New BWA Inserts

Here's some new inserts I've just started to produce, most have been in the works for some time now, and, a few rather newish ones.

First off, here's the very long awaited Porsche 917 5 spoke insert. I always get requests for this one.

BW45001

Along with this, it's sister, the Chevron, also used on some Porsche 917s as well I believe.

BW45002

Here's one I've had on the bench since I started about 6 or 7 years ago. This is the ubiquetous Halibrand wheel as used on mid 50s Sports Racers like the Scarab.

BW45003

This one I've had in limited quantities for a couple of years now. This is the six spoke wheel used mostly on the Lola T70 SPYDER. It differs from the T70 Coupe wheel, in having straight instead of tapered spokes, and, six bolt fixing instead of a knockoff.

BW45004

Porsche Fuches, what can I say

BW45005

This is the rather strange, rather ugly (Well, OK, so, it's VERY ugly) mag wheel, that, I believe was only ever used on the Lola GTs

BW45006

And, last, but, certainly not least, is one I believe to be a mid Fifties BRM wheel, rather odd looking thing I think. BW45007

For more info and to purchase these and many other fine BWA inserts, click here

Some new BWA Products

Here are some of my newer products. These include the front and rear stamped chassis brackets to work with my new NC1 equivalent FF050 Slimline Motor, as well as the new motor and my new narrower wheels.




This new motor is a direct replacement for any RTR Slot Car powered by a Slimline FF050 size motor, and, gives very close to the same power output as an NC1 type motor. It realy tames these rather overpowered rocket propelled cars and makes them much more drivable, especially for no mag wood situations.

The new stamped Brass brackets designed specificaly for Slimline motor use enable anybody, whether beginner or expert alike to easily build a very nice, very simple chassis for smaller 1/32 scale cars, and, more especialy for early GP and F1 cars.

Part nos for these products are:

Stamped Brass Brackets

BWB50021 Rear Axle/Motor bracket for any FF050 or FF030 size motor.
BWB50022 Front bracket for above.
For more information, click here.

Motor

BWM050S BWA Sport FF050 Slimline motor
For more information, click here

Wheels

BW32000-093 Skinny 15" wheels, .450 ID for 3/32 axles with setscrew fitting
BW32000-062 Skinny 15" wheel, 1/16 bore, no setscrews for Freewheeling front setup.
For more information, click here .

First day on the Blog

Well, here I am, first day on the Blog, and, not a clue what to talk about. Well, obviously gonna chat about Slot Cars, since my Blog is about Slot Cars.

Anyway, my name is Al Penrose, more commonly known in the Slot Car world as BWA and, I'm a Slot Car Junky for sure. Got hooked Christmas 1959 (Yikes, can't believe it's been that long) when I got my first Slot Car set. It was an Eldon small figure eight set.

Man, was that a fun Christmas. I just about wore those poor cars out. And, as you can all surmise, it was down hill from there on, pretty much to the present day.

I was 10 years old at the time, and, it wasn't long (probably next day actualy) before I was taking the cars apart, first just to service them, and, then, to see what I could do to make them run better. These were the two red and white "Ferrari" Clamshell style cars. Within a week or two, I had pretty much just about worn them out. It wasn't too much longer before I dissasembled them completely and started using the parts for my first scratchbuild. This was made out of K&S brass tubing (Dad was a model railroad guy at the time, so, there was lots of brass and wire around to build stuff with.) and cut and soldered by me (Dad was also an early radio and TV technician, so, lots of soldering stuff around. I think I was soldering pretty well at the ripe old age of six or seven.) into a rather clever little brass tube chassis that actualy had a steering front end that worked quite well.

I remember most of the details of that first scratchbuilt, but, cannot for the life of me remember what I did for the guide. The original Eldon cars had upside down lightly sprung brass rivits for pickups rather than the braid most of us are familiar with, and had just a small nylon pin for the guide. I know the steering cross arm was connected in some way to whatever guide I did use, but, can't for the life of me rember what was that I did use. Oh Well! It was indeed a long time ago.

After that, it was off to the shops, mostly Eaton's and the Hudson's Bay stores in downtown Winnipeg where we lived at the time, actualy Windsor Park, an early Subburb of Winnipeg. About a half hour's buss ride and a 10-15 minute walk along Portage Avenue if I didn't transfer to a Portage bus. Both stores had pretty good full service hobby departments at the time, with lots of wooden model airplanes hanging from the ceilings. Plastic model kits were fairly new in those days, having just started in the mid fifties, so, even a lot of model car kits were still made of wood and cardboard. Lots of old wood and glass display cabinets full of merchandice and built models, and, most importantly, lots more Eldon Slot Cars, AND track. At least one of the stores had a small tabel tennis size track up, I believe it was Scalextric rubber track, with all the various buildings bridges grand stands people flags and stickers that went with them. It was heaven.

I guess I ended up with about 60 feet of track and six or eight various Eldon cars that first year, and, later discovered other manufacture' products, mostly Strombecker and some Scalextric.