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Post by charleselan on Jun 18, 2020 16:16:29 GMT
As we have mentioned before Oscar's car actually ran with a Slot Car sponsorship that featured the graphics of a slot track running all around the upper deck of the bodywork. Very clever marketing with that. This car was reproduced as a slot car by Vanquish MG, a manufacturer that no longer exists. I have several Vanquish cars but unfortunately not this one. I've seen it on ebay a while back but the price they asked was very steep.
Great slot car though with working diff and full chassis detail!
I have read a lot about those Vanquished slot car models. They were pretty complex with that "differential" and i believe somewhat over scale at around 1/28th but seeing as they had a vast range it wouldn't be so much of a problem when racing with similar Vanquished cars. |
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Post by Carl on Jun 19, 2020 5:19:15 GMT
American slot cars were primitive and clumsy when I was a boy and my friends and I missed that boat in favor of the vast selection of plastic model kits. Airplanes and naval vessels of any era and modern cars were my bread and butter. The smell of Testors model cement and its crustations left on fingers remain familiar decades later. I never thought to sniff glue, my imagination was mind-altering enough. One fun practice was to heat up an ordinary metal sewing pin and make a trail of bullet holes in a fighter plane. No pilots were killed, although the older models we tired of were sometimes set on fire after a modest dousing of cement.
Today, graceful models enhance my daydreams and can assemble themselves according to my whims.
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Post by René on Jun 19, 2020 10:32:55 GMT
This car was reproduced as a slot car by Vanquish MG, a manufacturer that no longer exists. I have several Vanquish cars but unfortunately not this one. I've seen it on ebay a while back but the price they asked was very steep.
Great slot car though with working diff and full chassis detail! I have read a lot about those Vanquished slot car models. They were pretty complex with that "differential" and i believe somewhat over scale at around 1/28th but seeing as they had a vast range it wouldn't be so much of a problem when racing with similar Vanquished cars. Exactly as you say JC, somewhat over scale and very complex both with the drive train and the 'real' chassis beneath the bodywork. I remember Vanquish MG was a split-off from Fly. Some of the product developers and designers wanted to take the level of detail and realism even a step further than what Fly was doing at the time (early 2000's). The result were these Can-Am cars, a Mirage and a Lotus 72. Opinions are devided over these cars but I love the brand just for trying to go this far. The cars are not suitable for hardcore racing as they are too heavy and the differential is too fragile. But they look great and are wonderful for a diorama set up when you take the bodywork off to see the full detail chassis and engine. With most cars the driver sits a little bit too high but that's just a minor flaw I think. And... the differential really works which is very cool, even if you don't really notice the difference. And guess what? Just found the Koveleski car on the bay for a good price! I will make a few detail pictures once I have it here.   |
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Post by René on Jun 19, 2020 10:37:30 GMT
American slot cars were primitive and clumsy when I was a boy and my friends and I missed that boat in favor of the vast selection of plastic model kits. Airplanes and naval vessels of any era and modern cars were my bread and butter. The smell of Testors model cement and its crustations left on fingers remain familiar decades later. I never thought to sniff glue, my imagination was mind-altering enough. One fun practice was to heat up an ordinary metal sewing pin and make a trail of bullet holes in a fighter plane. No pilots were killed, although the older models we tired of were sometimes set on fire after a modest dousing of cement. Today, graceful models enhance my daydreams and can assemble themselves according to my whims.
