GT40 Tuneup update

 I ran two of the three cars that I had planned on running after the race to see if I could get any more out of them. Two of them, the #66 Chaparral and the Porsche 962C both improved by .2 seconds on their lap time, which was great for both cars. I didn't, at the time, run the GT40 because I was in a rush. So I ran it this morning. 

The race itself was good, and I felt like he set a pretty good pace. I discovered that he's a little lighter in the nose than the other two GT40s are. It's especially noticeable on the overpass. Instead of going over at a relatively parallel plain, the front lifted, causing the car to de-slot three times. It also crashed once on Turn 1. None of the other cars have lifted like that, so I'm going to be putting some lead in. That lifting could be indicative of other issues, and could certainly affect overall performance. 

Official Race Time: 5:54.37   Lap Time: 7.08

Post-Race Checkup: 5:39.09  Lap Time: 6.78

So that brought the #11 a little closer to the pack, and in fact faster than the #5 car's original time. Still 3/10ths off the lead pace. I'm still somewhat mildly satisfied with it. It did improve the most of the three, even if it is the slowest of the three that ran. And while it's good that it's back in the pack, it's BACK in the pack. That's nothing you wanna be okay with. Get out there and win!

So before the next race I'll be adding some weight to the front and double-checking that everything is running right. I'm hoping to trim 1/10th more from the lap time. 

If you look back at the history of this car from when I got it, you'd notice that it always seemed to be off the pace, with the occasional exception. But mostly it has been an underperformer. It didn't even figure into the competition in the 20 race championship. And while it wasn't my primary running, I tried to keep it running competitively. It just hasn't been able to run consistently fast laps. 

So that's about it. I'm going to run an outside lane race with the new controller next. Same track layout, but it'll be much different. I'm curious to see how some cars do, knowing that they need a little help from the electronic controller to control them. We'll see if the analog controller will be able to do that. 

How About Some Love for the Alfa?

 The #2 Alfa Romeo 33/3 from Slot.it. 

One of the first three cars I got, the Alfa Romeo stands out as easily one of the most fun cars to drive. It absolutely dominates the curves and shorter tracks. Some cars have a specialty, and you'd think this car would too, but then it goes off and wins a race on the longest, fastest track I've built yet. And it handily beat the competition. 

If you've read from the early days here, the Alfa has had a pretty glorious reputation, routinely beating the two GT40s. It won the first championship, which is why its photo sits on the top of the main page. It is an absolute animal. No other car I own is so short, so spry, so wide or so quick.

And the funny thing about this car....this car, the Slot.it Alfa Romeo 33/3 #2, is that it came from the factory with a warped chassis. A slight warp, but enough of one that some of the German online stores mentioned it in the description. I didn't buy it off one that did. In fact, I didn't even know about it until after I had it for awhile and noticed the warping myself. What ends up occurring is the rear part of the side panel is low enough to drag on the track. It was already pretty low to begin with, so any lower would be problematic. I couldn't figure out a way to make the body conform to the chassis warp, so I took the dremel to the bottom of the side panel. I took off as little as possible, so it still will occasionally make a scraping sound around a turn. 

But I'm totally okay with all of that. It's okay if the car has a curious, however minor defect. It just makes it that much more of a challenge to perform well. Strangely enough, I haven't noticed any real performance issues, although I'd sure like to get another Alfa so I can do side-to-side comparisons. 

This car won the Summer Salami. It beat the Matra, and did so coming cold out of the garage. The Matra has had laps on this track. The Alfa has had not many. Ten. Fifteen tops. That sort of thing happens when you get new cars. They tend to get run more often, especially if they're good. And the Alfa obviously is a very good car, despite it's warpage. It kinda gives it more personality, if anything. 

The Original Three. 

I have a thing for the Classics, that's obvious. Also for Slot.it, also obvious. If I was going to try to explain where the Alfa fits in the competitive realm of Slot.it cars, I'd say it's the short-track and technical track dominator. It makes other cars feel heavy and cumbersome by comparison. 

What happens if none of the cars can catch the Alfa? I mean, he's been beaten before, but what would happen in a 20 race season? Would a car like the Matra, which is essentially like a longer Alfa, be able to beat it? Or is it just dumb luck and the Alfa happens to be tuned the best? I don't know. The Alfa has gotten comfortable in its skin, so it almost tells me what it wants. I can't remember how long it's been since the setup cost the Alfa a race. I'd have to look, but I think crashing out was more of a thing than performance ever was. 

I'm very happy with how this car is doing. That it can come out of the garage to win like that is pretty epic. It needed virtually nothing to win it. And it needs nothing now. It has very quickly improved its odds of winning races. I don't expect it to win everything from here on out. I'm just really happy it won this race.

