Summer Salami Outside Lane Time Trials

 I got a little time today, so I started up on some outside lane action. I normally run on the inside lane for a few reasons: there's more room for movement using the outside lane as a border, I design tracks with the inside lane in mind as the primary/only lane, and my Slot.it controller is wired to it. The controller comes off easily enough, but since I'm the only racer here I set it up the for the inside lane regardless. So essentially I think of it as a one-lane track and not a two-lane track. 

Well, today is different. Since I got the DS 35ohm controller I've been using it off and on, so today was going to be the first time I've done a dedicated race with it. 

It may look small, but I have freakishly big hands. The handgrip is actually the same size as the Slot.it handgrip.

Since I'm using the outside lane of the same track I ran last race, I'm going to run this short time trials first and see where everybody is before committing to a 50 lap race. The situation is very different. Instead of having the electronic controller with all the great settings, I have just the analog trigger. This is going to have an effect on some of the cars, as they run better with a little help from the electronic controller settings. Be that as it may, we are here to race. So we'll start off with the time trials. In a way, this could be quite revealing about which cars might be easier to drive, more responsive to control, and how good of a performer in general that they are. 

Cars were not tuned or treated in any way prior to the race. The weather is mild, and it has been raining [this matters in my unprotected attic], which are good weather conditions for racing. I picked the first four cars I had out today and started with them.

The first car was the Porsche:

Slot.it Porsche 962C #11 Leyton House

I thought I would start off with the Porsche because I thought it was going to be the car that required the most power and the most gentle touch of the bunch. Just from how I have to set the electronic controller to get it to run fast, I have to apply that sort of thing here as best as I can. I ran some laps to get used to the car/controller combo, then ran the race. The car didn't seem all that fast, but it also seemed like it was missing the braking ability from the other controller. It couldn't slow down enough to get through the turns without sliding out, so I ran a bit slower than I would have with the other controller.

Time Trial

Car      Time        Lap        Crashes   

962C   3:17.89   7.88            2

Normally I'd be concerned with an almost 8 second lap out of a car that recently ran a 6.64 on the inside lane of the very same track, but I know this is different, so I'm going with it. Besides, it's a time trial and not a race. So there won't be any official scoring. There will likely be some tuning done to some of the cars before the actual race begins. With that said, the Porsche was sluggish.

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Up next was the Matra:

Slot.it Matra 670B. Have you bought one of these yet? It's my firm recommendation you do so.

This glorious car has an innate ability to conform to just about any track situation. It's such a smooth runner it's almost criminal. It was the first car I tried the DS controller with, and they went great together. I was very much looking forward to seeing what kind of time I set. 

Time Trial

Car      Time        Lap        Crashes   

962C   3:17.89   7.88            2

Matra  3:06.92   7.44            2 

That's quite a difference between these cars so far. I was expecting the Matra to set the high bar early, and it has. But now it looks like the Porsche got thoroughly spanked. So be it. I don't think the Porsche and the DS controller are the best pairing. It needs something faster. But the Matra was smooth as butter through it all. Super easy to get a groove on, could run at a fast pace and still not risk crashing. It did crash twice at the same turn pretty much everybody else crashed at, which is the left after the hill. 

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And then came the #8 GT40:

Slot.it GT40 #8

The GT40s are curious cars. The three that I have all run very much different than each other, even though they share similar traits. This car is quiet and solid. It's usually the faster of the three. Usually. I ran the time trial and it handled great. It really had no problems ripping up the track. 

Time Trial

Car            Time        Lap        Crashes   

962C        3:17.89     7.88            2

Matra       3:06.92     7.44            2 

#8 GT40  2:59.28     7.16            2 

Well, would you look at that. Here I thought the Matra's time was going to be the time to beat, but it has just been handled, and quite easily, I might add, by #8. That's pretty special. Now I'm curious to see what the rest of the cars are going to run. 

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Next up, Chaparral #65:

From the Slot.it Chaparral 2E Can-Am 1966 Collector Set

I had planned on stopping at the GT40 and heading downstairs to start this post, but I talked myself into running one of the Chaparrals as well. Glad I did. This car really is great at imitating all the good characteristics of the rest of the cars. It's planted like a GT40, rides like a Matra and handles like an Alfa. I have a feeling one of these two Chaparrals are going to be in the #1 slot soon. 

Time Trial

Car            Time        Lap        Crashes   

962C        3:17.89     7.88            2

Matra       3:06.92     7.44            2 

#8 GT40  2:59.28     7.16            2 

#65 Chap 3:02.37     7.28            2

Very nicely done. Even beat the Matra. Something tells me the winner of this time trial is going to be the car that gets along best with the controller. #65 certainly does that. It ran the trial very well and wasn't troublesome in any way. 

Interesting how so much of this relies more on finger dexterity and restraint, rather than hitting it hard. Now that I've run four cars [the rest will come in the next post], I've got an idea of what I can expect from the rest. I think the Alfa is going to lay down the best time, unless it doesn't get along with the controller. 

I think I'm also going to run a head-to-head comparison of the controllers on the inside lap with one car. I know they'll lay down different lap times, just curious what they would be. 

You're probably wondering why I don't just use the lap times I just got for the race. Well, 25 laps really isn't enough time to get a flow going. By the time you've run the race your car is just starting to get good grip and a solid flow. So many crashes happen early in a race, but not so much later, and if you look back at it, I don't usually have more wrecks with more laps. I don't usually crash more than 2 times at 50 or 25 laps. 

But it is all going to come down to this controller and which cars work best with it. The more I think about the Porsche, but more I believe it to be true. The thing about it is, it has a stronger motor, 23k as opposed to the 21.5k motors in the other cars. It also has a 9/28 gear setup instead of the 11/32 the other cars have. It's an inliner, the rest sidewinders. So when the other cars all have a similar response to the controller and the person running it, dropping in a car with that much of a different setup is going to matter. This is where I'm going to likely have to score by class when I expand my Class C cars. They all run that same 23k inliner 9/28 pinion/gear setup. So a load of 962s and 956s would be very competitive with each other. Funny part is is that they'd probably be a little slower than the Classics on the whole.

I hope to get the other four cars run in a day or two.