I thought I would start a thread for the next season.

What are you all building?

I've started with an SCX Pro Audi with a clear(!) body. (Greg, are you for hire???)
Starting here because this is familiar for me, since I ran the SCX Pro Porsche GT with limited success. Certainly not because I have some inside info.
What are you all running and why?

So now it's time for motors- IIRC we used the Slot it motors last time for under 22K- what is everyone running?

Let's start with these questions before we go to other aspects of the build.

NSR 5208 at Fantasy World

The Basic Rule
Any modification not specifically detailed below is not allowed.

1.    Body/Chassis

1.1:  Any Injection molded RTR that was marketed as a 1/32 scale slot car from the LMP classification.

Preferred List:

Avant Slot:
Audi R10
Pescarolo
Peugeot 908

Ninco:
Acura LMP

Scaleauto:
Toyota GT-1
Radical SR-9

SCX:
Audi R8 (Pro)

Sloter:
Zytek

Scalextric, SCX, and Carrera may also offer choices.

This is only a list of the better solutions and not to be considered a list of all possibilities.  Cars that fit the rules from other manufacturers are allowed with the following exceptions:

Slot.It
Sloting Plus
NSR

1.2:  Chassis must be an inline RTR chassis from the same manufacturer as the body.  Chassis may be braced, reinforced or strengthened.  Minor trimming is allowed for body float.  Chassis cutting, chopping, sawing or drilling is not allowed.

1.3:  Guide may not project beyond the body when aligned for straight, as viewed from directly above.

1.4:  Cars must have sufficient ground clearance to permit free running without contacting track

1.5:  Bodies may be painted in fantasy or realistic liveries.  Non-decorated cars (for example plain white kits) are not allowed unless liveried.

1.6:  Headlights and tail lights are required, but are not required to actually illuminate.  Wings are required at the start of each event.

2.    Wheels and Tires

2.1:  Tires may not project beyond the body more than 1mm when the car is at rest on a level track, as viewed from directly above.

2.2:  Any wheel is allowed as long as the rear wheels fit a 20x10 tire.

2.3:  Rear tires will be NSR SuperGrip 20x10.

3.  Motors

3.1:  Any motor that produces less than 22.5K rpm at 12 Volts is allowed. Motors must be readily identifiable by label, end-bell, sight or other means. Any motor exhibiting excessive performance will be subject to review.

4.  Modifications

4.1:  Wheels, tires, gears, axles, guides, braids, wires, and bearings may be modified or replaced by any manufacturer

But here's the real bottom line in my opinion...

Once again Victoria's car was not moved to the correct lane or failed to get the right sticker on it last night.  Not once.  Three times.  That is almost half her heats.  I'd like to think we can do better than that.

I suggest that drivers stay at their stations and the marshal's move the cars.  Tires generally don't need to be cleaned between heats.  Braids seldom need adjusting.

I think the 10V non-mag racing is giving us our closest results so far.  Speeds are reasonably sane and cars are controllable.  You notice we aren't breaking near as many pieces as we did with the Fly's nor having to spend as much time fixing them.

So what'cha think?

Here are the details.

Cars:  Slot.it C Class cars (these are the ones we all have been buying, if not sure let me know, plus it is on my site: www.beavertonslotcarclub.com).  No magnets, no weights.  Stock motors, stock gears, only lightly sanding modifications on the older chassis to improve movement allowed.  Pretty simple, keep it stock all the way except for P6 tires.

Length of the Enduro:  We run 3 rounds of 40 minute heats x 4 lanes.  This is a total of about 5.5 hours of racing.  Depending on how many show up, we usually run 4 teams only.  Max on a team is 4 people, so we might end up going to more teams if more show up.  This would extend the 5.5 hours to longer as it is based on 4 teams. 

