281 replies to this topic

[Bill from NH]

These JK chassis were just called a Cheetah. no II or any other number. These were available in two different 4" wheelbases. I have one short one, I have a number of Cheetah chassis parts. What I don't have is their aluminum pans,  I ran one in a NASCAR race on a king track until the motor blew. A friend of mine set one up for GTP & it was a sweet handling car when I drove it.

 

I liked enduro races. Me & a friend organized a 4 hr at night with car lights on the local 185' Engleman. We used a flexi with a S16D motor & a JK GT-1 body with the stepped rear spoiler. The track owner didn't know much about endurance races & didn't have another one. Back in 1968 the local raceway in Maine had an 8 hr race at night  wit h car lights. It started at 9:00 PM & finished about 5:30 AM. .I took my 14 yr, brother with me to marshal. About 1:00 AM he fell asleep in a chair, so I dumped him on the floor to wake up.

[Mark Onofri]

OG that's for the contestants who made it to t final round.

[Mark Onofri]

Hmmmmm, why does falling asleep in a chair marshaling sound so familiar to me?

[Mark Onofri]

Bought this to race @ Lou's place in Schenectady NY. I was WAY outgunned so I didn't enter it. Tried it on a short flat oval, bad idea.

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[Mark Onofri]

Somewhere I have the paperwork on the rest of the ones I posted well, most of them (maby).

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[Bill from NH]

I don't have a Flexi 5, I was told the were made from a lightweight SS. Some say they are too light to race with a good American 16D arm or a more powerful motor. That I don't know. but I would think it would  make a good race car when it was FK powered. 

 

When was the Flexi 5 first sold? I would question if Paul Ciccarello was still employed by Parma. Perhaps he did the upfront pre-production testing & design work.

[Dominator]

The original JK chettah Chassis was originally built with a thick guide spacer to be placed between the guide nut and tongue allowing the pans to float.  Racers experimented with using a Parma motor screw to limit the pan movement.

 

The stock pans were .032 or .035 and later a .025 pan was available. 

[Danny Zona]

I don't have a Flexi 5, I was told the were made from a lightweight SS. Some say they are too light to race with a good American 16D arm or a more powerful motor. That I don't know. but I would think it would  make a good race car when it was FK powered. 
 
When was the Flexi 5 first sold? I would question if Paul Ciccarello was still employed by Parma. Perhaps he did the upfront pre-production testing & design work.

I thought the Flexi 5 was to heavy to use when using an American 16d arm motor and up.

IMO, at least.

[Mark Onofri]

The flexi five propaganda is from reh so , it was brand new at the time of printing & me receiving it. Its not a faded as in this post. Florescent oroange.

[Mark Onofri]

Dominator, here's the large washers. Never liked that setup and, I don't know if there's supposed to be a screw between the centre section & Pan's. The green bread tie was keeping me from loosing it.

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[Bill from NH]

I thought the Flexi 5 was to heavy to use when using an American 16d arm motor and up.

IMO, at least.

 

Danny, it was Dick P. who said the Flexi 5 was too light I've never had one in my hands.

[rmjlmartin]

I have a Flexi 5.

 

The local track had a couple of nos roller chassis, and I picked up one to try. I haven't had a chance to completely sort it out, but I thought it handled well. My son ran it in one race as it is after his motor died right before the race. I haven't run it enough to say exactly how sturdy it is, but it doesn't seem exceptionally fragile. On my scale, the bare chassis with oilites weighs 50 grams, which is 5 grams less than my JK Cheetah 21 that I've been racing. I've only run it with a minican, so I can't comment on how it will work with a larger motor.

 

There's a thread in the "Ask Paul Ciccarello" section of Slot Car Talk dedicated to the New Flexi 5 that starts in October 2005, so I would assume that's about when it came out. Here's a link- http://www.slotcarta...p?14113-Flexi-5

[Bill from NH]

Thanks Jason, I hadn't remembered that link even existed. I don't spend much time on OWH th ese days, but it still has a lot of good information. This thread answers the approximate time when the Flexi 5 was released, as well as answering the question I had about whether Paul Ciccarello still worked for Parma when the Flexi 5 came to market. He was still working for them.

[Mark Onofri]

It does bear a striking resemblance to the Mossetti Patriot that I'm racing now.

[Mark Onofri]

There was a near mint 5 on evilbay last month(can't figure out how to post it) 89.00 U.S.$. I couldn't bring myself to pay that.

[rmjlmartin]

Mark, if you want a Flexi 5, I believe the owner of the local track still has one in his display case. He bought out the inventory from a track that had closed down, and had at least a couple of roller chassis (no motor or body). I don't know what price he has on it, but I'm sure it's much less than $89.00. It's Mach 1 Raceway in Spout Spring, VA. You can get in touch with him on Facebook, or I can ask him next time I'm there, if you want.

[Bill from NH]

Me either. Too many people selling Parma anything these days have inflated egos. Flexi racing with "built" motors today isn't nearly as popular as they were 10-15 yrs. ago.

[Mark Onofri]

Do you know (guess)how close that is to Chesterfield ?

[Mark Onofri]

BillNH, yeah, I can just see it now! You kicking down the door for a 28.95 U.S.$ Parma crown gear!

[Mark Onofri]

The whole point of having all these chassis is
1) some of them I actually tried
2) some of them look pretty cool hanging on the wall, as opposed to bouncing off them.
3) this is the important one. At some point between this year and last year I decided that I would match all the (my favorite) bodies to their appropriate chassis. Then it turned into, why not match the body, chassis and, motor? I got to stay away from that stick it Brown for a minute. I think it's distorting my perception of reality.

[Bill from NH]

I have chassis, motors, & bodies too,  The only whole  cars I have at the moment is a 4.5" Nascar  for the trioval that got removed in 2005, a 4" Plafit car that didn't work in 2003, & rather than make changes to it rebuilt my 4" turbo flex Nascar to run the Plafit class with a body change. That chassis had been a killer Nascar racer so knew it would work well in Plafit.  It was unbeatable all summer & into the fall. A teenager who worked at the raceway tried all summer to beat me but never did until the late fall he won by a1/4 lap. So I decided to retire the car. In 2013, that teenage kid from the raceway was the MIT cop shot & killed by the Boston Marathon bombers. I haven't touched the car since.

[Mark Onofri]

When I was in Nashua NH , we went to Boston for dinner. This is for those readers who might not realize the proximity of the to. Hope I didn't bring up a bad subject. How pointless that was.

[old & gray]

When I was in Nashua NH , we went to Boston for dinner. This is for those readers who might not realize the proximity of the to. Hope I didn't bring up a bad subject. How pointless that was.

 

When I was on a business trip  to Boston we when to a seafood restaurant chain in New Hampshire. It was quite a treat for a group from Syracuse. 

[Mark Onofri]

Og, didn't it remind you of Hanover square? Or is it just me?

[Mark Onofri]

2 more posts & I have to make wine. So everyone gets a chance to post & try to establish some kind of time frame. Wasn't that the point of this thread?