New Tire Truer and Some timed laps

Okay, it's here.

The tire truer is the RSM4 from Overdrive Slotservice, the company I buy most of my cars from. They're a really great company located in southern Germany. 

The RSM4 is a very nicely made, precision instrument. It comes with everything you see in the photo and requires a little assembly. The idea is that you would true a set of tires on the axle it comes with, allowing you to have more control and precision over each car. There are available swivel arms with preset bearings, but I'm going to try it with my own from one of my cars and see how that works. I'll use one set of bearings for all the cars in a brand. A quick search tells me that NSR axles are 2.37mm and Slot.it axles are 2.38mm. So I'll have to use a set from each respective brand for the entire line. Thunderslot also [surprisingly to me] uses a 2.38mm axle, so I'll be able to do them and whatever Slot.it cars might need it together.

All this time I thought Thunderslot used a larger diameter axle. Turns out it's Revoslot that uses a 3mm axle. Huh...

Here's how it works: Remove the back axle from the car. I have mostly sidewinders, so I can leave the gear on. Mount the rear end to the swivel arm with bearings. Connect and mount the purple pulley. Tighten the control arm. Lower to desired position. Sand tires. 

As far as cars go, I think that I might end up doing all of them eventually. At first I thought I would do the last 6 or so cars that I bought, but each time I think about it I go back even further. Eventually got down to all but the first 5 cars, but now I'm thinking I'm going to do all of them. I'll need the larger adapter to do the Revoslot cars, but those will be done as well.

Meanwhile, I've set up a small track and will be running as many cars this week as I have time for. I might even go into the weekend, too. 

Since I was going to leave it up all week, it needed to be out of the way enough for me to live in the room as well. This layout worked pretty well for that, taking up all available floorspace without having to move my other stuff.

The layout isn't much, technically speaking, but the 4/15 curves at least make it interesting. I've been doing some room remodeling, and hopefully will have a bit more room soon. I'd like to avoid the 1/60 curves as much as possible. I had a layout with progressive curves, but it was too wide to do in my apartment without moving the couch out of the room.

Okay, so I got impatient and tried a set of tires. I figured I would do the Thunderslot and Slot.it cars first since I have the right bearings. I'm not sure if I can use the Slot.it bearings on an NSR axle, but I'm going to try. I decided to use the GT40 #11 since it never really ran right and will use the bearings for each car. It took about 15 minutes to do the tires and was much easier than I expected. 

It was a little strange at first. Usually I sand tires by hand, so I'm always putting them down for a few seconds then checking them, when on the RSM4 you just lower the wheels to the desired height and leave it until it's finished. The sanding block is designed to be moved side to side, which can help you fine tune the tire and get a nice even finish. I connected the RSM4 to my 30v/5a power supply and got started.

I went with a slower rotation to not make the tires so hot. That worked great and I like very much that it's doing a nice, even job of it. I read somewhere that a drop or so of water occasionally can help keep the tires from getting too hot and chunking away. 

The bearings worked fine and I might not buy the optional swing arms with bearings built in. Once I lined up the bearings with the open ends of the swing arm, they stayed in position the entire time. The purple pulley also needs to be properly lined up so it doesn't wobble at speed.

I did the GT40 tires as a test and got them to a very nice, even finish. I'm going to start with Thunderslot cars and see how far I can get today. My daughter is coming over and we'll be racing, but I don't know if I'll be able to do tires while that's happening. If not, then I'll start them this evening.

Car                       Time         Lap         Offs 

Lola T70III#7*   2:35.46       3.1            0    

Lola T70III#7     2:23.12       2.86          0

Lola Red^           2:50.14       3.4            0     

Lola Red             2:22.94       2.84          0

Lola Blue^          2:51.49       3.42          2 

Lola Blue            2:25.24       2.9            0

Lola T70 #21      2:22.73       2.83          0

Elva #47             2:20.20       2.8            0

Elva #2               2:22.94       2.84          0

^denotes untreated tires 

*denotes hand sanded tires

Okay....there's an obvious improvement to the cars and their lap times. I've done 10 cars so far today and every one of them has improved dramatically. Huge difference in contact and the associated smoothness and feel. Even cars that were already performing well got a significant boost. I'm not lying when I say that so far this is proving to be worth the purchase price. 

