Topic: Tifosi Racing

These are some early videos of Dave Naylor's track during construction. Dave was the founder of Tifosi Racing here in the Pacific Northwest.

https://www.facebook.com/1345468004/vid … 969602692/

https://www.facebook.com/1345468004/vid … 573022714/

Re: Tifosi Racing

That track looks awesome!
Too bad I don't have facebook to see the second video.

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There is more to follow on this topic..............I'm just getting started............

This is just some background stuff as I was searching for some Northwest slot car history...........

Re: Tifosi Racing

At sometime in the early 2000's, one of my local slot car heroes had a dream. He wanted to develop and manufacture a bolt together slot car chassis that could compete with the scratchbuilt brass chassis being built and raced in the Pacific Northwest. That is a tall order but Dave Naylor felt he could achieve that goal. The chassis design he came up with was a piece of art in my opinion. They always fascinated me with their precise and intricate machining work and parts design. One of the drawbacks for me at that period in time was cost. I just couldn't afford the cost of one of Dave's chassis.

Unfortunately the Tifosi Chassis never became popular. They were complicated and difficult to set up. Very few of the local racers were able to get one of the chassis up to speed. It's too bad, especially considering the time, effort, and expense Dave put into the project. But my lust and love for those chassis never ended, and as luck would have it over the last few years I have been able to pick up a few. I now consider myself an official Tifosi Chassis collector, so if you have any you want to unload, let me know.

So that brings us up to yesterday. For some reason, while I was working on my Porsche 962 Scholer chassis I decided to pull out one of my Tifosi chassis. This particular one was kind of a mess with a lot of the plates glued together. Luckily Zack had stopped by to do some testing and he gave me some great advise for tearing this particular chassis down. Out came the propane torch! Not the little one, the big one connected to map gas! After some serious heat applied I was able to separate all the different plates. Today I cleaned all the plates up using extensive amounts of Goof Off!

Here's what one of the plates/pieces looked like after I got them all separated.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_4895tifosi.jpg

These are all the plates  and pieces that were used in the construction of this one chassis.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_4899tifosi.jpg

Re: Tifosi Racing

Now I know I should focus on building and working on the cars I actually race, but sometimes I just can't help myself from taking off after a rabbit........or two.....Zack made an excellent comment, and I think it probably applies to me. He said "some guys biggest problems with their race program is they have too many cars."....Yup, that would probably be me!

But what can I say, I love them all and especially old stuff! Anyway I have no idea where my Tifosi project is going, where it will end up, or when. But for right now it's on the bench.......Good news, I got my Porsche 962 Scholer chassis work completed! That one is race ready again!

Check out this monster Tifosi motor bracket!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_4900tifosi.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_4902tifosi.jpg

Part of the design and philosophy of the Tifosi chassis was that by purchasing additional plates and or modifying them, you could configure the chassis to fit various bodies and classes of racing. The chassis could also be tuned by adding different plates and parts.

Here's a couple photos of another complete chassis I have (luckily I have more chassis that are complete so I can figure out how the hell to put the one I tore apart back together!).
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_4897tifosi.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_4898tifosi.jpg

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David was always super nice to AJ and me. Very helpful with advice. Where is Dave these days?

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

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Yes, I always thought David was a great guy!

Last I heard he moved to California. He has a Facebook page, but I have not seen anything posted by him for years.

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These are very interesting indeed. I think there are some really good ideas here, and some things are too complicated or overlooked.

Sounds like a fun project to play with! My suggestion is to go with a lexan Bluegroove body, only because I think that will give you the best shot at having it work well!

Zack

Re: Tifosi Racing

Thanks for the tip Zack, I agree! I don't know if I have the knowledge or skill to make one of these work well, but I'm going to try to get something that works. I'm pretty sure getting one of these chassis to work well with a hardbody is beyond my skill level!

Re: Tifosi Racing

Good thing you do have some that are already put together looks complicated.
Did he outsource the manufacture of the chassis parts?
What type of metal is the motor bracket made out of? It looks indestructible.

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I'm not sure who he had machine the parts.

The motor bracket is machined aluminum.

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TWO THINGS!

1. I've learned more about these Tifosi chassis than I ever needed to know!

2. I have spent WAY too much time messing with it!

The Tifosi website appears to be long gone. I don't know of anyplace that has any information on them. So just in case anyone (like me) has a Tifosi chassis that needs assembly here are some photos of the chassis and its construction (if anybody even cares).......

The chassis basically consists of four layers of stacked plates and parts. Kind of like making a sandwich.

This is the bottom or first layer which is laminated to the bottom side of the next or second layer. I don't know what was used for adhesive to assemble this particular chassis but, it took a LOT of heat to get the first two layers of plates separated!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP1.jpg

This bottom layer of plates seems to be used to keep the screw heads from hanging down below the bottom of the chassis. The screw heads are positioned in the cut-outs of the plate pieces. I guess that is much easier than trying to counter sink the screws in a piece of spring steel! I'm sure this layer also serves to add some desired overall weight.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP1a.jpg

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This is the second layer which the motor bracket/mount attaches to (in this photo the motor bracket is install backwards). Again, this layer is secured to the lower or first layer with adhesive as a laminated joint.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP2.jpg

After gluing the first two layers together the rest of the chassis is bolt together.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP2a.jpg

Re: Tifosi Racing

These are the pieces that make up the third layer. They are secured to the lower (second layer) using screw, washers, and nuts.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP3.jpg

Some of the pieces are captured rather than screw tightened, which allows those pieces to free float to some degree.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP3a.jpg

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These are the pieces that make up the fourth or top layer of the chassis.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiP4.jpg

These are all the components laid out in their respective layers. With each layer being approximately .050" thick, the finished chassis thickness is pretty porky at .200" overall!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tifosiPAP.jpg

Re: Tifosi Racing

Great documentation of the build!

Zack

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Thanks Zack....not much of a "build" yet...but one hell of a "tear apart"!

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I gave mine away. I had more words to say, but I better stop now. LOL.

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I certainly understand why Howie!