Visiting Day at the Track

I had a buddy come by today to visit with his family, and he is showing an interest in picking up a Carrera set. So I took him to the attic so he could see some possibilities. Needless to say we had a fun time.

As we were racing around, I had the outside lane, which I almost never use because there are no borders, so there's way more chance of a car going off. It was consistently going off in the sweeper, which has been getting progressively more angled as time has gone by.

Under the big curve lies that flat piece of dark wood as well as a series of small supports under it, lifting that section up about 3 inches. It had gotten a little out-of-hand lately, though.

The 2/30 curves are great, but they don't respond to subtle banking like the 1/60 curves do. The 2/30's have a tendency to fold at the joint, which makes you go through a series of flat pieces awkwardly cramming into a faux-bank. I think once they're put together with an under-track support, I'll have a bit more flexibility with them. Also, they're new. They haven't gone through the elements in my attic yet. So until then I'm doing away with all the support, and laying the sweeper primarily flat [except for a slight banking going in to the curve, which is the biggest problem].

I also need to shore up some sections regarding stopping flying slot cars. A few made it all the way off the table today. I attribute that to my overall laziness to approach the issue. Until I have the next step done, I'll be using rolled up T-shirts. I have a solution for the two ends, and I'm looking forward to trying it. It doesn't involve T-shirts.

It's either that or go slower, and I don't want to go slower.

Time Trials #2 - First on fully painted track

Last night was what I call my "all-nighter", which is the night before I start my nightshifts at work. I usually try to stay up all night the night before going to work so that I can make it the entire way my first night at work. Does that make any sense?

What it gets me is an all-nighter, where I really have only one thing to do; not fall asleep. Last night I worked on the two new cars, although it was too late to race them. So I did some troubleshooting, double-checking and control of the cars. The Porsche needed the most work. It wasn't sitting right in the front, and at first I attributed that to a pickup wire being in the way, but the more I worked on it, the less I accomplished. Turns out the pickup braid had a little bump in it that was lifting the front end of the car. I flattened and flared it out and everything was fine. We'll see if there was any improvement.

Time Trials - 50 Laps / No Offs

Setups: each car was given an opportunity for a fresh sanding, although only a few took it. The Alfa, the LH Porsche and the '66 Ford had slight touchups to the tires.

RESULTS:

Car             Time            1st         2nd       Lap   

Gulf         4:12.18           2:05      2:05       5.04
Shell        4:15.78           2:08      2:07       5.10
Alfa         4:14.38           2:05      2:09       5.08
'66           4:06.33           2:03      2:02       4.92
LH           4:22.77           2:12      2:10       5.24


Here's the last time trials numbers for comparison:

Car [Tire]           Time       1st         2nd       Offs

Gold [stock]      4:20.16    2:12       2:08          
LH [stock C1]   4:29.27    2:19       2:10              
Shell [PGu]       4:24.37    2:13       2:10            
Alfa [PGu]        4:23.42    2:11       2:12         1
Gulf [stockC1]  4:05.06    2:02       2:03


All of the times are starting to come down. The '66 Ford beat out everybody and even broke a 5 second lap. I don't attribute that to the fresh sanding of the tires as much as I do the tires themselves, and the fact that the car is so damn smooth.

Left to Right - Last to First

I think it's most important to look at lap times more than overall time. It gives an impression just how close the cars are to each other. Three tenths of a second separate the field. That's pretty good for 5 slot cars. That means when it gets down to it that it's anybody's race. I still think the LH needs a little bit more work until it's up to speed, but it did much better overall this time trial. I think it's still got a few tenths in it, though.

Also, I suspect there might be a bit of a grab happening in the guide flag on the '66, but I might be wrong about that. Seems like it would slightly cut out going around the sweeper, but that might have been braids, come to think of it. I'll have to take a look.

Two #11 cars. Otherwise perfect.

The Shell car should be doing better than it is. I guess now that I have five working race cars, I need to spread the lovin' around a little bit so that all the cars have the best opportunity. I don't want to suddenly neglect the other three great cars because I have two new ones. That would be kinda lame.

The Alfa, for whatever reason, ran a slower 2nd half than the traditional faster 2nd half. I don't remember cruising in particular, and it didn't crash or anything, so I don't know what it could have been. I think it's days of short track dominance are over, and now it needs to work harder to win.

There's also something that needs to be said, and that is that so far Urethane tires aren't dominating. They did on the short tracks, but not so far on the long track. The technical section up the hill is about 1/3 the total length of the track, and that's maybe the only place it has an advantage. But either the rubber tires are making up for it on the faster 2/3rds of the track, or something else is going on.

The Gulf car went the opposite direction by about 7 seconds, but it kinda makes more sense as that first time trial was a big surprise that it won by so much. I'm sure there will be differences every time I run these cars, based on how it's setup, the conditions and the driver.

Driving the Group C Porsche

I've been wanting a Group C car ever since reading so many accounts of people winning races with them. Not that I'm going to go out racing probably ever, but it would be sure cool to own a couple for the home track. I picked this Leyton House Porsche 962C because I found it absolutely striking, as did my wife. Slot cars have to be a pleasure to look at, since that's what you're doing when you race them. And this one certainly is...from it's aggressive front end, the sweeping curves down the length of the body, to the huge tail on the back.

