EAHORC Chassis guide 2008

Notes: For modified class, by its nature, this chassis guide is not exhaustive.

Weak magnets are ceramic.Medium magnets are Polymer (moulded magnets with Neo bits glued in).High strength (HS) magnets are Neodymium (Neo).

The URLs for the companies mentioned in this guide are as follows:-

WHP: http://www.wizzardho.com/Main.htmBSRT: http://www.slotcars.com/K&J Magnets: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=148Buds HO: http://www.budshocars.com/JAG Hobbies: http://jaghobbies.com/ho_slot_cars/slot_cars.htmSCW: http://www.slotcarworld.com/HOindex.htmSlottech: http://slottech.net/default.aspx

EAHORC Chassis guide - by D.Walpole (dw@eahorc.com)

Tyco F1 chassis (above) & with typical body (below)

Tyco ‘Pan Chassis’ (above) and with Porsche 956 body

The Tyco 440X2 design dates back to 1983. Generally the older chassis are better and you can still find new (mint) ones.

It has ceramic magnets, therefore considered weak and currently the popular car in F1 class. Make sure when buying that the chassis has two separate traction magnets as the preceding design (440) had 1 large bar that was weaker still.

For F1 class racing at EAHORC you really cannot beat the F1 shell type in the second picture left as it is lightweight and the wings are really hard to break off, even in a floor impact. There are several Ferraris & Jordans plus Jaguar, Stewart, BMW Williams and others.

For Modified class you could use the ‘pan’ chassis but, as this is strictly a racing guide, I wouldn’t recommend it as it is generally slower than the F1 chassis.

Instead you should source a closed body that fits the F1 chassis. The most common example is the Lamborghini Countach. Because of it sculpted sides, Tyco found that is was too narrow for the Pan chassis so opted to fit it to the F1 chassis.

Using one of these means you will be on the faster chassis and you will only need to tune & maintain one car, and just swap the bodies and magnets over at need. There are other closed wheel bodies that fit the narrow F1 chassis but If you are running a DHORC legal F1 car and want to use the same chassis in the afternoon you have to use the Countach.

An alternative, as a field of Lambos can get a tad boring, is to use a ‘buddy clip 2’ which will enable 100s of Tomy Closed wheel bodies to fit on the Tyco F1 chassis. You can get these from Buds HO.

Medium strength traction magnets for Mod class can be obtained from WHP (Part #MHP11B) and high strength K&J Magnetics (Part #TYCO)

EAHORC Chassis guide - by D.Walpole

JL Nascar suitably repainted

Potentially you are going to spend the most cash on Tomy cars, although you can take part in all our racing without owning any.

The basic chassis, The Turbo, comes in four guises. The F1 chassis (top left) and wide chassis, with weak traction bar. Both of these come in versions with HS traction magnets and are known as SRTs. (Super Racing Turbos). The second picture left shows an SRT ‘wide’ chassis.

Rather than buy four chassis, I would suggest you buy a wide SRT and a narrow Turbo (for example) and swap the magnets over, as this is the main difference (the other one being the gearing is slightly different).

The other Tomy you can buy is the SG+ (not to be confused with the Aurora SG+, a very different beastie!). Unlike the Turbo which is all speed or the SRT which is all grip the SG+ (third picture down on left) is a well engineered compromise chassis, with medium traction magnets. BSRT do some good Mod class legal hop up parts for this chassis

Tomy make a clip that enables any bodies that fit the wide Turbo/SRT to fit it. In addition the ‘Buddy clip 1’ can be used to fit the SG+ with most of the closed wheel bodies from the Tyco range.

Finally, a lot of Johnny Lightning X-traction bodies can be fitted directly to the wide Turbo/SRT or the SG+. The Nascar (bottom left) is particularly good as it is much lighter than Tomy’s own NASCARs, although you will need to repaint it to make it Nascar class legal.

Toward the end of the year a new chassis, the Mega G, and this guide will be updated at that time.

Tomy Mega G

Ebay is a good source for Tomy cars as is JAG Hobbies.

EAHORC Chassis guideBy D.Walpole

above: Lifelike Indycars on M chassis

Lifelike is a US company, now owned by Walthers, with the dubious distinction of being the last manufacturer to put separate traction magnets in their chassis.

For years the mainstay of the range was the Lifelike M, the top left picture shows this chassis in ‘powertracker’ guise with a ‘skewed armature’ for better torque. The ‘Fastracker’ has a standard armature.

As you can see, the motor magnets are very wide and double up as traction magnets. As the magnets are weak the M races mostly when the track is an oval. There are many open and closed wheel bodies that fit the chassis, including some early ‘Rokar’ bodies that are very light and therefore very popular with racers. These can be found fairly easily on ebay, especially Porsche 934s and Datsun 240z.

The newest chassis, The ‘Fastracker T’, has separate HS traction magnets and races in Nascar Cup and Mod class. Only the rear axle is interchangeable between the two (see picture bottom left). Get the chassis with red armature windings as it is slightly quicker than the copper ones

Most Lifelike bodies will fit both chassis but not all. The right hand car below is the Rokar, The remaining picture is of a Typical Lifelike NASCAR, of which the Company has made a bewilderingly large range of bodies.

