25th-Apr-19, 08:11 PM
There's a thread asking what your favourite current slot car is and why.
So in order to restore the balance of the Universe I thought it would be fun to explore our least favourite cars and why.
I'm not looking for the ugliest in terms of looks but the ugliest in terms of engineering and/or driving performance.
So here is my contribution.
I bring you the SCX Citroen 2CV chassis Nr 657.
Now on the face of it this potential beauty is great. 4WD, suspension, drop arm - this is, on paper, a cracking little rally car.
But OMG - did the engineer have the day off and they let the work experience tea boy design the innards?
Take a look....
The drop arm is too short and the leading edge of the guide can get caught on track joins. The "suspension" is not sprung, the axles are simply loose (the holders for the bushes are deliberately way over-sized) but captive so they will articulate but not in a nice way. The 4wd is shaft drive and is noisy as a bag full of spanners. But none of that is as bad as the drive gears - look - a motor that is RAISED ABOVE the axle line and uses transfer gears to pass the power from the pinion DOWN through a transfer gear to the contrate. So now we have a raised centre of gravity on a very narrow and tippy car.
So handling is going to be a problem - it is likely to tip over mid-corner.
Well actually it doesn't. Mainly because the damned thing doesn't make it to mid corner - it will proceed very noisily along a straight and as soon as it reaches an R2 bend simply falls over as soon as the front changes direction by about 5 degrees!!! God knows I have tried but it does this time after time after time - and I am the most successful slot rally driver in our club (that's not saying that much by the way).
It is so bad it is laughable. I only still have it because, in all conscience, I could not sell this to some unsuspecting buyer.
In fact I have bought a Chase-Cars chassis so I can enjoy the 2CV on a tippy slidey chassis that is designed to be exactly that and with the bonus that it corners all day without falling over.
I had to hunt for about 15 minutes for this car - it is so bad it has slipped right to the bottom and back of my slot car stuff over the years - but now I have found it I can give it a decent chassis.
So that's my car that should never have happened - what's yours?
So in order to restore the balance of the Universe I thought it would be fun to explore our least favourite cars and why.
I'm not looking for the ugliest in terms of looks but the ugliest in terms of engineering and/or driving performance.
So here is my contribution.
I bring you the SCX Citroen 2CV chassis Nr 657.
Now on the face of it this potential beauty is great. 4WD, suspension, drop arm - this is, on paper, a cracking little rally car.
But OMG - did the engineer have the day off and they let the work experience tea boy design the innards?
Take a look....
The drop arm is too short and the leading edge of the guide can get caught on track joins. The "suspension" is not sprung, the axles are simply loose (the holders for the bushes are deliberately way over-sized) but captive so they will articulate but not in a nice way. The 4wd is shaft drive and is noisy as a bag full of spanners. But none of that is as bad as the drive gears - look - a motor that is RAISED ABOVE the axle line and uses transfer gears to pass the power from the pinion DOWN through a transfer gear to the contrate. So now we have a raised centre of gravity on a very narrow and tippy car.
So handling is going to be a problem - it is likely to tip over mid-corner.
Well actually it doesn't. Mainly because the damned thing doesn't make it to mid corner - it will proceed very noisily along a straight and as soon as it reaches an R2 bend simply falls over as soon as the front changes direction by about 5 degrees!!! God knows I have tried but it does this time after time after time - and I am the most successful slot rally driver in our club (that's not saying that much by the way).
It is so bad it is laughable. I only still have it because, in all conscience, I could not sell this to some unsuspecting buyer.
In fact I have bought a Chase-Cars chassis so I can enjoy the 2CV on a tippy slidey chassis that is designed to be exactly that and with the bonus that it corners all day without falling over.
I had to hunt for about 15 minutes for this car - it is so bad it has slipped right to the bottom and back of my slot car stuff over the years - but now I have found it I can give it a decent chassis.
So that's my car that should never have happened - what's yours?