New Car Coming - No Surprise This Time

So that tax return special car that I mentioned...well, my wife forgot to order it, so we did it together yesterday. This will be the first time since I've raced 1:32 cars that I'll actually be picking the car I want. Not that I didn't want all the other cars, I certainly did and do, but those were on a list of cars, and my wife ultimately chose which cars I'd have. It's a fun game, makes things interesting, keeps her interested, and tests our tastes in cars with each other.

I'm not going to mention what car I picked just yet, just know that it has consistently been on my list in one form or another since this all started, it was just for whatever reason glossed over every time. Other cars came and went on that list, but this one has always been there. I think there will be some surprised by my pick. I can tell you what car didn't get picked and why. The Porsche 956 Jägermeister car was an absolute no go, because my wife doesn't like the stuff. She says it tastes like something you would drink if you were sick. Good enough for me, even though I like the way the car looks.

The car comes in the next couple of days, hopefully by Friday, and I'm aiming to give it a full tuneup and good strong workout. Will the fact that I picked this car say anything special about me? Hard to say. Maybe I'm making too much out of it, but I'm feeling good about my pick. I think it should round out my collection nicely.
I'll report once the car is here.


2/30 and 3/30 Curves Appreciation Society

I haven't mentioned how much I enjoy these new turns in awhile. There's such a contrast from a tight 1/60 to a flowing 3/30. Going through the Mulsanne Kink and the Sweeper really allows you to take the cars up another notch. Suddenly you're dealing with something you're not used to; high-speed control issues.
While a 3/30 turn, or even a 2/30 turn has a much wider radius than a 1/60 turn, it's still a turn. You still have to go through it, and when you're racing you have to do it at pretty much your best speed through the curve. If not, the guy in the other lane will smoke you. And your best speed isn't going to be your fastest speed. A 3/30 curve will still throw a car going into it at full speed. While a slight release of the throttle heading toward a curve is always a good thing, too much letup and you'll lose all momentum going into the curve. And trying to make it up in the curve with acceleration will only produce sliding and spinning out. On the Porsche I have this problem if I don't let up a little; the tail comes out. This is especially noticeable in this car, and was the first thing I had to learn about driving it. On the flip side, a cruiser like this coasts wonderfully through turns at some pretty high speeds.

Since I added the turns [six 2/30 and three 3/30 curves], I haven't felt the urge to change a thing to the layout. It immediately filled a hole I needed; that of a fast track. I had the technical, but now it came with the fast. If I had more track pieces I'd likely use them somehow, but I really like the way Pike's came out being this challenging uphill climb. I wouldn't change a thing. It's going to be awesome when it's finished and a showcase, I think. It's also going to keep racers honest.

Not quite a racing post

More along the lines of keeping the cars in a good clean spot. I've been dragging them around in the pit box for the longest time, which actually works great, but there's something about having them out to see that I like. I showed some pics of my room a few months ago to my brother and he suggested the idea, or something like it.

We're redoing our bathrooms, so things are suddenly getting moved around and left for scrap [yay me]. My wife asked me if I wanted a couple of shelves and I told her that I'd take them. One in particular is working quite nicely as a display rack:

I don't know what particular model of Ikea furniture it is, so I'll ask my wife.

I was able to wedge the Slot.it display cases in there perfectly and connected everything down so it's nice and sturdy. Nice thing is I still have room for at least 4 more cars, and I still have a second shelf I haven't used yet.

If you look at the pics of the track you'd notice that most of the stuff in the room is older, REAL furniture. I'm going to do something to this thing to un-Ikea it a little bit now that I know it works as a display rack. I wonder if they make a glass door for it....

Very short sessions

I haven't had much of a chance to do any racing lately. We're prepping the house to have the plumbing redone, and it's going to take a couple weeks before things are back to normal. Probably three if the week after is included of cleaning and organizing whatever we end up with.

So there will be workers here for the next couple of weeks. I've got a car due in the mail, which will likely come early next week. I'll get chances in the evening to try it out. It's a tax refund gift, and instead of picking it out myself I sent my wife a couple links and had her pick. So it's likely to be either a competitive match for the Leyton House Porsche or will continue in the 60's Le Mans line and be a Matra. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I think the elevation of the Sweeper is starting to get out of hand.

I never intended it to be that high up. If you can imagine in the photo above, a rolling hill getting progressively higher as it goes toward the back corner of the table. By the end those hills will be as high up as those light spots on that roof support in the center. So the run up to the Sweeper will cut through the hill, while the rest of the curve will run over the top.

I'm going to have to try to get a bit better banking going, which I won't be able to do until I have measured and cut my track support beds. It's 8" at its peak right now, which is about three inches too high. Every bit of the track, with the exception of the bottom of the Mulsanne hill and the front stretch are suspended off the table. I guess that's normal. Right.

So I'll have to work on that when I buy the wood. In the meantime, I'll continue racing with it as it is. It's actually at a point right now where the outside lane is workable. There are a few cars already threatening 5 sec laps on it and it isn't even finished yet.

Ever since I repaired that broken pickup wire on the Alfa, it has been screaming around the track. I don't know if maybe it was so precariously in there that maybe I was having intermittent power issues without realizing it or something, but it's doing great now. No issues at all.

I think there's a pretty strong chance that the next car coming will be another Porsche, likely a short tail of some sort. I think it would be great to have a match for this car, as it would really help determine what's a faster car on my track. Plus having another inliner setup is good as well. That'll give me an opportunity to compare gear ratios when it comes time to start doing those kinds of experiments. That's going to be quite awhile, however.

I'm thinking that once I have the track all setup and in a happy place, I'm going to get a decent power supply for it. I'm going to need something to run all the accessories anyway, so it'll be good to have some balanced track power. Then I can run all the other crap on a smaller secondary transformer. Just thinking.

Incoming

Looks like the tax man is being nice to me this year. I've got an unscheduled car coming in the next few days.

I won't say anything about it just now, other than that it's a Slot.it car, as I'm not done collecting them yet.

Stay tuned.

