Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby Audi1 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:19 am

Yes, fenders on an F1 car. I think that Talbot-Largo was one of the early makers to do this; here's a shot of a 1950 version of a car that was destined for some non-Grand Prix racing event. I know that they entered a car similar to this in one of the early La Carrera PanAmericana races:

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Bicycle fenders, headlights and driving lights and a spare tire mounted on a Grand Prix racer!

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby slothead » Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:37 pm

Can-Am race cars remind me of WWII military equipment such as the P-51 Mustang with it's Merlin engine and iconic sound. They were built with bad intentions, speed and overall performance. Unlike Trans Am cars that relied on being similar to ordinary cars spectators could own, Can-Am cars were what Dr. Frankenstein would have come up with if he'd been an automotive engineer rather than a doctor.

I love the cars and series because their's nothing common, or common sense, about it. The cars were mechanical and aerodynamic works of art. And even if the Shadow DN2 & DN4 wouldn't have dominated in earlier years when McLaren and Porsche were more invested, the Shadow cars did what they did and looked stunning doing it. No collection of cars intended to capture what the Can-Am series was all about would be complete without a Shadow.

The same goes for slot car replicas, and since Carrera, Slot.It, and Fly, may have already done all of the Can-Am models and liveries they intend to, our only hope for a Shadow DN4A RTR car may lie with CG Slotcars or Thunderslot.

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby FC47 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 6:26 pm

True man, they were beasts, prepared for battle, just imagine tooling out, pedaling that beast to the grid, just knowing! What! You! Built! And had strapped to your back!
Talk about a smile on your face, feeling the brakes coming ready, and smelling the heat come up in the rubber! The shudder of power every time the pedal anticipated your foot was coming! You weren't steppin on no loaf of bread!
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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby WB2 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 6:41 pm

What about the second generation Can-Am cars?
I think someone could sell a bunch of Schkees, just on looks alone. Or how about a Frisbee?
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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby Audi1 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:24 pm

Yes, the Schkee and the Frisbee were both cool looking cars, but outside the '66-'74 window for this year's HRW Can-Am proxy.

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby slothead » Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:39 pm

Paul - I watched a video in which a Can-Am driver said you could qualify a car at what seemed to be it's top speed, then go out later and turn a lap 1/2 to 1 second faster, it all depended on how much risk you were willing to take. No one ever got everything out of a good car, it was a matter of how much you dared ask for - but there was always more than you dared use.

WB2 - I guess I'm a certified old timer. I own about 80 RTR slot cars and not one of them is a replica of anything newer than 1975. They are all from 1966 - 1975, what for me is the golden era of racing; Trans Am, Le Mans (World Sportscar Series), and Can-Am. The era dominated by Mark Donohue, George Follmer, Peter Revson, Dan Gurney, etc. I guess it's because I really started following racing when Ford built the GT40 to challenge Ferrari in the mid-60's and went on to dominate Sebring & Le Mans for a few years. The Trans Am & Can-Am eras ended when the gas shortage happened in the 70's and the price started rising. When the initial era of Can-Am was drawing to a close they even instituted a mpg rule so cars had to get at least 3 mpg. When I got my first car in 1969 gas was 32 cents a gallon and no one cared what mpg cars got.

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby WB2 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:27 pm

The OP was ten days ago. I forgot about the “golden days” part.
Face it, we’re old. We look back at the cars from our youth, both real and slot, that we couldn’t afford to see or own then. Now, we have the $ and time to collect things that remind us of the unobtainable of our youth. And we call that the golden days.
In reality, the racing in those days wasn’t really close. Many wins were runaways with very few cars even finishing on the lead lap. Just my two cents worth....

Back to the original post: how about going back a few years earlier to the Can-Am’s predecessor: the United States Road Racing Championship. The later years had T70s and M6s, but a lot of interesting cars preceded them: Lotus 40s, McKees, Genies, Coopers, Elvas, McLaren M1s, and so on.
Google away.
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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby Audi1 » Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am

Hi WB2, Go take a look at a thread entitled: "SCCA Early Days Proxy - just noodling" - I think you may find what you're looking for there, in terms of the older pre-Can-Am cars. If that proxy happens, and it probably will, then it would not start up until the Fall of this year; we need to get the Can-Am proxy off and running well before we dive back further in time..........

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby slothead » Sun Jan 28, 2018 9:33 pm

The conversation on this thread got me to realize why there are no 1/32 scale Shadow DN2 or DN4 RTR releases. There were only two main liveries of each car, the #101 and the #102. I'd buy both, but since they are identical except for the number, most guys would probably only buy one of them. If the cost of development and manufacturing wasn't recovered, plus enough profit to make it all worthwhile, by the time initial sales dried up it would likely be a losing venture.

I guess 3D printing might change that since the development and production processes are so different. Once the software files are created production is on a prepaid order by order basis so no massive investment in materials is needed in advance.

If CG Slotcars were to make the Shadow DN4A available at some point, either as a complete RTR car or as a body ready to mount to an existing Slot.It or similar chassis, a few of us Can-Am enthusiasts would love it, though I realize the rest of the slot car world would hardly notice.

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby slothead » Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:56 pm

I'm about to add another Carrera Can-Am car to my roster, one of the releases made years ago before I was interested in road course cars.
Image
When you can still find these cars you have to accept they didn't come with spare parts back then, including no replacement guide keel for racing on non-Carrera tracks. The large black guide gets stuck in places on my routed oval, so for smooth performance I need to swap it out for the red one.

My question is where can you get the red replacement guide keels if not included with the car? Or, should I just get out the Dremel and grind the black keel down a bit till it's the same size as a red one?
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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby WB2 » Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:31 pm

I just picked up that Lola.
Saw the real thing run at the 2104 Brian Redman vintage race at Road America.
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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby slothead » Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:50 pm

That Carrera Lola might be the last piece of my Can-Am puzzle. It will team up with a Monogram Lola T70, the #16 driven by George Follmer.
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I'm really going to try and stop at 10 cars, really I am.

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby kelmac » Wed Jan 31, 2018 9:25 am

I hate to bring this up, but I have several Vanquish MG Can-Am cars that run pretty well. I'm not suggesting you even attempt to get any of these, because they were typically a bit larger than 1/32nd scale, but the subject matter was awesome in my opinion. They seem to be trading a bit more expensive than most due to the fact that the company no longer exists. Additionally they had a rear diff that was fragile and needed attention or replacement. I purchased a stack of Ninco Rear axles with gear and replaced a couple.

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Re: Your thoughts on Can Am slot cars

Postby slothead » Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:26 pm

When I first started looking for Can-Am cars I saw the Vanquish MG cars and was intrigued because they made some nice cars. I know about the issues with the differential, but it was the scale issue that made me decide not to bother with them. The info I've seen says they are about 1/28th scale, and would look odd on my track next to realistic 1/32 replicas.

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