21 replies to this topic

[aquavelvis]

I came across this old car last week and asking for Slotblog members' help identifying it.

 

First the chassis...I'm pretty sure I saw these things back in the late 60's, and may have even had one but can't recall for sure. I want to say it's a Champion. However, it has body mounts suitable for clips and that seems like a feature that doesn't go back to the 60's...or maybe it does. It weighs a ton, and has as much movement as you might see on a 1:1 off-road car or dirt bike. Any ideas?

 

After a cleanup and reassembly, the motor runs very well. It of course has the Mura Magnum 88 sticker on it, but the only ones I've seen from a cursory search on Slotblog have white endbells. Perhaps it's a replacement EB or some other motor with Mura stickers? It's endbell-drive.

 

Finally, is the body a McLaren? It's shot and I'd like to replace it with same or some other of the same era as the chassis and motor. It doesn't have to be an old body...a new reproduction would be fine with me. Anyway, where's a good place to look?

 

So, any information I can get would be helpful and interesting, to me at least.

 

Thanks in advance, and apologies if I have this in the wrong forum.

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[Jaeger Team]

I guess made in Japan and sold by Mura

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[aquavelvis]

Nice find! I don't remember seeing Mura frames back in the day though they may have been all over the place and I wasn't very observant. 

 

Grazie, Maurizio

[Pablo]

Endbell and can are Cox 16D.

[aquavelvis]

Thanks, Pablo

[Mr. M]

The paint job and chassis looks like a Riggen RTR from about 1971 timeframe. They did not come with that motor, it was a Mura 16D size can with 26D size arm and polymer weak magnets. Everybody tossed that motor and put in a good 16D!

[Bill from NH]

These frames were called ISO's when they were released. In addition to Mura, Riggen sold a plated one & Phaze III had one unplated. There may have been others available too, As Maurizio already mentioned, I think they all were made in Japan. I recall people trying them in Grp. 12 on Modelville Hobby's Monarch. They looked impressive, but were too heavy to be competitive. Nonetheless, it's always been a back-burner project to build my own version of it. A Cox motor with pintabs? Maybe it's something I haven't seen.

[MSwiss]

Probably not a Cox motor.

 

http://slotblog.net/...g-cobra-can-am/

 

[Pablo]

If the can bearing housing is stamped "Hong Kong", it's a Cox.

If stamped "Mabuchi" it's not.

 

I stand by my ID of the EB as being a Cox

[MSwiss]

I didn't say it didn't have a Cox endbell.

Just that the whole motor might not be a Cox.

Among other things, the arm looks like it had the shaft cut outside the motor.

 

More telling is the can in post #1 doesn't have round holes on the end, or the various magnet indentations.

 

[Pablo]

No doubt, it's definitely not a "Cox motor". I'm guessing, Cox EB, Cox can (if I'm right, it's stamped "Hong Kong"), Mura arm, and if you can believe the sticker, possibly Mura Magnum 88 mags.

[MSwiss]

If you missed it, I edited my last post.

 

Here's what a Cox 16D Nascar looks like (unless there was multiple versions)

 

[blue&orange]

The body, I believe, is an El Fin (or Elfin) -- wish someone would repop it. I have one beater similar to yours. I have 3 of these chasses, and in discussion with fellow racers we figure the double central hinge, which lets the whole chassis flex, may have been designed at a time when some tracks had hills in the straights.  Sounds logical to me -- may also explain the weight.  I have a December 1969 Model Car Science with an article about the MESAC club building 1/32 Formula A chasses with a similar geometry.

[Pablo]

I agree, Mike, I'm wrong, it's not a Cox can. Sorry

[MSwiss]

NBD.

 

It's a Frankenstein motor, and one with the endbell not fully seated in the can. LOL

[Bill from NH]

That can with the aluminum housing is an FT-16DBB with a can bearing. If you check Steve Okeefe's "Can Spotter's" guide. you will find that Mabuchi made a stock version of this motor with a black endbell & nickle-plated can. & Mura made a rewound motor with a white endbell & nickle-plated can. This guide doesn't indicate that Cox had a FT-16DBB motor. It would be my assumption that this was origionally one of Mura's motors that someone had changed to a black endbell, be it a Cox 16D, Cox NASCAR, or one of the FT-16DBB.

[Pablo]

Concur   Maybe the original owner swapped to the Cox EB when the original one melted.

[aquavelvis]

The motor's bearing housing (can't see it in my OP photo) says "Mabuchi". And the can was originally held to the EB with tabs but they were broken off somewhere along the line, and the can was drilled and fitted with pins to assemble to the EB. It's kind of a bodge, too, something like I would have done when 15 or 16 years old...no symmetry to the holes, so I wasn't able to flip the can relative to the endbell...it only goes together one way.

 

Mike says it's a frankenstein. That certainly seems true...but it's alive, and shares its cobbled-up nature with all the other frankenstein-y stuff that I am racing to this day.

 

As to the arm and magnets, one of these times I'll yank them out and post photos for more feedback. I can say that the arm:

- has silver wire

- is epoxied to death like "this one's not gonna come apart"

- the comm is very small diameter like you see these days on a Hawk 7 or PS4002FK.

 

The magnets...well, I can't tell one from another since they stopped putting blue dots on them.

[Jay Guard]

I'm pretty sure the body is not a Can-Am Elfin ME-5.

 

 

The Elfin didn't have NACA ducts on top beside the cockpit and it also didn't have fins on the front and rear fenders.

 

It looks to me like a McLaren M8 like the picture below.

 

[zipper]

Saw them 1972 in action in Keimola, Finland. Overwhelming soud but no deal against Porsche 917. Porsche took 1-2-3 and McLarens were between 7 to 11.

[aquavelvis]

Jay,

Agreed...looks like the McLaren. Is there a 1/24 version currently available somewhere?

Thanks to all for the information.

[gas]

Mid-America is selling them on e-bay.