In This Issue:
Car Model and AutoWorld Cover Gallery
Printable Version of this Issue (378Kb)
Printable
Version Of the Cover Galleries
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From The Editor
Hi Gang-
Due to some scanning projects that came up
unexpectedly,
I haven't made much progress on the Daytona
Coupes. Maybe someday...
Yes, Bill Shaw, I've worked on the Super Coupe
a little, too!
But there's some casting work that needs to
be done to finish that one properly.
Thanks to Daryl Payne, Wally Jabs and Ben Jones
for their contributions to the VSRN Library.
Daryl came up with the Strombecker Table
Top Topics Vol 1 No. 3 Spring 1963 that I was looking for last time.
Wally sent me a bunch of the track plans I
was missing, and old buddy Ben filled a lot of holes in the collection
of Strombecker Inside Track magazines.
I'm looking to borrow the following publications
to scan for the VSRN CD:
Strombecker Inside Track V2 No.1, V2 No. 2,
V2 No. 3 and any Inside Track magazines V2 No.6 and up
I have 2 unnumbered issues from 1966 - one
with the Cheetah on the cover and one with a Dino Ferrari.
Anybody know for sure which issues these were?
If you are the first to help me out with these,
I'll trade you for a copy of the CD. Thanks.
As always, your comments and suggestions are
welcome - I do appreciate the feedback!
You can contact us at: greg@vsrnonline.com
Keep It In The Slot !!!
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Letters
To The Editor
Greetings Fellow Slot Car Nuts,
Does any one know of any slot car tracks in
North Florida or South Georgia ?
I haven't run any of my cars since 1983 and
I am really am getting a bit wound-up about it.
I still have most of my stuff that I started
with in '65 some of it is kinda banged up like the
7 cox Cheetahs ,those wind shields and chrome
trim just would not stayed glued together .
I am thinking about making up some kits out
of boxes new parts that I
have left over the only thing I am short of
is motors most of the
Dynamic chassis that I have take k&b bobcat/36d
motors but some take
Kemtron , General Electric Globe and some
other obscure motors . When
the belt drive cars came out I used some of
the enclosed motors but it
was not the same.
I have a tip on cleaning the cox chassis ,instead
of
using glass bead blast use a mixture of water
and baking soda as a blast
media WARNING THE BAKING SODA WILL GO
THROUGH ANY AIR FILTRATION
BREATHING APPARATUSES AND WILL DO MAJOR
HARM TO YOUR LUNGS ,SO USE A
FRESH AIR BREATHING SYSTEM FIRE FIGHTERS USE
OR SCUBA TANKS at a ratio
of 75 to 1 and at 50 to 100 psi I have used
this on old Honda
carburetors which are made out of zinc and
have had excellent results no
erosion of the metal no heat build up and
any gum or goo are cleaned
away and when you are done just rinse of with
cold water and dry off
with a hair drier on low then leave it as
is or paint it with a
anti-corrosive compound.
This will also clean brass,aluminum, motors and yes even armatures.
If any body out there needs any new old parts
send me an e-mail with
your list and I'll see if I have it.
Buddy (cb77dude@webtv.net)(Edward Vitt)
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(ED NOTE: Got an e-mail out of the blue, from
Don Typond, who was the editor
of Model Car Illustrated, in the 60's.
Here is some of the correspondence:)
Hi Greg,
Just read your comments on MCI. Thought
you might like a little more
information.
The magazine folded in early 1965 because the
publisher, SMP Publishing,
went belly-up, due to the failure of their
other publications, mostly in
the music business. MCI was actually
doing quite well, both ad-wise and
readership-wise. SMP was kind of flaky,
which was one of the reasons
you couldn't find MCI on the newsstand most
of the time. So when SMP
locked the doors, MCI disappeared with them.
The lovely Nicole and I continued our tempestuous
relationship for a
while, then I moved to Los Angeles to become
Managing Editor of ROD &
CUSTOM at Petersen. A couple of years
later I got my pilot's license
and returned to New York to be M.E. at FLYING.
Then Editor of AIR
PROGRESS, and later Editor of PRIVATE PILOT.
I pretty much dropped out
of the model car business.
Bill Byshyn and Pat O'Rourke picked up where
MCI left off, but didn't
want or couldn't get the MCI title from SMP.