You could be thinking, but dude you could decide who wins the race easily and just write whatever shit you want. 

Yeah, I could, but I don't. I don't even look at the clock when I'm racing. I push Start at the beginning and Stop at the end. I don't know the time until then. So all I have to work with while doing the time trials is the car before me. Since I don't know the absolute time while driving, I can't do a race comparing to it. So every car has to put in the best race it can. And when you do it that way, it's really easy to think a car is performing one way and their result is something much different. I've run cars I'm sure had a chance to win, but ended up not only not winning but being in the lower end of the pack. 

So I like to keep an element of surprise. I suppose I could get a decent lap counter, and set it and forget it. But I like the mystery. If you're driving in a race, you don't have the time to go checking your lap times with competitors. You race. That's what I like to do. And that's what the Alfa Romeo is very good at.

Post Race Car Checkup-date [Update]

[Update]: When I first did this report, I didn't get a chance to run the cars. I finally was able to run two of them, so I added that information to this report. Hope that isn't confusing. 

I got a chance to run the three cars that I worked on yesterday, hoping that there would be some improvement there. Each car needed work, and all three had specific issues that needed to be addressed. 

With the #66 Chaparral, I think it's been mainly a handling issue, so I reset everything and started from scratch. I went with a med/med float, but it took a bit because doing a quarter-turn on the front screw wasn't like doing one on the back screw. So you'd get tight/med, or med/loose. So I had to do a half-turn on the front and a quarter-turn on the back. 

I set the pod float to medium, which gives it just enough play to free up the pod a little. By doing that the pod is a bit separate from the rest of the chassis, so the car doesn't get twisty on acceleration. It also helps with acceleration in the curve, allowing a bit of suspension flexibility through the pod. A car setup with medium pod float and medium body float will feel well-planted and sturdy in the turns. 

I ran some laps tonight to see how it runs now, and it seems to be running very well. I haven't done any timed laps yet, so I don't know if there's actual improvement yet. But it feels much more responsive. I know it's got at least .2 more speed in it. I'd be surprised if I didn't improve it, if even just a little bit. But I think this car has potential, so it's easy to keep at it. 

I have now run 50 timed laps, and it went great. Car was fast, smooth and had a quickness that I hadn't seen before. Also, it ran all 50 laps without one crash. Here's the results:

Official Race Time: 5:41.68   Lap Time: 6.82

Post-Race Checkup: 5:33.08  Lap Time: 6.66

Okay, I didn't plan that. That the #66 came out with a lap time of.....nevermind.

Now that's certainly a difference. That time puts him in the Top 5, as well as in front of its twin, the #65. Putting everything on a med/med float worked. I could definitely feel the difference in the handling, and it had that acceleration thing the Matra has, where it just whooshes away. It didn't once sound like it was working hard, it ran smoother than it has yet, and it was never at risk of coming off the track. 

When you have a field that is as close as this one, a .1 second improvement in lap time is pretty good. A .2 is pretty extraordinary. It usually means that you've come across something pretty big and gotten past it. The #66's history is brief but eventful. But now I think I've gotten it into the range of the other cars. As long as I know that it can maintain those speeds, I won't think something is wrong with the car. So yay.

__________

The Porsche had suspension and front axle issues, so I tended to them, resetting the car to med/med float. It was tight/medium, but that wasn't my intention originally, so I think it had to do with the body maybe being knocked out of whack from a crash or something. Not sure. Either way, once I reset everything, I felt pretty confident that it would run better. 

I was right. It certainly did run better. It might even be the most improved of the three. The secret is to master the rear end, and I think the setup got me going in that direction. I might have to loosen the body float in the back a little, but we'll see. 

I also repaired the vertical play in the front axle, bringing everything more in line. I got some laps on it, and it seems to be going through the corner with a better balance, and not feeling so loose. It's acting a lot like the Matra, which is a very good sign. 

I was also able to get the Porsche on the record for 50 laps now that it has been rebalanced. Strangely enough it crashed 4 times. Here are the results:

Official Race Time: 5:42.55   Lap Time: 6.84

Post-Race Checkup: 5:32.68  Lap Time: 6.64

Another example of two tenths of a second being an impressive improvement. I can't explain the crashes. All four happened at separate locations [also weird]. Regardless, it still ran a pretty good time. 6.64 puts it just behind the Matra, which means it is a competitor. No doubt about it. 

