Grot chassis ??

3246 Views 32 Replies 16 Participants Last post by merkit the grof, Jul 4, 2012

merkit the grof

Discussion Starter · Jun 11, 2012

Here is yet another strange (to me anyway) chassis from the late 70s, early 80s.
Considering I prefer slot stuff from the early 60s, I am getting rather fond of those signed chassis from the later period of vintage slot,
even though, to me eyes, these are the people who actuallly killed the hobby for about 30 years.

Here the latest find.

I can fix most of the paintwork; but, what was written on the side??? "THIS CAR WAS MADE ?????????????"
If anyone knows, please let me know. (In the meantime, I shall concentrate in fixing the black paint)

And here is the chassis

As ever: If anyone can add any information, they will be most welcome.

Joel

PS: Tony: If you have a second edition of your book, can you please include a listing of the various British chassis/motor builders (we know plenty about the US guys, but so little about the UK builders).

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superhornets

· #2 · Jun 12, 2012

Hi Joel
to be quite fair there wern,t too many professional chassi builders around in the 60s a nd 70s ,perhaps we should start a thread and see what people will remember
When i get 5 minutes i,ll sit down and write a list of the ones i know and we,ll see what emerges
However i will say that "grot " would not have been one of the names on my list as i,ve never heard of it
However did we not have a thread on larry ward earlier ,seems to emanate from some where in east anglia ,did we not ascertain that Ant haekes painted some of his bodies or are the old grey cells plating me up again

Cheers tony

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superhornets

· #17 · Jun 17, 2012

Hi guys
My book states that ian fisher invented the flexiboard in 1977 so it must be true
this dates the chassis after that ,how long after is debateable but the c can motor probably means late 70s early 80s
I saw ian at the weekend ,and mentioned grot chassis to him ,and guess what ?
He,d never heard of them either
I,ll get that list together later thisweek and that shouldreally start ther debate

Cheers tony

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superhornets

· #21 · Jun 18, 2012

Hi Guys
i,ve done a file check on the old grey matter over the weekend and have come up with few manufacturers of slot racing chassis .I will say straight away that this is not an all embracing list as i, am sure there are some i,ve forgotten or have never heard of(like grot) but hopefully it will generate some debate
THe trend of commercially available chassis didin,t really become an issue until the late 60s and the adventof can motors
previous to that other than the major manufacturers (revell,monogram cox russkitetc )most of the suppliers provided kits of parts you could build yourself
The manufactures in the list were only ever cottage industries and all their wares were hand built
The first I remember was a guys called BOB REED from portsmouth who sold jail door type chassis mainly inlines
More succesful was john veaseys Glenn components .John was a very innovative slot racer and was responsible for getting us to develop 13uo powered slot cars ,for a period of time in 1967/68 johns RTR cars were the ones to have and in 1968 rick coleman won a coouple of national championships using these cars
Another gent who built chassis for sale was Phil tunbridge who based his slot car activities round nordic and his chassis were chrome plated which often led to failure of ther soldered joints ,
The first of the really big hitters was stuart wyatts "TEAm Bog ".Stuart was an eccentric genius who had several money making projects of which Bog was one
based at Sarratt stuart knocked out 100s if not thousands of chassis over a period of 3/4 years especially in the Formula 32 class.Stuart ran a works team in which doug paxman was the lead driver until he retired and myself and dick smith took over the driver duties .They were quite successful and won several open meets
Later in the 70s two manufacturers based around the haydon club took up the reins
Ian jensens "OLD PECULIAR" was one
Ian was an UBER succesful slot racer and builder and left work to set up this business ,the chassis were all numbered and had engraved on them a spider dangling from a web ,.Again these were top products and allowed drivers that didn,thave the building skills to win races
The second was HB products who basically were slot car vendors that sold a variety of hardware including chassis
Why HB ,well HB were the initials of the 2 partners tony Hough and ross Brawn who some of you may have heard of as a result of his design prowess in full size racers
The other big producer in the 70s was Mike goddards MG products .Mike was based in daventry and provided a variety of engineering services for slot racers ,ie comm trues etc ,His chassis designs were usually 2.1/2 rail piano wire angle winders again a successful chassis which won big meets
in the late 70s Phil Firth of leeds started selling his chassi designs which had enabled him to win a couple of national championships
Bigger still was Dave harveys 1-0-1 products .Based in north kent, daves team including his cousin mike harvey and tony mills built hundreds of extremely fast chassis .Dave won nine national championships in the 80s using this kit ,and made a comeback recently winning another this year

We now come to the era of wire drawn and lazer cut schassis which are currently the way to go ,but I think that needs to be the subject of another thread

hope that will generate a bit of comment

Cheers tony

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superhornets

· #23 · Jun 18, 2012

Hi
Yes thats true ,not sure if Chas made any other complete chassis ,but there were a number of folk that just made chassis for F32 ,Chuck palmer ,Paul turner and HB and MG modles also did special F32 chassis
None were as succesful as SCD or indeed Team bog.

cheers tony

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superhornets

· #25 · Jun 19, 2012

Hi John
Yes ,i,ve heard of him and seem to remember that he built a few chassi for model cars magazine for articles that were published
Not aware of the quality of his work
Anyway here are a few others that sliiped under the radar ,I noticed that Eltham models provided a variety of 1/32 chassis as a result of an advert ina 1969 model cars magazine
again i dont remember them but anything form eltham m,odels in those days would have dialled into the large quantityof expertise in south london ,ian and ray skilling ,rog willimott etc

Now an extremely rare one team DB that twinkled for a short period during the late 60s ,based in newcastle, the cars were built and marketed by Rob Bland,Mike carr and my old mate gerry fitzsimmons based mainly on designs by the anglo American Phil enos . didn,t stay manufactured for long

Cheers tony

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superhornets

· #27 · Jun 19, 2012

Hi John
cant be sure ,but i very much doubt it
The DB trio were all geordies ,and I dont think mike "light "carr was,didn,t he come from the midlands ?

Cheers tony

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superhornets

· #30 · Jun 20, 2012

Hi Rob
Yes thats correct ,tim ryan, geoff mitchell and richard cryer did sell their chassis and even RTR cars although i dont think these were in very large numbers ,but should be included in the list
As far as i am aware neither SCd or betta/ classic sold complete chassis before the days of the steels chassis
certainly SCD sold chassi kits ,(pre cut lumps of brass and brackets and things )again i think charlike fitz sold u brackets and stuff like that but not complete chassis

cheers tony

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superhornets

· #32 · Jul 3, 2012

Hi Guys
Well there we are another mystery solved ,well done chris ,I am sure there are a few more out there that we havn,t covered yet who knows?
Cheers tony

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