Lola T70III#7

The T70III was probably the least effected of the cars so far, but it was also one with the most hand-sanded tire work. Shaving 3/10ths of a second on a 3 second lap is pretty respectable. I'd certainly call that an improvement. It is also whisper quiet now, and handles much better at speed.

The Red Lola. Because it's Red.

The Red Lola [as well as the Blue Lola] had brand new, untreated tires. They had only been lubed and oiled. So 6/10ths of a second is HUGE. 

That 2:22, 2:23 race time is looking more and more like it's going to be the norm for fast lap times.

I finished up the Thunderslot cars without doing before/after races. I got enough of a sample to see that there's improvement no matter what, and it's a BIG improvement. I just started the NSR cars, which are probably going to be pretty easy as they're mostly slicks. 

Seemed like most of the cars were running right around a 2.8/2.9 lap time, even if they started off wildly different. Once I did the tires, each car reacted the same way, running very smoothly and quietly. I was able to run the truer at various speeds and it sanded the tires very nicely.  It created a solid contact patch that was easy to see and feel. Cornering improved dramatically, as did acceleration. 

I think the tire truer is going to prove to be much more valuable than I expected, even if I don't use it all that often. 

New Season Scoring Procedure

 Thinking about how I will be running my next season. Gonna try this:

All cars are eligible to race with exception of the F1 cars. Elimination races will consist of three events: the first 25 lap race will eliminate 12+ cars, bringing the field down to 20 for the next round. The second 50 lap race will eliminate 10 cars, bringing the field down to 10 for the third round. The third 100 lap race is the final. 

Each race will be held on a new layout, with design focus on the inside lane.

All races are crash included, which means any car that crashes does not stop the clock. 

Each car has tires tape-cleaned before each race. New cars may have tire sanding and other adjustment done. Any other adjustments are noted and must be finished before race.

A car that cannot finish the race is a DNF. A car that cannot start the race is a Breakdown.

If a car progresses to a higher round and then breaks down, the top car to not make the round will be substituted in. The Breakdown car will lose all points and shuffle to the back of the points grid.

Team Scoring Rule allows for only two cars maximum to carry over their points as team points at any given race.

A team that has a car DNF is still considered a team, even if only one car is left to compete.

3-lap crash rule is in effect for all races. This means if a car crashes within the first 3 laps, they can be taken off the track, inspected and tire-taped if needed, and restarted. 

Each car will be referred to by its sponsor, model number and car number if necessary. For example, the NSR Bosch Porsche 917/10k #2 will be known as the Bosch 917/10. Gulf 917 #9, Gulf 917 #10, Gulf 908 #1, etc. 

Race scoring would look something like this:

Car                                    Time           Lap         Offs            

LM 917/10 #7                 2:21.04         2.82          0

Rothmans 917K #9         2:22.21         2.84          0

Gulf 908 #1                     2:22.23         2.84          0

LM 917/10 #6                 2:25.70         2.9            0

Gulf 917K #10                2:26.11         2.92          0 

Sunoco 908                     2:27.26         2.94          0 

Lola T70 #8                    2:28.48         2.96          0  

Bosch 917/10 #2             2:29.70         2.98          1

Gulf 917K #9                 2:34.33          3.08          0

Elva #47                         2:36.56          3.12          1 

________________________________________

Rothmans 908 #95         2:38.47          3.16          2

Lola T70 #7                    2:45.83         3.3            1                                                                                  

Ford GT40 #8                  ------------DNF------------      

The three races will look like this:

First race: Entire field elimination race - 25 lap sprint. 21st place and back are eliminated.

Second race: Top 20 cars - elimination race - 50 laps. Each car racing now eligible for points. 11th place and back eliminated.

Third race: Top 10 cars - final - 100 laps. Cars score 5 points for racing in the final.

Place     Points      3rd race bonus     2nd race bonus     Points

1.             21             +5                          +1                   27  

2.             20             +5                          +1                   26

3.             19             +5                          +1                   25

4.             18             +5                          +1                   24

5.             17             +5                          +1                   23

6.             16             +5                          +1                   22

7.             15             +5                          +1                   21

8.             14             +5                          +1                   20

9.             13             +5                          +1                   19

10.           12             +5                          +1                   18

2nd Race Elimination

11.            11                                         +1                   12

12.            10                                        +1                    11

13.            9                                          +1                    10

14.            8                                          +1                     9

15.            7                                          +1                     8

16.            6                                          +1                     7

17.            5                                          +1                     6

18.            4                                          +1                     5

19.            3                                          +1                     4

20.            2                                          +1                     3

1st Race Elimination

Each car scoring from 21-32+ receives 0 points for the three races. No bonus points or negative points will be rewarded.

__________

I like this scoring for a number of reasons. First, I think it spreads the scoring out a little bit with round bonuses provided. This will award consistency throughout multiple events. I also like that the early victims of elimination get no points, which will help inspire more competition on the slower end. There are a lot of cars that will come home with nothing, so they'll need to work just to get the smallest amount of points. 

This will make it harder for teams to dominate. Short races yield unexpected results. Not entirely uncommon for a really fast car to be derailed by something, hurting their chances for a good result. 

To win, you'll have to be dominant in three races. And while yes, you only have to score in the upper half of the field to go onto the next round, it's still going to be a challenge to find out where that cutoff is and how fast to go on the track. 

                   

New Car: Revoslot Ford Escort MK1 Salzburgring 2012

 No idea about the historical significance of this car, it being in a 2012 race and all. But here it is:

I love both of these cars, and they go along great with the Alfa Guilias. They're pretty much the same size, are tremendously tight and compact. I lubed/oiled/sanded this car and got it some track time. The mesh seems pretty good, although it and the Kiku are a little on the loud side. It reminded me of how loud the Porsche GT2 was when I first got it. I taped up the chassis and the vibration stopped. 

The color differences between this car and the 917/10 with the Jägermeister orange are considerable, and I'm wondering which company got it right. The new team will be the Jägermeister team, even if the colors aren't perfect. This is going to take the 917/10 from Team Kausen, which will affect that team's ability to run 3 cars. The Jägermeister team is going to be a tricky one, since I'm not really sure how the Escort is going to perform against the rest of the cars.

I didn't take many pics just yet. Just a couple quick side views. More to come.

So that's the big question; just how well the Revoslot cars are going to do against the other brands. The first two cars I got, the Ferrari and the Playstation GT2, would sometimes do well, sometimes mid-pack, sometimes not so well. The Porsche tuned up quicker and is a good runner, but the Ferrari is the one that most recently beat everybody. 

So where do we put the Escorts and the Guilias? We hope that their small size is going to make them hyper-competitive. But if the Revoslots end up in a group well off the pace and staying there, then that would answer the question. I'm kinda thinking that won't happen, but I just don't know. I setup the track today and am going to leave it out for the week, running exclusively new cars. There will be around 10 of them, and I'll be tuning and running laps. At the end I'll do some timed ones to see what's going on with them. 

__________

This has been the craziest pre-season I've had yet. Usually around this time a year I'm starting to think about possible holiday additions, but instead I spent the summer stocking up on cars and practically doubling my collection. I'm going to be slowing down now, and focusing on the cars that I've gotten. I'll likely pick up a car or two over the holidays, but I'm not going to go crazy. 

One thing that has been bothering me is that I have a lot of tire work to do. I'm treating tires very quickly, a bit carelessly and surely unevenly. I keep thinking that a tire truer is the way to go. I think I have enough cars to warrant it. There are at least a dozen cars in various states of doneness tire-wise. 

I already have a power supply to handle it. I just need to pick up the unit itself and a few accessories to go with it.

Nevermind. I just ordered it.

New Car: Revoslot Ford Escort Zandvoort '72

 Okay, I am definitely on to something now. 

That is so hot.

