68 replies to this topic

[strummer]

This ad appeared on page 9 of the 1967 "Technical Journal":

 

 

 

Interestingly, it showed up (I think) in this eBay lot:

 

 

 

What car was it supposed to represent? I see in Philippe's book he mentions an MPC "Scarab": is this it?

 

Whatever it is, does anyone here have one they can photograph and show? I thinks it's oddly cool looking...

 

Thanks!

 

Mark in Oregon

[Rotorranch]

Yep, it's a Scarab.

 

I have a couple. If I find one, I'll take a pic.

 

Rotor

[MattD]

MPC front engine Scarab,kind of a fore runner to the Chaparral 1, and I think Troutman and Barnes were involved in both cars.   Anybody know any of this for certain?  Plenty of pics on Googgle, the other car is a Genie ford

[Dave Crevie]

The Scarabs were built by Troutman and Barnes for Lance Reventlow. As was the Chaparral I. The red car is

the Vinagaroon version of the Genie Mk-10 campaigned by Dan Blocker, "Hoss" of the TV horse opera "Bonanza!". 

Later, Blocker ran a rear-engined Scarab under the same name. 

[Gary Bluestone]

Here's the whole story !

http://slotblog.net/...l-products-mpc/

[MattD]

I never knew what car Hoss was involved with, thanks for that info Dave.  What do you know about the builder of that car?

[Dave Crevie]

The Genie was, of course, built by Joe Huffaker on a steel tube frame similar in design to a birdcage. The unique feature of the frame was

that the bottom tubes were square rather than round, as were the rest of the frame construction. There also was a difference between the

Mk-8 and earlier frames, and the MK-10 in that the MK-10 had a horse collar type arch where the dash board and gauges were mounted,

fabricated from tubing and sheet steel. Chevy, Ford and Buick/Olds aluminum V-8s were used. (Mine had a Corvair engine in it when built)

The transaxles were built by Huffaker under his BMC name, using modified Borg Warner T-10 gears and designed by Bob McKee. 

 

The Dan Blocker car was sponsored by Tom Silvestri of Nickey Chevrolet fame. It is still running in vintage events today. 

[Martin]

I worked at Huffaker Engineering for a couple of years.I was called in to work and restore repair and safety update etc Genie's.

I was told Ed Lamantias dad was the only one with a Genie powered by a Corviar.

This is a pic of the car almost finished and another shot of it finished. I was lead fabricator.

Dave we may of spoke about this before, maybe you had a copy? is that correct. Anyway it was incredible to work side by side with the legendary designer Joe sr. and his son Joe jr Huffaker an accomplished driver himself. 

It was a dream job, lots of fab, fitting and finish.

I have other pics of Genies I brought back to new. But this was the only Corvair that we know about.

Attached Images

• 
• 
• 

[strummer]

Wow, a racing car powered with a Corvair engine. I'll be da*ned.   

 

I'm a little surprised by the lack of detail in this MPC "Scarab".

 

I mean, it looks kinda cool and all, but c'mon: MPC made nice models: what happened here?     

 

Mark in Oregon

[MattD]

Outstanding info from Martin and Dave.    Martin, yo sure have some great skills.  I thought all you did was play with toy cars and old motorcycles!!!!

[Martin]

Thanks Matt, almost correct. That's all I want to do now, "play with toy cars and old motorcycles!!!!"

Cars are super physical as you know and keeping up with 20 30 year olds takes it out of you.

Especially when you build for months then take 10 cars to the races 2 weekends in a row and keep the customers happy.

These 2 Genie's pictured below ran both weekends and did not miss a beat.

Attached Images

• 

[nomad2race]

Bill Hoskins was my partner at Nomad Raceways until his death  Bill would tell stories of working on Dan Blocker's Genies.  I have a large box of his photos and drawings.  Does anybody else remember Bill?    

[jokar124]

Wow, a racing car powered with a Corvair engine. I'll be da*ned.   

 

I'm a little surprised by the lack of detail in this MPC "Scarab".

 

I mean, it looks kinda cool and all, but c'mon: MPC made nice models: what happened here?     

 

Mark in Oregon

Mark, the MPC Scarab slot car was based on a simplified version of  molds originally made by Strombecker for their battery powered model kit. It was also possible to convert the Strombecker model to a slot car by installing an available guide flag. The same was true for the MPC/Strombecker Lancia Ferrari.

[Martin]

I do remember this magazine laying in Joe's office.

Same car, In lower pic, I believe with new race sponsor. Roll bar for to-days specs etc.

Attached Images

• 
• 

[strummer]

Two things.

 

1. Jo: thanks, that explains a lot. I did not know Strombecker made a Scarab.  

 

Seems I read somewhere (probably here) that the 1/24 cars in that battery-powered line were not particularly well-done. Since they made a few hard-bodied models that weren't offered by anyone else (as far as I know), can these very early models be made into something decent? I know, anything is possible, but if one wanted to have, say, a Maserati 250F: would that kit be a reasonable starting point? And please remember who you're talking to... 

