76 replies to this topic

[tonyp]

Steve Kempson found these from 1970 and '73 on a Swedish WEBSITE.

I used to have a few customers there back in the day.

[tonyp]

1973 chassis.

[tonyp]

Noose's Twistamon chassis. I built these special for the R4 for Noose, Jay Kisling, and Matt Bruce. Matt won with his.

[tonyp]

Another from Mr. Noose, the first NASCAR I built for on road. The original Piggysaurus. Still being used.

 

[Noose]

The Piggysaurus gave me my first win in Retro East and has had several more podiums. Was used by Jerry Herbert to take a second just a few months ago.

[Gator Bob]

Like going back in time...
 
"It's Magic."  
 

[tonyp]

Don Barber team Camen team driver and super body painter still has his 1975 National winning car. He sent me a picture last night. That one year there were two nationals one in Austin and one later in the year at Elmsford. Don won with this chassis and I won with a duplicate at Elmsford and Don was second.

 

[mjsh]

New Braunfels, Texas
Limpach Pacesetter fronts.
Looks like an O/S Lola?
Great painter and as I remember TQ'd and won the race decisively.

Tony, what made this design so good on Engleman tracks?

[tonyp]

Not sure they just seemed to work well on them. If you noticed Don ran without the springs on the front wheels. That seemed to make them go through glue better.

[jimht]

Memories from 40 years ago... Don Barber's car is from the 1975 Nats held on my 180' Engleman in Converse (San Antonio).

 

Donnie's car was a missile from the time he first tried it early in the week, once he put a Parma Lola T290 on it, which was "The Body" for the track.

Tony's steel chassis was just plain better than the wire chassis that were more common at that time.

 

I had also been running steel but decided to go with tried and true wire and brass as did many others... a mistake as the glue was nowhere near as gooey as it had been in 1974 (Jan wasn't there with his "Sledsetter"  ), and the lighter steel chassis got more bite on the looser track.

 

No front wheel springs... The weight transfer to the rear created by the sprung front wheels gave way more bite than was needed with Camen Brown in the big flat turns.

 

Nowadays we go just as fast around the track with a Group F car, but they sure don't get down the straights as quick as an 18t/24.   

[mjsh]

Loved your Engleman. You ran an excellent facility back then to get two Nats in a row when the Nats were attended by more than twenty people. 

[Mbloes]

It was about 15 years before my (racing) time but damn, full glue racing just sounds like a big, no-fun nightmare.

[tonyp]

It sucked,, but we did not know better back then. It just evolved that way.

[Matt Sheldon]

The OCD in me would have been pegged with sticky hands and controller handle.

[Noose]

If you wore glasses you were in real trouble.

[Bill from NH]

Full glue cars used to create a "glue fog" after a couple hours. I used to clean my eyeglasses during a race with lighter fluid so I could see.

[Richard G With]

It was worse for me; I was trying contacts for awhile but it seemed that the fumes seeped into the plastic. Couldn't get my fingers clean enough to chance taking the lenses out sometimes! I often wonder if my current asthma has something to do with that. Of course I was smoking a couple packs a day at the time so who knows?

 

Yeah, full gloo sucked! (IMO)

[tonyp]

You guys had it easy. After the Saturday big races at Nutley I was the only one working on Sunday's and had to clean all that glue off the track, showcases, Windows and door knobs. It made a mess.

[Mbloes]

So I was trying to figure out Don Barber's chassis and it wasn't til I blew it up that I got it (I think):

 

The red arrows point to the up stops for the plumber assembly.

 

The green arrow points to a piece of brass tubing that appears to be attached to the crosspiece to act as a downstop for the plumber assembly against the steel center section.

 

The white arrow is the retainer for the not-used front wheel springs.

 

Correct?

 

 

 

[mjsh]

Yes.

[tonyp]

Yup.

[Cap Henry]

Not really related, but at what point did glue start getting used, either direct on the track or spray glue?

[tonyp]

I went from 1/32 home racing to commercial tracks in Feb 1965. At that point tire traction was already being used. You would rub it into your tires and do a burn out in front of you at the drivers panel. The first person I saw that put glue on the track before the turns was PVA probably at the end of that same year. What started as a drop before each turn became 75 percent of the track glued on a blue King. After the glue disaster of a western states ( the one PDL won) Joel montage and I returned back east and decided we needed a change. We came up with 10" or so glue zones in front of turns as the only place you could glue. As the one running the USRA it was easy to push through and it became the standard until I quit in the 80's.

[tonyp]

Progression went
wintergreen.
Bloo glop

Stpz

Stp with wintergreen

Dart

Champion MCD

Stickit

More stickit.

Even more stickit.

[Cap Henry]

Thanks Tony! I'm glad I've grown up in the spray glue era lol