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The TYCOPRO Chassis (1970)

        The TYCOPRO Chassis was a major breakthrough for TYCO in 1970. They changed to a more powerful can motor, lowered the overall center of gravity by incorporating a large brass pan to the underside of the chassis, increased rear tire width, but unfortunately had to switch to an inferior electrical pickup system because the pan design. These ran much better than the TYCO-S before it when adjusted right, but the foil pickups were constantly wearing out & going out of adjustment. The front tires were very thin. The front end also features independent rotation of the left & right wheels, a first for production H.O. Slotcar chassis. Oddly, the front axle track is wider than the rear. There are 4 variations of this chassis. Varieties 1 & 2 have a large fixed pan chassis which does not hinge & a vertically movable pickup assembly which hinges down from the motor. They both have a dark gray pan. Variety 1 has TYCOPRO painted on the bottom of the pan, while variety 2 is exactly the same as variety 1 except that it has TYCOPRO embossed in the pan instead of painted on it. Both variations are shown in photos above.

         Sometime after the initial release of the TYCOPRO chassis, TYCO made a modification to the pickup assembly. Instead of a pickup arm hinging down from the motor, it was deleted & the pickup assembly was relocated to connect to the pan assembly on a rotating pivot. This modification may have been made for cost and /or performance reasons. At this time the pan was shortened & changed to a hinged design with the pan hinge point just in front of the rear wheels. The hinge travel was about 3/32". The dark gray color pan was changed to bright natural brass. This created variety 3 as shown above. Even later TYCO once again changed the chassis design by staking the pan rigidly in place ( non-hinging ) during manufacturing, thus creating variety 4. I guess the hinging pan function was either costly or non-functional as it did not last in the long run.