[Difflock]

Just bought a Scalextric Dallara Indy car last week - beautiful bright red Coca Cola livery. I have to say that so far I'm quite pleased with it, very little fettling needed out of the box. Scalextric have attempted a degree of suspension and brake detailing and to my mind this works well.
The rear tyres and wheels were round, in as much as the tyres didn't need a lot of truing, although I would suggest glueing them to the rims. I didn't put the car on the track (Slot Tech) with its standard pinion because I happened to have a spare 10 tooth pinion in my slot box

. For a standard Scaley motor its speed and smoothness is quite impressive whilst the magnet ensures that the car is extremely stuck down. However, tailslides can still occur, but there isn't much the driver can do to correct them due to the speed- either the car corrects itself or does a nice pirouette!

I did find that the car's durability seems to be less that that of my SCX Arrows F1 though. On one occasion I left the braking way too late at the end of Slot Tech's main straight (OK I was in a trance!) so off she went and bounced off the barrier. One side of the front wing was hanging by a small piece of plastic and one of the front suspension arms had snapped. Thank you cyanoacrylate!

Not sure if I can change the guide for a better one, but apart from that I'll see how the car performs in Slot Tech's F1 series which we are running this year! Indy cars are allowed - they have wings and slicks and look very similar to F1 cars after all. I was glad to hear this because Scalextric Indy cars are currently in the shops at £15 rather than £26 or so for an F1.

In addition, Scalextric's Racer magazine's new membership car is a Dallara Indy with special Scaley blue and yellow livery which looks great IMHO. Hopefully, I'll get one once the membership renewals have calmed down

One question though. I've not had chance to try the car without it's magnet (roll on this weeks' session at Slot Tech). Just wondering if any of you have tried it and what were the results?

Mark.

 

[gecko]

I would agree that the Scaley Indy Cars are very good, I myself have all of them except the 'Coca-Cola' version that Difflock has, and have even re-liveried one of the USA issue white ones into a 7-Eleven driven by Dario Franchetti.

All in all they are good sturdy racers, and the IRL official version (Red Bull, Pennzoil etc.) are rather attractive designs. Nice one Scaley, keep up the good work.

Mark

 

[ddyke]

Scaley needs to make the Mark Taylor (an imperialistic Brit) Menards car.

Dan

 

[peter]

I do not have a Scalex indy car yet so I would also be interested in some comparision.

The following is my experience when taking out the magnets but doing absolutely nothing to the cars otherwise...

My experience of recent F1 and 'Single seaters' is that the F1 ones did not run as well straight out of the box without magnet as the 'single seaters'. The main reasons for this seems to be the tyres. Also the single seaters seem to have better acceleration than the F1 - where the F1 seems to have better top spead. But since the original single seaters have a much better grip they are faster on my track overall. My track has often one long straight and then curves for most of the rest...

As you can see I am focusing on the 'little jonny' variants of experience and 'tests'.

//peter

 

[ProfFate]

Hi

I race on a 125' routed 8 lane commercial track with them with race averages of 8.3 seconds a lap. I have been pretty well dominating the class. If I loan a car, the result is often 1-2.
Obviously without magnets.
First I did a pair of "L" shaped brass wire bits to put on the bottom of the wing and along the inside of the nose. The track has one very fast bank turn and if someone gets off and tape you, the wall will take the wing. Thus the wire.
All my cars have about 7gms of weight just behind or on either side of the driver inside the tub. All my cars have silicone tires, which means that in 15 races, Ihavent had to do anything in that area.
I have seen various other F1s from the cheap 15 buck fantasy cars, through the proper modern Sports almost keep up. Some even seem they might be faster but all fail to win because of driveability problems.

Fate

 

[JohnP]

I think these are great cars. In my experience they run and handle really well straight from the box and the detailing at the price is quite remarkable

 

[compound_goose]

a great mod for the single seat racers is to cut out a hole in the chassis behind the motor and stick a ps6001 mag in the back, they run gr8 after that

 

[astro]

I have 1 and my m8 has 2 of em, love em! they would be gr8 cars at full price (though perhaps a tad lest detailed than the full price scaly's - not a tenners worth less detail!)

