34 replies to this topic

[dalek]

I just ordered 1/16" long black oxide setscrews and also two types of 1/16" long stainless steel setscrews from McMaster-Carr. 

 

I'll report back in a couple of weeks as to how they worked out.

 

One of the stainless steel types is nicely priced at 10 cents each but my experience in the past regarding silver screws (which I assume were stainless steel), is that they loosened over time.

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

The 1/8" stainless set screws I bought years ago are soft, so I relegated to only using them in jig wheels.

[studentdriver]

I'm going to play around with a balancer some. I think it'll only help, even if it's not my main issue.. something to play around with regardless. I don't have a lathe so I'm just going to have to use Dremel and grind on the non-contact end and hope for the best.

 

I think I just need to double check when my local track was also glued. I think I was racing on it after it was cleaned but before it was glued/prepped.

 

Ultimately I just wanted to see if there was anything else to look into! Thanks everyone for responding and I do appreciate all the info!

 

Mike

[Racer36]

I'm going to play around with a balancer some. I think it'll only help, even if it's not my main issue.. something to play around with regardless. I don't have a lathe so I'm just going to have to use Dremel and grind on the non-contact end and hope for the best.

 

I think I just need to double check when my local track was also glued. I think I was racing on it after it was cleaned but before it was glued/prepped.

 

Ultimately I just wanted to see if there was anything else to look into! Thanks everyone for responding and I do appreciate all the info!

 

Mike

Balancing gears and tires for a flexi car , or a retro car, is one huge waste of time, money and effort. There is certainly something to be gained if you are racing high end wing cars, but you will have absolutely zero improvement in a flexi if you balance the rear assembly.

Spend your time on car setup and picking the brain of the fast guys at the track, rather than on a wild goose chase

[crazyphysicsteacher]

I am going to say this and some with roast me but you have to learn to drive a car with wonder on it.

Natural tires provide lots of grip and can provide enough slide to make it very easy to get around a track quick. But those same tires will wear during the race and result in slower times as the race goes on. The harder tire will stay more consistent during the race. It will be touchier to drive but will be faster. You will also need to dial back the sensitivity on the controller to soften the acceleration.

With that said, you may also have to add some lead to the car. Until you get used to the style of driving.
And yes it is a style of driving. The traveling guys will run wonder because they can, because it has less resistance and the cars roll better. Retro cars are all about the roll.
I suggest you start the process by turning the brakes down on the controller and driving your car that way till you are fast at that setting. Once you get used to the change in style, I bet wonder rubber and turning the brake back up will result in even faster lap times.

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[James Wendel]

Balancing gears and tires for a flexi car , or a retro car, is one huge waste of time, money and effort. There is certainly something to be gained if you are racing high end wing cars, but you will have absolutely zero improvement in a flexi if you balance the rear assembly.

Spend your time on car setup and picking the brain of the fast guys at the track, rather than on a wild goose chase

 

I disagree.  If you have the time and enjoy the process, any improvement no matter how slight, is worthwhile.  Plus improvements are cumulative.  You might not perceive the change, but it is there working on your behalf.  Have you ever almost deslotted but amazingly your car recovered and carried on?  Imperceptible improvements at work.  Have you ever won (or lost) a race by inches? 

[studentdriver]

I am going to say this and some with roast me but you have to learn to drive a car with wonder on it.

Natural tires provide lots of grip and can provide enough slide to make it very easy to get around a track quick. But those same tires will wear during the race and result in slower times as the race goes on. The harder tire will stay more consistent during the race. It will be touchier to drive but will be faster. You will also need to dial back the sensitivity on the controller to soften the acceleration.

With that said, you may also have to add some lead to the car. Until you get used to the style of driving.
And yes it is a style of driving. The traveling guys will run wonder because they can, because it has less resistance and the cars roll better. Retro cars are all about the roll.
I suggest you start the process by turning the brakes down on the controller and driving your car that way till you are fast at that setting. Once you get used to the change in style, I bet wonder rubber and turning the brake back up will result in even faster lap times.

