112 replies to this topic

[Dave Crevie]

It is true that they are comparatively slow on a banked track. They were more interesting on Mike Swiss' flat track. 

Of the four I have, they were all different for lap times when I got them. This was mostly an issue with the bushing

on the off (away from the screw mount) side not being properly aligned. Re-soldering it with the motor installed fixed this. 

[Rob Voska]

Dave, if you're going to be at CL this Sat we have a Great Lakes ISRA race. 

 

I would like to try one if you don't mind. 

 

Thanks.

[Dave Crevie]

I don't know if I will make it. I certainly won't race, I can't stand for eight heats due to health problems. If I can stop by, I will bring one of the cars.

 

If the long shaft motor had been in a Hawk 6 can, I would have been tempted to try to re-wind a motor to see if I could get a little more speed and more oomph out of the corners. Jerry did a fair amount of exper- imenting with winds, with Mike doing most of the testing. It may be that the wind in that motor is the best compromise for speed and longevity. I could see that a hotter wind might overheat and burn up. 

 

Incidently, the DD motor is great replacement for the Ninco NC1. Very close to same performance and Ninco makes conversion mounts to fit all their chassis.

[Rob Voska]

I don't know what market was targeted with that idea but if you think about beginners, RTR cars, half throttle drivers, etc... it does do one thing. It's simple!

[Dave Crevie]

Can't get any simpler. The problem for us is that it is 1/32, and there is no support for that in our circle. Great Lakes ISRA tried 1/32 recently. Where is it now?

 

The DD cars should have gone over with the basement guys running routed tracks, but didn't because of the Lexan body. They demand highly detailed hard plastic bodies. The truth is that those fine details are all knocked off after the first heat the car is raced. So what is the sense?

 

The DD cars, fitted with PPR tires, were as fast or faster than any of the home set cars. Those guys just wouldn't accept metal chassis with Lexan bodies.

[Mach9]

What is the armature shaft diameter on these cars?

 

Thanks. 

[Cap Henry]

2mm

Guys like the highly detailed cars because they look just like the real ones. How many Lexan bodies, other then a few, truly look a lot like the real car?

People don't like change. The guys are used to and like running/tuning plastic cars with hardbodies, so running a metal chassis/Lexan body is a big change.

[MSwiss]

What is the armature shaft diameter on these cars? Thanks. 

 

2 mm – JK already had rims for that size.

 

Havlicek could probably come up with something.

 

As alluded to in some of the posts, there is probably a limit how fast these can get before they start running too hot.

 

When I came up with the original concept, I used a Hawk 25 in a 1/24 GT1 car. It ran pretty fast, but you really had to watch the tire width.

 

I bought two of these and have pretty much left  them with JB at Downriver Speedway to use in his rental car fleet. His experience is after people try both the JK direct drive car and the Parma belt drive rental car that they prefer the Parma car. I am not sure why?? There is not a much more torturous experience with a slot car than with the Parma rental car. JB thinks people might like the direct drive car more if they just had a little faster motor wind in them. As it is they will barely de-slot on his 155 Grandstand track. So far they seem to be durable as the motor shaft has not bent in either one of them. Perhaps if they were the only type of car available to rent people would like them.

 

They were never meant as rental car. Just something for shorter tracks, and to inspire some basement/garage racers.

 

I talked with Jerry recently and he said they were a pretty good seller, and outsold his regular 1/32 cars.

 

"They will barely de-slot" It's funny but I would say 40-50% of my rentals and birthday/scouting parties are full speed, 100% of the time.

 

Between having adjustable power supplies on both tracks, and using "normal," well-handling cars, I can get all eight lanes on the King full speed, and five or six (all eight in a pinch, by using slower cars on black and red) on the Fiedler Flat track.

 

I get a lot of three to five-year old rentals, and with them having fun the whole time, a large portion of them return. 

 

It took me years to figure it out, but you can (almost) never make it too easy.

[jimht]

"It took me years to figure it out, but you can (almost) never make it too easy."

 

Cruise control racing is popular with both the slowest and fastest slot cars (and racers) and not so much with the in-between.   

[NSwanberg]

Cruise control racing is popular with both the slowest and fastest slot cars (and racers) and not so much with the in-between.   

I did not laugh at this.

[Dave Crevie]

You can't say the basement group I raced with were resistant to change.

 

Of about six tracks when we started, all but one changed from plastic snap-track to routed tracks within about two years. We also abandoned magnets from the very beginning.

 

They even started running some 1/24 cars, and adopted the H&R chassis as the standard for that scale. They stuck to hardbodies though. 

[MSwiss]

Dave,

 

Speaking of your basement racers, Bill Wisvader's brother made a special trip from Romeoville last night, to come watch the races.

He said Bill is fine, cranky as ever, and living in Georgia.

The Wednesday night guys really put on a show for Tom.

The GTP race was nothing special, but we probably had our best Group F wing race ever.

[Dave Crevie]

I saw your post elsewhere here. Sorry I missed him. After Bill moved to Fayetteville, GA, I tried to email him but he had changed his address. Bill and I both ran R/C at the same time, in different groups. We did race at some of the same events, and shared memories of them, even though we didn't know each other at the time. We both ran Delta chassis, and modified K&B 19s.

 

Bill was the most gentlemanly of the racers in the Bensenville group. He was always able to shake off the verbal barbs from a few of the other racers. I was glad to have him as a friend. I often wonder if he still has the sprint car I built for him. He would complain that they were too fast, then handily beat my axx on the oval.