The other day I reported that I had a mysterious cut in my tire, which I discovered after trying the CRV setting again on my controller. It causes cars to be tremendously fast, and I prefer the speed limited option for my small track.
I had come to the conclusion through advice that I needed to cut my motor shaft so the tire wouldn't rub. I was talking to guys on SCI about it, when one of them happened to mention gluing tires, which I had somehow completely overlooked.
I can't even tell you how much of an improvement it is.
When a car's tires aren't glued to the wheels, the wheels can spin independently inside them, which makes a car lose acceleration. Also, in high revs, the tire expands, and that's what caused the cut that I got in my tire [it was pretty superficial and eventually went away after a bit of racing].
To glue the tires, I used a standard, all-purpose craft glue. I put a few drops on a toothpick, then [with the tire off] I spread the glue thinly around the thick middle of the wheel. Then I re-attached the tire, rolled it a bit on a hard surface, and let it sit for awhile. The tube suggests that it's totally dry in 10 minutes, but I gave it overnight.
The next day I sanded the tires and ran the cars for a few hundred laps each. ALL of the cars improved in acceleration, didn't chatter in the slightest, and were much more responsive. The Alfa probably improved the most, as it was suddenly very grippy and VERY fast.
I encourage anybody reading this to glue the tires to the wheels on your slot cars. It's a very easy improvement and will really help lap times.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Road Race [Race 16 of 20]
Despite the cancellation of Class B, the following races will continue to be run with a 5-point format [5/3/1].
Today's race is a 100 lap time trial on a an open-style track with one 180ยบ turn:
Because I recently spent so much time tuning and troubleshooting the Gulf car, I had to re-adjust my driving style to suit it. My plan was to focus on fewer offs, so I drove all the cars a bit conservatively. I also did not apply my standard banking to the curves, preferring to lay the track totally flat on the rug.
Team Orders:
Shell #8 - Fresh tires, 1/4 Front/Rear Body Float, no Pod Float
Alfa #2 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / 1/4 Body Float Rear, no Pod Float
Gulf #11 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / no Body Float Rear, light Pod Float [middle section loose]
[each car was run as a drone for 2 minutes prior to the race to warm up the tires]
RESULTS [Race 16 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa #2 5:23.12 0 3
Shell #8 5:21.49 0 5
Gulf #11 5:25.52 1 1
Split Times:
Car [1-25] [26-50] [51-75] [76-100]
Alfa #2 1:21.10 1:20.12 1:20.62 1:21.27
Shell #8 1:19.33 1:19.77 1:20.70 1:21.67
Gulf #11 1:21.08 1:22.47 1:20.84 1:21.12
[fastest segment times in blue]
This was the tightest race in a long time, possibly ever. Considering it was a 4-second split in the field, that's pretty good. The Gulf car did remarkably well, and suffered only one off. That affected the end result, although barely. Had it hung on throughout the race it would have been very close.
The three cars are in a very happy place right now. I plan on leaving them there for the time being, and only tweaking them occasionally. I think I've found the settings I like for my track.
Championship Standings:
Car Points Total
Shell #8 5 62
Alfa #2 3 66
Gulf #11 1 45
The Gulf #11 has been mathematically eliminated from winning the championship today, and will now play the role of spoiler for the rest of the season. It seems more than up to the task. It's just unfortunate that it had to go out of contention this early. It'll be a bummer to break the bad news to my wife, but this car needs parts and won't be a real contender until it gets them.
It's still a neck-and-neck race to 1st in the championship, and the Shell #8 continues to prove its worth. There's a nice feeling knowing that whichever car comes in first is totally fine by me. I've had fun trying to tweak the slower cars to beat the fastest one, and the third segment of this race proves that I'm getting somewhere.
Today's race is a 100 lap time trial on a an open-style track with one 180ยบ turn:
Because I recently spent so much time tuning and troubleshooting the Gulf car, I had to re-adjust my driving style to suit it. My plan was to focus on fewer offs, so I drove all the cars a bit conservatively. I also did not apply my standard banking to the curves, preferring to lay the track totally flat on the rug.
Team Orders:
Shell #8 - Fresh tires, 1/4 Front/Rear Body Float, no Pod Float
Alfa #2 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / 1/4 Body Float Rear, no Pod Float
Gulf #11 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / no Body Float Rear, light Pod Float [middle section loose]
[each car was run as a drone for 2 minutes prior to the race to warm up the tires]
RESULTS [Race 16 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa #2 5:23.12 0 3
Shell #8 5:21.49 0 5
Gulf #11 5:25.52 1 1
Split Times:
Car [1-25] [26-50] [51-75] [76-100]
Alfa #2 1:21.10 1:20.12 1:20.62 1:21.27
Shell #8 1:19.33 1:19.77 1:20.70 1:21.67
Gulf #11 1:21.08 1:22.47 1:20.84 1:21.12
[fastest segment times in blue]
 |
| Winner winner, chicken dinner. |
The three cars are in a very happy place right now. I plan on leaving them there for the time being, and only tweaking them occasionally. I think I've found the settings I like for my track.
Championship Standings:
Car Points Total
Shell #8 5 62
Alfa #2 3 66
Gulf #11 1 45
The Gulf #11 has been mathematically eliminated from winning the championship today, and will now play the role of spoiler for the rest of the season. It seems more than up to the task. It's just unfortunate that it had to go out of contention this early. It'll be a bummer to break the bad news to my wife, but this car needs parts and won't be a real contender until it gets them.
It's still a neck-and-neck race to 1st in the championship, and the Shell #8 continues to prove its worth. There's a nice feeling knowing that whichever car comes in first is totally fine by me. I've had fun trying to tweak the slower cars to beat the fastest one, and the third segment of this race proves that I'm getting somewhere.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Notes - Class B Discontinued
I decided to cancel the rest of the season for the Class B Carrera cars. I just couldn't bring myself to run them with enjoyment. At this point I'd rather run them without magnets than to have them in just to be able to compete. So it's over for the Audis. The R18 won on points, but the Safety Car was the only one of the two to win a race.
I kinda feel guilty about stopping racing the Carrera cars, since I raced the wheels off them prior to getting the Slot.it cars, and although the two Carreras weren't very well matched, they were still fun to run.
Instead of tossing them or something, I'm going to make one of them a project and see if I can trim large chunks of weight off it. It'll either work or it won't, but at twice the weight of a Slot.it car, they're gonna have to diet if they want to compete.
________________________________________________________________________________
Once this series is over, I'll be moving into the new house, so there probably won't be many posts for awhile. As things progress with the attic track, I'll post updates on here as well as any races I may run. Until then I'll probably do some photography if I can't set up a layout somewhere.
________________________________________________________________________________
Big race tomorrow, and could spell the end for the Gulf car's chances of winning the championship. The Alfa would have to basically shut down completely in order for the Gulf car to win, and I really don't think that's gonna happen. Too bad, since the Gulf car is running better than it has for a long time.
I kinda feel guilty about stopping racing the Carrera cars, since I raced the wheels off them prior to getting the Slot.it cars, and although the two Carreras weren't very well matched, they were still fun to run.
Instead of tossing them or something, I'm going to make one of them a project and see if I can trim large chunks of weight off it. It'll either work or it won't, but at twice the weight of a Slot.it car, they're gonna have to diet if they want to compete.
________________________________________________________________________________
Once this series is over, I'll be moving into the new house, so there probably won't be many posts for awhile. As things progress with the attic track, I'll post updates on here as well as any races I may run. Until then I'll probably do some photography if I can't set up a layout somewhere.
________________________________________________________________________________
Big race tomorrow, and could spell the end for the Gulf car's chances of winning the championship. The Alfa would have to basically shut down completely in order for the Gulf car to win, and I really don't think that's gonna happen. Too bad, since the Gulf car is running better than it has for a long time.
Slot Cars - Tips For Rug Racing
I'm a rug racer, balancing that fine line between living in a small apartment and still trying to get some kicks. I've been doing this now for three years and have gotten it down to what I'd like to believe is a science.
So here are some tips on how to have a successful career sitting on the floor in your living room:
1. Start with a clean track - there's nothing worse than having to crash a car because of a giant nose hair caught up in the axle. The car goes slower, runs rougher, and has a freakin nose hair in it. Best thing to do is to take some kind of lint-free cloth and give the track a once over before running cars on it. Swiff it. Whatever works. The idea is that if you get the stuff off the track first, you won't have to pick it out of your cars later.
One way to get a clean track is to vacuum the area you're going to put the track on. I know this is a controversial topic because vacuuming, but it's ultimately worth it. Besides, my wife likes that I vacuum the living room every day. Yes, every day. That way I can run my cars when she's gone. Works out, and she has no complaints.
2. Build in sections - Once I know what I want to make, instead of hunkering down on the rug and assembling, I assemble track pieces three or four-at-a-time while standing. With Carrera it's actually quite easy to build sections and clip them without even looking once you get the hang of it. Since doing it while standing means assembling pieces vertically, any crud that has collected in the slots drops to the ground.
Overall, it's a much better system on your back and knees.
3. Spend some time with your cars - there's a truth in slot cars....not all cars are great right out of the box. There's a chance that the two cars you got in your kit are mismatched. It happened to me. And with the three other cars I've added since, they each have had their own idiosyncrasies. When I was a kid I used to race HO cars, and they required work because they would get so smashed from crashing at high speeds. Even then they felt too small. Now that I'm running 1:32 cars I have a lot more convenience while working. Everything is larger and easier to work with, and it's much more simple to dial in. I know that if I do something, it'll have an effect. With HO cars I just crossed my fingers and hoped all the parts were in the right place.
Once you discover that a clean car is a happy car, you'll notice that it'll run better and won't be so noisy or uncontrollable.
