Topic: NASTE for 2010

Let's open up some discussion for the NASTE 2010 Season. Yes, I'm already thinking about next year. NASTE has run the IROC series for a few years now, and it's been great! But personally, I'm ready for a change. There have been some proposed classes already as you've all probably read. Vintage 1/24 cars is one class that has been discussed. I like that idea, but I'm not sure everyone is on board. But here's another thought. With the little bit of experimenting I've done, I'm quite sure we can come up with a non-magnetic 1/32 class of cars, that will work on the 1/24 tracks as well as the 1/32 tracks we currently race on. This would mean we could have one car for the entire season that we could race on 7 different tracks for sure, and possibly an additional 8. Invest and develope 1 car and race on 15 different tracks!? That sounds pretty cool to me! We would have almost a full year to develope ideas for the class, and get cars ready while we finish out our current IROC series. Most of us have a few types and makes of 1/32 cars now. Potential candidates I can think of are Carrera stock cars, and the Slot.It cars we have already raced. Racing them non-magnetic would probably widen the choices for competitive cars. I doubt if any one type of car would be dominant, at least within the specific brands. My first choice would probably be the Slot.It cars since most of us have at least one, they were an expensive investment, and there are a multitude of parts available. My preference would be to go with a spec motor, probably the lowest performance "box stock" motor. Spec tires, either rubber or urethane. Some other specifics might include minor body modifications, and allowing the replacement of the full interiors with cardstock or lexan interiors and driver figures. So, let's start the discussion! Let 'er rip!!!  -------------------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

I like the sound of that.....I also like building some sort of 1/24 car...sort of like an econo car.....same sort of chassis....easy to build.....and run a 60's body on it.......like 1960's nascar..galaxy,daytona,chevelle...ect......and tuck the wheels inside....and get more to scale wheels and tires.......to look like a real car......

as for the  1/32 scale cars........i would like the carrera stock cars..........and the slot it would be nice also in  non mag form....................except  my slot it car is really damaged from the last series........lol......

Is there any interest also on any type of radio shack type of car?........just curious....

"Due to economic cutbacks,the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off"

Re: NASTE for 2010

Bill- Have you tried the Carrera cars on the 1/24 track?  I'm certain we can make the Slot.its run as it has already been done by you and others.  What about a bracket style race format. Let's say LMP style bodies, but no set make or brand of chassis, just a break out time.  That would encourage some creativity and allow for some tinkering.  You could even have more than one class or level that way different levels of ability could compete on a even playing field. It could even be set up as a progression.  I am just throwing out ideas.  I will race pretty much anything,except Randy's ASCARS, (Those old Scalextric Nascars) I really don't like them things.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

Re: NASTE for 2010

Hey Rico, I have considered the "bracket" style racing before. I really like that idea, but I was also thinking of how we could race the same cars on many different tracks. I suppose we could establish a break out time for each track? I think it would be nice if we could have a single class where a racer would have to have just one car. That's not to say we wouldn't have other classes in addition to the "generic" one. I was thinking instead of just running one class at each race, and going through a complete rotation twice, maybe we could run two classes with one rotation each? ---------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

A single class does raise some questions.  Is this same car going to be used at all Naste races? That is one of the things I enjoy at the Naste races: the variety of scales.  I realize it would be easier on the person putting on the race not to have to provide cars, but it would be harder for someone to just show up and race.  I think another factor is that more people have to be involved, there are just a handful of us that regularly post here and I certainly don't have the right to decide for others. Anyway, just some more random thoughts that float through my pea brain.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

Re: NASTE for 2010

Those are good points Rico. As you stated we will need to get input from more people. Quite a few potential classes are already being discussed, so I thought it would be good to get the dialog going well before next season! Maybe a combination of classes and race formats would be appropriate? Something for everyone? And most importantly, who's interested?  -------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

More testing on the BullRing. Here's some results listed worst to best:

1/32 Carrera Roadrunner stock car. Stock wheels and tires front & rear. Body has been lowered on the chassis. Full interior replaced with cardstock & cut down driver figure. Magnets removed. A little lead in the front & rear, low in the chassis. Difficult to control in corners. Slides just a little then wham, on it's roof! Better, but still mostly sucks!

1/32 Carrera Aston Martin (007 car). Stock wheels & tires. Body slightly lowered on chassis. Full interior removed and replaced with flat card stock. Chassis is stock, no weight added. Works suprisingly well. Bettre than the Carrera Roadrunner, but still challenging in the corners.

1/32 Scalextric Taurus NASCAR. Sidewinder chassis. Golf club lead applied to underside of chassis. Rubber tires from a Scalextric Camaro. Works pretty well but needs a better guide flag - too shallow for 1/24 routed track.

