Interesting question.... no pictures here, but look at a couple of my cars in the scatchbuilt.com site....
Unfortunately, the answer to your question about the ideal shape for a modern no-holds bar slot car is the current wing car - you just can't get any more efficient than that!
There were actually two currents to the Thingie trend - one, and here you're thinking of the Manta Ray in its lessor form, or the Testor Marauder or BZ Banshee in better form, is the "dream car", or an exercise in style to show what a real car could look like if designed by the perpetual cool teenager. You would include the Cucuracha and most other commercially made thingies in this category. Early on this meant huge rear tires, spaced way out.... later, the tires shrunk, but they stayed way out.
The other trend, which started way back in the Round The Pole era, is, do whatever works! ie, low, wide and nothing to get in the way, then aerodynamic devices once speeds were high enough. Here, you're probably thinking of the Choti type bodies from Northern California, being raced when all the SoCal racers you saw in the magazines were still racing good-looking semi-scale bodies. These were already aerodynamic devices, with super-light frames, super-wide back tires and tiny front o-rings. The Choti bodies still have a little style to them, but very soon the wing car bodies lost any aesthetic sense at all... There were also the Shinoda bodies from Detroit way, done by the automotive designer, and these were sort of the same idea, but much nicer looking....
All thingies, but very different... and if I'm not mistaken, a very American phenomenon... Of course, curiously enough, thingies seem to be accepted very early on as standard race cars in Italy and Switzerland, right Edo? the period photos I've seen are dominated by Asps and chopped Cucs, followed by their own home-grown Mini Dream Cars - beautiful beasts!
Don
Unfortunately, the answer to your question about the ideal shape for a modern no-holds bar slot car is the current wing car - you just can't get any more efficient than that!
There were actually two currents to the Thingie trend - one, and here you're thinking of the Manta Ray in its lessor form, or the Testor Marauder or BZ Banshee in better form, is the "dream car", or an exercise in style to show what a real car could look like if designed by the perpetual cool teenager. You would include the Cucuracha and most other commercially made thingies in this category. Early on this meant huge rear tires, spaced way out.... later, the tires shrunk, but they stayed way out.
The other trend, which started way back in the Round The Pole era, is, do whatever works! ie, low, wide and nothing to get in the way, then aerodynamic devices once speeds were high enough. Here, you're probably thinking of the Choti type bodies from Northern California, being raced when all the SoCal racers you saw in the magazines were still racing good-looking semi-scale bodies. These were already aerodynamic devices, with super-light frames, super-wide back tires and tiny front o-rings. The Choti bodies still have a little style to them, but very soon the wing car bodies lost any aesthetic sense at all... There were also the Shinoda bodies from Detroit way, done by the automotive designer, and these were sort of the same idea, but much nicer looking....
All thingies, but very different... and if I'm not mistaken, a very American phenomenon... Of course, curiously enough, thingies seem to be accepted very early on as standard race cars in Italy and Switzerland, right Edo? the period photos I've seen are dominated by Asps and chopped Cucs, followed by their own home-grown Mini Dream Cars - beautiful beasts!
Don