 

[jonny s]

I use these as club cars,got twelve. For the money they are great and because I don`t have the same effection for them as an F1 car, I don`t mind repainting these and re-decaling them.

After some use they tend to lose the rear wing and the pinion radialy expands,spinning on the motor shaft. Accepting that club use is excessive I feel they make a great F1 type slot car.

 

[Difflock]

QUOTE (compound_goose @ 29 Feb 2004, 07:38 PM)a great mod for the single seat racers is to cut out a hole in the chassis behind the motor and stick a ps6001 mag in the back, they run gr8 after that
Didn't exactly answer the question of how it runs WITHOUT magnets

Although ANY input regarding these indy cars is appreciated

Jonny, radial expansion of the pinion should not be a problem on mine' coz it's made out of brass

I don't reckon a standard scaley motor on standard UK power supply would worry a metal pinion in any way. Now, if we're talking cold fusion power etc. etc...... mono-crystalline titanium alloy anyone?

Looks like £15 well spent. Cheers guys. Must buy some more liveries

Mark.

 

[Biberle]

Hi Difflock,

after dozens of disappointing magnet-less Scalextric cars the Dallaras are really running great on my track. It's a Ninco.

 

[jonny s]

I can`t get them to a competitive level with the SCX F1 87, which along with the Pro Slot ferrari are the front runners at ours. I`ll settle for them being decent magnet cars unless you guys know any tricks?

 

[Mr.M]

QUOTE (jonny s @ 1 Mar 2004, 12:51 PM)the SCX F1 87, which along with the Pro Slot ferrari are the front runners at ours.
The Proslot Ferraris are as good as that, are they Jonny? Do you run with brakes at Phoenix?

Never seen a Proslot used in any of the clubs I go to. At Bolwextric (wood/copper- no brakes) the old faithful SCX F1/87 seems to be the best of the bunch, though the latest Jag is pretty good too. Some use Ninco, but the "roll-on" means you have to treat them with care.

Interesting that the Hornby Dallara is reported to be "great" with no mags. Is it just luck, or are Hornby trying to build some decent chassis for a change? Shame the forthcoming historic GP cars are going to be front engined with magnet, just so the driver can have legs

Mr.M

 

[jonny s]

The Pro Slot are superb racers. We do run with brakes and this helps. This season the front runners are using the PS Ferrari very effectively and leading the Senior race nite is `Flying Ads` , he is a Junior racer. He blew away the SCX F1 87 and his car is straight out of the box cos that`s how we run them, no mag. The prob with PS F1 is that it is very fragile and the gears and pinion are prone to destruct during racing leaving you very frustrated.

My experience on routed track was that the PS Ferrari was untouchable, if your rules allow modification then with Slot It gears it is simply superb.

 

[ddyke]

Mine ran much better magnetless with the NEW compound Indy Grips.

Dan

 

[ProfFate]

Hi

I guess I wasnt clear. I run on a commercial track with COPPER braid. No magnitraction!

Magnetless, therefore, is the ONLY way I have run them. Havent lost yet.

Fate

 

[jonny s]

That sounds like a challenge! I hope we will see you for the Imola Trophy at Phoenix in April? you`ll certainly be welcome to show us how good those Indies go and I am genuinely interested

 

[compound_goose]

as im no xpert w/out mags it drove like every other car i de-magged, i think it went better round the corners coz of the fat slix

 

[ProfFate]

Hi

I will be at the Vegas convention in May.
Stock motor, Indy/IRL/CART on the Blue King?

Fate

 

[Ecurie Martini]

QUOTE Stock motor, Indy/IRL/CART on the Blue King?

Sounds good to me - with the building program behind, as usual, nice to have something that doesn't require much effort - but only if you'll bring me a pair of those SLC sillies.

EM