Process:  Each racer brings a car and then the team determines which car they want to race.  If a car breaks down, you can substitute it out for another car from the team's stable of cars.  We use the fuel management system for driver changes.  Track is set up so each driver gets about 5 minutes of racing.  Then the fuel runs out and you rotate in another driver.  All drivers should try and race an equal amount.  Team with the most laps wins.

Cost:  Free.  It is a potluck and when I have a count of racers, I usually assign which group brings what dishes, so we all don't bring the same thing.  If one wants to bring a dish and let's me know, no problem, we work it in.  If we want to have trophies or plaques or something, then I can find out what and how much, and the group splits the cost for that.

Time:  January 22, 2011.  Doors open at 11am,  Tech inspections are at 11:45am, racing starts at 12 noon and finishes when it finishes usually 6 to 7pm. 

I think that is about it.  I need a head count for planning, so if any are interested, let me know.  Thanks.

Randy Stumman
Beaverton, Oregon
Beaverton Slot Car Club.

I have looked at some sites and found that there is a lot of places to buy Porsche 956 or 962.  The newer ones are suppose to have a better chassis.  They are the 03F chassis, the C17A car and the TicTac car.  These cars are called Group C cars and raced in the 1980's.  But also in the group c class are Jags, Lancia, Mercedes Sauber and Mazda 787.  Fantasy has a limited selection of the 956 and 962.  But there is a wider selection of the other cars.  You can go to other sites and ebay and amazon.com and there is an abundance of 956 and 962 cars available.  The cars all seem to come with S2 silicone tires but Rico has the P6 tires which are better grip.

So my questions to you all is this:
1.  Do you want to go with an IROC series if Greg's deal comes through?
2.  Do you want to stick with the Porsche 956 and 962 cars only?
3.  Do you want to open it up to all Class C cars as mentioned above?
4.  Would you rather race a class like the NSR cars?
5.  Other class of cars you would like to race?

Thoughts and concerns about the 5 choices.  In order of least expensive to most expensive choices.
1.  IROC:  this would be the cheapest way to race for next season.  There would be a fee for the cars as I don't think they will be donated.  Not sure on the fee but I can almost bet you it will be cheaper than buying your own car and maintaining it.  And all the cars are equal in the sense we would race them all.  Downside:  You don't race your own car and the deal may not come through, so it would be slightly higher in cost, probably still cheaper than owning your own car though.

2.  Porsche 956/962 only:  The chassis difference is suppose to make a difference in the way the cars run, so if you don't have this newer chassis, you would seem to be at a disadvantage.  There are not many cars with these chassis so we all might be racing the same car.  There are different body kits so we could customize our own cars with this chassis.  This would cost more, but give us an unique car.

3.  All class C cars:  This opens up the field greatly and gives a wide variety to the type of cars we would be racing.  But like most things, when one finds a certain style of car is much better than the others, most will want to buy that one too.  If you have it, your set, if not and you want to be competitive, you would have to buy another car.  This could get expensive.  Other than that, I don't see much of a problem, but that is going to be a big issue.

4.  NSR:  These cars are the most expensive, but seem to run the best right out of the box.  They are wicked fast and stick very good.  Chances are you would not need another car but at $100 a car...  If we find that one type of car is better than the others then you might want another car.  Very expensive option to be competitive.  Limited selection.  Fantasy only has 2 styles of 917 cars.  Ebay has the 917 and a Mosler maybe a Ford.  I am not too familiar with this manufacturer so others can chime in.  But from my initial search, it seems there is not much of a selection and they are expensive.

5.  Got any ideas on a class to race next season?  Now is the time to chime in.  Make sure there are enough cars available as they work and can be maintained.

Please send me an email and let me know your thoughts.  I welcome your input.

Randy

Cars that don't start at the start of a heat

I think cases were the cars don't leave the start line at the start of a heat for a reason other than the car wasn't in the slot is cause for a re-start.  We're not really running for pink slips here and miscues can happen.  In my case last night, my controller failed to work for some so far unknown reason.  Other times it has been someone didn't hook the controller up right, the car was in the wrong lane, someone didn't know they were up and so forth.  I think everyone should get their fair shot.

