80 replies to this topic

[Martin]

Now that's progress. Retro progress just doesn't sound right but I like it.

Still not sure why it took so long to change. I guess we were all hooked on speed, "Just say no to glue" thanks, Nancy.

[Samiam]

Most Wing racing today is spray glue.

 

What body would have been on this chassis in it's day?

[tonyp]

Body would have probably been a Waters McLaren M8D. Air dams at a that point would be a simple wraparound spoiler that ran at an angle halfway to the front tires.
 

[tonyp]

At the peak of full glue racing you needed a pit crew of the following:

One or two people to glue your lane.

A minimum of two people to clean the track braid of glue and the glue off the straightaways.

A person to change motors, as we were changing every heat.

A runner to grab the car off the track at the end of the heat and remove the body while running the car to the pits for a motor change. He would then repair body if needed, put on sticker, and put body back on while returning car to track.

We had just two minutes between heats back then. No way you could go racing by yourself like you can in Retro.

But that was the only type of racing we knew, so it was never though of as stupid, like it is now.

[DOCinCanton]

Tony,

 

Your #29 post spells out why I got out of slot racing in summer of '73. I went to the races by myself or with one rider. Never part of a team that could complete your outline of things to do between heats.

 

I raced one motor the entire race and never glued a lane; simply ran the glue as it was left by the previous racer (the lane was run in for me). All I had to do was to change the lane sticker and clean the track braid.

 

The only race that I attended after '73 was the US Nationals in 1978 when I went with Ken MacDowell to run his new kit car.

 

As Tony said, we only knew the "glue thing" back then; does seem pretty dumb.

[MSwiss]

"Essentially, glue zones limited where on a track glue could be placed down. Af course, any glue I ever had used to track.

 

Glue zones weren't created to limit where the glue went.

Just where it was placed.

There was never an expectation it wouldn't track.

Regardless, Camen Stick-it made glue zones viable.

It is different and works differently, than its predecessors, like Dart.

[tonyp]

Glue zones eliminated gluing the deadman on a King 10 feet before the turn for brakes.

[slotcarone]

If I remember correctly when we first started using glue it was on the outside of the turn and when did it go the gluing the inside?

[tonyp]

Started on the outside, then both sides. The Camen guys came to Nutley right before it closed and glued on the inside right on the lane color stripe. The glued for everyone that day in qualifying and all the records were broke.

[Mbloes]

If we could re-write history and glue had been banned from the start what would have changed? 

 

Probably the most important variable was tires, with a related close second being track quality. I think the glue thing was a response to the crappy Rubatex tires that everybody used. If we knew about or had the natural rubber tires that we have today, there probably wouldn't have been the need for a big glue-fest.

 

Secondarily, (and this is only my opinion) I think that the "center spine" chassis design, was an innovation that provided an exponential improvement in handling over the classic two rail design - to the point that you really didn't need the air control either.

 

So, presuming you still want front wheels, a non-glue car that was still fast would probably look like a late '80s-early '90s Eurosport car.

 

[Don Weaver]

Mike,

 

What the top side look like?

 

Don

[gc4895]

Our glue in '68-69 was mainly "the racers edge" STP.

[Martin]

Mike,

 

You are correct to point out the improvement in tire traction, and maybe glue was the quick fix? My belief is that if trackowners had banned glue the pro racer would have had to developed better tires instead. We did have natural rubber, that's not new, but if you do not want to reinvent the wheel (tire) just make the tracks sticky, that's a lot easier, and then you can spend your time working on other things like chassis and air control and HP.

 

I would like to know more about the spine. Does it help the tires stay in contact with the track via torsional flex?

 

I love seeing new (to me) approaches to chassis design.

[tonyp]

At the time of big glue natural rubber tires were not around. All slot car rubber came from Rubatex and you just bought the ones you liked the cut on. They were all the same. Things like treating was not a concept yet, and not sure if it even worked on that type of rubber which was as I was once told a plastic more then rubber.

If glue was banned except for spray glue things would have still progressed but lap times would not be as fast.

But when we raced in that era, no one thought the glue was bad. Just the way it was.

[Mbloes]

Pic of the top:

 

[Mbloes]

I would like to know more about the spine. Does it help the tires stay in contact with the track via torsional flex? I love seeing new (to me) approaches to chassis design.

 
If you can visualize (better with my "bottom of the chassis" photo), grab the front wheels with your thumb and finger and do the same with the rear. Twist your hands in opposite directions and visualize the motor pod section twisting in relation to the front end. The idea is that the guide/ ront end will remain level while allowing the rear end to dig in and "bite" as needed.
 
