Tom The Printer's July 2014 "Car of the Month"
Built by Tom Wenzel of WEN Cars.
Huntington Long Island N.Y.
Built by Tom Wenzel of WEN Cars.
Huntington Long Island N.Y.
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Built by Tom Wenzel in Huntington Long Island N.Y. He was building sprint cars in real life during the 40’sand early 50’s,and was a very skilled at radio controlled cars and planes. His business was actually manufacturing wheelchairs so he had plenty of equipment to be able to build any type of car but his love was Sprints. In the early 80’s Tom found ¼ racing and started to build sprint cars after what he knew about being a real life racer and started to manufacture WEN CARS. The car we are looking at here the chassis was designed and jig built by Tom himself and followed at the time a style of chassis built by Bob East hence the name (Beast) chassis a famous sprint car builder. There are not many of these cars around he made to order for most people and they were very competitive on the QSAC circuit for years, so this one is pretty rare. |
Some of the best examples of his cars had a Conley Motor in it and was the Eastern Blow Mold Service #2 car and was a work of art. His original chassis designs were torsion bar cars and later moved to coil overs as the set-ups would hold better. This is the previous version of Tom's WEN CAR. This is a car I used to race with Tom in 1991 with a SECO Rear End and Tuned Pipe ...This is my car I raced against Tom and his car with for 5 years. This car was the chassis just before his "Quick E Sprint" which was a belt drive car to compete against WCM’s belt drive car which is still being used today some 20 years later. We raced in the Tri-State races between the RI.,NJ. and NY clubs for the Billy De Paul Trophy. I would have taken the Last Series East Championship in 1993 if I didn't move to Florida, before the last race of the series. I just took this off my shelve and dusted it off a little and this is the way it looked the last time I raced it 21 years ago. This car was tuning 7.5 - 8.25 laps back then without a Quick Draw Tuned Steel Pipe which is now illegal to race. I just found out now that any tuned pipe is illegal on sprint cars under QSAC Rules Now. Back then they were thinking about the 2HP cyl/ head #1148 on the old G2D motors to make a new class of outlaw sprint cars kind of... "run what you brung" unlimited all’s fair class. I think that they did go with a class like that, but I was out of racing by then ....The Tuned Pipe was the real deal to build HP in the 2 stroke motors it’s a shame that they discontinued the use it them. True it is good to see cars that made up the hobby from back then as long as they are not wrecks and neglected hunks of steel, aluminum and cracked up rubber tire.
Each month we will display photos of a member’s 1:4 scale car on the "car of the month" page. If you would like to have your pride and joy displayed in a global environment for all to see and admire, email your high quality photos to algibson@quarterscalelegends.com and please include a description about your 1:4 scale car along with any interesting information, history or facts.