Apologies in advance for the long post...but I have been tearing my hair out over this stuff for the last couple of days!
OK, let's start with the problem I had with a Scalextric Porsche Spyder. I have three Scalextric LMP cars in total:
C3015 Porsche RS Spyder
C3188 Aston Martin Lola
C3195 Peugeot 908 HDI FAP
All three cars are chipped with the C8515 plug for use on my permanent digital layout.
At the weekend I was racing with my brother and my nephew and couldn't for the life of me work out why the Porsche RS Spyder was so handling so badly. The Aston and the Peugeot were a close match for each other but the Spyder was way off the mark. It was coming off so frequently I ended up taking it off the track and we reverted to racing GT cars for the rest of the day.
I have had the Spyder for a while, I got the last one available from Modelzone last year, but only got around to racing it for the first time the other day as I had only recently acquired the Peugeot 908 and Aston Lola to facilitate races of 3 LMP cars on my layout.
On closer inspection, after we finished racing, the Porsche Spyder appeared to have little-to-no magnetic downforce. This was very noticeable when lifting the car off the track by holding the rear part of the car or the spoiler. Checking the other two cars, you could feel the magnetic downforce when lifting the car off the track at the rear.
I took the Porsche Sypder apart and removed the magnet. It still had magnetic properties for sure but clearly it wasn't working properly in the car.
I then took the W8475 magnet out of the Aston and put it in the Porsche. This appeared to be identical in size to the magnet that was in the Porsche and fitted perfectly in the slot.
The difference was night and day.
How can this be so? Is it possible for Scaley magnets to lose their magnatraction, even though they clearly still have magnetic properties?
Also, I looked at the service sheet for the Scaley Porsche RS Spyder, couldn't find one for C3015 but the sheet for the others mentions W8449. This though is a pack of magnets of different shapes and sizes - does it include the W8475? I presume it must do as this magnets fits the car perfectly.
But when I look around on the web it seems W8449 is no longer available although W8475 seems easy enough to find.
After the problems with the Porsche, I then started checking some of my other cars.
To my shock, the McLaren MPC4-12 (C3200) and Bugatti Veyron (C3199), both of which I recently acquired but hadn't run yet, seem to have absolutely zero downforce, even though they are obviously shipped with magnets in them. They don't handle very well at all.
Looking at the service sheets for these two cars, both have W8695 shown as the replacement magnets but everywhere I look I see that these magnets (which are thinner than the W8475 magnet) are not available any longer from Scalextric! Why is that so, when these cars are relatively new?! That's nuts!
The W8475 is not an option as it's too thick for the McLaren and Bugatti.
...which leads to my next question: what about stacking magnets? Is it OK to stack a smaller magnet on top of an existing one? For example, I've seen 20x6.1.5mm magnets on eBay, which would sit on top of the thin W8695 bar magnet in the McLaren and the Bugatti. Would this be OK to do?
I've also noticed that my Scalextric Maserati MC12 (C2904), which uses a completely different type of magnet (W8902), also seems to be lacking in downforce. These magnets seem easier to find, but I still don't understand how these magnets are losing their magnatraction?
And finally...
A question about putting two magnets in a car with two slots - for example, I have 3 Scalextric BMW 320 Si touring cars, they take the W8475 bar magnet and have two slots for them. I do find these cars somewhat flimsy and lacking in weight so I was thinking of adding another magnet into the spare slot.
Would it be OK to add a second magnet in these cars so that both slots are occupied with W8475 bar magnets?
Any comments and suggestions (apart from cutting holes or other similar suggestions - please) greatly appreciated.
And if my questions can be answered that would also be hugely helpful!
