24 replies to this topic

[Michael Coffel]

Looking to get some opinions on bring back an old favorite.. 4.5" FCR chassis with 1/25 Scale AMT NASCAR bodies.

We are currently looking to add a regular race of these bricks with wheels to our line up. Trying to get an idea if they would be a popular class again like they were at Flashbacks in Snellville.

 

I would love some ideas and thoughts to go by if anyone cares to share..

 

We are open to running on both the 63' Foot OVAL and the 165' Hill climb. Or just the Oval.

Friday nights lineup or Saturday morning/early afternoon. Maybe as a third race on Sunday after 4" and 4.5" Flexi races.

 

Kind of a rough spec listing would be..

Parma 4.5" FCR chassis with tongue bracing and upright bracing with no other chassis modifications. OEM Parma square oilites no bearings, 1/8" axles front and rear.

AMT Nascar bodies un-cut with OEM windshield and rear glass. Side glass not required. Painted, spec'ed with numbers top, sides, front and rear if part of decal set. Sponsors on decal sheet used.Trimming of wheel wells to clear the front and rear wheels permitted but not excessively. Bottom of bodies can be sanded to reduce body height but must meet a minimum ride height on the tech block of 1.75 inches. No cut A, B, or C pillars to add flex to body.

Velcro attachment body to chassis.

Full 3 dimensional plastic interior 3 colors minimum. No chassis or daylight visible

Hawk 7 motors with 48 pitch pinion and crown gears. Cooling fins allowed.

Minimum clearance of 0.050 front and rear on tech block and tongue suspended.

Maximum width at tires 3.00 or 3.25"

Tires Front- Champion or Parma or homemade minimum .700 height and 3/8" wide.

Tires Rear- What ever height as long as chassis and crown clear 0.050 tech tool.

 

Of course this is not the end all specifications just an outline. Would like to keep it as realistic as possible.

[Tony Powell]

Never raced a hard body nascar until this past Saturday night. Bought a used car from the parts counter and with some help from Mike Coffel and some tweaking before the race I had a BLAST.

Looking forward to building another car and racing again this Saturday at Atlanta Slot Car Raceway in Marietta.

 

I invite anyone in the area to join in on the fun! 

[Jay Guard]

I would think a Hawk Retro (instead of a Hawk 7) motor would be more than enough for a hardbody but I will admit to a lack of experience with this class.

[Dave Crevie]

We have a strong hardbody race group at C/R. Some suggestions; don't use velcro to hold the bodies on. It's not strong enough to

keep the body on in a wreck. Use full size Pro-Track tires, they look better and the cars seem to run better with the heavy bodies. 

We use FK spec motors, like the JK Retro-Hawk 9R and the Pro-Slot FK series. Hardbody racing is really getting back to the roots

of slot racing before clear vac-formed bodies became the norm. A lot more fun than you might think.

[Eddie Fleming]

We raced hardbodies back in the 80s. It was great fun.

 

The cost of model kits these days makes hardbody look rather expensive, especially with the carnage of a small oval track and fast motors.

 

But then I have not tried it so I may be all wrong. 

[Tony Powell]

They are running the retro motor in the hard body car at 170 grams on the oval seems to work well. fast enough to have to drive and have the car set up. but not so fast to be crazy hectic. Just fun!

[Thom]

Eddie,
In Omaha we have 2 model car shows and swap meets a year. The swap guys bring boxes of these bodies that can be had for $2 to $5 each. How good are you at haggling? And if you coat the front inside nose with something like Shoe-goo they will take several good hits.

[Justin A. Porter]

An important note as well when you're setting up the class is to allow some of the FCR substitutes such as the JK Super Stocker that have popped up given how difficult it can be to stock Parma FCR chassis. 

[Tony Powell]

JK SUPER STOCKER? By chance do you have a part# I just tried to Google it and got nothing and you know if Google can't find it - it must not exist- right?

You got me curios.

[Rotorranch]

JK SUPER STOCKER? By chance do you have a part# I just tried to Google it and got nothing and you know if Google can't find it - it must not exist- right?
You got me curios.

https://www.jkproduc...5/5168-c64.html

[Dave Crevie]

The advantage of the JK chassis is that you can mount a motor offset for oval racing. You can actually mount two

motors, one front and one aft.

[Bill from NH]

IIRC, there were different motor mounting bulkheads made for this chassis.

[Dave Crevie]

Yes. One let's you mount a motor on center or offset, and one allows two motors to be mounted side-by-side. 

[team burrito]

why would anybody want to race those turds? they handle like crap & way too heavy.

the JK spring steel chassis is a better choice.

[Justin A. Porter]

There are definitely BETTER hardbody chassis on the market than the FCR or chassis designed in the FCR style. Mid-America's chassis comes immediately to mind to me. However, because they're incredibly simple to work with and generally inexpensive to build some - including myself in the past - have stuck with the FCR platform for hardbody classes. 

[Dave Crevie]

I thought the idea behind hardbody racing was to have a place to use those old FCR chassis once a racer had

graduated to more sophisticated chassis. At least when I raced at DJ's Hot Slots that is the way it was presented

to me. Dave Fieldler also allowed modified Womp chassis, but before long that got out of hand because no real

rules were developed for just how much you could modify a Womp. Putting a heavy body on that FCR made it

more of a challenge to drive, and gave new life to a car that would otherwise be languishing on a shelf somewhere.

[Tony Powell]

To anyone who cares we are are starting to have a pretty good turn out on Saturday nights at 7:30 for the FCR race. So if you have have any interest in these cars come out and play!!!

[JR10]

Where’s everyone getting their 4.5 FCR chassis? Would love it if Parma brought them back!

We also use the 4” FCR.


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[gc4895]

Why use hardbodies? There are plenty of 4 1/2 nascar vac-formed bodies available. You can paint them and lots of stickers are around. Or just put a couple numbers on them. These work great.

[Eddie Fleming]

Where’s everyone getting their 4.5 FCR chassis? Would love it if Parma brought them back!

We also use the 4” FCR.


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Someone has  FCR lookalike that they allow. I will be up there tomorrow and will see who makes it. 

[JR10]

Someone has  FCR lookalike that they allow. I will be up there tomorrow and will see who makes it. 

Realityraceway.net sells one and a couple guys in the North East been creating their own. We run hard bodies at guys houses and we get 20-25 guys! We have a blast running the hard bodies, just miss the FCR chassis.


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[Eddie Fleming]

Yes Ken the one they are allowing is the Reality raceway late model chassis.

[Rotorranch]

Yes Ken the one they are allowing is the Reality raceway late model chassis.

 

 

Is the Reality chassis better than a FCR?

[JR10]

 
 
Is the Reality chassis better than a FCR?

I feel like they’re the same, the only thing is I would support the reality chassis in the back as I have seen one bend pretty easy with a shot to the back of the car.

Seen guys win with them, support the back and go hard body racing!


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[MG Brown]

 

The cost of model kits these days makes hardbody look rather expensive...

 

AMT 1/25 NASCAR kits can be had for as little as $4 or less in the secondary market. Modelers generally wanted the Monogram kits back in the day and there seem to be a large number of them remaining going for under $15.

 

Thunderbirds, Monte Carlos and Olds Cutlass can be found easily.