[superhornets]

Hi Guys
i thought I,d share these with you .I got them from e bay last week and i would think they were made in the late50s early 60s apparently by a gentleman called brian from peterborough who worked for perkins engineering
Brian are you out there?
Trouble is now i,ve got them what should I do with them. I am inclined to try and finish the model but dont really know what motor i should use or what sort of chassis to join the front to the back

This is the independant front suspension by equal length double wishbones ,the two bits of wire out of the back are actaully torsion bars which need to be anchored to the chassis .It also has working steering although the guide and track rod are not provided

This shows the bits ,the IFS and diferential came with most of a merit lancia ferrari

Now the piece de resistance a working differential that appears to be made from 3 sets of ELDI crown wheels and pinions and it really works .unfortunately the drive shafts are 2mm rather than 3/32 which will make the wheels difficult to fit

It also had some wheels which look like modified merit wheels
They are however fitted with rubber tyres hard as iron but the sidewalls decorated with the logo tri ang road speed?

any suggestions

cheers tony

 

[Yazoo]

Hi Tony. Mike Thomson who races at Wellingborough and lives near Peterborough may be able to help you re this. I now he was involved with the Peterborough Club many years ago. He is Mike T on the forum. Mike

 

[conti_rowland]

Personally i'd be loathe to touch it but that's the collector in me speaking.

I guess the spirit of what this chap was doing is in tge experiment at which point it should ibdeed be completed....

I love it!!!

Andi

 

[tomwysom]

Hello Tony,

Triang Roadspeed were the tyres used on parts of those old 1/24 rail cars that I got. See here:

You'll probably have to use some old train motor to be authentic. A Pittman DC60 perhaps, or just an X04.

Nice find!

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Mike T]

Hi Tony,
Fascinating find you've got there, amazing what ideas the early slot racers tried out.

In the mid/late sixties there were two clubs in Peterborough, an independent club in the city and the Perkins club. Eventually they combined but finally died out due to lack of premises in '71. I knew most of the guys that raced at both clubs and am still in touch with a few of them, but can't remember anyone called Brian, I'll make a few enquiries. If this was made in the late 50's/early 60's maybe this was done purely as a modelling exercise as, from what I know the first slot car club wasn't around till about '64/'65. However, looking at that front suspension, it does look as if there's a hole for a guide, maybe an MRRC type?

If you have any further info, let me know and I'll see what I can find out.

Regards,
Mike T

 

[superhornets]

Hi Mike
The guy who sold me these said the guys name was brian from peterboro and he had some connection with perkins diesel
so i guess we have to assume that if he was associated with perkins he would probably have belonged to that club
I would think it could have been built any time before about 1965 as ELDI gears were still in plentiful supply then then
On the differential the driven gear is off to one side so I think the motor would need to lay assymetrivally in the chassis unless he proposed an inline angle winder with the motor lying diagonally accross the centreline
I think it could do with a sort of space frame to connect the two ends together and maybe a k.s of some sort to drive it .
any way if you do manage to track down the elusive brian it would be interesting to get some feedback from him

Cheers tony

 

[dgersh]

Great stuff Tony, thanks for sharing.

I would be inclined to say go ahead and restore it, but it doesn't look all that easy... not sure how the motor is supposed to be mounted to the back for instance. Do you think it was ever finished at one time, and actually ran, or is just another unfinished project? If you need an old Pittman, be glad to help you there!

Tom, thanks for the picture of the wheel - I've got a few of these on my old Merit rail/slot conversionsas well. Must have been a common option for the 1/24 brigade.

Don

 

[superhornets]

hi don
the fact that the drive shaft from the motor will need to be over to one side of the chasisstends to indicate that the motor will need to be offset or the motor will need to be assymetric
now i am sure i have seen pittmans that have that arrangement ,the ones that look like a padlock .It could be installed such that it lays in the chassis on its side with the output shaft over to the off side of the chassis to pick up with the driven crown wheel

tom
those tyres are the same as the ones that came with this box of bits ans as don says they may have been stasndard ware for 1/'24 railcars although what triang made them for originally i dont know
but they aren,t half hard and look like they wouldn,t provide a lot of grip ,perhaps they are just old

cheers tony

 

[dgersh]

Right Tony... now that I think of it, a lot of the 1/24 Strombecker/Merit conversions I've seen have offset motors to allow room for a driver in the cockpit.. The big Pittman laminated pole motors are by definition offet when you lay them on their sides, but probably too big for something like this.

Don

PS: for instance, a Strombecker Scarab conversion:

 

[comagramps]

Afternoon
Very nice especially the front section. Here are mine although i was going to use the K&B steering unit. CG

 

[Charles*Seattle]

Hi

This is great stuff. I would go ahead and complete the car. If it had been completed then I think the issue of touching it would be different. But I think of what you have as a project that is still waiting to be completed. Would love to see the pictures as you move forward.

all my very best,

Charles