Guest visiting - always interesting

Interesting night tonight. We have a friend visiting who has been getting into some racing with me over the past few hours. During the session I noticed something while driving the Alfa: it started cutting out intermittently. At first I thought it might have been a power supply issue, as it kind of felt like it, but then the more I drove it the worse it got. Then it didn't go at all.

I took it downstairs and opened it up, and the first thing I noticed was a detached pickup wire.

Sorry about the blurry phone pic, but that red wire is clearly not connected.

There's a tiny grub screw inside of the whole mess of wire that sort of keeps it all in there by basically taking up space. Works well, won't argue. I got the wire together, undid the grub screw, put the wire in, and screwed the grub screw right into it.

I thought I had it here.

The fix seemed simple enough. All I had to do was gather the wire up, twist it a bit to get it into threadable shape, and insert it. So I did that, and it looked good, and I took it upstairs to test it.

It ran about 2 laps and then cut out completely. I didn't make a firm connection. So I took it back downstairs, went through all the steps again, but this time I trimmed some more wire bare and wound it before putting it back in. It was much more firm now. Thankfully there was plenty of wire to pull up from the back end of the car. Thanks Slot.it.

The car is now running as good as ever. It should be noted that this is the first breakdown I've had in any of my cars since owning them, and I've owned this one well over two years and raced it often. Parts give up, and I'm okay with that, but it's good to be able to fix it with little or no extra parts. That's always been a good thing about slot cars. You can pretty much repair them with a few tools and a little knuckle grease.

Our friend will be here the whole weekend, so we'll get more chances to race. This is allowing me more time on the not-much-used outside lane. I'm also using the stock Carrera controller and giving my friend the SCP-1, so I'm struggling mightily. I think I should get another decent controller, even if it would be used only occasionally.



TRACK UPDATE

More work on the Mulsanne Straight, particularly the apex of it.

The apex of the hill used to be just ahead of the yellow GT40. Now it's back by the blue GT40. I'm going to move it where the Porsche is by raising it at that point by about two inches. I expect that to have a huge effect on the rest of the track. It'll also add a slight uphill to the straight before going downhill, which could potentially unweight the car at high speeds. The angle of the hill [where the Alfa is] will be steeper.

I took that light brown support plank and moved it about six inches toward the top of the hill and it had the desired effect. The cars definitely unweight if they are going full speed down the straight, but quickly gain it back well before the Kink, so it's not going to be an issue as far as throwing the cars off the track or anything. What I want it to do is to be another element to deal with in what would ordinarily be a pretty basic straight section.

It's pretty crazy how much of a fine balance it all is. It's not like I can just put up a couple of supports and it'll work perfectly. You can definitely tell when driving it what works and what doesn't. I've taken that approach for the entire track. Pike's is about to gain elevation, and that's not going to be easy. I suspect there's more work on the Sweeper as well, as I came off plenty on the outside lane tonight, and I wasn't even going very fast through it when it happened.



FRIEND UPDATE

Overall racing has been good, but mostly casual running. We haven't had any lap races or anything like that, instead focusing on getting together and doing a little rolling drag racing. We've had a few offs tonight in some very hard to reach places. Many offs after the Mulsanne Kink, which is just at the edge of my reach, and one that went off the far end of the Peak. I had to climb on the table to get the car, which is the first time I've tried that. I hoped it could hold me, and it can. It didn't even creak.

That says nothing about the fact that I'll need to make sure to scenic those areas properly to stop cars from flying into impossible to reach places. The curves on the back half of the track will all be cut into hillsides, which will act as a barrier to stop the cars if they come off. That'll work great on the Peak and the Mulsanne Kink, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it with the sweeper. It's not looking very practical to make a huge hillside in that area, so I will probably make a combination of hillside and border with catch fence.

I couldn't give an estimate of how close I am to being finished with the elevation aspect of the planning stages, although I'm closer to being finished than I am to being started. It feels a bit like when you lay a blanket on the bed...you flip it out and after a few tries it lays nice and smooth with no weird folds or kinks. So I think if I work at this a little more, it'll all come together nicely. It's already much better than when I started, and still very fast when it needs to be.

100 Posts - What Have I Learned?

By the time I started this blog, I had already had a track for awhile, and had even already made my first track expansion. My first post of any worth was about painting Carrera track, and I was already well into my slot car fever, which started when I was a kid.

So what have I learned over the past three years of track improvements, car upgrades and blog posts?

1. Get some decent quality slot cars that aren't the same brand as your track. Slot.it, NSR, BRM, Scaleauto, etc. Many companies make better cars than the big box companies do. Learn to separate the way you feel about the track over how you feel about the cars. Doesn't matter which track you have, there are better cars out there than the track brand cars.
2. Expand if you can. For a lot of people, space is at a premium. And Carrera track is LARGE. 1:32 track in general is large. But if you can do it, expand. I know I ran for a long time happily with not much track, but the more track I got, the happier I got. 
3. Don't forget to race. There are a lot of times when I find myself racing alone, so I run my own races. They're all over the place on this blog. I think running mindless laps with no timing is enjoyable in itself, but there are times when I want to see what my car can do. It's one thing to think a car is the fastest car, but it's another to prove it against a clock. Even if you don't have a lap counter or sophisticated timing system, you can still do good enough work with the timer on your mobile phone. Most of those even allow you to tap your laps on a lap counter that'll give you a lap time. If you don't have any competitive cars and are down to one good one and one shit one, that's a hard one. Maybe try suggestion #1.
4. A clean car is a happy car. Slot cars are reasonably sturdy if you drive them correctly, but that doesn't mean they don't need work to continue running at high speeds. If you get in the habit of cleaning and tuning your cars regularly, they'll respond much better to everything. Supplies don't cost much, and many can be found already around the house. Chances are if you're looking at nice slot cars and considering buying them, you're already wanting to get under the hood. That's how I am. I love that aspect of the hobby.
5. If you have the space, make a table. Such a huge improvement in every way over rug racing. That's a tough one, though, because many people don't have enough space to dedicate to a track. It's really easy to take up half a room with just the table. But if you can do it, you won't regret it. 
6. Try a lot of things. You might think that your car likes to have a loose pod float because it set the lap record with one, but you didn't take into account all the other things that could have had an influence on that happening. I've had that happen to me loads of times. I think I have an idea what might work, and end up making things worse instead of better. It takes experimentation, trial and error to learn what works and what doesn't, and that's what it really comes down to. This is especially important when you're getting into the nitty gritty of your track and how to make it its fastest. Trying different banking ideas, supports, angles and whatnot are a good way to find the unexpected.
7. Be patient. Just be patient with everything. If the car isn't running, focus on getting it running. If the track layout sucks, change it. If you want to get on a table but are stuck on a rug, be patient. If you make a blog and nobody reads it, be patient.

