[RichD]

Modern high magnetic downforce HO cars have a considerable amount of pickup shoe spring tension and are more tolerant of shoes that do not ride flat on the track. If only a portion of the shoe is touching when it is new it will eventually get grooved, and the contact area will increase without you doing anything. Pancake type car, especially T-Jet types have much less shoe spring tension, making shoe adjustment much more critical. If a car just wants to crawl around the track a simple shoe adjustment can make it a lot faster. You can get the shoes to ride flat on the rails and also bend them at the hook end to change the spring tension without changing the springs themselves in any way.
See this article to get an idea of what I am talking about: T-Jet Tuning Article by RHD Rev 11.pdf

 

[RichD]

I have done tuning guides for the various types of HO pancake cars. There are minor differences between the T-Jet types that might be confusing, so I have done similar articles for Aurora, Johnny Lightning/Auto World and Dash cars to hopefully avoid confusion. I also have a tuning article for non-magnet 1/32nd cars. I have not published anything about modern inline HO cars.
Doing a complete tuning guide for all sorts of HO cars would be a daunting task.

 

[RichD]

Zapping magnets would only be helpful if they were not fully charged. Magnets can be zapped in the can, but I do not know of anyone that does those N can motors. If one car is a dog first make sure that the motor is fully seated in the frame. If that is no help it is easy enough to swap in a motor/RFI filter assembly from another car. If that fixes your problem JAG Hobbies sometimes has replacement assemblies in stock. We have found a few cars that have a poor or even open connection between the shoe hangers and the motor, fixing that would be difficult for most people, so replacing the whole works would be the way to go.

 

[RichD]

Here is an article on tuning Aurora T-Jets: T-Jet Tuning Article by RHD Rev 11.pdf
Here is one on tuning non-magnet 1/32nd cars: Tuning for Non-Magnet Racing Rev 5.pdf
The axles in Mega G+ cars are very soft and sometimes get bent when the wheels are installed at the factory. With the rear axles you can remove the tire, slip a length of brass tubing over the wheel and apply a slight twist. That would at least make things a little better. You could buy a replacement rear axle assembly and hope that the axle is straight. Finally, you could use a proper hardened axle, you might have to use aftermarket wheels as well.

 

[RichD]

Since there are minor differences between the original Aurora Thunderjet cars and the later ones from Johnny Lightning/Auto World and Dash I elected to do separate but similar articles for each of those. The second generation Dash cars and the new Wizzard cars could be included in the original Aurora T-Jet article. Model Motoring did a T-Jet clone called the Thunder Plus as well, I have never seen one of those.
Here is (hopefully) a link to my Google Drive page, it has all of my articles that are still available: My Drive - Google Drive
That link may only work for me, let me know if it does not work for you. With Google Drive I have made my documents all public, but the entire page may not be. I think I will compile a list of the latest versions of my articles and put that on Google Drive as a public document.
I suppose that it is time to update many of my articles, so much to do, so little time.

 

[RichD]

Here is a list of the latest versions of my articles. There are still a number of the older versions still on my site so links to those would not be dead ends.

Articles on Google Drive as of 2021.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[RichD]

My club runs Mega G+ cars at 18.5 volts. They don't get much faster in a straight line if you increase the voltage, they just become more difficult to drive. We found that with Mega G+ cars with some chassis the traction magnets can be lower in the chassis. Even if the magnets were the same strength not every car would have the same amount of magnetic downforce. For that reason we have a spec for the distance between the bottom of the magnets and the bottom of the chassis.

 

[RichD]

In some cases you will be able to push the magnets lower in the chassis to get more downforce. The magnet pockets in different chassis are not all the same, so even if the magnets are all the same strength there will be differences between the cars. It is easier to push up the magnets in a more stuck down car to equalize your cars. Because the amount of magnetic downforce is proportional to the square of the distance between the magnets and the rails even a tiny adjustment can make a big difference. I have a home made downforce tester that is useful for that sort of thing and there is now a device called a Digi-Tune tester by Peter Doane available from Lucky Bob's.

Those seeking stronger traction magnets for Mega G+ cars can find them at Viper Scale Racing.

 

[RichD]

Oops! Here is the HO version of the tester.

 

[RichD]

According to Viper Scale Racing the stock Mega G+ traction magnets are level 42s. You could try level 52s. To measure the distance from the bottom of the chassis to the bottom of the magnet just use the opposite end of the calipers from the jaws. The HOCOC spec. is 0.022 inches minimum.
My home made downforce scale was patterned on the ones that my 1/32nd club used when we still raced cars with traction magnets. I had everything on hand except for the steel bar that I got from my local hardware store. I assembled it during a tropical storm listening to gusts of wind and the sounds of trees falling into my back yard. The lights flickered a few times, but never went out completely. The people in the next town were not so lucky.

 

[RichD]

I looked at the VSR site again and the level 42 magnets are listed as direct factory replacements, meaning that they are the same size, but they are stronger.