The Generosity Of Others

I got in a conversation over at the SCI forum with a couple of people regarding controllers. My primary gripe has been that the ones I currently have are thumb controllers first and foremost, and I prefer the finger-trigger kind. Secondly, the stock Carrera controllers are very rough and not responsive at all. Naturally, wouldn't you know that there is a plethora of controllers on the market, with prices ranging from six bucks to hundreds.

As we were talking and I was asking questions, trying to keep them on the cheaper side of budget restrictions, we came to the conclusion that a Parma analog controller would probably be just fine, although if I really just wanted to get it done, I'd step up to one of the hundred dollar controllers, which have separate dials for tuning in the power, as well as interchangeable cartridges for running on different systems. I, being my ever thrifty self, pressed on until I was approached and offered a nice controller for about the price of a cheaper analog: A Slot.it SCP1. 30 bucks and it was mine.

Problem is, I don't have 30 bucks. But it was such a good deal, I had to at least tell my wife about it, in case she thought it was worth doing. I tried buttering her bread a little, but didn't quite get an answer from her. I wrote to the guy [who shall remain nameless for privacy reasons in case anyone comes across this] and told him that it was likely going to take awhile, and if he can remain patient, I'd love to do it eventually. It's pretty close to the holiday season, and I don't know about you, but there's an unwritten rule around my house that you don't go spending money on yourself around the holiday season. This is especially doubly important now as we just yesterday signed for the house we've been waiting on for over a year.

So a couple days roll by, and there's a message in my inbox. The guy writes and says, hey, why don't you send me your address and I'll send you the controller. Call it a housewarming gift.

I am amazed when people do that sort of thing. That controller new costs a hundred bucks. He didn't have to do that. It's a tremendous offer and I'm very thankful for it. He said he had upgraded to a better one and wasn't using it anymore.

I know it's just a hobby accessory, but it's not about that. It's more about the friendly, helpful people that are involved in slot car racing. I meet more and more of them each day, each with different ideas and opinions, but all completely hooked on the hobby.
And maybe it's because the hobby has such a particular clientele, one that knows that we're all in the same boat. Sure, guys have their racing secrets, but general, and often particular information is willingly given. I get contacted directly by people offering to help quite often, and it's a great feeling. I value that information, and it's all going to a good place.

Thanks Guy. I'll call you Guy for now. I really appreciate what you did. Thanks very much.

Time Trials

I took the Carrera Audi R18 and the Audi Safety Car, trued the tires, cleaned, oiled and greased the cars. As a test track I used a crossover-8 with extended straights.

All R-1 turns. The Straightaway is 6 pieces, the Overpass is 3 pieces and the Back Straight is 3 pieces. 

I don't have any form of a lap counter, so I had to improvise. I ran each car on the inside lane for two tests each; one 5-minutes and three 1-minute. I counted laps manually and used a clock timer counting down. Primitive, I know.

Results:
____________

R18 5 MINUTES
WEIGHT: 96.4gr

LAPS: 90

DE-SLOTS: 5

SAFETY CAR 5 MINUTES
WEIGHT: 90.5gr

LAPS: 90

DE-SLOTS: 3

By the way the cars ran, I never would have expected them to reach the exact same lap. The R18 went off a lot more, but was considerably faster on the track, so it made up for it. The Safety Car was running at its fastest the entire time, and while it has better braking, it wasn't enough to get it the win. WINNER: R18

____________

R18 1 MINUTE

LAPS: 20

DE-SLOTS: 0

LAPS: 19

DE-SLOTS: 1

LAPS: 21

DE-SLOTS: 0

____________

SAFETY CAR 1 MINUTE

LAPS: 15

DE-SLOTS: 3

LAPS: 17

DE-SLOTS: 2

LAPS:  19

DE-SLOTS: 2

This was more like I expected. I treated it as more of a sprint than the 5-minute marathon was, and while I didn't have to change my driving style much for the R18, the Safety Car clearly couldn't handle the extra push, although it made a noble attempt at the end. It's far too wiggly. Had it behaved and not gone off twice in the last 1 minute heat, it likely would have won. WINNER [by a country mile]: R18

UPDATE: I have since received a Slot.it SCP-1 controller, and will be doing all time trials from here on out with that. That renders this test now obsolete.

Finally!

It looks like my days as a rug racer are nearing an end. My wife and I have been waiting for over a year now to hear about this house we've been wanting to buy, and the paperwork is finally complete. Move in begins in January.

