Retro Chassis Builders - Who's Who?

[oldweirdherald]

Kano was mentioned in post number 5

Thanks Bill - I saw it after I posted....

It sure is getting to be a long list! It's great to see that so many racers have revived the old art of chassis building! Especially after the advent in EDM & Lazer cut steel chassis seemed to take away a lot of the work, as well as the "art" & "hobby" aspects, out of scale & wing car chassis building.

While the pre-cut brass chassis components do make it easier to build retro chassis, they still allow for a lot of freedom and creativity to be used in the design & building of the chassis.

I still find it a bit ironic, as well as hopeful... that in today's fast paced "built-for-you" society... there is still so much creative talent being expressed in hand made hobbies and crafts... and especially when it comes to the art & engineering of building hand made slot car chassis.

PK @ OWH

[wjdougherty]

What about Mike Steube and PdL?? I would think they deserve a place...

[oldweirdherald]

What about Mike Steube and PdL?? I would think they deserve a place...

Scroll up Bill! I think you missed a few posts! LOL

While PdL has been one of the most innovative and influential chassis builders of all time (and never too humble to tell you that himself either LOL)... AFAIK he has not been building any chassis over the past couple years. PdL was actually mentioned already in one of the posts above.

Mike Steube is my idol - and I believe he played a very large role in the "rebirth" of Retro racing as we know it today. I'll have to share my story some other time of when PdL brought Steube to the Nats at BP, and how he built, autographed, and gave me the first chassis he had built in over 15 years... and got hooked on "Retro" slot car racing.

But once again... Mike Steube, sadly, is not currently racing or building chassis.

I wasn't really looking to build a slot car chassis builder's hall of fame in this thread...
but I'm more interested right now in who are the current hot retro chassis builders today.

PK @ OWH

[Bill Fulmer]

Paul you may have to split the thread into 1 Anybody who ever picked up a soldering iron 2 The top builders of the present 3 the top builders of yesteryears 4 John Cauthen

[Noose]

Scroll up Bill! I think you missed a few posts! LOL

I wasn't really looking to build a slot car chassis builder's hall of fame in this thread...
but I'm more interested right now in who are the current hot retro chassis builders today.

PK @ OWH

These are the "hot" chassis builders right now IMO

Bud Bartos
Mike Katz
Ed Sohl
Tony P
Rande Marshal
Duran Trujillio
Ray Duran
Cap Henry
Bryan Warmack
Dennis Samson
Eric Gehrken
GVP
Merriman

[oldweirdherald]

Paul you may have to split the thread into 1 Anybody who ever picked up a soldering iron 2 The top builders of the present 3 the top builders of yesteryears 4 John Cauthen

LOL! I guess I was just looking for #2 in this thread. Maybe another time for #3. No way will I attempt #1, as it seems to come up whenever asking about #2 or #3 anyway. And #4... where has he been hiding lately??? I think a search of JC's threads would be about all we need. I haven't seen him post here for a long time... and he usually resurfaces every 6 months or so. I better knock on wood... LOL

PK @ OWH

[oldweirdherald]

These are the "hot" chassis builders right now IMO

Bud Bartos
Mike Katz
Ed Sohl
Tony P
Rande Marshal
Duran Trujillio
Ray Duran
Cap Henry
Bryan Warmack
Dennis Samson
Eric Gehrken
GVP
Merriman

That's a pretty good short list, Noose, and coming from the guy who sees these chassis up close while teching them every month.

I can think of a few I would personally add, especially when you consider on a regional level... but with all the names mentioned here, we could go in circles all day & night.
This is very subjective, as I it is nearly impossible to define any sort of criteria that really means anything.

There are builders who only build for themselves, who's chassis make others scratch their heads and get them thinking... and there are some who mainly build for friends or customers.
And I'm sure there must be some who are cranking out chassis strictly for sale.

Of all the names mentioned so far... I only know of one of them who actually has a web site. Most or all of the others are strictly word or mouth.
I'm not even sure if any of them sell through distributors or raceways... as the normal markup would result in the cost going way up or profit just not worth the effort.

It does make me wonder how most new retro racers (if that is not a conflict in itself), go about getting or building their first retro chassis???

Retro is no doubt a growing segment of our hobby... and I may be wrong... but it still seems to be largely populated by more former slot car racers getting back into the hobby, then new racers just getting started.

How are most of these chassis being sold??? Are the photos and tech sheets the primary means of the word of mouth? Or are most of these contacts made in person at the big races?

Being 10,000 miles from attending any of these races in person, all I can see is what is posted in the online race reports.

Articles on building are very few and far between...

This is a good start to getting a list of top builders.

PK @ OWH

[Noose]

I can speak for our area here and a lot of the frames built by the guys above are being sold through raceways.

Some "used" ones too and then you see them on Facebook, here, Slot Blog or e-Bay.

We are seeing younger people and they are starting to build. They ask good questions of the guys building and have learned.

[NGRDan]

I can't speak for other Series or regions. But in the Penn Ohio Series, Ohio and Western PA without a doubt Bud Bartos is the top builder. His chassis are used by a large percentage of racers at every race. Scoring more wins in Penn Ohio with no other chassis even being close. His chassis have also scored wins at premier races too.

[Noose]

We are wrapping up our 8th Winter Series and we do Constuctor Award for the builder with the most points. Our top 6 are Edsel, Gehrken, Duran, GVP, Katz and Tony p. The top 3 are ones that build and run their own stuff.

[gascarnut]

When you start with chassis KITS from JK, RGEO, Swiss, or Samson, it is hard to build a POOR driver and all of the mentioned builders have built most of them - with and without modifications/innovations.

Samson does not supply kits, only fully-built frames.

[paul5097]

Samson does not supply kits, only fully-built frames.

And very nice chassis at that. I have two of them in my box.

[68Deville]

Shame on you guys, what about John Tore Anderson?
We have as well David Larson, Don Cambell and Foamy, the chassis by Jim Lange as well.
Face it some of the fast guys can race anything with four wheels so who won doesn't matter.
Duffy is a excellent builder as well, JJ Molnar has been stepping up as well and Jairus and not to forget the master in piano wire CMF3 and the master builder from Japan Kamo-san.



Nesta

[68Deville]

What happened with this tread? I thought it was a great tread to pay attention to the guys who sold a lot of chassis? Some of this guys are giving them away for free if you are a great racer.


Nesta

[Tex]

Nothing happened to the thread, Nesta; it was merely waiting for you, or someone else, to mention Tore and the others. Don't be so harsh on others for not remembering EVERY influential scratchbuilder. That's the whole point of the thread, Paul asked for people(plural, as opposed to "person") to chime in with their comments. "They" remember the builders they had close contact with... YOU remember the builders YOU had close contact with. Lighten up, dood.