12 replies to this topic

[Shruska55]

Just in case y'all only thought I contribute food threads...

 

I don't know if this belongs here. If not, please relocate it. The reason I put it here for a broader audience of raceway owners/resellers than just scale model racing. That'd be preaching to the choir...

 

Chris Tanner at Tyler SC bought an all aluminum  Pro-Track F1 Roller chassis kit back awhile and the Club decided to have some fun. Any Retro/Flexi class motor is way to powerful, so because we also race ScaleAuto, we chose a ScaleAuto SC-0026 Endurance model motor. These provide enough power and equalize the performance enough to make it a driver's skill car. We decided to set up a class to race these fun cars.

 

The chassis kit comes with a clear Lexan body, 3/32f ront axle, 1/8" back with full axle spacers, Pro-Track sponge tires and BALL BEARINGS for $60 retail. The SA SC-0026 is $18. Extra bits required: Pinion, crown, low profile guide, motor pigtails brushes and guide wire tabs at another $12. $90 all in for a decent entry level scale model race car. We had motors and bits from out other parts spares, but the above is about what new might cost.

 

I've followed a few threads regarding what it might take to bring in new racers. On one side is' Speed! On the Other: Kit cars and building to teach. Of course, there is all types in between. For us, we like speed but we also want to have competitive races that don't have blowout winners which happen with unlimited mods of the car.  That's why we like Scaleauto and BRM. We also have Retro and Flexi vehicles, but at the club track we have the most fun with model racing.

 

This kit provides the following for the RTR purveyor : 1) Full roller chassis, 2) A decent motor, 3) a clear lexan body and 4) necessary bits to make the car track worthy. For the Builder/Teacher advocate, it requires the motor to guide installation. So the racer has set up to understand. Weight placement is essential as its an all aluminum chassis is verrrrry light. The body requires painting and decal application. As complex or simple as decided upon. The final issue is aerodynamics: The wing assembly (included with body) must be mounted (mounts included with body) to the rear of the chassis properly.

 

The racer gets the full intro to chassis up building/assembly, weight distribution and aerodynamic fundamentals. Raceway/Owner's might consider running a 'clinic' event with a group who purchase the kit. The have a race to top it off. Start a 'Club" right there...Just a thought.

 

This is a kit car with a limited amount of 'kit' but which takes a little time to put together. Knowledge gained can be used as a foundation as the racer gains experience and considers other classes in which to race. The SC-0026 are durable as heck arel the tires. and chassis. No one race and burn up here. Replacements a readily available. If the raceway/reseller has a drag racing program, they probably already stock the Pro-Track product.

 

No... This isn't a commercial, though I understand if some have that reaction. I want slot racing to survive and flourish. Entry level means Entry. There has to be someplace for the curious to start. Perhaps this is one option.

 

Attached are a couple of pics of mine.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

Scott, can you show us photos of the chassis & how the bodies are mounted to it?

[MattD]

I've seen those and ran one at the commercial track one time.    I don't know what motor it had, it was faster than most of what we ran.   It did run good, but the owner had fine tuned it...    H&R is not my favorite chassis, but for $50 the H&R  RTR is still a good deal.   You can mount any vac body or hard body with included body mounts.   The H&R is complete chassis with all parts.      Not saying one is better  than the other, but one is cheaper.

[Shruska55]

Scott, can you show us photos of the chassis & how the bodies are mounted to it?

Bill,

These are from the Pro-Track website. Home page then scroll down to find it. I've also added their Hard Body chassis as well. We're thinking about that one for future options.

 

Matt,

We picked the SC0026 Endurance basically because we had them and they were sealed motors. The only thing we're playing with at this time is the gear ration. We went with a 9/33 because the tires are 1.07" dia and that came close to the stock Scaleauto gearing.

 

What we liked is that we get to be creative with the body and technical in our setup with weight distribution. Once we settle the gearing, the weight will be the only thing that may be altered. Then it's down to driving.

 

Scott

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[Shruska55]

As far as the body mounts, it comes with standard clips rather than pin tubes. The driver is molded into the body. No decals or other body prep items are included.

ScottH

[MattD]

Figuring out the weight is tricky for me.   About every chassis needs weight in different spot.    Sounds like with motor choice and   gearing figured out you will have even cars and fun racing.   That is priceless.   

 

I'd like to see that chassis with the option to remove the sides and mount a vac Watson body!  Like I need to build more of them.   The  old Watsons were  so colorful and are favorites of mine.   They do mount up to an LVJ chassis  fairly easy.

[Steve Ogilvie]

So will a 16d fit in there? I like the realistic look of the open wheel bodies and the price sounds reasonable.

[Bill from NH]

Thanks for the photos Scott. I wanted to determine if that chassis could be easily modified for hard bodies. I didn't know they had a hardbody chassis too. The last club/home group around here runs hardbody classes only. They been running FCRs & H&R chassis in some of their classes for a few years. I don't know if they are aware the aluminum Proslots exist or if they would be legal to run locally.. It'll be awhile before I can find out. 

[Shruska55]

Steve,

I don't know if a 16D motor fits or not. There may be a little mod required, but we got into them to keep that to a minimum. At the price, it's a decent risk that something you have will fit...