This means I will have a full attic to use for running cars. The agreement to turn it into a slotcar room was reached long ago, and it's all mine. The attic as A-frame style, kind of like what you'd expect in a German home, and the roof starts from the floor on either side. There is between 8-10 feet x 20 feet of standable non-head-bumping room, then the ceiling starts to slope. I have a grand total of one picture, and this is it:

A shot of a corner of the attic with a bit of the back wall. Obviously, the higher off the floor I want my track, the shallower it will have to be. And since this would be otherwise mostly unusable space unless for storage, I'm going to put some form of track in there. 

My plan is to make the bulk of the track design against the flat back wall, about waist-high. Since there are two sloped sides to deal with, I'm considering a U-shaped track, where the two angled walls will have essentially straightaways going out-and-back. Likely I'll have to make some form of height adjustment and actually lower the track to go along the angled walls. I think that would be kind of cool having the arms at knee-height. I could focus the back wall section to be more technical, and the two arms of the U would be where I could air out the cars and let 'em run. I might be able to get away with #4 banking at the ends. Plus I could design an extremely long track.

I can't find the exact dimensions of the attic, so I'll have to take detailed measurements next time I go out there. From the photo above I'd say from post to bottom corner it's about 6 feet. That's the width of #4 banking. But if I bring the two ends all the way to each side of the door [which is smack dab in the middle of the wall], I could raise the height.
My plan is to do the whole thing first in Carrera track on tabletops. That'll give me the opportunity to do multiple attempts at layouts until I'm satisfied with what I have. I might choose a simpler L-design as well so I can leave one side of the attic clear. Quite a bit of track will have to be purchased, but I can find that at reasonable prices these days.

It'll be analog. It'll be mostly for me, and I don't know how ready I am to get all-in with digital. I think I'll have to be talked into it. It's not that I don't like it, or trust it, as I think it's pretty cool. Aside from the price, it's partly due to the chipping thing. I'm not confident in getting that done right, and don't want to risk it at this stage. Besides, the cars that are coming are all analog to begin with, and I don't want to have to limit myself. Of course, being with Carrera means I can always upgrade it to digital at any time, which is a good feeling. And I can buy cars pre-chipped, even from third-parties who will do the chipping for me if I was so lame to go that route. I need cars and track. Once I get enough of those, I'll consider bells and whistles.

Slot Car Proxy Racing

I've been reading lately about slot car proxy racing. The idea is simple: people with home or commercial tracks host race events, and entrants mail their cars in to be raced on the track. Race is finished, car is mailed back to you, or in some cases, sent on a continuing circuit to other scheduled proxy races. Clubs are formed around this and it can be quite interesting to those people who want to see how fast their cars are in other conditions.

Various events hold races for specific classes of cars, and many of the same classes pop up frequently. Below is an example of an open race being held in Vancouver which features any representative cars that would have raced in the Targa Florio race in Italy, which was held annually from 1906 until 1973:

The Greater Vancouver Slot Car Club is presenting the Targa Florio Proxy. 

