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Vintage Brass Rail Dragster

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6.3K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  32deuce  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Being a lover of the now dubbed "padlock motors" for many years and using them in various forms with success in local bracket racing, I recently snagged a cool Kemtron chassis kit on ebay…

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….made for the Pittman DC65 motor, the "Little Brother" of the big DC84 I've used before in a few Hot Rods.

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I was intrigued by the boss looking front rails in this chassis kit and felt I had to keep those babies exposed somehow.

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I proceeded to mock things up and then put together the front end with my own scratch drop arm & dropped, spring loaded front axle.

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My intention for this build was to create an early 1960's period slot car "rail" in 1/32 scale.
Russkit, K&B, International & a couple other manufacturers had their own rails back then so this would be my fantasy Kemtron car that they might have done, had they ventured into producing complete cars.
During mock up I squared everything and soldered the rear half together. Here are the completed components before assembly:

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….and after assembly:

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Now it was time to fit a driver. I wanted to do better than just a drivers head on top of the motor so I got to thinking about that open space between those front rails. What a great place for a cockpit! I found a full driver w/seat, as well as a steering wheel and started alterations:

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I made a steering shaft out of brass tubing, trimmed up the seat, positioned the drivers arms on the steering wheel, and got the whole mess painted & detailed. I didn't like that ugly guide flag being exposed so I soldered a nose piece together out of .032 brass stock & polished it up. Here is the final result:

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I arranged the driver & wiring so that if it pulls the front wheels there will be no restriction. We'll see.

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Equipment list for the build:
Chassis: Kemtron 1607L brass (long version)
Motor: Pittman DC65
Front wheels: ¾" dia. K&B dragster 224
Front O-rings: O'Reilly Auto parts
Rear wheels/tires: Unknown 1-3/16" dia. X 7/16"wide chrome/hard rubber
Knockoffs: Riggen
Rear axle: 2.5" X 5.40
Gears: Weldun 64 pitch - 66T / 16T
Guide: Dynamic 660 w/Classic 3335 - 6 gram collar
Driver: Fly B19

Specs:
Track width: 2.5"
Wheelbase: 4.5"
Nose to tail: 6.25"

Track test won't happen until the next 1/32 Drag race in a few months. I'll report back then if there's any interest.

Z
 
#7 ·
Very nice work.
I will interested to learn how it goes down the 1/4.

What is the performance like of the padlock motors?
I was also interested to learn about the weldun 64 pitch gears being available back in the day.

Very nice....I like the way there is only a suggestion of body work....very nice.

regards
 
D
#8 ·
Beautiful work Z - I hope that will inspire me to work on some of my dragster projects. As usual, you come up with some very innovative solutions!

Gramps, nice looking car, hope you'll finish restoring it - what kind of motor did you have in there, or plan for it?

John, the padlock, or more exactly laminated pole motors, can be surprisingly fast, although their weight can work against them. What we've found in dragsters is that they seem to give their best for pure speed at high voltages, say 24 to 36 volts, like the drag races in the 60s. These days you mostly find tracks (like Fred's new track in Burgundy here - see the drag racing thread) which have a standard 16V power supply - and reworked Mabuchis will be happier at this voltage.

Don
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
QUOTE What is the performance like of the padlock motors?

I think Don answered it very well. My fascination is that they just look cool and are different than the normal run of the mill can motors you see all the time.

The thing I also like is that in bracket racing, they seem to be VERY consistent which is great when you want to win.

We always just run 12 volts in drags, just like any other track. The motors do fine.

Thanks for your comments, it's always cool!

Z
 
#12 ·
After running in an event in the spring and finishing top5 I could see the car would be consistent. I basically did more trueing of the rear tires and on 8-25-10 SUCCESS!!!

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runs on the 1/32 scale 1/8 mile:

Qualifying-
0.85
0.87

The race-
0.83 win
0.81 win
0.81 win
0.82 win
0.81 win

Z
 
D
#15 ·
Excellent Mike!

One question I forgot to ask earlier: is the motor strictly stock or did you do anything to it? And is it 6V or 12V?

How do scratch times compare to other cars, and what do people run in this category? Looks like that would give a 1.5s ETA or so for the 1/4 mile, which is very good.

Don
 
#16 ·
Hi Don,

Motor is stock and 6V but, NOT the ball bearing version.

This is always bracket racing so you see about anything you can imagine and times are all over the place. We had one guy running over 3 seconds and he got second place. That makes it tough on the lights when you're sitting there waiting, chomping at the bit. It was one of those good nights for me cutting lights which is unusual.

The competition is very tough, especially with the younger guys.

Thanks,

Z
 
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