Getting hard to choose isn't it?

[SuperSlab]

This is getting embarrassing…

My collection has been steadily growing over the 6 years or so that I have been back in the hobby. Very early in my addiction (and being the quintessential engineer) I started a spreadsheet listing all my cars and sundry other data. One of my big drives (ha ha) was to keep track (ha ha) of lap times for all my cars. Every time Luf has “recreated” a new incarnation of his track, I had to start a new worksheet in my spreadsheet.

And note that a couple months ago I finally achieved the Big Goal: for the first time I now have recorded lap times for ALL my cars on the current track! As of now that encompasses 229 running cars and times recorded since the last change in track layout in June 2013 with times for 8 - 10 cars pretty much every week.

OCD? Me?? Naaahhhh….

Given that I have set it up such that I have a column per date and a row per car to record the lap time per car per date, you can imagine my current worksheet has now started taking on rather alarming proportions. So as I went along I steadily expanded the functionality of the spreadsheet.

First I entered a column that listed the best lap time of each car. So I no longer had to look this up per car.

Then I added records linking back to this and sorted the cars by lap time: fastest to slowest. So now at a glance I know the lap time pecking order for all my cars. Cool.

But choosing cars to run in different classes every week is a pain. So I have filters so I can show only cars that fall into a certain class.

And to keep track of the preparation of each car I track all the work I do to each one on a separate sheet.

But trying to rotate the cars over time and ensuring that I “share the love” over all the cars is a different pain. So I created a field showing how long it has been since I ran each car. And a separate worksheet so I can show the last run date and how many weeks/months it has been since I ran each car. So now I sort that and work on a FIFO-derived (First in, First out) basis on choosing cars to run every week.

I believe I have now finally gotten to the point where it will be far more effective to do all this in a database: Access, here we come!

Hi, my name is Alwyn and I i) have too many slot cars and ii) am a little bit obsessive.

All this to say that I apparently have very little trouble in choosing: I just choose WAY too many!

[TuscoTodd]

:D
Ahhhh - this speaks to the engineer in me!
Kudos! :D

[SuperSlab]

Oh, and did I mention I have graphed how many cars do lap times within a certain lap time bracket? I was hoping/expecting to see a Normal Distribution and it actually comes pretty close....

[TuscoTodd]

That is AWESOME! :)

[Florida_Slotter]

Superslab,

Do you have the ability to print out a "Bell Curve"? Your data sure does fit the bell.



Harry,

I've been making myself build from what I've got on hand. It's kind of like owning a slot car junk yard of all sorts of scales, sizes and types of cars.

Just buying a couple of bodies to complete projects.

But the main part is that I'm having FUN building rather than buying!

[Modlerbob]

[slothead]

SuperSlab

I'm not an engineer but as a nerdy scientist share your affliction. I love data, recording info, and using it in different ways.

My latest big idea - creating a computer program to run multi-car races myself. For a 20 car 70 lap race I'll set the field by time trials, then I'll invert the starting order - slowest starts on the pole, fastest starts last. I'll race each car for 20-ish lap segments and record each lap time. When I have 71 lap times per car the data gets put into a text file for the program to read. The program re-enacts the race as though all cars were on the track at the same time, calculating the race order as cars exit each of the 7 sections of my track based on what percentage of the car's lap time is used for each section. A delightful complication is that 3 of the 7 sections have the lanes too close for passing. A car with a faster lap time may have to trail a slower car for awhile before being able to get by. Cool huh?

The faster cars in the rear will have to carefully pick their way through the field to get a top finishing spot. I say carefully because a spin will likely result in a lap time that drops them to the rear of the field (timer keeps running while I go put the car back on the track and resume racing). If a car crashes (leaves the track) it will be retired from the race at that point. So my task will be to drive the 20 cars for 71 laps each without spins or crashes, then run the program and watch the race play out section by section, lap by lap. I won't know which car won and the complete finishing order till the program displays the final lap.

Talk about obsessive, I think I qualify. But between working on the track, program, and buying - building cars, all of my spare time is delightfully spoken for. And that doodling I do in the margins of my notebook at department meetings is almost always slot car related.

Oh and as for choosing - I cancelled my Direct TV package which covers the cost of 2 cars a month. (If I knew how I'd insert a dancing banana here!) Time to order that new Scalextric Camaro.

Slothead

[btaylor]

Wow! All this data just blows me away!.Very cool!, I took all my cars one at a time, and made ten laps with each one. Best lap time was written on the bottom side of the car in white paint marker. I shelve them in classes, and when someone wants to race a particular car/class, I can easily match them up by times.
Bob

[Nor Cal Mike]

Other than the two cases of SCX Pro Porsche's that I bought from Bryan at fire sale prices and couldn't pass considering the sum of their parts, I have only bought three slot cars in the past year. I am currently on a classic mini car binge in that I am building some small bore 1/32 sports and saloon cars which will appease my classic SCCA interests. The last two RTR cars I bought were Monogram Cortina's. One of those chassis will get a Triumph Herald body from a kit I have. The other will remain intact. I also have a MK1 Capri body to outfit to run in the same group. My sports car series will also be kit bashed small bore two seaters and will run on shortened Monogram Grand Sport Corvette chassis with motors up front. The sum of it is that 90% of my slot car hobby purchases have been to support my kit bashing rather than collecting finished RTR cars.

[SuperSlab]

[slothead]

Alwyn

We seem to have hijacked this thread and renamed it 'Nerds Gone Wild'. But for some of us choosing cars is directly related to our corresponding data addiction too.

I couldn't see your whole graph of lap times, but if you post or PM me the numbers (# cars in each group) I'd enjoy playing around with them.

Slothead