Sharing Advice

I just got off the phone with a racer. He's very active in proxy racing and posts great results all over the world. He gave me a handful of tips that I want to post here, in case anybody ever comes across this:

1. Raising the front axle so the wheels are not touching the ground is counter-productive. It's assumed by many that having the wheels up produces less friction because there is less touching the track. Physics says no. His example: take the pinion off your car, then push it along the track with the front wheels up. Now push it along the track with the wheels touching. There will be less friction and it will roll farther on its own with four wheels on the track that it will dragging the braid. 
2. While the top grub screws in the suspension are necessary for proper front wheel contact with the ground, the lower grub screws aren't as necessary, since the suspension can't go any lower than touching the track. There is no advantage in the corners.
3. Body float = very important. Reason being is something I didn't consider; when you loosen the body slightly, you are preventing the body from being a resonator, vibrating along with the chassis. This gives a smoother ride, as the body cancels out the vibrating chassis. This does not, however, have any effect in turns, and doesn't shift body weight, despite certain opinions on the topic. Since, on my cars, the bodies are joined to the chassis by two mounting posts, located center front and center rear, and are connected through screws, the side-to-side transfer of body weight in turns is minimal. There's just not enough tilt-ability of the body to shift the weight like that.
4. Pod float = not so much. If you're setting up your rear end to be loose, and to float, you're basically freeing the rear end from it's job of moving the car as efficiently as possible. With a more independent rear end, there's more sloppy side-to-side movement, and more overall looseness. He suggests tighten the pod snug, but not tight, or to hot glue the pod to the chassis altogether. He proposes this based on racers' realization that if they were to loosen the pod, they end up putting a big piece of tape under the chassis for it and the pod. So they're basically causing a problem, then trying to fix it.
5. If you want to get into proxy racing and you're not sure how to start, he suggests finding a race you like and preparing a car for it next time. I know what race I'm going to enter, and I'm pretty sure what car I'm going to send to do it. And I can't wait. 

There it is. Some valuable information, and some opinions that aren't heard in all slot car circles. I like that. I plan on putting all of these ideas to the test, and will report on them as they go for me. Much of it I'm already in agreement with, and he simply confirmed my suspicions on a few things. Other things were explained better than I've found anywhere else.

His overall opinion: everything you learned in 9th grade physics is applicable in slot car racing. There is no black magic to it. Common sense and experimentation work best.

EDIT: Since this writing, I have run other tests regarding pod float, setting cars in various ways to see results. It feels like my cars respond better when no pod float is applied. Whether or not that translates into faster laps is a bit hard to tell with these short tracks. I'm planning on doing some kind of definitive [for me] test, probably in the form of an endurance race to see what long-term effects the different settings have.