Post Sexy Car Notes

 There were a few cars I wanted to take a look at after the Sexy Curves Speedway Scramble. Some were underperforming, others had issues that needed to be addressed. 

Rothmans Porsche 917K #9

Although the Rothmans car ran decently, during its race I noticed a squeak in the corners. Definitely mechanical, might have been coming from the axle. I checked for tire rub but there was none. I lubed/oiled and reset the pod to a medium-loose position. The car was pretty dry, so I might just lube/oil each one as I come across them. Some of them have only had their initial job done. Others have gone a long time without a checkup. 

Lucky Strike Porsche 917K #4

The Lucky Strike car had two things going on: the same squeak the Rothmans Porsche had, as well as a slight chatter around the turns. I checked to see if there was any tire rub, and there was. It only happened when the car was cornering on the right side. I loosened the body screws a little as well as the back end of the pod. That solved the problem. Lube/oil.

Gulf Porsche 908/3 #1

The fact that I had to run this car four times to get a result is why it's here today. I crashed twice, and when I crash I reset the race. Gotta run a clean race to count. So, I ran a third, more conservative race, which had the 908 finishing dead last by a good margin. But since this was the first car through the track on race day, it didn't really get a chance to set a good pace. I knew it could do better...or better yet...I knew I could do better. So I raced it one more time and accepted the result I got. 

Still, I brought it in. The tires look good, so no worries there. I did a lube/oil, reset the pod a little tighter [for whatever reason the pod is quite loose], and did a general tighten up and setting of all the screws. The body is still pretty loose, but not like before. The pod went from loose to medium. 

McLaren ELVA #47

I brought the Elva in out of caution for bringing the Gulf Porsche in. I got them both around the same time, and they've had roughly about the same attention paid to them, the Elva maybe a little less. So I wanted to give it a general tuneup to be safe. The tires are in good shape, and it ran very well, so just some lube/oil and that's it.

Other Car Notes

I noticed a few cars that needed work. I have some tires to work on, especially on a few of the cars that seem to be always around the lower-third of the pack. The Ferrari needs a sanding job, as does the Gulf GT40, strangely enough. There's another one in there showing treads, and I'll need to find that and take care of it. It could make the difference on a lot of these cars. 

So all cars will be going through the first of the year checkup. I'm starting that process now. Since I'm back to racing on the floor, I have to step up my tuning game. Each car, regardless of last checkup, will go through another in the next two days. Then on New Years I'll be running an endurance race. Not sure the track design yet, but I'm already thinking about running something I've already done, just modifying it with 4/15 track pieces. Not sure how many cars will run, but I'd like it to be all of them if time allows. Now that I have the lap counter I can run a lot more efficiently, so doing a 200 lap race wouldn't take all that much longer than doing a 50 lap race....well, except the laps, of course. 

The prep and changeover/start time when racing has gone down to practically nothing. Before I got the lap counter, here's how I did it:

Make a list on my phone with car names, entering each time as you get them.

Setup my phone with a stopwatch, or run some often-clunky software that is supposed to recognize and clock your car as it goes by [often not working and slow to setup]. 

COUNT laps out loud. [I can't even tell you how distracting it is to count laps as they go by. The larger the track, the more mistakes. Repeat numbers, skipped, all kinds of stupid stuff. And I know it affected lap times.] 

Car finishes, stop stopwatch, enter number on list.

Now with lap counter:

No list needed.

Put car on the track, push button to start race.

Race until finishing beeps signal end of race.

Take picture of car/time/laps.

So that ends up saving me minutes of setup time between cars. I was surprised how fast I was able to get all my cars through the last race. So doing an endurance race will only add a few minutes per car to the overall session time. Oh, that'll include crash-and-burn rules, too, so that should add to the fun.

Sexy Curves Speedway Scramble

 I couldn't help myself. This track layout is way too much fun not to see who ran the best on it. 

When half of the layout is a tricky handling test, anything goes.

I started by just running some cars through the 4/15 snake, but there was something a lot more challenging than it looked here. You'd think that going through that mellow of a series of wiggles would be pretty easy, but it separated the grippy from the not-so-grippy.

Each car got a tire scrub and did 25 laps

Car                           Time              Lap    

Sunoco M6A           1:07.84           2.68   

Elva #47                   1:08.31          2.72   

Sunoco 908              1:10.91           2.8    

Elva #2                     1:10.99           2.8    

Tergal 908                1:11.23            2.84 

Gulf 908                   1:12.45           2.88  

Alfa Romeo #2         1:13.92           2.92  

Matra #10                 1:14.80           2.96  

Shell GT40 #8          1:14.97           2.97  

Chaparral #66           1:15.18           3.0    

Rothmans 917          1:15.32           3.01 

Gulf 917                   1:15.81           3.02                          

Lola T70 MKIII #7  1:16.25           3.04

Leyton House 962    1:16.94           3.06           

Chaparral #65           1:17.23           3.07         

Lola T70 #21            1:17.50           3.08  

Playstation 911GT2  1:17.57           3.08         

Ford MKII                1:17.82           3.09                

Lucky 917                1:17.94           3.09

Gulf GT40  #11        1:18.35           3.12        

Momo Ferrari           1:18.98           3.15                   

   

                

Sexy and fast. That seems to be a theme today. I had no expectation that the McLaren M6A would win this race.

