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.htm
BSRT: http://www.slotcars.com/
K&J Magnets: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=148
Buds HO: http://www.budshocars.com/
JAG Hobbies: http://jaghobbies.com/ho_slot_cars/slot_cars.htm
SCW: http://www.slotcarworld.com/HOindex.htm
Slottech: http://slottech.net/default.aspx
EAHORC Chassis guide - by D.Walpole (dw@eahorc.com)

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

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

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

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

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

JL Nascar suitably repainted

Ebay is a good source for Tomy cars as is JAG Hobbies.
EAHORC Chassis guide
By D.Walpole

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
above: Lifelike Indycars on M chassis

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

 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

Above :Artin Countach colours, the red ones are quicker but Tomy red motors
below: Artin wide chassis 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 BSRT

or 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

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

Below: examples of the Super III

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

 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.

Above: Wizzard Storm Wizzard cars have to run pretty much standard although
Below: BSRT G3R chassis 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.
below: Slottech T2
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.