Yes, part of Shelby history: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15149002/death-deception-and-the-4-million-cobra-feature/
r.i.p.
Stan, thanks for posting the article, very interesting read. Denny
Dont know if everyone has seen this killer photo of the cobra
I'm surprised he didn't crash the hell out of it on his first drive. I doubt he had the skills to properly handle that car.
A different article: http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=13517.0;topicseen
Quote from: FL SAAC on January 18, 2021, 03:16:04 PM
Dont know if everyone has seen this killer photo of the cobra
Before he painted the cars history on the door with white house paint. That is his bodyguard who bought the car from him and whose daughter ended up with it when he died.
Here is a little history on who Specter bought it from: https://afxracing.com/product/shelby-cobra-ltd-ed-russkit/
^^^Thanks for the scan of the ad.
Imagine my surprise when I googled the address and discovered Russkit was about a mile-and a-half from my house in Culver City!
I had a Cobra 427 slot car painted candy apple red in the late '60s. Can't recall if it was a Russkit. Looked cool when I ran it at the big Revell slot car track, near LAX, every weekend for a few months, as a kid.
Quote from: Side-Oilers on January 18, 2021, 11:16:53 PM....... I ran it at the big Revell slot car track, near LAX, every weekend for a few months, as a kid.
The mecca of SoCal slot car tracks. I got my dad to take me there a couple of times. http://www.slotcarhistory.com/slot_car_history5.htm
It was very close to Shelby American on Princeton Drive and I suspect it's where the photo of Ken & Peter Miles playing with slot cars was taken.
I found this on a slotcar forum - - - "it became classic after Revell got out of owning tracks: My stepdad used to live around the corner form this place. It was a slot car shop called Classic Speedway in the 60's. The "Y" in "Speedway" was turned upside down to make an "H" and the "S" was added to change the name to "Speedwash". Revell was just down the street where Costco now sits. (Washington Blvd, Culver City)"
Thanks for link! Yep, that's the Revell slot car building! The big upright sign panel on the left side of the photo (seen in the link) was (I think) constructed previously for the supermarket that was in that building.
The building was torn down about 5-10 years ago, but had been previously converted into some separate little businesses, I think.
When it was Revell, it was unbelievable the number of tracks they had, in layouts like Riverside, Sebring, Bridgehampton, etc.
Culver City was a hotbed of car enthusiast activity in '50s-80s. Isky Cams, Traco, Guldstrand, Revell, etc. One of my high school buddies' mom worked at Revell, but I never thought to ask where it located, or what she did there. I had aged out of slot cars by then, and was into real cars.
I remember when it was called Classic Speedway. I love the photo in the link of the young guys with their matching suits (not driving suits!) and ties on, preparing to race.
Note to Mr. Moderator: IMO, this topic of slot cars has relevance to the Spector Daytona, via Revell.
Quote from: Side-Oilers on January 19, 2021, 04:08:48 PM
Culver City was a hotbed of car enthusiast activity in '50s-80s. Isky Cams, Traco, Guldstrand, Revell, etc.
Note to Mr. Moderator: IMO, this topic of slot cars has relevance to the Spector Daytona, via Revell.
Also a link to Jim Russel (Russkit) who owned the Coupe and offered a slotcar of if.
This is a good Culver City article https://www.culvercityhistoricalsociety.org/history/the-historic-culver-city-racing-scene/
Drove by 6368 Arizona Circle yesterday, the address in the ad above, and here is how it looks.
I swear this is still the best forum. I love the depth of information that everyone presents. I don't think there are many Shelby owners who didn't first start out owning slot cars. :)
When I get frustrated with politics, I can always turn here, thanks.
I grew up in Garden Grove, CA. We had several enormous slot car tracks biking distance—so big the cars would run up and around the ceiling and fall onto nets where you retrieved them with hooks on broom sticks when they de-tracked. I have my Cox controller and a split window Corvette my father built with copper welding rod for the frame—way too valuable to ever loose—wonderful days of youth...
Quote from: Tinface on January 21, 2021, 03:47:11 AM
I grew up in Garden Grove, CA. We had several enormous slot car tracks biking distance—so big the cars would run up and around the ceiling and fall onto nets where you retrieved them with hooks on broom sticks when they de-tracked. I have my Cox controller and a split window Corvette my father built with copper welding rod for the frame—way too valuable to ever loose—wonderful days of youth...
Yes, the nets. And the employees working the "infield" who retrieved all the "off track excursion" cars and put them back on the track for you.
Some of the repeat offenders (and the guys who simply liked to cause crashes) had to pack up and go home for the day.