Quite a few surprises. First, Team Sunoco doing such an impressive job with two cars on the podium. Neither had been prior, and the 908 had a simply dismal finish in the last race. I did not expect this outcome. 

Another surprise was the poor showing of the Lucky Strike 917. I think there might be a tire rub or something going on with that car. I think it might be time for a winter oil/lube job for everyone. I heard some squeaks and a few other strange noises today.

A third surprise was that there are FOUR Slot.it cars in the Top 10. 

Oh, and yeah, I figured out the other day that I have a few cars that share the same team liveries. So now I have a few teams. That's kinda cool. 

Teams

Team Sunoco

McLaren M6A #6

Porsche 908 #6

Gulf Team

Porsche 917 #19

Porsche 908 #1

Ford GT40 #11

Shell Team

Ferrari 333SP

Ford GT40 #8

There are some other cars that are eligible for teams in the future, notably Rothmans. I have my eye on a 908 from NSR with that livery, and it'll likely be next.

Looking at those teams realistically, the fight between the Sunoco and Gulf teams would be pretty good, but the Shell team would not be very competitive. The #8 would do most of the work on that team, but together they wouldn't score the points to keep up. It would make for a fun points system, though. Kinda like a Constructors Championship, which I also am considering doing; probably be Porsche that'll win, although McLaren is looking pretty strong these days.

Some days you win it all, some days you just show up. Today the Lola #7 just showed up. Prior to this race it was the fastest car.

This is what I love about racing. I know there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Lola #7. It has been running spotlessly since I got it. But sometimes the car and the track aren't the best fit, and I think this might be the case for this car. The other Lola didn't fare much better, in fact it did worse. So it is what it is. If it had come in last last place by a long way, I would definitely be getting under it, but I don't think that's what's happening here. 

Not so much of a surprise that not one, but both Elvas are kicking ass on this track. I think on a longer race they would end up 1-2. A short 25 lapper really doesn't show off the car's full potential. It's got that long distance lasting power. I can feel it. 

I also felt like the Matra did surprisingly well, and had even set the fastest lap at one point. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by that, though, as it has always done well in tricky situations. There were four Slot.it cars in the Top 10. I still can't get over that.

There is a deceptive aspect to the 4/15 snake. It looks pretty mellow, almost easy, but when you're racing it you can tell there's a line you can't cross. But that's the line you have to cross to see who's the better racer. Every car could potentially go through the snake section at almost any speed they'd like, so it's a great place to either win or lose a race. 

You pretty much have to push the car as hard as you can to get good lap times, and if you don't, you'll be behind by a significant margin. There's a half-second a lap gap between first and last on this race, and some of the cars that came last are very suspect. Some cars will rip through the snake, others will wiggle their butts trying to maintain grip. You can go through it at about 75-80% speed. Thing is, you can't do that with any other track pieces. Not even close to it. 

Felt fast, and eventually laid down a pretty fast time after two re-starts from crashing. Not bad for a pre-tuning race car.

I'm going to look into adding some more to the layout and run a longer race. It's essentially a big oval right now, and I have a bunch of pieces I haven't used yet. I could easily go out and back again, so I might look into that.

This has also been a test of tire integrity. Any car that has had significant tire attention did very well. The winner, however, still has treads showing, as does the 2nd place car. So while this track didn't seem to give an advantage to any particular model of car, the emphasis was more on handling and traction. And since the shorter cars handled the snake a little better, the longer cars handled the corners and straight a little better. 

The Alfa, the Matra and the GT40 #8 all ended up in the Top 10. 

Multi-radius Ends

The two end curves feature a single 1/60 as the apex. Doing a 180° this way gives you a lot more space for braking/acceleration points. While you have to go slowly through a 1/60, it's nowhere near as slow as going through three of them. With the smoother transitions you can run almost all the way into the curve before braking, and get quality acceleration the second you cross the apex. Not as much chance to go off either way if you do it right. 

What I like about those types of curves is that it gives you so much more flexibility in how you want to race the track. I can dive deep into the curve, let off for a split second, hit the apex, then punch it out on a controlled, progressively wider line into the straight. This creates fantastic passing opportunities. 

So the Snake [might as well give it a formal name] is going to test a car's ability to hold on at the highest speeds possible, and the rest of the track is a giant oval with emphasis on timing in the corners. There is no advantage here, even though short-bodies seemed to fare better in the standings.

