[Rob J]

Among my old Airfix parts are a Hi-Speed Cooper body kit (the T53, I believe) and two wheel assembly kits, but the latter are both for the earlier versions that used the cube motor.
Would anyone like an exchange of parts, one way or the other?
They're quite nice wheels, authentic eight-spoke, one set plain green plastic and the other "chromed".
The body is the same except for the motor and axle mounts.
Alternatively, I have a Hi-Speed Ferrari 156 body kit that I could part with. I have no wheel assemblies for it and I have two Super Shells bodies that may be easier to use. The Airfix kit has exhausts and a driver's head, though the w'screen may be missing.
All came in kit packs and are unused.
Rob J

later edit: Sorry. I suppose this should have gone in the Swap Shop thread. Perhaps a moderator could move or delete it. RJ

 

[Rob J]

The search is over. Another SlotForum member is exchanging Airfix Cooper bodies with me. Thanks, Howard.

To make this thread perhaps a little useful to anyone looking from now on, I'll mention that there seem to have been three Airfix Hi-Speed motors. If you're thinking of putting parts together, be aware that the mounts changed too.
They seem to have begun as Johnson 111s -- a little different from the versions that Scalex later adopted. The motor had a large grooved front bearing cap, so the front mounting in the body was fairly wide. This was used on cars like the Maserati 250F and Vanwall, the 1.5-litre Lotus, Cooper and sharknose Ferrari (replacing the cube motors and old "clamshell" bodies), and the HS versions of a few early three-litre cars including the Eagle and probably the Honda.
However, when the mid-late 1970s cars like the McLaren M23, Williams FW07 and Lotus 79 were produced, they had Scalex-type Johnson 111s with just the small bearing cap at the front and a matching small mounting aperture in the body. The old MRRC Novi was resurrected in this form, and the so-called BRM Plus and Matra Plus (ugly revamps of 1960s cars) probably had the same motor.
Later, some HS cars were fitted with modern small can motors and adaptor pieces for mounting. I don't know if that was a factory production run. A few are usually available in this form as bagged kits for complete cars at scaleslotspares.com .
Rob J

 

[Rob J]

Yes; that's the one, TSRF.
Looking a little more carefully at the Coopers than I did earlier, the Airfix could be used as a 2.5 or 1.5-litre model. The T53 was the 1960 championship-winning car with the 2.5-litre four-cylinder Climax FPF, and that's how it's best remembered. However, it was then the "customer" car for private entrants in 1961 with a variety of 1.5-litre engines. The Yeoman Credit cars were presumably T53s. The main works car in 1961 was the T55 with 1.5-litre FPFs. I don't have a photo but the Airfix could probably be used for that too.
The V8s, from the T58 on, were different, especially at the rear, where the air intake hump was in the centre. One or two SlotForum members have modified the Airfix to model the 1962 cars, but it must need some skill.

By the way, was the Johnson motor on the early Hi-Speeds used in other slot-cars? And does it have a distinct type number or description, or do we just call it a 111? It's the same externally as the familiar 111 but with a wider front bearing cap or flange. The two or three that I have (admittedly bought separately from the bodies) are just marked "JOHNSON HONG KONG".
Rob J

 

[Rob J]

Here at last is my Airfix Cooper clamshell, assembled from parts, some from an exchange with Towboater on the other side of the Pacific, along with two other old Airfixes of different generations (in slot-car terms).
The Cooper is the early twin-peg version, using axle assemblies 5047/C and rear 5046/C.
I've tried to make it something like the T53 that Bruce McLaren drove in 1960. I sprayed the shell with a dark green auto acrylic, painted the wheels and gave the original terracotta-warrior driver one new arm. To help position him in the cockpit, I glued the seat to the upper body instead of the floorpan.
There apparently wasn't a radiator grille among the trim parts, and I didn't think of it until I'd assembled everything and applied the decals over the seam. Maybe another day.
The numbers and roundels are Patto's peel and stick, from a sheet reduced to 7/8 of his standard 1/32 size. (He does reduction on request.)
The result is not as smoothly liveried (or as fast) as a modern Scalextric RTR, but it's more satisfying.

The Airfix Vanwall in the photo, a Hi-Speed with a Johnson can, was assembled from parts back in the 1970s, when I simply gave it a few stick-on numbers.
I've now tried to make it look like the car in which Tony Brooks won the 1958 German GP. The wheels are right for that stage of the season - wires on the front again after the new alloys upset the handling - and I shortened the exhaust pipe. The parts I had didn't include the mirror pods and I had to make them up. I mean fabricate them, of course. Obviously it needs a pair of "Vanwall" decals, but not a coloured nose for that race.
The Maserati 250F is an RTR Mk II with a blade guide. Like the Cooper, it has a cube motor but with an integral metal axle bracket. It's as it was from the box, except for a little red and black paint, race numbers to match Harry Schell's when he finished third in the 1957 Pescara GP, and the driver figure straightened from its odd slant. I was tempted to replace the driver and steering wheel with something more realistic, but decided to keep the model fairly original (even the plated exhaust).
So, here we have three types of Airfixes with three styles of driver. On the Vanwall I painted a pair of arms but may do something better.

These three can line up against other elderly versions of 2.5-litre cars - another Airfix Maserati, a Scalex C87 Vanwall, a Scalex Lotus 16, two VIP Coopers and a VIP Lotus 18 - though most need some or a lot of work. No contemporary Ferraris or BRMs in my stable, unfortunately.
The other Airfix 250F is a Hi-Speed body that I fitted 40 years ago with an MRRC five-pole open-frame, and now I hope to make it look something like a Fangio car.
Rob J