NASTE Odd Thursday Night Racing Rules & Current Thread (Page 46 of 85)

I will admit my NSR Porsche 917 is an awesome car! And it was like that right out of the box. The only thing I have done to the car is pull out the traction magnet, and loosen the body mounting screws and the motor pod screws just a bit. It even has the original treaded tires on it. It was not as fast as Al's NSR Corvette, but it is really smooth and controllable.

After the motor work I ripped into the chassis...literally. The chassis on wheels sat nice and level. From what I've read online about the Scalextric Bentleys I'm lucky there. I decided to try installing brass side pans instead of using just lead. I removed the molded reinforcement ribs from the chassis to allow for the brass strip. I was surprised at how rigid the chassis was after the removal of the ribs.

Normally I weigh everything before weight modifications are made but I really had no idea where my scales were. I grabbed a piece of .045" x .5" brass strip and cut two pieces for side pans. I glued the pans in place with super glue. I also took a piece of a lead wheel weight, approximately 1/8 oz., and beat it flat with a hammer. I then bent and formed it to fit under the front axle just behind the guide flag pivot point.

I used super glue to cement the rear axle plastic bushings in place, and then gave the bushings the super glue shim treatment while the motor rotated the axle at about 1/3 speed. After this the rear axle slop was gone and the running gear was much smoother and quieter. I used a little bit of Goop glue to insure the motor stays in place, and to also help dampen vibration. During today's work I accidently broke one of the wires off of the rear tailight circuit board. I drilled a hole through the solder joint on the circuit board, re-inserted the wire, and resoldered the connection.

I also removed a little material around the perimeter of the rear of the chassis to try to allow for some body float. I was thinking things were going pretty good but, I was a little concerned about weight. The car now feels a little porky.....And then it happened. While searching for some tools in the attic I found one of my digital scales. On the scale went the Bentley and it weighed in at 114 grams!............CRAP!..........Now I'm not sure that Scalextric motor is gonna push this pig around....Well I guess at this point I will go ahead and finish the car up and just hope for the best. It can't possibly be any worse overall, although it may be even slower...Maybe it will stay in the slot now?

That's all for now. I'm going to look over the rules and see what class I can run this thing in if I re-motor it with something that will actually move it!......

One last note. For some reason while I was working on the Bentley today the old movie Old Yeller came to mind. I seem to remember a scene where the kid is talking to Old Yeller about how the dog eats up the chicken eggs and his father says the dog is worthless. A biscuit eater was the term he used for the dog. Well it looks as though this Bentley may be somewhat worthless as well, a Bentley biscuit eater........Maybe just Bently Biscuit for short...............

Thanks for the advice Doc!

That sounds cool Mitch! My Bentley pig of a car may be competitive with those cars with the stock motor in it!....We'll see at Al's next race.....

Too valuable as a collector piece to me Doc. That is just Ebay fodder. $95 is probably about all you could get for it on Ebay. The vintage stuff I collect I can throw on the track and take some laps...........once I actually have a track up and running............and I find my cars..............

So I was reading on the other forum and one of our new drivers brought up a good point on the number of classes we run. maybe we need to rethink how we are running our race program. for new guy coming to the club it a little of a surprise and sticker shock to see all the different classes we run. I for one though the same when I 1st started racing with you all. .

To do that effectively you'll want to make different race configurations for the different classes or you'll go crazy trying to get the right breakout in for each class every time.

Frankly, I'm all for this idea.  It offers a reasonable limiting factor to each class.

I agree that a separate race format for each class would be the way to go. However I don't think the break-out format would need to be used for every class. I'm not sure the lap records currently recorded would be appropriate to use. You would have to verify they are indeed accurate records and not the result of a rider or the performance of a non-spec car, such as a car equipped with a traction magnet or illegal motor. Any official class lap record should be backed up by additional lap times within 5 to 10 percent. There may be enough data already available to verify those lap records.

I can run 8 second laps all day long...

That rule has been enforced but it has never been used in point series races. It was established as a rule to keep the competition as close as possible in the non-points races. Bryan Trachsel was the main recipient of that rule for obvious reasons, but for the most part it was not due to the car's performance. At one point Bryan was assessed a three lap handicap in one of the classes. We had our fun with Bryan for a couple of seasons, but since Bryan quit racing with us no one has dominated like he did, although Chris Kouba has come close. The rule made more sense when there were a lot of newer racers in the group, whereas now we have more skilled racers. I think the majority of the racers in the NASTE group now, have been racing together long enough that they have all  improved their skills to the point where most anyone can win a race. If the majority is OK with removing it I will take it off the list.

And as we found out it didn't much matter what car Bryan was racing.  But we did have some fun with him.