
Good Morning
Qualifying Report
essentially the cars are run at the Harlequin track in order to determine running positions for the rest of the series. We don't in general have each Round doing a qualifying stage themselves, so although not ideal it should give a structure by which the other hosts can look to run the cars in sequence of slowest to fastest or visa versa, and for those running two car racing rounds a better experience.
I have requested that where possible the other hosts run their tracks at 12 volts as I have, but I know for some that is not possible as they have only a fixed output power source.
For my part I know my track very well, and I know that measuring "fastest lap" to determine running positions requires a number of runs, without any practise or warm up laps the first 2 runs are required just to get any kind of consistency, for some cars a third will define a consistent measurement. But for others, some motors just take longer to kick in, so I always run my own testing for 5 runs to be confident that you are seeing the "fastest lap" that the car is likely on my track to reach. So in total that is around 80 secs per run or 7 minutes in total for the qualifying session. Without doing this and having cars with very similar performance would not in my view be representative of where the cars positions should be in the running order.
I did use the 4th Run to video the cars run on my track, which is not ideal because of the limited view I can get, but I hope to upload these within this report for each of the cars.
The Results
Test car
I use a Scalextric AMV with magnets and NSR tyres to check the track is working consistently and apply the same rule as above. Generally you can apply the throttle fully on all but 2 bends at 12volts with this car when up to speed and it will not come off the track because of the traction magnets fitted. So I do view any cars which show the same inclination with suspicion. I get a 8.4 +/- 0.03 sec fastest lap with this car.
RoadRunners
Ford GT40 run better than previously, as I had since changed the original interior to a Lightweight one, and the fastest lap was significantly improved.
De Tomaso similarly run better with a substitute lightweight interior than I had measured before.
Makem Movers
Wolf Dallara ran smoothly and consistently, except for a tendency to lift out of the slot after the sharp inclines I have on my track. It felt certainly heavy enough in general but I felt could have been better with a different weight distribution.
Dodge Viper initial run felt like excessive braking, on checking I found that one of the rear tyres was showing a shallow grove in it and that the interior was rubbing against the wheel. After discussing with the host I removed the body and found that the lightweight interior had come adrift of the adhesive points which had been used to fix it in. And closer examination showed that in effect the interior had been stressed into position because the driver did not fit into the cockpit arear without bending the moulding. So I agreed to sand off the drivers head and neck to fit the interior without bending the moulding. It now appears to work and run faster and should be ok.
Ruscillo Racing
BMW M1 ran very well and smoothly.
Merc CLK LM initial runs the back end was quite loose and the car would deslot on the fast corners, later runs were better after some tyre cleaning with tape.
Scott Sports
Marcos LM600 rear wing came off straight away, so I decided that it was pointless trying to run this car with it on and I will send the car without the rear wing otherwise it might get lost in the other rounds. Magnetic traction was perhaps evident but not excessively so, but the rear of the body definitely bottomed out on the track inclinations which is a sure sign that the cars track clearance is below the 1.5mm. And it ran very fast.
BMW Z4 ran nosily around the track, there appears to be still some toothpaste like "stuff" around the crown gear, the front wheel inserts did not particularly match the rear ones. But the car ran fairly consistently.
Brumos RSR
BMW M1 initially started first run but something was immediately wrong with the car seemingly running on hand brakes. So I checked the car and found a large 5gm weight was trapped around the front wheels. Because it was large I could not remove it without opening the car up, so I contacted the owner who agreed for me to do so. The weight has been glued back onto the motor mount, this time with a blob of hot melt adhesive, so hopefully it will stay in place. In general thereafter the car felt quite lively to run, I think the gearing did not suite my short straight type track, so probably better on the club tracks. But a reasonably good speed obtained.
Ferrari 458 one rear wheel insert and rear wing came off on first run, so I have left them out for the subsequent rounds as I think they could easily get lost. Excellent running car very smooth, should be a joy to run elsewhere.
Harrison's Racers
Toyota Supra ran well.
Lola T70 seemed sluggish and a little heavy.
Team Cube
Ferrari 355 the car quite lively and nippy, a little unpredictable and perhaps weight distribution might have been better on my track.
Aston Martin DB9 was very predictable consistent laps, not particularly fast.
Bangers Racing
Ferrari 512BB probably the most unexpected run of the day, it was just very fast and the lap times were there right from the start, and very stable. Long wheelbase cars tend to work very well on my track, which I never quite understood as the straights are quite short.
Honda NSX similarly great run, the lap times were immediately there from the start. The eventual result was better than I expected by the feel of the car.
Courtney
AMG ran very smooth and quiet, similar to Bangers Racing the motor reaction seemed immediately to be there on the first run. I had another case of loose wheel insert which I have kept for safe keeping, otherwise it most likely will get lost later on.
BARacer
Porsche 907K seemed to have alot of braking effect, tyres were quite dirty, so took a few runs to become consistent, but a fair speed by the end of the session.
Mclaren F1 GTR extremely slow to start with, gradually picked up speed on each run, but the pattern was similar each time. I began to suspect that this was due to excessive magnetic traction (literally holding the car back until it gained momentum) so I measured the car again with and without the motor running on my SRC test unit. But the measured traction force was the same running or not. So I am not any wiser, the cars motor is definitely lower than the 1.5mm but not excessively, so I am kind of surprised even after all my experience with observing this, that the motor had such an effect, if it did ? Anyway not such a fast run as I expected, seemed like the hand brake was on but for what reason I am not sure.
Savage GT
BMW M1 really great consistent fast run throughout.
AMV a little easy to deslot on my track, so slower than it could be elsewhere.
Green Star Racing
BMW 320i very smooth fast runs, I was surprised this one did not have such a high ranking in the final order of the Event cars.
Porsche 911 JUST EXCELLENT! possibly my fastest entry of the day.
Team Alaric
Porsche 908 smooth running and steady.
Bentley Continental as we might expect a little heavy as a standard car, but does have lights working. Runs smooth but needing some more horses under the bonnet I think. Another one which I have on my list to do, just because its the most gracious GT3 car you can run.
ALS Racing
Corvette C6 a good choice as it one of the older NSR GT3 cars which is narrow enough to meet the proxy rules, the car had a tendency to lift out of the slot on acceleration as you came out of the curves into the fast straights.
Ferrari 412P this was strange one as it started rather unevenly as if something was touching, and then further into the run would pick up nicely and run smooth. I wonder if the Spur gear is touching the chassis perhaps ? Once it has found momentum it will be very competitive .
LeManx
BMW M1 very stable car throughout testing, on my short straight runs, probably did not do the metal chassis much favour.
Porsche 917/K same as above this car will show its full potential when it hits the faster tracks.
ModSport
Ferrari 550 some inconsistent running on my track, looked like an electrical contact issue of internal wiring, but never got to the bottom of it. However on the good laps it runs very fast indeed.
Aston Martin DB9 quite noisy but ran well.
Batmanx
Merc CLK LM started off with some sliding about at the back, tyres seemed quite dirty, so after cleaning them the car ran better.
Porsche 911 for a standardish Scalextric based Porsche 911, I think this car ran very smoothly and consistently, another one with lights (i think) very nice to drive, not so fast but remarkably stable.