My brothers and I used to blow up airplain model kits with fireworks!  Your taste in models is very sophisticated Carl.  |
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Post by charleselan on Jun 19, 2020 13:23:21 GMT
I have read a lot about those Vanquished slot car models. They were pretty complex with that "differential" and i believe somewhat over scale at around 1/28th but seeing as they had a vast range it wouldn't be so much of a problem when racing with similar Vanquished cars. Exactly as you say JC, somewhat over scale and very complex both with the drive train and the 'real' chassis beneath the bodywork. I remember Vanquish MG was a split-off from Fly. Some of the product developers and designers wanted to take the level of detail and realism even a step further than what Fly was doing at the time (early 2000's). The result were these Can-Am cars, a Mirage and a Lotus 72. Opinions are devided over these cars but I love the brand just for trying to go this far. The cars are not suitable for hardcore racing as they are too heavy and the differential is too fragile. But they look great and are wonderful for a diorama set up when you take the bodywork off to see the full detail chassis and engine. With most cars the driver sits a little bit too high but that's just a minor flaw I think. And... the differential really works which is very cool, even if you don't really notice the difference. And guess what? Just found the Koveleski car on the bay for a good price! I will make a few detail pictures once I have it here. Very complex models indeed, I had failed to remember the lift off bodywork revealing the replica chassis underneath. Yet another step on from what Fly were doing. I liked the fact that Fly placed the motor in the same location as the engine in the full sized car, most slot fanatics do not from what i have read, but to me it was a brilliant idea in an attempt to make the cars more like the real thing. I hope that you like the Oscar McLaren as it really is quite striking with that graphic of the slot track running around the body shell. Back in the 1960's I used to get a monthly magazine called "Model Cars" and this used to feature a lot of slot car orientated material due to its popularity at that time. I remember a chap doing a feature on a working differential that he had made for a slot car, it was made using brass bevel gears etc, a wonderful bit of craftsmanship. You may know of the magazine through the car profile and plans that it featured each month, these are around on the internet these days, some good some not so. "Model Cars" eventually became swallowed up into "Scale Model" magazine sadly and it wasn't nearly as good, but obviously car models are not sufficient in following to sustain such a publication even back in the mid 1970's. |
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Post by mikael on Jun 19, 2020 18:47:52 GMT
A beautiful photo of ... Oscar Koveleski at Mosport Park, Ontario, 1969.
But actually, I do think it's a beautiful photo which brilliantly captures the free spirit of that time. Ten years earlier, this would have been an unlikely sight.
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Post by charleselan on Jun 19, 2020 18:57:41 GMT
Well Mikael that photo above has just about made my day, absolute perfection, and the race car isn't bad either  . |
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Post by Carl on Jun 19, 2020 22:55:16 GMT
Mikael, There are so many wonderful curves in this photo that I had to focus for several minutes to be sure it's Turn 2
-Carl
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Post by René on Jun 19, 2020 23:15:03 GMT
Did Oscar make the turn?
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Post by Carl on Jun 19, 2020 23:15:34 GMT
Chris, This 1964 photo of Pete Arundell's Lotus Cortina leading Pete Cordts in a V-8 Ford Falcon through the second apex of Turn 7 at Riverside clearly shows the Cortina well driven and at the limit to avoid being passed on the straight. This GT race was on April 26, less than 3 months before his Formula 2 accident.
-Carl 
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Post by chrisb on Jun 20, 2020 8:14:15 GMT
thanks Carl,
Mikael, a photo remotely connected to a series i never warmed to, that i thoroughly enjoyed - thank you
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Post by charleselan on Jun 20, 2020 14:46:01 GMT
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Post by charleselan on Jun 20, 2020 15:17:06 GMT
Jim Hall's Chaparral 2E at the Monterey GP with the Cox model car logo on the side scoop to the radiators. What a fabulous car that was.  |
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Post by robmarsh on Jun 20, 2020 16:53:18 GMT
That is my all time favourite Chaparral. Thanks Charles. Like you I always noticed the little Cox sticker, I thought it was so cool.
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Post by Carl on Jun 20, 2020 20:40:49 GMT
John Charles, Thanks for the great photo of a great car and driver exiting the final corner at Laguna Seca. Proving ignorance can be bliss, I normally see the Cox oval as emblematic of Chaparral Racing without making a connection to slot cars! Below is a website featuring some at steep prices. My lasting impression is that Chaparral clearly dominated Group 7 sports racing for several years, winning the United States Road Racing Championship with the 2C in 1965 and often fastest the following year in Can-Am, but the 2E, with less displacement, was down on power. After a few great years, with resources also devoted to endurance racing, Chaparral was hard-pressed to perfect its innovative designs. The 2H and 2J are best explained as acts of desperation. John Surtees deserved far better than the 2H. Gordon Murray should have known better eight years after the dust hit the fan. For me, it's a tie for most beautiful Chaparral between the 2E and 2F.
 Jim Hall in 2C at Riverside 1965 Mike Spence in 2F at Nurburgring 1967  
www.electricdreams.com/Shop/vintage-slot-cars-60s-70s-c-4/cox-c-4_179/ |
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