I tell you right now, if I was ever to build a hill climb, there wouldn't be a straight piece the entire way. I'd do the whole thing in 4/15 curves. 

This has been one of the most fun layouts I think I've ever run.

Sexy Curves

 One of my big plans this year was to drop a little cash into some new track pieces. I found that I used everything I had that was larger radius in every layout since I got them, and I wanted to get more. Not so much that I could rid myself of 1/60 curves forever [although that was the main driver], but so that I can use them to break up the monotony of a basic layout. I mean, no matter what the design, throw in a few 2/30 and 3/30 curves and you've got yourself a smooth flowing raceway. 

Originally I planned on getting only a few 4/15 tracks to pepper around layouts, but then I saw a decent price on twelve pieces, which would make a 180° turn. So I bought that.

The shot on the left is them all strung together in a l/r/r/l pattern with the middle four reversed. Altogether, it's the same length end-to-end as eight straight track pieces. 

The driving experience was exactly what I expected: big and flowy, able to be taken at an extremely high rate of speed...almost punched...but not quite. It almost works out like a natural S-section, although better suitable for a long mountain pass setup or something. I could totally see that. For replacing a straightaway, doing something like this is a really fun idea. 

I also set up the big 180°, but it's so big I can't do much with it on my apartment floor. I'm working on a test layout, but so far it's looking kinda funny. 

I'm also going to be working on getting the 4/15 tracks inserted into layouts of the past that I liked as well. There were lots of times when they could have come in handy, if not to just add some variety.

So now I have a 180° in every radius. I also picked up three more 3/30 tracks, so now I have six. I really like those as well. 

These are going to be used in all sorts of ways, many of which I have yet to discover. While I'll probably try the Big Curve at least once, they'll more than likely be used as straight replacements or for multi-radius curves. Layout design is about to get really interesting, and I think I'll be doing a lot more of it.

There are a lot of possibilities. I know I don't have all that much space, so I'll have to use them where I can. I know they're going to enhance just about any curve on the track.

Just a few of the 180° curves that can be done with varying radii curve pieces. 1/60 [brown], 2/30 [yellow], 3/30 [green] and 4/15 [blue] track pieces.

I've tried all of those on the top row, and some on the bottom. The generic one-color turn is pretty predictable and boring. The more color the better. The three-color curves up there are the most interesting, provide the biggest challenge and can be taken at a much faster speed, provided you know your braking. You can go in deeper, brake hard and accelerate sooner out of the corner. The car might pitch out a little bit at the apex, but usually not enough to crash. The two-color curves are even faster, as the sharp apex is taken out in favor or a bit more flow.

So I'll be exploring and reporting on track layouts, looking for good, challenging stuff. I'll be looking for sections and replacement sections. I've found a few so far. But the 4/15 curves will probably primarily be used in pairs or fours or sixes, enhancing sections. I have enough to do doubles with them, so that'll be interesting as well. 

This should have an interesting effect on the race cars. Less straights means more of an advantage for the shorter cars, although a 4/15 curve can be taken at an extremely high rate of speed, which makes it almost a straight. So I'm going to call it a tie. Used as enhancers, they'll play more of a role in the handling of the cars,  so I'm curious how that's going to work. 

When I think about it, adding the first group of 2/30 and 3/30 tracks was a real challenge, and it's only going to get even more challenging now. Here's my setup at the moment:

Six 4/15 tracks equals four straight tracks. So twelve equals eight here. I wanted to try this to see what the flow was like. The 4/15 tracks, if you break them up into thirds, are L/R/R/L. Basic roll. Make three of those, invert the middle one, essentially making it R/L/L/R, and there it is. Add some fun multi-radius curves on the end and this amounts to an extremely fast and fun race track. It'll be the next one featured for a race. 

You can take that 4/15 snake at such high speeds that you can really push every car's ability to do subtle weight shifts. In a high speed race I can see this section being the make-or-break for pretty much everybody. The best handling cars are going to set the best lap times. Or is it the grippiest? Shortest? Longest? 

I'm so glad I finally got these. So much fun to be had. More to come.

Do I Have a Favorite Car?

 When I had three Slot.it cars, way back towards the start of this blog, it was pretty easy to tell which car was my favorite. There were only three, and each were good in their own way. But it was the Shell GT40 that I couldn't get enough of:

The Alfa Romeo was a runner up for favorite car, but this one just edged it out. I think the reason why is because it started out rough and I got the satisfaction and benefit of getting it running right. Took a lot of time, but I eventually got it.

I ran a lot of laps with the #8, and it grew to be a very competitive race car. I still enjoy it very much whenever I race it, and it's a frequent pick to represent the three GT40 cars I have in a race.

I ran these three cars for two years before adding more cars to my "collection", when I picked up the 962C and the Ford MKII. But it wasn't until I got the Matra that I went up to the next level in speed:

The competition was pretty close until this came along.

