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From: "Electric Dreams" <elecdreams@home.com> | This is Spam | Add to Address Book

Subject: Re: HO Magnet car.

Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 21:00:43 -0700

I agree with everything you said. Regardless of who did it first, you are the one who pushed the concept in HO racing and deserve the due credit for it. And I am convinced that you were unaware of my own research in early 1970, as there was little chance that you would have been a reader of MAR.

When I went to work for the COX company in 1973 and developed the 1/40^th "SuperScale", it was the first time that I was able to convince a manufacturer to use the magnet in a production car. Thus, the COX SuperScale line was the first PRODUCTION slot car in the world to use one specifically for added traction. However, the "Magna-Traction" by Aurora came in 1974 and were the first HO car to use the motor magnets for added traction, and the G-Plus (1975) was the second. But it took much longer for a HO manufacturer to install traction magnets which you developed and that I pushed without success on Riggen and Dynamic. I believe that Tyco did that in 1978. I am now retired but I run a business of vintage slot cars and parts called Electric Dreams in Costa Mesa, CA. But I have big plans to now develop and build my own 1/32 and 1/24 scale "T-Jet" like cars, in other words virtually maintenance free cars. I posted photos of the prototypes on OWH. As the COX SuperScale, they do not have lead wires, use a pin-type guide flag and have two magnets, one behind the guide, one below the motor. The motor greatly profit from the extra magnet and performance from a stock motor is actually increased. The sites where you can see these cars are: http://pub11.ezboard.com/ftheoldweirdherald132scale.showMessage?topicID=308. topic for the 1/32 scale and http://electricdreams.freeservers.com for the 1/24 scale.

The site where I posted the HO prototype photos and description is http://pub11.ezboard.com/ftheoldweirdheraldhoscale.showMessage?topicID=60.to pic All of these subjects created of course major controversy, but what the heck, I can take the beating.

I would be very pleased if you can take the time to visit me whenever you will be in SoCal. I thank you for the information that you provided and will be, along with the copies of the published stories, able to use it in my book.

I probably will give you a call when I am pinpointing some details in the story. May I have your authorization to use your response E-mail for clarifying the situation on DL’s on the net?

Of course, they are only toys, but we only live so long so let’s enjoy

every

aspect of the hobby!

Best regards,

PDL

----- Original Message -----

From: "Thomas Bowman" <horacer@yahoo.com>

To: "Electric Dreams" <elecdreams@home.com>

Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 10:49 AM

Subject: Re: HO Magnet car.

Hi Phillipe...
My first car may have been in 70 or 71, I don’t
know if it was before your car or not. My first
magnet car was a Bachmann, not an AFX, there are pix
on my web site. And it was at least six months after
the Bachmann was raced before I put magnets on an
Aurora car, and that was a Tuff One. However the AFX
was out at that time, but I reverted to the TuffOne
chassis, because I needed more ground clearance for
the mid-mounted traction magnet. I used the TO
chassis for awhile before developing a thinner
mid-mounted magnet that would work on an AFX. You may
have very well done your car first, as I can’t really
remember exactly when mine was built...but I was not
aware of your car and nobody told me about it, until
last year...when you put the MAR cover on the web.
But to me the important factor, is that I went around
promoting the concept and racing the car in the top HO
groups, HOPRA and HOUROC at the time. Generally, if
you talk to any of top HO racers of that time, I.E.
Randy Kemp, Ron Esterline, George Sherlock, Alan
Miltich, Jim Cauthon, Gary Beedle, Dave Ferguson,
etc...their first knowledge of a magnet car, was of my
car. I know you’ve done an incredible amount of slot
car development, and invented the Turbo controller and
worked with Cox, Riggen and other companies. But It
seems me, you didn’t do anything with your magnet car
at the time, where I actively promoted mine. My
thought is that who knows, if somebody living in some
remote part of world came up with the concept long
before you or I built a car...but if that was the case
they didn’t do anything to promote the technology.
After the Car Model article came out, Oscar Kovelski
called me and worked out a deal, he paid for a patent
search on the idea...his patent attorneys came up with
several related patents using magnetic axles on model
trains to help the train climb steep grades, so they
felt a useful patent couldn’t be obtained. I worked
with Auto World, and they came out with first a
package of magnets and then a clip to fit the AFX with
a front and rear magnet. I also wrote three articles
for the Aurora racing handbook, one on painting clear
bodies, how to build a split pan AFX and how to build
the two magnet brp MK I magnet AFX car. This article
never got published, because Aurora was coming out
with the Magna-Traction car and I believe Aurora had
AutoWorld kill the article.
I live in Virginia now, and probably won’t be in
California until next years Fray in Feb. I would be
happy to meet with you, and if I can contribute
anything for your book, I would be happy to do so. My
interest now and in the early 70’s is just promoting
the hobby. If you would like to talk to me in person,
my number is 757-471-3847. I’d like to hear more
about your plans.