Since I already had a #11 car in the Jacky Ickx Ford GT40, I'm going to call this Leyton House, or LH for short. Or the Porsche, since it's pretty much THE only Porsche that I own.

When I first unpacked the car, I did the usual things to it:

• Sanded the tires
• Rebuilt the front end so the tires touch the track
• Lube and oil gears and axles
• Setup the pod and body float

But when I ran it with all the other cars it was a bit difficult to drive. It came off a lot and didn't seem to have good overall speed. It was also a little noisy, which I needed to fix.
So I took a closer look and noticed one of the front wheels was not touching the track. I fixed that, and then reset the pod float slightly tighter. That ended up getting rid of the noise.

The Porsche [left] with the Inline motor and the GT40 [right] with the Sidewinder. The motor is the same Orange bell motor on both cars, which is about the only similarity between them. The Porsche pod is narrower and has four screws. The Ford's EVO6 pod has six adjustable pod screws.

I decided just to focus on driving this car. I put the rest of the cars in the pit box [I usually have them all out and ready when I race] and got to work dialing in my controller settings for the car. As I went I realized that it needed particular settings that other cars didn't. It needed to be set with no brakes at all. It needed less power trim and minimum speed and seemed to have a wide power band. It's not the kind of car you want to whip the tail out around corners with. It's the one you want to run through them at high overall speed without breaking traction. And it can be done. Once I discovered how to drive this car I realized what was possible.

When you punch the Fords, they jump up to speed and then top out. But the Porsche is running these same turns, just not a loosely, and making competitive times.

In the twisty uphill section of my track, the car goes into tractor mode, winding its way up the mountain. Once it gets on the back straight, instead of burning rubber and running off, it continuously builds up speed, until it's going much faster than any of the other cars. And although it's got that massive tail, it doesn't become an issue if you don't try to give gas in the corner. Running through the huge sweeping left-hander is done with the wheels firmly planted...no drift there. And back onto the front straight before you know it.

This car has already crashed a few times and been upside down at least twice.

So instead of just driving ballsy and going for it, it pays to drive a bit more tactically with this car. Without brakes the car doesn't aggressively slow down, which means you don't wait until the last minute going into a corner to let off, which means you don't toss the tail out. Without brakes you maintain a better overall speed and can run through the corners more smoothly. You'd think brakes would help you control the car, but that's not the situation I'm finding. What helps control the car is a solid throttle approach without punching it. It responds so well to subtle changes that you can slow down or speed up in what feels like fractions.

The Porsche comes with a 9/28 Pinion/Gear layout.

I suspect if I pick up another Group C car it's going to drive much like this one does. I'm not finished with working on it, in fact I'm just getting started. There are things binding that shouldn't be. Things keeping my tires from resting on the track.

I race my cars. Slot cars are beauties and all, but I could never buy one that I'd put up in a box to never race. Heck, never even unpack. What's the fun of that?

So here we go. A car that drives different than the others. That's going to mean something in some of these races, I'm sure, whether good or bad. I'm going to run another round of time trials tomorrow [hopefully], and we'll see if any of this R&D is helping out.

If I can't get races in tomorrow, I have some days off coming up, including two where my wife and daughter will be out of town. I'm considering running an endurance race then. Something nice and long to separate the sheep from the other sheep.

Loving the Kinks

When I had first asked for the larger-radius curves, I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to use them or whether it would matter for the most part, but I'm discovering that it's really working out. When you expand by the full set, you get hammered with all these 1/60 curves, the smallest radius curve Carrera makes, and the one that comes standard with most kits. Yeah, I understand why. Smaller radius curves mean the track can fit on a smaller overall space. But as anybody who runs on a track with only 1/60 curves can tell you, once you figure out your top speed through a 1/60 curve, set it and forget it. Go that fast through the curve every time for maximum speed without crashing. Okay, great.

But it gets boring and repetitive. When every turn's the same, there's no variety. There's especially no thrilling places to pass, or longer turns that can be taken at greater speed...none of that.

So now I've got some 2/30's and 3/30's. In case your curious, here's how the numbering for Carrera Evolution track works:

1/60 is Curve 1 at 60º
2/30 is Curve 2 at 30º
3/30 is Curve 3 at 30º
4/15 is Curve 4 at 15º

When one end of a track piece to the other is 60º, it takes three track pieces to make a 180º turn. It takes six 2/30's or 3/30's to do it. It takes twelve to make a 180º turn with 4/15's.

Curve 1, 2, 3 and 4 are meant to sit into one another. For example: four 180º turns made up of Curves 1 - 4 would all fit snugly together and produce 8 lanes of racing. So if a 1/60 is tight [it is], a 4/15 is barely a turn at all [it barely is].

The 1/60 in orange on the inside is the smallest radius Carrera makes. 

