25 replies to this topic

[ajd350]

Recently these cars surfaced at the local flea market. Housed in the Hoffman box was a time capsule from around 1970. My friend had spotted it, bought it and sold it to me, less the Hoffman. We went through the cars for clues for whose cars we had. The name  'Joe F.'  was on a setup block, but other than remembering a racer who ran at our house on club race nights by the name of Joe. In the mean time I cleaned each car and refastened any loose or missing bits. Eventually I made contact with John Atlas, who was a standout driver in the midwest scene. I told him of the cars and I sent pics.  He was quite happy to know that Joe Fascing's cars were in our care. The deal was that John and Joe had arrangement where Joe built the chassis and John did the bodies and John got to drive the cars, which were very competitive. He told me the Joe was very involved in racing until his wife gave him 'the cars or me' ultimatum. He parked the box in the closet where it stayed for 50 years. Here they are just as they came to me...

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[ajd350]

Some of you have already figured out what one singular body could go with that unclothed chassis. Lacking the body, an NOS lancer STP 1967 Turbine car body was procured and mounted just as the original. When shown the result, John Atlas approved.

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[ajd350]

After clean-up and re-fastening the body mounts...

 

They all run. With fresh rear rubber they would be ready to go.

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[Pablo]

Very cool 

[Thom]

Those guides are very interesting, it appears that the pins are replaceable if they get broken and the braid length is adjustable. Are they homemade?

Have you run them on a routed track and do they work okay?

[dc-65x]

Thanks for sharing these very nice cars Al. I've saved all the pictures.

 

It looks like some cars have a single pivot......

 

 

.....and others a double pivot in there unique front axles???

 

 

 

[Martin]

Hi Al,

too bad you could not trade your friend a new or another similar race box, so you could keep the this capsule all together as it was in 1970?

 

Still great you got the cars and parts though

[Brian Czeiner]

Without too much technical jargon, what is the purpose of the unique front wheel alignment? 

[ajd350]

Thom, the guide pins are nylon rod. Although I didn't recall anyone break one, they do wear thin and are easy to replace. Pins are held in the plexi block by a set screw, as are the braids. Yes they are adjustable. These cars were raced on a regular basis on routed tracks and ran extremely well.

 

Rick, thanks for archiving these. The bottom one is a single pivot. He might have been trying a different pivot point which required the arm to be on an angle to clear the tires. Also notice that the McLarens have different overall track width. The 1968 ruled allowed a wider car.

 

Martin, That was the deal and I would have first right of refusal. It's in good hands where it is.

[dc-65x]

OK, thanks Al. So they all have a single pivot point then. 

 

I love the Indy Turbine too with the extra gears to move the motor forward.....very cool.

 

 

[ajd350]

Correct.

 

On the Turbine the second reason was to drop the motor shaft below the axle. It's not apparent in the pics. John pointed that out to me.

[dc-65x]

I like the Turbine car even more now.  

[Isaac S.]

That's awesome, I see it now. 

[ajd350]

The first chassis was built by the late Cary Krugman and is owned by a friend of mine who was involved in the build. A while back Cary's name up and I told him about the car that my Dad had bought from Cary around 1969-70. Cary had stripped out all the innards of the motor and axle assembly. Around that time my left the hobby and the car sat just the way he bought it. My friend had some of Cary's old parts including nearly all of which were from my Dad's car. every part had some level of modification. I reunited those parts to the chassis. Finally after 50+ years the motor zinged to life. I believe this is one of the very early spring steel 1/32 chassis. 

 

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[ajd350]

The Ford J was built by my Dad, following the Roy Moody chassis layout as were most of the faster cars in the midwest. This one has a lot of laps on it judging by the very worn comm. I didn't dare cut it, just cleaned and oiled it and treated it to a pair of comm brushes.

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[dc-65x]

Those cars are so cool.  

 

Rodney and I were talking the other day and wishing we could have been there to learn and participate with those guys.

