[paulw]

Is it just me thinking this?

What is the benefit of the modern Scalex, and all Fly cars, being so fast? you end up needing to control them with a BIG magnet, and i feel you lose the fun of controlling the slide.

I don't doubt that it takes a fair degree of skill and timing to control a modern super slot-car, but i personally don't feel it is a fun as a demagnetised SCX 4WD rally, or 2WD LMP / DTM car.

Just thought i'd canvas some opinions here, in my ideal world the manufacturers would be making beautiful models that are 'slidey' to handle...

May-be i am too retro'?

paulw

 

[LMP]

Hi PaulW

Simple - Take the magnets out!

Fly cars (espicially the rear mounted) go well enough without them, but frount mounted cars will need weight at the back.

Scaley cars maybe not so good but will run ok. Just not very good.

Ninco cars run well without magnets, and have you tried cars by Slot.It or ProSlot? They run excellent without magnets.

Have fun

 

[djshenmuskrat]

Damn right. Going fast with a magnet is like watching paint dry. Times don't matter when your having fun..... Just off to slide my magnet free skoda fabia round my twisty turny, lap times don' t matter rally track.

 

[taxi]

Personally I like the variety, and I set my cars up by class.

LMP's are hot motors and high mag, GTS/GTR are box-stock, road cars are usually non mag. This suits me and gives a nice variety of 'driving experiences'.
(IMHO modern LMP's and F1's don't look right taking corners sideways!!)

Rob

 

[djshenmuskrat]

Nice point Taxi . I agree F1 cars and the like don,t particularly look that good sliding round corners. Sometimes though, things can feel really good while totally looking shabby. The kick i get out of slot racing is a pure feeling. Just having fun and loving the cars and new livery etc. Hope lots of other people feel the same way . Marc

 

[paulw]

QUOTE (taxi @ 7 Ja2005, 11:42)(IMHO modern LMP's and F1's don't look right taking corners sideways!!)

Rob

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I take your point about the real cars being stuck down, but i'm not driving a real car, and it's just more interesting for me to get round the corners as fast as possible without losing it.

As a secondary point to that, wouldn't modern F1 be more interesting if the cars did oversteer massively?

Also when you take the magnets out of modern Scalex and fly on our club track you're asking for a world of hurt, trouble, and missing bits...

paulw

 

[LMP]

QUOTE Also when you take the magnets out of modern Scalex and fly on our club track you're asking for a world of hurt, trouble, and missing bits...

Not true! Unless of course you run them against magnet cars. That would be foolish.

Last season at Phoenix we had Fly Classic as a class run without magnets. It was a great class.

Our thursday championship and subsequently the new champions league is run totally magnet free. Its the best racing in the club and a lot closer than most magnet racing. Laptimes are probably about 4 seconds off a magnet time on average.

For competitive racing, then using no magnets is great. Puts the onus on the driver more aswell, not the fastest motor.

 

[paulw]

no, no, you are missing the point, the track we have at our club is showing its age, and it causes frustrating problems for certain cars. We are currently saving for, and planning a rebuild, but this takes time, may-be in the future we will be able to run modern scalex without magnets, but i do have reservations that without the magnets the 'braking' wouldn't cope well. ( we will have to wait and see. ) In much the same way that as modern road cars have more BHP they also have, and need, better brake technology.

pw

 

[Triggy]

QUOTE (djshenmuskrat @ 7 Jan 2005, 11:54)Nice point Taxi . I agree F1 cars and the like don,t particularly look that good sliding round corners. Sometimes though, things can feel really good while totally looking shabby. The kick i get out of slot racing is a pure feeling. Just having fun and loving the cars and new livery etc. Hope lots of other people feel the same way . Marc

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm with all the way Marc!!!!

 

[Isetta]

QUOTE As a secondary point to that, wouldn't modern F1 be more interesting if the cars did oversteer massively?

Oh! Absolutely..don't get me started...
But, as my sons keep telling me, I can't live in the past

At least Slot Car F1 with magnets behave like modern F1 1:1. When the car gets a just little bit sideways and the magnet leaves the rail influence = the laminar flow breaks down over the airfoils, the car is just lost spinning into the scenery

Cheers, Tom.

 

[LMP]

Perhaps your answer lies in something like the ninco M3 which will still step out with the magnet fitted?

