The TYCO Curvehugger Chassis (1976)

This chassis was a total departure from the "pan" style chassis used by TYCO used from 1970 to 1975. It was TYCO's first chassis to use magnetic attraction to the track's rails to increase performance. This was achieved by extending ferric flux collectors from the motor magnets down to the underside of the plastic chassis. No doubt, it's arrival was due to Aurora's Magnatraction design advances & market forces to keep up with them. Variety 1 shown above has 4 flux collectors underneath the motor. Variety 2 was identical except that it only had 2 flux collectors underneath, the 2 outer ones were deleted. Note that the rear axle track was still narrower than the front axle like the TYCOPRO chassis before it. Another first for TYCO chassis was the ability to change wheelbase by just snapping axle into different mounting position.