Track Build Notes - Elevation and Mulsanne

A couple of posts ago I mentioned adding some found wood as under supports for the Mulsanne Straight. They work great, but I can see now where the under support will be a great equalizer regarding any radical track height changes I might try to introduce.

Here's my problem:

When I added the two flat pieces of wood, a few things happened. The first part of the Straight, coming right off the curve and going until the drop starts, had been previously at a very slight downhill the entire way. So once it hit the top of the hill it was already going downhill. The first wood piece smoothed that first section out, giving me an easier chance to raise the whole corner.

A level shot of how the beginning of the Straight had a slight downward slope before hitting the true downhill, which started at the white box support.

What also happened was, because of the addition of the 2nd flat wood piece, the bottom of the downhill was also a smoother transition. That was great going into the Kink and setting up for the Sweeper, but in adding the two pieces I ended up softening the drop of the hill.

So I'm adding an apex. It didn't have one since the highest part was the curve going into the straight, so I need to add one to give the up to the down. There's a point in the straight that, when you're racing, there's a noticeable unweighting of the car. You can hear it. I want the idea to be, if you're going to punch it through this section, expect a bit of a light race car.

With new, taller under supports added, the apex now begins and ends between the two Lego structures instead of at the turn before it, allowing for more of a drop.

I don't want the hill on my Mulsanne Straight to feel like a normal straight away. I want there to be a noticeable hill you have to negotiate to get just the right amount of speed, acceleration and then braking to be successful throughout the section. I got there on an early version of this hill, but since I've strengthened it is has lost that edge.

The angle of the hill itself was okay when the track was unsupported, as each individual piece would flex a lot more at the joint without any support. So the drop could be more radical, and there would be that ever present "clickclickclickclick" as the cars would race over the uneven track joints. The straight is as smooth as a carpet now, which contributes to the lack of hairiness in the drop. Gotta get that drop. That's the whole point.

The base of the hill. I'm going to run a pencil between the two layers of wood right about to center of this picture. That'll smooth out that slightly uneven joint. I have to be careful doing little things like that, though, because those types of changes are exactly what can smooth out the track and take out the strategic effectiveness of the hill itself.

There's also the issue of getting just the right banking at the Kink [and past it] to make an entry into the Sweeper that is fast. The thin wood allowed me to start the bank during the descent, which helped the other side of the Kink to drop a bit on the inside lane. There are a few points on the outside lane that need addressing now, though.

The run up to the Mulsanne Kink is looking great, but there are some issues with the outside of the track going in to the Sweeper. The area right where that black tuft is sticking out above the track needs a little support.

So that's what I'm talking about. I try to add about an inch of height in a section, and it ends up affecting a section 10 feet away.
In my years on the rug, I never bothered with elevating track, even when I was a kid. I was more into making a flat, fast track than bothering with all the loops and circles and crap. But that also meant that I didn't have any practical experience regarding that stuff. Now that I'm on a table and making a committed plan, I need to be satisfied with every square inch of the track before moving to the next step, which will be permanent installation of the under-support. I'll have to carefully measure out everything so that what's finished is the same height as what was in the plan. If I'm off anywhere, the track will run different than I want it to. That's no good.

Lego

Up until recently, the supports had been made out of a number of things: actual Carrera plastic supports, small blocks of wood, with the larger pieces being cookie boxes wrapped in unused black t-shirts. Yeah, not glamorous, but you do what you have to do. The problem is that I need to control each piece's overall height, and the cookie boxes are of finite proportions.

Here's where I switched to Lego. It just makes sense. I need a temporary, adjustable support that can hold up the track neatly, be adjustable in more than one direction, and serve as the support until the time it is replaced with the permanent version. I can't think of a better building block to use than Lego. Even doing something like banking a raised track section can be done very simply with a Lego structure on each side of the track. This will also help with adjustments that need to be made after any track adjustments are done anywhere else on the track.

This is one of those things that is perfect for Lego to be involved in, especially in the planning stages. Since adding it I have had much more flexibility in those portions of the track. I don't have enough to outfit the entire track, but I do have enough to work off the existing cookie boxes when I need to. They're holding up fine and will work just swell as base structures for a small Lego support.

A little over table-level, and it's easy to see just how high up the track gets in a short amount of space. So adding an apex also effected Pike's.  Most of the load is going to be put on the curve just to the right of the picture.

 There will be a point where I'll have to stop going higher. I still have plans to extend scenery behind the entire section, and it needs to be higher than track level at that point to stop cars from hitting the wall. The more I raise the track, the closer the roof gets, which cuts of my scenery possibilities. Between the border, the run-off, and the protective barrier, there will need to be enough space to handle scenery as well. My other option would be to make it a town instead of a forest and build a row of buildings against the wall. That has always been a thought in the back of my head. I could probably get away with a combination of both. Some houses going around the outside curve, followed by a forest section on the upper straight that tails off as the hill goes down.

Now you see it...now you don't.

I just talked to my wife about the need for wood for the under support, and she asked if I needed any more track pieces. I told her no, but that I will likely need some borders. She was okay with that and okay with the wood for the track, so the next step might happen sooner than I expected.

Naturally in a case like this racing takes a back seat to building. Nice thing is that it's all going to the same thing, which is making everything better. Just adding those two boards as under supports to the back straight made such an improvement I can't wait to get to the finished product. I expect much faster lap times than 5 seconds once it's all said and done.