 

Matt,

The chassis completely disassembles into it's component parts. The side mounts have adjustable width with pre-set screwholes or you could take them off. 2 machines screws per side. There are high quality stop/limiter spacers on the front and the back are robust. Weight is also a track by track adjustment as well to suit driving style. That's what makes it a neat product. Set the class rules, then it's all about set up and driving.

 

Bill,

The two chassis, hardbody and F1 are very similar. The F1 has the nose extension for body support/protection, but I haven't seen anything radically different between them. In fact, Chris has a 1/25 scale F1 hardbody tkit that he's going to build and mount on one. Then we'll test and see how we all feel about that. They are about 1/8" thick aluminum and are well built. The rules we set are to make a  an evenly competitive car so that we have fun racing without getting hung up on T(s) and I(s). Of course, it can go that route.

 

Check with Pro-Track on Club sales options or if a reseller, I know that Eagle has them as should any Pro-Track retailers. These are fun little critters for both new and experienced racers.

 

ScottH

[Shruska55]

Here's an update on the Pro-Track F1s in use. These are static pics, but based on the Tyler Slot Cars SlotBlog link, we're running on a 103' Chris Dadds track. (forgive us as we need to do a clean up and reglue, but heck...we're having too much fun!). We are putting together others with additional members, but the original 4 are shown here on the track.

 

The TSC track record is 4.39 sec with a speed car. We generally run just under 6.00 sec to 6.50 with ScaleAuto 1/24. These buggers are running at around 6.00-6.30 and hang in a bunch as the drivers are fairly evenly matched. (At least they let me think I'm hanging with 'em ) .

For this track we have weights primarily on the back, with one member under weighting on the motor bottom, from 133gram to 145gram. No adjustments to lower factory track clearance, but each racer mounted the wing differently. 9/33 with tire OD 1.07" stock, We are going to run these a bit to see how they'll shake out.

 

Figuring out the weight is tricky for me.   About every chassis needs weight in different spot.    Sounds like with motor choice and   gearing figured out you will have even cars and fun racing.   That is priceless.   

 

I'd like to see that chassis with the option to remove the sides and mount a vac Watson body!  Like I need to build more of them.   The  old Watsons were  so colorful and are favorites of mine.   They do mount up to an LVJ chassis  fairly easy.
Perhaps this will give you a leg up on calculating based on the Dadds track, MattD!

 

Financially, it lets us reuse the Endurance motors and factory SAuto guide flags that come standard with the ScaleAuto products on a lighter weight frame.  That's about a $25.00 "savings'. The only flag issue we've encountered is the tongue is fixed and guide swing is constricted. One member solved that by tinning the guide wire and insert into the flag holes rather than use braid clips. With the SA flag, it leaves tons of clearance.

 

They run comparable lap times to our race modified ScaleAutos we run under SA rules for commercial wooden tracks.  They look good, run good and are fun as heck. Plus, while the hard plastic SA bodies allow for some bumping and grinding, these open wheels require a different set driving techniques. It's all good.

 

ScottH

 

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[MattD]

Sounds like you got a winner Scott.   Bottom line is close racing for everybody.   if you got that, everybody is a winner!

[gjc2]

It's great to see companies filling void left by Parma. 

[Shruska55]

So will a 16d fit in there? I like the realistic look of the open wheel bodies and the price sounds reasonable.

 

When I spoke with the Club today, they felt that a 16D can would fit in their opinion.

 

UPDATES on Pro-Track F1 class and ongoing testing.

We're looking to write a set of rules for the what we feel will be a new Tyler Slot Cars Club class. Yesterday, we ran the cars in a 4/3 min heat race to see what works and didn't work in setup. The member running the Chrome F1 on the right in the attached pic, mounted his wing down low like a 1:1 F1. He used a nail polish to slick his front tires. He also painted the inside wheel walls of the rear tires to, as he put it, "keep them from laterally flexing"

It worked well, because he was consistently running laps on all 4 lanes 0.20-0.40 sec faster then the rest of the field both in practice and during the race. He's our most consistent driver, but his car also handled the best today. It simple was the best on the track. (of course we'll seek to penalize him! )  The remainder of the cars had higher mounted wings and no nail polish added.

The purpose of this class is to create a decent, small mod, learn about slot cars and slot racing RTR class. Thus, we;ll probably rule out those type of polish mods, but embrace wing placement. Body placement on the chassis is up for debate as to whether the chassis nose should be covered or not. One car has it slightly exposed to 'protect the body'. It didn't seem to affect performance or become a hurtling missile point. Final decision tabled until further testing.

This isn't a speed car race in the sense that it these are probably slower than most rentals on a King, but it was a very tight contest and the driving skills really held the day. Chrome kept it in the slot and had the best setup. He finished 4 laps up with 109 total in those 12 minutes. The remainder of the field fell 4-9 laps down. Two had driving issues and 1 tech issues.

It was a nice shake out. We’ll definitely do it again and get rules together.

LASTLY:

I'll be moving further discussion of this over the the Club Area after this post.

Tyler Slot Cars is developing a new Facebook page as well as a race schedule to be ready when the COVID magically disappears ( ), We're prepping to be ready. We'll be open Tue-Thu afternoons for practice and are working on setting up a least one regular weekend day monthly race. If enough interest generates, we'll expand that to two weekends a month. Our schedule will be at offsetting weekends from Dallas Slot Cars which was running alternate Saturdays for Retro and Flexi. We assume DSC will be getting back to that schedule so we don't want to compete...except on all our tracks!

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