Wood vs Plastic
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 2:09 pmNow, before anyone tells me how great wood is for a track, let me stay this . . . . I have raced on wooden track for many years in commercial raceways. I know wood tracks are different from plastic tracks. Better or worse is up to the person that is racing on those track.
At present at our club we have a Scalextric track that we race on. Now let me tell you about "WE". Most of us are racers that have competed for years in commerical raceways and have recently become interested in home style racing. Many of us are scratchbuilders that have built our cars for many years. almost all of us have raced 'flexi' style cars for many more years.
Also some of us are retired wing car racers - you know the ilk, we turn sub 2 second laps on a King track. Of course, we have continued to prove to ourselves that the faster you go, you need to spend more money on motors and such. I just got a bit tired of turning comms, zapping magnets seating brushes and prepping 6 motors to have at least 2 that were ready to race on Saturday nights.
The reason many of us like our present plastic track is that the Slot.It cars that most of us race remind us of racing flexi type cars. The handling is very similar and the speeds are what most of us are used to. Yes, we do run magnets in the cars, but we limit the magnetic downforce to 3 times the weight of the car. An example would be that our Slot.It Classic cars such as my "MotorRadio" Alfa T33/3 that weighs in at 61 grams can carry a total of 183 grams of downforce. The total that car car read on the Magnet Marshal is 244 grams. At this magnet level and 10.5 volts the cars run very well, handle well and you can still slide them around in the turns. There is also no way that you can simply hold the throttle wide open and even think the car will make a lapl. Fast, but lots of fun. We are running right at 5 second laps on our 67 foot per lap track.
Back in October we found a track that someone wanted to sell that was within our budget and would fit in our facilty. Many of our members asked that we retain the Scalextric track as they are having a whole lot of fun. So we hope to have the 'new to us track' moved up, prepped and up and running around Christmas. So we will be on a big learning curve. This track has 3.5 inch lane spacing and is smooth as glass. I'm looking forward to running on it, but I do not want to use any form of glue. I've worked in slot car raceways and the last thing I want to do is to use spray glue to help with the traction.
I've been in touch with many different folks on what tires to run and such. I'm really looking forward to getting the track in place and starting to rubber it in so we can evaluate the traction level.
So if you have transistioned from wood to plastic and would like to share what you have done to accomplish that, please do not hesitate to bring me up to speed, literally.
At present at our club we have a Scalextric track that we race on. Now let me tell you about "WE". Most of us are racers that have competed for years in commerical raceways and have recently become interested in home style racing. Many of us are scratchbuilders that have built our cars for many years. almost all of us have raced 'flexi' style cars for many more years.
Also some of us are retired wing car racers - you know the ilk, we turn sub 2 second laps on a King track. Of course, we have continued to prove to ourselves that the faster you go, you need to spend more money on motors and such. I just got a bit tired of turning comms, zapping magnets seating brushes and prepping 6 motors to have at least 2 that were ready to race on Saturday nights.
The reason many of us like our present plastic track is that the Slot.It cars that most of us race remind us of racing flexi type cars. The handling is very similar and the speeds are what most of us are used to. Yes, we do run magnets in the cars, but we limit the magnetic downforce to 3 times the weight of the car. An example would be that our Slot.It Classic cars such as my "MotorRadio" Alfa T33/3 that weighs in at 61 grams can carry a total of 183 grams of downforce. The total that car car read on the Magnet Marshal is 244 grams. At this magnet level and 10.5 volts the cars run very well, handle well and you can still slide them around in the turns. There is also no way that you can simply hold the throttle wide open and even think the car will make a lapl. Fast, but lots of fun. We are running right at 5 second laps on our 67 foot per lap track.
Back in October we found a track that someone wanted to sell that was within our budget and would fit in our facilty. Many of our members asked that we retain the Scalextric track as they are having a whole lot of fun. So we hope to have the 'new to us track' moved up, prepped and up and running around Christmas. So we will be on a big learning curve. This track has 3.5 inch lane spacing and is smooth as glass. I'm looking forward to running on it, but I do not want to use any form of glue. I've worked in slot car raceways and the last thing I want to do is to use spray glue to help with the traction.
I've been in touch with many different folks on what tires to run and such. I'm really looking forward to getting the track in place and starting to rubber it in so we can evaluate the traction level.
So if you have transistioned from wood to plastic and would like to share what you have done to accomplish that, please do not hesitate to bring me up to speed, literally.