51

(7 replies, posted in BSCC)

BTW, this was 25 years ago so I might not survive one again. wink

52

(7 replies, posted in BSCC)

4-hours an ENDURO? wink

I think you've left out the '2' as in 24 hours....

I've done that once in my life. Four lanes, three drivers per team, sleeping bags in the hallway, fix your car when it breaks. I forgot how the lane rotation was set up, but it might have been just four stops to change lanes so six consecutive hours per lane.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/clt/1227153572.html

And Monte for his weight distribution instructions. How could you forget Monte, Randy? wink

Rather than soldering the chicken legs to the chassis strips I cut a couple of pieces of small flexible wire and soldered them to the top of the chicken legs near the motor and to the copper strips that are up from the chassis by that yellow 'thingy' (technical term) between the front wheels near the pickup.

Oh, SNAP!

;-)

57

(26 replies, posted in Cars)

I'd like it but would rather not risk my Cartrix babies.


As for another class, I'd like to see a small zippy class like Monte's NSR Renault Clio he brought out last time. Or a Ninco Renault Megane, or a Fiat Cinquecento to honor the Chrysler takeover....

Oh, I forgot. We'd still drop three races for seasonal point totals.

Randy, my comment about sand bagging is applicable if we change the format to a qualifier and a team race during one night. Everybody that shows up gets seeded only for the team race that night, not for any other night. With the current format sand bagging is not (much of) an issue as you correctly point out that by sandbagging in the seeding races you'll loose too much ground that cannot be made up in the team races. Although, with seeding races on nights 1, 4, 7, and 10 and team races on nights 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 I could sandbag races 1, 4, and 7 since I can drop the worst three out of eleven, and gain top rankings in races 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9, I'd only be looking at races 10 and 11 to perform my usual self.

Theoretically, with 18 racers showing up every night I'd be dropping three 2-point races and gaining six 20-point races. Assuming I'm in the middle of the pack I'd pick up 10 points for race 10 and 11 points for race 11. So my seasonal total would be 141 points over 8 races or averaging 17.625 per race which under an individual race format would mean better than 3rd place every single (counting) night. Most likely a podium spot. Theoretically.

So to recap my position:
shorter seeding/qualifying races first part of the night with an adjustable length so we can go home at a decent hour.
'pole' points.
longer team races second part of the night with an adjustable length so we can go home at a decent hour.
a driver exchange smack dab in the middle of the team race.
I think 30 seconds should be long enough, most teams were able to complete the exchange in the refueling time (10 seconds) or just slightly more, I think 60 seconds will be too long.
add up scores per my example.
award normalized points as show to alleviate Monte's concerns. Next season skip the normalization.

I'm easy and will go with the flow, since I race "For the fun of it!"

Bill, apology accepted ;-)

Andre, I agree we should indeed use the faster car exclusively during the team races. Off-week tuning may improve performance which could be another argument for having seeding/qualifying races every race night.

Monte, we could use this scoring system above and either figure out what the scores would have been for the first two races but that is hard to do since not everybody was there OR we could take this system and for the remainder of the season treat the points as laps and score points as normal. So racer B with 27 points won the night and scored 20 season points, racer A with 26 points came in second and scored 18 points for the season. We'd have a lot of ties but it doesn't devalue the points of the first two races.

Bill, I didn't use the word "enduro", nor did I say we would use the fuel option. I followed Monte's lead in having a longer timed race with a driver change in the middle. I disagree with you that it is all relative and prone to inflation. As you can see there are a lot of drivers between 10~13 which makes for tight racing. Those racers probably never had a shot at the top, but now there are a lot closer together than in an individual race. Call it inflation but it makes certain subgroups more competitive amongst each other.




Racer      Season points         Normalized points (Monte)           Individual race (Bill)                 Normalized points gained/lost by team effort
====     =========         =================          =============                 =============================
A             9 + 17 = 26           18                                              20                                          -2
B             7 + 20 = 27           20                                              18                                          2
C             6 + 18 = 24           17                                              17                                          0
D             5 + 16 = 21           16                                              16                                          0
E             4 + 15 = 19            15                                              15                                         0
F             3 + 13 = 16            14                                               14                                         0
G             2 + 14 = 16           14                                               13                                         1
H             1 + 12 = 13           12                                               12                                         0
I              0 + 11 = 11            8                                                11                                         -3
J              0 + 11 = 11            8                                                 10                                         -2
K             -1 + 12 = 11           8                                                   9                                        -1
L             -2 + 14 = 12           10                                                 8                                         2
M             -3 + 13 = 10          3                                                   7                                         -4
N             -4 + 15 = 11           8                                                 6                                          2
O             -5 + 16 = 11           8                                                 5                                          3
P             -6 + 18 = 12           10                                               4                                          6
Q            -7 + 20 = 13            12                                              3                                          9
R            -9 + 17 = 8              2                                                2                                          0