The car itself felt well-balanced, although the room was hot, and that always seems to affect race cars. But whatever, I think there's always going to be a little bit of tail to deal with while driving this car. I'm okay with that. This helps me feel better about the upcoming Group C additions. I was a little worried I'd have to sort by class. I don't want to do that just yet if I don't have to. 

So congratulations to the Porsche and the Chaparral as well. Nice recovery to both of those cars. 

__________

The GT40 needs the most help. I realized I can pretty much start at the beginning with this car. 

It had a ride-height adjustment screw come loose and was wedged in a weird place, binding the front axle. Otherwise I set it up med/med float, putting it more in line with the other GT40's. 

I ran some laps, and I can tell there's an improvement. but it's hard to tell without running some timed laps. I'm hoping for a .2-.4 per lap improvement. It isn't much, I know, but I've found that it's better to tune in smaller increments than in radical flourishes. 

I'll be re-running these three cars against their times for the Summer Slam. Oh yeah, speaking of that, I just noticed Harry over at HomeRacingWorld named his race Summer Slam, so I'll be changing mine so there's no confusion. After all, he's got more advertisers than I do. By the time you read this, I will have changed it, although I'll keep this little bit here.

Oh, re-running these three cars will not affect the standings or championship points. They'll just be performing a curiosity. If there's no improvement, I'll take any of the cars back to the garage for more work. The whole field is only separated by half a second on a 7-second lap. That's pretty tight. But if I can get two of the three cars running better from this, that'll be good. All three? I'll take it. Stay tuned.

Post Race Car Checkup

 I wanted to take a look at some of the cars that didn't do so well in the Summer Salami race. There were a few, and each didn't perform well for different reasons, as it turns out.

First up will be the last over the finish line: the #11 GT40. When I only had the three Slot.it cars, the Alfa and the #8 GT40, this one was a pretty good race car. It wasn't until I really started exploring tuning options that the other cars left it in the dust. Don't know how it happened, but it did. There's fundamentally nothing different between it and the other two Fords, so it should be able to keep up.

When I opened up the car, aside from being a little dirty the chassis and its contents were otherwise okay. Nothing seemed out of place, although there was some binding in the front axle. I took a closer look and noticed that the small adjustment screw that sits over the axle had fallen through and had wedged in between the axle and the chassis. It's hard to say how long it has been like that, but there was a good amount of dust and crud down the hole the screw usually goes down, so it had probably been there for awhile.

I have to think back to just exactly what was giving me trouble with this car. I've had a lot of performance letdowns with it, mostly due to it feeling lethargic with its handling. Could I have just found the problem? Maybe. I think it's a stretch. But if it was binding while going around a curve, that could be a problem. I'll have to get it on the track in the morning and see how it does. 

I also reset the car to medium/medium float. It had been set a little tight on body float, and it didn't need to be. This will put it more in line with the #8 GT40. Hopefully.

__________

I have an issue with the Porsche 962C. I want it to go a little faster. It's got a problem where it gets a little boxy in the turns, so you can't keep the hammer down. Strangely enough, it kind of reminds me of the way the Audi R-18 drove that I have. A lot of the action is in the front, and the meat is in the back. That's fine and all, but ultimately I'd like to have a little bit more balanced race car. I don't think that letting that massive backend get lively is the solution to better lap times. I gotta get this car more planted so it can win races. The Group C car is my future. There will be more Group C cars showing up, and I'd like them to be competitive. Showing up in the lower half of the pack isn't very competitive. 

I took the top off and, the thing about this car is that it has the rear body mount screw on the tail, as opposed to near the rear axle. Having the mounting screw that far back makes it tricky to set body float on the car. It tends to be tight until it's too loose. When I took the screws out, one of them gave me a little difficulty, springing the body a little bit when I got it loose. I decided then that I need to reset the suspension and ride height. The float was medium tight/medium, so I loosened the body just a little bit to go med/med. Everything else was otherwise in its place, so I focused mainly on getting the right amount of float. The ride height stayed pretty much the same, and I did a little tighten up of the front wheels. They had a little up/down play in the axle. Kinda the opposite problem the #11 GT40 had. 

I know there's a good place for this car to be, and it just isn't there yet. It was almost 20 seconds off the race pace. I'd accept 10 seconds, but not 20. Especially not on a track that's practically built with this car in mind. It should be hauling ass out there. But I don't call coming in 7th hauling very much ass. 

We'll see if the adjustments to the float and suspension helped the car. The wiggle test felt better, and it didn't seem like it was set to tight/tight. But y'know, this car is a bit of a work in progress, so it might take awhile before it really starts to kick ass. I believe it has it in itself to do it. I'm going to have this track up for a bit, so I'll be able to run tuned laps and see how the numbers compare. 