I clean my cars after every session, and I get great enjoyment out of it. I find that doing this makes them run very consistently and competitively with each other. The more time you spend under the hood, the more you'll realize what can be done, and then the experimenting starts. Squeezing that extra .1 of a second, or getting a car to grab better in the corners, or just making the damn thing sit right...all are possible. If you look at the rest of this blog, you'll see I've done loads of experiments with the cars to make them faster, and have had good results. I've got two cars running exceptionally well and one more on the way.
Messing around with the cars is my favorite part of the hobby.
4. Learn how to drive - figuring how when to let off the gas going into a turn is crucial to getting good lap times. It's one thing to drift the car out in the corners, but consider this; every time you drift, you're going slower through the turn than if you didn't. And if you slide out at the exit of a curve, you'll lose traction on the straight. So there's a balance there.
I like to approach each track layout in segments. Find a good speed, then try particular points of the track to improve. Then once you've figured out that point, move on to the next segment and improve there. By the end you'll have braking and acceleration points figured out, and you'll be going through the turns without pushing out.
5. Try them without magnets - here's the thing...when I run cars with magnets in them, they go real fast. Insanely fast. I get used to that speed, and push harder. Then the car comes off the track, and it crashes spectacularly. End over end, all the way into the far wall 3 feet away. These cars cost 50 bucks apiece. Every time one of them flies off the track like that, my stomach sinks.
When you take the magnets out, a few things happen; your driving style changes to adapt to a more realistic style, the car is harder to control at high speeds, and most importantly [to me], if you wipe out, you actually spin out most of the time as opposed to flipping dozens of times. There's no magnet grabbing the track until it can't hold on any more, so there's no snap-release of the car from the track when it finally has gone too fast for the magnet to hold it. Without magnets it simply spins out. A lot of times it won't go further than a car-length or two and come to a stop.
You might think you need borders if you run without magnets, but I run without borders and have a great time. There's plenty of space on Carrera track to run without borders [they're freakin expensive] and outside-lane advantages go away.
Once you have the magnets off, suddenly everything you do under the hood has an effect on the car. You'll notice the difference between properly-rounded, or "true" tires and uneven, untreated tires. You'll enjoy the corners more, as they're more similar to how an actual car would take a turn.
Bonus: if you are always waiting around for your kid to catch up, taking the magnets off your car and leaving them on his will make the competition more even.
6. Run races - whether alone or with others, competition is a good thing, and slot car racing is perfect for it. I've had a great time running races, as it has given me something to work towards, which makes it fun to try and squeeze better times out of the cars. Even if you run against the timer on your phone and count laps out loud, it'll be more fun that not doing anything at all.
7. Get others interested - low pressure, just having fun. The great thing about slot cars is that some of them are downright beautiful, and even to someone with even the slightest casual interest, it could be enough to get them involved:
8. Use a track layout program - the nice thing about a layout program is that you can design a track before getting down on your knees and putting it together. It also gives you something to do when you can't set your track up. I like to make a layout a half-hour or so before I get the track out. That way I know what I want and how to build it, and that's important in my situation, as I've got limited space.
9. Get more cars - I had the same two cars for over two years until finally getting some others. Each car is different, and many 3rd party manufacturers make cars that are better than the ones that come with the kit.
10. Have a good storage plan - I can clear my living room, unpack the track, build it and be running cars in fifteen minutes. All it takes is a system. I use the original box for the track, but I took out all of the other things I don't use; guard rails and rail clips. I stack curves with curves and straights with straights, and pack the power track separately. I have a "kit box" for my cars and various tools and lubricants. That way if I can't break out the track for some reason, I can still take out the cars and work on them. Plus I can take that box to a commercial track and I'll have all my tools at my disposal.
So there you go. Didn't think there'd be 10, but there they are. Hope some of them are useful.
So here are some tips on how to have a successful career sitting on the floor in your living room:
1. Start with a clean track - there's nothing worse than having to crash a car because of a giant nose hair caught up in the axle. The car goes slower, runs rougher, and has a freakin nose hair in it. Best thing to do is to take some kind of lint-free cloth and give the track a once over before running cars on it. Swiff it. Whatever works. The idea is that if you get the stuff off the track first, you won't have to pick it out of your cars later.
One way to get a clean track is to vacuum the area you're going to put the track on. I know this is a controversial topic because vacuuming, but it's ultimately worth it. Besides, my wife likes that I vacuum the living room every day. Yes, every day. That way I can run my cars when she's gone. Works out, and she has no complaints.
2. Build in sections - Once I know what I want to make, instead of hunkering down on the rug and assembling, I assemble track pieces three or four-at-a-time while standing. With Carrera it's actually quite easy to build sections and clip them without even looking once you get the hang of it. Since doing it while standing means assembling pieces vertically, any crud that has collected in the slots drops to the ground.
Overall, it's a much better system on your back and knees.
3. Spend some time with your cars - there's a truth in slot cars....not all cars are great right out of the box. There's a chance that the two cars you got in your kit are mismatched. It happened to me. And with the three other cars I've added since, they each have had their own idiosyncrasies. When I was a kid I used to race HO cars, and they required work because they would get so smashed from crashing at high speeds. Even then they felt too small. Now that I'm running 1:32 cars I have a lot more convenience while working. Everything is larger and easier to work with, and it's much more simple to dial in. I know that if I do something, it'll have an effect. With HO cars I just crossed my fingers and hoped all the parts were in the right place.
Once you discover that a clean car is a happy car, you'll notice that it'll run better and won't be so noisy or uncontrollable.
 |
| Post-race cleanup of a car that has put on quite a few laps in the short time I've had it. |
 |
| A car that hasn't been cleaned in awhile. |
I clean my cars after every session, and I get great enjoyment out of it. I find that doing this makes them run very consistently and competitively with each other. The more time you spend under the hood, the more you'll realize what can be done, and then the experimenting starts. Squeezing that extra .1 of a second, or getting a car to grab better in the corners, or just making the damn thing sit right...all are possible. If you look at the rest of this blog, you'll see I've done loads of experiments with the cars to make them faster, and have had good results. I've got two cars running exceptionally well and one more on the way.
Messing around with the cars is my favorite part of the hobby.
4. Learn how to drive - figuring how when to let off the gas going into a turn is crucial to getting good lap times. It's one thing to drift the car out in the corners, but consider this; every time you drift, you're going slower through the turn than if you didn't. And if you slide out at the exit of a curve, you'll lose traction on the straight. So there's a balance there.
I like to approach each track layout in segments. Find a good speed, then try particular points of the track to improve. Then once you've figured out that point, move on to the next segment and improve there. By the end you'll have braking and acceleration points figured out, and you'll be going through the turns without pushing out.
5. Try them without magnets - here's the thing...when I run cars with magnets in them, they go real fast. Insanely fast. I get used to that speed, and push harder. Then the car comes off the track, and it crashes spectacularly. End over end, all the way into the far wall 3 feet away. These cars cost 50 bucks apiece. Every time one of them flies off the track like that, my stomach sinks.
When you take the magnets out, a few things happen; your driving style changes to adapt to a more realistic style, the car is harder to control at high speeds, and most importantly [to me], if you wipe out, you actually spin out most of the time as opposed to flipping dozens of times. There's no magnet grabbing the track until it can't hold on any more, so there's no snap-release of the car from the track when it finally has gone too fast for the magnet to hold it. Without magnets it simply spins out. A lot of times it won't go further than a car-length or two and come to a stop.
You might think you need borders if you run without magnets, but I run without borders and have a great time. There's plenty of space on Carrera track to run without borders [they're freakin expensive] and outside-lane advantages go away.
Once you have the magnets off, suddenly everything you do under the hood has an effect on the car. You'll notice the difference between properly-rounded, or "true" tires and uneven, untreated tires. You'll enjoy the corners more, as they're more similar to how an actual car would take a turn.
Bonus: if you are always waiting around for your kid to catch up, taking the magnets off your car and leaving them on his will make the competition more even.
6. Run races - whether alone or with others, competition is a good thing, and slot car racing is perfect for it. I've had a great time running races, as it has given me something to work towards, which makes it fun to try and squeeze better times out of the cars. Even if you run against the timer on your phone and count laps out loud, it'll be more fun that not doing anything at all.
7. Get others interested - low pressure, just having fun. The great thing about slot cars is that some of them are downright beautiful, and even to someone with even the slightest casual interest, it could be enough to get them involved:
 |
| My wife's car. She chose it out of a group of cars because she liked the color. Later I showed her Jacky Ickx footage on youtube. And even though she only runs occasionally, she asks about how her car is going quite often. |
 |
| The design done on softyroyal.de track design software. |
 |
| The final track. I moved the power piece to the other side as it was a better sitting place. Every track that I design for the apartment living room has to be roughly similar in that it goes from one corner to the other, unless I build a smaller track. There's normally a coffee table and piano bench there, but those get stacked against the wall when the track comes out. |
9. Get more cars - I had the same two cars for over two years until finally getting some others. Each car is different, and many 3rd party manufacturers make cars that are better than the ones that come with the kit.
10. Have a good storage plan - I can clear my living room, unpack the track, build it and be running cars in fifteen minutes. All it takes is a system. I use the original box for the track, but I took out all of the other things I don't use; guard rails and rail clips. I stack curves with curves and straights with straights, and pack the power track separately. I have a "kit box" for my cars and various tools and lubricants. That way if I can't break out the track for some reason, I can still take out the cars and work on them. Plus I can take that box to a commercial track and I'll have all my tools at my disposal.
So there you go. Didn't think there'd be 10, but there they are. Hope some of them are useful.