Here's a point example:

Racer      Qualifying         Pole points
===       =======        =======
A            1                      9
B            2                      7
C            3                      6
D            4                      5
E            5                       4
F            6                      3
G           7                      2
H           8                      1
I            9                       0
J            10                     0
K           11                     -1
L            12                     -2
M           13                     -3
N           14                     -4
O           15                     -5
P           16                     -6
Q           17                    -7
R           18                    -9

Team      Result       Points
====     ====       ====
A&R        3rd           17
B&Q        1st            20
C&P        2nd           18
D&O       4th            16
E&N        5th            15
F&M       7th             13
G&L       6th             14
H&K       8th             12
I&J        9th             11

Racer      Season points
====     =========
A             9 + 17 = 26
B             7 + 20 = 27
C             6 + 18 = 24
D             5 + 16 = 21
E             4 + 15 = 19
F             3 + 13 = 16
G             2 + 14 = 16
H             1 + 12 = 13
I              0 + 11 = 11
J              0 + 11 = 11
K             -1 + 12 = 11
L             -2 + 14 = 12
M             -3 + 13 = 10
N             -4 + 15 = 11
O             -5 + 16 = 11
P             -6 + 18 = 12
Q            -7 + 20 = 13
R            -9 + 17 = 8

Perhaps Monte can format these numbers into nicer tables. I don't know how to do that in this forum post editor.

Since I got pulled into this I'd better explain what I meant.

The current format seeds on the first race and creates teams for the second and third race based on the rankings of the first race. After that, it's rinse and repeat. What I see as a minor problem with that is that we cannot be sure that the exact same racers from the first race will show at the second and third, thus creating somewhat of a discrepancy as the circumstances between races can vary (wildly). By making snapshots of the conditions each race night this will be mitigated. For instance, my car ran way better the first race than the second race.

This will also solve the problem of Randy having to seed new drivers based on their performance during a couple of minutes of practice. I agree with Monte that unseeded racers should be put exactly in the middle of the pack, although if John Gill and John Bostic show up as new racers one night we probably don't stand a chance if they get to team up. ;-)

I agree with Monte that we do the timed segments rather than fuel management. It will give the faster team member a good chance to make up for the slower team member while each will run the exact same time for their $2. I noticed that Byron's team member practically did not use any fuel at all in their first heat forcing them to violate the "short change" rule Randy had mentioned before the start of the race. Had they followed that rule Byron probably never would have run that night.

I liked the team format and I think both Jim and I got a good relationship going but if we are supposed to cross-pollinate  and make new friends in the club we should re-team every race. Bill, I second Monte in denying you a life-time match up with Art. ;-)

Perhaps we can do the following. Each night we start off with two short heats (2~2.5 minutes) as individual qualifying laps. Some software has qualifying rounds already available. We then seed based on the best result of the two heats and run a longer (say five times the qualifying heat (10~12.5 minutes)) team race with a fixed driver swap point halfway through the race. We would award 'pole' points to fast qualifiers (to prevent sand bagging) and regular race points for the team race. A driver's score for the night is the sum of 'pole' points and race points and the seasonal score will be best 8 out of 11 races.

Here's my suggestion for 'Pole' points. Once we tally the qualifying scores and determine seeding for the night the racer (odd number of contestants) or racers (even number of contestants) are awarded 0 points. From there each better racer scores positive one point going up with number one (pole position) scoring one bonus point. Each worse racer scores negative one point going down with the last racer (the tail gater) scoring one additional 'bad' point. This way, the teams all start the team race with a net zero balance but it will prevent sand bagging as the 'pole' points can help or hurt you.

I guess it's more than $0.02 but everybody is entitled to *MY* opinion. ;-)

63

(9 replies, posted in Modifications)

Here's the latest I received from Scalextric.

"It appears that there was some "suspect" material used in a batch of guideblades. They got mixed in with others and are next to impossible to differentiate. The ones i sent you should be of a slightly different material and should be more durable. It seems like there was a batch of a few different production cars that ended up with the "bad" blades. Now it seems like they have worked their way through the supply chain. But we shall see. The engineers in the UK are trying to ride better herd over the production aspect and are also exploring different options."

I have four JGTC cars that I'd plan to use for the digital racing and will probably replace those with Ninco or Slot-It guides.

64

(9 replies, posted in Modifications)

I guess this post says it all.

http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/porta … stcount=14

65

(9 replies, posted in Modifications)

Last night I tested a Ninco spring loaded guide flag and a Slot-It universal guide flag from an HRS-1 chassis. The Ninco is a really tight fit so I will need to drill out the guide post a little (I haven't done this). The Slot-It is a little too big in the front and will require a little sanding on the front edge to make it fit the hole (I haven't done this either). I just ordered a TSP1 guide flag from Professor Motor. This is listed as a replacement flag for Scalextric.

