28 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

Hi guys, 

 

Just picked up this car, the Monogram McLaren hard body kit, as a late Xmas present to myself... Was happy to get this one, builtup, with box... but noticed what seems to be a factory adhesive label on the front, stating "Specially equipped with AJ's silicone slicks". 

 

Is this unusual? A European thing (got it from a guy in Brussels, but not sure where he found it)? 

 

Nice car in any case, but too bad they mounted the body with screws going through the sides! And, like a fair number of other cars, the screw that goes into the front post has to be placed under the drop arm, since it doesn't align with any holes in the drop arm! An odd design feature, but I guess that's what comes of fitting an existing chassis to a body for which it wasn't designed! 

 

Don 

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

Don,

 

I don't recall seeing cars coming factory equipped with AJ's before. Even the $25 Champion 36D cars came with foamies.

 

When commercial raceways opened during 1967-68, all the Maine tracks were "silicones only" so a tire change was necessary for all cars. Most of these raceways ran 1/24 cars, so I would think I would have seen something, but didn't.

[don.siegel]

No, this was a new one for me too, Bill. Really a logical response in fact, since I remember getting a Cox Lotus in 1966, I think, and the first thing I had to do to make it around our track was buy a pair of AJ's silicones for 2 or 3 bucks! But I've never seen a factory-equipped one like this (and in fact the car itself still has the original spongies...).
 
This McLaren seems to have come out in about mid-'66 - right in the middle of the silicone wave. Surprising about the Maine tracks - by '67-68, we had long switched to foam tires and Moo... 
 
Don

[Bill from NH]

It was 1967 before Maine had any commercial tracks. Most of the new tracks were Mr. Raceway tracks out of Cambridge, MA, but there were some used ones too, mostly American Raceways. I never found out who, but someone, convinced The Pine Tree State League trackowners to run only silicones because they supposedly kept the tracks cleaner, not something entirely true. Any dust on them and the silicones drove like driving on ice. The Pine Tree State League was the initial series racing organization in Maine and just about all tracks at the time were involved.

I never ran on sponge tires until I moved to MA in the fall of 1969.

[Lone Wolf]

Don, very cool find. Were these cars shrink wrapped on the outside from the factory? I don't think so, which means somebody somewhere stuck it on. It looks like something Autoworld might have done. They had a bunch of gimmicks. I imagine whoever did it was in concert with AJ's as the sticker has the correct logo and all. Not just something someone had made up on a whim.

 

When this stuff died around '67 it died hard. Anything to get rid of stock I suppose.

 

Reminds me of a Ford/Yugo dealer here in Mineola that gave away a free Yugo with every Taurus years ago.

 

You can repair the holes in the body with reasonably good results making a putty of the same color plastic using shavings and liquid styrene glue. Fill the holes slightly higher and wait at least a week before you finish them. Does not work the best on metallic plastic like this though. The Scarab and some 1/32 cars used the same color plastic if you have a junker around for shavings.

[don.siegel]

Yep, that's the question Joe... and hard to find the answer! I would guess it was more during the silicone trend to adapt to state of the art, rather than trying to get rid of old stock, but there's no proof. It did cross my mind that a distributor or local shop could have done this, but the label looks "factory" - and Monogram and AJ's were both Midwest companies, altho not in the same state... 

 

But which holes are you talking about? The body mount holes are stock - that's how Monogram designed the car! I do know the technique you're talking about, but have never tried it... (I try to call on my body man, who's much better at this sort of thing than me!). 

 

A free Yugo, eh? Very, very tempting... 

 

Don 

[slotcarone]

Don was that a RTR? Looks like the original body mounting set up.

[don.siegel]

No, it was sold as a kit, with this box, and put together by the original owner. 

 

I think it was also available as an RTR, I seem to remember PdL showing photos from the museum. 

 

Don 

[MattD]

I bet AJ's had those labels printed up and gave them out, or the distributor gave them out along with some kind of discount if a dealer bought so many $$ worth of stuff. Since the label is on the cardboard and not the plastic outer wrap, I would say it was applied by the distributor or raceway.

[don.siegel]

The seller also had one of these, without the box (which I don't think sold), and that one has the AJ's mounted, and a small sticker on the body, over the motor, that says "AJ's Slicks"! 
 

 
Don 
 
PS: It was the seller who gave me the info on the other model, and also indicated that he got these from the States, not in Yerp.

[TSR]

 

I bet AJ's had those labels printed up and gave them out, or the distributor gave them out along with some kind of discount if a dealer bought so many $$ worth of stuff. Since the label is on the cardboard and not the plastic outer wrap, I would say it was applied by the distributor or raceway.

I hope that you did not bet too much because you would have lost... these stickers were indeed on, and inside the Monogram kit. Please read below:

Don,

What you got there, is an ersatz, part of a very rare kit with part of a common one.

Let me explain: the box is of the "VSR" kit with the red-painted vacuum formed body, the last kit issued by Monogram before they pulled the carpet on the slot car program. And yes, these kits came with an added set of AJ's silicone tires over aluminum wheels.

