Exotic vs. frumpy

[SuperSlab]

[Modlerbob]

I'd put my money on the Joest Porsche.

[Czar]

Since I am a huge fan of the Black Arrow cars, my money is riding on the Aston Martin. But this will be a very interesting comparison. It should highlight the divide between all out performance and performance that can be tamed enough for good driving on a home track. I see this as a growing debate in our community; raw performance vs. controlled application of power. I have worked pretty hard to make some of my Fly Chevrons competitive with classic Slot.its. I can come close, but the Slot.it chassis is just too far superior to the Fly chassis. (This may also be a reflection of my tuning skills.) Now I have to go look at Luf's track and wait for your results. Great thread!

Edited to add: When I tune my Fly Chevrons I change all the running gear and wheels to Slot.it parts, including the motor. So, the biggest difference in racing the Fly car against the Slot.it is the chassis.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I love those little Chevrons and Lolas. (Fly and Slotter, respectively)

Its amazing what a difference between them there is. I have one Chevron that kept up with a Slot.it right out of the box, but all the others needed tuning.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Go Team Fly :)

[SuperSlab]

OK, I will be heading out to Luf's later today on the way to lunch with our kids. Luf changed his track a couple of months ago so I have just recently started recording lap times on the new track, hence I do not yet have comprehensive lap times (like lap times for 146 cars that I have for the previous incarnation of his track: that will take some time to recreate...).

Anyway: I will take along a quick NSR Porsche 917 as benchmark. So my guesses for lap times:

Benchmark: NSR Porsche 917: 7.5 sec
BA Aston: 7.65 sec
Joest Porsche: 7.85 sec

And I am mentally prepared to be embarrassed: I do not have a single lap time for an NSR on the new track and I have not turned a lap with either of the new cars.

[Xr4ti]

[SuperSlab]

So I had the cars out at Luf's this morning and it was .... interesting..

First up: to establish the benchmark I ran my NSR Gunston Porsche 917. As per my earlier e-mail: I was thinking of a 7.5 sec lap for this one. I actually had some second thoughts and put down a 7.4 on my timing sheet. Actual time: 7.407 sec. Hey, not bad!

But alas: this was a short-lived sense of wellbeing in my forecasting abilities.

Next up: Fly Joest Porsche. Estimated lap time: 7.85 sec. Actual: 7.465 sec! Oops! Missed the bus on that one, didn't I? But at least it was a nice miss! Pretty darn impressive and satisfying actually. A relatively lightly tweaked Fly still with plastic wheels and it is within spitting distance of an NSR? VERY satisfying that!

And last (and maybe not so least?): Black Arrow Aston. My predicted time for this one was 7.65 sec. If this came true then the Joest Porsche would walk away with the crown by quite the margin! Fly-lovers (take a bow Modlerbob, Harry & Xr4ti) must have been holding their collective breaths.... but it was not to be I am afraid. Not even close. Not within a country mile is closer to the truth actually.

How about.... 7.240 sec? So about my 7.65 sec guesstimate: not really close was it?

This is a stunning slot car: whisper quiet, velvety smooth, absolutely planted in spite of the overabundance of power. This is one serious piece of slot car kit!

Like all good economists and weather forecasters, I did a bit of introspection after the event: why did I miss so badly? I think the big reason is the changes that Luf made to the track: there are now a few straight sections (most un-Luf-like that!). This has changed the characteristics of the track quite a bit, to such an extent that bigger horsepower (within reason) is now a plus. And note we run the track at 10V. At 12V I think things would have been different: the NSR Porsche (20k NSR Shark motor) would have been more competitive.

But in spite of my embarrassing miss on the times: I am deliriously happy with both these cars. Imagine how I would have felt if they were that much SLOWER than my estimates!

[Xr4ti]

What a great test!

Nice to know the Fly Joest Porsche with real wheels would be faster, maybe even competitive.
For the difference in price of a Black Arrow, a few Fly upgrades would at least be within budget and maybe close the .2 gap.

[SuperSlab]

[Xr4ti]

tysm for taking the time to break it all down, Superslab. The Black Arrow Aston is definitely a car worth owning and is on my list.

[SuperSlab]

[Czar]

This was a very interesting test. Superslab, thanks for taking the time to record everything. As I have said many times in the past, I think we are really seeing some sophisticated engineering going into the wee cars. The Black Arrow, and the ScaleAuto chassises are light years ahead of what was available just a couple of years ago. Slot.it started the trend and NSR picked up the ball, but Black Arrow is the company that has really moved it down the field. Besides having a great chassis, the body and tampo on the Black Arrows is excellent. With NSR cars going for more than $100, Slot.it is still the king in value and performance in my book. But Black Arrow is definitely a serious contender. I have both Black Arrow Aston liveries so I am an official fan boy. Now it would be interesting to see what a difference the Black Arrow sidewinder pod would make.