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It's so fast you won't even see it!

But seriously, what a sweet runner- it's SO smooth!  Thanks for giving me that extra push Bill.

No car yet but I am in for this madness.  Anyone have a Cox Ford GT laying around???

Chris

More details and stories here:

http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/porta … hp?t=83177

Chris

Excellent John!  Welcome to the circus...

They are a tight squeeze at Bill's but as you've seen, the racing is close and superb!  They may sound bad, but once you've knocked off the mirrors, wiper and canards (dive planes), they are quite robust- especially at our modest voltage.  Don't be afraid to get it out there and run it.

The good thing about the way we have the class set up is that you don't currently need to buy anything.  Just put it together and run it.  Tires included.

The only thing you NEED to do is set the gear mesh appropriately and true the tires (using a single cut bastard file; see the rules, I think there's a post which explains it or just bring it on a Thurs night and we'll set you up), but that's about all you need to do.

You will most likely want to change the gear to a Parma.  The BRM gears work but will chip if the rear steps out under power and then regains traction.  They are for 1/8" axles so there is a negligible amount of slop on the axle and any ratio is currently legal.  I think I have a 32 tooth gear on my inline car.

I have a number of spare, unused gears if you don't have any to try.

That's about all that we do with the BRM's, by design.  It's intended to be a build it and run in type of class.

Chris

You're welcome as always for the use of the cars- I love to see them run side by side, although I believe half of them were yours Bill.

It was a good learning experience night for getting those cars on other tracks and figuring out what to do to keep them "interesting".  I think the handling was reasonably consistent across all participants but I must say I was disappointed with how the stock tires performed on racing surface.  Considering how well the silicone-treated H&R foams ran, it might be time to experiment with some silicone and a set of Scaleauto foams to see how things work out.  It would be a spendy upgrade though and we'd need to see how durable they'd be.

Regardless, it did seem like everyone was having a good time.  No one was there to set fast lap times- well, except maybe for Dave- and there were lots of smiles and laughs.  I'm sure that starting with the 55's also kept everybody's expectations pretty low, so that probably helped.  For the next time, we need to find a tire which strikes a balance between performance and consistency, and with a bit grippier tire, it might be helpful to potentially drop the voltage slightly as well to minimize crash impacts.  No complaints mind you, just thinking aloud for the next time...

Chris

Gents,

Thanks for your very candid feedback.  I will pass it along to Alan.  I had talked to him Mon eve about my feedback and he asked me to check in with you guys.  He is aware of some issues already and was talking about how to address them in the next event.

I emailed Tracy as well requesting his thoughts but haven't heard from him (the "biglog" address?).  If you stumble across him, please point him my way.

Thanks,
CK

An excellent time was there for the taking as a healthy number of Oregonians made a respectable showing this past weekend in Tacoma.  There were 4 official races, two Fri night and two on Sat, with an informal IROC race held as a closer event.  NASTE attendees for Fri were Stan, John and me, with Bill, Monte, Tracy and Mike joining in on Sat.

Most of Saturday's attendees:

L to R: Joe, me, Darren, Scott, Victor(?, obscured), Blair, John, Bruce, Brett, Quim, Wyatt, Stan

First up was a Slot.It Group C race, running any Group C offering from Slot.It riding on Scaleauto foams.  Tuning was allowed with weight and screw adjustments, but it was a fairly controlled class beyond that.  At the head of the pack it was a local, Scott, running away with the race using a #3 1990 Le Mans winner Jag XJR-12.  It was spectacularly tuned and an absolute rocket.  One of the BC boys, Darren, gave Scott a bit of a challenge with his super-smooth 956, but it wasn't enough.  For the first race of the weekend with little to no prior experience on the track for the group, NASTE was represented with an 8th, 14th and 15th place finish.