Sent from my Nokia XR20 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks... I was close to adding weight to the car specifically in the rear, near motor just to see if that would let me control it better. And yes, seems like my driving style or what I'm used to leads to wanting to run natural rubber.. So thanks.. that's kind of what I was looking for in an answer. My only concern is it seems quite different and approaching it seemed like a difficult task. For example, holding a pencil 1 way for years and then realizing oh, maybe that's not the best way but forcing yourself to change can be difficult.

 

Couple of notes

1) currently I do run a lot less brake as it let's me coast into the turn and then power on

2) sensitivity I can definitely try to play around with

3) I did hear about running out of tire when running soft compounds. The only thing I can say is I can run fast times even starting with a .700 so I think they might last the whole 8 lanes?? I'd have to test though.

 

right now wonder rubber just seems consistently more loose and if you zone out (for lack of a better term) it's less forgiving in the turns.. ie: the margin of error is much less with wonder rubber. In the past 6-8 months I've come back to the hobby specifically focused on mossetti chassis and setup so it seems like I'm going to have to relearn some things.

 

1 thing that I've already seen is that at fast tracks (which I know you run at with ecfs, etc) is that on the kingleman when I come ouf of the donut and hit the last turn before the big bank that if I power on too soon I deslot.. so obviously don't power on as soon (or reduce sensitivity) BUT it seems like when I try to account for that my times drop down. I guess I'm having troubling finding a balance.

 

thanks,
Mike

[studentdriver]

 

I disagree.  If you have the time and enjoy the process, any improvement no matter how slight, is worthwhile.  Plus improvements are cumulative.  You might not perceive the change, but it is there working on your behalf.  Have you ever almost deslotted but amazingly your car recovered and carried on?  Imperceptible improvements at work.  Have you ever won (or lost) a race by inches? 

 

I agree.. I found a balancer for $35 and I don't consider my time a loss when I'm tinkering with slot cars but each to their own I guess. Also I can definitely test it out as I have 2 very similar cars. I like doing comparisons. The only thing that makes this difficult is the fact that the track can change from week to week for various reasons, just part of life 

 

That said I do have around 5 wing cars that I play around with, various koford group F chassis and proslot motors so technically I can apply what I learn to those as well for what it is worth.

 

In the past few months I've made several adjustments and learned so much from friendly folks online and at the track.. Some very minor stuff but my lap times have dropped maybe .1 or .2 for each thing.. I've tried different braids, bought the tire truer, tried various chassis configurations with the pans and center sections, adjusted guide flag depth (thanks Scott Hurley!) among other things.

 

Mike

[dalek]

As DZ said in post #10, "Make sure you log a lot of laps when scuffing in wonder rubber.".

 

FWIW, there are three things I do to reduce the time it takes to run tires in (scuff them).

 

1) I sand the tires with a grit that is finer than my truer's drum.  I use 220 grit sandpaper stuck to my sanding tool with double-sided tape (see sanding tool below). 

 

2) I give the tires a little bit of "cone" shape when sanding them (smaller diameter at the outside than at the inside, which is how they naturally wear).  I do this by holding my sanding tool offset towards the outside of the tire. 

 

3) I sometimes put a high-downforce body (such as a GTP body) on the car for the initial laps.

 

=====

Note:  I use Dritz Adhesive Res Q double-sided tape found in sewing departments, to attach the sandpaper to my sanding tool.  The Dritz tape is thin and very sticky.

=====

 

The sanding tool I made

 

The sanding block on my sanding tool pivots freely, removing the possibility of a tire ending up with an irregular shape

 

[Mark Onofri]

It's amazing how much difference tyres make. We run lmp bodies and mossetti's or JK's.Not Shure why but, I threw on a set of Koford full hub waffles and wam! No, not into the wall. Suddenly I was very competitive. Funny thing is, they were from 2002-3! Come to find out, almost everyone was running full hubs.
I've tried narrowing and, IDK, I've had better luck with hub diameters & tyer diameters than adjusting the with. Same goes for hardness. Also, it's a no glue series. If I remember correctly, you want a narrow tyer when you hit 1/32" of bog!