More Gulf Work
I just spent some time trimming back the chassis where the spur gear was rubbing. I couldn't set the Gulf Ford up with the spur gear facing in, so I ran it facing out, and it was barely making contact with the pinion.
There's a slightly flared section on the chassis that I trimmed back, as well as the diagonal section near the pinion. Once trimmed I flipped the spur gear and reset the axle:
I have a lot of confidence that this will be an improvement for this car. I couldn't wait 'til morning, so I set up the track and took some laps. It already sounds much better...not grindy. It had a noisy feel to it before that it seems to have lost. It sits against the pinion much better, a little inside of center.
I took another look at the Shell Ford after that, but since it's an older chassis it doesn't have that slight bit of clearance that the Gulf car does, so no matter if I trim the chassis back, it'll still be flush. That car will need a spacer on the back in order to get it back in order. I also noticed that the right rear bearing was riding loose in the bearing holder. I think that might be where the enhanced braking sound comes from. It sounds like "BIZZZZZZZ" whenever I let off the gas, but not when I'm accelerating or maintaining speed [or in the corners]. I think I'm going to get some decent bearings for the cars.
So the Gulf Ford will have the spur gear facing in, while the Shell Ford will have it facing out.
I think I'll have time to do a race in the morning. The track is all setup and I can keep it up overnight. We'll see. If not, at least I know the cars are running well.
EDIT: Turns out I didn't have time to run a race before going to work today, but I did get to put down some laps on the car, and it's a big improvement. It runs a lot smoother and there's no more gnarly noise in the turns.
It needs a bit of work on the handling, though, as it's still a little squirrely.
 |
| This is the situation with the Fords; The spur gear is so close to the chassis that it rubs in the corners, producing a nasty screech. Before photo. |
 |
| Now that's more like it! You can even see a little light in-between the spur gear and the chassis now. |
I took another look at the Shell Ford after that, but since it's an older chassis it doesn't have that slight bit of clearance that the Gulf car does, so no matter if I trim the chassis back, it'll still be flush. That car will need a spacer on the back in order to get it back in order. I also noticed that the right rear bearing was riding loose in the bearing holder. I think that might be where the enhanced braking sound comes from. It sounds like "BIZZZZZZZ" whenever I let off the gas, but not when I'm accelerating or maintaining speed [or in the corners]. I think I'm going to get some decent bearings for the cars.
So the Gulf Ford will have the spur gear facing in, while the Shell Ford will have it facing out.
I think I'll have time to do a race in the morning. The track is all setup and I can keep it up overnight. We'll see. If not, at least I know the cars are running well.
EDIT: Turns out I didn't have time to run a race before going to work today, but I did get to put down some laps on the car, and it's a big improvement. It runs a lot smoother and there's no more gnarly noise in the turns.
It needs a bit of work on the handling, though, as it's still a little squirrely.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Over-Under Race [Race 15 of 20]
The second race of the day is a 100 lap Class A race around a kinked figure-8:
RESULTS [Race 15 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Gulf #11 6:03.26 3 1
Alfa #2 5:23.54 1 5
Shell #8 5:46.34 3 3
Split Times:
Car [1-25] [26-50] [51-75] [76-100]
Gulf #11 1:37.27 1:19.02 1:23.79 1:43.17
Alfa #2 1:21.52 1:19.60 1:22.25 1:20.15
Shell #8 1:22.83 1:37.20 1:21.47 1:24.82
[Best segment time in blue]
None of the cars handled very well on this track. The Fords especially struggled in the big loop, as there was a slight outward camber to it [by design] as it came down from the overpass. Every Ford crash happened there, with the Gulf car having two crashes right toward the end of the race. Funny part is, it set the fastest lap.
Even the Alfa struggled, frequently getting sideways throughout the race. Its crash happened coming off the front straight into the R-L switchback. Otherwise it handled the loop remarkably well, and surely had the advantage of acceleration in the long straightaway.
Championship Standings [Race 15 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Alfa #2 5 63
Shell #8 3 57
Gulf #11 1 44
I'm afraid it's over for the Gulf Ford #11. I'm not sure if he's mathematically out, but he's damn close. 19 points [not given the amount the Alfa could get] is pretty much insurmountable at this juncture.
Hang on, I just did the math in my head: If the Gulf car wins all the remaining races, that's 25 points, giving him a total of 69 points. The Alfa would have to come in 3rd every race for the Gulf car to win, yet that would mean the Shell car coming in 2nd every race, and ending with a best finish of 75 points.
All that needs to happen is the Alfa to score better than 3rd in any race from here on out and the Gulf car is out. It already won't win, and best it can hope for is 2nd place.
Here's my theory on why the cars struggled on this track:
The first 12 races or so were run on basically the same configuration; a road course favoring the outside lane. As more races happened, the cars laid down rubber, creating a rubber racing surface, giving them more grip. Then I switched to the inside lane and started running races. They were slippery at first, but showed early signs of laying rubber on the track.
This layout has a figure 8, so it uses both inside and outside lanes. I've done much more driving on the inside lane than the outside, as I've probably doubled or maybe tripled my distance covered since switching [even if there are less races]. The inside lane has more grip than the outside, and since the loop is an outside lane, that was the problem. Had I switched and ran on the outside, it would have been a bit slicker overall, but there probably wouldn't have been as many offs.
Under the right light, the rubber racing line is starting to show up on the track pieces. Pretty cool.
 |
| Long straightaway and elevation changes make this one tricky. |
RESULTS [Race 15 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Gulf #11 6:03.26 3 1
Alfa #2 5:23.54 1 5
Shell #8 5:46.34 3 3
Split Times:
Car [1-25] [26-50] [51-75] [76-100]
Gulf #11 1:37.27 1:19.02 1:23.79 1:43.17
Alfa #2 1:21.52 1:19.60 1:22.25 1:20.15
Shell #8 1:22.83 1:37.20 1:21.47 1:24.82
[Best segment time in blue]
None of the cars handled very well on this track. The Fords especially struggled in the big loop, as there was a slight outward camber to it [by design] as it came down from the overpass. Every Ford crash happened there, with the Gulf car having two crashes right toward the end of the race. Funny part is, it set the fastest lap.
Even the Alfa struggled, frequently getting sideways throughout the race. Its crash happened coming off the front straight into the R-L switchback. Otherwise it handled the loop remarkably well, and surely had the advantage of acceleration in the long straightaway.
Championship Standings [Race 15 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Alfa #2 5 63
Shell #8 3 57
Gulf #11 1 44
I'm afraid it's over for the Gulf Ford #11. I'm not sure if he's mathematically out, but he's damn close. 19 points [not given the amount the Alfa could get] is pretty much insurmountable at this juncture.
Hang on, I just did the math in my head: If the Gulf car wins all the remaining races, that's 25 points, giving him a total of 69 points. The Alfa would have to come in 3rd every race for the Gulf car to win, yet that would mean the Shell car coming in 2nd every race, and ending with a best finish of 75 points.
All that needs to happen is the Alfa to score better than 3rd in any race from here on out and the Gulf car is out. It already won't win, and best it can hope for is 2nd place.
Here's my theory on why the cars struggled on this track:
The first 12 races or so were run on basically the same configuration; a road course favoring the outside lane. As more races happened, the cars laid down rubber, creating a rubber racing surface, giving them more grip. Then I switched to the inside lane and started running races. They were slippery at first, but showed early signs of laying rubber on the track.
This layout has a figure 8, so it uses both inside and outside lanes. I've done much more driving on the inside lane than the outside, as I've probably doubled or maybe tripled my distance covered since switching [even if there are less races]. The inside lane has more grip than the outside, and since the loop is an outside lane, that was the problem. Had I switched and ran on the outside, it would have been a bit slicker overall, but there probably wouldn't have been as many offs.
Under the right light, the rubber racing line is starting to show up on the track pieces. Pretty cool.
Super-Endurance Race [Race 14 of 20]
Today's race is 200 laps for Class A Cars only.
The track is technical, with two 90ยบ turns and two 180ยบ turns. Longest straight is 4 track pieces:
Team Orders:
Shell #8 - Fresh tires, 1/4 Front/Rear Body Float, no Pod Float
Alfa #2 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / 1/4 Body Float Rear, no Pod Float
Gulf #11 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / no Body Float Rear, light Pod Float [middle section loose]
RESULTS [Race 14 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Shell #8 10:35.57 0 1
Alfa #2 10:32.56 0 3
Gulf #11 10:24.44 1 5
Split Times:
Car [1-50] [51-100] [101-150] [151-200]
Shell #8 2:37.79 2:39.09 2:39.46 2:39.21
Alfa #2 2:40.76 2:36.61 2:37.99 2:37.19 Gulf #11 2:35.04 2:35.66 2:36.55 2:37.18
Go Gulf Car
This is what happens when you spend two days taking apart, cleaning, rebuilding, setting, re-setting, testing, taking apart again, re-setting, etc..
That's the only way I can explain it. I went over every aspect of the car, trying to get balance for it and working particularly on control in the turns. I must have spent 45 minutes setting the rear axle just right. By the time I was finished with the car it was showroom clean. I should have taken a picture before running it.
It ran the fastest lap times in every section and didn't look back. The only time it was challenged was on the last 50 laps, as the Alfa ran an almost identical time.
The crash happened around lap 20 and was in the big right-hander. Because it happened pretty much right in front of me, it was quickly marshalled and didn't suffer much of a time penalty. In fact, it ran the fastest 1-50 laps with the wreck included.
Due to all that work, the Gulf car is running faster, cleaner and has considerably more grip. All three cars are running very well, and although the Gulf car won by 10 seconds, it was a 200 lap race. I consider that pretty close, as he was never more than 2 seconds faster than any other competitor through the segments.
I thought the Alfa would win, and win handily, but it was a little squirrelly through the corners. It still ran fast laps, but since there was no long straight to run down, it didn't have that lightness advantage of acceleration. On a track like this, the only real place to accelerate is on the front stretch, and with the kink it makes it a bit tricky. All the cars ran with minimal braking, and about 30% of available power and 30% minimum speed, so they shared the same controller settings throughout the race.
Championship Points [Race 14 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Gulf #11 5 43
Alfa #2 3 58
Shell #8 1 54
The Gulf #11 is fulfilling its duties as a spoiler quite well, although I think it's a bit too far away to challenge for the overall championship. The Shell car may end up regretting this race, as it could end up being the difference in the overall point total against the Alfa.
The track is technical, with two 90ยบ turns and two 180ยบ turns. Longest straight is 4 track pieces:
Team Orders:
Shell #8 - Fresh tires, 1/4 Front/Rear Body Float, no Pod Float
Alfa #2 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / 1/4 Body Float Rear, no Pod Float
Gulf #11 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / no Body Float Rear, light Pod Float [middle section loose]
RESULTS [Race 14 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Shell #8 10:35.57 0 1
Alfa #2 10:32.56 0 3
Gulf #11 10:24.44 1 5
Split Times:
Car [1-50] [51-100] [101-150] [151-200]
Shell #8 2:37.79 2:39.09 2:39.46 2:39.21
Alfa #2 2:40.76 2:36.61 2:37.99 2:37.19 Gulf #11 2:35.04 2:35.66 2:36.55 2:37.18
Go Gulf Car
This is what happens when you spend two days taking apart, cleaning, rebuilding, setting, re-setting, testing, taking apart again, re-setting, etc..
That's the only way I can explain it. I went over every aspect of the car, trying to get balance for it and working particularly on control in the turns. I must have spent 45 minutes setting the rear axle just right. By the time I was finished with the car it was showroom clean. I should have taken a picture before running it.
It ran the fastest lap times in every section and didn't look back. The only time it was challenged was on the last 50 laps, as the Alfa ran an almost identical time.
The crash happened around lap 20 and was in the big right-hander. Because it happened pretty much right in front of me, it was quickly marshalled and didn't suffer much of a time penalty. In fact, it ran the fastest 1-50 laps with the wreck included.
Due to all that work, the Gulf car is running faster, cleaner and has considerably more grip. All three cars are running very well, and although the Gulf car won by 10 seconds, it was a 200 lap race. I consider that pretty close, as he was never more than 2 seconds faster than any other competitor through the segments.
I thought the Alfa would win, and win handily, but it was a little squirrelly through the corners. It still ran fast laps, but since there was no long straight to run down, it didn't have that lightness advantage of acceleration. On a track like this, the only real place to accelerate is on the front stretch, and with the kink it makes it a bit tricky. All the cars ran with minimal braking, and about 30% of available power and 30% minimum speed, so they shared the same controller settings throughout the race.
Championship Points [Race 14 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Gulf #11 5 43
Alfa #2 3 58
Shell #8 1 54
The Gulf #11 is fulfilling its duties as a spoiler quite well, although I think it's a bit too far away to challenge for the overall championship. The Shell car may end up regretting this race, as it could end up being the difference in the overall point total against the Alfa.
New Car Adjustments
Big race planned tomorrow. Tonight I was doing more laps and working on different setups for each car. I spent considerable time on them, focusing on individual setups.
We'll start with the easy one:
After blueprinting the Alfa the other day, I reset it back to the last setup I applied to it, with exception of body float. The front needs a bit more float than the rear does in order to get the body to be even. I hadn't noticed that before, and figured that a quarter turn is a quarter turn. It's not. So now I'm using this:
Body Float 1/2 front - 1/4 rear
Everything else about it...tires, wheels, axles, ride height...remain the same.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The #8 Shell car has really responded to tuneups, and is almost as fast as the Alfa. If it's because of the way it's tuned [doubt it], or maybe it has to do with something about the older chassis...whatever it is, I like it. It handles corners very well for its size, and can lay a fast lap.
Body Float 1/4 front - 1/4 rear
_________________________________________________________________________________
I made some headway the other day with the Gulf Ford. Since it's going to be awhile before it gets the desperately needed spacer in order to put the spur gear in the proper place, it is going to have to deal with some things. The spur gear sits right on the edge of the pinion gear, and I don't have a tool to pull it. It makes quite a racket in the corners, but runs fine on the straights. It has a tendency to get loose in the corners as well, and nothing I have done has fixed that, so I attribute that to the spacer problem as well.
I have had some luck getting it to run better, however, and it's back to being competitive. I want it to be good, as it's my wife's car [in a way]. I told her today that it hasn't been doing very well in the races, and she suggested I fix it.
It also suffers from the same condition the Alfa does; uneven body float. It requires a different approach though, as the rear is very loose as it is.
Body Float 1/2 Front - No Float Rear
Light Pod Float - Middle Screws Loose
I know. I said I wasn't going to use any pod float. I have to do something, and I tried it and it seemed to help. I tried it with an overall light pod float, except I really loosened the middle screws. There are six points to a pod, and if it does anything, it's to separate vibrations. So by loosening the middle, maybe I can get some of the vibration away without making the rear so loose.
In order to win the championship, this car will have to win half of the races left. I don't think it'll happen, but it might be able to act as a spoiler. I doubt heavily that I'll get a spacer before this championship series is finished.
Race Tomorrow.
We'll start with the easy one:
 |
| The Alfa Romeo. Practically Perfect. |
Body Float 1/2 front - 1/4 rear
Everything else about it...tires, wheels, axles, ride height...remain the same.
_________________________________________________________________________________
 |
| Ford GT40 #8. |
Body Float 1/4 front - 1/4 rear
_________________________________________________________________________________
 |
| Recuperating Gulf #11. |
I have had some luck getting it to run better, however, and it's back to being competitive. I want it to be good, as it's my wife's car [in a way]. I told her today that it hasn't been doing very well in the races, and she suggested I fix it.
It also suffers from the same condition the Alfa does; uneven body float. It requires a different approach though, as the rear is very loose as it is.
Body Float 1/2 Front - No Float Rear
Light Pod Float - Middle Screws Loose
I know. I said I wasn't going to use any pod float. I have to do something, and I tried it and it seemed to help. I tried it with an overall light pod float, except I really loosened the middle screws. There are six points to a pod, and if it does anything, it's to separate vibrations. So by loosening the middle, maybe I can get some of the vibration away without making the rear so loose.
In order to win the championship, this car will have to win half of the races left. I don't think it'll happen, but it might be able to act as a spoiler. I doubt heavily that I'll get a spacer before this championship series is finished.
Race Tomorrow.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Drone Time Trial Test
After running the last race, I had a little time and decided to run a drone time trial which will not count against the standings. I wanted to do this to see how the cars were running against each other with no interaction from me besides setting up the initial speed of each car. Once the top speed was found before de-slotting, it was set there and the laps were run. I used the same track as the last race:
RESULTS [does not count in standings]
Gulf Ford 5:40.84
Shell Ford 5:21.66
Alfa Romeo 5:28.19
Gulf 1:25.24 1:24.87 1:25.25 1:25.47
Shell 1:20.70 1:20.42 1:20.42 1:20.10
Alfa 1:22.53 1:21.12 1:22.94 1:21.59
You'd figure that if I set the controller and left it at the beginning of the race that all of the time segments would match, but they don't. The Alfa was the most flagrant party, and ran a pretty poor third section [it kicked the back out in the 180ยบ but didn't go off for 3 laps in a row].
I guess the Gulf is running better. I probably should have done this race before tearing them all down and rebuilding them. Too late for that. The Shell car ran so smoothly that I really shouldn't be all that surprised at this point. It's a great car and handles quite well for being bigger than the Alfa, and I think it would make a great drone car to race against.
How the Alfa varies so wildly in these tests, I don't know. I've said it before; it's the easiest of the cars to drive, most responsive, and [I thought] has the best handling. I think maybe it has the best combination of size/braking, and the reason it handles so well is because it gets to a more reasonable speed in the technical sections at a faster rate. I know that it has great straight line acceleration, and I'd bet it would win in a drag race between the three cars. Between that and the braking, as well as the short wheelbase keeping the butt in better, sets it apart from the Fords. You can feel it when you drive. The quicker response of the Alfa allows for quicker times through the corners, even if the drone race didn't show that.
But then, I don't know exactly what the drone race tells me, other than which car is the fastest drone. I suppose if I could set speed at smaller increments I could be more even in each car's distribution of power. But for me this'll do. I'm not a scientist, just a fan. But this race does show some interesting things, notably that the Shell Ford is so fast on its own that it has to be an advantage in a real race. Maybe the only thing this information tells me is which car is best tuned. Or maybe has the best motor. Or was just built the best.
By the way, I make the decision whether to run a race or not prior to running it. I'll frequently run a race without being official about it, but those are usually for a purpose other than scoring points. A lot of the time it's to give another car a chance to try the various changes that might have been done to it.
Here's a list of the competitors and how many races they've won:
Alfa Romeo #2 6 Wins
Shell Ford 4 Wins
Gulf Ford 2 Wins
R18 0 Wins
Safety Car 1 Win
Class B gets further and further away, and it's all due to the amount of enjoyment I get out of the Class A cars. I was going to run the Carreras today, but I just didn't feel like it. I'm so hooked on these Slot.it cars and their ability to run so well without magnets that I really struggle enjoying a car with magnets in it. There's just no challenge. I'm pretty close to making them experiments, and shaving away pointless bits and trying to get the weight down. I had originally thought about upgrading them with parts, but then I'd end up spending almost as much as if I were to buy a new Slot.it car, and they have an R18 anyway. Not that I want another R18, mind you. I think it's got to be one of the ugliest cars ever designed. I understand why it's built the way it is, but that doesn't make it any prettier.
So there it is. A possibly meaningless test, but a test just the same.
 |
| Running drone laps on this track will show me which cars have a better overall speed, and take out the possibility of a car being faster because of its ease of use. |
RESULTS [does not count in standings]
Gulf Ford 5:40.84
Shell Ford 5:21.66
Alfa Romeo 5:28.19
Gulf 1:25.24 1:24.87 1:25.25 1:25.47
Shell 1:20.70 1:20.42 1:20.42 1:20.10
Alfa 1:22.53 1:21.12 1:22.94 1:21.59
You'd figure that if I set the controller and left it at the beginning of the race that all of the time segments would match, but they don't. The Alfa was the most flagrant party, and ran a pretty poor third section [it kicked the back out in the 180ยบ but didn't go off for 3 laps in a row].
I guess the Gulf is running better. I probably should have done this race before tearing them all down and rebuilding them. Too late for that. The Shell car ran so smoothly that I really shouldn't be all that surprised at this point. It's a great car and handles quite well for being bigger than the Alfa, and I think it would make a great drone car to race against.
How the Alfa varies so wildly in these tests, I don't know. I've said it before; it's the easiest of the cars to drive, most responsive, and [I thought] has the best handling. I think maybe it has the best combination of size/braking, and the reason it handles so well is because it gets to a more reasonable speed in the technical sections at a faster rate. I know that it has great straight line acceleration, and I'd bet it would win in a drag race between the three cars. Between that and the braking, as well as the short wheelbase keeping the butt in better, sets it apart from the Fords. You can feel it when you drive. The quicker response of the Alfa allows for quicker times through the corners, even if the drone race didn't show that.
But then, I don't know exactly what the drone race tells me, other than which car is the fastest drone. I suppose if I could set speed at smaller increments I could be more even in each car's distribution of power. But for me this'll do. I'm not a scientist, just a fan. But this race does show some interesting things, notably that the Shell Ford is so fast on its own that it has to be an advantage in a real race. Maybe the only thing this information tells me is which car is best tuned. Or maybe has the best motor. Or was just built the best.
By the way, I make the decision whether to run a race or not prior to running it. I'll frequently run a race without being official about it, but those are usually for a purpose other than scoring points. A lot of the time it's to give another car a chance to try the various changes that might have been done to it.
Here's a list of the competitors and how many races they've won:
Alfa Romeo #2 6 Wins
Shell Ford 4 Wins
Gulf Ford 2 Wins
R18 0 Wins
Safety Car 1 Win
Class B gets further and further away, and it's all due to the amount of enjoyment I get out of the Class A cars. I was going to run the Carreras today, but I just didn't feel like it. I'm so hooked on these Slot.it cars and their ability to run so well without magnets that I really struggle enjoying a car with magnets in it. There's just no challenge. I'm pretty close to making them experiments, and shaving away pointless bits and trying to get the weight down. I had originally thought about upgrading them with parts, but then I'd end up spending almost as much as if I were to buy a new Slot.it car, and they have an R18 anyway. Not that I want another R18, mind you. I think it's got to be one of the ugliest cars ever designed. I understand why it's built the way it is, but that doesn't make it any prettier.
So there it is. A possibly meaningless test, but a test just the same.
Tuning Race [Race 13 of 20]
Today's race will be 100 laps for Class A cars only. The track is fast, with a switch-back at the end of the front straight:
Pre-Race Notes:
All cars were blueprinted [disassembled and reassembled] prior to the race, with special attention put on the Gulf Ford. The cars were then tested and run at last 200 laps each and deemed clear to race.
Team Orders:
Alfa: light body float only, sanded tires
Shell Ford: medium body float only, sanded tires
Gulf Ford: medium body float only, sanded tires
RESULTS [Race 13 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa Romeo #2 5:12.51 0 5
Shell Ford #8 5:16.51 0 3
Gulf Ford #11 5:18.99 1 1
Split Times:
1-25 26-50 51-75 76-100
Alfa 1:18.48 1:18.07 1:19.97 1:15.97
Shell Ford 1:16.75 1:17.53 1:18.84 1:26.17
Gulf Ford 1:24.87 1:18.62 1:18.12 1:17.37
[blue denotes fastest time]
It looks like the Gulf Ford is finally getting ready to make a race of it. If it hadn't have crashed, it would have come in 2nd for sure. Its standard lap times were equal that of the other cars. Seems like the blueprinting helped the Gulf Ford.
The Shell Ford ran a hot race and had only one close call on the last segment that caused a considerable slowdown. I find on some tracks it can take as many as 4 or 5 laps to get back up to the speed and rhythm of the previous laps prior to the crash. In this case it didn't crash but jumped out and back in, but it was enough to cause me to lose my rhythm.
The Alfa has more in the tank. I wasn't sandbagging or anything, and I think beating the Shell Ford by 4 seconds is a pretty respectable time. If anything, the Alfa is the easiest car to drive now, and really can move when you put your foot down. After I raced it I decided to run some extra laps with each Ford to get used to their particular peculiarities. My thinking is that maybe what is happening is that I get used to the Alfa, then when I switch to a Ford I try to push it as hard, it won't allow it.
All in all a good, clean race. The Gulf Ford didn't make up any ground, however, so it's not quite there yet. What it needs, I think, is a little weight. I'll just have to wait until I get some weight.
There is a competition for first overall in the championship, as the Shell Ford is keeping up with the Alfa and not letting it run away with the trophy.
Team Standings
Car Points Total
Alfa Romeo 5 55
Shell Ford #8 3 53
Gulf Ford #11 1 38
 |
| Running counter-clockwise, the tricky part isn't the small-S at the end of the backstretch, but the switchback after the main straight. |
Pre-Race Notes:
All cars were blueprinted [disassembled and reassembled] prior to the race, with special attention put on the Gulf Ford. The cars were then tested and run at last 200 laps each and deemed clear to race.
Team Orders:
Alfa: light body float only, sanded tires
Shell Ford: medium body float only, sanded tires
Gulf Ford: medium body float only, sanded tires
RESULTS [Race 13 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa Romeo #2 5:12.51 0 5
Shell Ford #8 5:16.51 0 3
Gulf Ford #11 5:18.99 1 1
Split Times:
1-25 26-50 51-75 76-100
Alfa 1:18.48 1:18.07 1:19.97 1:15.97
Shell Ford 1:16.75 1:17.53 1:18.84 1:26.17
Gulf Ford 1:24.87 1:18.62 1:18.12 1:17.37
[blue denotes fastest time]
It looks like the Gulf Ford is finally getting ready to make a race of it. If it hadn't have crashed, it would have come in 2nd for sure. Its standard lap times were equal that of the other cars. Seems like the blueprinting helped the Gulf Ford.
The Shell Ford ran a hot race and had only one close call on the last segment that caused a considerable slowdown. I find on some tracks it can take as many as 4 or 5 laps to get back up to the speed and rhythm of the previous laps prior to the crash. In this case it didn't crash but jumped out and back in, but it was enough to cause me to lose my rhythm.
The Alfa has more in the tank. I wasn't sandbagging or anything, and I think beating the Shell Ford by 4 seconds is a pretty respectable time. If anything, the Alfa is the easiest car to drive now, and really can move when you put your foot down. After I raced it I decided to run some extra laps with each Ford to get used to their particular peculiarities. My thinking is that maybe what is happening is that I get used to the Alfa, then when I switch to a Ford I try to push it as hard, it won't allow it.
All in all a good, clean race. The Gulf Ford didn't make up any ground, however, so it's not quite there yet. What it needs, I think, is a little weight. I'll just have to wait until I get some weight.
There is a competition for first overall in the championship, as the Shell Ford is keeping up with the Alfa and not letting it run away with the trophy.
Team Standings
Car Points Total
Alfa Romeo 5 55
Shell Ford #8 3 53
Gulf Ford #11 1 38
Rebuilding the Gulf
I couldn't face my wife and tell her that her favorite car, the one she picked out for herself and gave to me, was a dud. Well, that's a bit harsh. It's not really a dud, it's just not as angry and flashy as the other two cars. It's a beauty, though:
Problem is, it's mired in last place in Class A, and unless something drastic occurs, it'll remain there. So today I took it apart and rebuilt it. There was minimal dirt and fuzz, so I couldn't attribute its problems to that. It's something deeper, and I mean deeper than a simple washer can fix [although I still need one of those].
I'm pretty sure I'm over the idea that if I own two cars of virtually identical design, they'll be the same. It's simply not true. There are too many mechanical parts that can be different enough to matter. And as you can probably tell, I'm a budget racer, so I don't get to experiment with different parts like others do. I'm okay with that, and I get the absolute maximum entertainment value out of my cars.
But when I've got the Shell Ford kicking butt, and the Gulf Ford getting its butt kicked, I can't help wondering why one car is so much better than the other, when they're essentially the same.
I gotta believe that a lot of it has to do with the location of the spur gear in relation to the pinion. The washers will fix this, as will a pinion puller, which I put on my ever-growing shopping list.
Otherwise, there's no visible difference between the two cars aside from the metal eyelets in the mounting posts on the Shell Ford, and that the Shell #8 came with the side pod screws missing. The pods have different numbers, 1 and 2, but look the same.
So maybe the problem is in the chassis. I took it apart and looked at it again, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for at this point. Everything seems to fit where it's supposed to fit, the chassis is straight and true, and it looks almost identical in current setup to the seriously fast Shell Ford. I re-seated everything to make sure it was all running soundly and together.
I noticed, while I had all the cars apart today, that the motor shafts on the Fords were quite a bit closer to the rear tires than they were on the Alfa. I noticed this after the race the other day, although at the time I wasn't completely sure what happened [I mentioned this in Cracking Open The Shell]:
That can't be good. It hasn't showed up on the Gulf Ford yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. What worries me most isn't the pinion side of the shaft, but the other side, which is pretty dang close to the tire:
I know for a fact that the tire comes very close to touching that shaft when the wheels are spinning at full-speed, mostly due to the rubber expanding from rotating so fast. Thing is, this wouldn't have anything to do with handling, since the shaft and the tire are fixed, so there's no play when the car is in a turn [even with the pod loose]. Also, you're never going full blast through a turn, so you'd never get the tires spinning fast enough to bump the shaft, which is what I expect has been happening. Regardless, I want to dremel those things off and be done with it.
I should get a chance to try out the car on Sunday night. Hopefully it'll clock some fast laps. Instead of running a race, I might do some road tests with the car and see if I can tweak it further. It came out of the box fast, and there's gotta be something that I'm missing. Funny....if a slot car pro ever sees this site, it'll probably be a cringefest for him. Best of luck, buddy! Leave a comment telling me what an idiot I am!
EDIT: I did a teardown/rebuild, also known as "blueprinting" the car, resetting things to their original value [as far as I remember it] and starting from scratch. I went back through every bit of it, stem to stern. Chassis, parts, tires, wheels, axles, gears, screws....everything dismantled, cleaned, re-assembled and tuned.
I couldn't wait to try it out, so I set up a track this morning while my wife had coffee in her office. I'm going to put 1000 laps or so on the car today, but after about 100 so far I had to stop and write this, as I noticed an improvement. It's handling like the Shell Ford in the corners now, which is a good sign. If there is a definitive improvement [as I expect there to be] and the time allows, I'll run a race today. It's going to get a bit too crazy around here this weekend to guarantee it, however.
But things are looking positive for the Gulf Ford. It still isn't going to win it all, but it certainly can make some sort of comeback, and maybe even get 2nd place out of it.
Back to the track....
 |
| Looks aren't everything. |
I'm pretty sure I'm over the idea that if I own two cars of virtually identical design, they'll be the same. It's simply not true. There are too many mechanical parts that can be different enough to matter. And as you can probably tell, I'm a budget racer, so I don't get to experiment with different parts like others do. I'm okay with that, and I get the absolute maximum entertainment value out of my cars.
But when I've got the Shell Ford kicking butt, and the Gulf Ford getting its butt kicked, I can't help wondering why one car is so much better than the other, when they're essentially the same.
 |
| The Shell Ford [left] looks identical to the Gulf Ford [right]. Thinner wires, a couple less pod screws, and metal eyelets in the mounting posts are the differences. |
I gotta believe that a lot of it has to do with the location of the spur gear in relation to the pinion. The washers will fix this, as will a pinion puller, which I put on my ever-growing shopping list.
Otherwise, there's no visible difference between the two cars aside from the metal eyelets in the mounting posts on the Shell Ford, and that the Shell #8 came with the side pod screws missing. The pods have different numbers, 1 and 2, but look the same.
So maybe the problem is in the chassis. I took it apart and looked at it again, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for at this point. Everything seems to fit where it's supposed to fit, the chassis is straight and true, and it looks almost identical in current setup to the seriously fast Shell Ford. I re-seated everything to make sure it was all running soundly and together.
I noticed, while I had all the cars apart today, that the motor shafts on the Fords were quite a bit closer to the rear tires than they were on the Alfa. I noticed this after the race the other day, although at the time I wasn't completely sure what happened [I mentioned this in Cracking Open The Shell]:
 |
| When attempting to run the car with the spur gear in, I noticed the cut part of the tire, which was likely ground down my the motor shaft. |
That can't be good. It hasn't showed up on the Gulf Ford yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. What worries me most isn't the pinion side of the shaft, but the other side, which is pretty dang close to the tire:
 |
| I should take some video of the tire spinning full-speed. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. |
I know for a fact that the tire comes very close to touching that shaft when the wheels are spinning at full-speed, mostly due to the rubber expanding from rotating so fast. Thing is, this wouldn't have anything to do with handling, since the shaft and the tire are fixed, so there's no play when the car is in a turn [even with the pod loose]. Also, you're never going full blast through a turn, so you'd never get the tires spinning fast enough to bump the shaft, which is what I expect has been happening. Regardless, I want to dremel those things off and be done with it.
I should get a chance to try out the car on Sunday night. Hopefully it'll clock some fast laps. Instead of running a race, I might do some road tests with the car and see if I can tweak it further. It came out of the box fast, and there's gotta be something that I'm missing. Funny....if a slot car pro ever sees this site, it'll probably be a cringefest for him. Best of luck, buddy! Leave a comment telling me what an idiot I am!
EDIT: I did a teardown/rebuild, also known as "blueprinting" the car, resetting things to their original value [as far as I remember it] and starting from scratch. I went back through every bit of it, stem to stern. Chassis, parts, tires, wheels, axles, gears, screws....everything dismantled, cleaned, re-assembled and tuned.
I couldn't wait to try it out, so I set up a track this morning while my wife had coffee in her office. I'm going to put 1000 laps or so on the car today, but after about 100 so far I had to stop and write this, as I noticed an improvement. It's handling like the Shell Ford in the corners now, which is a good sign. If there is a definitive improvement [as I expect there to be] and the time allows, I'll run a race today. It's going to get a bit too crazy around here this weekend to guarantee it, however.
But things are looking positive for the Gulf Ford. It still isn't going to win it all, but it certainly can make some sort of comeback, and maybe even get 2nd place out of it.
Back to the track....
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
List Of Races
Here is the link list of races run so far:
- Race 1 - New Series
- Race 2 - Tuned Racers
- Race 3 - Class A Invitational Unlimited
- Race 4 - Class A Endurance Race #1
- Race 5 - Class A Endurance Race #2
- Race 6 - New Years Eve Oval Race
- Race 7 - New Years Day Endurance Race
- Race 8 - Super Endurance Time Trial
- Race 9 - Technical Track Race
- Race 10 - Inside Lane Challenge
- Race 11 - Safety Car Drone Race
- Race 12 - Drift Race Challenge
- Race 13 - Tuning Race
- Race 14 - Super-Endurance Race
- Race 15 - Over/Under Race
- Race 16 - Road Race
- Race 17 - 50-Lap Sprint Race
- Race 18 - 50-Lap Test Track Sprint
- Race 19 - 100-Lap Super Sprint
- Race 20 - 100-Lap Super Sprint Reverse FINAL
Drift Race Challenge [Race 12 of 20]
This is a timed 100-lap race for Class A cars. It will be run on a track I sometimes set up for drifting purposes, as it has a big right turn going into a tight 180ยบ left turn:
It'll be a challenge for racing as it's very easy to get loose in that turn, but I plan on racing the cars hard today, so I expect offs. Which car that ends up helping is hard to say.
Pre-Race Notes:
Due to the failed experiment of running the Shell Ford with the spur gear on the inside, it has since been moved back to the outside and has run about 200 break-in laps. It's back to its prior settings, and is ready to race.
All cars have been cleaned, oiled and tires have been cleaned with a newer, stickier, finer tape. It took considerable crap off the tires, so I'm expecting good lap times.
Team Notes:
Alfa: body float light/no pod float
Controller Settings:
_________________________________________________________________________________
Shell Ford: body float light/no pod float
Controller Settings:
_________________________________________________________________________________
Gulf Ford: body float medium/no pod float
Controller Settings:
Regarding Body Float:
Looseness is a relative thing, and it's hard to say "1/2 turn here, 1/4 turn there", as there are differences in all cars. So I look at it a little differently. I'd consider "body float light" to be the minimal setting to get the body just enough space to wiggle on the chassis [that varies on my cars from turning the screws anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 a turn], while "body float medium" would be set up more like a loose body sitting on the chassis [1/2 turn +], with significantly more play. Any more slack and I don't think there would be much more body float. Body float heavy? hmm....alrighty then. I'll never go that loose, so how about calling "heavy" 1 turn each. Doesn't matter here.
_________________________________________________________________________________
RESULTS [Race 12 of 20]
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa Romeo 5:33.96 3 5
Shell Ford 5:47.33 6 3
Gulf Ford 6:11.51 9 1
Split Times
Car Lap 0-25 Lap 26-50 Lap 51-75 Lap 76-100
Alfa 1:24.37 1:23.17 1:24.79 1:21.62
Shell 1:23.90 1:32.50 1:24.72 1:26.19
Gulf 1:32.15 1:38.04 1:31.79 1:29.52
The split times tell the whole story. I thought 3 offs with the Alfa was going to put it out of contention, but wasn't expecting the Fords to handle so poorly on the track. That's an advantage to starting the race with the Alfa [whoever won the last race starts the next one]; it gets a chance to set the pace, and it's so dang fast now that it's getting hard to catch. It went off once in each of the first three time periods and still clocked fast times.
The Shell Ford started well, but then started crashing in the second time period. It went off three times in 10 laps, then stretched that out a bit. It did pretty well in the third period, but it was too far behind to win by then. A couple more crashes in the last period really drove the point home. The Alfa improved almost the entire race, while the Fords did not.
The Gulf Ford was a mess. NINE offs. I almost DNF'd it, it hurt so much to watch it struggle like a beached whale out there. I believe that this race seals its fate as far as the championship goes. Because of this, I'm going to put all my focus on this car and improving it to become a spoiler. Full overhaul coming. I'll document the whole thing, of course.
