124 replies to this topic

[slotcarone]

Tony - go out and get a torch - much faster and easier!!!

[tonyp]

LOL... Actually now I remember, Bob Emott had it, just could not throw it away. It was in the box of chassis he gave me.

It was the only one of mine from our era in there, other than my steel Iso...

[tonyp]

Freddy, the iron is warming up!

What year did we build this? By looking at the front end I would say no later than a year after the Western States race as we quickly moved to "L" front ends...

I remember running a steel car at C&C with no rear axle tube. I cut the pillow blocks for mine and maybe for the Starship out of a piece of steel. Gene Bosinski (our military connection) drilled a bunch of guide post sized holes in one edge... The car I ran at C&C I am sure had the pillow blocks embedded into the center like they do today.

[Flash24]

Did you get the package?

I was "working from home" Friday so I hope it is there Monday.

The $10K is on its way in an unmarked, unaddressed package to be delivered by Smitty and Chopper. Get the frame ready.

[Flash24]

I think it was the summer of '73. After the Western States, I went "back to school" and that is probably why there was no follow-up changes on the frame.

I'll check to see if I have a data file when I get home Monday night and update this post.

[TSR]

MINE!!!

Or else!

[tonyp]

Fred,

When I get the money the chassis is on the way!

[Flash24]

I think the chassis I used to set the new 40 minute King record was a brother of that one... That was the first race we changed motors in the middle of a main on purpose.

This is the sister car to your WKR steel iso (#900), #901 you built for me and run at Buzzy's and in two races at C&C Raceway including a win. The first two photos are in virgin condition with .032" pans and 3/4" fronts, the post race photo 901.1 had .040" pans, pan crossbar moved back, and 5/8" fronts which made it a winner at C&C in March of '73 with a MAC Porsche. Unfortunately the steel leg broke in practice of race morning the following month at C&C while turning laps over a tenth faster than the prior month. That is when you lent me the WKR #900 frame for the race but only got to 4th with an Associated Lola and was .003' faster than the car that broke. Very rare for the steel to break.

They were great frames, very fast, consistent, and drivable. Just great cars!

[TSR]

MINE!!!

Now I sound like the Kingee...

[Flash24]

Top chassis had the folded-up brass glue shield that was soldered to the axle tube. Glue used to just be dripping off that after a race.

Glue shield? What glue shield, Retro don't need no stinkin' glue shields

Not yet at least... but maybe some day as the old guys get out of the way and the "glue babies" get older.

[Flash24]

OK the deal was completed at the IRRA Slots-a-Lot Raceway warm-up race. TonyP brought the Starship in trade for his 1973 Arco winner plaque and a check for S10K, maybe the most ever paid for a slot car chassis.

Tony was happy and I was happy to get back the original beautiful frame.

[Noose]

Nice! I witnessed this too and as it turns out, I guess it was a good birthday present for Fred! HB Fred!

[TSR]

A cheap price for a true star.

[Flash24]

Another Tony P "Starship", really the notation was a goof on the original. This one was called the "Hammerhead"

[TSR]

In fact Fred, I always felt very honored that Tony took my Diamond chassis design as inspiration for his wonderfully neat chassis. I wish that more of them would have survived...

OK, enough small talk. When are you going to donate the Starship to the LASCM?

[Flash24]

Oh, you mean like this one, photographed by a low-res spy satellite when I was doing work for the See Eye Eh.

[TSR]

That's a pretty nice one. I built about a dozen of these and they really handled great and were simply indestructible. Most were sold to European customers but we still have one example:

[dc-65x]

Man, it's been almost 2 YEARS since I last posted in this thread . Time flies when you’re old . Anywho, this is a cool thread with lots of great pictures of Tony P's steel plate cars from Fred "da flash", Raymond "Speedy" Gonzalez and Tony P his own self. The Dokk even showed his beautiful "Steel Diamond"..........(man I still haven't finished that one either .... I've got to get busy!).