 

[astro]

I just don't get why everyone wants all their cars to behave the same, or all the 1:1s to behave the same. I LOVE the variety, of having no mag RAIDs, rally cars and some vintage racers slide like the 1:1s, and like watching the 1:1s slide; I like LMPs and F1s to stick like they have all the ground effect downforce of the 1:1s, and lose it if they drive carelessly. Love seeing what technology can do with the 1:1s.

Different classes of racing afford different things. I don't enjoy all classes of racing (eg NASCAR aint my thing, but I am glad it is there for those that do like it). I watch the types I enjoy, and buy the corresponding slot cars to simulate the 1:1 fun.

If you only like sliding cars, here is a tip: don't buy modern F1 or LMP cars, and don't watch those races either!

 

[Scott B]

QUOTE What is the benefit of the modern Scalex, and all Fly cars, being so fast?

Rave reviews on forums like this and the desire for bigger sales. Think I'm joking? Read what was said about the new Fly 911. It got a pasting for not being fast*.

The typical first question/reaction to any new car is how fast it goes. I can think of very few first reports that said words to the effect "very nice car, not very quick".

In other words, we have only ourselves to blame.

* Yes, I mean fast. It will only de-slot if you exceed the speed it can handle.

 

[djshenmuskrat]

You certainly know your cars Astro.Having your cars look and to some extent act like 1:1 is where its at. This for me anyway is what it's all about. My car preference is rally in both 1:1 & 1:32....... F1 never really interested me,but rally grabbed me from an early age. mmmmmmmmmmmmm body kits.

 

[Isetta]

Astro,
I am humbled by your last post. I just agree with it all.
Yes I am nostalgic for historic F1 which was all driver elbows and power slides.
But I enjoy the sheer competence of modern F1 technology.

Having been motivated by opinions on this thread, I have removed the magnets from my cars that should slide, and trying to tune then to stay on the track with my limited competence, and having fun doing it.

But cars that 1:1 rely on downforce, I am keeping the magnets - and adjusting the magnets.

Several posters here have championed variety. Spice of life...and slot cars.

Hope this doesn't sound all too naive to the old hands.

Cheers, Tom.

 

[taxi]

QUOTE Sometimes though, things can feel really good while totally looking shabby. The kick i get out of slot racing is a pure feeling. Just having fun and loving the cars and new livery etc. Hope lots of other people feel the same way . Marc

Totally agree with you!

I'm not trying to start an arguement with anyone about how a car should behave, I just like the way the cars can be set up to handle differently to suit individual tastes.

Rob

 

[Wankel Ickx]

Yes, modern offerings are too fast, period. And that's a fact, you can quote me.

This week someone was playing with a Ninco Austin Healey at the club and the thing was a stuck down blur, it looked daft.

F1 with leery oversteer? Yes please. Let's have a chance of seeing our heroes balance on the edge and come back from it (or not!).

At Oxford we run our SCX F1's without the magnets in because it looks more fun and takes a different kind of skill to hustle them around. We don't run Scaley F1's because they break too easily and nobody likes seeing grown men cry.

There does seem to be a race amongst the brands to see who can have the fastest cars out there but to my mind that's just plain soft when it results in blurred Healeys. What they should be doing is marketing several types of motor that permit period jalopies to run in a period style.

The speed crazed morons out there could then hop up their steeds to their hearts' content with extra magnets and super-duper motors.

Also, since I'm up here on me soapbox, why do new motors have to be introduced mid-series? I mean, the new Scaley F1's with the motor bike motors are surely going to blitz the not so old ones of last year? Ditto the move from NC-2 to NC-5 in the M3. Okay, not a major problem to me because as I've stated above, we don't like the Scaley's but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me - I guess it does to the marketing departments, though.

 

[djshenmuskrat]

.

The speed crazed morons out there could then hop up their steeds to their hearts' content with extra magnets and super-duper motors.

Music to my ears Wankel,
although your making me want to get the biggest magnet and beefiest motor,stick it in a ford pick up and smash it to pieces.

 

[paulw]

A new scalex model and motor combination i do approve of is the Maserati / Vanwall; with the magnet out it is not too fast for the track.

Now i am all in favour of different speed and handling characteristics for different cars, variety IS good, i just worry that the need for speed is over-riding my personal desire for slidiness.

I also don't doubt that the increasing speed is driven by customer demand, it is just that it slightly surprises me bearing in mind that most of the adults at our club prefer slide, and some of the juniors.

pw

 

[paulw]

i am not inferring that some of our adults prefer juniors, no, no, no...

although one of them might...