[Martyn_]

I was recently lucky enough to have two National champs help me set up some cars.

I was just wondering what other members do to try and help the handling of their cars, and I have been in a PM discussion with another forum member asking me exactly how I had been shown to do this. Pictures being worth a thousand words and all that, so here are my pics.

First off I was given a very fast lesson in how to sort out a rally car. Weight added to nose to help keep the guide in the slot, motor mount glued to stop it popping out and balast wedged alongside the inline motor to stop it rocking too much and also help keep it from tipping over too readily.

This car ran like a dream at my first ever Rally event.

Following on from this, I then tried something similar with two cars I wanted to drive around Aberstone National at Wye Valley. When I showed one of the above mentioned my efforts, he was very good and didn't burst out laughing.

The results below are what he suggested. The Porsche 906 has about 4 grammes at the moment, but this is only because it has very accurately modelled tyres for the period - that is, monster balloons! As soon as I get some decent NSR tyres on, I can drastically reduce the weight.

The Mazda again has a little too much in this photo, I've since reduced it to about 2 grammes.

Both run significantly better than previously.

Show us what you do with yours.

 

[MrFlippant]

I'm definitely no expert on weighting a car, but my small experience tells me that it differs from car to car. It would be cool to have a "how to weight XXX car" resource, but even then it depends on the track the car runs on, and even the voltage and controller being used.

Every car, therefore, is its own monster to tame. What I do is run the car out of the box. I then weight according to the things you've already mentioned learning.
1 - if it tips too much and rolls, put some weight down low and to the back.
2 - if it slides too much, put some weight up high
3 - if it seems to have no traction at all, weight in the back
4 - if it deslots easily or jumps out of the slot on acceleration, put weight up front
5 - if it has a pod and keeps tipping out, tighten up the pod play
6 - if it has a pod and slides all over the place, give the pod more play

These all depend entirely on the track as well. For example, in the PSSRA, we're running a variety of LMP cars. I ended up with an SCX car. I did some work on it to give the motor pod a TON of play. This worked GREAT on my sport track. When I ran the same car on classic, it was bicycling up and out of the slot all over the place. I put weight up front to help at the previous classic track race night, but it was a track with shorter straights and so I rarely got up to the same speed. Also, this track had fixed voltage PSUs and was therefore faster. The weight up front didn't help at all. I realized that the pod had too much play and so I taped it. A single piece of tape across the bottom of the chassis going across the motor pod to reduce play and kind of act as a shock absorber as well. After that I did so much better I ended up winning a heat or two, against much better cars than mine.

Even with weight in the front, I have cars that will wheelie out of the slot on full acceleration. I have to consciously control my trigger finger, or turn the anti-spin all the way up on my controller to help avoid it.

For the Slot.it Group C cars we're running in DRAWW (magless on Sport track), a few of us found that the P6 tires didn't have as much grip as we like, and that a small amount of weight up high would give us enough tip in the turns to increase traction on the outside wheel.

 

[Martyn_]

Greg, as always, a thoughtful and well written post containing a wealth of useful information for us novice racers.
Thanks for taking the time to help.