Upon getting the Matra, it was pretty much all I ran. It started off needing a little weight in front to keep the nose down, and once it had that it became the most solid performer I have. It's not surprising that Slot.it races a Matra as their team car when they do their 24hr contests. If someone told me we were racing Slot.it cars, this is the car I would race. Hands down.

So this is where things got a little crazy. Last year I doubled my collection, adding a number of cars from NSR, Revoslot and Thunderslot. I got them at such a fast rate that I barely had time to set one up when another would show up in the post. A few stuck out, though:

My first 917, and it continues to be the favorite of the three that I have, even if one the Gulf car is faster. For whatever reason, this car is just a lot of fun to drive, and although it has a pretty conservative livery, it's a much nicer looking race car in person.

The Tergal 908 is also one of those cars that's a blast to drive and dang fast. It would come 3rd in a beauty contest of the three 908s that I have, though.

I went on a bit of a purchasing tear in December 2020 that involved new cars from new brands. Getting these NSR cars was excellent, and I was finding a lot of great stuff about each of them. 

When I bought my first Thunderslot, I knew I had to get more of those as well:

This car had me laughing and giggling like a 6 year old when I got it. All 'woo-hoo' and stuff.

And then a few more cars came along. All of these cars shared a similar experience: they were all driven extensively because they were so fun. But if you asked me what my favorite car is, I don't think that I can answer that. I mean, when I have a race session, I pull all the cars out and set them in a staging area. I usually grab the newer ones first; mostly to get them some track time. Then I'll pretty much grab anything that I've highlighted in this post and do some racing. 

My second Gulf livery, my third 908, a very recent acquisition, and extremely fun to drive.

So as things progress, I find it harder and harder to have a true "favorite" race car. While the cars above are just examples, I still enjoy every car in my collection. Even the ones that might be struggling a little right now. They're still great looking race cars that have the potential to go really fast. 

There's also no way of telling what will become a favorite and what won't. Case in point, the Gulf 908. I also have a Gulf 917, which is a fast and smooth race car, so why isn't it up here? It's pretty much one of the most iconic race cars ever. I don't know, it just isn't. There's just something about the Rothmans 917 that I like better. The Gulf car is actually faster, but that's not really the issue. It's hard to explain, but I feel more connected to the Rothmans car. It feels more organic, whereas the Gulf 917 feels a bit 3rd person.

There you have it. If I was to start a session after this post, I could drop any number of cars on the track first. I remember way back writing about how I thought the limit of cars that a person should own should be relatively low so they don't neglect cars. That doesn't happen here. A nice by product of that is that I have equal enthusiasm to get any of the cars running faster and handling better. I guess a case could be made of the Gulf GT40 being neglected because it was my ex wife's car until relatively recently. But now that it's my daughter's car, it's experiencing a revival as well, and will be updated soon. 

Funny....the fastest car didn't even make this list. Weird how that works.

More Track Coming - Maximum Radius 4/15

 I had plans to buy a few more cars for the holidays, but the more I thought about my original plan, the more I wanted to stick to it. It involved getting power and track pieces. I got power, and it'll be installed in January, so I wanted to get the track pieces. 

There aren't many more track pieces that I want, so I just got the ones that had been on my list for the longest time. They consist of three 3/30 pieces and twelve 4/15 track pieces. I really like the 3/30, but I quickly learned there's not much you can do with the three that I have, so I got three more. 3/30 curves can be taken at very high speeds without much trouble. They add a lot to an otherwise straightforward layout. 

The 4/15 curves will make a complete 180°. So that means I have at least one 180° in every radius. I really doubt I'll set up a track with a giant 4/15 180°, but you never know. My original intention was to use 4/15 tracks sparingly to spice up track designs. We'll see how it works out. A lot of my designs have an element of large radius curve usually somewhere in them, many times as a curvy S-section. The 4/15 can be used to break up straights while still being able to take them full-throttle. 

1/60 [brown], 2/30 [yellow], 3/30 [green] and 4/15 [blue] track pieces. These are some possible variations on the 180° turn, including tight apex variants.

I've talked about this before, but it makes such a huge difference to a layout when you use larger radius track pieces. At first it might seem obvious that you'd group a bunch of the same curve together to make a huge curve, but if it's all the same radius it'll get boring. Some of the curve sections shown above give you a lot more braking/acceleration room than a generic single radius curve would give you. 

The idea is this: let's say you have a layout that is all 1/60 curves. No matter what the layout looks like, as long as you know how fast you can go through a 1/60 curve, then the rest is a breeze. Simply apply that speed to your muscle memory, and it doesn't matter what the design is like...you'll blow through it every time. So that's boring. What you want is a track layout that is a challenge. What multiple-radius curves do is give you opportunities and options. While you might have to slow down for one 1/60, the larger radius curves before it allow you to brake early or late, and acceleration is the same. So suddenly you have to actually drive the race course. And it's not about space. It's about variety. 

