But for most of us, we use slotted track and cars with guide pins. But two chassis that get no respect are MM Inc's ThunderPlus, and the Aurora Slim Line.

Let's start with the ThunderPlus, the beleaguered chassis from a beleaguered company. When we tested the very first ones that were made, they were wonderful, and probably met the wishes of most of us. Then, the first production chassis hit the market, and they were a disaster. Mostly because the armatures were wound to have 50 ohms, when they should have been around 15 ohms.

Well, since then, this problem has been fixed. But, others have creeped in. We wanted to see if we could do anything about it. Did it work? Absolutely. Using only MM Inc ThunderPlus parts, we made adjustments that anyone could do, and we did it for no money.

What improved? First off, the chassis didn't burn up. Second, the lap times improved from "infinite" (no laps), to 20.0 seconds. (Note: Let me digress here for a second. Have you ever wondered what the HO World test track looks like? It's that trackin the picture, top/right, on this page. Six lane, 75 feet of Lock and Joiner).

So, was there anything else we could do that was minimal? Yes. We added JB's ThunderBrushes. Never has one product done so much, for so many, for so little. Simply replacing the brushes improved the times by 2 second. Enough said.

Now, the Slim Line. Look at it first. Under powered (see photo with Slim Line armature next to Thunderjet armature), under geared (arrow in photo), and nearly worthless. Again, not a very popular choice for a chassis. My first laps were off the charts. 22 seconds. Nearly fell asleep.

Then, after the mere addition of JB's ThunderSlims, we lowered the times to 16.5. Now that's worth a couple of bucks. Imagine what this might open up to HOPRO's that can now produce bodies for these things.

So, an article that started out being a test to see if we could fix some old legends, and it ended up being a testiment to brushes. Check out the link above for more information.

Stock Slim Line Chassis:
Test on a Max Trax 1/64th scale drag strip @ Slugger's International Drag Strip
Slim line chasses was cleaned and Wizzard .500 tires and rims were added to the stock chassis.  Also AFX Front rims and tires were add for the test.
First run -- Bad wheel hops  ET 3.089 @ 5.74 MPH
Second run -- fixed Pick up shoes  ET 2.732 @ 5.32 MPH
Third run -- Add JB's Brushes ET 2.192 @ 7.27 MPH
Fourth run --  added Alan Galinko's Arm

--run one with new arm ET 2.119 @ 7.30 MPH  bad wheel spin
--run two                     ET 1.838 @ 8.66 MPH much better
--run three                   ET 1.897 @ 8.64 MPH about the same
--run four   I added AFX Super II pick up shoes with the braids and here we go:
                             ET 1.435 @ 13.52 MPH
                    The little motor was screeeeeeeeeeeeeeming
Things left to do to the chassis:
Add radio shack braided pick up shoes
Add shunt wires
Add stronger magnets