PASER Co-founder Bob McFarland (Page 1 of 2)

Many of us raced with him just a few weeks ago, he was still fast.

I only got to race with him a couple of times. The first time after seeing I was a newer guy to 1/24th racing, he immediately started to help me out. He wanted to see my cars, gave me some tech tips, and let me drive a couple of his awesome cars to get a feel for how they run. This attitude and excitement to grow and invest in something he loved will not be forgotten.

I am glad I got to meet and run paint with him on a couple of occasions, he will definitely be missed as one of the staple members of the community.

Zack

Sad news

Memories...

I have one car that was built with the help of Bob - a Chaparral 2D.  The chassis is a thing of beauty as was Bob.  We worked it over a couple of sessions.  He was helpful as could be to the fumble-fingered one.

Do they scratch-build in heaven?

Bob was a pioneer in the world of 1/24 hard body slot car chassis building. His chassis still represent the leading edge of hard body chassis design. Here are a few of Bob's creations for you to take a look at.

This was a Porsche 962 Bob raced. Note the piece of electrical circuit board use as a terminal block for the motor wire to guide flag connection point.

This chassis was built to compete in Pelican Park's TT Class and features a Resilient Resins body made by the late Doug Haynes.

Another one of Bob's D3 chassis.

The dimensions of this chassis allow it to accept different bodies and compete in various classes. It is seen here with a Mercury body, but some Trans Am and later model stock car bodies also fit this chassis.

This is a narrow sports car chassis.

Another wider sports car chassis.

This chassis could also be fitted with various bodies. This Ferrari F50 was just one body option for this chassis.

This is a really small chassis built by Bob.

This looks to be some sort of unlimited class chassis?

Amazing craftsmanship. I already learned so much from his cars at the races.  Thanks for sharing, many good ideas there!

Zack

With this Coronavirus thing going on I've been spending a lot of time in the shop going through boxes and trying to get things put away and organized. I think I have found most of the chassis I have that Bob McFarland built. I first started collecting Bob's chassis when I attended one of the races at Lee Dundas' in Wilsonville in the early 1908's. In addition to this particular race up in the attic of his barn, Lee held a swap meet where guys could sell some of the stuff they were no longer using. Bob had brought out quite a few of his "no longer current" chassis to sell. The later ones went really quickly as I remember. At the end of it all there was still a little pile of chassis left over. I have always felt that all of Bob's chassis were works of art, and his ingenuity just fascinated me! So I bought the remaining pile from him. After that I would pick them up whenever he would part with one, or somebody else would be selling one. So here's some old Bad Bob stuff for you guys to check out.

I was away from slot car racing with the PASER group from 1989 or so until right around 1995. Somewhere in that time frame they were racing their NASCAR class using this type of rattle chassis. I remember Larry Cockerham calling them sliders as the side pans would move for and aft. I don't know who came up with these but, it wouldn't surprise me if it was Bob! You can see by the rear axle and motor bracket this is one of Bob's older designs. Before the use of the machined motor and axle brackets Bob would fabricate his own set up using a brass sheet motor plate and steel rod to locate the axle bearing. Bob had a special metal block machined to serve as a jig to perfectly align the motor output shaft with the rear axle centerline.

This chassis was one of Bob' mules. It had been built and reworked many times, as evidenced by all the soldering residue and cut pieces. There was all kind of experimentation going on with this one! Evidently it didn't work out as I have not seen any other chassis with any of these innovations included.

This is a later chassis, built in early 2001. Sometime after I acquired this chassis, Bob and I were talking about chassis design and I had asked about weight and chassis thickness for hardbody cars. Bob told me .090" brass was optimum for chassis pan thickness. He said he had experimented with .105" but found it too be too heavy. I did not realize until today I actually had that experimental chassis. I noticed all the holes drilled in it and thought that was odd, so I mic'd it. This is that McFarland .105" chassis, from now on to be known as the McFarland 105!

And the best for last! Check this baby out! I'm thinking Bob built this chassis after seeing one of Parma's Scorpion chassis. The Scorpion had a similar center pivot for the rear end. But look at the innovation in Bob's design. The steel wire arms and the square tubing inside the tubing help locate and dampen the movement of the rear section. It all moves very precisely! Amazing!