Russkit Cooper F1.."Spyder" chassis

[chrisguyw]

While I am a huge fan of the Russkit "Carrera" chassis cars (you had to be a very decent scratchbuilder, to beat one of these RTR cars), their earlier releases left a lot to be desired from a performance perspective.

In April 1965, (Yikes !!.....54 years ago) Russkit launched the Cooper and Ferrari 156 F1 kits, both supplied with their new "Spyder" brass chassis........all good except the chassis was made of very thin brass, and even a good breeze could bend it out of alignment......not the hot ticket for the wide open commercial tracks of the time, and while several were sold, not many (likely zero) made it to any race podiums.

However, like any slot car, they can be made to run much better, and this one has been reinforced with .055 and .047 piano wire along all of the suspension arms and suspension uprights. It came with a Russkit "22" 16D motor, and while certainly OK for this chassis, it was soon made obsolete by the Russkit "23" and many other 16D motors that were literally arriving on the slot shop shelves weekly.

Other than the reinforced chassis, and freezing the drop arm (they didn't work then , and don't work now), I built this one stock. The parma "pink" crown has been replaced with the correct crown.

Anyway for anyone who has not seen one ,.....here she be !!

Cheers
Chris Walker

[Just_Steve]

Thank you for posting this - it brings back some childhood memories. My Dad bought me one of these when I was about 9 or 10 years old. - it was my first 1:24 slot car. I remember painting the body and applying decals. Used to race it for hours on a small Strombecker layout one of our neighbors had. I'm sure mine eventually found its way to a landfill (thanks Mom...) when I discovered other hobbies and pastimes.