 

2. Martin, et al: one of the things that always strikes me about these racing cars is how small they were...

 

We took our son to the LA Auto show (in the mid 2000s I guess) and at the Lotus display was a model "38" (or something similar). Not only was it tiny, but up close you could see how fragile looking it seemed... 

 

Mark in Oregon

 

PS: Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy...

[Dave Crevie]

Martin; My car was built by Jim Kellison, probably from Huffaker parts. The only other Corvair powered car that I know of was the one sponsored

by Friendly Chevrolet and driven by Jerry Titus. I would guess that was the same car you worked on, but I recall seeing it in red. In your picture 

of the cars on track, might the lead car be Dave Ridenaur? (not sure I have the spelling right) His car is still running in vintage events. 

 

The only picture of my car that I have seen was taken by Dave Fiedler. I tried to get him to let me copy it, but he passed before that could happen. 

 

Seems there have been a lot of Genies crawl out of the woodwork in the last ten years or so. Wonder where they were all hiding for so long?

[Martin]

The 88 Genie was driven and owned by Michael Vogel.

When he brought it to the shop it looked like this. You ask where Genies are hiding. This one was under this modified mess.

It took me days to cut the add ons off. It had another chassis welded to it and crash damage, a real mess.

Attached Images

• 

[strummer]

...    ...

 

That looks like a bad 3d printed model... 

 

Mark in Oregon

[strummer]

strombeckerScarab.JPG

Mark, the MPC Scarab slot car was based on a simplified version of  molds originally made by Strombecker for their battery powered model kit. It was also possible to convert the Strombecker model to a slot car by installing an available guide flag. The same was true for the MPC/Strombecker Lancia Ferrari.

 

As a follow up to my earlier questions about these battery-powered Strombecker cars...

 

Has anyone here tried to convert one of these kits into a "proper" slot car?

 

 

 

If so, how did you go about doing it? Is there anything usable on this, other than the body?

 

(After all, who doesn't love a D-Type...)  

 

Mark in Oregon

 

Mark in Oregon

[Martin]

Its on my list, but then so are a lot of cars. I do love this period. I posted this some time ago, see if you like as much as I do.

It made me want to build a grid of early sports cars.

Enjoy Mark, let me know.

[strummer]

Wow...that was terrific. thanks for posting. 

 

I always figured Watkins Glen was the first; now I know better.

 

Opinion: looks like the design of the Scarab may have been influenced by the 750 Monza...?

 

In any case, a fabulous bit of racing history; I'm sure we will all look forward to your building of that "...grid of early SCCA sports cars"!  

 

Mark in Oregon

[don.siegel]

Hi Mark, 

 

In fact, the Strombecker 1/24 "motorized" models are very nice, especially for the time (ca 1960) and build up into very handsome slot cars - a lot of them were converted at the time, along with many of the Merit models from England. Let me see if I have one in my photo library (and remember, I'm not a great model maker!). A Strombecker Aston Martin DBR1 I converted many years ago (before I learned that the AM green is a very particular metallic shade, and before I found a good friend who is really good at painting): 

 

 

I've seen lots of others, for instance this Maserati (it finished first in Concours d'Elegance one year in Bordo). 

 

 

To answer your earlier remark, who knows why some model kit manufacturer made simplified cars like this? I assume to get them on the market quicker and make the whole design process easier. AMT offered a line of 1/32 cars with vac-formed bodies that were truly "blobs" as was said at the time. 

 

Thanks for all the photos Martin, you've got an impressive track record there. A rather self-interested question: how big was the Corvair engine in the Genie, and when did it run? I'm asking because I race in a 1/24 race for under 2 liter cars, and if I could sneak a Genie in there I'd be very happy! 

 

They are rather small, but having seen a Lotus 11 up close, I'm no longer amazed - boy is that thing small! I'm almost 6 ft, and I'd have a tough time even getting into the driver's seat, much less staying there for any length of time... None of the model manufacturers has really captured the Lotus stance... 

 

Don 

[Martin]

Don, back in its original form the Corvair Genie was 2.3L In its current form it is 2.7L

But plenty of other smaller motors were put in the Genie. Like the Alfa 1.6L #88 I restored.

Sorry to show off, but I was proud of my equal length swoopy exhaust pipes.

Attached Images

• 

[Dave Crevie]

Joe Huffaker used a lot of Brit parts in all his cars. He built a line of formula junior and other small bore sports racers using A-H Sprite

engines, under the Huffaker-BMC nameplate. In fact, most of the front suspension parts on the Genies were from the Sprite/Spitfire

line, including the steering rack and the spindle uprights. 

 

By the way, my car did not have a Corvair engine in it when I got it. It was a basket case, and had been changed to a small block Ford

in 1965 or 1966. The entire rear of the frame had been cut off and replaced with a new structure to carry the V-8.   

[MattD]

good stuff keep it coming

 

I had a 65 Corvair 140hp 4 spd.   I liked that car and thought I was Fangio behind the wheel