Nostaglic Can-Am Cars
This page was last updated: August 20, 2006
Here's a couple of cars that I just built from scratch for the new USRA Nostalgic Can-Am Division 3 class of racing.
These are awesome little cars to run that handle extremely well. This class of racing was developed by Paul Sterrett and Mike Steube and really brings back memories racing in the late sixties. The bodies are low profile, but very nice and still look like a car, as opposed to some of the unsightly winged wedges that came along later. They have a very short wheelbase of about 3 3/4". This is a class with an emphasis on scratchbuilding, and what could be more fun than racing a car that you built yourself? They use inexpensive $8.00 motors so the class is also economical to race in.
Here's some pics of my Ferrari 312P
(Click on any photo below to enlarge)
After building them, I just couldn't wait to get to track to take them for a test drive. Well, all I can say is WOW!!!! I couldn't be more pleased. These are possibly the best handling cars that I own.
MAC Ti22 Pro
On the maiden run of the first car (my nickel plate one), I tested it on the hillclimb at BP raceway. After about 20 laps, when I just just getting the feel for it, the motor suddenly slowed. I was running 6.1's, but when it slowed, I could only run in the high 6.3's or higher. The car had the Ti22 body but was still abit loose. When I told that to Chris (the track owner), he said that it probably wasn't the car and that the track was loose since it was just cleaned and no glue or rubber was on it, making it a bit slippery. Upon inspection of the motor, I could see that one of the armatures pole windings had broken, so basically I was running on 2 cylinders instead of 3. It still showed great promise, and before trying so tune the car with a small spoiler,or adding lead, I thought it best to install a new motor and come back when the track had a bit more grip (like on a real race day).
I went home and built another chassis, and painted another body so I would have two cars to test and compare. The track was much better and both cars ran almost exactly the same. I think, that, for my current driving skill (if you could call it that), the Ti22, with it's heavier downforce body gave me a 1/10th of a second advantage over the Ferrari, but with both of them I could run 5.8's pretty consistently.
Next, knowing what the qualifying lap times of the last race on the smaller Kingleman track were (anywhere from 3.75 to 4.29 seconds) , I decided to run them on that track to see how close I would be to being competitive. With either car, my best lap times were 4 seconds flat! And that's with my novice driving skills! And I could easily run 4.2's and 4.3's without hardly trying or worrying about deslotting. So, it seems that they are ready for the next race! I still plan to have Paul Sterrett or Mike Steube test drive them for me to really see how good they are or if they need any lead or aerodynamic tuning, but just as they are, I'm really having a blast with them.
The list of components used is the cars are as follows:
Slick 7 motor
Sonic 64 pitch 14/46T aluminum drag crown gears on one, and Parma 48 pitch 9T pinion with a Spirit 28T nylon crown gear.
JK .820 rear tires and JK Indy fronts on one and Alpha Pirahna 13/16' and JK fronts on the other
Slick 7 guides with Parma braid
I made my own hollow hardened stainless axles (F&R)
Pro-Slot rear ball bearings (10 balls-sealed) on one, Slick 7 Bronze racing bushings on the other.
For the front axle, I used a solder-on wheel retainer on one side and a TSRF retaining E-clip one the other so I could disassamble the front axle without having to unsolder/resolder it.
Total weight RTR= 124 grams
If you would like to build one of these for yourself, I have a link on my TIPS & TRICKS page covering a step-by step procedure on how I built my chassis'. Or you can view it directly HERE.
Thanks for looking!
-johnk
Here's some pics of the chassis:
