[Charles R]

Car tuning is as much about making the car behave in a satisfactory and predictable way.

Very true. That's one of my goals... making the car behave in a predictable way.

You clearly enjoy driving the cars and doing a little tuning, otherwise you wouldn't be making these comparisons, changing tires and guides, and taking out the magnets. Take all the time getting there that you like. I'm not at all concerned with whether or not you get there, because I know you will. ;-)

Currently I have a spec... Paul Gage tires, Frankenslot guides and apparently RMS motors. They make the car faster than I can drive them while I still feel in control. The day I can out drive them I'll go looking for something else.

 

[MrFlippant]

The next time you feel like you need to change something to continue to enjoy the cars, take a step back and consider buying a different brand rather than trying to make a Carrera car something that it's not.

 

[Charles R]

The next time you feel like you need to change something to continue to enjoy the cars, take a step back and consider buying a different brand rather than trying to make a Carrera car something that it's not.

What's it not? Doesn't handle well enough, not fast enough or? Actually, I would be interested in what I'm missing. And in reality there isn't any other cars that will run on my track (as is). I have pretty much written-off chipping individual cars as I hope Tek-Slots comes through at some point. I just don't see the value in chipping individual cars. Now if it was the only solution I'm sure I'd acquire one or two at some point just for the heck of it and keep cycling them via eBay. Or if my current spec got any more expensive.

Obviously there are better cars however most of the "betterness" fits other use cases. I don't have anyone to beat (simply race the car against itself), I'm not going to other tracks and if the car handled any better I'd want it to go faster and the current cars are already too fast. I'd pretty much be magnet racing.

Now I don't disagree with you. Carrera cars aren't many things. And I wish I had a four lane two hundred foot routed track to take advantage of the many things they aren't.

 

[crustypop]

my track is very close to 90 feet long and i run ALL my cars NON magnet the fastest cars are nsr f1 with most of my other cars about .3 of a second behind
the fastest lap times for BOTH lane are the same ( near enough )at 8.854 seconds
i have painted the carrera track a mat grey ,filled all gaps with filler and sanded smooth and then coated it all with a polyurerthane clear satin .
it is VERY smooth BUT with GREAT grip ,especially for good rubber ,nearly as good for urerthane

 

[Charles R]

my track is very close to 90 feet long and i run ALL my cars NON magnet the fastest cars are nsr f1 with most of my other cars about .3 of a second behind
the fastest lap times for BOTH lane are the same ( near enough )at 8.854 seconds

Nice flow to your track. Looks like it would be fun to drive and I appreciate the sharp corners. My layout is 81 feet, 7.9 (inside) and 8.0 (outside) the best so far. All Carrera (no magnets) cars with a semi-bad driver. I'm guessing a decent driver could do 7.7... we'll see.

The work you put into the track sounds great. That's a fast lap! Like it's on another level and must handle very nicely based on all the tight corners. Those tight corners are probably why the lower CU power works for you. Do you have any images posted here? I'd love to take a look.

 

[crustypop]

yes it is a very challenging track ,you have to be in tune with the car for the whole length of the circuit ,one small lapse in concentration and your times are way off
for my carrera cars the best i have got so far is 10.3 with pg urerthane
as i said earlier most of my cars are OTHER brands
the difference in them compared to carrera is like chalk and cheese, you should listen to greg
try a slot it group c and you wont look at another carrera ever again
another thing that affects your times is temperature ,if you carn,t get any heat in the tyres then it,s a real battle
some pics of the surface

 

[MrFlippant]

A well tuned non-mag car that holds the track and drives well and consistently is NOT like magnet racing. You STILL have to do all the same things you currently do to keep it on and get a fast lap. There is still (generally) not a hair line between being on the track and having a catastrophic crash (as with magnet racing). "Better" is a subjective term. While some may say that pretty much ANY car is "better" than a Carrera car of any kind, I would simply say that they are DIFFERENT. You are enjoying the hobby for the fun of driving a particular car around and getting the best laps you can get with it, maybe some simple tuning here and there (tires, guides, weight). A Carrera car will never be the same as a car with an adjustable motor pod, or any number of different kinds of designs for chassis and bodies and the link between them. There is more you can do to the Carrera cars, for sure.

Anyway, hopefully the Tek-Slots box happens for you, or you get up the guts to DIY (which is actually pretty easy), or even DIY a switch between REAL analog control and digital (like I did).

But hey, maybe you'll be one of those rare outliers that enjoys the hobby for decades with the same cars he started with.

 

[Charles R]

yes it is a very challenging track ,you have to be in tune with the car for the whole length of the circuit ,one small lapse in concentration and your times are way off

That is next level. Sort of a hybrid plastic/routed track. The elevations are great and I like how you tucked the track just underneath the upper levels as it adds dimension. And a member of the no scenery club! We are hard to find. I'm still far too new to make that kind of commitment. Such as trying to find the perfect layout however if I hang around long enough I sure wish Viper Scale Racing made 1/32 tracks similar to their HO tracks. I looked at them before I purchased Carrera and again I wasn't sure what I would want to live with so the cost was pretty high if it wasn't what I was looking for long term. At some point I might revisit them. I don't mind the smaller scale as long as it allows me to still "drive" the cars.

as i said earlier most of my cars are OTHER brands
the difference in them compared to carrera is like chalk and cheese, you should listen to greg
try a slot it group c and you wont look at another carrera ever again

I always listen to Greg and basically never disagree. I'm sure Slot.it cars are much better. I just don't relate to the mantra better handling and or faster speed equals better driving experience. I'm not saying it can't and I'm sure it often does. In my current state Carrera cars handle and go faster than I can take advantage of so I'm in no big hurry to replace them. In reality what I would probably get the most out of a Slot.it car is its inherent better quality. Simply the "pride" of owning something nicer. Although I'm not a collector so that has limited value.

 

[Charles R]

A well tuned non-mag car that holds the track and drives well and consistently is NOT like magnet racing. You STILL have to do all the same things you currently do to keep it on and get a fast lap.

What I meant by magnet racing is lap times between a lousy and great lap would probably be greatly reduced. Perhaps hundreds versus tenths of seconds for a not so great car. My challenge and or interest would be reduced at the same time. If I can run the exact same lap time every lap what fun is it? Rather I enjoy the challenge of driving every sector perfectly and producing the best lap possible. Having a less than perfect car gives me a bigger window/playing field to enjoy that challenge and lets me feel like I accomplish something.

 

[Groovy]

Just to throw my two cents in on trying new cars: I have several Carrera digital cars, and they all have little handling differences that make them fun/ unique to drive. So no harm sticking with Carrera cars and still having different driving experiences.

That being said, I did pick up a couple of Slot.It and Revoslot cars and I find those really fun too. if you like experimenting, having a chassis that is adjustable is hours of entertainment. Make a change and see what happens. I just took one of the Revoslot cars completely apart and put back together making sure everything was set as true and running as smoothly as I could and it shaved almost half a second off my lap times (no mag). It drives completely differently now.

I went with Slot.It and Revoslot first because they have chassis that are "digital ready" with an IR hole in place already. Wish more manufactures would do that!

 

[Charles R]

Just to throw my two cents in on trying new cars: I have several Carrera digital cars, and they all have little handling differences that make them fun/ unique to drive. So no harm sticking with Carrera cars and still having different driving experiences.

Now I have only driven a half dozen or so cars and they have pretty well fallen in two camps. One appears to have better traction and the other doesn't. A lot of it might be explained by the amount of torque but I don't think that's entirely it. My Ferrari FXX will spin its wheels effortlessly which makes it appear much faster than the Corvette... lap times don't agree. The Corvette handles much better and is dramatically easier to drive. However instinctively I grab the Ferrari after turning on the track... can I tame that beast and run a perfect lap.

I went with Slot.It and Revoslot first because they have chassis that are "digital ready" with an IR hole in place already. Wish more manufactures would do that!

Yeah. If and when I go third-party I'll probably pick up a Slot.it. I imagine the difference will be pretty much like upgrading my Carrera controllers... going from a toy to a commercial slot car. By and large they do the same thing although the experience isn't the same.

 

[Groovy]

Interesting... do you think it's the tires? Carrera tires are like a box of chocolates. Total crap shoot. Over time some turn to goo, some get hard and crack, some do both, some do neither. I have one car with stock Carrera tires so good, the car gets slower when I put Paul Gage or NSR tires on. Go figure.

 

[MrFlippant]

With an open mind, go to your nearest hardware store and look EVERYWHERE, not just in the sections you THINK might have something useful, from gardening to lumber and everywhere in between. If you don't find anything, then do the same at your nearest crafts store (Michael's, JoAnne's, even Hobby Lobby if that's all you got).

 

[Charles R]

Interesting... do you think it's the tires? Carrera tires are like a box of chocolates.

Shouldn't be tires. I run a spec per se which includes Paul Gage tires and in most cases they have even been the exact same size. I think the most obvious difference is the motor's torque. I had two Ferrari FXX cars (identical) and I swapped the fast one's motor to the slow one and it became the fast one... and didn't handle as well (or seemed so since it was much faster). Weight must be one of the other big factors. If I run the cars without their bodies they appear to be much closer.

Now how true (I try my best) the tires are (not even counting the front tires I don't touch), how round the wheels are and other variables such as perhaps the width of the car probably come into play. Even something like how well the guide mounts/rotates (I use Frankenslot) could make a difference. I'm sure others with x times more experience would know a lot more on the topic.

Just yesterday I used the Frankenslot wireless controller for the first time with the upgraded motors and noticed its curve (as configured) is much shorter than the Ram-Jet-X's. Previously I preferred it (with the stock motors) as it took off faster however now it tends to take off too fast... although after x laps I might be able to get the right touch but it would still more difficult.

 

[Charles R]

With an open mind, go to your nearest hardware store and look EVERYWHERE, not just in the sections you THINK might have something useful, from gardening to lumber and everywhere in between).

What's makes you think I haven't? How do you think I came up with these track supports! Five flavors (125 in total) for roughly for $30 bucks.

 

[Groovy]

Shouldn't be tires. I run a spec per se which includes Paul Gage tires and in most cases they have even been the exact same size. I think the most obvious difference is the motor's torque. I had two Ferrari FXX cars (identical) and I swapped the fast one's motor to the slow one and it became the fast one... and didn't handle as well (or seemed so since it was much faster). Weight must be one of the other big factors. If I run the cars without their bodies they appear to be much closer.

The motor differences do make it difficult to set the cars for fair racing. Almost need an independent adjudicator to set the power settings.

I like your "spec" idea where all cars run with the same mods.

 

[Charles R]

I like your "spec" idea where all cars run with the same mods.

Even then cars will be very different. Here's two being pushed and you can easily see the Corvette (yellow) is in another league traction/handling wise.

 

[MrFlippant]

After a decent controller, a tire truing machine that can take a whole axle (as with the Tire Razor, Tyre True, or RSM) is some of the best money you'll spend on the hobby, even if you only ever run Carrera cars. The difference between the same car(s) once both the front and rear tires are perfectly concentric with the axis of rotation can be quite remarkable. That, along with reducing grip on the front tires (super glue, or nail polish) make a big difference, with very little money spent on each car. Also, don't forget to lubricate all the axle bushings.

 

[Charles R]

Yeah - I oil and lube right after the delivery test drive (listed the procedure in the first post). To a large degree I try to keep the cars stock or able to be returned to such. I have/will unload most of them on eBay at some point so I don't want to scare anyone away with too many modifications. Although that might pretty much come to an end. Sold four to a nice gentleman in a couple of transactions and outside of that "traffic" has been light.

I sort of look at Carrera cars like SRX or back in the day International Race of Champions cars. They aren't great cars rather they are made to perform just well enough so you can drive them. Doing much more and I'll feel like I'm trying to turn them into something they aren't. Now if I go Slot.it or some such sure I'll pull out all of the stops and see what I can do...

 

[MrFlippant]

That's fair. When I said "something it's not" I was mostly referring to new motors, wheels, gears, and a variety of other things people typically do to wring as much as they can from a car. To me, glued and trued tires is part of basic "blueprinting" of a car, to make it the best IT can be. Carrera doesn't try to make a car with out of round wheels or tires. But, injection molded plastic and rubber don't always come out of the mold as perfect as the mold is. Even if you left the stock tires and guides on (IMHO, nothing wrong with the stock Carrera guides on Carrera track), and all you did was lube up the bushings and true the tires, any Carrera car would be a smooth running car. Getting a Tire Razor style machine is BECAUSE I don't recommend swapping everything out for upgrade parts. I'm using the machine to put the time into the car that Carrera (and all the other toy car makers) can't afford to put into each car, to make it the car it's MEANT to be. TBH, I'm not sure why you're happy to replace the tires and guide, and not true them, but it's all good. As for resale... unless the car is mint in box, it might as well be properly blueprinted. ;-)

I'll stop now. I'm just happy you're still having a great time with it.