1/32 Slot.It Lancia. Offset anglewinder pod. Independant rotating front wheels. Just a little lead up ahead of pod. Stock rubber tires. Not too bad - needs more traction.

1/32 Slot.It Nissan R390. This one has a bunch of lead added. That's about it. Works pretty well.

1/32 Slot.It HRS chassis based stock car. This is the Monte spec TCONY car (see details of mine in the gallery). Inline motor pod. Urethane rear tires. No weight or lead added to the chassis. This thing works great! Very fast & handles extremely well, much better than I thought it would!

1/32 NSR Mosler. STOCK. Anglewinder motor pod. NSR rubber rear tires. Unbelievable! Fast! Handles GREAT!

More to come......   -------------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

Bill, is that running the tires that Glenn made on the TCONY?

Great news on the NSR, I've got one of those.

"Big Smooth"

Re: NASTE for 2010

Yes! That's Glenn's tires on my TCONY car.  ------------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

How about we try out some different cars when we go out to Jeff's next Thursday (the 18th) for NASTE Thursday?

Re: NASTE for 2010

Isn't his track pretty sticky with glue?

"Big Smooth"

Re: NASTE for 2010

I don't remember how much glue it had down. I don't think Jeff applies it over the whole track. I think he tacks it up the same way I tack up my track.   ---------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

Tried out my 1/32 cars at Hemi Heights. Pretty much the same results. If anything their performance was even better on the Hemi Heights surface. The Slot.It  Nissan and Lancia were definately better at Hemi Heights than the BullRing. The Slot.It cars, HRS TCONY, and NSR Mosler were the best, and all close in performance. The Carrera Roadrunner stock car and the Scalextric NASCAR Ford Taurus were again at the bottom of the heap, actually behind the Carrera Aston Martin.    ------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

For those of you that have been following the topic under 1/32 cars, we have been doing some testing of the Fly Porsche GT1 Evo cars as non-magnetic racers on various tracks, including routed 1/24 tracks. My original thought was to have a class of 1/32 cars we could race on the NASTE  circuit of 1/24 tracks as well as 1/32. The Fly Porsche idea came about because a few of us have them, and the reviews of them as non-magnet race cars were good.
However through my testing I've come to the conclusion that Slot.It cars are hard to beat as they come right out of the box! They're handling can be improved even more with just tire changes for the different track surfaces.  I've been thinking, maybe Slot.It is the class we should look at running non-magnetic? After all, most everybody already has them! Here is some added dialog Monte and I have had regarding this topic:

Bill: Maybe we could just spec out one of those "cheap" motors we have seen?

Monte: Actually, I think the orange motor would be just fine.  Everyone already has one of those.  Then it

Re: NASTE for 2010

Some of those white end bell motors are 25K.  They were the Scalextric replacement motor.  I have one in my Scalextric Lister LMP car.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

Re: NASTE for 2010

So what do you think Rico, would spec "orange endbell" motors be a good idea? Frank mentioned last night that Randy had about 15 of them because he has swapped out all his cars motors for the "yellow" endbells motors. Frank said he thought Randy would sell them for $5 to $10, or possibly even "give" them away? Might be a good source if some people do not have an "orange endbell" motor? How 'bout it Randy?    -----------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

Question- Are the gears from inlines the same as the ones from a sidewinder?  I don't think they are and that would create problems for those not able to change gears.  Might even be hard to id the difference. The orange endbells are ok with me.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

Re: NASTE for 2010

See the gear charts for the Slot-It cars under the links section of this website.

http://www.naste.org/files/gear_ratio.pdf

George

--
"Get the shotgun, Martha. The herd needs a thinnin'." - Bucky Katt

Re: NASTE for 2010

Rico, I did a little checking. It appears to me the gear pitch is the same between the inline and sidewinders. The difference seems to be in the diameter of the gears. The sidewinder pinions are larger in diameter.

Could we allow any motor configuration? Would non-magnetic chassis equalize then playing field?

Bryan came over tonight to test out his brass chassis 1/32 stock car. We ran some Slot.It cars for a bit. My HRS TCONY stock car seemed to keep up with his sidewinder Ferrari pretty well. The biggest advantage seemed to be the "red" endbell motor in Bryan's Ferrari versus the "orange" in my TCONY.

Sounds like maybe we need more experiments.............or better yet....LET's RACE!!!!!!