A couple years after MC&R
folded, Bill came to work with me at PRIVATE
PILOT. We had been old
college buddies and airplane nuts long before
the MCI days.
It was also good to see Jose Rodriguez's name
on your site. I had the
pleasure of meeting him in the early days
of MCI; super guy, super model
builder.
Anyway, just wanted to add a little to your MCI info.
Best regards,
Don Typond
***************
Hi Greg,
Gotcher e-mail. Here's some background
on MCI, SMP, the lovely Nicole,
and me.
SMP was a tiny publishing company stuffed into
three rooms in an office
building in Manhattan with an elevator about
the size of a phone booth.
One of the principals was a guy named Murray,
who I guess was the "M," I
don't remember ever meeting "S" or "P."
They had a few music magazines,
and MCI. Why MCI? I have no idea.
I had been working for Ziff-Davis, a BIG publishing
company with titles
like POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY, FLYING, and CAR&DRIVER.
I worked for C&D when
it was still known as SPORTS CARS ILLUSTRATED.
Then I got into the New
York freelance photographer game, which was
hectic and fun. Then a
friend who worked for another car magazine,
and knew I was a model
builder, told me about MCI needing an editor.
I went up to the third floor in the phone booth,
walked into the SMP
office, met the lovely Nicole (who was receptionist,
secretary, coffee
maker, lunch gopher, proof-reader, girl-monday-friday)
and accepted the
job.
You were correct when you said MCI looked like
a one-man job. Actually
it was two-man, Bill Byshyn and me.
Working out of my one-bedroom
apartment in Brooklyn. The one bedroom
being the shop, darkroom, and
office. All the SMP magazines were done
this way, there were no
editorial offices at SMP, just Pat O'Rourke
slaving over a table doing
paste-ups for all the magazines, a strange
guy in a darkroom in the
back, the lovely Nicole, and Murray.
We had virtually NO budget, and relied on friends
to donate articles in
return for products we got from advertisers
to write up. Bill and I
created most of the editorial content.
Deadly Dudley worked for either
Polks or America's Hobby Center, I can't remember
which, and was one of
the local hotdog slot racers. He wrote
what and when he wanted to, and
was out of control most of the time.
The lovely Nicole was only 21
years old, smart as a whip, and pretty much
ran the office, keeping
everyone on schedule. She and I became
"socially involved," and life
was never boring! We put her in the
magazine on occasion, giving her
the pen-name "Big Mother Retch" as a takeoff
on Big Daddy Roth. She did
build a little, but not without a lot of help.
Mostly we just hung out
at my place.
MCI was intended to be a general model car
magazine, not just a slot
racing magazine, which is why it had a lot
of how-to on plastic kits,
and some really nice examples of scratch-built
display models. Of
course, slot racing was THE big activity,
but the problem all of us
magazines had was the almost two-month lead
time from production to
newsstand. In an atmosphere of hot-motor-of-the-week,
we were eight
motors behind by the time you read about the
"latest hot motor!" It was
difficult.
Then, as I told you, SMP ran out of money.
Nikki and I drifted apart,
and I was offered the job at Petersen in L.A.
working for ROD&CUSTOM.
R&C had a model car section, but I wasn't
all that involved in it; as
Managing Editor I was responsible for production
of the entire magazine.
I'm sorry to say, I have no issues of MCI.
If I did, you'd be welcome
to them.
It was a fun time in my life, I was young and
not very wise, New York
was (and still is) a great town in which to
be crazy and single, and the
lovely Nicole was, truly, lovely.
Anything else you wanna know?
Best regards, Don
****************
Greg,
Just looked at one of your sites that lists the staff of MCI...
I don't remember who Jim Gray was. I
later had a pilot friend named Jim
Gray, but not the same guy. Maybe he
was fictional.
Ted Navarro was the strange guy in the back
room. I think we put his
name on the masthead just to fill it up.
Like Jim Gray?
Don't remember William Sauer either, but he
might have assisted Pat with
pasteups at the office.
Murray's first name was Maurice! I didn't
remember if Murray was his
first name or last name. Just remembered
Murray.
Frank Coggins was the first editor, and was
the friend who worked for
another (full scale) car magazine. He
did MCI freelance, and ran out of
time. That's when he asked me if I'd
be interested.
Seeing the names jogged my memory a little.
Hope this helps to fill in blanks.