After they leave the line, anything goes.

Which brings me to the second item:

Cars that stop running during a heat

We've all been there.  A wheel comes off.  A wire comes loose.  A gear strips.  Myriad possibilities here.  I'm not sure the proper answer is to reach into the box for another car.  I think the car you start with should have to be fixed or retired.  And that IS racing.  And car preparation.  As well as luck.  But to reach for another car seems like cheating those that can't or don't feel like affording or bringing multiple cars to an event.  We've all done it, I've never felt good about it.

And my third topic is:

Ties - what to do

Nobody likes them but what's a fair tie-breaker?  Or does there need to be one.  Last night we had a 3-way tie for 4th.  The tie was broken by fast lap time.  Worked well for me but that's just luck.  Might as well time who had the longest off.  We've also had run-offs.  My choice would be to award a tie and give them all the same points.  They all ran the same laps.  The guy with the fastest lap probably had the slowest too.  And of course the average would be...  well, the same.  So I would vote that a tie is a tie.

Next up...

Lane Stickers

How can you not have a lane sticker on your car at the start of a heat?  Someone needs to make a check at the start of a heat.  It can happen for many reasons.  Or worse yet, the wrong colored lane sticker.  Perhaps we need to move away from the timed segment between heats and instead just hit the start button when everyone and everything is ready.

Remember, these are MY opinions.  You are free to differ at any point except here:

Thanks Randy!

Since the junior member of the Stumman team has mostly given up the slot hobby in favor of girls and cars if I remember my teens, Randy is pretty much doing this for us.  It's a nice track and a friendly environment.  It's great to have a nice place to go play on a regular basis.  So I just want to say thanks.  I really appreciate it.

After many sleepless nights, arguments and fist fights, ok I

1.  CARS

Besides the Fly Classics there is another option that we should include and that is the Sloter line of cars.  Here's some pictures:

Lola

Ferrari

These are nearly identical to a Fly Classic:
Black Stripe motor, same gears, same tire size on the rear, chassis looks almost identical.  These cars fit right in AND are still available for purchase new at some retailers.  I recommend them highly.

Here's a link to a guy online that has some for sale.

2.  GEARS

There's some opportunity for variety here.  But it comes with consequences...

Stock gears should be just fine.

Slot.It gears will work.  You need a 19MM Spur Gear.  There are some choices.  You will want to pay attention to the hub size since this will limit the wheels you can use.  Wheels must be inside the body and a stock wheel width will not work with a gear that has a longer hub.

The kits are not a bad choice, but once again you will need to make sure of wheels and tires.

Here are two choices:
SIKK02
SIKK04

So what about TSRF?  Those will work too however they come in matched sets and are really designed for 1:24 scale cars.  Also you have a MINIMUM gear ratio of about 3.53:1.  I'm not sure how well that is going to work against cars running closer to 3:1 ratios.  With Slot.It gears you can get 3:1 and lower.

If you decide to go the TSRF route, Fantasy World Tony suggests you get the NSR axles and bushings for a better fit.

TSRF Gears

You can also use the NSR gears as they will fit.  You should probably get both the spur and pinion in that case.  If you prefer to use the NSR or TSRF stuff with standard axles, you can probably carefully enlarge the opening on the spur gear to fit.

NSR Pinions
NSR Spur Gears

3.  MOTORS

Slot.It orange end bell, or Black Stripe if you prefer.  At 12v the Slot.It motor probably has a little more snap.  Above 12v we are going to have issues because the cars will tend to the over-powered side and become difficult to manage.  With the Slot.It motor we may want to actually lower the power to 11v or so.  I've chosen the Slot.It Orange because it is easy to get and most of us probably already have a few laying around.  Fly parts are no longer easy to acquire for these cars.  I doubt that situation will ever improve.

