Kva

Keith Van Atta

In the Southfield Club there was a period of time when we ran modified versions of Riggens. What I remember is that two people began using Riggens which had the guide flag mount removed and a flat 0.032" brass plate soldered to the main chassis to hold a soldered guide pin and wiper system. Then, 2 pieces of 0.032" brass or piano wire were soldered to either side of the main chassis to increase the width. Those two were Merril Rowe and Howard Volk.

Neil and Dave have to help me out here. Did these ideas migrate from the Birmingham group into Southfield group? Or did they take a different route? You know, Howard could build and drive too.

Thanks Pat for the kind words! In my mind, on my best days, I was the third best painter in Michigan HOPRA behind Dave Pratt and Mike Garrett. I tried to buy some of your special Pactra color, Ancient Purple, a few month ago...they just laughed.

Attached are some photos of, as I remember, Michigan HOPRA '75-'76 season amature car, which mandated the use of "stock electrical system". If my memory is correct, I built it for my Father, and it was powered by a Mean Green or Quadralam armature. Notable, is the reasonable photos of the shiming techniques used at the time, front and rear ( of magnet ) shims, but, not split ( ? ).

Doug Morris Comments: ...And if you will notice, the rears on Keith's Magnatraction are Aurora original G+, that was available at the time. The G+ had faster straight line speed but couldn't compete with the modified Magnatraction for handling. When the G+ first came out I changed the fronts, added a clear body and ran a HOPRA with it, didn't do well, got beat by all of the Magnatractions.

Examples of period paint...by KVA, Dave Pratt and others...