Team Demon 15Double - double endbell bearing mod

[dinglem]

Here's a bit of an unusual one. I received this motor a while back and it has taken a bit of poking around on the Book of Face to find out what it was all about. It turns out three team Demon drivers by the names of Simon Tooley, Chris Boakes and Haydon Spreadborough were also sponsored by a model shop by the name of R&M Model Products, and when Nick Adams sent them his motors they were re-labelled with the shop logo and each motor was engraved with the name of the respective driver.

This one is clearly a Chris Boakes motor.

It has been sent off to Glyn Ward for BRM for a rebuild, and it turns out that the Sagami-Demon endbell has been machined out to accept a pair of ballraces at the comm end. I have never seen this mod before although from what Glyn tells me Mike Reedy also dabbled about with this idea. I am not certain of the reasoning behind it, but still pretty cool to have. Performance figures are comparable to my MG and LRP 15D's but the amp draw is a fair bit lower.

Has anybody else come across such a pair before?

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Has anybody else come across such a pair before?

No, I haven't seen a pair quite like that...

I guess one could make an argument that it added stability and reduced vibration, but I would think the little bit of extra drag would negate the benefits of bearings. Especially if they are housed in a plastic endbell and you're trying to create perfect alignment. Very interesting though! What did they run them in?

[dinglem]

I am in contact with Simon Tooley so I have just asked him. I also have a May 1988 mag here and Chris Boakes is listed in the modified A Final tech chart as running an Optima Mid.... in fact he also ran a 2wd Optima Mid in the 2wd modified class and also made the A!

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

I kind of would think like a Whippoorwill situation. The long straights may call for little vibration. Or maybe like a 12th scale pan car on a tight road course.

[dinglem]

Well as suspected the team primarily ran Cat XLS cars, although Mr. Tooley mentioned the occasional Optima Mid was also tried out. Couple of supporting pics with his message too, and you can clearly see the Demon logo stickers on the wings

[K Rob]

Can't help with the Demon motors but I did see a MG back around 90 that had dual bearings in the endbell.
It was a signature M. Goddard can and a 15 x 2 but can't remember any more. I assumed at the time it was something Mick had done but might have been a home modification.