When I recently ran the Midwinter Marathon, I neglected to mention that I had started working on the Mulsanne Straight after the race had already started. That's why I didn't make such a big deal out of the slower times. The #5 and #11 Fords ran before I added them, and I think track times improved as I went. I imagine if I re-ran the race for the Fords they'd be right up with the rest in points. Problem is, I can't really stop now and get an official run, because I've already improved the Straight again since running the other three cars. That means I'd have to run all five cars again to get a proper result. I'm not going to do that.

So, I'm going to suspend racing for a bit, work on the track build, finalizing my elevations, and running time trials. That'll give me plenty to do and still keep the racing fair. To be honest, I should probably disqualify that race from the program altogether. We'll see about that. Lap times will change until it's permanent, in which case I'll likely start over from scratch tracking car progress. There won't be any point in comparing the time of the cars on the finished track to what they ran when the track was under construction.

This is the 100th post on this blog. I didn't think it was going to be what it was. Originally it was just going to be some cool shots of my basic track and that was about it. But, as the slot car fever gets hotter and hotter, so does the need to do something like this for completion purposes. I don't know if anybody reads it, and that's great if there are people actually reading it. But I won't let any of that slow me down around here.
So, happy 100th post to me. Let's see how fast we can get to 200.

Race 3 - Midwinter Marathon - 10 min. Endurance Race

Here it is, the first endurance race of the season. I consider an endurance race to be anything twice as long as what I usually run, which is 50 laps. That covers about 2:40 or so in time. I suspect I'd run longer races if I had an actual lap counter and didn't have to count in my head. I'd like to not have to have that bit of wasted concentration about. But there it is...

The Midwinter Marathon - 10 minute Endurance Race

Each car was inspected, tuned, cleaned, and taped before racing. Cars were raced in different sessions over a period of a few days. Therefore this report has also been written over roughly the same period.

RESULTS

Car       Laps        Offs       Points

#11       123            0              4                         
#8         129            0             10             
#2         127            0              8             
#5         122            0              2                         
LH        124            0              6     


I did a few things before running each car: I ran them first on drone setting 3 [med. speed before breaking traction] on the controller and gave each a two minute warm up. Then I taped the tires clean. This mattered on each race car, as they all ran slippy at first. Once the tires were clean I ran 5 hot laps at full controller speed.  Then I raced against a 10-minute timer to see how many laps I could do.

I had decided to do a little tuning on the #11 GT40 and had it ready to run first. It set a pretty high lap to beat, and ran as smooth as could be. It's easy to see how much of a difference there is between how a newer car runs and how something that's been around a couple of years runs. There's definitely a zone you can put your car into to get maximum performance out of it on your track. Finding the right balance and not having too many gimmicks to trust is a good start. Having some of these cars for over two years and having them running better than ever really gets your money's worth. Keeping them clean, lubricated and solid-running will make them last a long time.

The next morning I had a bit of time to race and almost didn't due to it being 5ºC up there, but I did it anyway. The MKII was ready to run, felt fast and I had the time. It ran a solid race, but did less laps than I felt like it did while driving. It felt faster than both cars run so far, but surprisingly wasn't. I attribute this to a few things: first, I'm racing on different sessions and days. I'll have a different headspace, and that will contribute to the performance. Second, track temperature is an issue, although a lot of that is more with the human than with the car. I still can't explain how cars did so well in the cold the other day. We'll see how that plays out in later races and trials.

If you want to talk about headspace, today is the day. It's three days after I drove the MKII, and the yellow GT40 is next. I didn't want to neglect it [not that I have been], so I made sure to give it a once over, lube and oil. I also haven't mentioned it yet, but I have been setting the pods on each of the cars to an just-loose setting. I'll probably have to explain that in the next video. Anyway, it's that feeling you get when you are screwing in a screw, you're almost in all the way and you hit the first bit of resistance. That's where I usually stop, but with some cars I've kind of screwed here, twisted there. So I reset them all. Just-loose could also be called almost-tight.

But the GT40. Holy crap that thing smoked the track. Seriously, I thought at first I didn't set the timer correctly, then as I rounded lap 126 I almost stopped and checked, then decided to run until it was obviously not set right. At lap 129 it went off. It was set right. Hard to believe, since I thought the #5's 122 was a good enough time that the #8 wouldn't beat it by 7 laps, or any other car, for that matter. I shouldn't really be too surprised, though, as this new/more often lubrication schedule and more attention to tuneups has kept this race car going unbelievably fast when it counted. This car is like a volcano; it threatens to erupt all the time and when it finally does it takes out everything in its path.

The #8 car and the Alfa might as well have their own race team by now. What has been done to one has been done to the other. But because they're so different in size, shape and design, they have pluses and minuses when compared to each other. Not so today. The Alfa was right on the tail of the yellow Ford all day. posting an almost-as-wicked-fast 127. It's good that the Alfa did that or I would have had a hard time believing the #8's time.

Last up was the Leyton House Porsche, which put in a good enough run to get on the podium. I've been working on getting a bit more grip in the tires, so it's been sanded recently. I don't consider it an unfair advantage as one or two others have been sanded as well. The Porsche felt like it was going faster than it ended up being, although I can say that's mostly up to sometimes me and my overly aggressive driving skills, as I've pushed this thing past that limit before.



Here are the standings after 3 races:

Car          Points 

#11             22     
#8               22
LH              20       
#2               16     
#5               10       
   

It's helping that I'm running these time trials now. It's been keeping me busy and working more on the cars. I can honestly say that I'm happy with every Slot.it car I have.

With that said, I think it's time to do some things to the #5 car.
                 

Track Update - Added Straight Away Support

I was rummaging through the stack of wood I have, as well as a few recently out-of-commission pieces of furniture, and found two perfectly good, very suitable strips of wood to use as an under support for my track.

That thin, brown slab of wood directly under the track is what I'm talking about. Adding it has allowed me to already go up another inch in height without problem.

It's pretty much the perfect thickness for what I'm looking for, but I'm not going to use this wood in my final track. I'll buy wood for that. I would hate to have to dismantle my track if it was decided we were going to use one of those cabinets again. But for the time being, this will be the perfect substitute until the real thing gets here.

