# How Grunger rocks a Matchbox chassis



## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Everyone's wound up with at least one of these cars at one point or another. Why Matchbox decided to build a slot race system completely incompatible with the 'normal' stuff is beyond me. Theres no telling how many of these have gotten tossed out carelessly by someone who thought they were useless. But they are easily converted to be run on standard AFX/Tyco/LL track. You just have to put in the time. The good news is, it doesnt take advanced modeling skills to get these to work. In some cases, they need only the slightest of mods. Here we go:

There are actually 3 main variations on this chassis. What we got here in the states was the Speedtrack system. It ran on 6 volts, either by way of batteries or a wall wart. Over in the U.K. they got the Powertrack system, which was a full on 12 volt system. They both used the same basic track which has the power rails set much closer than 'standard' HO track. Theoretically, these cars should work on 1/43, 1/32, or 1/24 track also, provided you could get the power right. Here are some reference pics--from left to right: SpeedTrack chassis (front wieght removed), Powertrack chassis #1 (converted with Tyco TCR pickups) and Powertrack chassis #2 (traction magnet and all capacitors and lights removed).

Top view:









Bottom view:









SpeedTrack chassis: Runs on 6 volt power, and has the narrow set pickup skis. To run on 12V and up power paks, the motor will have to be changed out, since the 'brushes' are simply thin copper wires. Otherwise, its a Johnson motor with an armature and magnet block similar to what came on some Tyco HP-2s. More than a minute at full 12v throttle and those whisker brushes are toast:









PowerTrack chassis #1: Almost identical to SpeedTrack chassis. Still has the narrow set pickups, but this one has a Johnson motor similar with regular brushes and barrels and even more closely resembles the same motors used in some Tyco HP-2 chassis. 

PowerTrack chassis #2: This one has the same basic layout but has a lot of changes and improvements. On these, the pickups are much wider so they will work on either MB track, or standard track. The motor is much more powerful, its a greenwire mabuchi with leaf spring motor brushes. Its kind of a hybrid between the greenwire HP-7 motors and the mabuchi motors used in Tyco HP-2s, since the pinion is the shorter length and it has the stronger motor magnets. These are pretty powerful motors. There is a single traction magnet (removed in the picture) but it sits close to the center of the chassis; and will cause it to crabwalk on standard track. 

These also have several little capacitors and things on the front of the chassis, since they seem to have only been released in Europe, and they are apparently required. The sample chassis has had those removed as well, but be careful to leave enough of the wire from these to reconnect the pickups to the motor brush tabs since removing the doodads will sever the electrical connection. A few of these sort of were sold here in the states, since LJN had used the same design on the Voltron race set, and an ultra-rare GoBots race set as well. These chassis have the LJN stampings underneath, and the voltron ones used different wheels. 

Directions on converting these in the following posts.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

With the SpeedTrack chassis, you have to address the motor issue first of all. If you have any spare motor endbells with brush barrels, then you can just ditch the stock 'whisker' style endbell and swap on the brushes. The armature itself seems just fine with the higher voltage. But pay attention to the size of the pinion bushing on the endbell. The best type for this conversion is from a Mabuchi HT-50 motor like used on TycoPros, Lional Power Passers, or Ideal TCR jam cars. The bushing protrusion is smaller and matches the cradle on the chassis. You can also use the part from early Tyco Curvehuggers; either the johnson or mabuchi part should work. The CH motor magnets are pretty strong, so consider swapping in the whole motor and mixing and matching the armatures. You can come up with some trick combos by experimenting. 

