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
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
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?
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????
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!!)....
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.
QUOTE (LMP @ 14 Jan 2010, 16:44) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>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.
For anyone with a FLY March. Paul Gage makes lead radiators
My latest project is Nurburgring 1968, Stewart Matra MS10 and Hill Lotus GLTL 49B. Both started as Scaley Siffert Lotus 49s and I have got to the ballast problem. I'm going for taking the whole of the bottom of the chassis out and replacing that with lead. Then putting another lead strip doubler as per your solution 3. I'll see how it goes.
hi, not to far off topic. does lead-brass block the magnetic flux from the high downforce magnetic motors you can get. i was wondering with steel rails non magnet cars you still get the down force of the motor magnets. i want to elimininate that so a car tuned on a home track will still have the same charicteristics on a wood track. my track is ninco sanded with wood outers all painted with acrylic silk matt so its all ultra smooth. thanks john
I've recently taken 2 completely undriveable cars (without magnets) namely the Hornby Mustang and SCX BMW 320 WTCC and completely transformed them with the use of very little in the way of extra weight.
The consequence is I've got 2 new cars that are a complete joy to drive and are unexpectedly really quick.
I love it when people tell you that you've got cars that are complete no-hopers and you then tranform them with the simple addition of little bits of lead!
Very interesting article, thanks for putting in the time to produce it.
Im currently on a similar journey tho I doubt I have the patience to write it up as you have.
Im in the interesting position of having a set(6cars ea) of Scalextric:
Lamborghini Gallardo
Audi R8
Nissan GTR
and pairs of:
Porsche 997
Mclaren MP4 12C
We have a good sized track 10sec flat best times so far. So should avg out times better.
Fast straight/sections and a tight technical section. All boarderd and some with rail.
Independant variable power supply.(set to a known voltage)
Im going to use digital pace car settings which increment in 1% to get a consistent power <-> speed rating for each car.
This will also create a repeatable "off" point.
I will of course drive them myself too and get a good avg lap(1/100) times.
Im documenting the weights(measured at each wheel).
The chassis
the body.
Measure wheel base and length.
Mags out, tyres tuned.
Once all this is done,,, then Im going to start playing with weights
thanks Andy, that was a masterclass in tuning. for trying to equalize car performance. I allways start with tyres I know work and start from there as I,m looking for best possible lap times. john
Its nice how these old threads come back up from time to time and its great to know the work is still useful!!
I have to say that now, after rather more experience in sloting some of what I wrote is probably not accurate but as a general approach some of it is still useful.....
I am fairly new too scalextric, and I have just started tuning a Ninco porsche 997,
which has been played around with before, it has the NC-6 crusher motor, not the
standard NC-5, it has extra lead weight upfront and at the sides of the car, I will see
how well it performs on track.
I guess it is all personal taste how you want your car too perform on track, and
what skills you have, but some cars perform better on certain circuits that have
been built, and depends what type of track that you are running on.
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