This is an open invitation to 1/32 scale slot racers around the world to enter a car in the Greater Vancouver Targa Florio Proxy. This is a club proxy, not limited to the participants from any particular club or forum. Everyone is welcome.
Format
The proxy will consist of two races on Luf's famous Targa track, one in each direction, as well
as at least four more races held on the tracks owned by other club members. The tracks are all non-magnetic routed wood with a 1⁄4 inch minimum slot depth. All cars will be shipped here, run in all the races and then shipped home again.
Cars
All cars will be reasonable 1/32 scale models of any car that actually ran in the original Targa
Florio, held in Sicily from 1906 to 1973. Car authentification will be according to the Targa Florio files shown on www.racingsportscars.com.
To qualify, the make and model must be listed in the results file as having run for any year of the race. Livery does not have to be the same, and fantasy liveries are allowed, but they should be period correct for the year of the race. Cars will be divided into two classes.
Class A
These cars must have a motor of less than 15000 rpm at 12v, as tested and listed in Robert
Livingston's motor list found here - http://slotcarnews.blogspot.ca/2007/02/slot-car-news-motor-list.html
Class B
These cars will have an open motor formula with unlimited rpm. Motors above 22000 rpm at
12v are not recommended. The class is determined only by the motor rpm, not the make or model of car chosen.
Rules
Cars may have any chassis type, made of any material. Chassis may have any motor
alignment, inline, sidewinder or anglewinder. Wheels may be of any type, but should look scale for the car being modelled. For example, no O-ring front tires, and front wheels must turn. For cars up to 1960 the maximum tire tread width should be about 1⁄4 inch. For cars 1961 to 1973 most should be 3/8 inch. Several cars from the late 60s and early 70s had wider rear tires, up to 1⁄2 inch width. Limits can be exceeded only with documentation for the real car.
Rear tires should be urethane, but rubber is also allowed. No sponge or silicone tires  will be allowed. No tire solutions are allowed. Tires will be cleaned with a damp sponge, only if necessary. Any gear ratio is allowed. Be advised that most of our tracks are quite technical, with short straights and lots of turns. None have extra long straights.
While not a rule, you should know that cars wider that 2.5 inches or longer than 5 inches will have difficulty on the Burnaby Grind Hill Climb event which has very tight corners and narrow areas where a larger car may hit the scenery.
Car clearance should be at least 1/16 inch to protect track surfaces. Spur gears may be closer but a car will be disallowed if the gear touches the track.
Entry
Participant are invited to enter one car in this event, either in class A or class B.
There will be a maximum number of entries of 30 per class or total of 60. This will be by time of entry, and a waiting list will be kept if the number exceeds 60.
Registration
Entry fees will be $10 for local participants, $25 for other Canadian and US participants, and
$35 for those from other countries, payable in Canadian dollars. All registration fees must be received by Sept 15, 2015. After that time invitations will go to entrants on the waiting list. Fees are mainly used for trackable insured return postage.
Cars must arrive by October 15, 2015, with the first event taking place about November 1, 2015. The plan would be to send cars home by Jan. 1, 2016.
Events
Races will be held on several of our club tracks, with two rounds on Luf's Targa and one on the
Burnaby Grind hill-climb. Other tracks are Perry's Rocket, Don's Attic track, Laguna Douga, and Roger's Coquitlam track. There may be others by the time of the races. We will aim for a minimum of six races.
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded to the winning car in each class, and a concours winner. It is hoped that
these prizes will be donated by slot car dealers. Participation items will be given to each contestant. A small award will be given to the participant whose car had to travel the furthest to compete.
Drivers
All events will be driven by local club members who are experienced drivers. In any event,
drivers will be assigned to one specific lane, and will drive all cars in turn on that lane. Drivers may be changed between classes.
Contact Us
Participants may enquire or register by contacting the race director.

It's pretty specific about racing requirements, yet does allow for experimentation [motors, chassis, gear ratios], while still maintaining scale appearance. So something like the Alfa Romeo 33/3 from Slot.it likely would fit right in almost right out of the box:

While entry fee exceeds what it would cost to actually buy the car new, it would be fun to occasionally compete in a proxy race. Larger proxy races offer prizes, as this one does. Sometimes the prizes come in the form of slot cars themselves. Either way, it would be interesting to see one of my cars racing on the other side of the world. I'd never expect it to get anything but dead last, but it would still be fun.

I've been looking at various proxy races and researching them to try to understand more about it. I've found that the best proxy races are the ones where the host takes the time to completely cover every aspect of the process, and not just run the cars and box 'em up. Over at /r/slotcars we started posting results of some of the more prominent proxy races happening now, and the results are varied. Some, like the event detailed above are outstanding in their coverage. They give us [the outsider] a look into the grass-roots organization of the hobby, along with a chance to see how others do things.
The best proxy race hosts also have a good handle on the rules, a good race offering, and the passion to pull it off, all the while not alienating people who might want to join in. I'm sure had I a car today I could send it off for entry in any of a half dozen proxy races around the world right now.

Proxy race hosts: please go into as much detail as you can in your reporting of races. Photos, descriptions, video, standings lists, spreadsheets, technical information on the entrants....all great thing that are in your arsenal. The more complete your coverage, the more interesting the event.

photo: Alfa Romeo 33/3 by Slot.it
For more info about the race, here is the original link.

Why I Chose 1:32 Scale for Slot Cars

I got my first track when I was six years old. It was a Tyco HO set. After a short stint I switched to AFX and kept building on it by asking for the same thing every year for xmas. Eventually I had a whole box of track and enough cars to do plenty of stuff with.
When I was twelve, I stayed the night at a friend's house, and we raced on his dad's track. I had never experienced it before, as the cars were much larger and more realistic than what I was used to. It took some time as these monsters would slip and slide all over the track with hardly any effort. They didn't go a million miles an hour, but you sure felt something when they got sideways in the curves.

