[GrayHoHoHo]

Hiya folks,

Hope everyone is OK out there and enjoying their HO racing! Haven't managed to get to Derby HO club yet but once I do promise to get back to you and let u know how I got on.

There's another problem I've got. The Autoworld cars have very stong magnets I understand and when I fit them the cars go much faster (generally, not just round the bends) but the chassis gets very hot (too hot to touch) and eventually the speed drops off, even on full throttle. I have to then let them cool off before racing them again. If I leave the magnets off, the cars run slower but don't get hot and don't have the speed drop off. Is this just down to the magnets? Should I perhaps adjust them upwards, (away from the track) a bit?

I've adjusted the brushes to get maximum speed with minimal sparking, based on advice I've already had from here.

Any help (as always) greatly appreciated.

 

[RichD]

I presume you are talking about the Super III cars. Those have not been very popular in the US as far as I can tell. I did a review of the Super III when it first came out. The combination of high downforce and larger diameter tires means that the motor is working hard. For a start put a car on a spare track section and make sure that no part of the chassis is dragging on the rails. You may have to push the traction magnets up a bit and glue them in place. Excess motor brush tension will cause the motor to overheat, you could try backing off on the adjusting screws a half turn at a time. If you back off too much the car will slow down a lot.

 

[woodcote]

The Super III car I had has now been handed back to it's rightful owner. But I did do a few laps with it and felt the traction mags were far too strong. It was not a particularly nice car to drive.

If you can get them up into the chassis that would certainly help.

A higher wheel/tyre height would move the magnets off the rails too. Wrapping a few turns of insulating tape round the wheels might help, but I think the stock rubber isn't flexible enough to squeeze over the tape. If not, Tony at HO Racing Ahead might be able to help you with some big-sized silicone Supertires.

 

[GrayHoHoHo]

Hi Andy, Rich,

Thanks very much for your help lads I'll give it a go. Yes Rich, the cars I have are a couple of Super III NASCAR Chevy Monte Carlos. I think the brush adjustment deisgn is a bit rubbish, why not use springs to automatically maintain correct contact force as in any normal electric motor? Also I understand that AutoWorld don't do spares and I heard from the guy who designed one of the chassis that was botched together with another design creating the unholy alliance known as Super III that this was a "failed project". I've also been warned off AutoWorld and been recommended Life Like instead. I bought the cars from Gregory Braun in the USA who runs the HO Slot Racing site which seems very comprehensive and authorative. To be fair, when I told him about the problems I was having (originally the brushes weren't adjusted up so the cars didn't run properly, also the pinions were a loose fit on the drive shafts) he gave me a partial refund.

Thanks again for all your help

HO racing forever!

 

[RichD]

There are springs inside of the brush barrels, the brush tension is adjustable using the screws. With this system you can remove the screws, springs and brushes without having to remove the brush barrels. We do not race inline magnet cars very much and I only bought one for evaluation. These cars are closer to 1/64th scale than any other "HO" car that I know of. That huge heavy body really detracts from the performance of the car. On my track it adds more than a second to the lap times.

 

[GrayHoHoHo]

Hi Rich,

Thanks very much for the info. I didn't know that and, as they say, "we live and learn"! Am I also wrong about saying Autoworld don't supply spares - I'm thinking primarily of course of the brushes and springs, but also other chassis spares, such as set screws and brush barrels?

Best of luck and enjoy your racing

Many regards

Graham

 

[RichD]

As far as I know there are no spare parts for these cars. There may be a shop some place that takes cars apart and sells the parts. Some parts from other makes of HO cars will work. The Super IIIs have rather heavy pickup shoes and those can be sanded once they start to get a groove in them. Wizzard Patriot shoes are very similar to the Super III shoes and will fit with a little fileing.