Here's the new Test Track layout. It would have been super easy to just use three 1/60 curves for the ends, but by using a combination of 2/30's and 1/60's, it made the track faster and more challenging. Also in the layout are twin sections [I do that a lot] made up of a 2/30 and a 3/30, placed at opposite ends of the track.

I got an email today saying the track was on its way. I still have paint, so the plan is to paint the new track as soon as possible so I can start using it. Curious  to see what kind of track layouts will come out of it. Probably some big, sweepy, curvy ones.

Elva YouTube Video

 So I made a video about the Elva from Thunderslot. Not a review...more of an end-user opinion piece:

Actual Time Official 25 Lap Time Trial

 Now that I have an actual timer, it's time to put up some actual times. So I came up with a basic track that has a few turns in it, and will use that layout as my Test Track. That way I can make it and run any cars I get in the future on it to compare lap times. So this will be the establishing race of all times for all cars. 

Each car must run 25 laps with no crashing. They get a standard tire scrubbing with tape, and that's it, unless there's something wrong with the car that needs urgent work. 

Here's the layout:

I wanted to make it fast but also make you work for it. Progressive radius turns and a bothersome kink section keep every car busy. Each car runs on the inside lane.

I'm running the Lap Counter on "race" mode, and using the finishing times as the determining factor. I'll include an Average Lap in there as well. Since lap times will be relatively short on this track, the overall time will probably be a better indicator of how will each car runs. 

So here are the times: 

Car                             Time                  Lap               

Lola T70 III #7         1:20.68               3.2              

Elva #47                   1:21.79                3.24     

Gulf 917                   1:22.50                3.28                 

Sunoco M6A            1:23.13                3.32

Elva #2                     1:23.52                3.34                             

Gulf 908                   1:23.72                3.35

Rothmans 917          1:24.27                3.36             

Lola T70 #21           1:25.91                 3.4               

Tergal 908                1:26.81                3.44                                             

Matra Simca             1:26.94                3.44 

Chaparral #65           1:27.81                3.48                    

Alfa Romeo              1:27.96                3.48

Shell Ford                 1:28.02                3.52

Gulf Ford GT40       1:28.15                 3.53                  

Ford MKII                1:28.38                 3.54                       

Leyton House 962    1:28.76                 3.54

Chaparral #66           1:28.90                 3.55                                                                                 

Sunoco 908               1:29.27                 3.56              

Lucky Strike 917      1:29.61                 3.57

Denotes Thunderslot

Denotes NSR

Denotes Slot.it

There's a lot to take in here, notably how mixed the competition in the Top 10 is right now. They're within 2/10ths of a second. The whole field is separated by just over 3/10s. Four of the six NSR cars finished well, but two finished catastrophically bad and will need to be looked at in detail. They both posted unacceptable finishes. 

The Lucky Strike Porsche 917K setting an absolutely dismal lap time. As is tradition, the cars that performed the worst get under the screwdriver and get the business. This car will be number one on the block.

I'm not expecting the Slot.it cars to lose, although I do expect most of them to be back markers. Doesn't mean they can't still be competitive. And being only 2 or 3/10ths off the lead puts them right in it. The Matra was a tenth away from a Top 5 finish. The Chappy #65 and the Alfa also both posted fast laps. The fact that the Slot.it cars all finished about a 10th of a second apart is saying something, too. I'm pretty sure a few of those cars have more to give as well. This race will be the reference point.

Our winner, ladies and gentlemen. Virtually running away from the competition, and so completely great as a race car.

          

Like I said earlier, each car was given a tire scrub and quick check before racing. While getting ready to run the Rothmans 917, I noticed that the wheels would lock up after about a half turn. I took the car apart and discovered a small piece of sand in one of the teeth of the spur gear. Tiny, but enough to put a stop to the car. I tweezed it out and away the car went. 

The Lucky Strike 917 needs a look under the hood. I haven't done much to this car after initial setup, so it's not surprising for it to act out now. It should, however, be running right alongside the Rothmans car. So today I'll be looking at what is causing this dismal lap time. The same goes for the Sunoco 908. 

The black Elva and the M6A were incredibly good cars. Both of them have the potential to win it all, I can feel it while driving them. They both have just the standard lube/oil/tires setup, so they're running pretty much out-of-box. 

Pleasantly surprised by the Chaparral #65's ability to do so well. It's always been a bit of a back marker, but it's in the Top 3 for Slot.it cars this race. That spot is usually held for someone like the Alfa or the Shell GT40, but certainly never for the Chappy. And the #66 usually does better than the #65, but not this time. 

None of the cars had performance issues, although the Lola #7 came off the track twice while running the race. The Leyton House 962 also came off once. Each time the race was restarted. 

Both Sunoco cars [the M6A and 908] felt better than they finished, which is why I think they both should improve somewhat, especially the Porsche. It didn't give off any indication that it was dogging it around the track. 

