Dubro/Atlas F1 builds

[chrisguyw]

A few years back, I organized a 1/24 "Vintage" race series that was run for a year or two at RaceWorld in Toronto. (Raceworld was the commercial track owned and operated by Ernie Mosetti, of MRSlotcar).

Anyway,... we had classes for Sports/GT and F1 cars, and it was basically a "run what ya brung" series, much like it was in the early days of commercial track racing, so,...we had Cox, Dynamic, AMT, "Scratch", Riggen, Russkit, etc. etc. all running round together, and, it was GREAT!!!!

For the F1 class, I had some "Clear" Dubro bodies lying around, as well as some Atlas AT206 ball bearing motors (very quick little motors), some Atlas F1 chassis, and a bunch of Gorgeous Cox cast Magnesium wheels, soooo,.........I built a "Ginther" BRM and an "Amon" Ferrari for the series.

These "hybrids" were certainly in the spirit of the way we went racing back then, and both were more than competitive in the F1 class.........they are as quick as most of my current "plastic" cars on my home track.

Cheers
Chris Walker

Dubro made several 1/24 "clear" F1 bodies........they were all made in butyrate, which as you can see by looking at the windscreens, tended to "yellow" over time.

Cox made gorgeous magnesium wheels (cast) for both their BRM and Ferrari 1/24 kits, and these wheels were used on these builds.



Mr. Ginther chases Mr. Amon into the "squeeze" hairpin on my home track...........these cars still run great, and are right at home on medium sized club tracks!!



The Atlas AT206 motor was likely the quickest of the "open frame" motors of the time, and geared 6T x 32T is still as quick as most of the motors typically used in current plastic cars. (I have since changed the "pink" Parma crowns to original Cox units).
Having that big exposed motor magnet did wonders for any races held on "plastic" track, ;) and these motors are still not overlooked in Vintage race meetings in Europe, which are often run on Plastic.

Lots of Lead sheet on the bottom of the chassis !!

As I am looking at the chassis pic., I just remembered.......The Cox wheels on the Ferrari are original 5/40 threaded, while the Cox wheels on the BRM (below) were bored out halfway on the back to accept some milled down 1/8 set screw hubs.

[Brumos RSR]

Gorgeous cars Chris, I truly appreciate learning about vintage and current slot cars from you. Makes me think about building a hybrid of a past and modern slot car commingled into one hot rod.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

That really brings back memories. Beautiful job on the painting, too.

In 1966, there was a slot car track and hobby shop on the second floor of a variety store on Dundas St. in London, Ontario. Every Saturday morning after my paper route, I was there, drooling over the cars made by the grownups, with those gorgeous Dubro bodies. You really did those just a well as any of those I saw back then. I had one a guy gave me, and it was with my old slot car stuff for so long that it turned dark yellow. I thought about painting it blue to have a green car! But it was so brittle it shattered when I took it off the card.

Are they still making Dubro bodies?

[chappyman66]

Chris, always beautiful work, and on these as well. Fun cars to run, I am sure!
I am interested in drilling the hubs. I have a bunch of wheels for the tapered axles....and have often thought about how to use them. I suppose just an 1/8" drill and then the grub screw hole?

And yes.....the Dubro bodies show up periodically on the evil auction site....but they are vintage and are sometimes brittle.
Patto (Bruce Patterson) may be a good modern alternative?

[mattb]

More great work Chris. You have a great building talent.

Paul, I have been able to tap the tapered hub Cox wheels for a 5-40 axle. I don't drill them, I just tap them as they are. The mag cuts easy and I go slow to as not break the tap. I also have used them for inserts in newer Protrack wheels. A lot of Cox wheels slip right in.

Here is a car I recently put together from parts a friend sent me. He has lots of nos stuff and sometimes sends me stuff from time to time. This time he sent a pre-painted Pactra body and a complete dynamic 16D chassis with a late issue 16D. He paints a lot of his old Cox wheels and that's he had on this chassis. He also sent me a Lotus 38, but it is the body with the pipes molded above the tail. That body doesn't look nearly as nice as the body BZ used which has separate glue on exhaust pipes. Plus it was kind of a mustard yellow color (ugly). So I used the silver body and added a couple paint brush ferrules, some wiring ferrules for injectors and a vac formed driver. I like to build replicas, but this was a gift!

P1010004.JPG

[chrisguyw]