Nice idea for the copper frame. My dad was an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, and he "may have" taken a couple of my cars to work and modified the motor/brushes for higher performance. Probably used some special aerospace lubricants too.
Those then-new (late '60s) sticky tires (sort of a composite foam rubber, IIRC) were the thing to have, too.
Speaking of what we still have from those old days...I still have my Strombecker slot car track and controllers, and the D-Type Jag and a Ferrari (Testarossa perhaps) cars. I got it as a Christmas present in 1963.
Great memories, for sure!
When I first arrived in Hollywood in 1965 I was surprised to see real race cars being driven in the street, like Ferrari GTOs, Ferrari 250LMs, Ferrari 412s, Porsche 904s, Comp Cobras, GT40s. In Michigan where i was from, some of these unmuffled cars would get you a ticket but some of these cars broke so many rules where did you start? Around 1970 I tagged along with the Ferrari Owner's club in drives through the Malibu hills and I remember twice when they put what would today be a million dollar over a cliff. I know Spector favored cruising the Sunset strip, where there were rock nightclubs. For some reason he painted fantastic claims on the car door of racing records that the Daytona coupe wasn't capable of.Maybe that was to impress his dates...
what was the liquid we put on the sponge slotcar tires?
https://www.stripperglittertc.com/
getting off topic here, we used methyl salicylate (it was meant for sore muscles) on our slot car tires, had a minty smell, the
pharmacist always was suspicious when we kids bought it ::)
Mike
Quote from: honker on November 13, 2021, 11:47:36 PM
getting off topic here, we used methyl salicylate (it was meant for sore muscles) on our slot car tires, had a minty smell, the
pharmacist always was suspicious when we kids bought it ::)
Mike
Never used the stuff. I still have the Cox GT40 and Chaparral.
I had them out and on the track a few years ago and still can't figure out how to make them brake. Some things never do change.
We used similar products for RC racing indoors called Trinity "Magic Bite" and Paragon FX 2 traction compound. You get a couple dozen racers using this stuff and it would knock your socks off.
Quote from: trotrof1 on November 14, 2021, 09:44:07 AM
We used similar products for RC racing indoors called Trinity "Magic Bite" and Paragon FX 2 traction compound. You get a couple dozen racers using this stuff and it would knock your socks off.
You drink it straight or you mix it?
You just apply it to the foam rubber tires and the collective fumes could be too much to take. Caution, keep away from heat, sparks and open flame, prolonged breathing. It would soften the tire for a few laps until the the tires can heat up.
Quote from: HistoryBuff on November 13, 2021, 10:29:50 PMSpector favored cruising the Sunset strip, ..... For some reason he painted fantastic claims on the car door of racing records that the Daytona coupe wasn't capable of....
If I remember every record that Specter painted on the doors of his Coupe with house paint were correct for the Daytona Coupes.
The Simmone museum is no stranger to "creative history"
When the news surfaced in the Los Angeles Times, among other places, somehow an individual claiming to be Dorothy Brand's boyfriend
Not a "boyfriend" just a friend who happened to be maleclaimed that he had been promised the car by Dorothy, although there was no convincing evidence,
Other than a signed pink slip and key to the storage locker according to the judge, that this had happened. Unfortunately for Mr. Eyears, the litigation required to prove that this was a commercially viable sale and to come to a settlement with the boyfriend, ended up in substantial costs and 1-2 million in his pocketwhich he did not expect.
When we had the car back in Philadelphia we set about deciding what to do with it. First, we removed the incorrect writing on the car's door, made with house paint by using a fine surgical blade which easily dissected the house paint off of the original Guardsman Blue.
The chalky white caulk material, which I never definedbut in the above paragraph he admits it's house paint, at certain places on the body, easily came off. Underneath these areas, the paint wasn't oxidized, and this produced an irregular appearance. By compounding these areas we discovered that there were, in fact, several layers of Guardsman Blue, Car was originally Viking Blueapparently all put on at the Shelby factory, When Jim Russell (Russkit slot cars) bought the car from SA there was a fresh street long block with Webers in the car - Russell had the car painted and the interior brought up to street car level. He sold it to Specter for $12,500 - about 3 times what he paid. since there was no evidence that the car being repainted after being sold. Going over the whole car with medium compound, we brought out the uniform finish, careful not to polish the paint, after which we would lose some uniformity in the reflections.
One of the claims on the door was that it went 227 mph.
^^^ And that Spector was 6' 3" tall. Or was it 3' 6" tall? :P
Quote from: 1109RWHP on November 14, 2021, 07:59:45 PM
One of the claims on the door was that it went 227 mph.
Yeah he missed that one by 40mph. It did hit 187 at Bonneville on it way to setting 23 records.