More Fun and Games...

[strummer57]

I just won this little auction group for a 10-spot:

s-l1600.jpg

Is this a Strombecker Lotus 40?

Strombecker car....jpg

It appears to have the same chassis as this one Chris posted earlier in the week:

Strombecker-Dino-07.jpg

...which is the only reason I noticed/bought it in the first place.

I think the XKE is probably toast, but my interest is in the green car; expect questions when this arrives... :)

Mark in Oregon

[chrisguyw]

Hi Mark, not a bad score for $10.

The Jag appears to be missing a few body parts, which you may be able to find on epay, or, these bodies do show up fairly regularly, and are inexpensive. The chassis is one of the earlier "train motor" chassis', and with some work it can run OK, but, it looks like you have enough parts to make a second aluminum/plastic chassis which will perform much better. Lots of folks produce repro tires, so, that will not be an issue.

The Lotus is a "30" not a "40" and the chassis appears to be in fairly good shape, so, with a bit of work ,should run just fine.......as with the Jag, tires are easy to find.

Keep your eye out for an all brass Strombecker chassis,.....these are by far the best chassis that Strombecker produced.

Cheers
Chris Walker

Attached is a shot of a Strommie Lotus 30 that I did a few years back........It does have the brass chassis, and aftermarket wheels and Lotus "wobbly" wheel inserts, which although I know you don't like yellow ;) , are correct for the car :D

[strummer57]

[slothead]

Strombecker race sets from Montgomery Ward was what got me into slot car racing in the early 60s. I get the joy of seeing things from the past that created wonderful memories. I had most of the stuff in these and other photos and have no idea what became of it all. When cleaning out my parents' house years ago I only found a few things in the attic - a transformer and some car bodies (Cox Ford GT40).

The Ford J car shown in the auction lot photo above was one of my favorite cars. Mine was yellow and I think had a combo plastic and metal chassis. It wasn't as fast as the Cox GT40, probably because it didn't have the fat rear slicks the GT40 had, but I loved the look of it.

I don't remember what Strombecker cars cost new back in the 60s but I think I paid $20 for the Cox Ford GT40 kit. I had to do a ton of chores to earn that amount of money back then and really treasured that car. But, my point is if those Strombecker cars with plastic chassis and train motors cost around $10 back then, by comparison we are blessed to have the selection we have today, with great quality, for the prices we can get them. I remember postage stamps being 1 or 2 cents. Gas was 28.9 cents a gallon. A new full sized car cost 2 - 3 thousand dollars. A house I once lived in cost $16K in 1967, sold for nearly $200K a few years ago. If those same levels of inflation applied to slot cars a cheap RTR car today would cost at least $100.

Lastly, I've been thinking about making a replica of Fireball Robert's 1962 Daytona winning #22 Pontiac Catalina and remember once having that body from Strombecker. If anyone has one I'd like to know what the wheelbase and track are, and if they are comparable scale wise with versions of 60's cars from Monogram, Carrera or Pioneer. My fear is the body would be too small to fit in with the classic NASCARs from the 60's available in recent years.

[strummer57]

[chrisguyw]

Mark, You could try the "Buy/Sell/Trade" section on this forum for the Lotus windshield and body mount pins/plugs,...someone may have some spares. Or, you can contact Ed at EJS's hobbies, (he likely could find some pins,not sure about the windshield).....lastly, keep looking on epay.

Cheers
Chris Walker

PS This is what the Strombecker Ford J car looks like......It appears yours is missing the front end ;)

[slothead]

I didn't notice before that the J car was missing the front of the body. While my habit has been to buy really nice looking RTR replicas of cars from the 60's - 70's and just racing them, now that I've spent a lot of time this summer building Mercury Cyclone bodies and mounting them on Pioneer chassis, I guess I could get into restoring a Strombecker car. But, as noted in my prior post I have concerns about it being a match size-wise and if such a car ever did make it onto the starting grid of my Le Mans series I think it would end up being the ugly duckling next to many Fly and Scalextric replicas.

Also I just did some research on the J car and learned Ken miles was killed during a test session in which it became unstable at high speed and the unique frame design failed during the subsequent crash. That leaves the Pontiac Catalina as the vintage body of most interest to me.

[strummer57]

A bit of an update here...

This lot arrived today, so I straightaway dove into seeing if anything was salvageable. Remember, I only paid 10 bucks for this, so I really had little to lose...

Everything was extremely filthy, with lots and lots of hair wound around axles and the like.

After an initial inventory and cleaning, I got all (3) motors running. Mr. Chris Walker was correct in a different thread: the Strombecker "hemi" is indeed a very nice motor. Both of those are super smooth and quiet; the open-frame: not so much, but it runs fine.

Here is where we stand chassis wise:

Of course, all the tires where shot and I have no tires of the type that fit the wheels (with the raised center) of the Strombecker line; until I checked one of my much newer Scalextric cars and lo and behold, they show that same style, so I took a couple off just to be able to run this for the time being. This mechanism is really nice; whisper quiet.

unnamed.jpg

I don't much care for the press-on wheels; you can't readily take off the rear axle, due to those press-ons. And although the blue "tabs" that hold the body in place are kind of convenient, I think I may look into getting some threaded inserts for the posts so I can use screws...

There may be enough parts to make a second car with the brass frame, although there are no "tabs" for that, and it appears you need one to connect the metal back-half with the plastic front half. Maybe some day I'll hit upon some more.

The Lotus body, although missing the windscreen and roll-bar, is in pretty good shape; a few minor scratches here and there. I will be following "Fitzy's" method of cleaning, waxing etc., as he did such a terrific job on his Aurora Mustang. :clap:

The older XKE is pretty much as I figured; not much good there, other than the plastic frame, pick-up shoe and the motor. Because those can "hemis" run so well, I can't imagine being very satisfied with the performance of that old open-frame job.

The only thing salvageable off that partial J-Car is the driver's head, which will probably come in handy some day.

Once again, I apologize for running on, but if you remember I did warn you! :D

Mark in Oregon