Help with ID

[NHBandit]

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now then. Went poking around some local antique shops today and stopped in at one that's never open. The owner passed away a few years ago and it's been closed. Well today the door was open and the man's son was in there trying to get organized and figure out what he had. I spotted a box of vintage 1/24 scale slot cars and he said "20 bucks for the box". Works for me. When I got them home I found that 2 of them are Classic Manta Ray type chassis with KB Bobcat motors. The other appears to be a Russkit motor but the chassis is a type I'm not familiar with. Sidewinder style but what I would call an underslung chassis ? with the motor and rear axle below the chassis. It also has an adjustable wheelbase bu loosening 2 screws that hold the 2 parts of the chassis together and sliding it to where it needs to be. Body is held on with 4 pins but even that is a bit odd. 1 pin on each side just behind the front wheels and 2 pins through the rear of the body next to the tail lights. Anyone seen this type before ? Personally I don't really like the design because it looks like it would fold up like a cheap umbrella in a rear end collision but it's kind of cool all the same. It really needs to be reinforced where it makes the 45 degree bend just in front of the motor but I'm not about to modify it until I find out if it's something rare. I'm pretty happy with this deal though. All are good runners (all needing fresh tires of course).

[olskoolslotz]

Someone loved their Ford GT40's. The blue GT40 Roadster is by Unique and looks original and in good condition. Look up Unique GT40 Roadster on the LASCM page they have photos of one in the original box. You're correct the other two cars are on Manta Ray chassis', the gold GT40 Roadster might be a Lancer factory painted body going by the the way the paint detailing is done.

[mattb]

Nice find. Not rare but a good buy for the money and decent cars. The Unique chassis design is one of their early ones. It is a weird design.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Not sure what happened. Might have been flagged simply by mistake. Approved now sir.

[NHBandit]

Thanks guys. I leaned something new and that's not easy at my age. I had never heard of Unique slot cars. And.. poking around on the LASCM site I'm now thinking that one of the cars I assumed was a Classic is more than likely
a BZ chassis. The used some of the same chassis from the same company but without the "Classic" script on the drop arm and without the dip in the front of the chassis to clear the drop arm. One of mine is identical to the pics of a BZ chassis. I love this old junk. It's what I grew up with. First car was a Cox Chaparral back in 65 or so and I thought it was great until my buddy bought a Manta Ray and was lapping me regularly.

[mattb]

The Classic Manta Ray style chassis in plain aluminum with no "Classic" script on it is early BZ. It was produced before there was a Classic slot car company.

The partners at BZ split and the outgoing partner than started the Classic company and used that chassis design for the Manta Ray. The plain aluminum BZ chassis was used in their early cars, the Ford GT and a Ferrari. They used up the last of them when they produced the Black Beauty, Green Hornet car.

The Manta Ray was the most produced of the 1/24 slot cars. I believe I've read that they made over 1,000,000 of them , far out numbering the Cox Chaparral which is
supposed to be #2 on the list.

[olskoolslotz]

Yep on the BZ identification, the red car is for certain which seems to retain the orig body and front wheels too.

Never kept BZ cars for my collection although some fine examples have passed through my hands, and never purchased a car by Unique.

[NHBandit]

Awesome guys. Thanks ! So now I have more stuff. I haven't found any slot car stuff at all out in the wild (yard sales, flea markets, etc) and now today I got some more from a local flea market. Small tote with mostly Parma stuff which is too "new" for me to know much about. A couple 1/24 scale cars, a few motors and small parts box and 3 controllers. They all work on my 4 lane Revell basement setup but beyond that I'm a bit lost. The one marked "Tater" I can read, has a 3ohm resistor. The other 2 look like something from the Starship Enterprise for all I know about such things. Huge heat sinks, a 3 position toggle switch as well as a 4 position sliding switch on each of them as well as what appears to be a relay rigged up inline with the wiring. What in the Space Invaders do I have here and should I be using them with my 1/32 scale or my vintage 1/24 scale cars or will I damage them ? At the moment I'm using some 60s vintage Cox controllers. I guess I need to learn about this new fangled modern stuff...

[NHBandit]

Managed to ID the controllers last night. Omni Cidex conversions it appears. And got a short rundown on what the switches do. I'm thinking I'll keep them and use them. Anyone got an instruction sheet for these ?

[RichD]

I did a scan of the instruction sheet and I have posted that in the past. I tried to find the link, but Photobucket is not working very well today. The Omni is fairly simple, it uses bridge rectifiers to drop the voltage, each rectifier contains four diodes, but only two of those are in the circuit at a given time. Unlike other electronic controllers the Omni is not polarity sensitive and will work no matter how your track is wired. As you pull the trigger further diodes are taken out of the circuit and the output voltages increases. Like other electronic controllers there is a full speed contact that bypasses all of the electronic components. The small three position toggle switch is the sensitivity control, the left position is the slow (least sensitive) position and the right position is the fast (most sensitive) position. The slide switch is the brake control. When the switch is in the top position brakes are full on and when it is in the bottom position they are full off.

[NHBandit]

I did a scan of the instruction sheet and I have posted that in the past. I tried to find the link, but Photobucket is not working very well today. The Omni is fairly simple, it uses bridge rectifiers to drop the voltage, each rectifier contains four diodes, but only two of those are in the circuit at a given time. Unlike other electronic controllers the Omni is not polarity sensitive and will work no matter how your track is wired. As you pull the trigger further diodes are taken out of the circuit and the output voltages increases. Like other electronic controllers there is a full speed contact that bypasses all of the electronic components. The small three position toggle switch is the sensitivity control, the left position is the slow (least sensitive) position and the right position is the fast (most sensitive) position. The slide switch is the brake control. When the switch is in the right position brakes are full on and when it is in the left position they are full off.

That helps. I am having a strange issue with both of them though. They seem to cut out randomly as if you're feathering the throttle even when you're not. This is mostly when I try to use them with my Carerra, Scalextric, etc. 1/32 scale cars but it happens with my vintage 1/24 scale cars with the big 36D motors too. Best way I can explain what I'm trying to say is that it acts like a rev limiter in a real racecar where it cuts out if you go over the set rpms. Dosn't seem to matter where the switches are set. They also both have a relay spliced into the wiring between the controllers and the alligator clips. My 50 year old Cox controllers work much more smoothly.

[RichD]

It is possible that the wiper pad is corroded and needs to be cleaned. If you have any contact cleaner handy spray some on the wiper pad and work the trigger a few dozen times. Be sure to use a cleaner that is plastic safe or the grips could be damaged. If that does not clean the wiper pad well enough you could use some metal polish on a Q Tip, followed by the contact cleaner. Another possibility is that the wiper button is not always making good contact with the wiper pad, you may need to bend the wiper arm a little to get good contact. You should also check to be sure that the full speed contacts are touching.
I did locate the instruction sheet, when I get a chance I will scan it, convert the pictures to a PDF, put the PDF on my Google Drive site and post a link to that.

[RichD]

See this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dAk...ew?usp=sharing

[chappyman66]

Good tips from Rich. You can also put a small piece of 600 or higher sandpaper between the contact pads and the wiper button and work the trigger several times. That usually cleans things off pretty well.
Those are decent controllers and should work well.

[NHBandit]

Thanks guys. I'll give that a try.