The Mongoose was released in or around 1968, designed by Larry Shinoda, an automotive designer who worked for GM during the early 60's before moving to Ford to work on the new "Boss 302" Mustang. Could be that Larry was out of work and between jobs when he sketched out all the cool designs that made it into slot car bodies. Unknown if he carved them himself or they were given to a friend who did the carving and molding. Although, some have mentioned Larry himself did race on some of the tracks there in the Detroit area. THAT I cannot confirm.
Was asked to build a chassis for this Mongoose.
The paint is by Noose and looks great! Body is really thin so going to require a fairly heavy rail on the sides to support it.
Took a lot of thought, and I also wanted to see what Paul came up with for his sister project for the same customer.
Therefore decided to go full vintage for this one.
The plan is to build a similar chassis like this one:
The above chassis ran in the first Shinoda Reunion 2016 where it took (body too helped....) Peoples Choice and 2nd place: 1966-68 class. And a couple other awards... but they don't matter.
What matters is the design preforms so it becomes the basis with slight improvements.
What I plan to change is drop the front axle using pin-hole front wheels.
Add weight to the tongue with extra rails on the sides creating guide stops since the guide swung too wide. Also lengthening the width of the hinge to limit side to side movement.
To that end, progress so far is that the motor bracket is soldered up and the tongue assembled. All are already in the jig.
Motor is a K&B Bobcat with a re-wound and balanced motor. It's screams and probably will melt that endbell so I'll test test test before releasing this one. Might even change the endbell to a Tradeship? (Still waffling on that one.)
Wheels and tires are Riggen pin-hole fronts and threaded Riggen rears. Tires are fresh grey Rubitex (Thanks Sam) that is so damn soft!
They have been trued up to 1", but will be turned down to a vintage 5/8" prior to final assembly.
Warming up the iron, wish me luck.