__________

I also wanted to check the #66 Chaparral, since I had been having a bit of a rough start with it, got it running better, and yet still was off the pack lap pace by .2 of a second. The problem with the #66 is that it has a twin, the #65, so it can't make excuses. It should run just as fast as the #65. But it's not. While it ran some pretty fast time trials once, it still hasn't shown a bit of consistency yet. It's such a beautiful race car, though. 

So I opened it up and nothing looked off to me. I did a lube/oil, adjusted the front end a little because I had been doing that with the other two cars tonight, and then went about setting the float. Pod float seemed to favor one side over the other, as one screw was tightened a bit more than the others. I guess I could have done that while prepping. My mind wanders sometimes. 

I'm going back to a med/med float. I figure I'm going to mimic the #65 until we've gotten up next to him, then start making little tweaks and adjustments there. Much more satisfying than shooting fish in a barrel. I could try stuff all day and end up being completely wrong about it all. 

So that was all pretty informative. I feel like doing this has been good for everyone involved. The cars as well as the people. 

I might have to get to thinking about racing the outside lane of this layout. I think it would be pretty cool to try it with the new controller. Might be worth doing.

2020 Summer Salami - 50 Lap Main Event Pt. 2

This is Part 2, a continuation of the 2020 Summer Salami. If you need to get caught up, start there. 

The racing so far has been hot and fast, and the field is starting to take shape. Let's look at where we are as of this morning:

Car       Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66        Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11        962C      5:42.55       6.84          1                   

#11        GT40     5:54.37       7.08          1                           

#10       Matra      5:31.53       6.62          0                  

#8          GT40    5:32.71       6.64          0                                      

orange denotes leader

It looks like the smart money has so far paid off, with the Matra doing what was expected of him, which was to take the lead. The #8 GT40 almost caught him, and was literally only a few track pieces behind. 

After that the rest of the field starting turning over more conservative lap times, with exception of the #11 GT40, which was well off the pace. Really what we're talking about is a lap time of about a half second difference from first to last. That's pretty dang close. 

So let's get caught up on what the track looks like:

The entire left side of this track, from where the straightaways are on the right side, is extremely fast and fun. Just about every car rips through there.

First up today is the #5 GT40. He's thrown down wicked lap times and has been a solid competitor since he showed up on the scene. As solid of a slot car as they come. Does he have what it takes to pull it off? Can I add any more cliches in here? Let's find out!

The Race

Car       Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66        Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11        962C      5:42.55       6.84          1                   

#11        GT40     5:54.37       7.08          1                           

#10       Matra      5:31.53       6.62          0                  

#8          GT40    5:32.71       6.64          0              

#5         GT40     5:41.86        6.82          0  

Nice racing! At first I thought he might have had it in him to pull out that little bit extra, but whenever I tried it he started to get twitchy in the corners. The tires were clean, but it just kept happening. I got it into a more steady groove, but it was off the pace by then. Fell into the middle of the pack, running an almost identical time to the #66 Chaparral.

__________

Next up, the other new guy, #65 Chaparral. He came out of the box in much better shape than his twin, and has put up good numbers in tests. The driver is still getting used to the car, so mistakes might be made. He has had a significant number of laps in it, however. 

The Race

Car       Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66        Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11        962C      5:42.55       6.84          1                   

#11        GT40     5:54.37       7.08          1                           

#10       Matra      5:31.53       6.62          0                  

#8          GT40    5:32.71       6.64          0              

#5         GT40     5:41.86        6.82          0  

#65       Chap      5:34.22        6.68          1

Whoa, that was close! Off the lead by 3 seconds. Very nicely done and puts it into a solid third so far in it's debut. Very nice feeling race car. I can definitely tell the difference between the two Chaparrals. This one just has a much better planted feel. I could probably push it a little harder. 

__________

So that leaves us with our last entry, the #2 Alfa Romeo 33/3. The Champion of the first 20 race season, and always a threat. It has seemed to me that it prefers shorter, more complex tracks than the big flowy ones, but it still likes to go fast too. This car, like all the cars before this race, got thorough going-overs to make sure it was in tip-top shape. So here we go:

The Race

Car       Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66        Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                     4              

#11        962C      5:42.55       6.84          1                   2

#11        GT40     5:54.37       7.08          1                    1       

#10       Matra      5:31.53       6.62          0                    7

#8          GT40    5:32.71       6.64          0                     6

#5         GT40     5:41.86        6.82          0                    3

#65       Chap      5:34.22        6.68          1                    5

#2         Alfa        5:25.27       6.5            0                    9

Holy Cow! Out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere! Dude, when I said this car prefers short twisty tracks, I meant it. I've seen this car get beat way too many times on longer tracks. But this? Holy crap. That's a 6 and 1/2 second lap! Okay then. And that means the Matra can actually be beat. I think it's still too early to call the Alfa the fastest of them all, but dang. Nice work, Alfa. 

