9 replies to this topic

[Mr. M]

Where and who coined the terms inline, sidewinder, and anglewinder?

[Bill from NH]

Ask PdL.

[Ramcatlarry]

"... coined the term"... Used in print?

Just a descriptive term to the question: How is your car built? And the answer relates to the relative motion of the car.
 
Strombecker tether cars and tinplate Scalextric cars pre-1960 use sidewinder motors.

[Steve Okeefe]

Inline, Sidewinder, and Anglewinder are descriptive names (or as Larry says; descriptive terms) used pretty much by consensus of the slot racing world at large.
 
While it is true that sometime, somewhere, someone had to be the first to use each of these names, it is rather doubtful that any one person can be credited with "coining" them.
 
You might also add "Side Pan" and "Drop Arm" and "Motor Bracket" to that list.
 
Several, but not all of these descriptive names went through a number of iterations, both in design and name, before becoming what they are today.  For example: The "Motor Bracket" has been the same all along because (IMHO) nobody's thought of anything better to call it.
 
The Anglewinder was however originally called a "Sidesaddle Sidewinder".
 
The name "Side Pan" went through at least "Sloppy Sam", "Moveable Body Mount", "Hinged Body Mount" and "Floppy" before settling on its current name.  The simplest explanation for this is that the first time they were seen on a chassis, they were not pans.
 
Drop Arms were originally called a "Swinging Arm" (pickup), "Floating Arm Pickup", "Fall-away" (guide), "Guide Tongue," and probably a few others before becoming simply a "Drop Arm".
 
There is however one exception to all this that I can think of, and that is the "Plumber".
 
Most folks will agree that it was Pete von Ahrens (PvA) who named this hinged sub-frame design the "Plumber's Nightmare" because that's what it looked like to him. Pete had a way of being, shall we say, succinct. Pretty quickly the name evolved to "Plumber Hinge" and then eventually to just "Plumber".  Odd name, but it stuck.

[Jaeger Team]

"That thing that we call reality consists of phenomena, facts and events (material objects and abstract) that we recognize, catalog and interpret through mental constructions. As we all adapt the world of objects perceived by us through contact with our world mental, it can be said that each social group, specialized sector and even each individual in one certain sense creates its reality. This knowledge is organized into networks of concepts connected in temporal and causal structures. To communicate them to others, we use signs, especially linguistic ones, that is, of terms." (Hellmut Riediger)

 

Thanks Steve, this post could become a glossary of the typical terms of the slot car.

[slotbaker]

Does anyone have a link to 'John Ford's slot car dictionary,' or might have saved it?

[Jay Guard]

Thanks for info, Steve. I thought I was the only guy that (originally) called Anglewinders "Sidesaddle Sidewinders"!

[MSwiss]

From the Professor Motor website;

 

Unknown to most racers, the next big change happened in the Chicago area in mid to late 1967.  A guy named Glen Seegars was exploring chassis options.  Inlines were inefficient but easy and sidewinders were a pain because in order to have enough room to have decent width tires, you had to chop up the can.  Half inch was commonly sliced off the can housing and armature, and a hole drilled through the magnet to clear the axle.  A lot of work !  Seegars decided to compromise.  He reasoned that motor angled off the axle about 20 degrees would clear the tire, letting him get away with not modifying a motor.  These chassis were originally called 'sidesaddle sidewinders".  Today we call them anglewinders.
In 1968 things got crazy.  Bob Schleicher, long a writer on the subject of slot cars, wrote up the first article on the anglewinders in the March 1968 Car Model magazine.  He did so after seeing the cars in the Chicago area on a business trip.  A drag racer and famous non-driver, Gene Hustings, took the idea to a 1/24 California Pro race and won.  Within weeks half the racers in California had anglewinders.  In August 1968 an article by Hustings was published, and the rest of the pro racers across the country took notice.  They, too, started building anglewinders.

[don.siegel]

Not sure where the Prof got that info, but I don't see anything in the March 68 issue of Car Model. 

 

First reference I can find offhand is in the May 68 issue of Model Car Science, on the first NAMRA 500 Invitational, which included proxy entries. 

 

There's a photo of a "side saddle sidewinder from the house of Moody, Chicago", with what looks like a 26D powered pan car; and a "best engineering" award for Glen Seegers from the Midwest, with a full sidewinder car and trail steering... coupld entries from South Africa too! The Moody car made the semi-final, but seems all the Midwest cars were down on power. Here's the relevant paragraph: 

 

"Some of the most interesting cars arrived from some of our Midwestern members, brought to the meet by Joe Haines from the Dupage club in Chicago. Among these were Joe's own Lola T70 Can-Am car. This car featured a three-piece chasis with steering which we are informed is just about standard in the Midwest now, and a motor setup referred to as a "side-saddle sidewinder" with adjustable rear end." 

 

I think there's an earlier reference, maybe in a Car Model race report on a 1/32 meeting (Just read about it in PdL's book, but don't remember the issue, rats). 

 

Don 

 

PS: interesting to note that the March 68 issues also include some of the first references to cars with floppy body mounts winning races - not long before the next big revolution! 

[elvis44102]

i remember  always being excited about the slot car printed material (magazines/newspapers?) when the first pictures of race reports showed up we of course being extremely good at making copies made exact copies which meant cutting the rear end off an inline car and bending wire around to make the angle winder motor box

 

sort of like when the Russians copied the b-29 they also included bullet holes