I think I would like it to be the width of Carrera borders on most parts of the elevated track. That way if I run into a situation where nothing else works, I can use Carrera borders and not have any weirdness.

It flexes nicely, and tends to bring the track with it. The straight is much smoother now, except for one spot at the bottom of the hill where it's got a little bump.

This is going to make it a lot easier to raise and lower the track, as it's fully supported the whole way. And the nice thing is, the wood is thin enough that I can twist it a bit and the track will come right along with it. And that's without doing any attaching of the track to the wood. Just weight. This is going to go a long way towards giving me a smooth racetrack.

Buying Your First Slot Car

So you bought a 1:32 scale slot car set, you're having great weekends setting it up, racing your buddies/family/friends/yourself, imagining your favorite car at your favorite race. That's what it's all about. Racing smaller versions of the cars we all wish we could own.
But the car that came with the set isn't your favorite car. Not even close. Neither is the other one.

So you go on the internet and you start looking at the different slot cars. And after a few hours you realize how completely overwhelming it is.

What cars will run on my slot car track? 
I hate using the word depends, so I'm going to try not to.  There are a few track manufacturers, but there are differences to each, and that can have a factor in which cars work on our track.

Carrera Evolution track can accommodate both 1:32 and 1:24 scale cars, due to its width. It's recommended to run borders on your track if your going to run 1:24 cars. Most any slot car will run on Carrera track with no modifications. Carrera Digital requires a chip installed in the car. Some cars, depending on design, can't fit a chip inside. But most can. Some online dealers offer chip installations as well.

Scalextric track can accomodate most 1:32 scale cars, but some cars require a guide flag change in order to run on the track, most notably Carrera cars. Same situation regarding digital applies to Scaley as well.

Why are slot cars so expensive?
Some slot cars costs loads of money. Crazy money. And some of those have a reputation for being not good runners. So what do you do with them? Lots of people put them on the shelf. It's another aspect to the hobby. Some just like collecting cars, never taking them out and racing them, and putting them on a fancy display shelf. Okay, that's cool. If that's what you want to do. It makes the decision easier. Doesn't matter how it drives, just how it looks.

There are also quite a few racing companies that are pricey, but that's where you get into more technical aspects. Of course if it can be made, somebody will make it and attempt to sell it, so there are always interesting things available.

But really, slot cars aren't that expensive. Let's give an example:

This car cost me 32 bucks.

$32 isn't much to spend on a car. Yes, it's not easy to find a sale like that on a car like this, but they exist. 

Am I going to notice a difference between the cars I got with my set and a car from a different company? 

Yes, you will likely notice a considerable difference. High-performance cars have high-performance parts, and they can easily turn faster laps and have a much higher fun value. 

There's also another truth, and that is, quite frankly, cars that come with the set are often shit. You probably realized that when you shopped for your set. The sooner you get some replacement cars, the better for fun value.

I don't know where to start? What's a good car for someone like me? 

This is a personal opinion, naturally, but I think it's a pretty solid one. What you want is something well-made, not too pricey, tunable, has replacement parts, and is widely sold. Companies that follow that system do very well, and most all of them don't even make track. Just cars. And you need a good, solid, sweet car to get started.  

This is the car that I would suggest:

Slot.it Ford GT40 #8 [CA18b]. There are a few variations of the GT40, all of which are sweet.

Why? 

I have seven cars. I know that's not many, but three of them are Ford GT40 cars. Here's the thing: Slot.it are rock solid cars. There isn't a bunch of potentially breakable stuff on them, they're incredible looking, they handle great and run fantastic on home tracks. Virtually every part can be replaced with a bunch of different options. 

Why something like this and not a more recently designed car?

When you find something that is well-rounded, you have a lot of flexibility with it. With a car that is such a smooth racer, you get a lot of bang for the buck. My wife thinks they're not too expensive because for 40 bucks I can get years of fun out of it. You could buy something like a Group C car, or a Modern GT, or F1 or something like that, but each of those have their advantages and disadvantages. For my use, I wanted a good stable of easy running cars that anybody could drive, then I would worry about getting some of the fancier cars later.

Anything I should stay away from? 

I think I would stay away from the full-set manufacturers when looking for cars. They're good at making track, but not cars. I know that'll be an unpopular opinion, but it comes down to lap time, and that car above is going to beat the Carreras and the Scaleys, no doubt.

Any other tips?

Get two. If you buy one car, you'll quickly beat your box cars and you'll wish you had something to race with it. So get two. My first three were two GT40's and an Alfa, and well, look back through this blog and you can see how much fun I've had with them.

Time Trial 2

I'm starting to like this format, mostly for convenience. I have no problem running all seven cars for 25 laps each. Doing 50 each needs to be on a day when I have time. It doesn't seem so much when you look simply at elapsed racing time, but it's all the other things; notes, setups, clocks, taping...all of it. Shorter times also give me good results without so many offs. There's nothing worse than having a great running car come off on the 92 lap of a 100 lap race. I can also run time trials in between races and it'll allow me to vary the race format as well.

Track temps were 9ºC today, which is warmer than it's been in the past week or so. Still not at it's normal 13-16º, but I'll take it. It might be important to include room temps in the report, if just to see if there are any patterns. Maybe not with little changes, but I'll bet things are different in the Summer.

I'm trying a slightly different controller configuration, moving the Power Trim from 0 to 5. Theoretically this is supposed to help prevent wheel spin, which will probably help some of the cars.

The Power Trim [outlined in green upper left] helps with traction control, or wheel spin, or whatever you want to call it. Up until recently I ran it at 0.

In other notes, the Sweeper curve is running great. I'm so looking forward to picking up some thin sheets of wood to get started on the track foundation. It's going to be awhile, though. Probably not until Fall.

Here's the lowdown on today's run. We're on Trial 2.

I didn't think I'd see a 4.8 for awhile, like maybe some months from now when things get a little warmer and the cars are more adapted to the track. But for whatever reason, there's some ass-hauling going on, and it has affected almost all the cars. Again practically everyone beat their previous time, with some really setting some impressive new numbers. 

