[Graham]

 Good Morning

so hopefully the cars will be collected today for a return to HQ for the next Round at Harlequin Raceway.

Below is the updated schedule
   

[Graham]

The cars have arrived back at Harlequin for the next round, as this was a rather unexpected intervention hopefully my track will be made ready for the weekend. 
Last couple of weeks I had started some refurbishment of the Hillclimb track around the perimeter of the track room due to water ingress caused by the severe weather of late, the roof has been repaired but all the surrounding track supporting boards were warped and now being replaced as is the old Scalextric and classic SCX track. I will be using the new style SCX track in future as it has better locking and contact connections and deeper track guide rail.

The Raceway Carrera track is still good though, so after a clean up should be OK for this next round.

[Savage GT]

Had you considered Policar track to replace the damaged SCX ?

[Graham]

Had you considered Policar track to replace the damaged SCX ?

I choose the new SCX track as it has exactly same width as the old Scalextric/SCX classic track so the hairpin curves etc fit nicely in place of the old track and has the same features like "sliding curves & chicanes". The self locking system does not require any additional locking pins or pieces to fit, and the guide rail is deep enough for most slot car guides (ie 8-9mm). As this perimeter track is more exposed to the shed walls and windows then the main track, I should be able to remove the new SCX track pieces fairly easily during the severe weather periods, the old Scalextric Sport track is a real pain to dismantle and refit to get good connectivity.

[ALS]

Great Racing wow thing ars wide out great builds Congratulations ro all Podium Winners.

[ALS]

Great Racing wow thing are wide open great builds Congratulations to all Podium Winners.

[Graham]

 Good Morning

most of the cars were run yesterday in Events 1, 2 & 3. I will run the Event 4 cars today as I noticed there is an issue with something rattling about in Brumos Ferrari 458 and as we are at a critical point in this series, I thought it best to ask Tony if he wants me to intervene and have a look inside or not. He has asked me to try to fix it, so we will do this Event later this morning.

Having decided to run this Round 8 on my track, I spent a considerable amount of time cleaning the Raceway track up due to dust formed during the restoration of the Hillclimb/Rally track work, and I decided to give the contact rails a thorough clean with contact fluid as well. I had it in mind to run both lanes for this Round (10 laps on each), I have not used the "easier / faster lane" on my track for a considerable time and although I did my best to restore it, for some reason on one or two points around the track the connectivity was not perfect and the plug in power terminal for this lane I felt was not quite working as it should. So I will have to get a power straight replaced if I want to use this in future. The result was that out of the two lanes the "faster" was in fact was running about 0.8 secs slower with my test car on a 8sec lap time 

So as an alternative I decided to run 2 x10 Laps timed runs on the regular lane.  Because there is no room for a group of marshals, or even one, in my small track room , I choose to only count the lap runs which were without de-slots. I am not so nimble as I used to be and a few of the positions on the track require more then a couple of seconds to retrieve stricken cars. Therefore running each car twice with short 10 lap durations means that there is less chance of a de-slot and having to repeat the process again etc.
The two runs were then added together to give the full 20 lap run time.

You have to remember we started running theses Proxies when there was no clubs to go to due to covid, so managing the best we could as a "solo" host was the norm then, but I now prefer to have these Rounds run in a club environment whenever possible, so this round was decided as a last resort after having failed to secure an alternative club to replace the initial one scheduled.

[Graham]

So having decided the format for the round 8, we have the results.

I have a variable power source, but for the proxies I use 12 volts. Each car had its braids inspected and cleaned if necessary, and for each of the two timed runs or if the car de-slotted the tyres were cleaned with tape.

I video recorded each of the cars run, although I had a couple of issues with data storage on my phone which interrupted a couple of the videos.

The test car (AMV Scalextric with magnet) was giving a Lap time of 7.5-7.6 secs.

            

In general this followed the similar pattern as on Qualifying at the start of the proxy.

The Ferrari 512BB of Bangers Racing clearly the favoured car on my track for Event 1.
2nd place was more interesting, although my RoadRunners De Tomaso had the faster 10 lap run, the accumulated results give the LeManx BMW M1 the position. Both ran faster than on the initial qualifying sessions.
Brumos RSR BMW M1 did seem to run much smoother than on qualifying, but had a issue on many of the tight corners with the rear tyres braking free of the surface , so was a little unpredictable and difficult to control on my track.
Ruscillos BMW M1 tyres seemed not grippy enough on here and was slower than on qualifying ?

[Graham]

Round 8 Event 2

          

In general the cars ended up in the same order as for qualifying.

Absolutely delighted that the RoadRunners GT40 was the clear winner on this track, as it should be 
The LeManx Porsche 917K with the B&W chassis was so stable, but seemed just short on top speed. 
ALS Racing's Ferrari 412P felt a little disappointing, again very stable but just not enough top speed to really test the GT40 against.
BARacer Porsche 907K was very similar as on qualifying, inconsistent mostly due to the poor condition of the braids, they were initially short, but now somewhat frayed as well as short. I think with longer braids could have performed much better overall, basically a very nice car.
The Porsche 908 of Team Alaric great to drive, and the Lola T70 was very stable but just lacked some power.
The Wolf Dallara of Makem Movers was running a little faster than in qualifying, but not enough to make any difference, held back by perhaps tight gear mesh and tight front axles or front wheels which don't seem to be running freely. Feels like it's running with hand brake on.

[Graham]

Round 8 Event 3

          

I did see a few more changes in the running order in this Event
The Honda NSX of Bangers Racing still on top and was running slightly faster than on qualifying.
The Marcos of Scott Sports only just a little faster than the Ferrari 550 of ModSports and the Toyota Supra of Harrisons racing, one of the eyelets on the Marcos was very loose and after 10 laps had to be adjusted again. So this issue might be getting worse with time.
3rd was the Toyota Supra of Harrisons Racers just half a second faster overall than the 4th Place Ferrari 550 of ModSports.
 The Ferrari 550 is a superbly well balanced car, just felt a little heavy around this track, a little underpowered for the level of stability.
BARacers Mclaren GTR seemed also slightly underpowered for the car which was very stable around my track.
Team Cubes Ferrari 355 has definitely become faster compared to the qualy session, running more smoothly now.
Ruscillo Racing's Merc CLK similar as before with tyres giving the car a slightly loose at the back feeling.
Batmax Merc CLK had a running issue with the back end of the chassis scrapping the track surface on the track inclinations which no doubt would have slowed it down.
The Dodge Viper of Makem Movers had one rear tyre with virtually no tyre contact due to rubbing of the interior inside the body. I have once again replaced the tape holding the interior in place as the original has lost its adhesion (due to grease and oil), but the damage has been done unfortunately, only about one and a quarter tyre widths of tread left now.