8 replies to this topic

[Dante]

Why do you use a power resistor in drag motors?

[John Luongo]

Interesting question. I never used one in my drag motors. Maybe to tune the max voltage down for bracket racing?

[MSwiss]

Why do you use a power resistor in drag motors?

Guys do it to slow the cars down, to shoot for better consistency when bracket racing.

[Bags]

They also put them on to keep the motor alive longer. The no endbell motors don’t like the 16.2 volts the drag strip have for power.

 

Keep em green!

 

Bags

[MSwiss]

Maybe on one or 2, but it's more to get the car to run a certain time.

[John Luongo]

years ago i ran brackets with a 40 ford coupe body mounted on an old whisper-jet rental car set up. bored out an O ring 1/2" front wheel and made it a drive pulley. that 36D made for a VERY consistent bracket racer. also very slow. my race prep was to clean all the goop on the starting lane for smoother take offs. would beat grp 7 cars. their light wouldnt go green until i was within 1 1/2ft of the finish line. they had to fine tune their dial-in time, then they would break out. lots of fun, but made them crazy. best regards

[Dave Crevie]

Mike is correct. The resistor tones down starting line torque which breaks the tires loose. Tire spin makes consistancy more difficult. 

 

In bracket racing a low E.T. is not that important. What is important is the the car run the exact same E.T. every run. Plus a slower car tends to make the driver of a faster one red light. He is anxiously waiting to go, why you car is already half way there. 

[sdsacr]

In addition to the above responses about slowing cars and reducing tire spin, I have noticed two other reasons that resistors are popular in bracket drag racing:

1) More consistency in back to back runs. In the later rounds when you have less and less cool down between rounds, I have found the resistors can help by reducing the slowing of the car after repeated passes.

2) Tuning to a 60 ft time. Resistors are also useful for fine tuning a cars 60 ft time. A lot of the better slot car bracket racers find a 60 ft range where they hit the tree with the most consistency. By using different sizes of resistors, one can tune a car's launch to match the range where you are most consistent on the tree.

[Phil Smith]

I imagine bracket racing is by far the most popular type of commercial slot car racing, so obviously there's something about it that's very enjoyable. But I personally don't really understand the appeal. Is there any other form of racing that you intentionally make your car slower?

 

That said, I really like vintage drag slot cars and have accumulated quite a bit of it over the last 3 or 4 years.