Today I got the chance to do a few repairs and run a short race with the NSR and Thunderslot cars. I ran the 10-lap quick race scenario after doing a little tuning to the rubber tires. Here's the results;
Laps: 10
Car Time Lap
Tergal 908 1:01.57 6.1
Rothmans 917 0:58.40 5.84
Gulf 917 0:58.81 5.88
Lucky Strike 917 1:02.10 6.2
Elva 0:56.80 5.68
Sunoco 908 0:58.92 5.89
Lola 0:56.09 5.61
This is exactly what I was thinking was going to happen. I had a chance to run most of the NSR cars on their factory rubber and was really impressed by it. It's soft, almost too soft, but incredibly grippy and quiet. The Ortmann urethane isn't as soft, isn't as grippy and is considerably louder than the rubber.
Competitively speaking, this is a much better result if I don't want to have a standout car. And since the rubbers will be staying on, I can start looking at other stuff on each car. There's only a few tenths difference between all these cars, so I'm feeling good about them racing together. I'm thinking of chasing down some rubber for the Slot.it cars. There are quite a few different formula tires that I could look for, and I'm thinking of doing that. Might even go with NSR rubber. We'll have to see.
Since picking up the Lola I have been spending a lot of time running cars in pairs. It's easy: I have my cars in stackable locking sandwich boxes, so when I need to go up 3 flights of stairs to race, I can take one of the boxes instead of the entire collection. So I've been doing that a lot, and running NSR cars against Thunderslot cars. And since getting the Lola I've been a little let down by the performance of the NSR cars in general.
Porsche 917K: Lucky Strike, Gulf, Rothmans.
When I decided to go with urethane tires, I did it all the way across the board, except for two cars; the Thunderslots. The Ortmanns that are suggested for the cars don't fit. They're a little wide. So they're running on their factory rubber. Well, I was mostly concerned about the Slot.its when it came to urethanes, but thought it would be fair for everyone to run them. Well, now I feel like I might be handicapping the NSR cars. I think the factory rubber has better grip than the urethanes do. I should look into the Slot.it rubbers. They have some alternatives that I'll bet would improve things. I not against running rubber.
So I just spent the last few minutes changing the NSRs back to factory rubber. Three 917Ks and two 908/3s. I'm going to run some laps, get the tires going on each and then do a 10-lap run. I like that format for general timing, especially when it's cold and I need to go through so many cars. Since I'm doing all tuning downstairs and then running up to test results, I end up going a lot slower than I would like. Once I move I'll be able to dedicate more time to it.
I don't know what this will do to do Slot.its and whether they'll still be competitive. I think they will, and I'm going to leave the urethanes on them. There's lots of change coming up, so why not just stir things up a little bit?
So I had a little time this morning, and had taken the Lola and the Elva upstairs to run laps for a bit. I feel like I've gotten the Lola to a pretty good point regarding initial tuneup and setup.
Since I had a little time, I thought I'd run a short race to see how close the two cars are running. I had to keep it short, so I did ten laps each. Here are the results:
Thunderslot Heat-to-head Heat Match [10 laps]
Car Time
Lola 1:00.60
Elva 1:00.85
Okay, so I guess you could say that the Thunderslot cars at pretty well matched. That's 2/10ths of a difference after 10 LAPS. That is so practically even that I can't even see a point in breaking it down by lap time. Pretty frickin incredible, I must say. I'd have to look back to see if any of my cars have ever run that closely together. I'm thinking probably not. This is the equivalent of winning the race by a couple car lengths.
I'm going to give both cars a going over, then move on to the NSR cars. I have two of the five running satisfactorily. The other three need to be worked on. I'll probably do the 908s first and then move on to the 917s. The Slot.it cars will continue to need work as well, and they will also be in the mix.
I have so many possible race combinations that doing 1v1 racing can be between just about any car. I could race in brand, certainly in class, and even in model on many of the cars. So there are loads of comparisons that could be made. One of the advantages of buying matched cars. If the 908s can race with the Chaparrals, for example, then that's 5 cars that are race compatible with each other. Add the 917s [of which I have three] and the GT40s [also three] and that suddenly becomes a lot of cars that you could pit together in competition. And that's not including the other cars in the field that just happen to also run similarly. Matra, Alfa, 962C, etc.
Having matched cars helps you understand them better faster. You might make an adjustment on one car that doesn't do much, but on another it might help. With matched cars you can get results quicker. Plus you have three cars that can absolutely compete with each other, and that's a win/win/win.
