[dgersh]

Gaincell,

All depends on what kind of track you'll be running on! If it's anything but wood, that 707 is going to be way too powerful!

Silicone should work well on most wood tracks - if they're clean. If people are running glue you might have to go to a modern foam type tire, with some "tire traction" additive.

Champion used a kind of posi-lock system on plain axles, not threaded... very hard to find these, but other kinds of silicone tires can be found on ebay. (AJs the most common)

If you don't mind wild colors, the Candies work best, but very hard to find in basic black.

There are also Ortman and other urethane tires that could work on some types of surfaces, and I believe a company called Indy Grips makes replacement silicone tires, but maybe not for these wheels. NSR might work as well and they do a vintage line.

Depends where you are too, US? UK? as to which dealers are closest.

Don

 

[dgersh]

Nope Rob, that's 1/24 scale, which was pretty much all Champion did at the time. The 707BB was their top of the line motor until the 16D and 26D models began really taking over in 66-67.

A 1-1/8 x 1/2" tire would be pretty standard for these models, and a lot of the AJs silicones are this size. That's about the size of the wider Monogram rears too, as well as a lot of other models.

Champion made special sets, with their own silicone tires molded on posi-loc hubs and vanadium axles - over 3 bucks at the time, definitely high end!

Not sure what Corvette body that would be, or if it's an original Champion. Probably a Grand Sport, since the chassis was pretty wide!

Any chance of a photo?

Don

 

[dgersh]

Ah yes, the Champion cars with the rewinds were something like $15 to $20 - way beyond my budget as well!

And a couple of them did do a sort of demonstration endurance run for about 80 hours, with the motors running perfectly all the time - so maybe you have one of those cars!

Sounds like the guy definitely changed out the original tires for candies and a threaded axle, which should actually simplify things for changing wheels - but the Candies often hold up very well, even 45 years later...

Don't think too many tracks in the US run vintage events, but they would welcome you to run the car I'm sure! And just wait till those kids see a good old-fashioned wheelie!

Don

 

[dgersh]

If the power supply is clean, the motor might survive, but the risk is always there. The Champion motors were very solid in fact.

No problem posting pix here, there's a tutorial somewhere, but bascially you have to host them somewhere like Photobucket, then click on the "Insert Image" icon above and paste the URL address from that site into the box. Photos should be reduced to no more than 800 pixels wide too...

Is your Cox controller the variable one? If so, it would probably run the motor at 5 ohms - but you're right, the modern controllers are a lot better, and some of the Parma economy models are pretty cheap (basically just updated Russkit trigger finger types!). I don't know about you, but when I started racing again, I just couldn't get used to using my thumb again - tried a few vintage controllers, but then went totally trigger-finger, and have gone through a bunch of them since, including a few electronic models!

Don

 

[dgersh]

?? The rear wheels definitely look like Candies to me... Not sure how to tell about the gear; I had actually forgotten about the Williams gears, but I think they were similar black plastic to the Cox types...

Don

 

[dgersh]

Show us photos of the Porsche! Is it one of the 36D sidewinder cars or a more recent inline with 26D?

Unfortunately, a lot of people appreciate the old Champion cars, judging by the prices on ebay... and there are almost none still in the box, since these were all bought to be raced right away!

Don

 

[dgersh]

Thanks Joel, always nice to see the pix.

I can't imagine Champion would do something like that if it didn't work... still, I never liked the collets, whether on K&B, MRRC or anywhere else. It wasn't so much staying on, but I always had trouble removed them even when the nut is loosened!

Don

 

[dgersh]

There are plenty of pinions for the 36D floating around - and they're not 3/32", but slightly undersize at .091" (metric, maybe 2.3 or something like that) - if you tried a 3/32 pinion, as used on all the Pittman and other US made motors, they would definitely be floating around!

Don