So, back to my track. Since I've gotten those new curves, I've wanted to put them into the track in a way that doesn't screw up the beauty of the right side of the layout, which I've grown to love. Yeah, it's almost all 1/60's the whole way, but it really works as a technical "hillclimb". So I don't want to screw with it, and the left side needs work anyway.

I tried something for the left side with the layout program in the computer that didn't work. Then I physically started moving pieces around and got them to fit. But I hadn't used enough new pieces yet, so I kept going. Once I had used all but one, I stopped out of fear I'd screw the whole thing up if I tried to integrate that single last piece.

Here's the new left side, with all the new curve pieces. Going counter-clockwise, you come off the backstretch to a soft left-hander, then braking a bit before a sweeping left hand curve. As you drift out, the road begins to widen just before shifting you into a harder left. Then a hard-right into the front stretch.

I'm noticing a few things now that I have this setup. The overall track speed is a lot faster, as over half the track can be taken at a much higher speed than the hillclimb section. It doesn't let you off the hook though, as you're still racing, so you have to find that edge.
I love the sweeping left hander and drifting through it. Some of the cars break out just right. The setup is five 2/30's, then one 3/30, followed by a 1/30, If you set your drift right, you'll come out of that 3/30 in the perfect position to roll through the left kink. If you miss the end of the drift due to the 3/30 taking the steam out of it, you'll hit the kink hard and have to negotiate the right kink as well. It's definitely the trickiest part of the track, and since it comes midway through the fastest part of the layout, getting through it properly can mean better lap times.

Also, the 1/30 curve, depending on the angle you look at it, looks like it's at the base of a hill that the curve is coming off, but it isn't. There's a slight difference of about an inch between it and the apex of the curve and the 1/30, but that's not nearly enough to produce that kind of effect. Anyhow, it doesn't matter much, but it does kind of throw off my perspective sometimes.

A top-down look at the new left section. The kink is a lot easier to see.

So my plan is to sit on this for awhile before going on to the next step, which is buying the wood, measuring, cutting and installing the track platform. But before I do that I want to run races...lots of races on this track. I've already started timing and the paint's barely dry. I got lots of weird results from the first gathering, and I'm still trying to understand it. After all, two cars with stock tires ran the fastest laps. One of those two cars is known around these parts to be not-the-fastest car out there. Neither car that had urethane tires did particularly well.

I'm going to run time trials of varying length. I'll tune each car for itself and run them with the tires that are on them. So no more urethane borrowing for the Ickx car. But the jury is still out whether urethane is going to outperform rubber on this track.

Coming from the kink back out to the main straight, then up the hill. If I was to change anything, it would be to replace the S-curve at the end of the front straight with something like 2/30's, but I don't have any more and won't likely be buying more soon.

My wife asked me if I got enough pieces to make the track I wanted, and I told her yes.

With a permanent layout, I'm not going to have the luxury of designing a new track each race like I used to do. So I'm going to have to flip the format a little bit and still try to keep it somewhat competitive. Not sure how I'm going to do that outside of each car just trying to set a personal best, but that's much of a competition. I could do races of different length, endurance races, there are probably other possibilities.

I've got some days off coming soon, so I'll be able to run some races. I still need to work on the Leyton House car. Another half hour or so under the knife and it should be good to go.

Day after Xmas and the presents keep coming

Just when I thought I was done, here comes another one, a morning surprise just before breakfast by my lovely wife:

Yes, before you say it, I know....I already have two GT40 race cars. But this one's special. Why? Because it's a MKII [SICA20c].

When I asked my wife why she picked the Leyton House Porsche, she said because the color was pretty. I agree. When I asked her why she picked this one, she said because it was on sale. And GOLD. Gold isn't my color, but I do like the matching rims and especially the pink highlights. Strangely nothing in the way of stickering.

I could learn to love it.

This is an older model and isn't even on the Slot.it catalog anymore. I'd imagine not many people are seeking out a gold race car. I mean, it's gold.

Aside from that, let's get to it. I did my usual inspection/prep work on the car. Gears and axles lubed and oiled, pod adjusted, front end rebuilt so tires rest on the track, and sanded tires. About the tires, this is the first Slot.it car that I have received that had treaded tires, both front and rear. None of the other tires came with treads. They were the standard issue C1 tires. Anyhow, I sanded them until they were no longer treaded and nicely done.

Otherwise, the car was as clean as can be. In fact, it was one of the cleaner cars that I remember. Don't know what that says about it, but I felt I needed to remark about it.

__________

Before I took apart the track to prep and paint the new pieces, I had to run this car for awhile, and damn is it fast. The tires feel like urethane, but they can't be. I'm trying to find out info on what model number tires came with the car. Either way, they really take to my track. They love these bigger curves and rip right through them. Doesn't feel any different than the Paul Gage urethane tires.

Since adding the new larger-radius turns, I wanted to see what the cars would do on it. I needed to see what the tire situation was going to be like, as I need to place a tire order now-ish. But I can't wait for any of that. The cars are here, so let's see what they can do. Totally casual. Not a race. Just a thing.

50 Laps on the new layout. One split time recorded at 25 laps.

RESULTS

Car [Tire]           Time       1st         2nd       Offs

Gold [stock]      4:20.16    2:12       2:08         
LH [stock C1]   4:29.27    2:19       2:10             
Shell [PGu]       4:24.37    2:13       2:10           
Alfa [PGu]        4:23.42    2:11       2:12         1
Gulf [stockC1]  4:05.06    2:02       2:03


Okay, right.

No, really.

You're reading that right. The Gulf car...that poor guy that had so much trouble up until the last few races last season...came out of the gate and ripped it up. Unreal times.

I think the larger, faster track has taken some of the advantage away from the urethane tires. 

Going into today I was going to use the Gulf car as the standard time, thinking it would have come in towards the end, but it absolutely did not. It didn't struggle one bit throughout the track. The right section, with all the tight turns, is the only slower section on the entire track. I think this really suits this car. Suddenly I'm not so worried about tires.

And look what turned in 2nd fastest lap times. Pretty amazing, considering it's probably been sitting in some warehouse for three years. I mean, I did do some tweaking to it, but not much. This car may have just walked onto the scene a champion.

There's such a difference in the way a lap is run now. Well over half the track is really fast, so the fine edge is at a much higher speed. I think it's going to make for some great racing. I'm going to flip the 3/30 section to the front of the curve instead of the back, for two reasons. I think it'll be more gradual going in, and making it to the kink while drifting will be easier.

Meanwhile, the Alfa crashes and still pulls out a 4:23. It is going to forever be challenging for the top position.

Since this session is over prepped and painted the first layer on my track. I'll do the second layer tonight around 11 or so, and it'll be ready to run tomorrow.

Not sure why the Shell car wasn't up to its usual speedy tricks today. Just didn't seem to have it. The #5 felts much better all the way around.

Which brings us to the Porsche. I wasn't expecting much, because I think this is one car that will benefit from urethane tires. No doubt about it. It did, however, pull off a 2:10 split time, which tells me it has it in it to perform. I just didn't get off to a good start. I still want to do some tweaking to the car, as well as get some more time with it so I can get used to it. It doesn't run like any of the other cars, and I consider it a challenge to master it.

All in all, a really close bunch of lap times, separated really by not much. Every car was fast, and there were no real stragglers. I think I'd call the surprise the Gulf car, and that the #5 is running so well right out of the box. I'm curious about the tires, though.

Speaking of tires, I don't think I need to worry right now about tires. The two fastest cars were on factory stock tires, so I don't think urethane has a particular advantage.

Xmas Chaos - Tear It All Down Edition

The holidays are upon us, and my wife fulfilled my xmas slot car wish list with goodies.

First, track. I had listed track at the end of about ten car requests, and to my surprise she went with track over cars. She gave me the following:

• six 2/30 curves. These are the next wider radius curves after the 1/60's, of which I have 20 pieces.
• three 3/30 curves. These are the ones after the 2/30's. 

So I'm totally surprised by that. I was guessing at the most that I'd end up with two cars, so the track is not only great, but comes at a great time. This means I'm going to have to redesign and rebuild the existing layout. I'm going to try to modify the current layout by changing the left side. The right side, with the mountain climb and the lead-up to the back straight are really great, but the left side after the back straight and the entire curve leading up to the front straight could use some variety.

__________

Introducing: The Leyton House Porsche 962C 85

My wife made a most excellent choice this year, the Porsche 962C 85, which ran in Le Mans in 1987, She liked the color. I couldn't agree more. It's a gorgeous car, and very easy to spot. The big Group C cars don't handle like the sprightly shorter-wheelbase Classics, so they take a little getting used to. 

It's quite a bit different to the other cars I have, and since that's what I have, that's what I'll compare it to. It will be racing against them, after all, although I haven't decided whether to wait for urethanes or go back to the original rubbers on all the cars. That decision will come later.

Once the top comes off, the most obvious difference between the Leyton House and the Classic cars was the motor configuration. The Porsche uses an Inline motor setup, while the Classics all use Sidewinder motor setups.

Screen grab from the Slot.it manual showing the configurations.

The Inline motor is more forward-sitting on the car, which I think tends to give it better balance. I can imagine a Sidewinder version of this car drifting all over the place with the tail it has. The Classics handle a bit easier through tight turns, but the Porsche can really fly down the straights.

I was surprised to see how much longer it was than the other cars, and not just because of the tail, but just everywhere.

Sitting with the Alfa, it's easy to see how much longer the Porsche is. The wheelbase itself is a good half inch longer. That's a long car, and more similar in stature to the Carrera Audi R-18 [but a world of difference in performance]. The guide flag and axle are right up front, much like the Alfa, but that's where the similarities between these two cars end.

__________

Setup and Tuning

I went with my basic out-of-box tuneup:

• Sand original rubber tires
• Take the magnet out and stick it on the refrigerator to hold up pizza coupons
• Oil and lube axles and gears
• Reset front wheels so they're touching the track
• Add pod and body float

To reset the front wheels, take them out, exposing the axle mounts. There are also two plastic axle supports, and those need to go too. The first one will fly off and down onto the carpet when you first take the axle off. When it does, what you'll be looking for is a tiny T-shaped piece of plastic. Once these things are accomplished, your front wheels will be making contact with the track [as it should be].

Inside of each front axle mount is this little looping holder. It's got two teeth on one end, which are meant to snap into the holes at the top of the axle mount, holding the wheels in the up/off track position. Taking these out and re-installing them in the other direction [teeth facing away from the top hole] will set the tires nicely on the track. If you're so inclined, you could also put in these super tiny 3mm grub screws on the top of the axle holder to control the ride height.

Once my modifications were done, it was time to get it out on the track and see what it could do. I'm not sure what to expect regarding the competitive level between the Group C and Classics. Will the Porsche make up in the straights what it seems to lose in the curves? Does it really lose anything at all, or am I making something out of nothing as I get used to a car with a tail? And what about these new wider-radius turns? That's gotta matter to every car, I'd imagine.

The imaginary miniature photographer was able to get this photo of the Porsche bearing down on him just before being flung into the imaginary miniature bleachers.

The reason I only got one car this year is because she loaded up on track...2/30's and 3/30's, which means I'll need to integrate them into my layout. It'll mean either tear down or figure out a clean way to do it that's still interesting.

Not only are the new curves going to be faster, but I think they'll end up helping the Porsche. It seems built for a large radius curve, as it can get quite pitchy before giving out in the corners. The longer wheelbase allows for it to punch it out of a corner earlier, as it doesn't get as twitchy coming out. You'd think it would, but on my track it kind of grounds itself into the corner. Gotta go into the corners with a bit more care, however, as the tail will come right out if you don't.


Track Plan

I like the layout of the current track, I must admit, even though all the curves are the same radius [1/60]. I'm going to use every new piece I can, though. I really like the way the right side of the track is turning out, so I'm going to focus on the left side. I want....I need that sweeping left hander.

This is the first good idea I came up with, and I'm going to try it and see what happens. With a large layout like this, there's a little bit of flexibility when it comes to fitting those last two parts together. [Brown = 1/60, Yellow = 2/30, Green = 3/30, Brick = 1/30]

The Tricky Part

Life's pretty easy in slot cars when you have all the same radius curves to deal with. You can pretty much build out evenly and make a good track that will connect in the end. Not so when you start adding wider-radius curves. Suddenly it becomes a game of inches and degrees. It might be an inch off to the side and an inch too short. Or the other way around.

So I did everything in the track plan above [back straight with a soft left kink to a sweeping left turn], but when trying the following S-kink it didn't fit as easily in real life as it did on fake paper. I ended up making the kink with one of the 3/30's as the middle part, which made it not so kinky.

I'm one straight short of stretching the whole layout out a bit so it's taking up more of the table. Thing is, I have to be aware of the change of elevation with respect to the fact that both sides are underneath a sloping roof. So the higher the elevation, the less-wide I can make the track. And I have to consider that I want hillsides in both corners. So I might only have space to add one more straight on each side.

I just thought of something; the drift possibilities on the left side sweeper are going to be sick!

I just thought of something else; time to get the paint stuff out.

My wife was right about it being a nice color. It's a pretty car all the way around. I've got a set of aluminum wheels that would fit under it, but I'll need some urethanes for those, as well as the current set. Once the tires are added, that'll be the only new parts. Everything else will remain stock and I'll try to squeeze the most out of the car.

The Porsche's inline runs a different pinion/gear setup [9/28] vs the Classic Sidewinder [11/32]. The Inline pod is smaller than the Classic and requires two less screws, which means two less adjustments. I like a slightly-loose pod with a little bit of body float to go with it.

I'm curious to see how the other cars are going to handle the new layout, in particularly the Alfa. I expect the Fords to adapt well and probably go even faster, but I don't know how the short-wheelbase is going to benefit the Alfa on the wider turns. Today is Christmas day, and the family is sleeping. I've been up since 4 a.m., quietly shuffling around in the attic. I won't get much of a chance to race today, but I already have a track together. I just need the family to be awake before I can start racing cars.

Jeez. I'm such a kid.


Update:

I couldn't wait and have been sneaking up to the attic on and off all day. I actually put a little something together that I think is pretty excellent:

Coming counter-clockwise off the backstretch and into a new softer left hand kink, then through a short straight and into a sweeping left-hander that softens up before another left hand kink. That first left off the back straight can be taken at full speed with most of the cars, which basically extends my backstretch all the way to the big sweeper. Once through the kink it's a quick right and then the front straight.

While a curve, it barely registers a blip on most of the cars. Perfect for changing direction without forcing the car into a skid each time. On the left is the piece it replaced, which was at a much sharper angle. This basically extends my backstretch by another 4-5 feet.

Here's the big left-hand sweeper. Just a little off the throttle going in, and you can pretty much drift your way around the huge corner. That's five 2/30's and then a 3/30 before hitting that left-hand kink. Coming off the straight going in it'll be a bit higher in elevation, [as that entire corner will be cutting through a hillside] working it's way down to ground level by the front straight. Maybe even trying to make the big drop at the kink. 

After spending some time on it, I could learn to love the big turns. So far this layout is excellent, as well as a little surprising. I found that the right side got more technical due to the huge open flow on the left side. I'm able to really give gas through most of the new part of the layout. Each car is responding well to it, regardless of tire. I'm starting my workweek tomorrow, so I don't know when I'll get a chance to time any of the cars. Once I do it'll determine what type of tire they run on.

I don't have to slow down until after the left hand kink on the back straight. I can also stay closer to 3/4 throttle through the left half of the track.

As always, I'll mess with it, run on it, and see how I feel after a few days. Right now it's really fast and a lot of fun. I just blacked out the white lines, so maybe tomorrow evening I'll do some painting.


One more look at the new hot rod:

I'll never get tired of looking at this car. Very few breakable parts.

Happy Holidays

State of the Track - Pre-Holiday Edition

Up until today I was getting pretty impatient with the progress of my track and table. The other night I was sitting there putting together a mental list of the various things I wanted so far, and even bounced some ideas off my brother, which was cool. But today I realized that I shouldn't get impatient, because doing what I was doing what exactly what I wanted to be doing. I'm making a slot car track. Finally.

I think now that the track is off the floor, it's a lot more fun. It's certainly better on my back and knees. I'm up in the attic racing a lot more than I was before, even if it's just to get a few laps in.

I used to look a pictures of other tracks and think about how much fun it would be to make one. To be able to have the room to put up a table and put a track on it, with scenery and everything. I've wanted something like that since I was a kid racing AFX cars on Saturday mornings. I wanted something that could take your mind off things, be interesting and fun, and be a hobby I could really get into. I mean, c'mon, slot cars!

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I'm at an interesting point right now. I've gotten the track design I like and am pretty much* ready to make permanent, and am now working on track elevation. I started very conservatively at first, going up by only 2" at the highest elevation. It was not satisfactory.
Over a few days the track got progressively higher, finally settling on a 12" max height in the right corner.

*what I mean by "pretty much" is that there's always a possibility that I have some holiday track coming, so I can't be too definite around this time of year. My wife knows that I have only asked for slot car-related stuff this year, and had a pretty specific list at her request. On it was track. Good track. Wider radius turns. Cars too.

The right side of the track is coming out like I thought it would, although the altitude change has little effect on car performance. It's there, but it's more of the on-the-edge type of thing than the climb having an effect on the car itself. The track is currently being held up by empty cookie boxes, by the way. They work great as a  temporary support.

Once I have a final decision on track height, I'll take measurements and cut 1.3's for support of the roadbed that I'm going to cut. The track will be attached to the roadbed, which is attached to the supports, which is attached to the table.

After that, I'll be running screen from the track edge down to the table to add depth to the track. I'll cover the screen with a thin layer of plaster, then treat the plaster with various design elements.
In the shot above the area the track engulfs will be a valley, with the track running high along the cliffside. The valley will have a house or two and a farm, a road maybe. Cows.

My version of the Mulsanne Straight. I couldn't resist. Once I knew I wanted to get some of the track in the air, I knew I wanted the drop to be on the main straight. Since I've set it up it's proved to be much more challenging than a flat-level straight. So many potential panic braking points. It's a 12" drop in a space of about five feet, and doesn't start until you're almost halfway down the straight. It makes it really difficult to determine where acceleration ends and braking begins. And it looks awesome. I strongly recommend considering some height if you ever come up with a permanent track design.

The layout as it stands now. I want to change that left section off the back straight all the way to the 180º turn. My hopes are to add to the straight, put in a more progressive curve, ending at the front with an ever-tightening turn. But that'll only happen if this extra track comes through. If not, I'll go with what I have.

My wife and I don't spend much on ourselves, and prefer to wait until birthdays and holidays to do that sort of stuff. I've been racing slot cars since I was a kid, and I was always used to waiting for that to happen, so doing it now is just part of the fun. Sure, I could go out and spend 100 bucks a week on cars and not have to worry about anything, but I don't think it would be as fun.
I remember my favorite AFX car, a Chaparral. The wing had long been lost, but it was still bad ass. Hardly ever lost a race. It was one of those cars that my brother hated, because it was always better than what he brought to the table.

These cars today are like those when I was a kid. I love 'em and hate 'em, have favorites that change every week, treat some better than others [I'm not telling which ones]. But I knew every little thing about them. Keeping yourself to a limited car collection allows you to really get all your cars kicking ass.

If this blog ever became popular, like to the point where hundreds of people would look at it [and not the 6 that have as of this writing], imagine what a great free advertisement it is for Slot.it. Am I a whore? A shill? A fanboy? I don't know. You'd probably call me one anyway.

But there's always the possibility that another car [or two] are going to turn up under the festivus pole this year. She asked for a list, and on that list were almost a dozen cars. Yes, they were all Slot.it cars, but that's only because that's what I want right now. Yes, I want and NSR car and a Racer, but not until I've gotten a mediocre Slot.it car. And I just don't see that happening.