The chassis is the correct one for that kit as well as for the kit with the injected body, BUT... the injected body was never mounted with side screws, only the car with the vac body.

In other words, at one time, someone fitted the injected body on that chassis, possibly because the person did not like the look of the red car???

Here is the correct kit for your box: 





And an assembled car from it: 





The kind of AJ's silicone tires in the kit was red silicone over heavy, plain alloys.

The rare "VSR" kit's instructions:

[Lone Wolf]

Don,

 

Sorry about the screw thing. Got a little mixed up. All of these that I had were the home set version that used the different chassis with the mounting slot at the rear.

 

Don't think I've had this version with the sidewinder chassis.

[don.siegel]

Thanks for the info, Philippe, but I'm a little confused: didn't Monogram also produce a hardbody McLaren-Elva kit? 
 
I thought I remembered that, and also the screws going through the body, which is why I bought this one... now, maybe I shouldn't rely on my memory any more, but, wasn't there a 1/24 kit like this? 
 
Don 
 
Here is the instruction sheet: seems to be this exact car, with two screws through the body - whether it's a different box is another question; couldn't find a MIB version of this car on the net to verify... or do you just mean that it's just the sticker that went with the vac-form version of this car? 
 
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[TSR]

Don,

 

The regular hardbody kit is quite common and its stock number is SR2418.

 

The vacuum body kit has a "V" on front of it and is VSR2418. That kit, as well as the RTR car using the same parts, is rare, the RTR a little less.

And the hardbody kit's body is attached by screws underneath the chassis. So unfortunately the car you bought was damaged, hopefully you did not pay to much. If you know the guy, return it for refund! 

[MattD]

First time I've seen the vac-body kit. That is a new one to me. The RTR I ran across last year, but I didn't know it ever came in a kit. I thought I had seen about all the American stuff, but not that one.

 

Thanks for posting that pic.

[TSR]

Matt, you will be amazed of all the stuff you have never seen or heard of soon...

[Bill from NH]

This year or next?

[TSR]

Depends. How many more years do you think you will live as a human? 

[MattD]

Quit teasing! I am looking forward to the new book. All of us have spent years looking thru 50-old year magazines, books, and catalogs.

 

It will be nice to have high quality book with excellent pictures and correct information.

[Bill from NH]

Depends. How many more years do you think you will live as a human? 

 

I took a Northwestern Mutual Insurance test on aging a couple weeks ago. i answered all questions truthfully.

 

According to the way I live my life, it indicated i would live until age 94.  My dad lived to be 93, but I'm not in as great shape as he was. I guess I'll be around to at least see my next birthday. Only 21 more minutes.

[Cheater]

I don't know what to think.

 

My bio-dad was a suicide at age 32. My maternal grandfather lived to just a few weeks shy of 102.

 

They say you can estimate your personal longevity by averaging how long your grandpraents lived, so long as they didn't die from accidents or being shot by jealous spouses.

 

The numbers for me are 88, 88, 91, and 101. Not sure if I am happy about that or not... LOL.

[don.siegel]

The regular hardbody kit is quite common and its stock number is SR2418.

 

The vacuum body kit has a "V" on front of it and is VSR2418. That kit, as well as the RTR car using the same parts, is rare, the RTR a little less.

And the hardbody kit's body is attached by screws underneath the chassis. So unfortunately the car you bought was damaged, hopefully you did not pay to much. If you know the guy, return it for refund! 

 

Hi Philippe, 

 

In fact, my box is labeled SR2418-900, and the instructions indicate pretty clearly that the body is mounted with two screws through the body, plus a screw through the front part of the chassis into a post in the body (see instruction No. 12)... so not sure why you're saying the body is attached by screws underneath the chassis. 

 

Does the museum have a MIB example? (ha-ha....). It wasn't on the LASCM site, that was the first place I looked. Looked through Google, but didn't find much - a lot of McLaren bodies with a hole in the side however! 

 

Still happy to have this car... 

 

Don 

[TSR]

Don, the LASCM does not have one mint example, more likely a dozen...

 

My fickle brain was for a short time confused between the RTR version of the car used in racing sets, which uses the same chassis as the Lotus 38 plus an aluminum "pan", and the kit version which has one screw below the drop arm, bolted on the cockpit insert, and two side screws through the body, so your car is actually perfectly fine and correct!

 

So much for my expertise du jour...

 

It is in fact perfectly possible that even some late-issue "hard-body" kits may have received the extra pair of AJ's silicone tires, which would explain... everything! 

 

In any case, the box is eminently rarer than the car.

[don.siegel]

Don't worry Philippe, we're all in the same boat... 

 

... oops, maybe we should all be worrying! 

 

Alll of us so-called experts have made some pretty embarrassing boo-boos... and my latest was a doozy! 

 

Don 

[don.siegel]

Thanks to a nice guy on Facebook who posted a bunch of pages from Sears and Penney's with slot cars, I found the Monogram McLaren with silicones listed in a Sears catalog! 1966 or 67 I think, didn't write that down! Also, the image is a bit indistinct, but looks more like the vac-form red body, so that would place it at the later date (it was in FB, I have to go back and check). 

 

Don