SLOT RACING HISTORY

Club racing cars from the 1960s - Paul Rogers' Cars

What did slot cars look like in the '60s.  Here's some examples Paul Rogers who was a leading light of the Leicester club in the '60s.  He was a member of the Leicester team that won the National club team championship in 1969. Paul has still got some of his cars from the mid 60's.  They all have balsa wood bodies carved by Paul.  I've arranged them in order to give some idea of the changes to motors and chassis design in 1/32 cars during that period.

Thanks to Andy Smith who met Paul and took the photos in 2003.  Sadly Paul has since passed away.

Chris Frost

Copyright ©  2003 C.Frost  updated 2021 The photographs are copyright A.Smith      All rights reserved

A BRM type 25 powered by an MRRC 3 pole motor with steering unit.

A Mercedes W154 powered by an MRRC 3 pole motor.  This motor has double pole pieces, a tweek which improved the magnetic field round the armature. The much longer wheelbase of the Mercedes no doubt made it less twitchy to drive in corners.  This is quite similar to the car with which Ken Stokes won the Nationals in 1964.

A Ferrari 330LM powered by a Pitman motor.  The attention to body detail is impressive - even down to the exhaust pipes under the car.  The Pitman was of similar layout to the MRRC 3 pole, but was generally believed to perform better (and cost a lot more!)  

A "Tank" Bugatti type 32 Grand Prix car (yes it is a GP car, they raced with a mechanic on board in 1923).  This car is powered by a Rickochet 1 and has a drop arm.  With an exceptionally short wheelbase,  this car must have needed considerable driving skill!  The early can type motors lacked brakes when compared with the MRRC and Pitman open frame motors,.  This type of Rickochet had strong magnets (for the time) so it provided reasonable brakes.

A Dodge Charger with Mabuchi 16d power.  The chassis has rather more brass than the earlier cars. In those days many competitors rewound their 16ds -  the brush gear would tolerate rather more current than the Rickochets.

When forming the new Leicester club Andy Smith met Paul, and was very interested to see (and photograph) these cars.  Thanks to Paul and Andy for their help in producing this page.