On this list is a bunch of Group C cars, as well as one or two Classics that I want. I found all the cars for between 32-40 euro each. That's pretty dang good and hard to pass up. The various Miller, Jagermeister, Warsteiner, Layton House, Wynns, etc cars were all on there. I'm looking forward to the challenge of a slightly different car and motor setup. Hopefully my wife will remember the motto "cars always need to come in pairs." If she remembers this, we're good to go. If not, I'll have a Group C car mixed in with the others. That's cool.

I can't believe that mirror has lasted over two years.

I have my mind pretty much set on the theme and time of my track. I want it to cover Le Mans in 1966-70. I want to have a few features of the track [Mulsanne Straight, original

I've been watching lots of vintage racing on YouTube and Jacky Ickx' name keeps coming up. Prolific dude. This car is still rocking the original rubbers, which I hope to replace soon.

So there you have it. Overall, I'm happy where I'm at with the track. It's almost ready for the next step, which will begin soon. Holidays are bringing excitement, so we'll see how that works out.

Was Too Cold To Race - Must Shovel Snow

This is an edit. Originally I wasn't planning on racing today because it's really cold in the attic due to yesterday's snowfall, and I had to shovel snow. So I did that, and got acclimated to the weather and warmed up enough that I changed my mind and did a little racing today anyway.


50-Lap Sprint Race [all cars on urethane tires]:

Track Notes: I've started experimenting a little bit with elevation, turning the right section of the track into a hillier 4" higher, which starts after Turn 1 and reaches peak elevation by Turn 3, creating a downhill back stretch.


RESULTS:

Car         Time       Lap    Offs   Points
Shell     4:31.38    5.42                  14
Alfa      4:30.83    5.40                  16     
Gulf      4:38.09    5.56      2          6


Ford GT40 #8 Shell 1968

I flip between this car and the Alfa as to which one is more fun to drive. I drove the Alfa all last summer and had a blast with it, but now that the track has pretty much tripled in size, the Shell car just kills it. It set a wicked pace today, only to be slightly outdone by the Alfa. 

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Alfa Romeo 33/3 Targa Florio

This is the perfect choice for first car to buy that's not from a kit. There's no car faster than it on the smaller home tracks. Its short wheelbase keeps it well planted almost everywhere, and it's quick as can be. It can sure handle itself on the big tracks as well, as it proved today.

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Ford GT40 #11 Jacky Ickx

Since coming upon the revelation that I could just borrow tires from the other Ford for the time being, the Ickx car is making a massive comeback. It's running with two missing pod screws right now, so I'll need to get some more of those. The car requires a slightly different setup than the other Ford. It has also convinced me to get urethanes, so I'm going to be trying out Ortmann tires or SuperTires on my next outing. Then I'll have an actual tire war on my hands. That'll be fun.

The Gulf car was racing really well until coming off at the end of the back stretch, similar to the way the Alfa went off a few races ago and ended up coming in 3rd for it. It's pretty much the kiss of death if you come off in either corner on this track. The Gulf car suffered from another, much stranger crash not much later that ended up with the car under an elevated section of track. So even though it was closer, it took longer as I had to pry the car out from under the track. That won't be an issue once the scenic ground is laid. I'm not satisfied with the elevation yet. I think the plan needs to be probably a foot high at its highest point. Otherwise it won't feel like there's any change.

Speaking of plans, not sure what's going to happen coming up. I'm thinking there's at least one car coming, maybe two. Not sure what, but possibly Type-C cars of some kind. If that happens I'll order tires right away for all the cars. If it takes too long I'll go back to original rubbers until I can make that happen.
If there are additional cars, then this current season will be called off and restarted with whatever else shows up.

Season Two: Race 3 - 50-Lap Sprint Race

It's been a few weeks, but now the second wing has been added to the table, and we can resume racing. I've built a satisfactory layout for the race, and have cleaned and checked all three cars. I added four turns to the course, so I expect longer than 5 second lap times.

Race Notes: The Gulf Ford will be using the tires from the Shell Ford for the entirety of the season.

Layout

Add caption

RESULTS

Car                     Time                Lap            Offs            Points
Gulf Ford          4:38.83             5.56              0                  3
Shell Ford        4:34.53             5.48              1                  5
Alfa Romeo      4:44.13             5.68               1                 1   


Standings       Points
Shell                11
Alfa                 11
Gulf                  5

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Shell Ford

What has become my go-to car. the Shell Ford is running like a champ. The off it had wasn't even that bad. It runs quiet, fast and confident.

Great race for the Shell car. Even though it came off once, it happened on the last turn before the home straight, so basically right in front of me. This car just keeps getting better and better. 

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Gulf Ford

The Gulf car is in what I'm calling a restoration phase. It's absolutely competitive now, but it's still not quite there yet in regards to tuning. I think I can get more out of it. It needs a few pod screws, and one or two other things. It's noisier than the Shell car, so I want to get a handle on that.

Since cleaning up the car and borrowing the urethane tires from the Shell car, the Gulf #11 has been kicking ass. It's tighter handling, and not completely like the Shell car. 

