7th-Mar-23, 01:32 PM
Pitlane Review
Well it was a very busy weekend, the presentation of the cars took far longer than I thought, which meant that I could not start the Proxy on the Saturday.
But I did mange to video the cars on the Rally Stage only as the track is in one straight line, I have yet to work out how that can be practically done in my other racing room as the track is in a confined space and shaped like a horseshoe, so the shot would be only of one half or another. Perhaps a two camera set up might work if I can get round to trying it.
The Rally track was purchased from Pendle last year, and it was it's first active service in my hands. So very much a learning curve, and the reason I choose to run 10 laps was to try to ensure that each car had a better chance to perform well rather than due to my lack of experience in running it. But having run 41 cars over it , I feel I know it much better and understand what is its week spots are etc. But I really enjoyed it and would use it again if we run another similar kind of event, although next time probably 8 or even 5 laps would be adequate.
I did have one car which I ran on the Carrera track OK, but was just not making contact with the contact rail at all well, so with the agreement of the Entrant changed the guide, which enabled me to run it OK. Other very difficult cars was james@wyevalley Subaru which just would not stay in the slot anywhere and I just had to abandon the run. Since we had a conversation, and I have replaced the guide on his car for the next round. Normally we have issues when the guide blade is too deep, but this one had only 3.5mm depth and just found my track to challenging. I have replaced it with a standard Ninco one and it seems far happier now.
The other car was the ill fated BMW M1 of Brunos, he knows there is a chassis distortion problem with this car, and it was very obvious on my Rally track, very difficult to keep it in, although on my Carrera track it was really fast.
So to summarise by Events.
Rally Event 1
Some of the cars like most of the Audi Quattros and the Alfa Gran Turismo which had long wheelbase and perhaps rear tyres width to the maximum permitted, did not like the sharp corners over the bridge at the far end of the track. Others ran really well, ManxAndy's Jaguar gave me more problems than the other similar Jaguars, probably because it has a high torque NSR motor and the high weight of the brass chassis meant that it tended to launch itself when I tried to push it more on the faster part of the track. The Alfa Gran Turismo lost one of the separate fenders on a hit with a part of the track, I have glued it on, but I could see that it has been glued before. So this might be a bit of a regular occurrence....
Rally Event 2
Some cars struggled due to not enough weight at the front of the car like the Ferrari of Team Cubes for example. Others mainly due to the long wheelbase. The Metro of Bangers racing appeared to run really well and I thought that would be fastest. On the otherhand the Lancia 037 did not appear that quick but came home the fastest.
Rally Event 3
This was of course the Porsche 914/6 shoot out, very little apparent difference with running them, quite surprised with the numerical differences.
Great running the TR7's and at least one really fast one entered by BARacer. Generally speaking very few "offs" on this Event.
Rally Event 4
Already mentioned james Subaru, but otherwise all the others were the closest of all the Events. One odd one was the Subaru of High Voltage which tended to stick on the corners. I had a look at it but it was nothing unusual. Team Alaric's standard Scalextric Subaru ran as good as it looked.
Tarmac Events 1-4
After I realised my stupid error .... and yes I was distracted by the live Grand Prix, you should not watch TV whilst your driving I know
So the next day sense had prevailed and all went very smoothly. 3 laps meant that each car got a run which was just less than half the average of the Rally time, I was conscious that a longer run was going to greatly effect the overall results in favour of the higher spec motor cars. And I wanted this Series to be primarily about the cars ability to negotiate the Rally stages. On the otherhand I felt the Tarmac stages give some respite to the cars which struggle on stability on the Rally stages, a chance to catch up.
The good thing is that with only 3 laps almost all the cars got around without any "offs"
Some cars did get the benefit in order to improve their placings but not tremendously so, I feel satisfied that it was a good balance.
So there we have the first Round
I am waiting for the collection man, then the cars are off to Brighton...... where I hope it is a little warmer than my 5 degrees centigrade that we had all weekend.
Sponsors
Pendle Slot Racing. www.Pendle slot racing.co.uk
George Turner Models www.georgeturnermidels.com
Truspeed Controllers www.truspeed.co.uk
Amato Slot Car Design
Well it was a very busy weekend, the presentation of the cars took far longer than I thought, which meant that I could not start the Proxy on the Saturday.
