Sly / harris

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
Yeah, I suspect I would be the same. I would like to drive a sprint car one more time, or a top of the line late model on dirt. I don't know the horsepower they claim now, up around a thousand or so in a 1400 to 2200 pound car. Drive that thing head on towards a steel or concrete wall and then a twitch of the steering wheel gets it sideways and you hope the engine doesn't hick-up because the back tires pointing towards the wall are what makes it turn. In my head and heart I think I could drive a couple dozen laps and be only a few seconds off of the pace. In reality I doubt I could run a car wide open looking at a wall coming my way. Several friends first trying dirt cars had major crashes. I asked what happened. "I don't know, I think I forgot to turn." That would probably be me today. I'd still strap in if I got a chance.

My brother was in the army when I got into dirt tracking. He came home and since he had never driven on dirt I sat him in my late model and gave careful instructions, "Go down there and take a left. Come back this way and take another left." I didn't mention that the car's natural set-up was to turn left and you had to be turning slightly right to make it go straight. First three times he hit the throttle he spun out.

Hu

None of this surprises me. Every young stud with a fast car thinks he could drive a race car. They have no idea! It took a lot of getting used to, getting around Riverside Raceway in one piece, and some guys didn't. Turn nine was a long sweeping high banked right-hander, coming off the long back straightaway (like a NASCAR turn, except right instead of left). We would run down there at about 175 and hit the brakes maybe a hundred yards out and take the turn at 110 or so. The hard part was coming out of the turn into the front straight. Your equilibrium would be all screwed up and many guys drifted left into the wall. I know I came within a foot or two of bumping it myself and I was a cautious driver.

There was a great young driver named Swede Savage who was running Formula 5000 and Can-Am cars (the biggest and the fastest) who didn't make it and crashed pretty hard into the wall entering the front straight. So hard that he cracked his helmet when his head hit the wall. He got out of his car and walked around surveying the damage. After a minute or two he began to feel weak and sat down on the side of the track. They took him to the track hospital where he passed away from a brain aneurysm. Racing is a dangerous game. I got the above wrong. He survived this crash at Riverside. He died later in the Indy 500.

And you know about my brother. :frown:
 
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PRED

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
None of this surprises me. Every young stud with a fast car thinks he could drive a race car. They have no idea! It took a lot of getting used to, getting around Riverside Raceway in one piece, and some guys didn't. Turn nine was a long sweeping high banked right-hander, coming off the long back straightaway (like a NASCAR turn, except right instead of left). We would run down there at about 175 and hit the brakes maybe a hundred yards out and take the turn at 110 or so. The hard part was coming out of the turn into the front straight. Your equilibrium would be all screwed up and many guys drifted left into the wall. I know I came within a foot or two of bumping it myself and I was a cautious driver.

There was a great young driver named Swede Savage who was running Formula 5000 and Can-Am cars (the biggest and the fastest) who didn't make it and crashed pretty hard into the wall entering the front straight. So hard that he cracked his helmet when his head hit the wall. He got out of his car and walked around surveying the damage. After a minute or two he began to feel weak and sat down on the side of the track. They took him to the track hospital where he passed away from a brain aneurysm. Racing is a dangerous game.

And you know about my brother. :frown:

I seem to remember Swede Savage dying after a wreck in the Indy 500, not Riverside.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
I seem to remember Swede Savage dying after a wreck in the Indy 500, not Riverside.[/QUOTE

You might be right. My memory is a little foggy there. We did race with him at Riverside a few times. The A and B Production cars ran at the same time as the Can-Am cars. We just stayed out of there way. I do remember him hit the wall there and get hurt, but it may not have been his fatal crash. That could well have been at Indy.
 
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Snooker Theory

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Sure, here is Bigfoot admitting to accepting cues from someone else. I wonder if he will sue himself. I wanted to join his Facebook group and he actively blocked me, so I guess he does not want to talk about it.

The truly sad part is that the falling out was over $300.

Rob certainly has issues, but Leon definitely paid him to build full cues, and not just "five Q's" - I will work on getting the photos we have of cues laying in the Harris shop, ready to send out for finish. I don't know about which individual cues we're done, but it is a fact that there are Harris cues with a Sly logo on them. Not plain janes, either...

A friend of mine also saw these, to the point of noticing one of these cues for sale at a dealer's table at SBE, and asked if it was a Rob Harris. The dealer, naturally, turned up his nose and said it was the cue of another maker. Odd, since we saw that cue 60 days prior with no finish on it at the Harris shop.

I think there is another maker who took the same service from Rob. Easy enough to pass this off, as Rob wrote many CNC programs for other cuemakers anyway.

FDfePwZ.jpg


If you are familiar with "cuemaker time" and how that works, you can imagine what "five" really means.

If you bought a Sly in the last 24 months, you should really get in writing that he built it for you. He's already dodged answering the question publicly, but a denial will help you if you want a refund and go to court about it

So whatever happened ? I see Sly's last post on AZ was back in December when someone brought this up.

Did the other person who was accused ever address the allegations that Harris made?
 

pkh1960

Registered
sly harris cues

tommy; I have the same pics that Robert sent you as he sent to leon during the construction of your cue. my understanding is that he never asked you for any money that leon owed him. Robert has since retired and no stake in this but to set the records straight.
As relayed he taught several cuemakers to build and many more to program cnc machines. most of which were his designs and programs.
Itzel paid Robert to give programs to leon for cues that he had ordered as the former couldn't perform.
I hope this help sets the record straight as Robert has asked me to answer any questions as he has retired.
thanks all
Pierre
 

Buster8001

Did you say shrubberies?
Silver Member
It's a shame Leon made more money selling Harris' cues than Harris did.
Harris made nice cues, honestly.
I'll never own a Sly.
 

pkh1960

Registered
sly harris cues

using abusive language because your pseudo business is going down the drain is not very attractive.
you should have thanked Robert for the thousands of hours he spent tutoring you,teaching you,guiding you into the right equipment,using bobcam instead wayne fast path bullshit.
if you can show the code for your point cutting programs and robs computer is ok I will show everyone the exact code.
its so sad after he mentored so many for so long he will be remembered as the new crazy bob meucci.
pierre

p.s. Robert who is also an accompolished chef left panama city any took over a restaurant in Vero beach florida.
 

grindz

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm not selling my Sly.... it's a beautiful fancy ebony sneaky wrapless. At some point, when I don't play at all anymore, someone will be getting a sweet cue!

td
 
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