While I'm still and will forever be buying Classics, I'm definitely loving these early 70's sports cars. And while it's a different class of cars [even that's vague and debatable], I think the sports cars can race with the Classics. Will they win? Hard to say. Very interested in finding out. And if not, but they run with the pack, then they'll certainly continue racing against the Classics.

I love the tape over the headlights.

The Ford Escort slot car is as small as the Alfa Guilia and will certainly be great competition. These cars are extremely fun to race, and a lot of it is due to its aluminum chassis and design. You might wonder why you would want to try a car like this, especially if you have a brand of plastic car that you prefer, but it's a different approach to a similar end. You can run them on your home track. You can even compete with them against what you have now. 

I have no idea how this car will do against any of the other cars. I'm going to say that it should do well, maybe even be competitive. We'll see. If we see all the Revoslot cars bunched up on their own times, then we'll know the experiment isn't working.

The Race Teams - a closer look

Let's take a look at the current teams:

Gulf Team: 4 NSR cars

A fearsome group of race cars, the Gulf Team has an advantage of fielding 4 entries. That's 4 chances to finish high in points, even if only the top two cars on the team will have their points moved over. The combination of 917 and 908 is hard to beat, and every one of these cars is a hard racer.

L&M Team: 2 NSR cars

A clean, orderly 2-car team that has just as good of a chance at victory as anyone else. One of two all-917/10 teams, this should prove very interesting. Hard to say whether the fact they only have two cars will affect their team points over the long run.

Team Shell: 1 Slot.it car, 1 Revoslot car

If there was a sleeper team, Team Shell would be it. I know what the GT40 can do, and it's certainly a threat. But the Ferrari has shown a certain brilliance the past few races and is blossoming into something special. While they might be long shots, don't count them out. A lot of it will come down to the Ferrari's ability to hold it together over a series of races. The consistency of the GT40 ought to help smooth out the bumps.

Chaparral Team: 2 Slot.it cars

A couple of true long shots, the Chaparral Team is going to need a huge bump and a lot of luck to win this. The #65 is already a sensitive car, and the #66 has gone through growing pains of its own. Whether either car is up to the challenge is yet to be seen. 

Team Sunoco: 2 Thunderslot cars, 1 NSR car

I think Team Sunoco is my prediction for overall winner. Having one of the fastest NSR cars as well as TWO equally fast Thunderslot cars and I'm really struggling to believe anybody else can beat them. They're still going to have to run the races, though, and anything can happen on the track.

Team Kausen: 3 NSR cars

Unproven rookie group Team Kausen has a lot of potential in those three cars. If the 917/10 proves to be as good as it has been looking in recent sessions, this team could take it all. Unfortunately, there will be a major shakeup that will affect the very makeup of this team. There will be more information coming soon, but expect drama already in this pre-season.

Team Rothmans: 2 NSR cars

Team Rothmans has as good a chance as the Gulf Team, just on a smaller scale. Both are fast cars, they pretty much must score well to be effective. If either of them takes the day off the team will suffer. This goes for any 2-car team above. There will be no room for forgiveness. Score high or go home. 

That's a lot of teams, but it also leaves a lot of single car entries, especially a rather large group of Thunderslot cars, as well as some pretty threatening Slot.it cars. They'll have a vested interest in finishing as high as they can, regardless whether the competitor is on a team or not. I'd expect a lot of spoilers to come from the single-car Journeyman teams.

I were basing the Team Championship off what I've experienced so far, I'd have to say three teams stand out: Gulf, Kausen and Sunoco. They all are pretty evenly matched, with the wildcard being the two Thunderslot cars. It might be the key to Team Sunoco winning it all. The Gulf Team's strength in numbers will be a challenge to beat, although the newcomers on Team Kausen are certainly a threat.

There will be major news coming from the Kausen camp shortly. which may involve the formation of a new team.

HOW THE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP WILL WORK

Each team's cars are eligible to race for Team Championship points. A "Team" consists of a minimum of two cars sharing the same sponsor or owner. The top two fastest cars from each team will have their points for that race transferred over to the Team Championship totals.