But I did mange to video the cars on the Rally Stage only as the track is in one straight line, I have yet to work out how that can be practically done in my other racing room as the track is in a confined space and shaped like a horseshoe, so the shot would be only of one half or another. Perhaps a two camera set up might work if I can get round to trying it.
The Rally track was purchased from Pendle last year, and it was it's first active service in my hands. So very much a learning curve, and the reason I choose to run 10 laps was to try to ensure that each car had a better chance to perform well rather than due to my lack of experience in running it. But having run 41 cars over it , I feel I know it much better and understand what is its week spots are etc. But I really enjoyed it and would use it again if we run another similar kind of event, although next time probably 8 or even 5 laps would be adequate.
I did have one car which I ran on the Carrera track OK, but was just not making contact with the contact rail at all well, so with the agreement of the Entrant changed the guide, which enabled me to run it OK. Other very difficult cars was james@wyevalley Subaru which just would not stay in the slot anywhere and I just had to abandon the run. Since we had a conversation, and I have replaced the guide on his car for the next round. Normally we have issues when the guide blade is too deep, but this one had only 3.5mm depth and just found my track to challenging. I have replaced it with a standard Ninco one and it seems far happier now.
The other car was the ill fated BMW M1 of Brunos, he knows there is a chassis distortion problem with this car, and it was very obvious on my Rally track, very difficult to keep it in, although on my Carrera track it was really fast.
So to summarise by Events.
Rally Event 1
Some of the cars like most of the Audi Quattros and the Alfa Gran Turismo which had long wheelbase and perhaps rear tyres width to the maximum permitted, did not like the sharp corners over the bridge at the far end of the track. Others ran really well, ManxAndy's Jaguar gave me more problems than the other similar Jaguars, probably because it has a high torque NSR motor and the high weight of the brass chassis meant that it tended to launch itself when I tried to push it more on the faster part of the track. The Alfa Gran Turismo lost one of the separate fenders on a hit with a part of the track, I have glued it on, but I could see that it has been glued before. So this might be a bit of a regular occurrence....
Rally Event 2
Some cars struggled due to not enough weight at the front of the car like the Ferrari of Team Cubes for example. Others mainly due to the long wheelbase. The Metro of Bangers racing appeared to run really well and I thought that would be fastest. On the otherhand the Lancia 037 did not appear that quick but came home the fastest.
Rally Event 3
This was of course the Porsche 914/6 shoot out, very little apparent difference with running them, quite surprised with the numerical differences.
Great running the TR7's and at least one really fast one entered by BARacer. Generally speaking very few "offs" on this Event.
Rally Event 4
Already mentioned james Subaru, but otherwise all the others were the closest of all the Events. One odd one was the Subaru of High Voltage which tended to stick on the corners. I had a look at it but it was nothing unusual. Team Alaric's standard Scalextric Subaru ran as good as it looked.
Tarmac Events 1-4
After I realised my stupid error .... and yes I was distracted by the live Grand Prix, you should not watch TV whilst your driving I know
So the next day sense had prevailed and all went very smoothly. 3 laps meant that each car got a run which was just less than half the average of the Rally time, I was conscious that a longer run was going to greatly effect the overall results in favour of the higher spec motor cars. And I wanted this Series to be primarily about the cars ability to negotiate the Rally stages. On the otherhand I felt the Tarmac stages give some respite to the cars which struggle on stability on the Rally stages, a chance to catch up.
The good thing is that with only 3 laps almost all the cars got around without any "offs"
Some cars did get the benefit in order to improve their placings but not tremendously so, I feel satisfied that it was a good balance.
So there we have the first Round
I am waiting for the collection man, then the cars are off to Brighton...... where I hope it is a little warmer than my 5 degrees centigrade that we had all weekend.
Sponsors
Pendle Slot Racing. www.Pendle slot racing.co.uk
George Turner Models www.georgeturnermidels.com
Truspeed Controllers www.truspeed.co.uk
Amato Slot Car Design
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