Seeking Scalextric TransAm car advice

[David C]

Hi guys; another newcomer here to the forums; I am running Scalextric TransAm cars on Carrera track with the digital Carrera chips and wired them for taillights; with the magnets these are faster than I'd like-too easy to 'crash' at high speed; any other forum members remove the magnets and perhaps add weight instead? I want to keep the stock tires on these cars ,any helpful info appreciated............

[Nor Cal Mike]

Many of us ditch the magnets and add weight. I think that you will also have to change tires to either silicone or urethane type tires to up the traction level. I have eight or so of the Scaley Trans Am cars. I haven't added weight to any of them. I don't race competitively and find the Scaley cars good enough for my use with only a tire replacement.

[Austin]

[slothead]

I only raced with magnets for a short time on a Scalextric digital track but fully agree with pulling them. When traction is totally due to the magnetic down force you have unrealistic speeds till the force is exceeded and then the cars become missiles and in my case often ended up going off the table and crashing to the floor.

This was no longer an issue when I built my wood oval and then later a road course. The oval has a slick surface (hardboard) and silicone tires became mandatory. The road course surface is painted MDF and the stock tires on newer Scalextric Trans Am cars work well on it as do urethane tires. I still use Scalextric 16 volt wall wart transformers on the oval, but have an adjustable power supply on the road course I set at 12 volts. If changing to lower RPM motors or thinking about power supplies is more than your up to, changing tires is the best way to restore reasonable traction.

Someone on HRW must have thoughts about traction on Carerra track. Removing the magnets and upgrading tires will result in more realistic racing where the driver has much more control.

Slothead

[ming charlie]

If you are still using the Carrera wall transformer, your putting 14.8 volts to the cars. First thing I did was change to an adjustable power source. We race with magnets on our track and have the magnet limit set low, so there is not of magnetic force on the cars . We have a magnet Marshall to test the cars before racing . Trans-Am cars are only allowed 200g down force. All most all of our Trans-Am cars are Scalextric. Hope this helps
Charlie

[dreinecke]

Adjustable voltage works well, but if you can't tuning will also help. See this: http://rmsresins.com/uploads/3/1/2/8/31 ... tuning.pdf

This type of tuning can help make the cars more controllable.

[R/TRandy]

I have a few of the Scalextric Trans Am cars and also run Carrera digital.
The biggest improvement was changing the tires, stock tires just didn't grip well to the Carrera track.
But if you want to keep the stock tires I would try adjusting the speed setting with the CU or black box depending on which you have.
If you do pull the magnet you will have to add enough weight too the front of the car for good lane changing. Because Scalextric cars have smaller guides, without weight up front the car may not close the lane changer when it passes through.
I also change to Carrera braid, after time the cars sputtered and stopped a lot with the stock braids.
Randy

[David C]

Thanks for the responses, great forum participation--I should have been more clear on my objective, that is- to slow the cornering speeds with the stock tires, by just removing the magnets, the cars are pretty much undriveable, I will start with R/T Randy's suggestion and add weight to the front and do the braid change.

[4424ever]

Davec from reading your two posts IMHO it sounds like speed is less of an issue than traction is. Try this as a little experiment, take a slippery hard to drive and scuff the rear tires with some fine grit sandpaper. Now drive the car again to see how much it improves. Any improvements you see can be magnafied twofold by installing aftermarket tires. Try it and see what you think!

[slothead]

Aftermarket tires are to racing with stock tires what onions and pepperoni are to cheese pizza. Guess what I'm about to have while watching the football playoffs?

Slothead

[RichD]

My club started out running cars with traction magnets on plastic tracks, after a while we decided that the cars were too stuck down, so we reduced the amount of downforce and/or moved the magnets towards the front of the cars. Eventually we switched to wood tracks and found that we had to reduce the voltage. It has been our experience that no matter what tires you use (except possibly foam tires with traction compound on them) and no matter how well the cars are tuned you have to reduce the track voltage. I do know of one person at least that has stuck with 13.8 volts and replaces the motors in his cars with lower powered ones. If you don't want to invest in a variable power supply you can stick diodes between the controller and the track to reduce the voltage.
Here is another article on tuning cars for non-magnet racing: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzLR4 ... 1BKZmtDLWs

[Mitch58]

if you have the option, the Scaley Trans Am cars run very well without magnets at 10 volts. A little weight up front and urethane tires work well also.

[HomeRacingWorld]

[slothead]

To go way back to the original post on this thread, the issue is maintaining control of Scalextric cars with Carerra digital chips on a Carerra track without magnets. As many of us have indicated the options are - adding weight, aftermarket tires with more grip, and reducing the voltage. With the variable power supply on my road course Scalextric and Pioneer Trans Am cars are both fast and fun to drive.

In digital systems full voltage is sent through the power rails at all times, and control signals sent to each car's chip from the controllers tell them how much of the voltage to pass on to the motor. It basically moves the controller inside the car for speed control. Does changing the voltage effect digital chips and control systems? Seemingly not from some of the other comments here. If that is the case then from an overall perspective a variable power supply should be the best solution rather than changing the tires and/or motor for individual cars. A variable power supply may cost more than a person wants to invest, but all-in-all is likely to be a more economical solution than the combined cost of tuning individual cars.

The ultimate question might be, how do a few guys who are not interested in the tuning wars have some fun with digital racing without magnets most affordably? The variable power supply might be the best answer but who funds it and what rationale gets them out of the dog house with their wife or partner?

Slothead

[Drewbert34]

Disclaimer: I've not read every post in this thread, so please pardon if I reiterate someone else's suggestion.

With Carrera digital, you can program / reduce the speed of the cars. It would seem this would negate the need of an adjustable power supply for your purpose?

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