So there it is. I think it's a pretty good format. I think crashes are indicative of more than they look. Every car that ran well didn't crash. Every other car that crashed suffered from it. 

Alfa, Matra, Shell GT40 are one, two, three. Nice work everyone. 

Disappointment: Porsche 962C. Was hoping for more.

A Quick and Dirty Look at Slot Car Controllers

 So you have a slot car set, and you've had time to get some new cars and some more track to make it longer. You've gotten better cars than the ones you originally had, but they're so hard to control that it's almost not fun anymore.

The controller should definitely be a consideration. It's the interface between you and the car, and the better it is, the better your racing will be. It really does make that much of a difference.

There isn't a slot car manufacturer alive that's making a worthwhile controller for slot car racing. Most are subpar and frustrating at best, uncontrollable at worst. Thankfully, there are quite a few companies out there that continue to make great controllers.

On the left is the standard Carrera Evolution thumb controller. One grabs hold and pushes the red plunger down with their thumb. On the right is the Slot.it SCP-1 controller. It uses a finger trigger as is much more ergonomically comfortable.

When you buy a Carrera Evolution racing kit, you get two of the thumb controllers with it. I don't like these. Never have. When I was a kid, I had an AFX set that had finger-trigger controllers, and it was excellent. But trying to drive with your thumb just wasn't instinctive for me. I don't have the sensitivity in my thumb to get really touchy with the plunger. 

The controllers themselves are clumsy for driving. You have such a limited range, slow, slow medium, then BANG! Whipped into a wall. There is no middle ground. The one good thing about them: they're cheap. You could throw your controller into a wall in frustration and get another on ebay for six bucks.

So time to upgrade. There's just no point fighting it anymore. You've looked at controllers, saw all the different specs, got intimidated and moved on. But now's the time to do it. Take the plunge[r]....

The DS 350 3D Controller. It's a finger-trigger too.

The thing with nicer controllers is that their origins are with racing when it was in its commercial track period, a.k.a. the golden years of slot cars. Most controllers are setup with particular resistances. This was originally done so you could run different cars on those huge commercial tracks and get way more speed than you could on your home track. The controllers are built to work with special circumstances. Sure, there are controllers that'll work with everything, and we're going to talk about that in a minute, but if we're talking about the next-level, ready-to-win controllers that are still good on the budget, then we have to talk about these.

DS is one company that makes slot car controllers. There are a host of them, ranging in resistance depending on what you need. I did a lot of research online before purchasing. I wanted to make sure that I was getting the proper resistance rating, or very near it, for what I was doing. After reading multiple suggestions of going with a 40ohm controller to race well with Carrera cars on Carrera track, I gave myself a little more room and got a 35ohm controller, so I'll have a little more control all the way. I'd still get the power, it just wouldn't be so much of a last-plunge punch like the Carrera controller. 

This controller runs up to medium speed about halfway depressed, then starts a more gradual upward curve. This allows me to maintain speed while being able to feather the throttle through the turns. There's is no black/white, on/off feel to this controller. You can actually feel and understand what's happening. Suddenly you become much better at high-end control as well, as you've got more room to move. 

I'm a drummer. Been so for many many years. For a drummer, the thumbs are like an on/off switch. While they do a lot, it is mostly of the hit/don't hit variety. The fingers, on the other hand [I'm full of them today], have so much more control over the power, accent, speed, etc of the stick. Sure, the thumb's doing stuff too. You need your thumb. But in this case its acting more like a fulcrum than a fine-tuner. 

Fingers are just better for doing the sort of stuff like slot car racing than thumbs. In fact, aside from being a contestant on Jeopardy, I can't for the life of me think of any other time or place in life where the thumb-plunge is used in any way, shape or form. Anywhere.

So, you now have your new controller and you've tried it out. It costs almost as much as a cheap car, but you notice the improvement right away. But you only bought one. What happens now? Do you buy a matched controller to what you just bought? Or do you maybe get something else with a slightly different resistance rating? Could control some of your cars better. Never know. 

Or, you could look at the next level: electronic controllers.

The SCP-1 again. An impressive piece of kit.

"I'm not insane. No way I spend three cars' worth of money on a controller that's way out of my league."

Yeah, I thought the same thing. But in case you don't remember or haven't read the old days of this blog, the SCP-1 was gifted to me by a kind colleague on a slot car forum. I still find them available online nowadays for around 80 bucks, which is pretty good. Would I pay that now if I didn't have one? Damn straight.

