Not sure how that works, but you can do the same thing with all the Tyco, Tomy and Life-Like cars by turning the axle over, so the left wheel becomes the right.

Not Marchon though, with those you have to flip the motor over

 

That's not the same thing. I have put the rear axle in upside down on Tyco cars before and the only thing it does is make the car run in reverse instead of forward. With TCR car, the car was running forward, but clockwise on the track as opposed to counter-clockwise. I hope that's a little clearer.

 

If you take a Tyco, swap the axle and then point the car the other way, what happens?

 

This might be an amusing thread...

 

At least we can see what the "crazy" bit refers to........

 

This evening, I will swap the axle in a Tyco car, point it in the opposite direction from the way the car usually runs and see what happens.

 

Sometimes something comes along that makes you question something that you took for granted, and this is just such a case.

I am pretty sure if you take a Tyco that runs around clockwise, point it anti and swap the axle it will now lap 'properly' in the other direction. If you change the power to the whole track, everything will lap the other way. In other words there is nothing special about having two layouts in one.

But the TCR, if you did not swap the axle without realising it then I have no idea how it knows which way to go. Are you sure it can run laps in both directions if you change nothing else??

 

I will definitely try reversing the axle on the Tyco, point it in the opposite direction and see what happens. As far as the TCR car goes, I merely placed the car on the track (inadvertently in the wrong direction) and it went in the opposite (clockwise) direction - I didn't touch the axle or any part on the car. The TCR car will go in both directions without changing a thing on the car or doing anything with the power supply!! If the Tyco is capable of doing the same thing, I will be in slot car heaven!!

 

Sounds like bridge rectifier magic, much like the current Scaley drift cars

 

Actually the TCR cars opperate with two crowne gears nested together one only engages when the motor turns clockwise and the other counter clockwise! With the controller in A position the polarity is one way and turns the steering to the right (or left), when the switch is turned the polarity changes and the motor turns the oppostite way causing the steering to go the other way and engaging the other crown gear. theoretically you could hook your TCR controller to your non TCR track and run the car in either direction clockwise or counter-clockwise by flipping the lane changing switch!

Actually now that I think of it that's not a half bad idea!

 

Montoya1 - I bow to your slot car wisdom. Never in my 50+ years did it ever occur to me to simply rotate the axle on the car, point it in the opposite direction and it would actually go in that direction!! Just goes to show that you're never too old to learn. Many, many thanks for that info.

 

QUOTE (slotcarcrazy @ 16 Oct 2008, 19:40) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Montoya1 - I bow to your slot car wisdom. Never in my 50+ years did it ever occur to me to simply rotate the axle on the car, point it in the opposite direction and it would actually go in that direction!! Just goes to show that you're never too old to learn. Many, many thanks for that info.
Actually, that's something which most scratch builders are more than familiar with - installing the crown gear on the "wrong side" of the motor rotation. This will cause your car to run in reverse (without changing the wired polarity of the motor), so you have to turn the car around to let it run forward in the opposite direction, if you get what I mean.

With most RTR cars, you can't try this because if you flip the gear over to the other side, there is no clearance on the chassis to let the gear rotate properly.

 

As I said, you're never too old to learn - nothing to be ashamed of. I did know that rotating the axle would make the car go in reverse, just never thought of finding out if it would go in the opposite direction on the track. I'm surprised by the number of people that sell slot cars on ebay that don't know the car can be tested with a 9v battery, but, if no one ever told you, you wouldn't know.