For Lifelike products check out Buds HO and Ebay.

EAHORC Chassis guide – Marchon by D.Walpole

Marchon is no longer around but they were the first company to use HS traction magnets. Naturally these cars race in Modified class.

Be sure when purchasing to get the MK II chassis as shown in the picture top left, the MK I used ceramic magnets and is a very inferior design (second picture down on left).

Some Marchon chassis came with copper motor windings, these motors are generally quicker. So long as they are of the type in the picture below and not like the ones in the second picture on the left you can race them in your Marchon chassis, as well as Tomy can motors, although with some of those you may have to shorten the shaft.

Marchon did not make any F1 bodies, but when Scalextric licensed the Marchon design for their own Micro range, they made a narrower chassis and some bodies for it (see bottom picture left) - Because Scalextric later made their own chassis, these are classed as Marchons to avoid confusion.

The best source of Marchon stuff is eBay and SCW.

EAHORC Chassis guide – Artin by D.Walpole

Above :Artin Countach below: Artin wide chassis

Artin is the only other company apart from Scalextric to make their cars exclusively with HS magnets.

Because Artin have copied the principles behind Tyco’s body fitment method, many Tyco bodies will fit the Artins with little or no cutting.

Like many of the manufacturers, Artin make an F1 and Wide chassis. However their NASCAR bodyshell (bottom right) fits their F1 chassis. So if you purchase one of these, and already have a Tyco F1 body then your tuning & maintenance work is halved.

Like Marchon, Artin motors come in different winding colours, the red ones are quicker but Tomy red motors even more so, therefore a swap is highly recommended!

The Artins are unique in that the have body screws. Although they add weight the might save you a lot of time if you have a big accident because it highly unlikely the body will come off, even partially.

To race them you will need to push the rear wheels in as they exceed the maximum allowed width of 34mm. You can do this by hand, although it is better to use a press:

You can purchase these from companies such as BSRTor borrow one from other members.

The best source of Marchon stuff is SCW, the cars work out at £5 each…

EAHORC Chassis guide – Scalextric and Autoworld by D.Walpole

Below: examples of the Super III

The ‘Micro’ Scalextric cars were unique when launched in that you can run them on any kind of track with one size of rear tyre. This is because the HS traction magnets are only push fitted and can be, carefully, moved to increase/decrease traction. In all other chassis this is done by altering the tyre diameter.

The chassis comes in Wide and F1 versions (the wide chassis is shown on the left, middle picture). And the latter chassis races in Modified class.

The axles are interchangeable with Marchon ones, as are some of the bodies. The braid is standard Hornby stuff although you can purchase them cut to fit the Micro chassis.

MS cars can be purchased on ebay and direct from Scalextric and their stockists

Above: Stunning Micro Scalextric DBR9 released in 2007

Autoworld have been making Pancake chassis for many years under that trading name and previously as Johnny Lightning. These had very weak or no traction magnets but in 2007 HS magnets started to be used, first in their Thunderjet, 4 gear and X-traction chassis as add-ons (see top 2 picture left) and then in the bespoke Super III chassis, which races in Nascar if a suitable body is used and repainted, and of course Mod class ‘’as-is’’.

The Super III seems to have poor QC and it is recommended that other makes of axles and bodies are tried to improve performance. Magnets can be adjusted for height, but this only works well if they are glued into their new position.

EAHORC Chassis guide – WHP, BSRT and Slottech by D.Walpole

Above: Wizzard StormBelow: BSRT G3R chassis

below: Slottech T2

Wizzard High Performance (WHP) are unique in that they race in the only single-make class EAHORC has, appropriately know as Wizzard class (also sometimes referred to as Poly Lexan), and the only class where vac-formed bodies are allowed.

The two chassis made by WHP are the Storm and the Patriot, both of which use weak magnets. However, there is also a factory made version of the Patriot, the P3E, which uses medium traction magnets. Coupled with the fact these magnets are around 6mm thick, magnetic grip is very high and weight low and the resulting cars offer very high performance. The storm is likely to be the weapon of choice on for this class on an oval, where grip matters less.

Wizzard cars have to run pretty much standard although rear tyres as low as 0.450’’ are allowed as well as two piece guide pins. Of course both Wizzard chassis could be fitted with hard bodies and raced in Modifed. Martin Hill sells ready to run P3Es, including EAHORC-legal bodies at the meetings

The BSRT G3 and G3R are based heavily on the Tomy SG+, although they use weak traction magnets where the SG+ uses medium, but the magnets are also very thick and the build & design quality of the chassis are much higher than the Tomy. SG+ Traction magnets will fit the G3 but not the G3R, and BSRT make medium and HS traction magnets that fit one version of the G or the other, as well as an impressive slew of other parts and tools.

The Slottech company are the third one involved in making these ‘high-end’ chassis, with their Panther, Cheetah and T1/T2 designs. The latter 2 chassis feature a neat arrangement that allows, once the ‘lexan’ posts have been cut off, the fitting of any bodies that fit the Tyco F1 chassis without the need for clips. As with the other designs the standard weak traction magnets are extremely thick but medium and HS ones are also available.