While the SpeedTrack chassis needs the motor and the pickups dealt with, the PowerTrack chassis #1 just needs the pickups modded. Bone stock, they both use the same pickups which are set too close together to work on 'standard' slot track. The best way to handle this is to get a pair of serviceable Tyco TCR pickup skis and mod them to fit. The MB pickup hanger's slot is just a slight bit too narrow to fit the pivot on the TCR part, so it needs to either be dremeled a bit with a cutting wheel, or filed in just a bit. It doesnt need much, and be sure to cut on the side of the 'wing' of the pickup, so as to splay them out towards the pickup rails. The stock part is on the right, the modded part on the left:









The little nubs on the front of the chassis that retain the notches on the fronts of the pickups are too wide for the TCR part, so those will have to be narrowed. Filing works best here, since you have to be careful not to break them off entirely. The chassis are a durable delrin similar to black tyco curvehuggers, but it can be a bit brittle so be careful! On this part, you'll need to remove a bit more material. Again, the stock part is on the left, the modded part on the right:









Usually the rear axle gears and pinion gears on PowerTrack #2 chassis are in great shape, the material used is far superior to the other 2. SpeedTrack and PowerTrack #1 tend to be cracked as those parts are a bit brittle. All I can say here is EXPERIMENT!!! Depending on what chassis you have, you may have to do some cutting where the rear axle mounts, as the design has changed somewhat from time to time. Personally, Ive swapped in a lot of LifeLike gearsets, since the crown gear and save tend to be the most compact. On some, I wanted to use AFX type wheels, so Tomy Super G+ gearsets were used. Just carefully file out the axle bosses to fit, since MB used .059 axles same as Tyco and Lifelike.


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

And here are a couple examples of why the Matchbox chassis design is so versatile. Both bodies are my own resin casts, based on diecast matchbox cars. Pretty appropriate!
Ive only used the MB in 2 full custom setups, but they are 2 of my coolest creations. 


The diecast I used to cast this was from about the same time that MB had their slotcar line, so you gotta wonder why they didnt make a version like this on their own? Those are the stock wheels from the MB chassis, painted flat black and the rim painted silver. The front axle mounts to the chassis on this one, and the motor is a frankenstein of CH motor block, Tomy redwire arm, and HP-7 endbell. With fat silicones out back and no magnetic traction, it screams!



















This Jeep is a replica of the '00 TJ Sport Ive owned since '03. Again, its one that I molded and cast off of a matchbox diecast. The narrow front section allowed me to fit the hugest tires ever for an HO slotcar all the way around on this one. AFX 4-gear wheels and tall dragster tires all the way around give this baby the mean stance that my own 'Beast' has going on! It uses a similar motor to the VW, only a goldwire HP-7 arm since this thing is just too tall for the power of the redwire piece. As you can see, I still had to grind down the insides of the tires a bit to clear all the chassis, but its still big and mean. AND, it (barely) fits on its own lane on Tyco track. I had to stuff a JL Tuff ones front axle in there to get an indy rotating front end, since those honkin tires have so much grip that this thing would grind to a halt in the turns. Again, with all the truck and 4x4 bodystyles that were popular in the '70s and the fact that MB was in the position to make one with proper huge tires all around, who knows why they didnt make a Jeep, RamCharger, or F-150 all raised up?




























If someone were to re-pop this chassis with the improvements of the PowerTrack #2 design while modernizing it a bit, who knows what kind of wild customs could be born? You can just imagine what kind of T-bucket, sandrail, or other crazy looking cars could be squeezed onto one of these with a little ingenuity.


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## gonegonzo (Jan 18, 2006)

Nice concept.

Gonzo


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

:thumbsup:


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## 1scalevolvo (Feb 5, 2004)

While I did similar modifications I found it easier to get more High performance by swapping in TYCO 440 or G+ chassis.Grat ideas though !


Neal:dude:


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Neal, you mean 440 or G+ motors and magnets maybe?


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

very well done!


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## T-jetjim (Sep 12, 2005)

Great post. I have a couple of matchbox just idle in the the to do box. I had planned on soldering extensions on the pickups, but I have the TCR pick ups in my pile. I also appreciate the warning on the motor. I never would have looked at it and would have apparently fried it out in the process.
Jim


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