Vintage Pre-War-Home Built TETHER RACE CAR-the" SPITFIRE" How To Build Plans.

Description

Vintage Pre-War-Home Built TETHER RACE CAR-the" SPITFIRE" How To Build Plans.
-NOTE:
(the Dooling rear drive tether car is not available , it's for size comparison or reference  only, the finished "SPITFIRE"  race car is also NOT available) ). Being  offered  COPIES OF THE ORIGINAL PLANS ,  a home built,  .60 size,  ignition gas engine, tethered model race car , based on  "How To Build the SPITFIRE  Race Car".... a  article that was first printed in  Mechanix Illustrated  (MI) magazine , a subsidiary of Fawcett Publications. Fawcett had a long line of Nationally Published periodicals for men and women in the 1930's, including many "How to Build" manuals and handbooks (workshop and home handy man projects, auto repair and helpful hints, boat building plans, photography and various hobby project plans of interest to young men). Having offices in Connecticut and New York City, Fawcett's (MI) was already publishing articles on many of the events and "products of the future" being exhibited at the 1939 NY World Fair and was aware of the Miniature Gas Powered Model Race Cars being raced at the "Court of Peace" every weekend and the large crowds that they drew. Accomplished model builder Herbert Lozier was commissioned by (MI) to design and build a gas racer. Many of Mr Lozier's plans and built-up model projects  (ships, planes and cars)  had already appeared in earlier Fawcett publications and continued to do so into the 1940's. Mr Lozier also contributed modeling( free lance)  articles for Model Craftsman. (MI) also offered full size plans of there many projects for an additional .00. As an incentive to build one of their many "MI Projects", they would award the builder between three and five dollars if a photo of their finished project was picked to appear in their "Editors Workbench" section. In  1940, photo's of a finished Spitfire racer was summited by a Mr. Flecher of Pa., the highly detailed car had an all polished aluminum body, was  highly detailed, looking nothing like Mr. Loizer's original design ( Mr. Flechers car was the subject of countless hours of searching  in the 80's by East Coast collectors ,including my self).Fawcett also repeated the "Spitfire" article in their Model Builders Handbook #1 .....  By the time (MI's)  Spitfire article came out , the publishers of  "Model Craftsman"  magazine in NJ had already completed the seven monthly issues of articles on building the famous  "Bantam Midget"   by Ralph Pickard and was helping both East and West Coast clubs start to organize miniature car racing, by establishing rules on standardizing the car sizes, weights, engine displacement and race track sizes...... The Spitfire articles, included scaled plans, detailed sketches, complete assembly instructions and list of needed parts, also included photos of the finished racer. Lozier's "Spitfire Special" was obviously larger than anything being raced at that time, perhaps he thought bigger was better! Construction of the racer was meant to be simple, using easily obtained parts and common hand tools. To summarize the articles: .... to be built with a wood chassis (frame rails and bulkheads) an under slung chassis (rear axle above the frame), friction rear drive (using common radio parts), spring steel rear leaf springs, a front axle with coil springs (from an AC Gilbert Erector set) powered by any .60 size ignition engine (a Brown Jr engine was originaly  used) rubber ashtray tires, with wheels made from the lids of glass jars. The body was to be made of cardboard, with a wood grill shell, ignition system (batteries, coil and condenser) were exposed in an open compartment, dress up items only included a leather seat and steering wheel. Plans called for a 52' tether clothes line attached to any steel playground post, speeds up to 40mph could be obtained (?) The text makes no mention of the cars finished weight, obviously not meant for competing at the NY Worlds Fair, but rather for the builders own  racing enjoyment.NOTE  We are showing some photo's of a finished car,to give you some idea of what could be built using  the original plans and directions  .The finished  car shown ... rather than being built to resemble a full size racer of the period, (1939)  the "unknown builder " choose  to build the car in the styling of an American or European  open wheel, dirt or board track racer of the mid to late 1920's. (Indy two man ) adding his own custom made features and engine. The racer measures a giant  26" long, and 9 1/2" high, the track is 10 1/2" wide  with an 18" wheel base and weighs in at over 10 1/2lbs. The most interesting thing about the car is it's engine, a " home made " ignition engine of his own design, in proportion to the cars size.  Consisting of a sand cast aluminum crankcase with steel cylinder and 6 bolt head, a bolt on aluminum venturi with a brass screen air filter, the timer assembly is made from a fiber type material with automotive points, an A-C spark plug, brass flywheel, an over sized gas tank made from an old nail or tack tin can, with a quick fill cap,  a 23" brass exhaust header and pipe. Ignition is handled by a large coil of unknown make and automotive condenser with (2) Yale #102 (Brooklyn, NY ) size "D"  batteries and a custom brass ignition on-off switch mounted on the firewall, it still retains all of it's original cloth wiring. The engine is over 5" tall with an approximate 1" bore and 1" stroke for a .785 cubic inch displacement. The custom made engine is in proportion to the racers size and weight and is connected to the drive shaft by a tightly wound coiled spring that was intended to act as both  a coupler, universal joint and shock absorber. The drive shaft, axle supports and rear axle are all made of brass with a hard rubber friction disc drive assembly with steel rear radius rods. The tin body is made in sections and soldered to copper tubing, portions of the body are fastened to wood bulkheads with wood screws, small nails and brass tacks, with large 4" brass house door numbers on each side,and a brass wind shield frame, (made from an old furniture draw pull.) The aluminum dashboard has plastic covered gauge's and a cloth covered brass steering wheel. Both seats (large for driver, smaller for riding mechanic) are covered with leather upholstery, fastened with  nails and brass tacks, (seats are removable.) There is also a brass gas filler cap on the tail section. The complete body is easily  removable with two large wood screws, making fast accessibility to the ignition system, suspension and drive line. The one piece metal floor pan or belly pan is easily removable also. The wood radiator shell has 2 brass support rods, a brass mesh insert and a grill guard across the front, it also has a brass radiator cap! A rope bridle is fastened to the frame with two steel eyelets. The ashtray tires are from the 1930's, commonly sold by tobacco/cigar stores, tire manufacturers or auto parts dealers for advertising their business, they usually sold for about 15 cents each. The glass ash tray inserts were removed and four wheels (hubs) were turned on a lath, rather then using metal jar lids as recommended in the plans . The tires measure 5 1/2" tall (Goodyear Balloon - 6.00- 21, diamond tread)    A great example of a pre-war home built racer from the very earliest days of the hobby and... the only 1920's style, two-man tether car we have seen . Photo's of the finished model are NOT included.......What can you build ?
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