I looks like we might be nearing the end of the Covid Lockdown for the time being, or at least the part that keeps me stuck at home. It's very possible things can happen at a rapid pace coming soon. So if this blog suddenly goes silent for a bit, it will be because I'm moving and have to settle in my new place.
In the meantime I've been running both the Lola and the Elva, and they're both so much fun. Still tight as a zipper and fast as hell. Once I gave the Lola the same treatment I gave the Elva, they were neck and neck. Truly fantastic race cars.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching this car go around the track.
All of these cars I've gotten over the past few months signify a major change for me. As strange as it sounds, adding these cars and racing them has been very therapeutic and has really helped me get through the breakup of my marriage. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I'm working on it and it's looking better. It's going to be a very exciting future and I'm ready for it.
This is also going to be the end of my table soon. I'm proud of that table. I built it myself from scratch. I'm going to be sad that I won't be running on it anymore. I'll still be using part of it. I'm going to dismantle the wings and make a shallow desk for my apartment. Nothing too fancy, but enough to hold my computer and that stuff. And I'll be taking a little bit of my table with me, and that's cool. I'm even going to keep the green top.
That means I'll be going back to the rug. I'm ready for that and looking forward to it. That'll mean I'm inside in my climate-controlled apartment, and can keep it setup for as long as I'd like without any complaint. And if I get lucky and get one of these places with a nice big living room, then I'll really be stoked. I might even end up needing more track pieces. And if I do, I'll buy them.
There it is. Do that in about an hour or so, slap some wood on the top and you're racing!
The new chapter will be about getting back down on the rug, how to survive it and having good racing. I'm going to be doing a series of videos as well, so that'll be happening. I'll have more control over my time when I move, so it'll be easier to get them done. Here's the one I did on the Lola the other night:
Anyway, there will be more of this theme, as well as some others. Nothing too serious, I'm just trying to have some fun. The video above was mostly a test of a new lens I got on my camera, and I was happy with the result. So I'm going to go back to each of my cars and do a special about each of them, highlighting each car's track successes and failures, as well as any and all other dramatic details that might exist. It'll give me a chance to explain what I like about the cars and how they have done under my ownership.
I'll be doing a series on low-budget tuning and tips as well, to keep things all in one place. Some stuff has been seen a thousand times, and I'm hoping to do it a different way. And I'm not that guy who has a million years of slot car experience and knows everything. Never claimed to. And my videos will show it. But if someone wants to know how to sand their tires, and they can also find out how to paint their track, tune their cars, see reviews on cars, and all that good stuff, then that's what I'll be doing. I also have other ideas that I'm going to keep to myself for the time being.
I'm going to put a hold on buying any cars for awhile. I'll be moving, and it's hard to tell how long they'll have to stay boxed up. It'll depend on how quickly I can get moved in. I don't have much furniture, so I really don't think there will be much downtime. I probably won't be able to take the wait for very long. I race every day, so I'll need it up and running in short order.
Forward back into the past. Going back on the rug will be interesting, especially after being spoiled by being on a table for all that time.
I'm also planning on running another Championship series. That'll be one of the first things I start up. I might even make one a feature of my video series. Strangely enough, one of the most difficult things to shoot for me is decent racing footage. I can do staged drone lap footage, but that's always at a slower speed to pick up the car better on camera. But I'm working that out. I'll have a solution somehow when the time comes.
Until then I'm tuning and running cars. Nothing special, although I admit that I'm mostly running the Thunderslots, followed by NSRs and the occasional Slot.it for balance. Since the weather was so cold, I couldn't rely on any of the car responses I was getting. Now that it's warmed up the cars are acting much more stable and reliable. Same goes for the track. Once that room gets below the 5°C mark, only a fool would be racing then. I'll have a little time this weekend for racing, and maybe even a bit into next week.
I finally have a Lola. I still don't have a Porsche 930/10, but that might not be so far off. But I have a Lola! That's great!
So because of the McLaren Elva, a need appeared. There's isn't any conceivable way I can see any of the other cars making a challenge against the Elva anytime soon, so I needed to look for a competitor. And that's where the Lola comes in.
Those old Can-Am cars are so sexy.
The chassis on the Lola and the Elva are identical. All the parts are the same. Same motor. Same tires. Gears. Check. Yesterday when I took it on its pre-tuned ride, it felt like it had every bit of energy the Elva has, even though everything was pretty much new.
