This led to the “707″, with rewound arm, new “ARCO” magnets with one-piece shim. The armature, as in the 703 thru 706 motors, received clever nylon insulators encaging the whole stack, a large high quality commutator and # 27 brown wire. Some 707 received the ultimate evolution, a Champion-made Celcon end bell with a small un-caged ball bearing, pent-roof brush holders and plenty of air circulation. Called the 707BB, this upgrade had also been available earlier on the 702BB, 703BB, 704BB and 705BB.

Most 7-series motors are dark silver, but there were green ones which used the old Renwall and Premier leftover cans, and the metal foil labels vary in color from gold to silver with black or blue markings, some with red accents. Some are quite rare today. All used the stock Mabuchi red and green vinyl clad lead wires and all were sold in a Champion plastic tube with a vinyl cap.

The first evolution was the “502″ with a rewound stock armature with red # 31 wire. Using a set of nylon insulators, a Kirkwood commutator and ground-balanced, it became the “503″.

With magnets made from broken Arco 33 from the big 36D and rewound with # 30 red, then quickly reddish-brown wire, it became the “507″. So far no “504″, “505″ or “506″ has surfaced, and it is possible that Champion simply went to the “507″ to meet the marketing needs of selling these motors side by side with the “707″. This is also true of the later “600″ series.

The 507 motors had a very short life due to their stock Mabuchi end bell which melted rapidly as the motor reached its operating temperature. The Delrin plastic just could not hold this temperature and reached a semi-liquid state, the brush springs cutting their way into the melting posts with the catastrophic results one can imagine. For this reason, this commercially extremely successful motor (it was really fast while it lasted) was later replaced by an upgraded and greatly improved version with a new Celcon end bell, the “507-R”. It used pent-roof brush holders on a much better quality end bell.

Champion sold most of their parts separately or in kits packed over a card with a clear plastic blister heat-formed directly over the parts. These two 507-R kits show two different cars and parts layout, but are basically the same thing. Note that the earlier motor can is already fitted with the magnets while the later let you do this task as well as fitting the arm with insulators and commutator. How can you tell the later kit? The magnet shim is nickel plated in black, a sure sign of things to come as later 517 and 525 were eventually equipped with black shims never seen on earlier motors. A bit of detective work and deduction is often needed to figure things out…

Very few of the dark blue 507’s survive today, as they were used, and used-up. Most ended in a trail of smoke after the end bell gave up the ghost…

By 1968, the “700″ motor line was abandoned, and Champion sold their remaining inventories in low-cost kits and RTR’s until the early 1970’s, equipped with low-cost “Snuggler”-style chassis.

A new company, “Champion of Europe”, was created to distribute the product over the European continent. The Champion of Europe products had their own packaging, especially the motors which were sold in very attractive red and black boxes. They were assembled and distributed by B.I.C.O., a London-based company. They are extremely scarce today even on the British soil, as prices were dreadfully expensive at the time (twice the US price) and sales limited to a small nucleus of very serious and somewhat wealthy hobbyists.

Champion became dominant in the motor department, as Mura’s days had not quite come on a national level. Champion became THE motor to have in England, thanks to their very active importer, B.I.C.O. Multiple products were re-labeled and re-named by the British Company, and they had their own team of pro-racers such as Louis Meyerowicz.

Eventually, the black “16D”-sized can became the basic motor for Champion’s low-cost ready-to-run cars sold in raceways, while a brand new motor was devised, the Champion “C” can.

The “6″ series of 26D hung-on until 1970/71, when they were unloaded under the “Charlie Brown” name, as a Group 12 motor (”612″) following the new NCC (National Competition Committee) rules established between the surviving manufacturers to try saving what was left of the industry.

But a revolution was brewing and exploded in early 1968. Gene Husting, a reformed drag racer and world-record holder, had built a revolutionary car with its motor mounted at an angle to the rear axle, allowing the use of smaller tires than on conventional sidewinder chassis. With better weight distribution and negative torque reactions under acceleration, this was an instant winner. It took several months for Husting to convince the pro racers, but when it happened, the inline chasis were history.

Champion found themselves in a panic with a huge load of unsold obsolete Inline frames the very day after Mike Steube won the first Pro angle-winder race in California. So they were sold in low-priced kits all the way into the 1970’s.

Champion’s lowest-price angle-winder frame was this stamped-steel unit with floating side pans. This example was sold as a “Factory-Second” with all what you see including obsolete threaded front wheels and axle and re-soldered drop-arm hinge. Nothing was wasted at Champion…

Champion retooled and introduced a plethora of variations of angle-winder frames, closely following the evolution of pro-racing, both on the East and West coast of the United States. After the resounding defeat of the British pro racers against visiting mild-mannered Bob Emott at Tottenham Raceways in 1969, Champion concentrated on getting product information from their American team members and utterly ignored the advice of their British contingent. This led to the strangest of situation when Champion Team member Ed Lewis (for a time the general manager under Bob Rule’s presidency) devised a full sidewinder with very narrow center section and wide pans, and actually lucked-out by winning a pro race by surviving the demolition, rather than by pure performance. After Car Model magazine published an illustrated story about the hopeless contraption, many top-level British Pros went blindly into this new avenue, and for nearly a year, led by Barry Magee, Trevor Crouts and Bob Hallums, ran full sidewinder aberrations, that no one else used in the USA with any success against the more effective angle-winders.