Info Tamiya Speed Checker - Rolling Road - Printable Version

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Tamiya Speed Checker - Rolling Road - Scuderia_Turini - 18th-Jun-21

Tamiya Speed Checkers don't get much mention in the slot-car world but can be very useful for tuning. They are intended for use with the Tamiya Mini-4WD models. These are 1:32 scale, free running battery powered vehicles which are raced on special tracks. Product code is "Tamiya 15183". In some respects these units are toys and the calibration may not be perfect but they provide a decent, measure of improvements as you do the standard tuning stuff and reduce the hassle of running laps to check improvements (or otherwise). Obviously these units cannot replace actual lap test/trials but can help in the build up phase.

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Using them for slot-cars means removing the front rollers, cutting a slot to accommodate the guide and fitting "rails" connected to a suitable power source. I added a digital voltmeter so I can get consistency. For some cars it will be necessary to provide a spacer for the car nose to rest against so that the rear wheels are in a suitable position.

The car sits with the driven wheels on rollers that have electronic sensing.
Two functions are available:
1) Time taken for the rollers to rotate a fixed number of times (simulating a distance covered).
2) Road Speed measurement (KpH).
Full instructions are attached.

As well as having these functions, the base and rollers make an ideal way to assess how "true" the driven wheels and tires are, as it is easy to observe them whilst they are rotating (especially with the body removed). If the wheels/tyres are significantly out of true the car will correspondingly jump around until you get the roundness better. With the body removed, the tyres/wheels can be sanded but probably best to do that with the tyres out of contact with the rollers.

Getting rare to find nowadays and as mine is quite old now, I recently bought a spare.
I don't know if/when they went out of production but they have always been rare in the UK as the related vehicles were not strongly marketed here. Both of my units are identified as 1996.

Leo

Brief Video here -  

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