Today I sanded the tires down to slicks and worked with the ride height a little bit, as well as loosened the pod a little for kicks. About a quarter turn every screw. I still need to work more on ride height. The Lola isn't quite behaving like the Elva in that respect, and it needs a little bit more attention. Once I got it out on the track in its fully-tuned state, it was a twin of the Elva. They both run like the devil.
Of course, now that I have two cars of the same brand, I'll be able to test them independently and reach conclusions faster, as well as experiment without having to keep a lot of notes of changes. Sure, neither car runs exactly the same, but I an at least tell the effects of a loose/loose setting over a med/med setting without having to do all the testing on one car. It speeds things up and gets you to your goals faster. It also gives you the opportunity to treat each car differently from one another, even if it's just over a slight adjustment or two.
Two cars might end up needing different things to run fast, and they might take separate paths from each other. That's bound to happen, as we're dealing with small machines here. No two are alike. That's what makes this so much fun. I may have just gotten the new champion, or I may already own it. Who knows.
This is a shot before any work was done on the car. It's important to sand away the tread on the tires and get them down to a nice wide slick. Better contact patch, better grip.
The car has a 21.5k sidewinder motor, mounted at a slight angle so it would fit inside the works. It comes with an 11/32 pinion/gear system standard. All of this is pretty much the same in all the other cars I own. NSR, Slot.it, same basic specs. One way where Thunderslot wins is that it includes any and all screws needed for adjustment in the car, unlike Slot.it, for example, which gives you places to add screws to do things, but they don't supply the screws. It's nice to have a car where you don't have to order something right away to make it run right. With that said, Thunderslot cars also come with Torx6 screws for the body and pod mounts. but luckily I had a Torx 6 driver lying around. If not you will have to buy one of those.
The front end comes with everything needed to adjust ride height. It comes from the factory wheels-up, but can be driven in either a 3-point or 5-point style.
Two things that concern me: first, the roll bar is very loose and not installed very well. I glued it yesterday and that seemed to help, but it still feels flimsy and pushed a little far forward. The second thing is the mirror placement. It's pretty much glued right to the windshield. So a hard hit could do quite a bit of damage.
The Lola tuned right up and will be a fine competitor for the Elva. That's going to give a nice solid one-two punch for the races. I'm going to be doing a head-to-head challenge between the two in a few days here. I'll need to run the Lola for awhile and shake the bugs out. Make sure I've got it where I want it before starting the clock. The first thing I'll be checking is the pod and body float settings and see what works best for either car. It's doesn't take much to get the pod a little loose, and I'm curious what the effect will be.
I'm amazed at the Thunderslot cars. The really are very well made. And it's not like they're so crazy fast that they're going to fly off your track. On the contrary. It's one of those cars you try out and it just does everything so well that you can't get over it. You spend your time with your jaw slack and your mind asking you how this is possible. Since I got them, they are the only race cars that are racing right now. Everyone else is on a little vacation. They are just too much fun. And I know they're going to spoil me. It's already happening. But that's okay.
Since I got that new lens for my camera, I discovered that it was very capable of doing video, so I did one.
The reason behind this, as is evident in the video, is because I needed something to run with the Elva. That thing was just too fast and there wasn't one car that could keep up. And since I was going directly against my rule about buying in pairs or more, I needed to do something about it.
Since this guy just showed up today and I've got loads of stuff going on, I'm going to spend some time tomorrow tuning this car and then we're going to do a little head-to-head with the Elva to see where we stand. Should be interesting. I'll need to do some things to the car, including fixing that roll bar. I'm going to use a soldering iron and melt the plastic end back in. That should do it.
Also, I have to say I'm pretty happy with the way the video came out. I mean, there's still a long way to go, but the new lens makes a lot of things possible that weren't before. That's cool. I'm going to do more videos.
I gotta admit, that cold spell went on a bit longer than I anticipated. Made it practically impossible to do anything of substance other than sit around and watch TV bundled up. But today we got past it all and the attic got back above the 10° mark. So I thought I would take a few cars and my camera with the new lens on it up for a little session.
I'm still getting the hang of this lens. It seems to be much more responsive to camera settings. I'll figure it out.
And of course, what session would be complete without the special guest who seems to see the most lap time these days, the Elva!
This thing is magical fast. I'm sure there's some kind of weird thing happening here. Frickin thing.
But this exposes a serious problem that I have right before me: this car doesn't have a running mate. That breaks rule number one of my 10 rules that I haven't decided on yet. This car is in danger of making itself not special by having no competition. It's like, "oh yeah, the Elva won, but what about that race for 2nd place!?!" Sounds like Mercedes in F1. So the Elva needs a competitor.
