Putting 'soul' Into A Slotcar

[jphanna]

Buying a new car is easy and very satisfying. you pay the money, and the guy across the counter hands over a plastic sealed container with a beautiful shiny slot car. you take it home and your are now able to legally unscrew the button underneath the container, loosen and release the car and finally hold your new pride and joy in your hands.

 

Building one from scratch is NOT easy (old school = brass, piano wire, spring steel. modern = plastic), but even more satisfying when its complete and in your hands. from posts on here and people i know of, probably half the scratchbuilt cars are raced, and half are carefully admired in an impressive display and occasionally driven for enjoyment. those painstakingly made DISPLAY only cars are exempt from the essense of this thread.

 

There is one missing thing from a brand new car. SOUL.

 

In my modest collection of cars, which can be fit in one toolbox, all but 2 have been raced. One is a ninco mclaren, which is used to dust off any lanes in practice before I put my race cars on, and the mosler which is in limbo, until a race venue allows that class to run again.

 

I was looking at my previously pristine Audi R18 last night preparing it for tonight race at thunderbirds. It now has missing mirror, scratches all over it, the antenna is broken and it covered in oil stains which I cant remove anymore. it means more to me now, than before I raced it. same with all of my older cars that have been raced.

 

Racing a car to me…….gives it an identity, a soul, as its an emotional sport that we are in, and if you have any doubts about that, take look at the faces of the people racing in any race in your local slot centre. I am not talking winning at all costs here…..just friendly racing with your club at any given time.

 

I will put it out there, that the cars that have been RACED, in your tool box, mean MORE to you than the other cars that you just have lying around.

[Peter Gunn]

Interesting jphanna been at this since 1963 and always remember my first car a Airfix Lotus 24 out of a set , think bruv had the Ferrari shark nose and when I first had it put it on the track and admired it as it was so different to the Scalextric offerings at that time , like the real Lotus light sleek looking, and I remember racing it with such care not to damage it especially the high . mounted exhaust pipes. Soon I wanted to put my stamp on it so I painted it in the UDT Laystall pale green colours ( a colour that defined me and my cars through the 60,s ) and painted the helmet in the Innes Ireland chequered colour , rather badly I remember but now my Lotus had soul it was my car not the mass produced one I had bought. Since then all my cars have been used some a lot more than others as some have certain meanings as they were bought by other people and hold a special place in my collection, and I still like to put my stamp on some of my cars and now once again 50 years later there are a few cars in my collection painted in the pale green nearly the same as my first Lotus 24.

[Ember]

I think Keith's right. It's not the racing that gives a car soul so much as putting your own mark on it, however that may be. It might be stripping it down and blueprinting it that makes the car your own. It might be the scrapes and scratches from battle. it might be a repaint in your own colours or those of your favourite driver. But there will be a particular process with a plastic car that makes it your very own and no one else's. A process by which it becomes not a mass produced toy car but your very own beautiful engineering marvel. That is the process by which the car gains soul.

[axman]

There's a movement in America to run Jailhouse cars which are limited to a very basic chassis (parrallel rails only) and body's all pre 1967. These cars have soul...

For some reason (probably because I'm really old) it is my most favourite time in slots. The very first chassis I ever soldered together was inspired by an American slotcar magazine with a how to build article by Mike Morrisey. (similar to car above) At the time I was racing at American Raceways Crows Nest with kit cars. I bought some K&S tubing, got some 1/16th brazing rod from a mechanics garage but came up short on how to solder - with no soldering iron. I had done a metal work class at school a year before where they had these huge soldering irons that were heated up in a small gas furnace.. Hmmm,

I rumaged around the house and finally found a large silver serving spoon. (mums favourite, I found out later) I filed it to a bit of a point, heated it up on the gas kitchen stove.. surprisingly it worked well.

After several attempts and burnt fingers I finally built the car in the pic above... well, sort of. At the track an even bigger surprise was how well it went. I can remember a couple of years of racing these sports cars of the sixties at Rushcutter bowl on Sunday mornings (After Crows nest closed down) and then when I moved to Melbourne at Tom Thumb. There it all came crashing down when my brother left my precious slotbox on the Tram..