It's hard to justify spending crazy money on a controller. But here's the thing: you don't need two of these. Just the one for you. Get yourself a nice 30-buck-chuck like the DS controller and your friend will be able to race you no problem. 

But electronic slot car controllers are a different animal. Yes, you still have the same basic trigger-finger throttle, but there's so much more. And it's these things that set this unit apart. This allows total customization of controller to car, with the ability to adjust on the fly, and do a host of other things. 

Being able to dial in each race car adds a huge thrill to racing. So much you can do. Power trim sets how much power you want to have how fast. Min Speed sets what happens the second you apply pressure to the trigger. Brake is electronic, and will slow your car faster than the normal coast most controllers do. Curve/Max, in this case is maximum power. Great to set if you want to be able to control a car and race it right on the edge. Also great if you have noobs or kids over and need to keep the overall speed down. There's also a set-and-forget button so you can race against a drone car.

Having more functional control of the power curve and everything affecting it will definitely improve your racing. Certain functions will make a huge difference in a car's performance. Being able to control a car that might be touchy by lowering the Power Trim and adding a little braking makes it act like a different race car.

I went from lousy [Carrera] to fantastic [Slot.it] right away, and would have been totally happy with the DS [or any other brand] controller if I hadn't. Get a good controller. Anything but the stock one. So get one. Just do it. Do it for me.

2020 Summer Salami - 50 lap main event - Pt. 1

Today's post....or should I say, The following few posts will be expanded coverage of the 50 lap 2020 Summer Salami. The first race ever between the entire field of cars. Due to time issues, I'll be running this over a period of time, but it'll all be done in the next day or two at the most. It's very hot here today, so attic time is limited until later in the evening. Regardless, I ran the first two cars a few minutes ago.

At first I wanted to do 100 laps, but again, time issues. But 50 laps is actually a very satisfactory time for a race. It's pretty much somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes, depending on your track length. That gives you time to get into a groove, get faster throughout the race, cut time bettering yourself, and most important it keeps the driver as part of the package. 

I don't use a manual lap counter. I set a stopwatch, run 50 laps and then divide it through a time calculator to get the lap time. If you have a lap counter, and you just run silly laps all the time and then look to see what your fastest lap was at the end, then that's not what I'm talking about. It's easy to just let the timer tell you, but it's much more difficult to discipline yourself to lay down faster and faster lap times using only your instinct to tell you whether you're going faster or slower than you should be. I think it improves you as a driver, and 50 laps is a good indicator of enough time to make it count.

Sorry for the digression. 

The Track

This is by far the fastest track I have yet to build. Adding those 10 straights to my inventory really opened things up. I was able to get all the length I need, and the best part was that I could use all those great large radius turns for smaller kinks in larger straights. The whole left section, with the yellow 2/30 curves, is fast as hell. You could almost punch it completely through the green/yellow 3/30-2/30 curve combo going into the straight. The right side is made up of tighter 1/60 and 1/30 curves, as well as a nice big esses just before the back straight. The starter tracks on the backstraight represent where my overpass is placed. [Inside track length: 52 feet.] 

I really wanted to build a track that took advantage of all those straight pieces I picked up recently. I also wanted to get rid of as many 1/60 curves as I could. The esses is the only place they're overused, and even there it's okay. Otherwise I wanted to make an absolute balls-out race track. I think I succeeded. This layout is a blast!

Since there are two new cars added to the mix, the previous championship scoring system will now be reset. I don't know how many races I'll get in this summer. Hopefully more than one. We'll see how this goes and what I might need to change to make it work better. I also changed my mind on the crash system. Out of fairness I'll be stopping the clock on all crashes, and there will be no point or time deductions.

Because I have 8 cars, I decided to break up the racers by session. For example, I just ran two cars, the #66 Chaparral [#66] and the Porsche 962C [#11]. I picked them both randomly based on the drawers they were sitting in in my pit box. Let's look at the cars, based on running order:

#66 Chaparral 2E CanAm

Starting with the #66?! The DRAMA! The INTRIGUE!

I've always been of the attitude where if you have a hard race, pick yourself up, and get ready for the next one. It might suck to lose, but once it's over there ain't nothing you can do about it. So move on. There are more chances coming.

That's what the #66 car is doing. After a rough start out of the box, it's seen its fair share of tuning, and laps times are significantly improving. I had an idea at first, it didn't pay off, and now I've looked at the car a bit differently. At first I was comparing it to the Matra and the Alfa, but when I really started looking into it, I noticed that the Chaparral compares most favorably to the GT40. In fact, looking at them upside down, they're about the spittin' image of each other. From widths to lengths, placement to shape, practically twins. 