This Orange Endbell

4.  WHEELS and TIRES

What a hornets nest!  We are going to use Indy Grips.  That part appears to be certain however which ones you choose are going to depend on your wheel choice.  Wheels are going to have to be chosen that work with the gears you pick.  However, if you choose the stock wheels and gears you probably want this one:

Indy Grips IND3003

Here are some hub-less rear wheels that should work as a replacement.

CBD1510-SCB

Here are some choices for front wheels though you will probably have to use the Slot.It low-profile zero-grips to get the proper guide depth:

15x8 Plastic
15x8 Aluminum

You can change the independent, wobbly fronts by pulling the posts out of the wheels and moving to a solid front axle.  Highly recommended in my opinion.  If the front wheels are out-of-round you will want to choose a replacement.  I suggest one of the ones above with the zero-grips.

5.  GUIDE BLADE

The stock guide will work fine, you can also use the Slot.It guides and probably some others.

6.  CHASSIS

Stock.  No magnet.  If anyone is unsure what this means, contact me.

7.  WEIGHT

You should probably add some.  I would imagine a 100 Gm limit to be sufficient.  I'll weigh a few of mine and get some benchmarks.

And there you have it.  Questions, comments, have at it.  I'll update this as we go along.

We are currently running the Fly Classics at Penguin Point and are providing hand-out urethane tires to all that want to use them.  The offer the following advantages:

1.  Easy to true
2.  Excellent grip
3.  Fit the Fly wheels like a snug glove, no gluing needed though you certainly could
4.  FREE

Other possibilities would be to use a silicon or rubber tire.  Personally I think we should steer away from the hard-to-true and time-consuming to do so silicone tires like the SuperTire.  SuperTire also has the YellowDog line of urethane tires if that's your company of choice.

It's also been pointed out that Slot.It will be switching over to urethane tires in the very near future so the time may have come to consider saying goodbye to the silicone tire era.

My personal choice would be to use the free handouts and allow any other type of rubber or urethane tire.  But this begins to head toward tire wars.  So the handout would be easiest.

Then there's the wheels.  Basically the wheels on the Fly cars have issues, mostly with the fronts.  They are out of round on most of the cars I have and replacement wheels are near impossible to get.  We probably need to allow most any wheel that fits the purpose as long as it looks the part.  No O-rings or Zero-Grip rubber bands on the fronts.

Comments?

Ferrari 512S- Any version, long tail (coda lunga), short tail, spyder even the Playboy versions if so desired.

Lola T70

Chevron B19

Chevron B21

Porsche 908/2, 908/3, 908 Flunder

Porsche 917K, 917LH (long tail), 917 Spyder, 917 Flunder?,  Please NO 917-10 CanAm

Ford GT-40

Ferrrari 250LM kit

Any other Fly Classic car with the motor pod like the ones listed above.

Modifications:

Minor blueprinting of chassis and body.  ie light sanding for clearance issues. Stock motor pods required.

Stock Fly blackstripe motor.  It is permissable to cut off excess shaft to avoid tire clearance issues. Some motors apparently do not have a black stripe. If a non blackstripe motor is found to be excessively fast then it must be changed to a black stripe motor. One exception is the black endbell motor found in the Ferrari 250LM.

Stock gear ratio only but changing brands is allowed. Ratio 11t pinion, 36t spur

No magnets of any kind (except in the motor for you smart asses and you know who you are)

Stock wheels front and rear

Stock front tires

Spec rear tire- IndyGrips 3003 to fit Fly Classic

Converting stub axles to straight axles or bushing the stub axles with brass

Lead or brass weights are allowed
No exposed weights.  All weights must be inside chassis.

Any guide flag that does not require extensive chassis modification (ie Slot.it for stock guide is ok.)

Any brand of braid and lead wire.

.040 minimum ground clearance.

No weight limits max/min.

Cars must retain all stock interior and glass

Regards
Rico