Best Racing,
Tom

> --- Electric Dreams <elecdreams@home.com> wrote:

> Thanks Thomas, for your answer. My question is not
> of vanity of course (at
> my age I could not care less) but of accuracy. I
> made my magnet car (the
> source of controversy) as one of the first projects
> I did in the United
> States in May-June 1970. The car is illustrated (I
> still have it!) in the HO
> section of Old Weird Herald.
> When I saw the story by Kilgore in Car Model in ‘72,
> I showed it to Ray Hoy,
> MC&S and MAR publisher (who knew about my car since
> he published a photo of
> it in MAR in early 1971) and we had a good
> laugh...But it could be very
> possible that you actually had built a car LONG
> before the Car Model story.
> An easy way to find out is simple: if your first car
> was based on an AFX, it
> would date it relatively precisely because the AFX
> came in early 71.
> Assuming that you played a little while with the new
> car before you placed
> magnets on it, it would have been devised in mid 71.
> Does this make sense?
> I would like to write my book as accurately as
> possible...
> I would be really happy to meet you as you are a
> pioneer and I have a lot of
> respect for anyone using their head in this world of
> brain dead people.
> Where do you live, in ND or have you moved closer to
> heat?
> As you may know, we will organize a Proxy race in
> California in September.
> May be you could visit?
> Best regards,
> PDL

> >

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Thomas Bowman" <horacer@yahoo.com>

> To: "Electric Dreams" <elecdreams@home.com>

> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 9:15 PM

> Subject: Re: HO Magnet car.

> >

> > Hi Phillippe...

> > I of course know who you are, I remember an

> > article way back in MCS or CM when you just came

> over

> > from France, and had designed the Heller 512S, and

> > lot’s of slot car designs. In fact I’ve gotten

> into

> > 1/32^nd scale and I’m on the Slots@topica list. If

> > you’ve seen my web page,

> > http://www.00homepage.com/horacer ...I have a page

> > describing the magnet car development from my

> > prespective. Ed didn’t really have anything to do

> > with it, other than writing a CM article about

> adding

> > a third magnet to the front of a Tjet to boost the

> > magnet strength on the arm. Our club, HORA of

> Fargo,

> > was a leading HO club of the late 60’s to early

> > 70’s...we started adding extra motor magnets to

> the

> > sides of a tjet to improve on Ed’s 3 magnet

> design,

> > and noticed better handling as well as a stronger

> > effect on the armature. I then put a bar magnet

> on a

> > Bachmann, but don’t really know when all this

> happened

> > exactly. Our club had been racing magnet cars for

> > awhile before Orv Banasik and myself went to

> > California to race in the Houroc open in the

> Spring of

> > 72. There is an article about this race in the

> > current issue of HO Slot Car Journal, published by

> > Scale Auto’s Gary Beedle. I spent alot of time

> > promoting the idea of the magnet car, by building

> cars

> > and racing them around the country...Randy Kemp

> sent

> > one my cars to Howard Kilgore, who published it in

> Car

> > Model, (which is on my web page)...I just met

> Howard

> > at the Fray in Ferndale, California and we talked

> > quite a bit about those days, and he just sent me

> the

> > car that Randy Kemp had sent him, that one the

> Indiana

> > vs. Michigan race. I’m planning an article on it

> for

> > our webzine, HO World. So I don’t know if that

> helps

> > or not...hope to race with you one day.

> > >

> > > Best Racing,

> > Tom

> > --- Electric Dreams <elecdreams@home.com> wrote:

> > > Hello Thomas,

> > > My name is Philippe de Lespinay, and I had the

> > > hardest time to find you.

> > > Apparently, I was looking in all the wrong

> places.

> > > I am not too much of a HO enthusiast, but

> somehow I

> > > was involved in quite a

> > > few that were commercially produced, and some

> that

> > > were not.

> > > I am writing another book and would like to hear

> > > from you, when is the exact

> > > date at which you and I assume Ed Bianchi?

> > > constructed the first HO car with

> > > magnets added specifically to improve traction?

> My

> > > records show of course

> > > the Car Model 1972 story, but there is a time

> lag

> > > before that, and I am

> > > trying to pinpoint the date if you could

> remember.

> > > As you might know, I

> > > created a bit of controversy with my own car...I

> > > know that neither of us

> > > knew of each other at that time, and frankly

> until

> > > now.

> > > Best regards,

> > > PDL

> > > >

> > >

> > > =====