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| The big corner in the left side needs to be taken with care, but is frequently not. |
Layout:
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| That's SIX straights on the backstretch, and it drops pretty quickly into the big corner from there. The brick red color curves are 1/30s. |
The Cars:
The three cars have been pretty extensively modified [for me, anyway] since the beginning of the season, and these last few races is the end result of those improvements. Because different things were done to different cars, they were no longer going to be as evenly matched as they were when they started out. I didn't add everything to each car, instead going with trying to improve the car rather than just slap more parts on it. So here is the breakdown:
The Alfa
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| Sitting pretty on those Paul Gage urethane tires. I like the profile of them. |
I have paid more attention to tuning this car than I have the others, I'll admit. In doing so, I have made it the favorite to win. It gets more laps and has had more care put into it than the others. I think the reason for that is that, even though it was a little fidgety at first, it always felt like it had the most potential. I expect that is due to the length of the car and how it handles compared to the longer Ford.
I spent significant time truing and sanding the tires, all the while monitoring them every 50 laps or so to see how they are taking to the track. In case you're curious, I have found no issues running urethane alongside rubber, and haven't experienced excess track dirt or slippage because of it. Urethane slot car tires run absolutely fine on a track that uses primarily stock rubber tires.
I've said it in previous posts, and I'm going to say it again: urethane feels like a significant improvement over stock rubber tires. Grippier, smoother, quieter...all add up to faster. The tires reacted well to sanding, and the track did the rest.
I also added mounting screws to the motor, which I did on all the cars. The Alfa, prior to that, seemed pretty secure, but I did it anyway. Can't say the same for either of the Fords, as they both needed it.
The Alfa has rubber washers on the body mounts and pod screws, which gives it a bit of a cushion and stops a lot of vibration. I also have been experimenting with adding a little weight, and put 1/2 gram right in front of the motor to give it a little bite.
The Shell Ford
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| Another beneficiary of Paul Gage rear tires. I plan on getting urethane fronts for all the cars as well. |
The Shell Ford got the other pair of Paul Gage tires, as the lap time improvement meant I couldn't race one car on urethanes while the other two ran rubber. That wouldn't be fair. So given the points totals up to this race, I decided to give the co-leaders similar tires. As they both have the same wheel radius [yay me], it was easy.
I did not, however, do as much sanding to the tires as on the Alfa, preferring to see what was making contact on the track first, and adjusting from there. No idea why I did it that way, other than to see how urethane might react differently than rubber. Sure didn't seem to matter much in the big picture, as the tires took well to the track anyway. I'm sure the proof is in the details, though.
The Shell Ford also received the motor screws and rubber washers. I also flipped the spur gear back to the inside configuration, as it sits better on the pinion. It's a close fit, but I spent time with it to get it right, and now that the rubber washers are in the pod, I don't have as much looseness as I did before, so it's better in the corners. It feels like a beast compared to the Alfa, but it's still remarkably nimble.
The Gulf Ford
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| It's up to the Gulf car to be Team Rubber today. |
Due to the Gulf Ford being out of contention for the championship, it didn't get the tires, and had to run on the stock rubber. It had been averaging about 4 seconds less per 100 laps than the other cars, so I was expecting about double that due to the tire differences. The Gulf car also got the motor screws and rubber washers, as well as an overhaul, and is still in excellent shape. The rubber washers are the most noticeable improvement with this car, as it pretty much corrected the handling issues. I'll be buying a set of urethane tires for this car on my next parts purchase, although likely from another manufacturer, probably Super Tires. I can get them here, and that's cheaper than importing.
So for the Gulf, this race will be to compare improvements w/tires over improvements without.
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RESULTS:
Car 50 Laps 100 Laps Offs Points
Alfa #2 2:20.27 4:35.00 0 5
Shell #8 2:27.36 4:45.25 0 3
Gulf #11 2:25.36 4:48.99 0 1
The Alfa was truly dominant. It ran a much faster first 50 laps than the Shell car did, The Shell car started off a bit more conservatively due to the difference in size. Also, it reacts to power a bit differently, so I set the cap on the Slot.it SCP-1 controller to the maximum speed from 6, what the Alfa ran, to 5 on the Shell Ford. I had to do this, as level 6 is just too much juice for the Ford in the corners. As the race went on, the Shell car did much better.
Could the difference in time spent on the tires amounted to a 10 second difference in 100 laps? Hard to say. It's not like I didn't treat the Ford at all, I just didn't spend as much time on it as the Alfa. I suppose they could still need work.
The Gulf Ford was quite surprising, notably because this is the second race in a row where it hasn't gone off. Not only that, but it ran a downright respectable time against the urethane-equipped cars, and actually beat the Shell Ford in the split.
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Championship Standings [Race 19 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Alfa #2 5 77
Shell #8 3 75
Gulf #11 1 48
One more race. I said there wasn't going to be a tie, and here's how I'm going to do that. The winner of the last race will receive one bonus point on top of the 5 points for the win. There will be no tie.
Can different slot cars from the same manufacturer be competitive with each other? Absolutely. No question about it, even when you start doing modifications.
All in all, this has been a great series. I've learned a lot doing this, and have had interesting challenges along the way. I'm planning on buying some more track soon, and once I do that I'll start up another championship run. I might even add a car if I can swing it. I'm thinking a Matra.
One more huge race to run. I'm going to go over the past designs a pick one for the last race. Once I have that and have a chance to try it out, then I'll run the last race. It'll be a 200-lap marathon.
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