What were the most desirable motors in the 80s-90s?

[civilguy]

We raced indoors on indoor/outdoor carpet or at the rollerskating rink. The Kyosho LeMans 240 motors were big in the modified classes and the 360 (550 can) were great in 4wd classes.... although never ROAR legal. When we had trophy races (and might get tech'd) I ran a 480 in the Hotshot.
They were relatively affordable too.
BTW when did all these motors come out? I stopped racing in 1987.

Edit: I did race Trinity Monster Horsepower 1985 motors in stock class, so that one I know. I recall Checkpoint but I seem to remember they were too much coin for a high school income.

[Jay Dub]

Shodog, where are you located (i mean in SJ that is). I am south SJ, right off 85. -You race, or just collect?

[Brandon G]

I ran Revtech when I first started racing. I eventually stayed with the Trinity Monster HP stock. I also ran Precision motor works, Reedy Competition stock, and a Wimpy but the fastest was the Trinity.

[civilguy]

Which years was that Brandon?

[LTO_Dave]

The TMS Big Jim pinks and greens ruled the carpet oval I used to race at in the 90's.

[Brandon G]

Which years was that Brandon?

89-91

Those were the days. In San Diego county you COULD race up to 5 times a week if you so chose. Many of times we were at El Cajon speedway with over 75 signups on a Wednesday night.

[civilguy]

Which years was that Brandon?

89-91

Those were the days. In San Diego county you COULD race up to 5 times a week if you so chose. Many of times we were at El Cajon speedway with over 75 signups on a Wednesday night.

That's cool-- our Saturday racing was in the neighborhood of 40-50 entries if I recall, with a mix of all sorts of brands. I just wanted to assure myself that I wasn't losing my mind... I was out of racing by mid-1987 so those motors didn't look familiar for a reason.

[Bimdapogs]

I've been given the chance to choose from this lot, but I can only pick 2. Which 2 would you pick? I want to pick out the best from the bunch, but I've no idea which is which.

[Eau Rouge]

I've no idea which is which.

Then it won't matter which you get, will it?


The originals all use slot car brushes (vintage 36D) which are almost impossible to find, so running them is almost suicide for such a collectible. These motors were all designed to run on 7-cells, too, so with today's electronics, they aren't really useful for anything but beautiful shelf queens. They are such rare and valuable motors, running them in a car should be forbidden, anyway. I wouldn't necessarily worry about which is which unless you are looking to re-sell them. Take the cleanest ones he has and run.

All Checkpoints are wicked motors, but stick with the machined endbell versions with the steel cans and wet magnets (so not #2). The best motors Big Jim ever made were the wet mag Platinum II with the machined endbell and the .063" thick steel can.

I have a case of them, some without decals on them, and that collection is fantastic. If it were me picking from that lot, I would take #1 and #4 from the left. #4 is the gem in that group, IMO.



Good luck, that's a rare and wonderful find. You're very lucky to have the opportunity to find those and buy a couple. Most people will never even ever get to buy one, let alone see one in person.


-doug

[Bimdapogs]

Thanks! I've been wondering what the different color labels mean, do they correspond to a different number of turns or something? They're definitely nice. I was thinking of offering $ for the whole lot, but I can't find reference as to what to offer.

[tamiyadan]

.

[treehugger]

Good luck, that's a rare and wonderful find. You're very lucky to have the opportunity to find those and buy a couple. Most people will never even ever get to buy one, let alone see one in person.

\
well know i know what they look like thank you .i hear that name banded about and always wondered what the fuss was about

Paul

[nicefrog]

I used to race stock class with a slot machine and had a fairly good straight line speed advantage over everyone else at the time

[notme]

I loved revtech back in the day. Every one I bought was awesome. Only problem was trying to get them.
Twister was pretty good, but hit and miss. I had several that were just dogs.
I bought 1 LRP that was ballistic but was a paperweight after 1 raceday.
Working for the yokomo distributor I had several yoke mods, many never seen abroad. They were good, needed some tweaking to get performance. I wish I kept some of them, extremely rare these days.

[USA-1]

Hi, I Just joined I used to work for a hobby store back in the late 80 early 90's
I still have a few of these since all my cars are fairly old.
I raced mostly Trinity Modified or Reedy Ultra series back then.