In case you're curious, I didn't run either of the Revoslot cars. I want to work on the and get them both running better before running them. While the Porsche is running pretty well, the Ferrari is not. Neither were ready for a 25 lap test run yet, though. I'll be putting those in the shop along with the Lucky Strike 917 and the Sunoco 908. 

Some Notes:

I very much enjoy racing with the lap timer. It really allows me to focus on the car and not on the lap counting. I can feel the cars better, pay more attention to them and diagnose them better when they have trouble. And at the end I have a time I can actually use. Things go a lot faster as well. Setup is just a couple presses of the button and you're ready to race. No annoying resetting procedures to go through.

The McLaren M6A. Another car that is having its inaugural testing. Such a beauty, wonder if she'll have the punch to match. Looking great so far.

I'm thinking of a marathon with a handful of select cars. It'll probably be on a bigger track, and will be a lot of laps. Probably something like 200 laps, and I'll probably break up the three brands into classes, and maybe even constructors and teams. I actually have a couple of "teams". The Gulf Team, of which there are now three cars [917, 908 and GT40], the Sunoco Team [M6A and 908], and the Shell Team [Ferrari 333 and GT40]. It would be interesting and super easy to continue expanding on the team concept with future purchases. There are definitely 908s from Rothmans that I would love to have, as well as a few others. 

A long race would definitely spread the field out, and would be a great test for the cars. I'm a firm believer that you're better off trying to get a great overall time than you are looking just for the fastest lap. Overall time shows that your car is not only fast, but can handle itself well on the track over long distances. That's super important. And it's totally possible for a mediocre car to suddenly set a fast lap. Doesn't happen all the time, but it happens. But you wouldn't want to gauge overall performance on one lap that could be a fluke. 

I like this layout as a test track. It's got a little of everything, and I can keep it up in my living room without much trouble. I'm going to design a quick expansion I can add to it when I want something larger. 

The varying radius curves really provide a nice challenge. Since the two ends go in and come out on a 2/30, you have an opportunity to brake later and accelerate earlier. So good handling cars are going to rip through the end curves. Here's the pic again:

Counter-clockwise Inside Lane: straight into the first curve, which is slightly over 180°, featuring 2/30 [yellow] and 3/15 [green] curves mixed in with a couple of 1/60 [brown] curves. A 2/30 corrects out of the curve, leading into a Daytona-style kink, which will definitely slow the cars down, followed by a matching over-180° turn, and finally onto the main straight. The two ends require a lot of attention, as time can be won or lost through them. The kink is a deceiving set of 160s in their most innocent, yet intimidating form. Any car that's not properly balanced will suffer badly through this section.

As I go I'll find other layouts do to comparisons on, some of which may become standard Test Tracks as well. There are a few old designs that I'd like to look back at, especially from the early rug racing days when I ran the first championship. I have more track pieces now, and a wider variety, so I could maybe rebuild and modify one of those older tracks. Something like this one maybe:

This was originally a floor design, and one that I just brought up to the first table I attempted to make. It doesn't look like much, but it was a lot of fun to run on, and was faster than it looked. 

The Alfa going through the backstretch. 

So I have what works out to basically about 2x the size of available space that I had when I used to be on the rug. It's a lot smaller than the table in the attic, so any of that stuff will have to be left alone. Now that I'm on the floor, I have to build for the space that I have. It's a good, rectangular space that should give me an opportunity to design some cool tracks. I'd like a 4, a 5 and a 7 second lap design. This current Test Track is just over 3 seconds, which is about as small as I like to go. Anything smaller and you have to run a billion laps just to figure out who won. 

So there it is. Probably one of the smarter purchases I've made for my track in some time, the lap counter should prove to be a great addition. It's not the fancy digital system, but I don't think I really need that. I just need a stopwatch and counter. I can do all the other stuff. 

              

             

                       

New Timing System

 I finally did it. Actually, I had been attempting to buy one of these for a few months but it wasn't panning out. I was doing the rounds and came across one, so I picked it up. 

Carrera Evolution Electronic Lap Counter

Up until this point, my timing method has been counting laps to a running stopwatch, then dividing the time by how many laps a car ran. It works okay, but it's a little clumsy, and counting is distracting. But now I don't have to worry about any of that. I just set how many laps I want to run and go! 

It's got two settings: Time Trial and Lap Race. Both are adjustable for length.

This works exactly as advertised. I ran the Elva #47 through a 50 lap race. I crashed a few times, and even got to focus more on what I was doing, which I couldn't do as well with my old timing system. The tower has two settings: Lap Race [adjustable from 1-999 laps] and Time Trial [adjustable up to 59:59]. The system default sets with a 50 Lap Race, which is great because that's what I like to usually run. Even though I want to run time trials, Lap Race mode is perfect when racing a friend. That opinion might change later, but we'll see. 

As you pass under the tower, one of two audio beeps are heard. I'm not sure what the difference is just yet, as there's no info in the instructions about it. I'll replace this section when I find out what the deal is.