Slot.It Group C Challenge Finishing Order:

Next up was effectively an open class LMP race, the only three requirements being a scale GT or LMP body, a wing which stays in place or is repaired under green, and spec'd Scaleauto foam tires.  There was a wide variety of hardware on the track for this event, with Darren's Scaleauto Radical taking top honors, followed by a Slot.It Lola, Scaley(!) Lister LMP, SCX Pro Audi, and NSR Mosler.  The NASTE contigent fared slightly better with this event, getting two racers in the top 10 with Stan 9th and John 10th, both with Slot.It Lola's, and I managed as 12th with my NSR Audi R18.  Very tough competition and good racing all around.

LMP Challenge Finishing Order:

Racing on Fri eve concluded in the wee hours of Saturday morning, and the track opened again for practice 8 hours later at 9am on Sat.

With the large number of attendees, the main races on Sat were run as teams of two.  There were 8 teams for the 2 hour BRM race and 10 for the 80 minute Scaleauto race.  Each one was set up with qualifying, teams were made combining top and bottom of the bracket and worked out pretty well and giving anyone a shot at the podium.

For the BRM race, Stan was teamed with a fast local, Pat (my partner from last year), Bill got to run with very skilled Bruce, Tracy teamed with Canadian Wyatt, Mike got hooked up with a very fast racer, Brett, NASTE veteran Monte matched up with NASTE newby John, and I ended up with a local, Blair.

Racing got underway with Darren and Tony clearly displaying exceptional prowess on the track.  Through some stroke of randomness, I somehow managed to run very strongly, trading leads back and forth through the heat.  Pat and Stan also got off to a strong start, playing with the lead mob as well- I remember trying to catch them as they pulled a lead from time to time.  I can't really remember much additional detail through much of the 2 hours, with the exception of my pitiful performance on the black (most techincal) lane, where I tried racing instead of just driving the lane.  I ended up crashing hard into the wall, dislodging the body and gear, and now suddenly I was worried simply about finishing as the rear axle was screaming loud.  Leaders Darren and Tony lost their gear terminally and repaired it under green at a cost of about 20 laps.

Meanwhile Blair and I continued to consistently run our race, tippy-toeing on our gear and trying just to make it to the finish.  Darren and Tony were on the recovery warpath but Blair and I were on the money lanes, they were on black and purple- the two most technical lanes.  Pushing hard, Darren kept trying, occasionally getting back onto the lead lap, but overdriving or having incidents where he'd lose time.  With ~90 seconds left in the whole race, he came out of the slot giving us a 2-3 lap lead which they couldn't claw back, letting Blair and me cruise to finish in FIRST PLACE!  It was a hard fought battle and my most enjoyable memory of the weekend.

In the end, NASTE was well-represented on the podium and in the results.  After two hours, I finished first with Blair, Stan finished 3rd with Pat, Bill was 4th with Bruce, all-NASTE Monte and John grabbed 5th and Tracy finished 7th with Wyatt.

The sharp end of the BRM finishing order:

For the Scaleauto race, heat duration was bumped to 10 minutes due to have 2 extra teams in the rotation.  NASTE was well-represented again with Mike pulling down 2nd place driving with Bruce, I grabbed 5th with Joe, all-NASTE Bill and Stan worked their way down to a 7th place after being the early heats pace-setters, Tracy and Pat got 7th, while Monte and John had a forgetable experience losing a wheel (not once, but TWICE) and with the ensuing repairs, were lucky to actually finish the event.

I don't have the IROC results but it got off to an interesting start.  It was 2 one minute heats per lane, crash and burn style.  Cars ran the first minute until they deslotted.  If they deslotted, they were put back in the slot at at the point of departure when the first minute was up and then the second minute for that driver in that lane was completed.  Crash again, you're done til the next lane.

All in all, there was some very intense racing on a big track to be had with good people.  I look forward to building more interstate competition and having more regional events to attend.

Chris

More info available at SCI, including class rules and tentative schedule:

http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/porta … hp?t=78351

And thanks to Bill and Tracy for doing the driving to get us all there.  It was definitely a good time with good people on a fast, fun track and lent itself to good, close racing.  It seemed like a very user-friendly track to learn and we could concentrate on having fun instead of learning how to drive it.

Very fun times!

Chris