Lower is better. Everybody hovering at or below that 5 line is okay by me. The colors on this graph are all wrong, though. I'll have to work on that.

Let's go car-by-car, in order of finish.


Ford MKII

The other day I said the MKII isn't likely going to run a consistent lap under 5 seconds, but I may be wrong. It's still a bit early to tell, but I'll get a better idea in the next few trials. A rock-solid 4.8 [2:00.06] that never let up. It flows through the curves and seems very light. Fast acceleration and quiet, smooth running.
Curve/Max: 4 [this relates to the overall maximum power setting programmed onto the SCP-1 controller.]


Alfa Romeo 33/3

But the MKII isn't alone. Not today. The Alfa ran a great 4.8 at 2:00.23, just missing it by a hair. I've been recently frustrated with the Alfa's lack of gusto on the permanent track so far, but I spent a bit of time cleaning and straightening. I also gave a quick taping to the tires to get the crap off them. I've been sanding tires and running laps, so each car needs a bit of taping now and then.
Curve/Max: 4


Ford GT40 #8

Also killing it was the good ol' #8, which ran a kickass time. Both it and the Alfa shaved almost three-tenths off their time today. This car runs so dang smooth. Did a 4.8 at 2:01.22 and never looked back.
Curve/Max: 4


Ford GT40 Jacky Ickx

Breaking 5 seconds with a respectable 4.96 at 2:04.16, that's a mighty fine lap time, yet not as fast as the lead pack today. Either way, there is nothing "wrong" with a car that runs a 5 second lap around here. Well done.
Curve/Max: 4


Porsche 962C

Pulling a 4.96 at 2:04.53 is also a damn good time, and a tenth better than the previous time. I'll take that. The tail was a little twitchy at the end, and it had picked up some dirt on the tires, but it otherwise ran great. I have a lot of expectations for this car, and it's beginning to meet them. It's running at 6 Power on the controller, which is the highest-drawing car, but it can handle everything thrown at it. The addition of traction control really helped as well. The problem I was having was the car climbed slower or else it got very wiggly. With traction control on, the acceleration was less erratic, which makes getting through the sharp corners smoother and easier. There's less of a chance of over-accelerating when going through a curve, giving you more control and a better run out of the corner.
Curve/Max: 6

Audi R8 Safety Car

This guy has almost earned his way back into the big show. It was definitely a surprise to see it shave four-tenths off the lap rime, running a 5.48 at 2:17.72
While that still doesn't change the fact that the Safety Car is running a second and a half back, that doesn't amount to much. One or two crashes and any of those cars could be passed by it. I think the tires are kaputt, though. No matter how much I sand them, at the end of each race they're hard and shiny. I'll have to look up some solutions to this. I remember reading of methods for reviving tires, so I'll have to give that a try.
This car needs a lot of juice just to get going, so I ran it hot of the controller.
Curve/Max: 6


Audi R18

The beat-up, listless, slippery old dog went in reverse today, even after extensive sanding and taping. I wonder what would happen if I put good rubber tires on this thing. It might be worth three bucks to find out. Otherwise I'm going to tear it up and turn it into a full-time camera car.
Curve/Max: 3

__________

I've started a 10-minute endurance race for points. Each car will be run when I have a good chance to take a look at it and get it running great. This will be the third race of the series, and not include the Carreras. They'll continue testing, but not competing until they can turn respectable lap times [near 5:00].
I've run two of the cars so far and hope to run the rest of the cars in the next day or two.

My Track Video, Time Trial 1 and Some Notes

I went ahead and compiled a history of my track:

It wasn't going to be so large, but the deeper I started getting into it, the longer it got. I eventually had to stop or risk having to cut the part that was the whole point, which was the Track Layout piece at the end.

I've been thinking more and more about practical racing applications now that I have a permanent track. The first season I was able to keep it fresh by constantly changing the layout, but now that it's permanent, it doesn't really make sense to run a series of 20 races if it's always at the same race track. It would almost make sense to run way less races and do more tuning and testing sessions first.
The nice thing about the current race format is I get some time with each car each session. Cars don't sit out unless I sit them out, and that's only happened to the Carreras.

Speaking of Carreras, I thought it would be fun to put up some laps and at least get them on the board with some numbers. After I ran them I had to run everybody else, though. So now we're talking SEVEN cars, which will be interesting to see if I can handle. I think my limit is going to be somewhere around 10-12.

Audi R-8 Safety Car

There was a time when I had such a blast with this car. It was fast, like a rabbit, and at the time seemed to have nothing but grip. Then it got completely outclassed by the Slot.it cars, and I eventually gave up on it.

Audi R-18

Each slot car set is going to have the easy fun car and the difficult, slick car. This one is the latter, for sure. It's never been my favorite slot car, weighs twice as much as a Slot.it car, and comes during a period of not very attractive race cars. Take the top off, add some Lego, and you've got a nice GoPro camera car.

I decided to run a short time trial to get some good lap times in. 25 laps, no offs,

Car                Time           Lap

#11              2:06.52          5.04
#8                2:07.02          5.08
#2                2:07.19          5.08
#5                2:01.32          4.84
LH               2:05.72          5.00
R18              2:30.12          6.00
SC                2:25.77          5.80

So these will be benchmark numbers for the cars. I figure that's in the wheelhouse for most of them, so the numbers from here on out shouldn't be too far off unless the car has a particularly bad outing. Doing it this way will allow me to run a shorter test run [25 laps] to get my time, and I can work on cars individually instead of having a big race.

The R18 and the Safety Car, while liking the larger layout better, are still way behind. A second a lap is difficult to make up. I could see if it was more like .5, but expecting a car with comparatively bad tires to outrun the low-5's is asking a lot.

I also don't expect the #5 to post sub-5 numbers all the time. I think it's pretty safe to say respectable track average is right around 5 seconds per lap.

I'm also starting a few spreadsheets to keep track of data on my cars, races, times and other stuff. That way I don't have to either keep it in my head or refer back to old blog posts, which is what I've been doing.

