A Danish Slot Car manufacturer ??? no way - will the first reaction be from many of you guys - and rightly so.
The Elmodan company was only in operation a few years and just missed the "Big Boom" in Slot Racing, at least in Europe.
Elmodan was mostly a one man operation and the owner, Olaf Jensen Bangsfelt, i think, was better at producing than markering, which might be the reason for the end of the factory. Also, maybe was the production costs too high, as the parts was made to a very high standard. He made all the tooling himself, even the moulds for the tracks etc.
The first set had Volkswagen cars (close to 1/32):
The bodies were made at the Lego factory and the chassis and motor was made by Bangsfelt
Both pictures are from the Swedish Bilbaneforum (Slot Car Forum)
The next set had 1/32 scale cars based on the early Maserati 250F and apart from the high level of craftsmanship, they looked more like the current slot cars from other manufacturers. The track was the same high quality as in the VW sets with brass rails. The controllers were the same steering wheel type. The box lid sports the name of DMI - Dansk Modelflyve Industri - a hobby wholesaler that also manufactured model wooden airplanes and boat kits and apparently also took over the sales of the Elmodan products. In Sweden they were later advertised as DMI Mini Race.
But ELMODAN sets and cars are extremely hard to find today and I was lucky to buy this set on the Swedish Tradera (like Ebay) 5 years ago. I have just finished cleaning and restoring the set and the cars runs, but the tyres are 60 years old and hard, so I need to find softer tires if I was to race them.
Here is the basic set with the two cars and controllers. The power supply is a Danish FM-Trafo which I found separately.
The controllers are "steering wheel" type which actually works OK when you remember there is no return spring ;-)
The tracks are moulded in hard grey plastic with brass rail and after a cleaning they looked like new.
The cars had been used and I decided to fit the missing windscreens on both and made a new exhaust pipe for the green car.
The pickup brushes are made of copper strips and covered with copper net where they touch the track. I haven't seen that before ?
Technically the cars are very well made with metal parts and a high quality German Marx Microperm 2000 motor. The front wheels are held with c-clips and has ackermann steering. The gears and rear wheels are held with set screws.
When I tested them. both cars did not move an inch and I could not find anything wrong before I took them completely apart. There is a small insulation piece that is supposed to sit between the crossbar (that keeps the motor wires firmly attached to the pickup brushes) and the motor wire/brush assembly. This was wrongly put between the brushes and the motor wires, so the current was blocked and nothing happened :-( - on both cars !!.
I think a previous owner has taken the cars apart and cleaned them before a sale and forgot to test them. The gears were stiff from old grease so I has to soak the gears in thinner and mechanically clean them afterward. Now they run smoothly. The are no bearings, but there are hardly any wobble, so the brass and steel must be of good quality.
I packed everything back in the tray and wrapped cling film around the front, so the box could go back to its place on honor in my workshop :-)
yours, Niels Elmholt, DK