Don
******************
Hi Greg,
I thank you for the offer to put some MCI
stuff on CD. It would be fun
to look at it. I really can't think
of anything specific.It was all fun;
the fiberglass Porsche project with Nikki,
the midget
and stock car short-track race cars that I
loved during my teen years
but which very few slot racers ever bothered
with...
I have a CD drive, but almost don't know how
to use it.
I am just about completely computer illiterate.
Do I need a special
program to view a CD? I've recently
been scanning some of my articles
in old model airplane magazines, just in case
the basement floods...
again. Putting them on zip disk, don't
have a CD burner.
You pick 'em.
Don
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(ED NOTE: I sent Don a scan of an ad from
MCI showing a clean-cut
young man building a model, and asked "Who's
This"?)
Beats me. He looks much too clean-cut
to be anybody I associated with.
None of my friends even OWNED a tie, much
less wore one while building
models. It ain't me. It ain't
Byshyn. It ain't Pat O'Rourke. Maybe
it's the mysterious Jim Gray.
And it ain't the lovely Nicole. Definitely too much clothing.
Don
***************
Hi Greg,
I received the CD, and it plays just fine.
It was fun to see the old
articles. Lordy, the writing was corny
back then! Thanks so much for
taking the time to scan and burn. It's
much appreciated.
Now the big news: Because you and VSRN
made me think about her after
all these years, I've found Nicole!
She lives near ******, with a
kennel full of Great Pyrenees dogs.
We've talked on the phone a few
times, and I'm going up to see her within
the next couple of weeks. It
should be quite a reunion after almost 35
years. I'll take the CD so we
can reminisce about the good old days at MCI.
Thanks again, Greg. You're making my life interesting!
Happy New Year, Don
*********************
Hi Greg,
I spent a day with Nicole last week.
Lunch, dinner, and a lot of
conversation. Also much frolicking with
her 23 (or is it 27?) dogs,
including a hilarious puppy jailbreak that
took a while to control.
It was a wonderful reunion. Nikki's as
funny and crazy as ever, even
after just celebrating her 60th birthday.
My 67th was a few days
later. Couple of senior citizens renewing
old and good memories.
I'll be seeing her again next week. We're
allowing for the possibility
of a future together, but we've got a lot
of catching up to do.
If we do indeed live happily ever after, it's all your fault!
Very best regards, Don
(ED NOTE: I told Don that if things do work
out,
that they need to name the next puppy after
me!)
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Monogram is stealing my thunder! They've announced
their first
Slot Car releases - the Cobra Daytona Coupe,
like I did the article on last month,
and the Greenwood "Batmobile" Corvette.
They are both 1/32 scale, and come pre-decorated.
There are 3 different versions of the Cobra:
The #5 that Dan Gurney drove to a 2nd place
at Lemans in 1964
The #13 that won Daytona in 1965, and the
#54 from Nurnburgring in 1965.
There are 2 versions of the Greenwood Corvette
from 1975
with the patriotic American flag color scheme.
Click here to see what Monogram's showing so far...
The pictures shown so far are only photos of
the 1:1 car, so we
don't know yet what the actual cars are like.
I also haven't seen a promise date for release,
but it's still
exciting to think that a US manufacturer is
getting back into slots!
I'll keep you posted as additional info becomes
available.
**************************
Bare-Metal Foil has expanded their offerings
with decal paper,
and a variety of casting resins and mold materials.
I've been wanting to try some white decal film,
and Bare Metal offers
it by the single sheet, and 3-packs, at a
lower price than other "big name"
suppliers. For those of you,like me, who don't
have a good hobby shop nearby,
Bare-Metal sells direct, and I got my order
quite promptly.
I hope to get a chance to try it out in the
near future - and I'll show you
the results.
There are quite a few options available in
the casting supplies department.
I haven't taken that plunge yet - but I will!
Check them out at: http://www.bare-metal.com
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Old buddy, L. M. (Mike) Gillett has his 2002
list out.
Lovingly titled "Crap From the Past", he has
a bunch of goodies from way
back when, along with new items of interest
to the Vintage Racer.
For your copy, send a 2 stamp SASE to:
Li'l Mikey Gillett
4021 2nd St. NE
Columbia Heights, MN 55421
763-788-5816 (Noon-10PM)
If you wake him up, don't forget to blame it on VSRN!
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Tell ‘em you saw in at VSRN Online!
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