Hey monty!!! Tell me about the big "o"

[The Vitter]

Yep.....

It's MIB :cool: The BIG "O" Iso pro chassis built by Montey Ohern. The seal isn't even broken, man-o-man you just don't know how much I want to take it out of the box and check it out. I got this from Mark M. from SCR :cool: sooooo if you do not mind, maybe can you tell us about it ( the history) I'm sure that there are not many of 'um around these days.......

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f249/vitter415/MAR10017.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f249/vitter415/MAR10023.jpg

Thanks Monty!

[fxgeorge]

Nice chassis Vitter. Are you going to the Nats? Looks like Fred is, and me and Herman. It would be cool to have four from NORCAL. By the way, see ya on Saturday at Frank's. Oh, Monty, that's a nice chassis, isn't it? Will my G12 arm be sent out fairly soon? Vitter, there's too much junk on that workbench.

[Ramcatlarry]

It looks like it would pass tech as a TRUE retro pro IRRA or D3 car....I think I have one as well in the archival section of my closet. My has definitly been on the track and probably needs to be rejigged.

See you at SANO 4....? or the worlds at Rogers...

[formerracer]

Wow! This brings back memories of Crash & Burn Raceway when it was on Sherman Way..... I believe these chassis were produced for the series Charlie Holland was promoting (and when he was working at Riggen) around SoCal. The date of that chassis should be 1974-1976? I'm sure Monty will have much more info.

[[email protected].]

The Isopro chassis was a simplified version of the cars that I (along with San Diego and Arizona racers such as Dave Portz, Neil Kuhns, Art Tarver, Dave Fortner et al) tended to run from 1971-1980. The full race version had floppy pans. Both Dave and I are curious as to whats printed on the white paper included in the box (I have no idea after 37 years!), but I told him NOT to open it for any reason.

These that were remarketed by Riggen were built in the Spring of 1973 as I attended SDSU. I rented a garage from a school buddy's grandmother, and with a little part time help from Bob "Charger" Johannis, and non slotracers Steve Cline and Anne Schulz, built about 280 of them. We also did a final truing cut on a Pro line of tires sold by Riggen, and sold multicolored guide flags and a few other hardware items under the Big O label.

My father passed away right at the end of that semester, and I closed up shop and moved back in with Momma in the Canoga Park district of the San Fernando valley, never returning to SDSU and also never finishing the education.

It was in December of '73 that I made a 'couldn't turn it down' deal with Charlie Holland and took over Crash n' Burn, running it for 7 years, and culminating with hosting the World Championship race of July, 1980.

I made the pro main of that race, using a derivitive of these chassis.

Mannion had this chassis in his mini-museum at Slotcar Raceway of Santa Rosa for years. I don't know how you talked him out of it! NorCal's early retro racing organization, the VMRA, named one of their classes 'Isopro', presumably after this car. VMRA predates SoCal's D3 by quite a while, incidentally, just in case any of you buy into the myth that the D3 crew invented nostalgia class racing. So yes, Larry, this is as true retro-pro as it gets!

George, don't criticize Dave's bench too much: I have SIX workstations in my garage-shop these days, all at least as messy (but not covered in old newspapers), and subscribe to the beleif that a bench too neat has little work done on it! Your armature won't be too long, and the others we spoke of should be done today. Dave indicates to me that he will make the Nats - don't let him weasel out of it, OK? He works too hard to never take a week off to go racing. Fred was wise (as only geezers can be) and got his Contender arms months ago. Herman will have his before boarding the plane for Belgium. NorCal should be well represented at the Nats, and properly equipped as well.

Thanx for the memories!

M

[slotforce]

$16.95 back in those days was a lot of dough...That's like $90 nowadays! Very cool piece O history you got there. Also, is that right showing that chassis is #001 out of the 280? :-o

[[email protected].]

Chris,

Chris,

The #001 was Riggen's pro series part number.

Don't I wish I got the $16.95! Riggen bought the plate pieces from Associated, and I paid for the tubing and piano wire out of the $6 each I received. On the other hand, the garage was $20/month, and the room at my boarding house was $40 including kitchen and laundry access. Gas for my '68 Mustang was 31 cents/gallon. The California State scholarship I was on paid tuition and $500 for the year. All things considered, 1972-73 was decent living. If you figure out a way to go back, I'm there!!

M

[rca90gsx]

Great to see some history there Vitter!!! Can't wait to meet all of you NorCal guys at the nationals!!! Really excited for this race!

-Richie

[The Vitter]

Some very cool history there Monty!

Thank you for sharing it with us! It would be VERY COOL to know what's on that paper? Hey George you should have seen the work bench before I cleared a hole for the chassis to take a few pictures of it! I'm in the tare down motor mode and the newspaper works for me. When I'm in motor assembly mode I brake out a NEW piece of newspaper.That's very cool that "The Codger" is making the trip! I'm there, I just have to rearange my vacation to attend the "gig". It's in the works! You bet I'll see you this week-end along with the "Hermanator" and the "The Codger" to turn some laps and swap some paint with you guys, as always it will be a intense blast for all! Richie as time permits, I'll post some more pictures of cool stuff so we can all sit around and talk about it! Thanks.