On magnets and weights in slot cars Options

[Doug]

Andrew Rowland (conti_rowland) has sent in a detailed analysis of weight and magnetic force in F1 slotcars.

Click here for the article.

[Graham Lane]

Congratulations on a fine and detailed article Andy.

I had the pleasure of proof-reading this before it was published and must admit I was sceptical of the desired objectives but the 'researcher' in Andy has paid off and now I can't wait to have a race with his cars on the Castello track. I'm even considering buying a classic F1 car myself (did I really say that )

[Scott]

Could do with a "Conclusions" section at the end.

[conti_rowland]

thanks Scott for your generous appraisal!

actually I began the exercise in a fairly 'scientific format' meaning; a) say what you're going to do, do it, c) say what you did, d) draw conclusions

what really happened though was that the study got a bit long winded and I found that any conclusions were different for each car so I added 'conculsions sections' under each car Group rather than at the end.

anyway if you'd like a simple sum up it is that:
1. weights are fundamental to making these cars go well without magnets
2. there is however a 'speed ceiling' quickly achieved beyond which no amount of weight will increase the cars performance
3. consequently the extra 'speed' that the magnet offers can never be truly replicated (which I wouldn't want anyway)
4. tyres are fundamental to the whole exercise
5. original 1960's cars (being engineered without magnets) still go (substantially) quicker than these new cars probably because the guys at Scalextric have never even tried to run these cars without magnets, which in my view is an incredible shame
6. due to the accuracy of the cars' scale its really hard to find places to put the magnets on many models

hope that helps!

Andrew

[zipp]

Andrew,

I read your article. It needs more pictures
You have obviously put some considerable time and effort into this.

Would shimming the magnets with lead (or whatever), to move them a few mm further away from the rails, be another consideration?
This would reduce the magnetic effect, to in turn reduce the amount of lead needed to balance up?

I too like to have a balanced grid, especially on digital, where it is the drivers finger that should make the difference.

There are so many variables with slot cars. That is why we love them/hate them i guess?

Liking the lead rear wing. Inspired.

[conti_rowland]

thanks for that zipp

Soooooo many variables

Yes, magnet distance is certainly one of them, although with the particular cars i've looked at so far the magnet is set hard up against the underside of the motor making your specific suggestion in this case impossible. It would work with cars like Cartrix where the magnet is not close to the motor though - interesting to see if anyone wants to give some data on this????

cheers

Andrew

[Hassy]

Andrew Fantastic Article, I have posted a copy up at our track for club members to read. Thanks for taking the time

Dinky's Digital Slot Car Racing

[conti_rowland]

Thanks Hassy

Sorry for late reply but been busy scrath building over Christmas. Its nice to hear of someone out there who had something positive to say.

I'm surprised really after all the effort.

Seems the forum is more about seeing a new car and saying "oh cool, man, that's really beautiful", and much less about actually doing any work!!!

Cheers

Andrew

[LMP]

The lead wing approach is interesting. On a real racing car, every single part has a funtion. It would be interesting to see how much youcould get away with this on a scale car, of course we know the results with soft 'slot' cars.

[slotnewbie69]

hi there.chiming in from canada,we use a routed wood track with copper tape for rails,so magnets don't come into play for us at all.that being said,myself and the track owner fool around with lead wieghts in our cars,where our other two friends in our group do not.we have found that wieghting in strategic places has made some of our cars more drivable,particularly cars with a high cg.personally,i think magnets belong to the ho scale,as they are by far faster,than your typical box stock 1/32 cars.we use supertires almost exclusively on our track,to good results.mind you we have a relatively simple layout,without many twists and turns.i do not like magnets at all in my 1/32 cars,and when i race on a plastic track with steel rails,i do not enjoy it as much.i like the cars to drift a bit,and we have fun with it.i know drifting increases lap times,bla bla,but we like the cars to drive like the real thing and aren't always going for the best laptimes.anyway,interesting article,all the same.

[ddyke]

Conclusions? I was drawing my own throughout and found them unnecessary. A very worthwhile study. In modern communication theory, the better the presentation the less necessary the conclusion. So in conclusion I am going to the hardware store to buy lead. Thanks for the write up.

[zombie]

Great article, just getting started in running without magnets so this is going to come in very handy.

[Mcewan]

How ironic, I have recently discovered running non-mag and how much better it is! At the weekend I de-maged some McLaren F1's and found it much more challenging.

I was just popping on here to post up and ask for advice on improving the F1 cars and I find this post thats been around for a while!

Thanks, I have somewhere to start now.

[conti_rowland]

Good to see people are still finding it useful - it never really caught on at the time......

The only thing to add is that different circuits obviously have different characteristics and so my specific solutions will need to be adapted to whatever you need.

Oh and make sure you sand the tyres (or change them!!)....

Andi

[distantkiwi]

I wonder why people didn't latch on to this at the time. I know why I didn't, I was too fixated then on the digital setup to worry about magnets. Once I got that all setup I then one of the first things I did was take out the magnets. So much better, like it says in the artical, you feel the driving. You also don't need so much power to make it fun, more skill but also more control.