The Jailhouse chassis is not going to happen for most and I know these days for most to solder a chassis is out of the question but running something like the old Plafit 1300 - with no mods and the scale bodies on the Jailhouse Body list would be a beautiful thing to see. (some on the list: Lotus 40, Lola t-70, Chaparral 2, McLaren Mk 1b & 2, Hussien 1 )

 

Edited April 11, 2014 by axman

[Ember]

There is a distinct beauty in those jaildoor chassis.

[difinity]

Now I just don't get it.

A jailhouse chassis is relatively easy, even without a jig. Axeman, I have the same memories, from Hornsby in the early seventies and beyond.

What I don't get though is the notion that 'soldering a chassis is simply not going to happen'. I know it is harder to get a 120w iron now, but you really don't need one. It's just not that hard.

[kalbfellp]

I don't see what is the attraction of the "antique" chassis,maybe because when we were building them back in the sixties we were always looking for some thing better,then along came the Anglewinder, Plumber etc.

Would be einteresting to see what age group is mainly building these chassis. BUT at least they are scratch building! I thought a few years that brass and wire was becoming a lost art.

 

For me Soul is buiding the chassis, casting and painting a body and assemling the thing tuning and then racing it,or sending it off to a proxy race. The more I can do myself the more soul I think it has.

[Terry]

I never really understood why someone would build a scratch chassis,I mean,there it is ready to go,why would you build one from a piece of wire and (mostly) brass bits and pieces,of course i had no idea of how to build my own chassis,but then again,why would I want to?

 

That was the way till I entered my first Proxy series in 2004......

 

Since that very "scratchy" beginning I have found a new avenue of fascination in my hobby,my scratch builds are my babies,sometimes they work,sometimes they don't work as well,but they all take me back to that build time and the pleasure they have given me in starting off and working through the process till the thing hits the track.

 

I now concentrate on "the build",which one is next to go and what form that may take,I don't go as far as Phil,and I really admire that process that Phil goes through,but my scratch skills are sufficient to get me through.

 

I have tried to push others in our race group into this black hole and ,like me initially,there are lots of reasons why my mates don't do it,all very valid,but the enjoyment you get when your car hits the track makes it all worth while.

 

Is that the definition of "soul",I'm not sure,but my scratch cars mean a lot to me as they represent something which gives me lots of pleasure and fun,

 

Terry

Edited April 11, 2014 by terry

[axman]

"Deus ex machina" - which roughly translates to god is in the machine is sort of what we're on about here. Just does'nt happen for me with a kit chassis.

As time moves on and I get into the right space I'll scratch build again.

Edited April 12, 2014 by axman

[Springbok Racer]

No thank you, been there, done that, over it...let's move on.

 

My 2c

[Boxcutta]

Great thread. Really enjoyed reading it. Does anyone have plans for chassis's ... Would love to have a go.

 

Greg

[munter]

as a signature says somewhere..."life is like a sewer, what you get out is determined by what you put in" same with building a slotcar.

 

Nice reply Phil.

 

@Greg. I never plan a chassis. I have a vague idea and then see how it goes, solving different problems as they arise.

[Boxcutta]

If you enjoy seeing a craftsman doing what he does best, then chk this guy's chassis build (version 1233)

 

Work of art !!!

 

 

http://www.slotcartalk.com/slotcartalk/showthread.php?38321-The-Squirreling-Must-Go-On-1233-Cc2

 

Greg

[kalbfellp]

I built some wire chassis like that back many years ago, until Dad caught me using all his brazing wire and gave me some sheet brass and gave me some lessons on bending it up into chassis's!

[munter]

Those chassis look like "retro" gone mad....each to their own.

 

I couldn't be bothered reading it all but the weight would be interesting to know.

[Boxcutta]

I read it all. He is heavily into the suspension tuning.

 

Don't know the weight but looks like it goes faaaastttt.

 

 

[first corner crash]

Soul ? They are just toy cars we punt around a track. No need to get all new agey about it. Different strokes for different folks. I am a racer and whatever is likely to win is the car I am likely to drive. I can't paint for toffee but i have had a go at it. I like the idea of a signature livery for my race cars but the last white kit i bought is the last white kit i will buy. I have no idea where all the bits are supposed to go.

 

Our hobby is a wonderful thing some love to drive a car they have an affinity with Jimmyslots is a prime example of someone who picks models he loves. I just measure them weigh them and pick the best dimensions. I like the metal cars but i still think rtr plastic is more fun and decidedly cheaper. Plus they are harder to drive and the reward to the better steerers is more pronounced. Soul is where your heart is.