Here's a basic info sheet of my cars. [click to enhance]

I have a car info spreadsheet and have just built a 25-lap Time Trial database, so I'll be able to gauge progress over the long run. It's much easier for me to run upstairs and run 25-laps with one car and come back later if I need to. Doing something like a 100-lapper with all my cars takes forever to run, even though you wouldn't think so. I'll also be able to focus on one car and move it along the time trial list, even running more than one trial. I'll just need to go back and make it up with the other cars.

I'm considering running a timed super-endurance. Something that would run laps against at set time, say 1/2 hour or an hour per car, most laps wins. I tried something like that long long ago, but it didn't have much effect as it was only a very small track with only a few cars. There were only a few laps separating all three, and that was after 10 minutes.

The Sweeper and Sand

Late last night I came across a flat and rather flexible piece of wood that just so happened to fit perfectly under the Sweeper, so I rebuilt it.
I took out the cable clips that were holding the curve at an angle, took out the two large, flat, un-flexible pieces of wood and replaced them with this thin pressed plywood from an old 50's cabinet that my wife took out of commission. It's only temporary, but if I can control the pitch and angle of this wood then it'll be much easier to deal with when I add the thinner, custom-cut versions in the future.

I ran more outside lane laps this morning. Some of the cars are really handling it well. The older cars all go through it nicely, and the #5 does as well pretty much, but I think both the #5 and the Porsche need some work on the tires. I changed back to the inside lane for some control/testing, worked on both cars' tires a bit, and have gotten each car to respond a bit better in the curves.

For the inside lane, Turn 4 has produced a very satisfying drift corner, which comes early in the curve, setting the rest of the curve up for acceleration. The tail of each car whips out just enough to say hi, then it's all about gunning it up the wiggly part of the hill.

__________

SECTION NAMES

It's time to officially name the sections of my track. Some names will be more obvious than others, as they will be named after the parts of the Le Mans raceway. So let's get started.

Turns 1 & 2 - Dunlop Curve
   I have an idea for how I want this turn to eventually look once scenery has been added. It should basically look like the old section of Dunlop Curve that starts at the bottom of the hill.

Turns 3 & 4 - Pike's
   My tribute to another course, Pike's is the tricky right-hander that sets up the big lefthand switchback. It's all a hillclimb, hence the name.

Turn 5 - The Peak
   The natural end to the section is at the highest point of the track. This likely will be raised by another 2" before it's all said and done.

Back Straight - Mulsanne Straight
   I wanted to include a feature like this ever since I can remember. Now that it's possible, it's practically the centerpiece of my layout.

Turn 6 - Mulsanne Kink
   The purpose of this kink, as opposed to letting the straight go longer, was to make it so the cars wouldn't be so far away if they came off the track. It's worked so far. The Kink itself is just enough to change direction without letting the car fly off the track. So it effectively continues the straight, just not exactly Gerade aus.

Turn 7 - Sweeper
   The amount of available track I had and its possible setups determined how this turn would come together. Five 2/30 curves, followed by one 3/30 curve gives you a nice drift corner that brings you back to normal at the end.

Turn 8 - Davies' Kink
   My wife and I have been listening to a lot of Kinks lately, so the name Davies' Kink just kind of works. A left 1/30, a right 3/30 and a right 1/30 will make the car lose the back if it's taken too fast.

__________

Garage Notes

I took the two new cars back to the garage to having the tires worked on a bit. I figure that since the track is now permanent, I might as well start working on cars individually to get them going faster, as opposed to tuning them all at once and seeing what happens. There's always a possibility I'll miss something if I don't pay particular attention to each car.
I haven't done anything to the #5 except lube and oil. When you have a smooth running car, you tend to not want to mess with it too much. I probably should start messing with it, though, as I think it's now beginning to show that it needs it. Running smoothly is one thing. Running smoothly in last place isn't impressive.

The Ford GT40 1966 should be at least as fast as the other two Fords.

There hasn't been much racing yet to get very stable lap times from any of the cars, but I'm looking to get started on improving this car. Here are the lap times from the first two races:

Race 1 - 5:10 lap speed. This wasn't a bad start, and it would be impressive if it could keep it up. It ran right in the pack and felt like there was more in it.
Race 2 - 5:22 lap speed on a day when three cars broke 5 seconds [it was also very cold]. I suppose this could be fault of the relatively new tires, but this car is racing against cars that, although similar, have been somewhat modified. But it got beaten by a car that crashed and still did faster time. There's really no excuse for this car to be over .2 of a second per lap behind. I won't even mention the 6:16 lap time on the outside lane....

I started on tires, and will do a little tuning to the pod. None of the problem is speed, all of it is handling. So I need to get it to a better level in order to compete.

The Porsche has a lot of potential. I've gotten the car where I like it, but the tires are still a bit of an issue.

While neither the Porsche or the #5 Ford are up to pace yet, I feel like the Porsche is closer to it than the Ford, and a bit of care to the tires ought to push it to the next level. I've been running quite a few laps lately on all the cars, and the rubber tires are definitely the way to go, so I'm not worried that it's on the wrong type of tires. While it's a different type of race car, it should run close to or faster than the others.

Race 1 - 5:03 lap speed [fastest]. It's good to know this car can get close to 5 second lap times. It should be able to do this, but the question is whether it can do it consistently or not. I've noticed that the rubber tires take awhile to break-in, and I expected both cars to need work.
Race 2 - 5:16 lap speed with a crash. The Porsche didn't drive very well this race, so there's the answer to the consistency question. The tires aren't up to snuff yet, and they need more time with the sandpaper. Add to that the fact that it ran a dreadfully slow 6:52 on the outside lane [almost 1/2 second behind the leader]. I'll adjust the pod as well. I think a looser pod will help plant it in the corners a little.