For kicks I also tried a shorter race, then tried some time trials. I set it at 2 minutes, and at the end it shows laps and last lap time, but it doesn't show average lap time. There's a way to flip through some other readings, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. 

I don't expect this to be the best solution, but it's going to be a pretty solid upgrade for me. Good to put focus on bettering the experience. 

There are some other things about it. Now that I have an actual timing system, even if it's just an analog one, it's still a timing system. So now it'll be easier to compare cars' times, which means that it'll be a good idea to design a time trial layout. That way I'll be able to refer to that layout to get lap times between the cars. Yeah, I could just take any old layout I've done before, but I want something that is going to be fair to all the cars. So a little tricky and a little fast. Also it would be helpful if the layout fit on my floor without having to move too much. It doesn't necessarily have to be the largest layout, but it would be good that it was a consistent one. I'll run other races as well, and the timer is going to really come in handy. But to have a reference track that all the cars can run on will be more "official". 

So I like it. Already I'm able to focus more on my cars and not so much on counting. I would like to figure out how to get more stats out of it than I have so far. Just have to push the right buttons.

Black Friday Invitational SuperSprint 2nd Heat

 I got a little more time and ran a few more cars. So here's where the standings are so far:

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

McLaren Elva #47       2:57.41              3.54

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

Running 50 laps is a good test for cars. It's one thing to be fast, but it's another thing to be consistent. The Elva is fast, but it wasn't very consistent. I think I remember having this kind of start with the red Elva. I'll just have to go back and remember the tweaks I made to the car. I think I ran it tight to begin with. The black Elva is a bit loose and could use a little more attention to its setup. 

The cars I picked should help answer some questions. So let's get to it...

__________

Tergal Porsche 908/3 #83

Now that the Gulf 908 has posted a 3.5 lap time, it's going to be down to the rest of the field to show up. Yes, that 3.5 is going to be a podium finish, this thing ain't over yet. The Tergal 908 has won the last 2 races, just to remind everybody.

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

McLaren Elva #47       2:57.41              3.54

Tergal 908 #83             3:07.06              3.74

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

Okay, not exactly winning, and an easy 2/10ths off the other 908's pace, so that's telling. I'm not here to make excuses, so I won't, however it didn't feel as tight around the corners as the Gulf 908 did. I'm planning on doing a comparison between the three 908 Porsches, as well as other groups I have more than one of. 

I've found that pretty much any car can get an increase of .2 per lap with just a bit of tuning. It's usually something like a pod adjustment or a tire scrubbing issue. It's rarely something that requires a lot of work, so much of it can be done on race day.

__________

Gulf Porsche 917K #19

I picked this car based on what I believe to be a rather poor showing by the Rothmans 917. There's really not much more too it than that. I'm mostly curious to see how they're both doing. 

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

McLaren Elva #47       2:57.41              3.54

Gulf Porsche 917 #19  3:01.41              3.62

Tergal 908 #83             3:07.06              3.74

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

Can't argue with that time. 2/10ths off the lead and just outside of a podium finish. Respectable. 

__________

McLaren Elva #2

I naturally wanted to see the two Elvas up against each other. It's kinda the point of buying similar cars. While every car is different enough to make one faster than another out of the box, they can still be tuned to go faster. 

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

McLaren Elva #2         2:51.96              3.42

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

McLaren Elva #47       2:57.41              3.54

Gulf Porsche 917 #19  3:01.41              3.62

Tergal 908 #83             3:07.06              3.74

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

A tuned car having a lead against a new, not-fully-tuned car, will definitely have the advantage. And this beauty can really take off. Flawless racing from the ketchup red Elva.

__________

McLaren M6A #6

And finally, I wanted to enter this car as I haven't raced it yet. I needed to see what it would do. I've only done the most minimal stuff to it, and haven't even started tweaking the floats or anything like that.

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

McLaren Elva #2         2:51.96              3.42

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

McLaren Elva #47       2:57.41              3.54

Gulf Porsche 917 #19  3:01.41              3.62

McLaren M6A             3:01.70              3.64

Tergal 908 #83             3:07.06              3.74

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

Not bad. It's on the back end of the faster group of cars, so that's okay for now. It's got more in it, though. I can feel it.

__________

So that's an interesting outcome. I'm curious if the Gulf 908 will be able to keep going this fast or will settle down, if that's even possible. 

I've been thinking of consolidating and extending races. Yesterday I ordered the Carrera Lap Counter, so I'll get much more precise times out of it. So with that happening, I'll be doing more lap comparisons and races within smaller groups. I'll of course get to everybody; I just might take awhile to do it. I have a lot of cars running right now, and I need to figure out a way to get them all on track. I can leave a layout out for close to a week if it isn't too obtrusive, which it usually isn't. After all, I gotta live here, too. 

