There are quite a few variations of the Mafac Racer brakes the earliest three of which are stamped 'Dural Forge'. The first and by far the rarest version has bulkier arms at the pivots and small oil holes. I believe these had ball bearing pivots though cannot be sure of that as I never stripped the only pair I once had. The next version is stamped 'Dural Forge' just the same but has no oil holes and has plain brass bushings. The time span for these I would GUESS as 1956 to 1965. The final version stamped 'Dural Forge' has plastic bushed pivots and these are normally red and the edges of the bushings are easily seen. These I think are quite rare and probably date from 1966 to about 1968. After these there are several variations but are stamped Racer and all to my knowledge have plastic bushings.
Hilary Stone
Seth F wrote:
> The finest kind of dural forge are quickly recognised
> by their huge hex head pivot bolt heads.The arms have
> brass bushings running on the pivots.There are also tidy
> little oiling holes going through the aluminum and brass
> hubs to the pivots.The finish in general is a cut above.