[superhornets]

Hi Guys
oddly enough we were just talking about these on another thread recently when lo and behold one appears on Ebay an d i was lucky enough to win it
Its a 4 wd twin micro perm model of a cooper maserati not unlike the one that won the first ECRA sports championship in 1964 (of course i was hoping it might be the very one but predictably it wasn,t )it is however a fairly honest example of this genre of car
it has a vac formed body (possibly GT models ) twin micro perms driving the axles through 3:1 mrrc brass bevels
the wheels and axles are super shells threaded and the front tyres are super shells donut slicks the rear tyres are mrrc possibly ribbed although they are bit hard and worn
Cant tell if the motors are rewound but they may be as it runs lustily although i havn;t track tested it yet
What did surprise me was the weight which is augmented by two large lumps of lead either side of the motors and two thin peices of lead glued to the inside of the sills on the body
I would imagine the motors must be rewound to lug all that weight round
The chassis is 4 pieces of brass tube ,2 at the bottom and two at the top these are soldered to the 4 axle bearings ,the motors appear to be sellotaped in ! not a so;lution i would have used but the gears are still in mesh 45 years later
Anyway here she is

cheers tony

 

[howmet tx]

Ahhh. I can smell it!
Wonderful!

 

[dragracer]

well done john and i promise i did not bid on this and cost you money...the sellotape put me off?
a real period piece...can you tell me what height of racing numbers is so i can get some printed?
oh and i have just won these shells:BRM 1962/3 GP car possibly K&b 1/32 and Maserati Birdcage Clear Plastic body sutable for 1/24 scale slot car.
both v cheap and only me bidding...any good to you??

i love that FWD damn!

 

[dragracer]

correction of previous post...ken

well done tony and i promise i did not bid on this and cost you money...the sellotape put me off?
a real period piece...can you tell me what height of racing numbers is so i can get some printed?

oh and john i have just won these shells:BRM 1962/3 GP car possibly K&b 1/32 and Maserati Birdcage Clear Plastic body sutable for 1/24 scale slot car.
both v cheap and only me bidding...any good to you??

i love that FWD damn!

 

[dgersh]

Nice find Tony! You were lucky I didn't spot this one... actually I already have one of the twin-miniperms, but in mine the two motors barely turn over, whether rewound or not.

Seems once they were rewound - and taped in - they would have been hard to maintain and/or fix...

Don

PS: exactly what body is that?

 

[gasowder]

Sellotape was the Southern guys favoured method of holding the milliperms into the 4 tube chassis.
Think the Northern way (Dave Lord) was to solder (quickly

) to the metal band retaining the brush holder.
Ralph has Nev Hintons twin milliperm Alfa Bimotore in original condition. Think he gave it a run at one of Macs Early Bird meetings a few years back.
Will have to try & get some pictures.
Eddie

 

[superhornets]

hi eddie
the one that ralph owns gets a picture in my book and i was lucky enough to have drive of it at early birds a few years ago
i have to say it was really good ,bearing in mind the boots were 40 years old
i am pretty sure that with some decent modern rubber on it i could have made the top ten quite easily
Re the body a trawl thro the GT models adverts in model cars indicates that GT did a cooper maser by the end of 1966 so it could be this one
strange thing is it looks quite big ,almost a handling style body which wern;t really around then

cheers tony

 

[TSRF]

A real Cooper Monaco is my life's remaining dream...

 

[ArJayAytch]

Ah it was you who was prepared to pay more for it than me then Tony!

What surprised me was the seller's assertion that he'd built it in 1971. I know memory plays tricks after 40 plus years, but surely it would have been from a good five years earlier. The advances made between, say, 1965 and 1971 could almost be measured in light years whereas these days a mid-2000s car can still be pedalled along quite satisfactorily at club level (well, that's my excuse for running cheap Demons and International 32s!)

Good to see you taking on the kids at the BSCRA demo track at Gaydon, Tony.

Get along to Luton at Christmas and I'll unearth my Mura Group 20 powered lorries again!

Cheers,

Richard.

 

[superhornets]

Hi Richard
Yes It is a bit odd ,whenever I get one of these old motors from e bay I ale#ways ask the question as to the provenance of the car
What he told me was that he bought a scalextric set second hand for his kids around 1973 and this was included in the deal ,hence his assrtion that it was built in the 70s ,wheras in fact he knew didly squat about its provenance
I agree with you its from the mid 60s
Re the drive at gaydon ,I didn,t cover my self in glory being 4 laps off the pace ,but I noticed that the car i was using blew up in the next race .Still it was nice to give the old thumb some exercise again.

Cheers tony