13 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

I'm trying to use the lazy, hazy days of summer to catch up on a few restoration projects, and one of these is a lesser known, and less mythic Chaparral 2E by Riggen... not quite a Thingie, but it has been lengthened and maybe a little widened. Riggen called it the Chappy XL. 
 
I decided to do a restoration "as found" (meaning my friend the good painter is on vacation...), so just put it back together more or less as found. I got this on eBay a number of years ago and don't remember all the details, but it seems to have come with a Lancer flipper kit, which somebody had already started cutting out, and bending a couple of aluminum tubes as the struts, so I completed that, cleaned off the body, found some appropriate Riggen wheels and an interior (unknown brand) and put it all together. I think this originally came with the tiny Riggen front wheels, but those didn't look good to me, so I used their larger 15/16" versions, which may have gone on other Riggen cars. In fact, I mixed and matched, since I first restored a real thingie, the Riggen Special... (that may have originally had the bare aluminum chassis, and the anodized black one would have gone on the Chappy, but no big deal... 
 
The silver seems to be the original color, and probably those decals as well... haven't decided if I'm going to paint the flipper - white? silver? red? and it's just a press fit for now, at both ends of the two aluminum tubes (flattened into an oval, as suggested by Lancer...). So here's the Chappy XL, with a couple of its buddies... 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
And here it is with a few buddies.. 
 

 

 
A head to tail comparison...
 

 
Don

[welslotcar]

All Chappys all the time.

[don.siegel]

When I did an article in an English magazine about my collection 15 years ago, I showed the TycoPro Chappy 2E and said: why spend 5 grand on a Cox when you can get this little beauty for 10 bucks... 

 

Here's the period review from the Sept 67 issue of Model Car & Track... that's how I knew it really did come with a wing and a prayer - oops, I mean a wing and an interior... Haven't seen a MIB version to check - I'm sure the LA Museum has one, but it's not on their site yet... And I checked the 68 Auto World catalog: this should have had the anodized black version which I put under the Riggen special, and the Special should have had the bare version - it was an economy model! 

 

Don 

 

 

[MattD]

Don, do you think the Riggen came with a wing? I've never seen one with a wing and all the examples I've found didn't even have cutouts. I've never kept one for long, that bastardized body really turns me off.

[SlotStox#53]

Nice collection, Don.

That Chappy shell looks very much like the rare one by I think BZ that had flimsy thin metal wing struts...

[MattD]

It is a different body than BZ used on their car. BZ used the Lancer body.

 

They also used the flat aluminum wing struts. Those struts were on the car I found that I sold to Scott. After much examination even PdL finally agreed I had found the real deal. Since then several others have shown up with wing struts.

 

I have never seen struts on the Riggen car and wonder if the magazine article showed the actual retail car or a pre-sales model. Always a little something to be learned about the vintage stuff.

[don.siegel]

Yes guys, that's what I was wondering myself - I didn't think it came with either the wing or an interior, but according to the article it did; of course these period articles weren't always accurate, since it might have been a prototype, as Matt says. But the article also says that you have to install it yourself, which would explain why there are no precut holes in the body, but there a little rectangular area for the posts  clearly marked out on the body... 

 

The interior has to be moved forward a bit more than would be normal to clear the motor... I had a couple deeper interiors, but they didn't fit as well, and even on this shallow one, had to move it forward about a half inch... normally, Jim Hall's head should be closer to the headrest! 

 

The body is a nice molding by the way. 

 

So, if the LASCM or any collector has a MIB version, we'd like to see what's in it! 

 

Don 

[Quickcars]

Great post Don!  Just need to add the Slot.it 1/32 to group photo!

[don.siegel]

A modern plastic car??? I would not sully my vintage hands... 

 

Don 

[TSR]

Hi guys,
The JAD (Riggen) "Chappie XL" came with a fully detailed interior, a very useful wheel wrench, a bottle of Riggen "Tire Bite" which often leaked and messed up the display tray and a "good luck" wish from Al and Dick. All the JAD cars did come with such equipment, but in the case of this Chappie, no wing or wing kit. 
The LASCM has no less than 4 of the MIB "kits" (in fact they are "semi RTR" with the body already fitted, but not the interior) and another half-dozen of loose examples, and none has a wing kit. Silver is the most common color but they also came in metallic red, green, blue and even gold.

The only wing kit for vacuum formed, 1/24-scale Chaparrals came from Lancer, and Lancer was not a Riggen supplier...

As far as the BZ version, it does sport a Lancer body but painted in special colors with different masking and details from the painted Lancer version and only in two colors, a light silver and a light metallic blue, so no confusion possible. It only came with its wing painted and assembled and most survivors saw their wing struts summarily cut off, as it is otherwise near impossible to remove the body from the chassis!





 

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[don.siegel]

Thanks Philippe, figured you guys had to have a couple MIB examples... 

 

Was the body indeed a Riggen JAD production? 

 

Also, do the instructions say anything about a wing? 

 

Don 

[TSR]

Hi Don,

The instructions are the same for all Riggen-JAD RTR cars in those large boxes, general recommendations that provide zero benefit to improve the cars.

Riggen made their own bodies ever since they launched their own line of 1/24 and 1/32 scale cars in 1967. They had two large vacuum machines and produced an astounding variety of cars all the way through 1974, when Al and Dick sold the company to Gayla Industries. 

Most of the Riggen bodies from that era were sculpted by Gordon Brimhall, sometimes a "chop and modify" job on Lancer bodies, sometimes a fully original design such as the rather ungainly "Riggen Special" designed by Dick "Magoo" Megugorac, Al Riggen's business partner and a giant in the hot rod world.
By 1972, former Dynamic body craftsman, Jack Garcia came in, as Dynamic had gone full tilt into R/C racing and had abandoned any development of their slot car line. He brought with him, obsolete body molds formerly produced by Dynamic, and by 1972 there was a line of 1/24 scale Riggen cars with Japanese multiple-hinge nickel plated chassis and Mura Group 12 and Group 15 motors, with 1968 bodies of the Alfa 33, McLaren M6 GT and so on... these cars are not that easy to find today.
Another similar Riggen car line was produced briefly in 1970, with chassis likely manufactured in New Jersey by either Phaze III or Ferret, with angle-winder Mabuchi TF16D motors and F1 or Indy bodies. Most common (and they are not...) is a 1969 Eagle Indy car, "Santa Ana" model.

If one analyzes the Chappie XL, its ancestry is clear, Brimhall back poured a Lancer 2E, then chopped the body, lowering it and adding a longer nose to clear the long drop arm of the JAD chassis.  Other JAD bodies are also chopped and modified Lancer shapes: the Watson-Ford and BRM H16 can be clearly traced to the original Lancer bodies. The two Ferraris "P4" are more original, especially the coupe with a Chevy engine!

Below is the bottom of a Riggen Eagle:



 

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[don.siegel]

By change, I found a "Before" photo in my photobucket...

 

[Quickcars]

"You've come a long way baby"!!!

 

LOL