[ajd350]

So do I. I was born in 1957 and too young to participate but most of the guys put up with me when practice session was on. I knew that if I was a pest that door would be closed to me.

[Bugeye]

Very impressive cars! Makes me want to collect 1/32 again.

[ajd350]

Two more builds from 1964-65 by my Dad. Clearly the chassis were built to accommodate a Lancia - Ferrari as well. These show the transition from Pittman power to Mabuchi (I am in search for a proper DC-196). The Chaparral was loaned to John Atlas on occasion and was a favorite of his. John and the Chappy ran away from the strong field at a midwest inter-club race at Monogram Models in 1965 that was covered in the March issue of Car Model magazine. With John's help I was able to get the cars details back to their period state. The intake stacks, interior platform and exhausts were missing were replicated. 

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[Isaac S.]

Wonderful cars! I am in love with that Daytona Coupe. 

[ajd350]

This is probably the last chassis my Dad made before he stopped racing. I have had this one in limbo trying to find one of the bodies it wore. Finally it turned up with some stuff that one of my brothers had. Now with the last of the missing pieces was there. The car only needed a light restoration. The battle scars remain.

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[don.siegel]

Somehow I missed this thread when it came out (Greg, I don't seem to be getting notifications any more, except the odd one... any suggestions?)

 

These are wonderful cars and that was an incredibly lucky find - glad that you're preserving all these cars and memories! 

 

John Atlas was of course very well known at the time, and I think he made such a strong debut that he was inevitably known as "Mighty Atlas" in the period columns - the old hands like Pete Hagenbuch et al, were both very impressed, and probably a bit perturbed that their domination was passing on to the next generation (a personal opinion, don't quote me on that!). 

 

What club was your dad in AJD? I was born 5 years earlier than you, in 1952 and in Chicago, but all this stuff was as totally foreign to me as if I were on one of the coasts - we just didn't see the club racing scene where I was in the city. 

 

I've found a few Midwest style cars over the years, like the one below - a pre-anglewinder, but with hints of what was to come! I've posted this already, but the defining feature here is a Lancer Ford MkIV body, but lined with some type of resin so you think it's a fiberglass body! Plus of course the sidewinder setup, with gear screwed to the wheel, but still cocked at a very slight angle... 

 

Don 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ajd350]

Don, I feel privileged to be the caretaker of this slice of history. 

 

My Dad was a member of the MMARC ( midwest model auto racing club) from 1963-1970. The first track was located in Glenwood, IL and soon added our track in Dolton, IL and another in South Holland, IL. All were wood routed tracks with copper tape. There were other clubs in the Chicago metro area Including Du Page, Midway, 32 Car, Tinley Park and Norse who would host inter-club races. The talent pool between the clubs varied. Some had better innovators and it showed.

 

Being the fly on the wall in that era and too young to race, I would get to hear the conversations about Pete Hagenbuch specifically. Some of it was about Pete's push for uber anal detail and requiring cars to be replications of a specific car at a specific track, things like that. And yes, John's talent and results got their attention. He was upsetting their apple cart. Your observation is valid.

 

That MK IV looks very well built and interesting. Do you know where it came from?

 

These were silk screened for a meet by my Dad and my Mom sewed them to a backing for a shirt patch.

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[don.siegel]

I got three very similar cars from the same seller on ebay, but don't think they had any more info. It was somebody in the Midwest I believe. 

 

I've attached a few photos of the McLaren. 

 

Those logos look great. 

 

Don 

 

 

 

[MattD]

There is currently the thread about interiors on Slotblog and whether it is worth even worrying about interiors in slot cars.   This is a great example of where slot car racing was in the early days.    To the adults, detailing was just as important as speed.     This was also true to early guys that built rail cars.  It was only with the widespread popularity of commercial tracks and the influx of kids that  modeling  became  less important to a lot of racers.    It's really great to see these cars still around and  being shared with all of us.   This is where "SLOT" racing got its start.