So there will be the addition of timing as well as an eventual upgrade in power, which is in the process of happening now. I bought a power supply, and am going to be sending my start track down to Overdrive SlotService for a custom wiring job. Looking forward to that.

Black Friday Invitational SuperSprint

This was going to originally be a 50 lap sprint for every car, but while practicing on Black Friday in preparation for the race, I accidentally disconnected my controller, stripping wires and needing to do some soldering. Fast forward to now, and the controller has been repaired and tested, and the field has been shortened significantly. I'll take two cars from each brand and run them 50 laps each. I've made a pretty fast, yet curvy, layout which might slightly favor short-body cars. 

It started out a pretty fast track, but then I couldn't leave well enough alone and started adding a bit more curves. It's pretty fishy back there.

The cars I chose, in particular, for this race represent the best of the best from each brand, yet different body styles. 

Each car will have their tires scrubbed with tape before the race. All cars are otherwise tuned and ready to run. 

Alfa Romeo 33/3 #2

Naturally you couldn't have a race like this without inviting the Alfa. It's one of the best Slot.it cars, and I've upgraded it into a serious contender. Short tracks work best for this car, as its wide stance and low center of gravity rips it through the turns.

Car                               Time                 Lap        

Alfa Romeo #2           3:14.72              3.88

Overall the race felt pretty good. The car very much liked this track and didn't get weird. It stayed grippy and quick. This might likely be the low overall time, however. 

__________

Matra Simca 670B #10

In the early days, the Alfa dominated. Until the Matra came along. This is the fastest overall Slot.it car I have, and with the added weight and resetting, it came alive. Drives las fast as an NSR car. 

Car                               Time                 Lap        

Matra Simca #10        3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2           3:14.72              3.88

I thought for sure that the Alfa would run a better time than the Matra, so I'm glad I chose both cars for this race. Seemed like a smart thing to do in retrospect. Overall the Matra ran well and didn't fishtail nearly as much as I thought it would. 

__________

Rothmans Porsche 917K #9

The Rothmans Porsche 917K was a natural pick to run this race. While yes, I could have picked another 908, I still wanted there to be enough variety to give others a chance. I'll do a 908 comparison later. And since the Rothmans pretty much hangs near the top all the time, I figured it was a no-brainer.

Car                               Time                 Lap        

Rothmans 917 #9       3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10        3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2           3:14.72              3.88

While faster than the other two cars, the 917 isn't that much faster. 2/100's of a second per lap. That ain't much. And while I expected a bit of fishtailing after the Matra's run, it wasn't all that bad. It was there, but not as bad as I was expecting.

__________

Gulf Porsche 908/3 #1

I'm most curious about this car, naturally, as this is the first time it has been under any kind of pressure to perform. In practice it's running great. It's set up very loose, but seems to be enjoying it. 

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

Absolute screamer of a car. Totally grippy, planted and quick. Effortless, really. At first you think it's going to come off, but it takes corners perfectly. Very fast with virtually no loss of power down the straight.

__________

Lola T70 III #7

Also had to add the fastest car lately. Need to see just where everybody is. And if this car wins, then so be it. Either way you kinda have to include the recent ass-kicker.

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

I wouldn't call this a longtail, but a medium tail. I think that helps this car separate itself from the disadvantage of a longtail. It's also a damn fast race car. Totally amazing how easy it runs. No weirdness, so looseness.

__________

McLaren Elva Mk1 #47

I'm enjoying practicing with this car very much, and I suspect it has the potential to be a real track burner. I don't know if it's exactly ready at this point, but I'm running it anyway. It's important to note that it got all the basic treatments before, so it's already roughly in racing shape. 

Car                                Time                 Lap        

Lola T70 III #7            2:50.47               3.40

Gulf Porsche 908 #1    2:55.73              3.50

McLaren Elva #47       2:57.41              3.54

Rothmans 917 #9         3:07.90              3.74

Matra Simca #10         3:09.99              3.78

Alfa Romeo #2            3:14.72              3.88

This guy is also very fast, but not quite there yet. Just barely getting beat out by the Gulf 908, but beaten nonetheless. I think the other Elva is a bit quicker at this point, but that's only because it's had more tuning time than this one. Either way, respectable finish, even if it wasn't Top 2. 

__________

So here's your winner:

A great race run by everybody. There were no wrecks, and everybody ran their fastest pace. Good to see a little mixture between brands in there as well. And everybody being within .4 of each other is pretty impressive. 

The Slot.it cars held their own quite well, despite finishing fifth and sixth. Either way, they were competitive enough to catch other cars off guard and take advantage. There were just faster cars out there today. The NSR cars did well, although the Rothmans 917 could have ran a little faster, I think. After all, it was the NSR Tergal 908 that won the last race, beating the Thunderslot Lola T70 and the Elva #2. 

The Thunderslot cars handled themselves well, and I expected one of them on top. It's nice that it was the Lola. It's really a great car and is pretty unbeatable.