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Alfa Romeo

I'm going to write this race off for the Alfa. There's really only me to blame for it not doing better. The crash took awhile to reset compared to the Shell car's crash, as it took about 4.5 seconds to re-slot it and get going again. I attribute this to me not being more cognizant of the fact that the further the cars get away from me, the more careful I need to be regarding cornering speed if I want to stay on the track.
I also didn't do any kind of post-race inspection, which I should start doing each race, as I've had issues with things in the past. There could very likely be a screw loose somewhere...

What happened to the Alfa? Well, it came off at the end of the back straight, and just didn't have the overall pace to keep up. Perhaps it's because of the longer track length, or cold weather, or something. Either way, completely shocked it was so far behind.

Overall the track is pretty great. I'm not sure if any of the cars could beat a 5 second lap time, but it's going to be fun trying. I could even get used to the tightness of the 1/60 curves, even though I'm hoping that'll change.
And within seconds my attitude about 1/60s has changed. While I like lap length, I'm not a fan of having every single curve on the track exactly the same. It requires no effort or strategy. All you have to do is find the fastest speed through one turn and you've got them all figured out. I want to make turns that will require thought to get through it the fastest.

Good race. Good table. Good everything.

Wings added - Table construction finished

I mentioned in my post Impatient Youth that I added a 2-foot wing section to the left side of my track. Well, I had a little time today and made a mirror version on the right side:

Doesn't seem like much, but it really makes a difference and will allow me to vary my curve radii.

I also added a 45º winglet to put that extension to better use. At 2'x4', it's not much, although it's about as far as I think I'm going to go. Each corner is 6' deep now, and mostly not easily reachable. I probably could have gotten away with 4'x4', but my plan is to put a bit larger or a radius curve there, so I don't want to get into a situation where I have to use three 1/60 curves in a giant U-turn [like it is now]. I hope to put no more than two 1/60 curves together in any place on the track.

A Tale Of Two Turns: On the left, a big, fast section getting more technical as it goes due to tightening turn radius. The larger radius turn allows for more speed out of the back straight, and staggering the radii allows for more interesting turn sections and a much better flow. On the right, all done with 1/60 curves. While a tighter turn can be more challenging, that isn't so much the case when the radius of every turn on the track is the same. Once you find the breakout point on a tight curve, it just becomes a matter of not going over that speed. There's not much strategy to that, and it becomes more a race of who can get just the right amount of trigger in the straight away.

The elevation will change midway through the back straight and be at table-level before it gets to the big turn at the base of the extension, which means it'll be going downhill. That section will also be a more gradual turn cut into the hillside, which should help prevent flying cars.

It's less than a month until the winter holidays are here, and I've got some things on my list, notably larger radius curves. If those show up, I'll get to the next step, which will be the semi-permanent track design. I'm going to spend some time with this setup for awhile, taking mental notes on which sections I like, where the car comes off, potential trouble spots, etc. There will likely be minor changes, but most things are going to remain where they are. After I've settled, I'll start adding elevation. Then once that's done, we'll start the scenery.

Scenery

My plan is pretty open, but there are things I do want. I want a forest section, but not the whole thing forested. I want cliffside racing, so I'll have to work on that as well. A large aspect to the scenery design will be the mountain in either corner, so the track will need to integrate into it. To protect against cars flying off the end of the back straight, I want to rest that curve against a cliff, with an elevated section in the corner behind it. Since that part of the track won't be very reachable, I'd like to be able to prevent the cars from going that far into the corner. I think my solution will do that. That's going to also provide me with one of the best areas for scenery. I'd like there to be farmland scenery. In fact, I want farmland and forests to be heavy in the theme.

I'd like to have border space throughout the track, with billboard guard walls and rails off in the grass away from the edge of the track. I want the back straight to cut through a hillside as well as go down it, and I want the drop to be impressive, much like the way the Mulsanne Straight used to be. It might require me to raise the high-elevation.

While not the final layout design, this section will start to climb right after the esses on the bottom-left. This might be one section where I keep the turns tight so I can save space on the climb. If it cuts back on itself, I can make a nice valley in the middle of it. By the time it gets to the back corner, it should be close to a foot higher than the foreground. It will also be cut into a hillside at the curve and slightly banked to help avoid flying cars. This is also where the largest part of the forest section will be. I'd like to line the right side against the roof with houses and maybe a small village.

Overall I certainly can't complain about the length. I'm using every piece of track I have save one straight. Replacing 1/60 curves with the larger radius curves will change the design a bit, but otherwise make the track faster. I'm also considering pushing back the infield a bit so it isn't right against the edge of the table in front. It'll give me more possibilities, and the wiring won't be an issue.

I'm planning on wiring the main power straight into the table, then adding controller connectors on the side of it. This will allow me to change controllers easier, and get a little distance from the power straight. I kind of don't want the power straight to determine where the start/finish line is, so I may end up painting that away at some point and making one when I decide where the start will be. I'm not even sure how detailed I'm going to get about the raciness of it all. While it's a race track, the theme has more of an integrated countryside feel to it.

Current Layout

Runs counter-clockwise. The left side will change significantly, with the back straight being longer, the turn more gentle, and more of the table being used. The right side will probably have a few changes to the curve on the extension, but we'll have to see just what I have in the way of track pieces.