Fast-forward to my late-20's. I was out one weekend, killing time, and I stepped into a hobby store. There was a Carrera Exclusive [1:24] track there which had, if I remember correctly, a bathtub Porsche as one of the cars. I couldn't take my eyes off it, and had the money out ready to buy it when I stopped myself. It was probably a smart decision at the time because I really couldn't afford to do it then.

And now present-day. I'm 52. I've been playing music all my adult life and have spent most of my fun money keeping my drums fresh. But now I teach more than I play in bands, so I don't need to constantly upkeep my kits anymore. Aside from that, I have purchased all I needed and then some, so money isn't a factor in it like it used to be.

In the back of my head it nags at me. Always there. Race cars. Build a track. Now's the time. I am in need of a hobby, and my wife not only likes the idea and has already okayed me taking up space for a track, but she has ordered a few cars for me as holiday gifts.

A few years ago, she bought me a Carrera GO set for xmas. I set it up with my nephew [9], and within 20 minutes both cars were broken. The scale speed was so fast it took everything I didn't like about HO and amplified it. These "F1" bullets flew off the track and shattered spectacularly. Wings, noses, wheels...they all broke off within minutes. The following Monday I took the kit back to the store and upgraded to a Carrera Evolution [analog] kit. I never looked back.

Everything is more expensive than GO, but then 1:32 is really where the meat of the hobby is. There are so many manufacturers of everything needed to completely immerse one's self into racing. A seeming endless array of parts, upgrades, systems and designs; not unlike real life. Add to that a rather large online fan base. Lots of information can be found, and it's mostly in a handful of forums online.

The Benefits:

• Availability. Easy to find and plentiful. Lots of parts from different manufacturers. Online purchases are easy, although there aren't as many brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and UK like there used to be. In Germany, however, Carrera can be purchased at most well-stocked toy stores.
• Easier scale for maintenance. I found HO too small for my liking, and wanted something that would be a little easier to work with. 1:43 had potential, but still was not at the level I wanted for the sake of my enjoyment of the hobby.
• More realistic speed. There's nothing that screams "TOY" than an HO car going 800 scale MPH around a track. I can still jump on one and have fun, and can even see why guys would still want to race it, it's just not for me. 
• Quality and Workmanship. There are some beautiful cars and tracks out there. I think 1:32 scale provides a lot of possibilities for not only buying great cars, but making beautiful scenic track layouts. Not that you can't do this in HO or 1:43. I've seen great tracks there as well, but it just doesn't have the same feel, and there isn't the same variety of stuff available. 

The Drawbacks:

• Price. You can get started in the 1:32 hobby for around 100 bucks for a kit with track and two cars. Cars seem to go for between $30-$50 or so for the more standard cars up to $250 or so for the detailed, ready-to-race cars. Knowing that each car you buy will cost you around fifty bucks makes car purchases more than just "yeah, I'll take that." Add another $20 or so to make it competitive to race [or purchase the out-of-box competitive cars] and you're up to almost $70 for a chance at the podium....if that's your thing. [I've found Slot.it cars for 40 euro compared to NSR cars for 67 euro]
• Size. A benefit and a drawback? Yes, but only because the overall footprint of a 1:32 track is so large. HO has loads more room to work with in the same space. This means that there's always the possibility it will be difficult to find room to put a 1:32 track up. And with Carrera, it's actually a 1:24 track, so it's got an even bigger footprint than say a Ninco or Scalextric track. 
• With the good comes the bad. As with any hobby, especially one that's been around for so many years with so few technological changes, it's bound to get inundated with stuff to buy, and there is no lack of poorly designed and manufactured slot cars out there. At first every car seems like it would be so much fun [and many might]. But then I read reviews, opinions and see prices of used cars and understand...there are just a lot of lousy cars out there. There is also a lot of good, however, and it's easy to buy a reasonably priced slot car that is a mere tuneup away from setting great lap times. 

So 1:32 it is. Actually it's 1:24. Having that option is pretty great, as there are some cool, highly-detailed cars in that scale. And they'll fit and run on Carrera track [w/borders]. The compromise I have made to stay in 1:32 scale is to put a premium on car purchases. If they were 20 bucks it would be perfect. Since they're 40, I'll buy less, but be much more thorough in my research before purchasing. This will make me a bit more particular, at least at first, and I'm okay with that. I'll eventually step into the used market for purchasing, but right now new cars are at pretty good prices. This isn't a cheap hobby, and there's plenty to do. I've got time.