Homecoming Race

This is not the start of a season. I know I said that in the last post, but the fact of the matter is, this time of year is a bad time to think that additions aren't going to be made to the track. The holidays are nearly here, and the focus once again is on slot cars and track.
I picked up 8 straights recently, which significantly improved my layout possibilities, as well as my opportunity to air the cars out on a true straightaway longer than the 5 pieces I was previously able to muster.
The reason I'm not starting the season now is that I know I'm going to be adding more track shortly, likely in the form of curves, which I also need. If this happens, I'll be rebuilding my table to go larger in order to take advantage of the possibilities. As it stands now I'm at 16' across, which is significantly larger than my previous table. The plan is to go the entire 18', then bring the ends around a bit for a U-shape. The depth is too narrow to afford a curvy infield, so I'm going to make up for that in other ways.

But anyway, let's get on to today's 30-lap race. This is a reminder of the cars running:

Alfa #2 - [last season winner] PG urethane tires
Shell #8 - PG urethane tires
Gulf #11 - C1 rubber tires
R18 - Stock rubber tires
Audi PC - Stock rubber tires

Cars were run at various times throughout the summer, some more than others, although time was spent on each one. No outside parts were added to the cars since the last season, and none of the cars were tuned prior. You could consider this an end-of-summer shootout, probably.

I got this layout by starting with an oval and adding the few track pieces I have extra: 2 1/60's and 4 1/30's. Added a bit of a challenge, but I'm sure looking forward to adding more curves now that I have the extra straights.

Results:

Car            Time            Lap                 Offs
Shell #8     1:55.99      [1.86]                   0
Alfa #2      1:56.69        [1.9]                   0
Gulf #11    2:13.86        [4.4]                   0
R18           2:47.69         [5.5]                  1
Audi PC    3:05.05         [6.1]                  0


If I don't get some tires for the Gulf car, it's not going to be competitive, I know it. Urethanes are just that much grippier than rubber. While both the #8 and the #2 ran pretty much where I thought they would, not so for the Gulf.
I was curious to see what the Carrera cars would do. While I ran the controller at 5 Power for the Slot.it cars, I stepped it down to 2 Power for the Carreras, and it was still too much. Slippy, slidey, all over. They're going to get some urethanes too.
Overall, I think if I ran a season based on this, the Shell car would win it. It's got a slight edge in the turns over the Alfa.

So at this stage I'm going to continue running the cars on the track until new track is acquired, then I'll paint that, design a good course and we can get down to business. Any cars that might appear will be added to the mix regardless of condition or class. Once I feel that the additions have stopped, which should be by the end of the holidays, then I'll start up the season. Until then I'm going to go back over each of the cars and get them ready for a nice long winter of racing.