30 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

Ernie asked me if I had the photo of Gene Adams' record setting car from the Groove; I knew which article it was in and was sure it was already posted somewhere, but couldn't find it, so here is that article. "Things about Thingies", from the last issue of Model Car & Racing, April 1968. Since I'm at it, I'll post a couple more of the "foundational" articles about Thingies... and if you think of any others, please post or let me know where they are to be found... (files are fairly big, so I'm going to have to do multiple posts - Greg if you can consolidate, feel free!)

 

Don 

 

 

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

Here's the page with Eldon's (Gene's) lap record holder... 

 

[don.siegel]

Since I'm at it, now that we've done Shinoda, let's go to Choti, and...

 

Bay Area Racing - Thingie Racing in Northern California! From Model Car & Science, May 1968 (great issue by the way)

 

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

Model Car & Track, December 1966. Here's Thingie booster Floyd Manly, and as far as I know the first article deliberately using the name "Thingie" in a positive way - also part of the thingie school that took real cars and "Thingified" them... one of the four main trends in the development of Thingies. 

 

 

 

 

 

[MattD]

Don, good stuff, thanks for taking the time_.

[Isaac S.]

Had seen the last two in full but not the Detroit one so thanks! 

[Martin]

Love the Thingie movement. Thanks for sharing, Don.

 

Has anyone looked at this book.? If you have can you review for us?

 

 

I did find this online:

 

[bradblohm]

Interesting read...

 

https://www.supercar...corvette-gs-ii/

 

I link to it because of who designed the real car, AND, the writer of the Detroit article "Things about Thingies", Jerry Remlac; uh, well, that was actually Jerry Mrlik and his place in the real car world is mentioned in the article.

[Jens Scale Racing]

Thanks for the sharing this, Don, very interesting!

[don.siegel]

You're welcome guys. 

 

Thanks for that Brad - I knew that Remlac was a nom de plume (pen name), but couldn't remember who it was! 

 

Don 

[MattD]

Martin, I can loan that book if yu want to see it.  It is a pretty cheap production.  I paged thru it one time and haven't picked it up since.  I can loan it to you.  I don't think it is worth buying.

[Martin]

Thanks for the offer Matt.Is there much more in the book than is shown in the you tube clip?

 

Love the Chevy Shinoda Chaparral GS, I had forgotten the body was designed by Larry Shinoda. Great looking car IMO.

 

It only took 50+ years for Chevrolet to produce a rear engine Corvette

[MattD]

Martin I screwed up, I don't have the thingie book.    I have the similar book "Model Racing".    I searched and found it earlier today.    I got it out and will page thru it and send it to you if you'd like to judge the quality of the photos and text..

 

 

[don.siegel]

The photos are pretty good, but they're all the same style, on the same track and of a limited group of cars, especially in the Thingies book. 

 

In other words, if you're already pretty familiar with Thingies, not really worth buying (unless you get it at a reasonable price). On the other hand, it happened to be out at a dinner party we had with friends, and they thought it was kind of neat. 

 

It's got the same problems as many books by non-specialists and even some collectors: facts aren't always right, it could have used a copy editor and almost no pictures of the chassis! That drives me crazy in a book about slot cars... 

 

Don 

[MattD]

I have looked thru the book I have and it is probably better than I originally stated.     It has color pictures on most every page and shows many of the 60's  slot cars.   The photography is not up to the standards  from Philippes original book.    The pix are similar to what is in the thingie book and they are all taken on a track that  has so much rubber built up that the background takes away from the subject of the picture.    For somebody trying to educate themself about 60's stuff, this could be a big help.  Most pages have 3/4 dedicated to one picture and the lower 1/4 is text.      For such a limited audience, I guess we are lucky to see books like this.

[Martin]

Thanks for the reviews guys. Sounds like it is aimed at the casual observer, probably a gift item bought by a wife etc. maybe.

What I would prefer is a book aimed at the restorer/ collector.

Sorry for the drift, lets get back to Thingies.

[Martin]

Most of you will have already seen this in one form or another. But adding it here for those who have not.

https://www.roadandt...lot-car-racing/

 

Every time I here about the wheelbase changing Detroit slider I feel like they just got the facts backwards. Love to hear from someone that has built one.

 

Quote from the article....

"And they got even faster with an ingenious engineering trick: the Detroit Slider, an adjustable wheelbase that compressed under deceleration to give a short wheelbase in corners, then expanded on acceleration for straight-line stability."

 

Really,

If the car is slowing (brakes) from the rear wheels I would think the wheelbase would get longer. As the mas of the car tries to stay moving forward.

Then if you are pushing (accelerating) the car with the rear wheels the wheelbase will get shorter. As there has to be some resistance from the mas of the front half of the car and the friction of the guide.

 

Would love to hear how this is not the case.

[Pablo]

I'd ask Jairus, he makes 'em work, and they are cool.

 

You want to talk theory, my opinion would be you want a race chassis to act consistently every lap.

That would be hard to do with that design, even if you could make it act how you wanted it to.

[Tom Katsanis]

Yeah it is the wrong way round the wheelbase stretches on braking supposedly putting weight over the guide to keep it in the slot.

And it compresses or has normal wheel base under power.

PDL has said that the main reason these worked is because it made the body loose from the frame which would probably help.

[Gene/ZR1]

Most of you will have already seen this in one form or another. But adding it here for those who have not.

https://www.roadandt...lot-car-racing/

 

Every time I here about the wheelbase changing Detroit slider I feel like they just got the facts backwards. Love to hear from someone that has built one.

 

Quote from the article....

"And they got even faster with an ingenious engineering trick: the Detroit Slider, an adjustable wheelbase that compressed under deceleration to give a short wheelbase in corners, then expanded on acceleration for straight-line stability."

 

Really,

If the car is slowing (brakes) from the rear wheels I would think the wheelbase would get longer. As the mas of the car tries to stay moving forward.

Then if you are pushing (accelerating) the car with the rear wheels the wheelbase will get shorter. As there has to be some resistance from the mas of the front half of the car and the friction of the guide.

 

Would love to hear how this is not the case.

 

Martin

The slider chassis really didn't work that great, anything chassis constructed back then was considered "science". (for what it's worth).

 

Here's the bottom line, who ever won that weekly race or was constantly beating everyone else, by the next weekly race the chassis clones would show up and hopefully taking over the field until someone else had a better idea then the clone cycle would start all over. The wheel was constantly being re-invented you might say.

 

 I build Detroit Iron, 130-145 grams, front or rear Iso style chassis and all the horse power I can wind.

 

 Racing in the mid to late 60's was nothing like today. 

[Martin]

Tom, thank you. The guy that put on the Shinoda reunion, said it wrong in an interview and Casey questioned it at the time. But then its gets writing and repeated.

 

Would love to first hand accounts on how well they work Pablo,  maybe Jairus will tune in and give us the benefit of his experiences.

 

Thanks Gene, was writing when you posted. Thanks for your insight.

[Tom Katsanis]

No problem Martin I have 2 that are track ready.

One is a conventional dynamic pod with a champion 507 it goes not to bad when I first built it with not very good tires it would just spin out rather than deslot.
It has had issues nosing out if coming into corners to hard but nothing more nose weight wouldn't fix.

The other is built a little different wire & brass with a champion motor mount & a triple wind silver wire arm this car was close to our retro pros running s16d motors on the local flat track but you could only get a couple of laps before the motor started melting.