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

20 (edited by reek455 January 11, 2009 9:49 pm)

Re: NASTE for 2010

So what I'm getting at is that a motor that came out of a sidewinder would not work in a inline or vice versa.  So buyer beware on any motor from Randy.  I guess a sharp eye could tell the difference or one could come up with the measurements.  His upcoming enduro seems to be headed towards sidewinder.  What did you have in mind?  Are you planning on using a single chassis (All Porsche 956/962) or mixed like the summer season? A single spec chassis would be simpler and easier to tech.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

Re: NASTE for 2010

I guess what I'm really wondering is would they all be close enough in performance if we just spec'd the "orange" motors? Racers could run inline, sidewinder, or anglewinder - their choice, in any type car. Or maybe designate a body class (i.e. vintage sports car, can am, or endurance?). We'll probably need some more testing to determine how equal the different configurations are in performance. Who would be interested in scheduling a couple "test" races? Maybe one on my 6 lane 1/24 track, and one on Randy's plastic track? Both races would be non-magnetic.
    -------------------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

Are you going to include HRS chassis as I think they would have an inherent advantage.   I picked up another 956 white kit last night on Ebay for $20.00 to set up for Randy's enduro or whatever.  My thought would be RTR cars only, include any that come with orange motor and black pod.  No Nissans, or McLarens- only Porsche's, Lancia's, Sauber/Mercedes, Jaguars.  Maybe even exclude the open cockpit cars, just to keep it simple and not end up with a race of one make like what happened during the summer when you had four red Ferrari's and it was hard to tell which was yours.
I do like the idea of doing some test races on different tracks and am always up for a race as long as the schedule permits.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.

Re: NASTE for 2010

Bill and I had a very interesting conversation yesterday regarding the upcoming NASTE season.  We'd like to get some comment from others.  Bill, want to start out with what we have in mind or should I?

"Big Smooth"

Re: NASTE for 2010

Monte and I have talked a great deal in the last few months about what NASTE's role is or should be in the world of slot car racing. In the last couple of years the popularity of slot car racing in the northwest (Oregon in particular) has grown tremendously. There are many clubs or groups in the area, and many races throughout the year held at many locations. With all these different groups and so many races its impossible to align all the schedules to allow racers to attend all the racing available. For the past few years NASTE races have also encompassed all different scales of racing, which has also added to the complexity of scheduling.

So here's my thought; what if NASTE represented a "sanctioning body" that's sole purpose was to help or facilitate competition between and with different racing clubs? There would still be a "NASTE Championship Series", but there would not be a series of NASTE races. Here's my thoughts of how it could work:

Racers sign up with NASTE to participate.

Each racer's NASTE Championship points would be scored from their best race finishes in (as an example 9) races. The races would consist of ANY race, on any track "sanctioned" by NASTE. So what does "sanctioned" mean? In my mind it would mean any "official" race by any of the established clubs or tracks (i.e. OSCAR races, PASER, BSCC, Pelican Park, Heidleberg Raceway, Electron Raceway, Spare Time, Rapid Raceway, PSSRA, HOPAC). Any official races on these tracks or with these clubs would be recognised by NASTE as elligible. The catch would be a racer can have no more than two race finishes for any one track. For example; if PASER held 8 races, 4 at Checkered Flag Raceway, and 4 at Rapid Raceway, a racer that paricipated in all 8 of those races would only receive points based on his 2 best finishes at Checkered Flag and his 2 best finishes at Rapid Raceway. The racer would still need to submit 5 more race finishes to gain his maximum allowable totlsl of 9. Now if PASER had no more than those 8 races, the racer would have to attend 5 more races with anothe club or clubs to accumulate additional finishes.

I believe this format would inspire racers to try racing on other tracks, and promote interclub racing and competition.

So what's in it for participants?
Track owners - NASTE will post your track information, race schedules, and race reports or just finish positions for the entire year. All we need is for you to send us your information and race results. Track owners do not have to do anything any different as far as how they run there races, how many races they hold, or the classes they race. ANYONE can participate!

For the winner of the championship - You will get your name and club affiliation engraved on our NASTE trophy. This 2 foot tall trophy has been passed from racer to racer for 13 years running now. The racer that wins the series keeps the trophy for one year, unless he is successful in defending his title the next year. And prises! As a track owner I will post a grand prize or prizes that will make it interesting and worthwhile (as if the racing alone isn't worthwhile!). There will be some reward for your efforts.

So why NASTE? Well, we have proven our dedication to the slot racing hobby. We have promoted races with many different racing groups and clubs. Our website has been in continuous, uninteruprted, continually updated, operation for over nine years! .........................and mostly, we're willing to give this a try!

So let's here what you have to say!  -------------------------Bill

Re: NASTE for 2010

I firmly support this.

At the conclusion of the NASTE Cup "season".  We'll also hold the three final EXTRA counting events.  One in each scale run IROC style.  The finale is planned for three consecutive nights with many other features included as well.  Consider it a slot car year end banquet with all the trimmings.

As for sanctioning, the event would have to be posted to the NASTE site at least one month prior to the event to give everyone interested a fair opportunity to attend.

That also prevents situations where Monte and Victoria go out into the garage and call it a race...

And if Bill left out your club or organization, our goal is to make this available to any within the Northwest - Oregon, Washington or Idaho.

"Big Smooth"