Tuning an AutoArt

Well now we've got a class for AutoArt 'supercars' - the performance of which is generally anything but. Wobbly gears, loose tyres and general graunchiness abound, so it's now become the club's only tuning class.

In fairness I've never had a problem with my original choice - the Porsche 997 Carrera. It's pretty and, with a load of weight stuffed in the nose, has a very nice habit of drifting gently through the corners. Here's the old original:



With a decent amount of acceleration my 997 is one of the fastest 'stock' cars (mag removed) at the club, but because of chronic unreliability we can now tune our AutoArts. Tyres, hubs, axles, gears and pinions are free - although motor, guide and chassis must remain as standard. Given the yellow peril's rear-mounted motor she's not going to be able to live with more conventional arrangements, once they've been tweaked, but I wanted to stay with Porsche and so got a traditional mid-mounted sidewinder within the rather lovely 996 GT3R:



And so to a bit of tuning...

First off I've removed the retaining spring on the front axle which pushes it down towards the track. I hate front-end deslots with a passion, and increasingly find that highly detailed slot cars are build as shelf queens with no thought for whether or not the front wheels will lever the guide out of the slot. I've also unscrewed the magnet and fitted wheels and axles from the Scalextric Porsche GT3, which are wider and hopefully will give a bit more grip than drift:



Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the rear tyres are different. I've gone for Ortmanns, as Scaley typically doesn't do a great compound for non-mag running.

Everything sits together reasonably well but there's a hefty amount of slop in the rear axle now - about 4mm worth! I've ordered some shims but also decided to go for a Slot.It axle and gears - 12 tooth pinion and 36 tooth crown. I think it's about the best balance in ratios for our track.

The bits should arrive in time for next week, when I make a belated debut in the class. It's hardly the biggest tuning job in the world but hopefully, once run in and with a bit of weight behind the guide, will be able to keep pace with the Gallardoa, Murcielagos and Koenigseggs.

I'll let you know!