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I'm makin' "empty" boxes..............

Tom - extra pinion press yes.

Zack - What tech tools are you looking for? I have some of the tech inspection tools they use for Flexi racing.

My nibbler is a hand tool similar to the one in Zack's video. Although mine is much older I'm sure. Hell, Zack may not have even been born when I bought mine!

I do have one Stan, but it was mine before I got Goose's stuff. Goose did not have one, or I haven't found it yet, so i don't have an extra. Sorry.

"I kept thinking throughout that "I need to make Goose proud of this one"."

Mission accomplished Zack!

Good job on the design Al! Ending up with all the lanes exactly the same is quite an accomplishment! My old TooBad track was close with only 3/4" between the outside and inside lane. It came out accidentally because I did no pre- planning of that track! It was strictly a build as I went kind of deal. I think that it was only three lanes helped. The Checkered Flag track has such different radius curves it would be difficult to make it any closer, but the lanes are pretty equal at the end and at near the halfway point.

The course revision I have planned probably won't change the equality in length between the lanes. It will only add about 10 feet to the overall lap length. My main goal is to reduce wear and tear on the "dead man" curve at the end of the banked curve section. I'm hoping this revision may also improve the flow of the course as a side benefit. We'll see..........

It's the seclusion............

I don't always think....but when I do...........

That sounds like a good remedy Stan. Although the "everybody runs the same lanes" argument does somewhat apply. I guess it boils down to just how exact do you want or need to be? Before I measured this track out in this manner I never gave it much thought. It sounds like you and I may have a similar anal type problem?..........

After the short straight in front of the controller/driver's stations the yellow lane starts losing ground to the red lane. It has about a half car length disadvantage by mid corner just before the underpass.

After the underpass and into the esses the advantage the red lane has over yellow increases a bit to about a full car length.

The red lane advantage again increases going into and through the chicane.

The red lanes advantage disappears through the hairpin just before the main straight with the lanes being close to equal at the 66 foot mark.

So what does all this tell me? Probably nothing......I'm sure a mathematician could explain it all to me without the need for measuring it all out. But the exercise was interesting to me seeing the increments marked out on the course. It does seem to me that using segments, or counting sections of a lap for scoring, is only equal in the respect that each racer races each lane. Technically some lanes will have a shorter distance to pick up or obtain a section marker as the sections are usually measured from the centerline of the course. In this case that is somewhat mitigated by the overpass which helps equalize the first half and second half of the course. It also illustrates to me that there can actually be quite a bit of discrepancy in the scoring of "sections" as to how far a car has travelled in any particular section, especially given the fact the car by lane designation may have travelled even a longer or shorter distance just to get into a particular section. I guess the only really accurate way of "scoring" a race is by using the system of moving a car to the next lane at the same spot where it stops at the completion of a heat.

In summation I don't think all of this really means a whole lot or even matters at all. It's just the result of me having too much idle time on my hands, although it did give me something to do for a bit, and give me something better to think about!

After getting the lane length measurements I was able to order new braid for the track. I ordered a 500 foot roll of 1/4 inch tinned copper braid and a 250 foot roll from Slot Car Corner. This will give me a little bit of extra braid for any future repairs. I also ordered a new router bit for cutting the recess next to the guide slot for the braid to sit in. I have a bit, but like most everything else I have I have no idea exactly where it is right now. It could be next year by the time I find it.

When I measured the lanes on this track I did something different to get a feel for how the course change I have planned will affect the whole layout. I used small pieces of tape to mark the track at each 6 foot increment. The result was pretty interesting to me as it gave me a better idea of how "equal" the lanes really are.

Here is the 6 foot tape from the tape measurer I used to place inside the slot.

I started measuring each lane at the start finish line. I marked the end point of each 6 foot measurement with a piece of colored electrical tape. This point is approximately one foot into the banked curve, and you can see how the yellow lane already has an advantage in distance covered.

By the center of the banked corner the yellow lane has greatly increased its advantage.

In the right hand "dead man" curve after the bank, the lanes equal out as the yellow lanes advantage is erased. This point is 30 feet into the circuit, or just under halfway around. The first 30 feet of the circuit clearly favor the yellow lane as far as distance travelled (the preferred distance being the shortest distance).

Opening day for the Formulea Libre track in St.Helens was covered in this issue. Monte Saager told me he was there for this opening event!

Here's the newspaper ads for the St. Helens track.