66

(9 replies, posted in Modifications)

I'll check the fit of a Ninco (I think I have one Ninco car) or the Universal Guide from Slot-It. I should have one of those in my HRS chassis.

I also tried to reuse the blue Scalextric guide flags as they are made from a better type of plastic and screw it in because the blue ones are prone to pop out if not secured. Alas, I didn't have the right screw and the blue flag popped out after the screw flew out on the track.

I'll keep you posted....

67

(9 replies, posted in Modifications)

I posted this question to the SlotForum site and I received a very detailed answer with pictures to boot.

http://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.p … p;p=438399

68

(9 replies, posted in Modifications)

I have found the current Scalextric standard guide flag to be prone to failure. I'm talking about the circular style flag with the quick-on/quick-off braid discs. There seems to be two main issues with this design:

1) the easy of dislodging the braid disc from the base and loosing electrical connectivity,
2) the relative brittleness of the plastic used for the base causing irreparable damage in even modest crashes.

Issue #1 can be solved by gluing (or gooping) the braid disc to the base, but issue #2 is more serious and cannot be fixed with glue or goop. After my most recent crash exhibiting issue #2 I contacted Scalextric and suggested they redesign their flags using a tougher (chewier if you will) type of plastic. I am told my suggestion has been passed on to the engineers back at Hornby in England.

Until then, I'd like to start replacing my guide flags with something more sturdy. In my experience it seems the Slot-It brand guide flags hold up better in (violent) crashes but have their own issues with electrical connectivity, although this can be solved with glue or solder. I don't have enough (practically nil) experience with Fly or Ninco brand flags and I think the Carrera flags may be too bulky to fit in a Scalextric car.

So my questions to you are.

1) Do you have any experience replacing these Scalextric guide flags?
2) What brand and model guide flag did you use for the replacement?
3) Are there any tips and tricks you'd like to share?

Thanks!

Used to secure Slot-It and other brands gears and wheels. Requires 0.9mm hex key Allen wrench (sold separately, not by me).

Compare and save!

Shipping at the standard USPS mailing rates. Or catch me around the track at Randy's or Monte's.

70

(7 replies, posted in Track)

Something like this would have been great. I think the price is a fluke. Most of the time you will have to pay (a lot) more for these.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … AA:US:1123

71

(7 replies, posted in Track)

I'd say 3~5A per lane would probably be enough for 1/32 and HO tracks. I would recommend an adjustable supply in the range of 6 to 9 volts on the bottom end and 15 to 18 volts on the top. A cheaper alternative to an adjustable bench top lab power supply could be a fixed voltage (24 volts) high amperage (10 amps and up) power supply with individual adjustable voltage regulators (like the LM350). It does require a little handy work with a soldering iron and a couple electronic components. I picked the LM350 off of eBay for about a buck a piece.

Follow this link to see this described in more detail: http://slotcars.carlsoncomputers.com/ar … r_base.asp

http://slotcars.carlsoncomputers.com/articles/slotcar_powerbase/pictures/LM350schmatic.jpg

72

(6 replies, posted in Track)

From what I know the guy who wrote Tracker 2000 stopped development on it, doesn't want to make the source code available in the public domain so someone else can run with it, and also feels like he can't do it to his previous paying customers to make the program in its final version available. So either you find someone willing to part with it or a bootleg copy (did I say that?) or else use one of the free slot car track design programs.

73

(6 replies, posted in Track)

How do you match the thickness? I measured Scalextric track and found that it is some odd number between 1/4 (0.25) and 3/8 (0.375). It was something like 8.2 mm or 0.323 inches. Not an industry standard thickness in plywood/MDF. I thought about getting a drum sander to make the match better but $200+ was a little steep. In your experience, does the height difference impact the cars riding the apron? If the apron is low do the cars de-slot easier when the rear wheels drop onto the apron, or if the apron is high do the cars hop when the rear tires bump against (and ride up on) the apron?

For HO I saw Bryan's solution of using double sided tape and one layer of HO cork rail bed on top. That created a real nice apron. I've thought about the foam rail bed as it is about half the cost of cork, but I'm not sure if the tires will have more friction on the foam and won't allow a nice power slide, plus I'm concerned the rubber tears up the foam.

74

(51 replies, posted in NASTE)

See the gear charts for the Slot-It cars under the links section of this website.

http://www.naste.org/files/gear_ratio.pdf

75

(1 replies, posted in Cars)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkpA8CKZPH0

YUM!!