So taking that new information, I took a look at a new setup. I set it up roughly like the GT40's: medium body float, medium pod float, and did touchups from there. I ended up 1/2 turn body front / 1/4 turn body back, which made the body have about the same level of float throughout. It kind of fits the split personality of the car. It has a racecar front, just as fast as the fastest out there, and this big boxy back end. So when you think the tail is going to jump out around a corner like with the Alfa, the Chappie just rolls its big butt through it. So in a sense it handles the track much like the GT40 would, except is has the snap the Fords don't. 

The Race

The room is hot, it's late afternoon into evening. 50 laps, estimated somewhere around 5 minutes. The #66 got off to a good start and picked up a groove early. I find that to be important to setting a good overall race time. Sometimes cars can take many laps before you find the groove, and some lose it just as easily. 

I cleaned a lot of rubber off the tires prior to the race, but with this heat things tend to get a little loose, so I'm keeping an eye out. The car crashed on lap 19, going too fast through the right-handed first turn. The rest of the race was fast but uneventful, and it looks like the #66 is going to set a respectable time to start the race.

Car   Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66    Chap    5:41.68      6.82          1                                     

__________

Porsche 962C #11 Leyton House

Now we're talking. I'm curious to see how this guy handles this track.

The Porsche has been a project. You'd think that, by its looks alone, nothing could beat it. And that's the way it probably should be, but it isn't. So I've been working with this car, and it's done pretty well. It hasn't led the pack many times, but it's made a mostly respectable time of it. 

It doesn't run like the other cars. I find myself needing to raise the overall power from 40 - 50%, just to give the Porsche the powerband to accelerate in the straights. The inline motor and transmission are different from the rest of the cars, so adjustments need to be made. Still, it is mostly in range to compete, so compete it does. I will be getting more Group C cars in the future, so if it doesn't have competition now, it will later. 

The Porsche is a very sound, stable race car. It has an occasional wild tail, but it more than makes up for it with straightaway speed. It absolutely cooks down the straights, so this track should be right up its alley. 

The Race

I talked about finding your groove early. The Porsche struggled with that. It wasn't until about lap 25 or so when he picked up and started laying down hot laps. He crashed on lap 8 at the right-handed first turn. Same as the Chaparral. 

I was right, the Porsche is incredibly fast. It hauls ass in the straights, but still gets beat in the turns. Overall I think it ran a fast race and did very well. 

Car      Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66      Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11      962C     5:42.55       6.84          1                   

orange background denotes fastest time 

__________

Dude. 

Even if these two aren't the fastest cars, and we don't know yet, it's still insane that they set such a close lap time and overall race time at 50 laps. It's insane. They both drove differently, had to be driven differently, and were setup differently, yet ran almost identical times. Less than a second at 50 laps. Think about that for a minute.

Even though the Porsche ran well, it's still not fast enough. Let's see if it's got what it takes to stay in the upper end of the field.

The #66 is a pleasant surprise overall. I wasn't sure if I got my first dud when I took it out of the box. Good to see it ain't that. Is it enough to beat the favorite, the Matra? We'll see.

Championship Points System

Because the amount of cars have changed, the points per race have changed. I'm going old-NASCAR style with a point bonus for the win. So here's what the eight car field would look like:

1st   8pts + 1bonus point

2nd  7pts

3rd   6pts

4th   5pts

5th   4pts

6th   3pts

7th   2pts

8th   1pt

Yep, everybody gets a point. Call me a helicopter parent if you must, but we're going to do it this way. I think it'll have interesting effects. The closer points will keep the competition close and make it worth pushing for that extra tenth. So you won't find a car out of contention after 3 races. This will allow struggling cars to turn it around and attempt a comeback. 

The extra point for the winner will help to break ties, and if it there is still a tie, overall wins will determine who wins the championship. Overall.

The Championship can consist of long and short tracks, fast or technical, or whatever suits me at the moment. Once this race is run we'll run another on the outside lane with the new controller. 

__________

.....and wouldn't you know it, I spent all that time yesterday putting together this post and at the end of the night forgot to publish it. Didn't even check until a few minutes ago. I've already had my coffee and have run the next set of cars, so I'm going to add the session to this post. Let's get to it:

Ford GT 40 [#11] 

This GT40 is now a reclamation project. It's not up to snuff, so it's probably going to be the next car I'm working on.

