Magnets or no magnets , help me understand

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Re: Magnets or no magnets , help me understand

Postby HomeRacingWorld » Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:33 am

One example of this action describes many Ninco models perfectly.

Like the Porsche 550 and early 57 Vette. The F1 models as well. McLaren , etc.

They had button magnets in front of the inline motor. Due to the position there and distance from the track rails, these models had only a light “pinning” action as we called it then.

You still had to drive the car. It also was an easier car to learn how to drive than the heavy magnet missiles. That infamous “break away” action described above wasn’t as pronounced. The car would drift and gave you time to correct instead of just snapping loose and ending up into the drywall.

So even though it had a magnet, it was very light and made the cars a blast to run. A good example are those early F1 models. On both my Artin and on Carrera the models were just about perfect with the magnet. Without they were very hard to tune as we had almost no tire source and close to zero aftermarket options for wheels.

Especially on Artin and Carrera where the rails had slightly more stainless in them combined with flush track mounting. This resulted in even less effect on the magnet than old standard Scalextric or Nincompoop track with the slightly raises rails.

Fast forward to today on my wood track. Clean, flat surface. Advancements in tires alone...not to mention aftermarket gear...has allowed me to tune these models to run faster than they ever did in stock form.

A friend of mine HRW Jim here on the forum, once commented about a video he watched where we were running tuned SCX Nascars on the oval. He showed up for an event here and remarked: “I swear if I wasn’t seeing it person now, I would not have believed these cars were non magnet”. “These things are hauling ass and act as they have a magnet in them”. We laughed but he was sort of dead on the money.

Tire tech, wheels, axles, bushings, brass, guides, etc and so forth. Give us the ability to tune these cars to where the lap times we see now on the oval are just as fast as the times I recorded on our Carrera version of the same dimension many years ago. With cars with stock mags in place.

Of course my tastes changed over the years and today prefer non magnet racing as my tracks pretty much show. But the quest for speed and overall performance has not. It is just the personal satisfaction of tuning them and seeing how I fare against my friends efforts. Really the same thing I did 20 years ago! Hehe
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Re: Magnets or no magnets , help me understand

Postby RazorJon » Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:04 am

I started with magnets, added more magnets, added faster motor, needed more magnets, tried a wood track, now most of what I race I build from brass chassis slower motors and tuned cars I think its like evolution in the slot car hobby, I still have a large plastic track and I still race a magnet car from time to time to get my speed fix lol

Guess fun is fun no matter if your magnet diggy guy or a no mag wood racer :text-bravo:
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Re: Magnets or no magnets , help me understand

Postby strangebrew » Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:09 am

Don't think I ever raced a magnet car unless It was on a visit to Harry's.
Only manufactured track I ever had was a 1960 Strombecker version in my Christmas stocking one year.
I power my small routed oval with a car battery charger. When the youngsters visit I just click it down to 6 volts.
It seems to keep them on the track pretty well.
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Re: Magnets or no magnets , help me understand

Postby Ky.Slot Racer » Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:24 am

I used to always take the mags out after I grew up, then I built the wood track. Wasn't a need to do that anymore, so I just left my latest purchases as is. Then when racing at another members track last week, I grabbed some cars not thinking about this. First one I put on the track, I was taken back years in one lap. So I put it away ....this is all :roll:
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