SCX guide, How do you deal with it? Options

[rallyP]

I have 3 issues with SCX cars. The noise, the motor and the guide. The noise we have dealt with in another thread. That thread gave me some motivation and I finally was able to silence a Peugeot 206 I had tuned but was resisting to stop annoying the neighboors. The slow motor is a bad or a good thing depending on your goal for the car.

I am interested now about the guide and hear what solutions or approaches people developed for the SCX guide.

Most of my SCX cars have the original guide, which forced me to put lead to keep the car on the slot if my goal is to push the car. My JWRC cars all have lead on them (they need it and are not that fast).
I have a Ninco track with a deeper slot than SCX track so I did to one guide a suggestion of panzerpilot which was to cut the guide from the SCX guide and glue the guide from a Ninco prorace guide to the guideless SCX guide. Well the car deslots less but still needs lead.

Another approach I did was in a Peugeot 206 that I decided to tune to go as fast as possible with a short can motor. I did not wanted to use lead so I had to work on the guide. My opinion is that one has to use a suspension guide. That was what I did, I put a suspension guide from Ninco and butchered the chassis to make that possible (I had to build a guide support and glue it to the chassis). Anyway this car is fast (let us say faster than Ninco clio), does not need lead to be kept on the slot and it is very stable. But the procedure was brutal and time consuming, not clear I want to go that road again.

What is your approach?



PS. We arrived to the post 1000 in the rally section

[zendragon]

I posted about this on the thread about the new SCX escort, I wish that they would go back to the old system, as this new one is to strong without weight, and makes the front wheels wave in the air.
At least with the old ones once setup properly, they worked.

Regards

Zen

[rallyhub]

Hi rallyP,

You drive with your SCX cars on the wrong track surface.

Ninco track has too much grip for these SCX cars. It causes a lot of understeer.
On my Scalextric classic track, these cars are a pleasure to drive without lead.
The JWRC cars are front wheel driven in reality, and the SCX JWRC slot cars have also a little understeer on my track.
The Peugeot 206 is the SCX WRC car with a lot of understeer. But if you are carefull on the Scalextric surface, you can anticipate your driving style.
It is still fun to drive this car.
For rally applications, I would prefer a Scalextric, SCX or even better, a wooden track.
If you want much grip and scalespeeds above 250km/h, than keep the Ninco track.
For GT and Formula 1 it is ok, but for rally, I like it more realistic., with less grip.

I hope this will help you.

rallyhub


Peugeot 206 WRC on the Scalextric track


Citroen C2 JWRC sliding on the Scalextric track.

[rallyP]

Hi Rallyhub,

Love the pictures, if I saw that Peugeot 206 I would get it in a second.

Interesting suggestion to deal with the SCX guide, change your track brand . You might be right, but it is not possible. I would rather change the tires. (note: cars do slide on Ninco track)

I did not know that if you had SCX track or Scalectrix track you did not have deslot troubles with the SCX cars. I really like my Ninco track and the SCX cars with lead or with my imposed Ninco suspension guide slide to my hart's content so I do not have trouble with the grip of the Ninco track in general. In fact, I sometimes need to get better tires to prevent sliding too much. Some sliding is good but some sliding is just ridiculous.

I would be surprised if the deslots are only caused by the understeer due to the grip of the track surface, but it might be the main culprit. There are many other factors (like bumps, center of gravity coupled with technical elements on the layout,...) that make well tunes cars deslot. A good guide can help deal with them.

[rallyhub]

Hi rallyP,

I know, the SCX cars have more understeer, caused by the spring on the guide.
I drove several times on Ninco tracks, and was surprised about the hudge amount of grip.
I drove cars like the Revell Ford Cortina, who is really enjoyable to slide on the wooden Trio Track.
But on Ninco track, the high centre of gravety caused rolling very quickly.
It is what you prefer.
Perhaps it is very useful for you, to test other slot brand tracks, to get a feeling of what is on the market.
Carrera is also very good driveable.

rallyhub


The SCX Suzuki Swift and the Cirtoen C2 sliding on a snowy Scalextric track.

[rallyP]

There you go again trying to make me switch the track brand . The good thing is that you keep posting those nice pictures.

I have meters upon meters of Ninco track, not possible. Also I am happy with it. I am used to it, so I can slide with the cars on it. I can see that if one is not used to the Ninco track, then one first experiences it the extra grip might seem strange. But I was born on it so for me it is natural. For example the SCX JWRC cars are sliding all over the place. Yes, it is true that if a car has a high center of gravity then no sliding will cause tip overs. I have many cars that would be horrible with less grip on the track, one of them would be the delicious Lancia Stratos (tuned to race), the Fly Racing 911 and so on.

[JEXY1]

Personally i think the new guide on the Escort is fine (better) than the previous versions, there is not as much travel or spring in the guide so less to force the front end up. I drive on Ninco track and the Escort was fine, there is probably less than 3mm travel in the new guide system.

On the older style you can bend the tops of the copper stripes back above the pivot to reduce the spring tension i've done it on one or two cars, but IMHO on Ninco didn't really have too many issues, but Ninco is always going to be the worst offender due to the deep grain surface.

Ran the Escort on Wood last night - great fun, plenty of tail out, not to top heavy and still quick enough.

Gareth

[rallyP]

Thank you Gareth,

I am surprise to be the only one with desires to modify the guide. Gareth do you put lead on the cars?

[JEXY1]

Occasionally. I use Tarn Foundry magnet replacement weights in a few SCX cars and good old tyre weights in others, but not as much as i used to. The faster speed of the new motors does reduce the natural engine breaking so more weight whilst helping entrance to the corners increases braking distances so it's finding a balance. i.e the older RX41 have better braking but slower speed.

I'm sure your not the only one!

Gareth

[rallyhub]

Hi rallyP,

Please do not misunderstand me.
I do not try you making to switch your track brand.

But you gave already the answer by mentioning the Fly Porsche 911.
With some lead in the front, it is one of my favourites on Scalextric track and on wood.
It is really fun to drive, with the center of gravity just before the rear axle, like the real car.

I just wanted to say, there is even more to discover on other track brands, that can give you perhaps also a lot of satisfaction.

I decided a few years ago to switch for my new track from Scalextric to mdf, and learned a lot about both, doing so.
So, keep on having fun on your Ninco track, but keep in mind there is even more.

rallyhub


The Fly Porsche 911S of Rally Monte Carlo 1970 winner Bjorn Waldegaard.


The Fly Porsche 911 of Rally Monte Carlo 1978 winner Jean-Pierre Nicolas.

[PeteN]

I've had no problems with SCX guides on my Sport track, at least on rally or GT cars. I have one SCX F1 car that broke the chassis at the guide.

[wixwacing]

Hi Rally

Check this out:

SCX Rally car 'Hop!'

There is another guide mod to reduce the side to side and ened to end float!

[Slots-O-Fun]

I don't hear anyone mentioning my frustration with the guides. My spring popped off in the first two hours of running my 124. I love the car but if the back end gets too fat out, as a rally car should, contact is lost and the car stops.

Does everyone out there still have their springs? Do you find them effective in limiting the "slide" of the car?

I tried to glue in plastic bars restricting the rotation of the guide but they tend to pop off after a while. Any other ideas?

This is a great car otherwise but I will not buy another SCX so long as they have this guide.

[The Lone Racer]

My new SCX Citroen C4 (62560) has a strange looking guide arrangement. The independant contacts can move from sprung contact with the braids to settling inbetween the braids themselves due to up and down, as well as rotation movement. I am sure this will result in no power, but worse, no ability to corner correctly due to restricted turning by the now inserted contact (I suppose they will not corner at all if there is no power, doh!). No track time yet, but I have run it in.

This is the first car I have noticed with this, but I'm sure it isn't the only one.

[SiRCRX63]

I have all but stopped buying SCX cars, and what a shame because they probably have the cars I desire the most, but I don't have time or energy to fix them. My friends won't buy them, so I end up playing with myself .

They overcomplicate the whole slotcar, I have other cars that have far less sophisticated chasis that run circles around them and bottom line are alot more fun. This is all no mag rally types, the Fiesta and C2 are some of the better ones.

It's time for SCX to get with the program, design a simple well balanced chasis, use proper guides, wheels, & motors. Other mfg have proven it's not that hard to come up with a simple quality design, that has parity between similar cars, because of that simple quality.

Now for the praises, best choices IMO for cars (although they could offer more liveries), some of the best lights, proper wheel sizes (alot of tires fit SCX cars, so multiple tire choices), very nice looking cars.

I can no longer afford to collect these cars because I like the car, I want to run them and if my friends refuse to buy them, well I have enough to last a lifetime.

sorry for the rant, if they decide to simplify things and offer a quality running car, I will gladly start buying them again