cheers,

[dc-65x]

He sure was in an... um... somewhat overly competitive environment.
 
To bring a tribute to his car to life we need a body. Here are some possibilities I have based on this previously shown photo:
 

 
Here is a vintage butyrate plastic Dynamic Mirage:
 

 
Vintage butyrate plastic Dynamic McLaren Mk 3:
 

 
TrueScale Lexan reproduction Dynamic McLaren Mk 6:
 

 
TrueScale Lexan reproduction Dynamic Lola T70:
 

 

I forgot to add another possibility so here's the TrueScale Lexan reproduction of the Dynamic Handling Body Lotus 40:

 

 

This is the later version of the Lola T70 that Dynamic introduced a month or so after the Arco Nats. The main difference from the rare first generation version is a slightly longer nose.
 

 
Sorry to keep bugging you, Howie.

[Howie Ursaner]

Pretty sure we are talking Dynamic Handling Lola T70 in red.

[tonyp]

Sure it wasn't one of those lightweight Russkit Lolas with the separate engine compartments you could mount anywhere you wanted on the rear deck, especially over the rear gear so the gear did not hit the body?

[tonyp]

What I find pretty amazing was the turn-out of all the important people in a time when there was no magazines or Internet to really promote a race like this. And how people from around the country could be competitive with no pictures for the most part of what the hot tip was the pros were building.

[slotcarone]

Tony, I used to get a lot of race announcements in the mail back then. I still have many of them too!! Have the Arco rules, too.

[dc-65x]

Sure it wasn't one of those lightweight Russkit Lolas with the separate engine compartments you could mount anywhere you wanted on the rear deck, especially over the rear gear so the gear did not hit the body?

 

I saw a couple of them in the picture but I didn't mention it. They are virtually impossible to find... 

[dc-65x]

While we wait for the body info (so I can have a wheelbase and guide lead to work with) I thought I'd share Mike Morrissey's how-to article on building his take on Howie's chassis. Also shown are some good shots of Howie's original chassis. You can click on the pictures and enlarge them:

 

 

 

 

[SlotStox#53]

Great article! Reminds me I'm going to have to speak to Steve and get his set of DVDs .

Have you sorted out the motor/parts yet, Rick?

[dc-65x]

Hi Paul,

 

I use my CD's all the time. The scans are huge so you can really zoom up on the details and the indexing makes finding things a breeze.

 

I'm still working out the components for the motor. I just PM'd Howie with some parts pictures for him to look over with Sandy.

[dc-65x]

The front and rear tires have been glued on the rims and ground to size:

 

 

With the rear wheels finalized I could set up the rear bracket for a 3" track width. The Russkit bracket was reamed to 3/16" for the Dynamic bearings, 7/32" brass tubes will be slipped over them...

 

 

... a U-brace will be added and everything soldered up.

[Dennis David]

It never ceases to amaze me where you guys get these parts. 

[Hworth08]

Is there a good source for TrueScale bodies now? A couple of shops I checked showed most of them as being out of stock.

[dc-65x]

It never ceases to amaze me where you guys get these parts. 

 

The wheels were tough but there is good news for anyone wanting to build the chassis. Besides the usual K&S materials, Champion has the 3/16 X 1/8 bearings and Electric Dreams has loose Russkit brackets (overpriced but at least available).

 

Is there a good source for TrueScale bodies now? A couple of shops I checked showed most of them as being out of stock.

 

According to Victor's (TrueScale Bodies) website he's taking a break from body production. He has done this many times over the years. Victor is a true artist and if he will resume production, we don't know. With Victor, I buy them when they are available!

 

His bodies are the best and his prices always reasonable. Over the years, I've stocked up on my favorites six or eight bodies per order (along with an assortment of interiors).

 

A top shelf in my hall closet is my TrueScale stash. Most of mine are of the vintage variety not the Retro racers. At least half of the boxes have two or three bodies in them: