Motor Collection - Old School Horsepower

[BattleTrak]

My Losi double turn, which I think is an Insane..has no engravings and only this “I” on the armature.

[Frankentruck]

I thought can engravings we're all added by the person that purchased the motor. I don't remember new motors from any maker ever having engraving in the can finish.

[coxbros1]

Dinglems engraving looks just like mine

[R6cowboy]

Dinglems engraving looks just like mine

Mine as well. But like Ed mentioned, I always thought the engravings were from the purchaser and not from the factory/maker.

[dinglem]

I have my original WetMag IV which came with the engravings from when i opened the packet so I can confirm they were there from the factory.

They all look the same. I have a WetMag IV, WetMag II and an I now all of which have them.

I actually make a point of looking out for the markings now and if i buy others i will ensure they are the marked examples.

[dinglem]

My I is posted above, but here are my other two. I saw a B (Brutus) etched in another thread also.

WetMag II

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wetmag 2.jpg (26.7 KiB) Viewed 819 times

WetMag IV

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4.jpg (47.66 KiB) Viewed 819 times

[dinglem]

I thought can engravings we're all added by the person that purchased the motor. I don't remember new motors from any maker ever having engraving in the can finish.

As well as the Revolutions, Mick Goddard used to engrave all motors he built, including spec and his signature.

Also the Checkpoint Platinum Series had the wind details etched into the alloy endbells.

[Frankentruck]

That's actually really excellent that several manufacturers did markings. It's frustrating not knowing the specs of unmarked motors

[dinglem]

It is great... until you open up the motors and find the wrong armature... then you have to try to source the correct one! Mick also clearly marked his armatures so his are easy to sort. As you say, it makes life a whole lot better rather than having to guess everything or use the inductance meter to determine the wind.

[MarkyDents]

Did all the aluminum endbell Team Checkpoint motors have such adorable sized brushes ??

[dinglem]

Yup, slot brushes.... harking back to the slot car origins of many of the RC motor builders. Quite a few motors can be found with modular endbell slot conversions - there were a few companies who offered them. I try to collect them whenever i come across them. I am waiting on delivery of an early Trinity example at the minute.

I also have a rare example of a pre-Platinum Series HPI-Uno based Checkpoint which also has slot brushes, although in modular endbell format.

The Trinity slot-converted examples are the best known after the Checkpoints. I have a few MG examples too.

Some of the early Igarashi motors had modular slot brush conversions fitting inside their rather plain looking plastic endbells too. Something I am always on the lookout for.

[TheDiamondOne]

Did all the aluminum endbell Team Checkpoint motors have such adorable sized brushes ??

I have to say, those tiny brushes look the part of pure race. But i prefer the standard size. They last way longer and can rip just as hard. Our Brutus motor is proof of that.

[dinglem]

There is certainly a performance difference, hence why they began messing around with cut brushes later on to essentially achieve the same thing, and also Gil Losi Jr. won the '85 off road Worlds using a Kyosho-based Trinity motor with the slot brush modular endbell.

That, and the looks, is why they sell at a premium over the boggo standard brush design. Similarly the Checkpoint range, which always seem to be in high demand.

Torque, revs and amp draw all change.

[TheDiamondOne]

Martin i dont discredit your opinion. However, we had the gil losi 85 ifmar motor nip with the slot car brushes. It wasnt until we put a trinity aluminum endbell on it with full size brushes that it came to life. Just our experiences mind you. But this Barely used Brutus dry mag with big brushes sealed the deal.. Anyway, just me and Dereks experiences. Dig all your work and knowledge!

[dinglem]

My biggest surprise based on my own experiences is the vast chasm of performance difference between off-the-shelf motors and the proper full-blown team provided motors.

I remember the whole time i was racing at club level the fastest motor i came across was (coincidentally) a 17turn Revolution motor ran buy a guy called Peter Smith at our local club. After the meeting, which he won, we got it out and he agreed to run it on the dyno. It gave 31,000rpm which at that time was the highest revving motor i had come across. We are talking around 87 or early 88 here i would guess.

I had not seen anything like that before, but once sponsored by MG the motors i subsequently received totally buried that figure. We regularly saw max revs up in the 40,000's, and the batch i received from Team Schumacher driver (who was also sponsored by MG for the Florida International event in the early 90's) saw one motor max out the dyno, which had a max rev count of 50,000rpm, so it was putting out way over that. The needle was maxed to the right at what looked to be >60,000rpm. I guess the time put in to those team motors by the motor builders was what made all the difference. I don't think you could ever buy that kind of performance off the shelf. When i sent it off to my motor builder for a full zap, skim and magnet re-alignment he could not believe what he was seeing. I really need to get it on to my Integy digital dyno to find out how far over 60,000rpm it is actually going.

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10s.jpg (73.7 KiB) Viewed 1136 times

Going back to the slot brush conversation - i would guess that when the Yokomo style open endbell design came about, with milder winds and lower performance winds being the norm, the small gains from slot brushes would have made a difference at the highest level. As winds dropped due to better cell availability, then larger brushes may have proved advantageous. There are articles and articles on the benefits of various cut brush designs for performance, and to me these just point back to the slot brush days. I don't think those guys would have been worried about how much longer the larger brushes lasted.... back then motor rebuilds, skims and new brushes every race or two were considered normal.

The other interesting factor nobody really seems to consider is torque figures. Max revs mean nothing without torque. Interesting for me is the motor which has given my my highest torque reading on the Torque meter is an very old Igarashi MG 26Single modified... one from the very infancy of modified motors. It had been popped open, machined for ball-races and had vent holes drilled in the sides of the can, and was then hand (re)wound by Mick Goddard. The amp draw is super low at 1.4amps but the torque is 50% higher than any other motor i have ever tested.

The best all round performer i have is a Reedy BK Select which was sent to team Reedy driver Jimmy Davis. It shows 51,000rpm, with a medium amp draw of 3.9amps but has a relatively high torque reading also.