Help needed to identify 1/12th body and very rare parts...

[j.costick]

Hi All,

I'm new here having skulked around for a while and I'm throwing the gauntlet down to anyone who can identify these parts... (assuming I can work out how to load piccies!!)

First off is the body - can't tell you anything about it except I'm after another one...

Next up is a pic of the car beneath... This was raced by my Uncle in the late 70's/early 80's... Note original 12E steering blocks cut down to take springs for suspension conversion. Also QD front and rear wheels (Schumacher I think).

Now some pics of motor mounts/axle tubes - all 12th scale - prob not matching - Any ideas...?

So that's it for now... these rear axles I reckon are from Lexan chassis cars - but which ones..? One of the motor mounts is a Nodis one...

Cheers

[V12]

Never have seen such body before. The car seem based on RC12E parts. Rear diff indeed is early Schumacher diff, also Schumacher liveaxles front. Front wheels are Gemini. Servo is S20, early Demon ESC2, Parma motor.

Yes motor mounts seem being from Lexancars. The last car is unknown to me.

[j.costick]

Thanks for that V12,

74 views and only one answer so far...! Bummer...

I'm determined to find out what the body is... I want to build a replica of this car - so I can use it without fear of killing the original... If need be I'll have a go at modelling and forming a new one - cant be that tricky!!!!!

It is indeed based on an RC12E - the bottom chassis is a replica - infact the only original parts left are motorblocks, possibly rear axle/diff (with schumacher rims) and front steering blocks/arms (albeit modified).

I have several 12E's, inc. one original with box, and several mostly standard ones. Also a couple of 12i's which are set for car park bashing.

Right, gonna try to contact Mr Lexan to see if he can shed any light on that body...

[CAT3K]

Only just noticed this.. The body looks like it might be one Sarik Vacform made, not totally sure though. I have a lot of mags from the 70's early 80's, so i might be able to confirm.

The torque tubes are interesting, one is like you say from a Nodis lexan car. I posted a few articles about them in the scans section : http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25015 Shame you don't have the rest of the car

Paul.

[j.costick]

Hey cheers Paul... This is getting interesting...

Sarik Vacform are about 40 miles from me, and sometimes I deliver print to a company ON THE SAME TRADING ESTATE......!

I'll certainly be following THAT lead...

I did have the Lexan remains that one of those tubes came from - but it was snapped, and so I threw it... Hindsight is, as they say, always 20/20...

Loved the article you scanned - I love reading vintage stuff - I have only 2 old mags from my Uncles era - they're cherished...

Thanks again...

[CAT3K]

I'd noticed they were still trading, although i don't think they have anything to do with RC anymore.

How cool would it be if they still had the moulds though?

Paul.

[j.costick]

Email has been sent, inc. enquiring about plugs/moulds... Watch this space....

[j.costick]

Well, got a reply from Sarik Vacform...

Hello John
I have spoken to the previous owner of Sarik Vacform from the days when it was
really in to model car bodies in a big way and he tells me it definitely was
not one of ours. He thinks it probably came from the USA and suggests it
might be a TOJ (pronounced TOY) model. That is all I can tell you. Hope it
helps.
Regards
Derek Gore


Damn...! Cross that one off the list then...


So, TOJ... What's that all about then... Is it a manufacturer? Is it a Model of race car... or a style of Body...

Anyone?

[a01butal]

TOJ is a 60-70's sports car style of body and was manufactured by several different companies like AE, Parma and maybe others. This doesn't resemble any TOJ body that I have ever seen, sorry can't be of any more help than that.

[GoMachV]

TOJ was a real car that several manufacturers made into scale bodies. The Associated TOJ was produced around 1978 iirc and was used for many years and championships. Your body doesn't look like any TOJ I have seen though

Here is PlastiZapCA+'s TOJ from his Rusty RC12r Resto thread on here

[V12]

It is for sure no TOJ. All TOJ bodies what had been made could be identified as something as a TOJ, even the smoothed out Sarik version what really don´t have to do much with other TOJs. But this one looks completely different.

If it´s a British manufacturer then Alpha Track comes to my mind or maybe one of Rob Gammons bodies. Could be both as these had been around the same time as the early Demon ESC and FD30 servo.

[CAT3K]

I haven't been able to find your exact body in my magazines unfortunately. Although, looking at it i think it might be a body from Spectron. I have an advert for them, but it only shows a picture of the Spectron Schkee.



I have this Schkee body on my Gemini SLX, and the style seems sililar?



Here's an advert for Sarik Vacform.



As you can see they made quite a few bodies, but without seeing a catalogue it's still guesswork unfortunately. And how much would i love to find a Sarik Maclaren Can Am

Paul.

[V12]

Spectron is what meant as Rob Gammon was the man behind this brand. Also this really makes sense looking at the front of your Schkee. The problem just is, looking through the body list at that ad I still have no idea which one could match with this body, it´s so different.
BTW what issue of Model Cars was this Spectron ad?

[CAT3K]

Spectron is what meant as Rob Gammon was the man behind this brand. Also this really makes sense looking at the front of your Schkee. The problem just is, looking through the body list at that ad I still have no idea which one could match with this body, it´s so different.
BTW what issue of Model Cars was this Spectron ad?

That advert is from the Model Cars 1980 special, although Spectron adverts appear from the late 70's through to about 1983'ish. Unfortunately very few adverts have pictures different to this one.

Paul.

[terry.sc]

The other axle tube looks home made to me. Lots of UK engineers around back then who could easily make their own parts, in fact most of the top cars back then were pretty much home made, drivers even built their own gear diffs. The motor mount is grub screwed to the tube and the axle tube is held in the lexan chassis with large collets turned to fit the tube, a lot simpler and easier to make by hand on a lathe than cut accurate grooves for C-clips. The finish on the motor mount has certainly been done by hand.

The second car, if not home made it has been heavily modified. The chassis and top deck plates have been hand cut and finished, the sharp internal corners would never be found on machine cut parts. The motor mount is not something I recognise and the axle tube after the lexan cars was only ever seen on the Schumacher C-car and much later the Corallys. The motor mount looks to have been machined, when a production item that shape back then would have been cast. The wall thickness around the oval hole does not look consistent enough, a production part would be the same thickness all the way round.

Can't help with the body though, used to paint 1/12th shells for a hobby shop back then so saw plenty of different shells but don't recall anything like that one.