This car used to be wildly inconsistent. It would run a great race one day and dog it the next. I could never figure out why. I've gone over the car countless times, added rubber gaskets and kept it clean and shiny. But it's just not reliable. When you race it, especially if it's the first car on it a session, it feels pretty good. It's a quiet racer, solid, reasonably planted. But it's just not fast. Not even by GT40 standards. 

When you run hundreds and hundreds of laps with your cars, which is actually pretty easy to do, you notice things about them. And when you're running timed races, you can actually look at data to see what's happening. Sure, it's only time, but there's a lot you can do to affect that. 

What I've learned about this car is that it gives off the illusion of comfort, when it reality it's pretty unstable. The setting is mid/mid, so nothing radical has been done to the car that might be restricting it is some way. 

So it is what it is. We still have to race it. 

The Race

Car     Make      Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66      Chap     5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11      962C     5:42.55       6.84          1                   

#11      GT40    5:54.37       7.08          1     

This result is more indicative of what the back of the field is going to look like. This car might just end up being the big loser, although I haven't run the other two GT40's yet. When I first put together this track, I thought a 7.0 was the goal, but it's obviously a bit faster than that still. Faster than 6.8 as well, I have a feeling.

Whatever happens, this car is going back to the garage again.

__________

Matra Simca [#10]

Oh, it's ON now.

Every car I race goes through a pretty thorough inspection/repair/tuneup session. Since I've been doing so many laps on the Matra lately, I needed to get in there and get everything looking good. It wasn't bad. On the contrary, it was remarkably clean for how much use it had gotten. 

This car is no joke. Every since getting it into a well-tuned position, it has consistently not just won, but blown away the field. It races so well that I'm considering getting a second Matra just to see if this one isn't just some anomaly. 

Despite its ruthless handling of the field, it's still salivating for a race. Let's get to it:

The Race

Car       Make        Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66        Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11        962C     5:42.55       6.84          1                   

#11        GT40    5:54.37       7.08          1                           

#10       Matra   5:31.53       6.62          0                                                                     

And here we go! The Matra ran flawlessly. It's unbelievable how great that car is. If you've been reading this blog, and are still on the fence regarding a slot car to buy, get this one. Holy crap it's fast. 

The Overpass has been a bit of an issue with the Fords, which had each car de-slot/re-slot on the fly at least a half dozen times per race. Not so with the Matra. The profile is so low that the car stays on the track much better than the others. And the length/type of track is really favoring the longer cars. Both the Porsche and the Matra love this track. 

There was no waiting period for a groove to occur. This car picks up where it left off last time you raced it: kicking ass. It feels so good that you know it's the winner as you're driving it. You can feel those .2 seconds like it's a minute.

And yes, while it didn't blow away the field, it put down the fastest lap time so far. There are a couple of potential spoilers, but it's hard to say if either of them have the stuff to win it all. 

But yeah, all hail the Matra. 6.6 lap record.

__________

Ford GT40 [#8]

This car has been performing so well lately.

Whenever I have a nice big session, one that I can get a bunch of cars out and compare them, I'm always amazed to find how well this GT40 handles. It is, by default, one of the best slot cars you can own for a good, well-rounded fun time. It's a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, but it does those things well. 

Lately I've been spending a lot more time on other cars, so I needed to do a little revitalizing to this one before the race. Nothing drastic, just the general cleaning/tuneup. It's gotten so many laps under its belt that it's really comfortable in its own skin. 

The Race

Car       Make       Time         Lap       Crash       Championship

#66        Chap      5:41.68      6.82          1                                   

#11        962C      5:42.55       6.84          1                   

#11        GT40     5:54.37       7.08          1                           

#10       Matra      5:31.53       6.62          0                  

#8          GT40    5:32.71       6.64          0                                      

Oh yes! Now we're talkin'! The last race I ran with this car I admonished myself for not giving it all it had, and I hadn't. I got comfortable and the result showed. Not this time! It was hammer time the whole time. Such a good overall lap time that I'll proudly take 2nd place for that. Hell of an outcome. 

This is what happens when you spend time on a race car trying to get it right. I did a lot of work early on to this car to get it running fast, and since that early time it hasn't required much in the way of major work in the last few years. It's been all easy stuff. So in a way that car has been competitive this whole time, and still is. 

But being .2 off the leader is pretty impressive. Maybe the Matra should be taking a look in its rear-view mirror. It's position atop the leaderboard is looking more and more under threat the entire time.

_________

So, wow! After 5 of the 8 cars have raced, it's starting to look more defined. Not a whole lot of space separating first to last, .4 tenths of a second, so it's a competitive field. Some spoilers have yet to run, notably the #5 GT40 and the Alfa. There's also still the faster of the two Chaparrals left to run, so this thing isn't decided yet.