81 replies to this topic

[TSR]

In the mid 1960s, Dynamic had a professional racing team, led by model maker and genuine nice guy, Jack Garcia. In the midst of "jailhouse" chassis, Dynamic racers used their own production parts to build very effective cars. This reflected on their advances at offering more effective products than those of their larger competitors. In fact, it is likely that by 1966, there were more Dynamic based assembled slot cars by amateur racers, than of the sum of actual "hard body" kits or poorly engineered RTR cars sold over the counter. That had an effect on the decision of most of the larger manufacturers to pull out of a hobby where they were now losing large amounts of money.





This led by 1969 to the production of far better handling cars made of stamped brass, the bread and butter of the company through 1973.





The company switched to radio controlled 1/8 scale cars in 1972, but was never successful at it.

Unfortunately, Dynamic's president and founder, Hiram Johnson, got killed in an ultra-lite flying accident.

[MattD]

Probably to this day the Dynamic cast parts can make a nice running car with minimal work or skills.   Add a brass pan underneath and you have a nice handling chassis for  it's time period.

[don.siegel]

Yep, they've been the favorite at Bordo for many years now, with and without added brass... best way to get a good handling chassis with a minimum of fuss! 

 

The Dynamic guys made a few semi-finals with their modified Dynamic aluminum chassis, and may have made one final - but they were a bit short of the performance of the top guys with scratchbuilt cars. Still, very impressive for a mass market product! 

 

I've only tried the brass anglewinder once, but it seemed a bit of a pig - anybody have better luck? Of course, I'm not too talented at tuning production chassis I must admit... 

 

Don 

[Tim Wilkins]

These chassis were quite heavy with a Mura B can motor installed coming in around 156 grams.  Even large bat pans attached to the original chassis came in much lighter around 142 grams.

 

 

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[Martin]

Probably to this day the Dynamic cast parts can make a nice running car with minimal work or skills.   Add a brass pan underneath and you have a nice handling chassis for  it's time period.

This is a car I built for a vintage class that had a couple of  rules " you must have a Dynamic motor bracket and a hard body"

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[Pete L.]

I really liked the Dynamic bodies that were on the stamped brass chassis, IIRC there were 3 different styles of the Can-Am type bodies available from Dynamic.  I believe they are available as repops from Outasite.  

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[Dave Crevie]

I used a lot of Dynamics chassis in the mid sixties. With a rewind and set up with minimal clearance they were

as fast as many of the brass pan chassis. Guys started adding pans toward the end of my involvement in slot

racing, and the improvement in handling was amazing. The week point was the guide flag eye, which could

break with a good hit. 

 

I also have one of the floppy-pan chassis, bought from an east coast mail order outlet called Sal Mineo. He

sold the cars for a pittance, and we used them as the spec car on a commercial track that had been set up

in a friend's basement around 1970. I think he got the track for free, and we shortened it to fit in his basement. 

[MSwiss]

I was out of it by the time the pictured ones came out.

 

I remember the originals, from 1969, with 16D's, with, IIRC, the Porsche 908 coupe and Ferrari 612.

 

There was also the Mura motor ones, IIRC, for about $2 more, but with possibly a Mirage and who knows what else.

[Martin]

and not so floppy

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[Bill from NH]

I also have one of the floppy-pan chassis, bought from an east coast mail order outlet called Sal Mineo.

That's a name I had forgotten. There was either a build article, chassis build, or a column in one of the early slot mags supposedly written by a person named Sal Mineo.

[zipper]

What about Dan Blocker, Walter Cronkite - old enthusiast afair.

[Bill from NH]

Horse & Cronkite I didn't forget.    I know  Dan was involved with 1:1 race cars too.

[MattD]

In car circles, Dan Blocker is famous for having owned a yellow Z16  1965 Chevelle.   The Z16 was the prototype of the SS 396 that was offered in 66.  Only 200 or 201 Z16's were made in yellow, black or red.    Hoss had one and it survives today.    I think he was also in a tv show!

