Odd Thursday Night Racing (old thread) (Page 1 of 3)

posted by wb0s:
From what I have seen on Ebay and sale or clearance items from online hobby shops, some Scalextric and SCX cars, and most Carrera cars are the least expensive to buy new. Some of the less popular cars like Fly Vipers (or Vipers of any brand for that matter), Fly Starter Series cars, and most brands of F1 cars can be purchased at reduced prices. I don't care much for the Carrera cars, they seem to require too much modification to make them perform well. I'd like to use cars that would be a good durable foundation to start on, that work well out of the box, but can be refined and improved. Cars that have performance parts readily available. I have had good results with Fly cars. Slot.It parts are readily available for Fly cars, and work in most cases without major modifications. I have some Fly Starter Series cars I am working on now. I picked up the Fly Porsche Starter cars for $17 new on Ebay.

posted by Rico:
I would agree that the Carrera cars can be bought cheap and that they are amoung the worst handling, least tunable slot cars.  I"ve heard some of the newer releases may be slightly better than some of the older ones.
I think a single make series, say Porsche 911 GT-1's or Ford GT-40's might be a fun experiment.  Ninco, Fly, Scalextric, Carrera and maybe somebody else make the Porsche's and Fly, Scalextric, Slot.it, MRRC and NSR all make GT-40's.  Another potential car would be 911 GT3's which are made by AutoArt, Ninco, ProSlot, SCX,Carrera, Scalextric, NSR and porbably a few others I'm not thinking of.  Fairly lax rules, maybe standard cans with a max RPM limit, urethane tires and see who can find a better mousetrap.

One other possibility is the Fly DP cars, lots of liveries and some slight variations in body styles coupled with being fairly cheap.

posted by wb0s:
I like the idea of the class being limited to a certain make/model of car, not manufacturer of the "slot car"/chassis. I think it would be fun and interesting to leave the rules loose to see what can be done to improve the cars handling without some much emphasis on overall speed from faster motors.

I was also thinking of ways to help make the newer racers more competitive. I was thinking of a winners list versus a racing series. Race winners would be added to the winners list with the dates and details recorded. Cars would be raced in non-magnetic traction configuration however, anyone who had not won yet won a race and are not on the "winners list" would be allowed the placement of one traction magnet on their car. After their first win they would have to remove the traction magnet. This would make it easier for new racers to participate and be competitive right off the bat. Plus it would make the racing much more challenging for the more experienced racers.

So what cars should we start with? What cars do most of us have already? What would be CHEAP to get?

posted by wb0s:
Up for consideration: a GT Class, which would include GT cars from ANY manufacturer, with the exclusion of Slot.It and NSR to help keep costs down. The rules are simple, a. cars must retain their original manufacturer's chassis, b. bodies must retain their overall stock appearance (no major cutting or trimming), c. chassis are limited to one guide flag or pin only.

A list of weekly winners will be recorded and kept. Any racer who has not scored a win will be allowed to run one traction magnet in their car. Once a racer has scored a win they must race non-magnetic traction cars only.

I heard a suggestion that we should look at keeping the class closer to an RTR type class, with limited modifications allowed to axles, gears, and easily swapped parts. Any comments?

I'll be bringing a stack of GT cars and anything else that strikes my fancy but will probably only have time to go straight there.

That's OK Rico. We'll attack when we see the door go up!

Well, we didn't get a lot of racing in but I think we have a better plan for next time.

We did a lot more bench racing than actual car racing at the first NASTE Tuesday Night Race. However we did establish starting points for the next race.

Next race on next Tuesday July 31st: TooBad Motorplex in Fairview.
I will open the doors at 4:00 PM.

See you there!   ---------------------------Bill

Well, this sounds fun. Don't know how many races we'll get to since Terry works LATE most Tuesdays, but it would be great to do some more racing. Guess I've gotten hooked. ;>}

Oh and as for cars, well... You know me and cars. I don't know them at all. lol

I snapped a few pictures at Rico's during the first NASTE Tuesday Night Race. Use the "Slot-Tech" tab on the main page to get to the NASTE Tuesday Night photos.

I think there are going to be MANY cars that run well in the Classic Sports Car Class. I ran a few laps with a Scalextric MGB today and it worked very well without a traction magnet!

We will be racing at 8.6 volts Tuesday night. That seems to generate plenty of power considering how green and grip-less my track is!

As for the GT class, I'll be racin' a box stock Slot.It Ford GT40. Mostly because I'm lazy!.......................

---------------Bill

Thanks Rico, you're very welcome!

I think Diane must have had The Evil One sedated?

I was very pleased at how close the competition was! There were a bunch of different brands of cars as well as some scratchbuilt between the two classes, but they were all pretty close in performance. It was interesting!

Thanks to all the racers that made it out to race last night! Congrats to Monte and Drew for making the NASTE Tuesday Night Racing Winner's List!

We raced both classes in all three lanes for 3 minute heats with the voltage set at 8.6 volts. The race results are listed below -

Classic Sports Car Class:
Monte Saager - 49 laps - Revell King Cobra with traction magnet
Rico Locati - 48 laps - D Jaguar scratchbuilt by R. Locati w/Stromebecker body
Beau Frazier - 46 laps - Ninco Corvette
Bill Bostic - 45 laps - Ferrari 166 scratchbuilt by Greenman w/Ninco body
Bryan Dickerson - 44 laps - Ninco Corvette
Greg Petrolati - 42 laps - Datsun 2000 scratchbuilt by Greenman
Terry Abbott - 41 laps - Scalextric Mercedes & Ninco Cobra
Tracy Flood - 40 laps - Ninco Cobra
Drew Kinney - 40 laps - Cunningham - scratchbuilt by Greenman w/cast body
Dorothy Abbott - 39 laps - Ninco Cobra & Ninco Corvette

GT Class:
Beau Frazier - 53 laps - NSR Corvette with traction magnet (NSR cars are not legal for the GT class)
Drew Kinney - 51 laps - Avant Alpine
Bill Bostic - 50 laps - Ninco Porsche 997
Rico Locati - 50 laps - Slot.It Ferrari F40
Greg Petrolati - 47 laps - Ford Falcon Sprint scratchbuilt by Greenman w/cast body
Terry Abbott - 46 laps - Slot.It Ford GT40 & Ninco Mosler
Bryan Dickerson - 45 laps - Slot.It Ford GT40
Monte Saager - 44 laps - SCX Honda Accord
Dorothy Abbott - 42 laps - Ninco Mosler
Tracy Flood - 42 laps - Grand Sport Corvette scratchbuilt by Greenman & Slot.It Ford GT40

I posted some more photos in the NASTE Tuesday Night Racing album in the Slot-Tech section. Sorry I didn't get photos of everyone that attended the race.   --------------Bill

There was one rule modification made at last night's NASTE Tuesday Night Race. The tire width rule for the Classic Sports Car Class was modified to allow the stock tire width of the Revell/Monogram classic cars, specifically the King Cobra & Porsche 904. I have made the modification to the rules as listed above.

-----------------Bill