The Abecedarian Proxy- From Sea to shining Sea

[Ember]

If you had just cleaned the track it is possible that the tyres laying down "rubber" deposits improved the grip. If that is the case if will continue to improve with more use.

[TuscoTodd]

Hmmm - something else that it "might" be...
If you have been running any cars with silicone tires on them - it can take a bit for wear the residue off and start getting a good bite again. (just a thought?)

[VenturaAlfa]

The track is set and the head of scrutineering says we are good to go. The one picture shows the esses leading up to turn 6. This was an area where almost everybodies car had issues; some less than others.

Here's the chief steward and Head Scrutineer.


here's the track





Kart54

[VenturaAlfa]

Here are the cars on the warm up laps on the high banks of Ventura Beach Speedway "where the roar meets the shore"







Warm up laps done. Now on to the races!!!

Ventura Alfa

[VenturaAlfa]

Ok, just as I thought the cream rose to the top once it was off to the races for 2 9 lap runs.

First run................Total Time........Fastest Lap

Ventura Alfa..........1:22:35.........8:35 1 off
Bibster.................1:15:53........ 8:27
Czar ................... 1:33:04........8:66 1 off
Reek455............... 1:14:30........8:09
Ember.................. 1:14:17.......8:05
Vegas Racer...........1:18:98........8:45
Burrell..................1:20:82........8:54
Arroldn.................1:14:33........8:08
Tusco Todd............1:15:10........8:10
Buford..................1:24:46.......9.60 1 off

First round done. Looks like the good guys and gals are coming on.

[VenturaAlfa]

Now the second round. This is the one that mattered for most of you. Just like qualifying the speeds improved dramatically.

Second race.........Overall Time.........Fastest Lap

Buford.......................1:32:64...............9:60 1 off Rear tires are shot on this car. Too bad as it is a really nice car and should be faster
Tusco Todd.................1:33:56...............8:56 1 off
Arroldn......................1:14:08...............8:06
Burrell.......................1:15:16...............8:16
Vegas Racer................1:14:18...............8:11
Ember.......................1:10:86..............7:68 fastest lap and an almost 4 second improvement over the first round
Reek 455....................1:11:01..............7:84 an over 3 second improvement
Czar..........................1:15:21..............8:12
Bibster.......................1:11:80..............7:75
Ventura Alfa................1:12:76..............7:76 I think home court advantage and a lot of laps on this track helped here.

[VenturaAlfa]

The final finishing order is:

1. Ember :auto-checkeredflag:
2. Reek 455
3. Bibster
4. Ventura Alfa
5. Arroldn
6. Vegas Racer
7. Tusco Todd From the first round.
8. Burrell
9. Czar
10. Buford

I haven't looked to see how this compares to the current standings.

Overall final thoughts: the Haribo Porsche and the Aston Martin are really great looking cars. The white corvette was by far the slowest down the long straights but that actually seemed to help in the turns and going up the esses. It was amazing how wide the two ferraris are. If you look under the carrera scoring you will notice that I have cut off one leg and put the LED in between two half tires on the track. I actually had to move that back to get the ferraris to clear and even then if I braked coming up to the timer so the cars jumped sideways slightly they still hit the tires.

Last, but not least; something I have always thought. Having the body float means very little if anything on the cars. As long as it is not binding or interfering with the chassis more float or less float seems to make little to no difference in the times of the cars. Some of these cars had a lot some had next to none that seemed to have no effect on their finishing order

A great bunch of cars overall. This proxy has been a lot of fun and I am going to hate to see it end. :cry:

On to the next round at Czar's track. :banana-dance:

Ventura Alfa

[TuscoTodd]

Great pics!
Definitely looks like a fun track to run with a lot of interesting variation!

Bit surprised by how much of a fall off my car had between round - showing an 18 second decline... will be interested to hear if that was due to the off, or if there was another issue...

Thanks again for volunteering to host and hope "the fleet" made for some good entertainment while they were there!
:banana-dance: :banana-dance: :banana-dance: :banana-dance: :banana-dance: :banana-dance: :banana-dance: :banana-dance:

[arroldn]

Wow from 3rd to 5th. I see Tusco Todd is also knocked to the bottom. This will really shake up the points standing. Hopefully I'm still in the top three.
Congratulations to our new top three finishers. Great track and pictures and commentary. Didn't quite understand what you where saying about the Ferraris. Did the width effect the handling? Did you have to move something to get them around the track? Oh was that the scoring LED at the finish line?

Thanks
Arrold

[VenturaAlfa]

Hi Arrold and Todd,

There were two spots where the ferraris really struggled. Coming off the bank they wanted to drop the rear end down so that it hit against the track for the inside lane and then if you look under the Carrera timer you will notice half tires in between the tracks. They protect an LED. That is also right about the braking zone for the upcoming 180. If the ferraris got sideways at all they hit those tires with the back tire. I either had to try and drive them past it and then brake or let off slightly prior to that point so that i could get back on it and clear them. I have over 200 cars and I have never had any of them hit those tires. Part of that could be that most of them have magnets and as a result the braking zone is much further up and closer to the turn. As I said, I actually moved the the tires and the LED back about 1/4 of an inch but they still managed to hit them on occasion.

For reference, I have only stock magnets set at stock height in any of my cars. The Carrera Cheetah and Cobra will swing the tails around in the truns and the esses just like a non magnet car but will still turn laps under 5 seconds.

I haven't looked at the points so I wondered how the finish order affected them. Where there cars that had been at the top that finished lower?

Ventura Alfa

[arroldn]

Points leaders prior to this race.
1) Tusco Todd
2) Arrold
3) Reek
4) Ember
5) Burrell
6) Bibbster
7) Manchvegasracer
8) Czar
9) Ventura
10) Baford

With Tusco Todd in 7th and me in 5th. Tusco get 4 points I get 6 points so he now has a 1 point lead on me for 1st place.

[Ember]

:o :D That's a surprisingly good run for the Audi. Thank you.

Congratulations to you and to everybody for another well run round.

Really very surprised at the often big time differences between the two rounds. If they were both run in the same direction such a big difference is unusual. But then 9 laps is not really a large amount of time to get used to and adjust to the quirks of a car.

[VenturaAlfa]

Hi Ember,

I suspect that is at least part of it. Getting used to cars running with no mags takes time. I do have a large number of no mag cars but they typically get run on a commercial track. The first round I'm sure helps with the second round.

I have at least figured out it as much about being smooth as being fast. Just like a 1:1 car sliding sideways does not produce more speed. Just the converse is true, it produces less speed.

Your Audi was very smooth through the esses and had plenty of straight away speed. When it did slide it did so in a vary controlled manor which made it possible to "catch" the slide and drive out of it. Some of the other cars, like mine, were twitchy and if you slid it you lost it or at least lost a lot of time.

Ventura Alfa

[VenturaAlfa]

Czar,
Please PM me your address so I can get the cars on their way to you.
Ventura Alfa

[reek455]

Ventura,

Thank you for hosting this round and that goes for all the prior hosts as well. Congrats to Ember on the win, she always seems to have quality entries and to bibbster for rounding out the podium. Looks like the points chase is getting real tight headed to the final round. Anxious to see how it turns out.

Regards
Rico