Standings [Race 12 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Alfa Romeo 5 55
Shell Ford 3 50
Gulf Ford 1 37
_________________________________________________________________________________
 |
| Counter-clockwise. Inside lane. |
It'll be a challenge for racing as it's very easy to get loose in that turn, but I plan on racing the cars hard today, so I expect offs. Which car that ends up helping is hard to say.
Pre-Race Notes:
Due to the failed experiment of running the Shell Ford with the spur gear on the inside, it has since been moved back to the outside and has run about 200 break-in laps. It's back to its prior settings, and is ready to race.
All cars have been cleaned, oiled and tires have been cleaned with a newer, stickier, finer tape. It took considerable crap off the tires, so I'm expecting good lap times.
Team Notes:
Alfa: body float light/no pod float
Controller Settings:
 |
| Most notable settings here are the Power Trim at 12 o'clock and the Curve/Max set to 4. The car will react quickly, with plenty of power and a burst of speed for the straights. There's enough max power there to send the car right off the track. |
_________________________________________________________________________________
Shell Ford: body float light/no pod float
Controller Settings:
 |
| Here, the Power Trim has been turned to about 11 o'clock to give it a little more play with the trigger....or making it mushy, if you will. |
_________________________________________________________________________________
Gulf Ford: body float medium/no pod float
Controller Settings:
 |
| The settings are similar to the Shell Ford with one exception: Curve/Max was turned down to 3 so the car would make it around the track. 4 was too strong of a setting for max power, forcing it to spin in the curves. |
Regarding Body Float:
Looseness is a relative thing, and it's hard to say "1/2 turn here, 1/4 turn there", as there are differences in all cars. So I look at it a little differently. I'd consider "body float light" to be the minimal setting to get the body just enough space to wiggle on the chassis [that varies on my cars from turning the screws anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 a turn], while "body float medium" would be set up more like a loose body sitting on the chassis [1/2 turn +], with significantly more play. Any more slack and I don't think there would be much more body float. Body float heavy? hmm....alrighty then. I'll never go that loose, so how about calling "heavy" 1 turn each. Doesn't matter here.
_________________________________________________________________________________
RESULTS [Race 12 of 20]
Car Time Offs Points
Alfa Romeo 5:33.96 3 5
Shell Ford 5:47.33 6 3
Gulf Ford 6:11.51 9 1
Split Times
Car Lap 0-25 Lap 26-50 Lap 51-75 Lap 76-100
Alfa 1:24.37 1:23.17 1:24.79 1:21.62
Shell 1:23.90 1:32.50 1:24.72 1:26.19
Gulf 1:32.15 1:38.04 1:31.79 1:29.52
The split times tell the whole story. I thought 3 offs with the Alfa was going to put it out of contention, but wasn't expecting the Fords to handle so poorly on the track. That's an advantage to starting the race with the Alfa [whoever won the last race starts the next one]; it gets a chance to set the pace, and it's so dang fast now that it's getting hard to catch. It went off once in each of the first three time periods and still clocked fast times.
The Shell Ford started well, but then started crashing in the second time period. It went off three times in 10 laps, then stretched that out a bit. It did pretty well in the third period, but it was too far behind to win by then. A couple more crashes in the last period really drove the point home. The Alfa improved almost the entire race, while the Fords did not.
The Gulf Ford was a mess. NINE offs. I almost DNF'd it, it hurt so much to watch it struggle like a beached whale out there. I believe that this race seals its fate as far as the championship goes. Because of this, I'm going to put all my focus on this car and improving it to become a spoiler. Full overhaul coming. I'll document the whole thing, of course.
Standings [Race 12 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Alfa Romeo 5 55
Shell Ford 3 50
Gulf Ford 1 37
_________________________________________________________________________________
Holding Up
There have been over 1400 laps posted by the winners of the races so far, and that's just the races. That doesn't include the thousands of laps spent getting the hang of the cars. I started off gently with them, as they were all new, but now that I've had them for awhile, I've started pushing them.
How strong are Slot.it cars?
I'm surprised at how strong they are, and have not had any major parts fall off or become lost. I had a back plate that I had to glue back on a car, but I haven't lost any parts due to impact. That includes the three-legged mirror on the Alfa:
Will Slot.it cars run on my home track?
Yes, I don't see why not. They are very well made cars, and although they have stronger motors than most of the cars you'd find in a kit [Carrera, Scalextric, Ninco], they are also better performers. Take the magnets out and they become the most fun addition you've made to the track. I run my track with no borders, and the Slot.it cars can still rip around the track, and that's without the magnets. My racing series proves that they're more than capable of being fast and a blast to drive. And once you crash them a few times you feel better about running them.
Do Slot.it cars need any other parts to work?
No. Slot.it cars come Ready-to-run [RTR], and should operate right out of the box without trouble. The fun, as you can probably tell, comes from tweaking them to within an inch on their lives. You can do a lot of this without every buying extra parts. And these are just the cars to do it. Of course parts are plentiful and easy to find...in fact, they're probably the single largest 3rd party car and parts maker going right now. They've enhanced everything that can be, yet the cars are absolutely fun straight out of the box and onto the track.
Are Slot.it cars difficult to work on?
I don't think so. I find them to be very clean and well organized on the inside, and well made. With a bit of care, most aspects of the car can be tweaked to improve speed and handling. The most basic maintenance [clean tires, occasional oil and lube, clean chassis] will keep it going for a long time.
I will say, however, that in order to make them fast requires work. There are dozens of small things that can and should be done to cars to get them in racing shape, which is considerably different that out-of-box shape. And that says nothing about how cars continue to perform, or whether they'll handle the next track as well as the previous track.
I'm struggling with the performance of my Gulf Ford right now, and it's a considerably different car from the Shell Ford, even though they're essentially the same in construction and design. Problem is, I have tweaked the Shell car pretty seriously to get it to run faster, and I've done comparatively no tweaking to the Gulf car all this time. It was fine out of the box, so I didn't touch much except doing the most basic pre-race tuning procedures. But that's the great thing about slot cars. You never know what you can get out of a car until you try, and the differences in the two Fords proves that. It'll be a challenge to get the Gulf Ford up to speed, but it'll be totally fun. Looking forward to it.
What about the tires? Are the horror stories true? Will I never find the right tires for my slot car?
First, Slot.it recommends its P22 tire compound to run on Carrera track. I have a Carrera track, but it's painted with a latex exterior house paint [two coats]. This changes things, as now the track's texture is changed and grip improved. How it compares to other tracks, I don't know. But I do know that not only does the paint help, but it's a huge improvement over the straight plastic.
I spoke with Mauricio from Slot.it about it, and let him know that the stock C1 tires worked great on my track. As I've said earlier, I will be picking up some P22s to check them out when I make my parts purchase. But I believe that the C1s should work great on unpainted Carrera track. Even if they were slightly less grip than they are now, they'd still be grippy.
How are Slot.it cars overall with wear-and-tear?
Well, I took these pictures on Sunday, just two days ago:
I think they're holding up quite well. The only noticeable blemish I've found on any of the cars is the lettering on the tires of the Alfa is starting to come off. But otherwise they look great, especially after 1400 race laps [and at least 10 times that in casual laps]. They've been off plenty of times, sometimes quite spectacularly, and have all been into the wooden sofa leg. No cracks or stress to the bodies in any way.
How strong are Slot.it cars?
I'm surprised at how strong they are, and have not had any major parts fall off or become lost. I had a back plate that I had to glue back on a car, but I haven't lost any parts due to impact. That includes the three-legged mirror on the Alfa:
 |
| You would think that the ginormous rear-view mirror would have broke off by now, or at least popped off. Not only is it still firmly in place, but it acts as a third of a tripod when the car flips. |
Will Slot.it cars run on my home track?
Yes, I don't see why not. They are very well made cars, and although they have stronger motors than most of the cars you'd find in a kit [Carrera, Scalextric, Ninco], they are also better performers. Take the magnets out and they become the most fun addition you've made to the track. I run my track with no borders, and the Slot.it cars can still rip around the track, and that's without the magnets. My racing series proves that they're more than capable of being fast and a blast to drive. And once you crash them a few times you feel better about running them.
Do Slot.it cars need any other parts to work?
No. Slot.it cars come Ready-to-run [RTR], and should operate right out of the box without trouble. The fun, as you can probably tell, comes from tweaking them to within an inch on their lives. You can do a lot of this without every buying extra parts. And these are just the cars to do it. Of course parts are plentiful and easy to find...in fact, they're probably the single largest 3rd party car and parts maker going right now. They've enhanced everything that can be, yet the cars are absolutely fun straight out of the box and onto the track.
Are Slot.it cars difficult to work on?
I don't think so. I find them to be very clean and well organized on the inside, and well made. With a bit of care, most aspects of the car can be tweaked to improve speed and handling. The most basic maintenance [clean tires, occasional oil and lube, clean chassis] will keep it going for a long time.
I will say, however, that in order to make them fast requires work. There are dozens of small things that can and should be done to cars to get them in racing shape, which is considerably different that out-of-box shape. And that says nothing about how cars continue to perform, or whether they'll handle the next track as well as the previous track.
I'm struggling with the performance of my Gulf Ford right now, and it's a considerably different car from the Shell Ford, even though they're essentially the same in construction and design. Problem is, I have tweaked the Shell car pretty seriously to get it to run faster, and I've done comparatively no tweaking to the Gulf car all this time. It was fine out of the box, so I didn't touch much except doing the most basic pre-race tuning procedures. But that's the great thing about slot cars. You never know what you can get out of a car until you try, and the differences in the two Fords proves that. It'll be a challenge to get the Gulf Ford up to speed, but it'll be totally fun. Looking forward to it.
 |
| I really like how clean the standard Slot.it car is. It makes it very easy to work on, and doesn't feel cluttered at all. This is the Alfa chassis. |
What about the tires? Are the horror stories true? Will I never find the right tires for my slot car?