If a team can't field two cars for a particular race, they can still race for Team Championship points. The other car will either DNF with 0 points or not race due to mechanical problems, also receiving 0 points. 

Points are awarded to the top 20 cars, whether being team cars or not. Any cars not in the top 20 will have 0 points for the race.

If a team with three or more cars manages to finish the entire team in the top 20, the top two cars will have their points copied to the Team Championship points while the remaining cars act as spoilers against competitors. 

Three races:

First race: Entire field elimination race - 25 lap sprint

Second race: Top 20 cars - elimination race - 50 laps. Each car racing now eligible for points.

Third race: Top 10 cars - final - 100 laps. Cars score 5 points for racing in the final.

1. 21 [first place points] +5 [3rd race bonus] +1 [2nd race bonus] = 27 points

2. 20 +5 +1

3. 19 +5 +1

4. 18 +5 +1

5. 17 +5 +1

6. 16 +5 +1

7. 15 +5 +1

8. 14 +5 +1

9. 13 +5 +1

10. 12 +5 +1

11. 11 +1

12. 10 +1

13. 9 +1

14. 8 +1

15. 7 +1

16. 6 +1

17. 5 +1

18. 4 +1

19. 3 +1

20. 2 +1

21-32. 0 points

I can say this right now, the top 20 is going to be insanely competitive. I can count at least 25 or so cars that could compete for the win. There might be a runaway car or two any given race, but I expect the field to stay pretty tightly packed, with plenty of cars missing out by hundredths of a second. Shizzle happens. Have to race another day. 

Since so many cars will be separated by so little time, I needed to open up the scoring for the 3rd race. Adding 5 points to everyone in the top 10 does enough separation with 11-32 or however many cars there are when this starts.

New Car: NSR Porsche 917/10K Jägermeister 1973

 There's something fun about not paying attention to release dates for cars. It makes surprises that much better. Over 30 cars now, and this is my first car with a Jägermeister livery:

NSR 917/10K. Very fast race car.

This is now the fifth 917/10 in my collection. I've gotten them very quickly, but I think I'll stop here unless something incredible happens. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love each and every one. I just don't want to get too many. This gives me equal amounts 917, 908 and 917/10. It got me thinking about a model championship as well, but I think I'm going to stick with the sponsor championship for now. 

The original race car was the original test car, chassis #001. Willi Kausen bought car #001 after wrecking car #002, both which were bought outright from Porsche. There were only 18 cars made between '71 and '73. 

I find the past history of cars interesting, but it has no bearing on the slot car's ability to perform or anything like that, so it's just a curiosity. 

I expect this car to perform very well on my track, and contend for a podium position at all times. The more of these cars I get, the higher my expectations become. 

UPDATE: I've had some laps with this car after a lube/oil/sanding took place. It drives wonderfully. I wouldn't be surprised to see every 917/10 finish within a tenth of each other. They all drive spectacularly well and might even be a better true racing setup than the 908. I'll have to try a few twisty technical tracks to find that out. But early returns are showing these cars to be right up near the top in performance.

New Car: NSR Porsche 917/10K Uniroyal Fittipaldi 1973

 I bought this based purely on how good the Bosch Porsche looks. I am very happy I did.

The NSR 917/10 is a really great racing package.

Photography is weird. Trust me, I'm nuts for it and I still think it's weird. It's so easy to do something like get white balance wrong, or maybe under expose something. I do it all the time. Sometimes when I see pictures I forget those things can happen, and what I think I'm seeing is something else in real life.

The Bosch Porsche was one of those cars that I didn't think looked as good in internet pictures as it ended up looking in my hand. And the Uniroyal Porsche is exactly the same. It's a much richer red than I was expecting, a slightly glossier red than that which is used by Ferrari. Almost fire engine red.

So with the addition of this car and the other new one, I now have five 917/10 Porsches. I should be able to get very good racing out of this group. 

Turns out the Uniroyal car and the Jägermeister car belong to Team Kausen, owner of the Bosch Porsche. So they're going to race together as Team Kausen.