33 replies to this topic

[MantaRay]

I forgot what these were.

[Ron Hershman]

Champion Magnum.......

[Windyracer]

I remember seeing similar chassis when i worked at JJ Brodsky distributors on the south side of Chicago (a million yaers ago) Pretty sure they are Champion RTRs, but as I said it has been a long time.


Cheers

[YetiSRP]

From the demented mind that designed, oversaw the tooling and built them for Carl Ford...


Champion Magnums.

[John Miller]

Ron, what year were from?

[Ron Hershman]

Mid 80's

[YetiSRP]

'86 to '88 was the 'Yeti-built' period. Ford took all the stuff back and built them 'in-house' as I was pre-occupied with the impending Comprehensive Finals for my master's degrees.

They lasted a few more years and then vanished,

I wonder if Parma got the tooling when they bought up Champion. I, of course, know who did it.

[MantaRay]

Thanks to all.............BTW....how did they handle?

[Ron Hershman]

Not sure but I think both the Magnum and the Brass-Kar were derived from the Limpach Pacesetter.





Now I am not sure which came out first......the Brass-Kar or the Magnum, but the Brass-Kar was very popular in our area at the time and I never seen a Magnum until the early 90's.

The Original Brass-Kar 1985/86 vintage



The Magnum



The updated Brass-Kar with "notched" pans....1988 or so

[YetiSRP]

Depends who you talked to.

I thought they were quite nice (of course!). I hand cut a proto and ran it before it went to tooling and then had them knock a few before a full production run. They were definitely lighter in the back than the BrassKar. Length & material were both very similar between the two. But some diss the Magnum in favor of the Brasskar.

Life was simpler back then...

[MantaRay]

Ron , Do you have a pic of a Brass Kar converted to Retro Pro type of car?

[Ron Hershman]

Thanks to all.............BTW....how did they handle?

They handled pretty good...... we had classes based on the Brass Kar chassis only so there was not much comparing them against anything else.

We raced them with full air control wing bodies on them and also with "GTP" style wedge bodies ( Parma Vette and Fiero ) as well as pro style wing bodies with no side dams.

So now that I think about it....the Brass Kar came out in 1983....... in 1984 the Midwest USRA started a "Beginners" class that was based on brass wire production chassis with Group 12 motors.... any body...no air control other than a 1" rear spoiler added.

I was the 1984 USRA Midwest Champion and I and most others that ran the majority of the series races ran the Brass-Kar. I won half the races in the series IIRC. I ran the Brass Kar in the first 10 races and at the last race I ran a Yeti mono rail chassis and smoked the field by 20 laps at the final race in Chicago. We didn't realize it then, but the weight difference between the Brass-Kar and Yeti Mono rail was substantial. This race was also the first time I ran a Parma Vette body versus the Camen Ford 82 that so many ran and maybe the body had quite a bit to do with the 20 lap victory as well.

After that we raced these types of cars locally and the Tri-State USRA series also had a Group 12 class that used only the Parma Brass-Kar chassis. Tri-State ran the class for a couple of years with no side dams allowed and the last year or two they ran full air control bodies on them. We raced Brass-Kars locally from 1983 until 1989

[Ron Hershman]

I also need to add..... I never seen a Limpach Pacesetter at any race in the time frame we raced Brass Kars. I never recall Pacesetter chassis or RTR's for sale at any point either.

Jim.... the tooling shop was "Apollo" correct?

[Ron Hershman]

Ron , Do you have a pic of a Brass Kar converted to Retro Pro type of car?

[JohnnySlotcar]

We raced these at JK's place on Grand Avenue with mura 12's and Parma Vette bodies.Later, on the MTT the Champion cars were faster,but you didnt want to race them on the king track as they were softer than the Parma Brasskar and would bend both the guide tongue and around the motor box killing the gear mesh.

[tonyp]

Back before I quit we had an Kroc class at BIR on the oval with the Parma chassis and Camaro bodies. Not sure what motor, maybe what came in the kit and the body was maybe an associated? Not a bad chassis at all.

[MSwiss]

we had an Kroc class at BIR

Kroc class? What were you racing?
Big Mac's or Quarter Pounder's with Cheese? LOL

Ron,
Thanks for posting the Pacesetter picture.
I always hear old Pro's marveling how Limpach won a Nat's(in Texas?) with one
and I had no idea what they looked like.

[TSR]

One of the ancestors to the 1980's production chassis, by "Tony the P" :



Photo courtesy Fred "Da Flash" Strauss

[tonyp]

Iroc, mike, damn I hate spell checkers some time...

[Ron Hershman]

Ron, Thanks for posting the Pacesetter picture. I always hear old Pro's marveling how Limpach won a Nat's(in Texas?) with one and I had no idea what they looked like.

Not sure the "winning" Pacesetter looked anything like what I posted.....maybe Bando or Bartos will chime in with more info on that particular chassis.

[Bill from NH]

Not all Pacesetters had attached center sections & pans like that shown. My kit had separate pieces, a .040 center, .032 pans. So did the one I saw Jan running at C&C Raceway in the mid-70's.

[MSwiss]

Not sure the "winning" Pacesetter looked anything like what I posted.....maybe Bando or Bartos will chime in with more info on that particular chassis.

Yeah, if he won with what you pictured, Jan's even better than what I already think he is.

Speaking of Jan, that's still one of slot racing's great mysteries,
why he's avoiding slot car raceways like they're the plague.

[Ron Hershman]

Speaking of Jan, that's still one of slot racing's great mysteries,
why he's avoiding slot car raceways like they're the plague.

Ask Bartos......LOL

[tonyp]

Jan won in Texas with his pacesetter.
I am sure it had a plumber and floppies... And tons of stick it..

[Ron Hershman]

Honeycutt has a pic of it and he posted it once down in slot car history here...... that could take lots of digging to find it....LOL