[Bigtone]

Always start with the motor whatever make, use a can slug to ensure it is square, ballrace in can, align brushes, shim, glue in and hone the magnets. Run the motor until warm and true the comm while still warm. Reassemble the motor with minimal armature float and shunt the brushes and run the motor in. Other simple things to do are , ensure the chassis is flat, fit axle ballraces, ensure the guide doesn't wobble about and use good quality soft braids. If you want to take it to extremes fit hollow drill blank axles. Could go on forever and be a real bore but I'll leave it at that.
Tony

 

[Bigtone]

OK, you asked for it. A 1/24th Sports car with a carbon fibre chassis, a quad cobalt magnet strap motor with a 26 turns of 26 guage armature. Voki 80 pitch gears, hollow carbon filled back axle, Ingram sponge rear tyres on polymer hubs. Cahoza cut down graphite guide with drilled light weight nut and soft braids, light weight pin mount front wheels all topped off with a an AAA bodies Zytek body finished in chrome and orange paint

 

[Bigtone]

I have considered fitting the diff from one the new micro r/c cars but it would mean going inline. How about a micro motor inside each wheel. Some years ago Gary Fletcher built an F1 and sports car with a flywheel. He used the sports cars at the national championship and it did quite well. I'll try and find a picture.

 

[Bigtone]

Picture of Gary Fletchers fly wheel powered sports car

 

[Bigtone]

I'm building a Group 12 Saloon which has no centre section except for a piano wire spine. I am putting a sliding weight on the spine which will have about 45mm of movement with a damper at each end. The theory behind this is that under acceleration the weight goes towards the back wheels to improve traction. Under braking the weight will move forward to give more weight to the front to keep the guide in the slot. I will experiment with the amount of weight so it won't lift the front or loosen the back end. Well That's the theory.

 

[Bigtone]

I'm not sure that a slot car would travel far enough to generate any worthwhile power fo extra accellaration or braking. The limiting factor is still the size and weight of a suitable storage cell to make it worth doing. I had the opportunity to drive Gary Fletchers flywheel car and it required a different driving style, it was very smooth and steady through the corners and gripped well. If you exceeded a a certain point it would just fly out of the slot with no warning by way of a slide, Gary always tried to get to the staet line last to try and keep the flywheel spinning

 

[Bigtone]

Nearly finished, this group 12 saloon chassis and is my own design.The spine has a weighted centre section that slides up and down the car as it accelerates and brakes. The weighted cection is in two parts and hinged at the spine to it won't bind when the chassis flexes. It is extremley light and weighs in at under 4 ounces. with only the lead wire, braids, pinion and lexan body and iterior to add I hope it will come inat just over 4 ounces. It will be tested next week so I will let you know how it goes
Tony

 

[Bigtone]

Hi John, I do intend to put a small piece of foam rubber at each end of the spine to act as a damper. What you can't really see from the picture is that the guide is mounted on the frame connected to the motor pod and the T bar is separate and mounted on rails and hinged just in front of the motor. This gives the guide a small amount of up and down movement.

300SLR, I only weighed it on ordinary kitchen scales which only weigh i ounces and grammes so it is a bit of a guess at the weight. I have just ordered some digital scales but it would be very easy to loose weight from the car. I have thought of experimenting with different weights but hadn't considered limiting the movement

Tony

 

[Bigtone]

I always thought it was better to keep any weight in a car as near to the centre as posible which is why I built the centre sliding weight c\r. It is now completely finished with a lexan Peugeot 307 body shell. The all up weight of the finished car is 3.21 ounces or 91.3 grammes whichever you prefer, I think I could probably get it down to 3 ounces dead witha little material removal. Will let you know how it goes after it's first run next Wednesday

 

[Bigtone]

John
I'll let you know after tommorrow night