The TYCO "S" Chassis (1963)

This was the Original TYCO chassis used by TYCO during the "Speedways" years from 1963 to 1969. Not shown is the early TYCO-S chassis which was the same except that it had front wheel steering which was controlled by the curve radius of the track. It was dropped probably due to cost reasons. The TYCO-S chassis may have outperformed the initial Aurora "Vibrator" chassis, but it was no match for the Thunderjet 500 chassis introduced by Aurora in 1963. This was a major factor in keeping TYCO behind Aurora in the 1960's slotcar market. It did use the the in-line motor design that eventually became the performance standard albiet with a worm gear arrangement rather than the crown & pinion universally used today. The two large blocks seen on either side of the worm gear are actually dead weights which may have been used to increase traction on the rather thin rear tires, but at the cost of higher overall mass & even weight distribution. There were two lengths of these chassis also to allow longer wheelbase designs. Two different types of wheels provided a narrow & wide track. By changing wheelbase & track, they effectively created two different scales of chassis & it is clearly seen in the body scaling. The '63 Corvette is an example of the small scale while the Cheetah is a good example of the larger scale.