I'm going to finish building my "customer car" recreation of Tony P's beauty I was fortunate to be able to restore for Noose. To get us up to date, here's that original chassis I restored:



Here's the link to its restoration:

Tony P's 1978 Plate Chassis

I made a "measured drawing" of that chassis and had my friend "The Laser Dude" cut a center section and guide tongue out for me with his now dead and much missed laser. This is cut from the real deal 1095 blue tempered spring steel:



But I needed a motor for my ride............wait what's this :



Man, that thing is UUUUUUUUUGLY . What's under that "winged wonder":



I bought this........um......beauty on Ebay on a Buy It Now for $20 because I saw two little white dots on the magnets. When it arrived I found this engraved on the remaining heat sink, the other one had been ripped off by the user for unknown reasons:



HI-PRO....now that got me thinking of another Tony P car I did awhile back. It was this ISO........



.........with this beautiful Noose body.........



...........and a HI_PRO motor :



So I've pulled the "winged wonder's" motor apart for a rebuild into an open motor for my "customer car" project.

The good, the bad and the ugly for this project is coming up next ...........

[Bill from NH]

Rick, in case you didn't know, Hi-Pro was Walt Labree, a CT pro racer originally from Worcester, MA. Walt was a machinist for Pratt-Whitney Aircraft in E. Hartford, CT. Walt also made some great tires in the day. Today, he's retired, living in the Florida Keys.

[tonyp]

Walt was a great guy. I always had horsepower when I ran for him. First with Pooch arms and later Checkpoint. He always was trying something different especially in the area of magnet shape and lengths. I think he was the first to try full sized cobalts. I remember trying that motor in my car at woodburry race in practice and it had so much brakes it almost went backwards when you let off. LOL... Heavy as hell though.

A man of few words especially on the phone, and a Charles Bronson look alike.

[Flash24]

Walt,
Maybe always retired

[slotcarone]

Great picture Fred---Is that Ed Sohl in the background?

[Flash24]

Great picture Fred---Is that Ed Sohl in the background?

Yep, it is

[TSR]

I remember Walt and he was indeed a great guy. Maybe we should get him to post here time to time...

[dc-65x]

Walt built very nice motors judging from the two I have. I can certainly tell he is a machinist....more on that in a bit. First here is the Hi-Pro motor torn down in its all misery caused by the former owner:



I like the insulated brush spring posts:



This is a much modified heat sink that is really a cool piece:



Here are the parts on the right all cleaned up. On the left the hardware, comm cooler, fresh endbell bearing, open armature and a Mura heat sink are new. I'm guessing there was a full coverage heat sink on this motor that the former owner literally ripped off. What's left of it as well as the intact heat sink match the only set of full coverage heat sinks I have. Rather than break up that set I decided to modify a Mura heat sink to look like the ones used on the other Hi-Pro motor I showed above. I changed the hardware style and added the comm cooler because it made me happy :



That new armature is one of the new 21T-24GA on a vintage Champion blank that Ron Hershman helped me with. It's wound by Dan De Bella with a new modern comm and Ron tied, epoxied and balanced it. I have one in my Neat Things Diamond and it screams:



A closer look:



A look at the mild timing:



I know these arms are a success not only because they run great and didn’t overheat but when I ran it at Eddie's and Rodney said, "What motor is that, it sounds like a wing car!"... NEATO!

Anyway check out what Walt the machinist did to the can . He turned (I think) or ground the sides down to less than .015" thick :



Isn't that cool . The can is fragile so I had to use the Micro bead blaster to clean off all the rust. Notice the hole in the side......I wonder what that's for? I also like the jumbo cooling holes on the top and bottom:



Here's the finished motor. It draws about 2 1/2 amps and doesn't get way hot. I'm running Gold Dust brushes and Modern Champion light brush springs:









I like it and I hope Walt would too.

Chassis time...........