found in the Bert Vorgon archives

[bertvorgon]

I was looking for some stuff before my holidays, and there buried in my "treasure trunk' was this old slot car from way back.
This one had not been "mod'ed" yet....

[gooned]

AHH very cool, early 70's? Strombecker sized stuff I remaber those...

[datzenmike]

I had a Strombecker "Cheetah". Looked like this one...



Thanks Keith wow that really takes me back to '66

[okayfine]

Why is the motor rotated?

[bertvorgon]

I'm not really sure why they did that, I think it had to do with the gear contact, I'm sure an engineer could see why.

This car never got used. I used to put some weight up front to help keep the cars on track, decrease the drag of the brushes, etc.

[datzenmike]

I put scotch tape layers behind the magnets to shim them closer to the armature to increase the magnetic field. Mineral oil rubbed on the tires would soften them and make them sticky.

[two_68_510s]

I could never afford it in 1965-68 when we were racing, but the older guys around me used to turn, balance and wind their own armatures and basically soup up their motors.
Tube frames, hand made suspensions, it was wild.
My favorite body was an '50 Alfa 158 race car, open wheel!

1947-Alfa-Romeo-158-pictures.gif (219.9 KiB) Viewed 2893 times

[datzenmike]

I did wind one motor but used too fine a wire from an old TV choke I took apart. It turned slower. Probably drew less current... what did I know? My best friend and I managed to buy two 4x8 panels and routered a race track figure 8 with a bridge. Laid our own copper tracks and used an electric train transformer. You know I don't remember too many races, mostly tinkering with motors and setting up the brushes. When I was ready he wasn't... when he was ready I wasn't. I think all the fun was in the dreaming of how good it was going to be when it was finally ready to go.

[gooned]

sounds like most of life Mike, it's the journey not the destination...

[bertvorgon]

yah, I remember the brushes, did a lot with them, trying to decrease drag. we would halve the brushes.
then, play with weight on the front of the car. we even tried some small magnets, at the front, that became a lesson of POWER, of STICK. I was never that good at winding the motors, never stuck at it long enough.
tire stick was the other thing, I can't remember what we used or tried.

Stay tuned for another archive find, a "blast" from the past if there ever was one....

[butters68]

i remember hook'n up a nine volt battery to one, it shot off the track in the corner and smashed it to the wall . o yah good times.