11 replies to this topic

[Mr. M]

What happened to the assets of Mura after Bob Green took over and Mura closed?

[MSwiss]

Chris,

 

Your post doesn't make sense.

 

IIRC, the last two owners of Mura were an older gentlemen named Woody and finally someone with no slot car background that I'm aware of.

[Mr. M]

Mike, Thanks, unknown to me. Last knowledge was Ron Mura dropped out and Bob Green was making and developing.

 

Question still stands, What happened to the inventory and tooling?

[Bill from NH]

The inventory was sold off online for several months.
 
Nothing was ever mentioned about the tooling.

[Phil Hackett]

IIRC, the last two owners of Mura were an older gentlemen named Woody and finally someone with no slot car background that I'm aware of.

 

Dee and Woody Paisley bought Mura from George Mura. Woody was the toolmaker that made almost all of Mura's tooling. They kept close contact with George Mura and Bob Green after the sale. Mura became involved with the I-15 motor "wars" and I think it wore the Paisley's patience and health and they eventually sold it to, like Mike said, a non-slot car knowledgable person. If I remember correctly he was an Indian engineer (electronics).... I made a small number of runs of parts for him. Mura then disappeared.

[team burrito]

I remember Mura being around in the early '90s, but soon disappeared when RJR, Pro Slot, and Champion started making their own motors.

[Mr. M]

Thanks everyone for the background. Very interesting for sure. I remember the I-15 motor battles and met Bob Green at a couple of big races we travelled to in the 1980s. At some point, Mura was just gone.

 

Whatever happened to Bob Green.?

[MSwiss]

Thanks, Phil, for coming up with the last name.

 

When Woody sold Mura sold, they had long been out of the competitive I-15 motor and armature business. They had become just a supplier for RTR cars and on the competitive end, Boxstock racing.

 

At a weekly race in the last year, my good friend and G7 Nats and Worlds historian, Mark Rosenwinkel, referred to the '91 Worlds, mentioning I was runner-up to P.A.

 

My response was "Really? I don't recall that."

 

And then it hit me that that race was dominated by all the drama over local racer, Mike Braidman's Box 15 win.

 

Racers were complaining about his obvious HP edge.

 

By that time it was common knowledge that Mura had made a batch of G20 arms and mistakingly installed G15 tags in them. It had been brought up previously at the '91 Nats where Dick Pelletier's son put in a great drive to beat Mike for the win. That race was interrupted for the USRA tech director, Doug Shepard, to visually examine the arm with a jeweler's loupe. IIRC, the race only continued when Dee Paisley, who was in attendance there with Woody, gave it a hard look and assured everyone it was not a G20 arm.

 

Fast forward back to the Worlds, I walked in the middle of the mid-race drama. 

 

Those arms were so sloppily wound that it was really hard to tell the difference between a 15 and a 20. Postrace, no one was willing to pay for a tear down and Mike's dominating 21 lap win stood.

 

A month or two later, that arm was at Koford for reconditioning and I weighed and metered it, and it was definitely a mistagged 20.

 

I think Woody's run at Mura was a result of father time, combined with George Mura's no-compete clause running out, with George then getting into the OEM SBF II brush business.

 

[Mr. M]

I really enjoy these trips down to slot sport history. Thanks for sharing, keep it up!

[stoo23]

Whatever happened to Bob Green.? 

 

He is still around as far as I'm aware, in fact you can probably find him on Facebook, if you really want to

[Bill from NH]

Bob Green has also shown up as a spectator, at some of the past west coast Retro races.

[novatech2]

I sure miss those days in the '60s when I used to walk to school in Hayward, CA, and pass by the Mura business building and heard all some motors rpm giving it a high pitch revving motors singing to my ears. Finally went and check out Ron Mura Jr. son and he gave me a tour of his place with his sisters wiring up the rewind motors and regular motor windings. Bob was there too,making his magic portion winds. Later on Mura the moved his partial motors in Castro Valley side with the whole family and sister and just watch them wind the armatures so fast,but with precision winds then epoxy the arms with some high temp epoxy stuff and the static balancer next to the drill press to balance the arms for the final check,then to the power start-ups.I was amazed to see them on the line.Now they have the automatic balancers that really quick and produce them so fast.Ron gave me some modified motors that he wound and Bob also gave me some experimental motors of his winds,next day I soldered with my uncle Max and he too gave me a Indy car style that was painted pink,I told my uncle that the guys are gonna laugh at me for racing a pink car.He said no worries,let them laugh and watch their faces when I win every Heat and Classes.That day,I just blew off every fast drivers on the track ,it flew as fast as a wing car without the wing and they never said a word...ha ha ha on them.I told Ron and Bob about the races and later on Mr Mura sponsored me all the motors with my uncles spring wired framed that he built on a jig for accurate frames for other members of our team.