[Slotnuts]

Please excuse my ignorance, but why is the Pancake chassis not only still around but seemingly gaining in popularity? I remember my first inline chassis. Finally I had a fast car!
I have never looked back. I still have one pancake but it is so slow it can't even make a backed turn.
Have pancakes gotten faster? I mean I can't believe it's all nostalgia. I watch Tjet videos on utube and they are still as slow as they were in the sixties.
From what I understand AW makes them exclusively and as Dragsters. Do they have more tork, top end? Is it a patent issue? What?
Thank you

 

[Julian_Boolean]

I like pancakes because they are slow and the motor has a very nice torque curve, I also like the handling of magnatractions. It certainly isn't nostalgia for me because I never had an HO slot car until 4 years ago.

Everyone is different and not every one wants to race fast slot cars, going slower can be just as much fun so long as all the cars racing toether are even.

 

[slowracer]

Hi Slotnuts,

The pancake chassis we are racing now at AVHORA, is either the original AFX Magnatraction or the Autoworld equivalent. Using the original AFX tyres the cars still have no grip, but fitted with silicone tyres the situation improves. Remembering the AFX chassis is 30+ years old it takes some selection to find a fast one, the Autoworld effort of course is new but sloppy manufacturing and tolerances mean that getting a good one again is a matter of selection or luck! We at AVHORA have decided to resurect the idea of racing these chassis, all of us having raced or still do race the magnet missiles of today. It really is just another dicipline of the slotcar challenge, learning a new skill of babying a car around a track at the highest possible speed. If you go the AVHORA page of this forum you will see our videos of us racing them in the UK.

Oh and I forgot we like the old bodies too!!

What is your location, in the UK? If so why not come along to our next meeting and take the challenge for yourself!

 

[Gareth]

For me it is having a chassis that is more pleasing to drive at home. I love my inline cars but on a home track, they are just blurs and I find that I'm either holding the throttle at one position for the whole lap or just moving it from memory for a few corners and not even looking at the car for the whole lap.

With a pancake car I can attack the track and really drive the whole lap as well as being able to see the car while I'm doing it.

 

[montoya1]

Do you research Tony, the OP is in Thailand, or at least the business is.

Dragon - T-jets are much faster now than they use to be. At the top end the guys replace just about everything bar the chassis with modern parts. Pretty soon the Theseus' paradox will be complete, as Dash will be bringing out a copy of the chassis.

On small basement tracks, which is the basis of all 'serious' racing in the US even when they have the room to go larger, these cars (and their less modified cousins) are an absolute joy to drive. The ultimate event for these cars is the Fray in Ferndale.

In their totally stock state I agree that T-Jets are pretty terrible. There were plans to race T-Jets in this country many years ago, but the 'brain' behind it insisted the cars had to be stock and understandably nobody wanted to do that.

The Magnatractions are much nicer when close to stock, and with some JL/AW parts they can go well. We have been playing with those for years over here, pretty much ever since JL brought out their version of the Magnatraction and called it the X-traction.

A few years ago Scale Auto decided to try and tap into this love for the older, slower cars (which, as you guessed, is nostalgia based). The result was a version of their inline car, the G3, with weights instead of magnets. It was good fun, but a $50 car.

The G-Jet, as it is called, did inspire people to put brass weights in other inline cars, and for me the best of these is the Tyco-Jet. For me it beats all the pancake cars, The G-jet and it's two rivals, and the Aurora G+ hands down. I only wish I got to run mine more.

 

[Slotnuts]

Thank you all for your thorough replies, and for taking it easy on me. Magnet missiles, I like that. I admit they can make me dizzy. I often stare at the center of the track and monitor the car with peripheral vision or step back a few feet.
I totally understand now and it makes perfect sence.
I wish I know how to answer all of you individually.
I live in Thailand and I knew TOMY has some of their stuff made here. I saw a manufacturing company list them as a client. But we live in a very ironic world. Its super hard if not impossible to get any Slot Car products here. I order my AFX from Australia. There is one Slot Car club in all of Thailand and that is in Bangkok. Its up for sale though. He wants 1.5 million baht (about $50,000US) but I bet he would take a lot less. Google thaislotcar if your interested. Nice guy, Matt.
You can get anything in Thailand. Anything. It may be a knock-off but it can be found. Anything accept a good thick juicy steak or a Slot Car.
Again many thanks for your time and expertise.
Happy tracks
Daniel

 

[Gareth]

That's a huge claim for the Tyco brass car there Deane! I really must experiment with brass weights at some point.

I do wish the designers would come up with better names though. Why do all of the weights cars have to be called Jet cars? Especially considering they are usually slower than the rocketships that are inline!!

 

[montoya1]

Bear in mind that I have not run anything extensively Gareth, just enough to form some opinions.

The weighted stuff really makes sense on the smaller 'home' tracks one sees in the USA, to my mind that is what Tony should be looking to duplicte here, or of course BURN could do it

. A Fray-style T-Jet is amazing, but it takes a lot of time and money to get them like that.

I just found the Tyco to be right spot on, luck more than anything, and just my opinion. Take one set of weights from JW costing a few bucks and add to a chassis you already own, and the end result is spectacular.

The G-Jet is a little too stuck down, it's two rivals even more so. In terms of speed the WHP was the fastest, but if we are talking fun then the Tyco takes it for me. The G+ plus with the orange underside is nice too.

I wonder if JW would do weights for the Mega-G? That has pretty deep apertures into which they could go. that might be better than the Tyco, and the weights would be way easier to get in and out.

 

[Julian_Boolean]

It'd be pretty easy to make weights with tungsten putty - the only downside is the cost of tungsten putty, though a piece of brass and a file could also achieve the same thing.

What voltage did you run the Tyco at?

 

[RichD]

Mega Gs use neo traction magnets and the pockets for those are quite small. Lead or tungsten would be a better choice than brass for the weight material. My club mostly races pancake cars, chalk that up to failing eyesight and slowing reflexes! We have a couple of classes for inline magnet cars, but we have not run tham for several years. We did do a race for G-jets this year, they are about halfway in speed between a really good SS T-Jet car and a regular inline magnet car. G-jets have a detuned armature and are run at 12 volts, but they are nearly as fast in a straight line as inline magnet cars.

 

[montoya1]

The area taken up by the magnet for the Mega-G is small, the available aperture vast if you think outside the box.

Julian - 12V (boring) and 15V (just right).