First, Slot.it recommends its P22 tire compound to run on Carrera track. I have a Carrera track, but it's painted with a latex exterior house paint [two coats]. This changes things, as now the track's texture is changed and grip improved. How it compares to other tracks, I don't know. But I do know that not only does the paint help, but it's a huge improvement over the straight plastic.
I spoke with Mauricio from Slot.it about it, and let him know that the stock C1 tires worked great on my track. As I've said earlier, I will be picking up some P22s to check them out when I make my parts purchase. But I believe that the C1s should work great on unpainted Carrera track. Even if they were slightly less grip than they are now, they'd still be grippy.
How are Slot.it cars overall with wear-and-tear?
Well, I took these pictures on Sunday, just two days ago:
 |
| Slot.it Ford GT40 #8 Shell |
 |
| Slot.it Ford GT40 #11 Jacky Ickx Daytona '67 |
 |
| Slot.it Alfa Romeo 33/3 #2 Targa Florio |
I think they're holding up quite well. The only noticeable blemish I've found on any of the cars is the lettering on the tires of the Alfa is starting to come off. But otherwise they look great, especially after 1400 race laps [and at least 10 times that in casual laps]. They've been off plenty of times, sometimes quite spectacularly, and have all been into the wooden sofa leg. No cracks or stress to the bodies in any way.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Cracking Open The Shell
I noticed something at the end of last race. The Shell Ford #8 had some strange wear on one of the back tires. I wasn't sure what caused it, so I took a deeper look:
There. On the inside of the tire, are noticeable chunks taken out. I think it might have to do with the end pin on the motor rubbing against it when I'm at full acceleration. I've read suggestions to cut it down with a dremel, and I have one of those on my wish list.
I'm going to ask over at SCI to make sure. Maybe there's something I can do in the meantime to help prevent it. I haven't glued my tires yet. I should probably do that.
So then I took out my exacto knife and trimmed back some of the chassis where it was rubbing against the spur gear, and then reset the gear to the original direction:
The spur gear is making much better contact with the crown gear, riding more in the middle and not right on the edge like it was. This should improve the car a lot, and I might even get away with not needing these freaking washers that I've been talking about so much. If the chassis still makes noise, I'll trim it back further. I think there's quite a bit of room there if I need it, and now that I've done some chassis trimming and it has helped, I'm cool with doing more. I'm going to set up a track in the morning and do some tests.
EDIT: I set up a track and ran the Shell Ford, and there was still considerable chatter on right turns. I even made video of it and likely will upload it and link it here. Suffice it to say the spur gear flip was a failure, and will go back to being on the outside next to the tire until I can get the [damn] spacers.
It's totally frustrating to take a car that was running great and make it run like total shit in one move.
I didn't change the spur gear on the Gulf Ford, and it's still up against the wheel. I just took apart that car, it isn't like this one. I really doubt shaving back the chassis will help the Gulf Ford.
All three cars were then cleaned, de-greased and de-fuzzed.
 |
| This setup with the spur gear against the wheel was needed so that I could float the pod. When it was set the other way, with the spur gear on the inside, it would rub against the chassis with the slightest pod loosening. |
There. On the inside of the tire, are noticeable chunks taken out. I think it might have to do with the end pin on the motor rubbing against it when I'm at full acceleration. I've read suggestions to cut it down with a dremel, and I have one of those on my wish list.
I'm going to ask over at SCI to make sure. Maybe there's something I can do in the meantime to help prevent it. I haven't glued my tires yet. I should probably do that.
So then I took out my exacto knife and trimmed back some of the chassis where it was rubbing against the spur gear, and then reset the gear to the original direction:
 |
| Grimy work, but looked better after it was cleaned up. This is a shot pre-tightening, when I was checking to make sure I had no wheel lock. There's barely enough room for the spur gear to run without rubbing against the chassis, but that room goes away the second a pod screw is unscrewed. |
The spur gear is making much better contact with the crown gear, riding more in the middle and not right on the edge like it was. This should improve the car a lot, and I might even get away with not needing these freaking washers that I've been talking about so much. If the chassis still makes noise, I'll trim it back further. I think there's quite a bit of room there if I need it, and now that I've done some chassis trimming and it has helped, I'm cool with doing more. I'm going to set up a track in the morning and do some tests.
EDIT: I set up a track and ran the Shell Ford, and there was still considerable chatter on right turns. I even made video of it and likely will upload it and link it here. Suffice it to say the spur gear flip was a failure, and will go back to being on the outside next to the tire until I can get the [damn] spacers.
It's totally frustrating to take a car that was running great and make it run like total shit in one move.
I didn't change the spur gear on the Gulf Ford, and it's still up against the wheel. I just took apart that car, it isn't like this one. I really doubt shaving back the chassis will help the Gulf Ford.
All three cars were then cleaned, de-greased and de-fuzzed.
Explaining the Alfa
You may wonder, after viewing the results of the last race, how there could be such a discrepancy in the overall Lapped Against Drone [LAD] totals. Here's the results from the last race:
RESULTS [Race 11 of 20]:
Car Time Offs +/- LAD Points [w/bonus]
Alfa #2 5:43.09 0 14 5 [19]
Shell #8 6:04.33 0 7 4 [11]
Gulf #11 6:09.93 0 6 3 [9]
Audi R18 6:17.83 0 5 1 [6]
Safety Car* 6:15.64 1 2 2 [4]
The Alfa doubled the LAD against the 2nd place Shell Ford, but only beat it by about 20 seconds. How is the possible?
In practically every race, the first LAD occurred about 19-20 laps in. The Alfa, however, turned its first LAD in 12 laps and ran a continuous string of those. As I was going, I was able to pick up even more speed, and was running very fast until it got completely loose in a far corner about halfway through the race. It went as far as it could before de-slotting, and lock-stopped. Thinking going into the turn that I was going to crash it, I let off and kept it in the slot. It then spun its wheels for a second or two before getting going again. If I were to touch it, it would have counted as an Off, and I didn't want that. Immediately following that scare, I laid off the gas and only registered a couple more LAD before finishing. So the Alfa essentially cruised to the finish from about lap 60 on.
The Fords never had the muscle in the corners to post a fast enough lap time, and the Alfa has a record of dominance at this track. Without the ability to rip through the corners, they go into the straights at a slower initial speed, don't get up the straight speed compared to the Alfa, and require more braking. This I attribute to the track itself and the Alfa's handling of it. Get the Fords on a track with wider radius curves and they will blow the Alfa away, I'm sure of it. If you look just at the totals of the two Fords, it's easier to see what the average is, and the two cars weren't too far away from each other.
The drone car kept things interesting, if only to keep the maximum speed up in the hopes of grabbing bonus points. I liked the idea of a Class B car running, as it felt a bit like a multi-class race, and although it wasn't particularly challenging, it did encourage faster lap times. It's almost like a look into what digital could potentially be like, and I'll bet having to get around slower cars would make it that much more interesting with lane change options.
The Carrera thumb sticks are the argument against this form of race, as there's just no comparison to the SCP-1, and it kills me to take all that great tech and make it a drone controller. I want to USE it, not set it and forget it.
Something tells me that if I got a standard toy train controller at the right voltage, I could probably wire it to my track and control a lane that way, effectively freeing up my SCP-1 controller. I'm going to ask around about that.
RESULTS [Race 11 of 20]:
Car Time Offs +/- LAD Points [w/bonus]
Alfa #2 5:43.09 0 14 5 [19]
Shell #8 6:04.33 0 7 4 [11]
Gulf #11 6:09.93 0 6 3 [9]
Audi R18 6:17.83 0 5 1 [6]
Safety Car* 6:15.64 1 2 2 [4]
The Alfa doubled the LAD against the 2nd place Shell Ford, but only beat it by about 20 seconds. How is the possible?
In practically every race, the first LAD occurred about 19-20 laps in. The Alfa, however, turned its first LAD in 12 laps and ran a continuous string of those. As I was going, I was able to pick up even more speed, and was running very fast until it got completely loose in a far corner about halfway through the race. It went as far as it could before de-slotting, and lock-stopped. Thinking going into the turn that I was going to crash it, I let off and kept it in the slot. It then spun its wheels for a second or two before getting going again. If I were to touch it, it would have counted as an Off, and I didn't want that. Immediately following that scare, I laid off the gas and only registered a couple more LAD before finishing. So the Alfa essentially cruised to the finish from about lap 60 on.
The Fords never had the muscle in the corners to post a fast enough lap time, and the Alfa has a record of dominance at this track. Without the ability to rip through the corners, they go into the straights at a slower initial speed, don't get up the straight speed compared to the Alfa, and require more braking. This I attribute to the track itself and the Alfa's handling of it. Get the Fords on a track with wider radius curves and they will blow the Alfa away, I'm sure of it. If you look just at the totals of the two Fords, it's easier to see what the average is, and the two cars weren't too far away from each other.
The drone car kept things interesting, if only to keep the maximum speed up in the hopes of grabbing bonus points. I liked the idea of a Class B car running, as it felt a bit like a multi-class race, and although it wasn't particularly challenging, it did encourage faster lap times. It's almost like a look into what digital could potentially be like, and I'll bet having to get around slower cars would make it that much more interesting with lane change options.
The Carrera thumb sticks are the argument against this form of race, as there's just no comparison to the SCP-1, and it kills me to take all that great tech and make it a drone controller. I want to USE it, not set it and forget it.
Something tells me that if I got a standard toy train controller at the right voltage, I could probably wire it to my track and control a lane that way, effectively freeing up my SCP-1 controller. I'm going to ask around about that.
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