[woodcote]

Yep, different tools for different needs. Like most slot car owners, I race ready-to-run (RTR) cars and most have plastic hubs. I hate to think that people like me might be inadvertently intimidated by thinking they need ultra-expensive tools to get worthwhile performance improvements.

Most of us here know that it's possible to find enormous performance gains for next to nothing...


   

For example, with last year's Scalextric Mustang GT4, a 2-minute track test gave me a disappointing 15 laps and a best lap of 6.96 seconds straight out of the box - and pretty horrible handling. After a very quick scuffing (2 x 5 second bursts on my DIY truer), I was up to 20 laps and down to a 5.40 seconds best lap. Loosen the body screws a turn and I clocked 21 laps and a best lap of 5.01. Re-profiling the braids (SCX style) further improved the car to 23 laps and 4.75 seconds - and a really enjoyable car to drive.

These are simple, low-cost (sandpaper + screwdriver) tweaks for those running RTR cars at home or at a club. As I said earlier, the more complete wheel and tyre truing on my DIY truer improved the car to 25 laps and 4.28 seconds. From out of the box, that's a jump of ten laps (+66%) and a reduction of 2.68 seconds (-40%) over a lap. Pretty much for free.

More advanced (and expensive) tweaks will improve performance even more - but they will be much smaller gains and many more $$$ per hundredth of a second. Of course, those extra marginal gains might possibly create a potential race-winner in an ultra-competitive field... if the driver is any good

The 'big-bang-for-no-bucks' basics are within everyone's reach - no expensive tools required. I reckon that's how to hook people on the joys of tuning cars. In fact, there's loads of great stuff in the SlotRacer's Manual: slotracer.online/manual