There's a reason I'm doing all this. If I'm going to continue my plans of adding support, then starting scenery, I have to have the track and cars in a comfortable position before I do any of that. Once I've done enough track modifications and measured, cut and built my supports, I need to know that the track design and function is going to work for me. So if I tune the Porsche to its maximum and it's still fishtailing, I need to look at the particular curve and make whatever adjustments need to be made there. And when one adjustment in a part of the track ends up affecting the adjoining parts, then the issue can easily spread. So there has to be compromise.
Currently I have a technical section [Pike's], a fast section [Mulsanne through the Sweeper], and a tricky section [Davies' Kink]. I want each of those to feature, so I don't want to do too much tampering from where I am now. For example, the Dunlop Curve is the slowest point on the track, and the most problematic. Since it's the start of Pike's Hillclimb, it goes banked-left, banked-right and uphill. That's a lot of twisting, and doing one thing has an effect on the others. I'll have a better chance to fine tune it when the track support is installed, but I have to get it close enough to get good measurements first. It'll always be the slowest section of the track, so I'll have to compromise and stop at some point.

__________

Meanwhile, the Sweeper curve is responding very well to the larger, thinner piece of wood being used as the under support. I can see where having this all over the layout is really going to help get the track just where I like it. I think working on the outside lane ended up helping the inside lane as well. Looking forward to adding the support around the track.

Track Testing - Outside Lane

It should come as no secret that all the time I run these races, I run them on the inside lane. Ever since the beginning, every race has been on the inside lane unless I specifically chose the outside. It might have happened early on, but I'm not sure.

But now that I'm getting the track into a permanent setup, I have to make sure to set up both lanes and not just one. It's easy when you're only running on the inside lane to focus banking to accommodate it while neglecting the outside lane. Ultimately I want both lanes to be even, although even in difficulty as well. Like the inside lane, I don't want it to be too easy.
Outside lane also has no borders and much of the track off the table surface, so it becomes quite a crash if you go off somewhere.

Inside lanes are traditionally the slower lane because of the larger amount of tight turns. People do everything they can to make sure they have exactly even lengths for both lanes of track, but that often requires an overpass somewhere.

Overpass is a dirty word to me. Sorry. I just don't want to use them.

That means my inside lane will be sharper, but it'll also be shorter. And right now, as the track is elevated but not yet bordered, it's quite perilous in some parts...some new, as-yet-to-be-of-circumstance parts. Getting the outside lane dialed in is going to be a little tricky, and may require rebuilding the elevation in some sections.

Where the inside lane gets this nice drift on the Turn 4 [middle right] left-hander to start the back half of the hillclimb, the outside lane rides the cliff. Not a good idea to get the tail out here. That's a 25 scale foot drop.

The outside lane itself is randomly rubbered-in, as a lot of the pieces have gotten use on both sides over time. But it's not race-ready rubbered-in like the inside lane is getting. The inside lane is starting to show visible tire lines, while the outside lane has remained untouched since I built the big track. When you spend most of the time racing against the clock, it's pretty rare for the two lanes to get equal use. I tend to usually treat the outside lane as my extended border. This of course has me thinking about getting some borders for my track. I'm already going to cut the under support wide enough for borders, and I was considering adding something to make it flush to the track, but I think it would be easier, cheaper and more precise to just get the borders I need and be done with it. I still need to think about this, though.

Since my plan is to build the supports based on the measurements I end up with, I want to make sure everything is satisfactory before I start doing any cutting of wood. The longer I test it and the more I mess with it, the better off I'll be when it comes time to cutting and replacing the supports with something more permanent. This care will have to be taken with both lanes of track. I don't want to get into a situation where I have to change something later because I neglected it now.

I'm going back to that style of support, only larger. Elevated too.

So I've been messing with the Sweeper, and trying to get it to bank. At first I was doing it like the photo above, but then I decided to get a little tricky and try to angle each track piece. In the process I think I made the track a bit unstable around there.

By putting these pins in, it's causing the track to not sit flush. Each piece is like a little hill, or speed bump.

So my plan, as it pretty much always has been, is to go ahead and elevate this section, but do so so that the Sweeper isn't banked as much as angled. Then, when it comes to the Davies Kink [like that?], I want to start a drop in elevation just after the first 3/30 curve going left. Then the drop happens all the way down to the end of the right 1/30 curve. It'll probably be a pretty big drop, so I'll have to wait and see if I can get it to work. It might end up being too much like the drop at Laguna Seca, and I don't know if I want that kind of thing as a feature on my track. Maybe I can find just the right balance of down, fast and drivable. It might require starting the drop before the end of the first 3/30.

__________

For kicks I decided to run some laps to see how each of the cars would do on the outside lane of the track. It's still 5º in the attic, so time is a factor, as is willingness to deal with the cold. But then I'm up there after already having run a race today, so I could actually stop and do this some other time. Yeah, right.

I ran each car for 50 laps. I knew some were going to crash, as the track isn't rubbered-down yet. So I'll include that info too.

Car           Time         Offs   Lap

#11         4:50.80         3        5.80
#8           4:21.28         0        5.22
#2           4:36.48         0        5.52
#5           5:08.50         2        6.16
LH          5:26.90        2         6.52


The cars are all over the place here. To me what felt like the way all of them should have run was with the Alfa. I can expect a half a second difference between the two lanes at this point, but I have a hard time believing a 1.5 second difference. Again, cold. I'm totally basing all of these numbers on cold factors. That and the lack of grip are the only ways to explain why, even though the Porsche crashed twice, it still wasn't up to speed and fishtailing so much.

Both times the Porsche crashed and one of the times each the #5 and #11 crashed were on the Sweeper. This is what's triggering me to go back to the other way of banking and see if that works better. Losing a car there will easily add 10 seconds to your lap time by the time you put it back on and get it running again. So hopefully a little elevation mixed with a little angle will stop that from happening as much. That turn is going to cost me about 30 bucks in borders.

The #5 also crashed on the hill climb at Turn 4 when his rears gave out. That's also about a 10-second re-slot job.

The Porsche on the entrance to Turn 4, inside lane.

It should be noted that the Shell car was 2/10ths away from breaking a 5-second lap. That's pretty incredible considering one of the other cars have yet to do that on the inside lane yet. In fact, high marks for the the #8 and the #2 cars this round.

The other car?  The #5.

I'll probably run the outside lane for a bit until I've gotten some good lap times from each of the cars. I'll do most of my racing on the inside, though. I'll likely do one or two on the outside lane after having a chance to work on it a bit, but then I'll go back to the inside.