[Martin]

Hoss also had Huffaker build him a Genie to go racing.

 

Not sure how this links to Dynamic, but I will play along.

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[Jairus]

Yup, and I like them too!

[slotbaker]

Me too...

[zipper]

Last time I saw that much Dynamic stuff was probably 1971 as they were binned from the hobby shop where I was a Xmas helper. Sad.

[Jairus]

One of my favorite Dynamic cars of all time.

[Martin]

Looking for a nice copy of the art work from the Dynamic Mirage. Mine is oil soaked and missing the top. PM me if you can help.

I have the art work for my Ferrari and the Harvey, would trade a copy to get a Mirage art work.

Clean car JHW and nice stash SK.

I have soft spot for Dynamic cars also. http://slotblog.net/...4-dynamic-save/

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[don.siegel]

Martin, 

I have the artwork for the Mirage - how would you like it? as a high-def file in jpeg? Not sure I can get the whole sheet in an A4 scanner, but will try... 

Already have the Ferrari artwork, but not the Harvey - don't have the car either! 

 

Don 

[MSwiss]

I loved the Dynamic modular parts back in 1967, and I still love them today.

It was great hosting one of the races, of the Dynamic Challenge Thingie Proxy Race.

http://slotblog.net/...xy-race/page-10

[Jairus]

I loved the Dynamic modular parts back in 1967, and I still love them today.

It was great hosting one of the races, of the Dynamic Challenge Thingie Proxy Race.
 

And you did a great job Mike!  Thank you.

Oh, one more thing.  You cannot build a correct Detroit Slider chassis with-out a Dynamic bracket.
Something to think about.

[Bugeye]

And if anyone has a complete Harvey Special they are willing to part with, drop me a pm.

Trying to relive my childhood.

 

Rob

[Dave Crevie]

Mike, you are correct. The chassis came with a Porsche 908 "handling" body. Still have the original, but Dave

Feidler sold me a re-pop which I use on the car. And I remember that the other offering was the Ferrari 612 CA.

I screwed up on the mail order house. It was Sal Marino, not Mineo. I got the two confused back then, too. I have

one of the Harvey Aluminum specials, but not going to let it go, yet. I run that from time to time, along with the

chassis with the kick-up to take the Ram 427 that is in the car. I have the Ford GT40 roadster body on it that I

ran back in the day.  

[TSR]

There were two "Mirage" models at Dynamic. The first was a model of the awful USRRC, Olds V8 powered Mirage disaster that poor Scooter Patrick and even Ken Miles vainly tried to sort out for its creator, Jack Nethercutt . It was only offered in kit form and had the die-cast inline chassis with Dynaflex suspension and the big GE motor, with pre-painted vac formed body,oddly in black (the full-size car was red). Sold in one of these clear-plastic boxes also used by a couple of other manufacturers in the day.





The full-size car was entrusted to Richie Ginther for the 1966 Times GP at Riverside but was far too slow to qualify.



The other was a model of the equally disastrous Gulf-Mirage with the Weslake modified BRM V12 engine, a car that was never able to hold its own and kept blowing its engine just about every time it was driven. 



Dynamic's version had the brass anglewinder chassis and was offered in RTR form only in the standard cardboard box common to all Dynamic cars after 1969. Here is a factory picture of the car, of which body was also sold separately but unpainted:





There were a dozen cars in that 1/24 scale anglewinder series, plus another dozen for the 1/32 scale chassis, all powered by the Mabuchi FT16D with ball bearing can, with some models offered with a Mura "Group 12" motor for extra cash.

Can any of you, slot car sleuth, tell me which is the rarest Dynamic die-cast aluminum chassis and which car did it power?
You have 20 seconds... 

And talking about Mirages, there was this one, that sold at auction in 2014 for a ridiculously low amount, ans some lucky guy now has a heck of a good race car to play with for far less money than even a tricked up Mustang or Camaro...

https://www.car-revs...orts-prototype/