While all the cars now are laser/EDM cut, you can see that this car wouldn't be difficult to replicate in '70s brass and wire. In fact, I believe the first cars with this center pivot feature were brass and wire 1/32 saloon type cars, developed in the early '80s in Europe - England in particular.
 
The rails on contemporary cars can get quite complex and be very flexy, like on this late-model 1/32 Eurosport. Unfortunately, they've also gone the "no front wheel" route.
 

[Mbloes]

I was looking for some brass and wire chassis pics. HERE they are.

[MSwiss]

You're mixing too many genres of cars and eras.

You're saying guys should have glued less, or not at all, in the '70s, for rubber that wasn't available until the early '90s.

The center spine was a chassis innovation that was invented for low downforce bodies on twisty flat tracks.

You would have never seen a chassis that heavy, under a G7 wing car, with full air control.

There was a spray glue series in this area in the early '90s, with about 8-10 raceways participating.

The G7 end of it was the least popular. Not just because of the cost of the motor.

It was the worst racing because guys couldn't stay on in the tight turns.

Too many controllers getting crazy hot, from driving partial speed, too much.

Too many angry trackowners, from cars dragging at the end of the heat, from the cars burning off their soft fish rubber.

Guys would reguarly drop out, mid-race, after going through the three or four pairs of usable tires in their box.

[Mbloes]

All I'm saying, Mike, is that a scenario that might have avoided the whole glue thing might look like:

• Natural tires
• Nice track surface
• Front tires that still touch
• And a chassis that developed down the Eurosport road instead of the perimeter wing car road.

And we raced center-spine cars on King tracks. That car (above) is an early Slick 7 and was developed on Rudy Garriga's personal King track. I mean, if a King track was on our race schedule, we raced on it.

[MSwiss]

I'll try again.

Glue started in the late 60's.

Smoooth tracks were not common until about 1983.

When I got back into racing, in late 81, there was 1 Haase King in the country, at P.A. Watson's.

Fish rubber didn't hit the scene until the early 90's, possibly real late 80's.

What would of guys done between 1969 and 1990?

Spin their tires?

Spray glue, in G7, is only a viable thing now, because of real smooth, fast tracks, and better and heavier spray techniques.

No fast 1/24 racing, be it Group F wing cars, with $14 motors, or Eurosport, is going on, on glueless tracks.

[Mbloes]

I understand the timeline.  I've actually been involved for a while, too.

 

It was just a little, post-cocktail, what-if hypothesizing in response to Martin's question.

[MSwiss]

I like what if scenario's too, but yours was like "they could of avoided the whole missed lap thing" in 1969, if they had a DOS system computer and an SRT program.

[Mbloes]

Not really, Mike.

 

Everything that I mentioned was well within the technology of the time.

 

• Natural rubber probably existed; it just wasn't applied to slot car tires.
• Smoother tracks certainly could have been made with a little more effort.
• Even though my photo is of an EDM chassis, I was really just emphasizing the concept of a center spine.  A chassis with this feature easily could have been made using existing brass & wire, had somebody thought of the concept.

 

That's all I was trying to say.

[MSwiss]

I guess the 1 million+ production of cars like the Manta Ray, didn't justify the slot car producers to get off of their butt and figure out where the heck fish rubber was, and how to purchase it.

Maybe if they were producing 10 million Manta Ray's and 10 times as many of the other RTR cars, we would of seen it. Lol

As far as smooth tracks, that the "not try very hard" carpenters, of the 60's, weren't making, part of their excuse was not having MDF.

From the MDF Wikipedia page

"Large-scale production of MDF began in the 1980s, in both North America and Europe."

[Mbloes]

Mike, I don't know what to say, I think you're reading into it too much.

 

But as far as the early producers and tires, sometimes it's just a matter of a lightbulb going off, like mounting from the can instead of the endbell, or soldering in the motor.  Maybe making swirly silicones on chrome-plated plastic rims was more of a priority than traction - who knows.  Regardless, the notion of using fresh rubber in 1968 I don't think is that farfetched.

 

"More effort" was probably an unfortunate choice of words with respect to trackbuilders of the time.  I guess I was referring to something like removing the humps out of the straights.  I know that raceworthy tracks existed at the time.

 

 

I guess what I am saying, big-picture, is that the scene evolving in a different direction was a distinct possibility with a tweak to a few variables, had we thought of them.  Mine may be the ones or there may be others, I was just throwing some ideas out.

 

 

On the other hand, the notion that the scene evolved the way it did because absolutely no other scenario was possible, is ridicuous.