Which car in any category , do you think has the best aerodynamic body ?

Don, you don't think that Classic may have been one of their biggest advertisers? I would think the Bandits would easily have been better runners than the 36D Viper. Most any "best of" decisions come down to what type of track, what type of cars work best on that test track and other factors including whether it is open wheel design or a full fendered car. Buying ads in the magazine probably also help.

Remember the MPC Dynocharger was advertised as the fastest production slot car, as was the K&B Blue Monster. There were several motors advertised tobe the fastest production motors.

I never figured there was any validity to any "best" item. It seemed like every slot car tested by the magazines got positive reviews. That is ok, advertisers made the magazines possible and they have helped us save and learn th history of that period.

That's exactly the point Matt: The R&C article was the only review that included actual lap and drag times, which theoretically don't lie.

Agree that all the other reviews were necessarily positive, to not offend advertisers, but this one really seems fair.

They also kept the cars stock and explained certain shortcomings in the notes: Russkit and Rannalli were geared for shorter tracks, for instance, and for the MPC Dyn-O-Charger, they said the same thing as everybody else: "well, maybe it is really the world's fastest production car, but the amps just weren't on tap for the car to really show its stuff.

Also, remember that the mag was dated January 66, which means that the tests were done at least 2 and probably 3 or more months earlier - before the Bandit and a lot of other cars were released. This was really the first big wave of RTR cars, which was probably the reason for the article.

R&C had a lot of slot car advertising for 2 years or so, but don't think that Classic advertised especially in R&C; they were big advertisers in Model Car & Track, also California based.

Don

Not to take anything away from Hall as I read he was playing with under body shape also.
Credit is a funny thing.
Found this also... Lola hmmmm

The Chaparral 2K is an open-wheel racing car chassis, designed and built by Lola Cars that competed in the CART open-wheel racing series, for competition in the 1979 IndyCar season, and competed until 1981. It famously won the 1980 Indianapolis 500, being driven by Johnny Rutherford.


The 2K was a Formula One-inspired ground effect Indy car designed by Briton John Barnard. Debuting in 1979 with driver Al Unser Sr., it went on to win six races in 27 starts over three seasons. Its greatest success came in 1980 when Johnny Rutherford won the Indy 500

Shawn Buckley began his work in 1969 at the University of California, Berkeley on undercar aerodynamics sponsored by Colin Chapman, founder of Formula One Lotus. Buckley had previously designed the first high wing used in an IndyCar, Jerry Eisert's "Bat Car" of the 1966 Indianapolis 500. By proper shaping of the car's underside, the air speed there could be increased, lowering the pressure and pulling the car down onto the track. His test vehicles had a Venturi-like channel beneath the cars sealed by flexible side skirts that separated the channel from above-car aerodynamics. He investigated how flow separation on the undersurface channel could be influenced by boundary layer suction and divergence parameters of the underbody surface.[2][3][4] Later, as a mechanical engineering professor at MIT, Buckley worked with Lotus developing the Lotus 78.

A little more info, thanks Martin. If there was somebody playing aorund with the aero under the body, you know JH would have been interested and pursued it. I guess most all racing innovations came from several people but usually one person ends up getting the credit.

I'd have to get out my book on Offenhauser to check this to be sure, but the Offy is such a great design and maybe the best designed racing engine ever considering how long it dominated and how many times USAC changed the rules to finally kill it off. Leo Goosen, I think is the guy that actually engineered it. His name is never mentioned outside people that are intrested in the history of that era and Offenhauser, Dusenburg, and Goosen and read about those days.

Sounds like the under car aero is somewhat the same story.