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I think you're pretty close to right on that Rico!

I weighed, checked and double checked. If anything I am a little light of where I want to be. I've weighed everything I've removed, re-located, and added and this puts the front end about 10 lbs. heavier than it originally was in relationship to the rear of the car. With my total weight estimate at 274.5 lbs. there should be about 25 lbs. left to add wherever needed to balance it out at around 60% front, 40% rear. Oh, and I still have PLENTY of lead!!!

Took some time out today from packing to get a little more work done on the Flyer. Time to work on adding some ballast. My intent is to get the Flyer up to the maximum allowed weight of 300 lbs. However I do not want to alter its original weight bias front to rear which was approximately 59.5% front to 40% rear at 225 lbs. total weight.

After removing the rock ballast of 14.5 lbs. and moving the 15.5 lb. battery to the rear of the car I was down 30 lbs. on the nose. I replaced that weight with 57 lbs. of ballast in the way of lead and concrete. The extra 27 lbs. over the weight of the rock ballast and the battery will offset the weight of the battery being moved to the rear of the car (in theory anyway).

So as of today the car's total weight is roughly 274.5 lbs. with a bias of approximately 55% front to 40% rear. Before addind anymore weight I will re-weigh the car using the Official Scuderia Kouba Worx Scales! Stay tuned, we're getting close to done!

This is what 48 lbs. of car lead wheel weights look like sitting in the nose of the Flyer!

Thanks Smooth.

Just for fun, and a little insight to all you NASTE guys in case I should perish before all is moved and done, as I have packed stuff into boxes I have tried to put at least some slot cars in every box. I figured when it comes time to unpack it will make it a lot more enjoyable to find slot cars or something slot car related in every box. So a little insight for my friends, if something happens to me before I get a chance to unpack all this stuff a $100 per box to my widow would be fair to both of you! But please keep an eye on her as I have over 100 boxes of slot car stuff!!!!

I also took time to install a couple foot rests. Having the heals of my feet sitting atop the center pivot front axle was a little unsettling for me. Now I can rest my heals on these nifty little brackets I bolted to the bulkhead. One of the ideas in Dennis' original design was in the case of catastophic steering failure the driver could guide the front axle and direction of the car with his feet until he could get the car stopped. With the foot rests mounted in this manner that emergency action is still possible, although I'd rather not have to find out if it works!

I also moved the front brake pedal over about 1 inch for more clearance from the left side foot rest.

This morning I acquired roughly 400 pounds of lead in the form of used car wheel weights to use as ballast in the gravity cars!

A special thanks goes out to Nolan's Point S Tire & Auto Service in Gresham!

http://www.pointstire.com/nolans

I am so lucky to have a good friend like Chris Kouba who allows me to use his shop where I am totally spoiled having every power machine and tool (except for a freaking VISE!) available to me to build cool stuff! Thank you Chris!

I had almost forgotten you can actually make metal parts without the use of power tools!......And then I remembered, why would you?

Case in point - Mounting bracket fabbed at my place for the Flyer's hand lever operated rear brake:   

This is the completed installation of the battery in its new rear location:

With help from Beau and Rico we successfully completed the registration process of all 3 gravity cars this morning. Our 500 A.M. arrival time put us in the number 9, 10, and 11 spots in line. The car/team numbers are drawn randomly and for a three car team we did very well. The Scuderia Kouba MKI will be car # 2, the MKII will be # 21, and the Hawsbill Flyer will be car # 12. Pretty cool draws huh?!

After registration we went out to The Stagecoach for breakfast and some bench racing. Then we came out to my place to do some work on the Flyer. Again with Beau and Rico's help we were able to get the installation of the rear brake completed and relocate the battery to the rear of the car just ahead of the rear axle.

I'd like to thank Beau and Rico for all the help today!!!

I like the idea Doc, but I am up to my eyeballs in MESS! I just don't think I can pull it off. I have 12 days to finish packing up my crap in my upstairs mess-o-leum, and the stuff in my garage which includes TooBad Motorplex!

Sorry guys.......

========Bill

Unfortunately I need to tear down the track before we put our house on the market and we want to get our house on the market ASAP!

The realtor said the track would be too distracting. He said the guys would forget about the house why they were here.......

Here's how I modified the pedal.

TooBad Motorplex is now listed for sale on Craig's List and Ebay.