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Let me start off be saying this is not a rant but when does it go from easy show up and race fun to LeMans? What do you guys think? I race with a fun group but slowly they are bringing in more and more new tricks. When are you officially going overboard to win/trying to win?? It started with silicone tires. Great better grip compared to the stock tires. We all need that. I'm in for sure. Then, truing the tires. That is a must, I get that too. Shimming the car here and there, eh marginal gain if any. No big deal. There are a couple more but this last one made me laugh a little. I saw a couple guys frosting their motors with canned air to cool it before a race. Now, I hate when people say "REALLY" but all I could think was REALLY? :lol: How long can this possibly help for a 15 minute race? If we were drag racing, maybe. I personally feel my cars run better after a few laps. So I finished 2nd and one of the freezers, :lol: , got 1st. Keep in mind he always wins so the real race is for 2nd. So what have to tried to get a "legal" edge on the comp?

Bruce

www.CINCYSLOTS.com

the nice thing is most of the mods are very cheap.

Bruce

The ones you know about :twocents-mytwocents:

I have to second the no competition keep it simple idea.

Our club, the Greater Vancouver Slot Car Club, is great group of racers who do it just for fun. Although points are awarded every heat, and added to a two month tally, at the end of the two months, all you get is bragging rights. There are a few racers who are very good drivers and usually win, but not because they spend a lot on hop up parts or run expensive cars, but because they are very good drivers. One of them, Superslab, took a basically stock VW Kafer, replaced the rear tires with urethane, loosened the screws and added a bit of weight and went 7.5 on Luf's Targa. The track record set with a full out CanAm proxy car is about 7.0. Most of us feel very lucky to crack 7.9 with our fastest car.

There are two other things that make club racing fun in our group. Good drivers are willing to run their slower cars in order to keep even with the competition, and we use a bracket racing handicap system. Too fast can come back to bite you.

There is only one event for prizes each year, and that is Perry's Christmas party. Prizes are chosen when your name is drawn, and there are enough for one each for all 30+ who attend.

Great fun is had by all,

Keith

The greatest tool i have found for battling that "over the top" Racing, was provided by Trackmate. The breakout time setting makes everyone smile when they hear that loud anoying sound it makes when you run under the set lowest time.and that lap dont count!

Bob

The group I race with in Ft Wayne are interested in improvements but to keep a level playing field all of our classes have a "break out" time.....go faster than the break out and you lose that lap. The track is an 88 foor Carrera 4 lane running at 12 volts. All classes require silicones, no mag and some require no weight (modern NASCAR). We all use Parma controllers and, if you need to dial back a "rocket car", we have variable resistor/brake boxes that can be put in line with our controllers. This keeps the times pretty close and also reduces the need to "remotor". Tricks are limited to using tape, 409 or just a damp rag to clean your tires between heats. There are 10-12 of us on a good night and we're all "aged methane gas dispensers" so it's pretty friendly. We have a couple "bookkeepers" (I ran this car at x resistance and brake setting last time) and you have guys like me that don't use the box...my poor driving skills keep me from "breaking out". On nights when we just have 5 or 6 guys show up we do a "track call" whenever there's a deslot or wreck....the marshal closest to the keyboard dives for the spacebar. We have a good time.

Our group is almost completely gone because juvenile competition killed it. That's the plain truth.

Interesting...I like tires and weight, and that's it for modifications. I have to admit that I'm the "Rule Pusher" in our group. But the only thing I do is try to clean tires during track calls and in between heats. I think there are two distinct ideas and both are cool; the tuners and the drivers. I'm a driver and want the best driver on that track on that day to win. But some guys want to do a better job of tuning a car, and there is merit in that, you just have a hard time when combining the two.

I applaud the tuners and choose to keep the money in my pocket and time with my family in my heart.

Only Two things I could add.
Draw motors from the hat before the night or like the 1:1's do......claim winners (motors, tires or chassis)

The bar for me is when I started to get mad at myself when racing. It only happened a couple of times before I backed up and reminded myself Im playing with toy cars. I think the biggest trick we saw was guys messing with their motor windings. We had a group of guys visit our local commercial track for a 1/32 race a year or so ago and the difference was palpable, it didnt look like any of those guys were having fun, was my last time to throw a car in that field too. I do like running them for the social aspect of it, and running against the timer or just for a little door to door fun, I also have a competitive side too, I like to race, but I only have to watch myself. We also race with a breakout, spec sealed motors (MT-5's) and similar gearing, slowed the 1/24 stuff way down, like 9+ second laps on a Blue King, and its a blast. Only a couple of those guys have trouble smiling on race night, and we have fun with them too!!!

That's what ruined R/C racing for me and why I returned to slots. The constant practice of throwing wads of money into the hobby. I believe in the K I S S principle. Spending more money doesn't make it more fun.

We set up a rule at Cloverleaf for our Wednesday racing series, if you win everybody gets to look your car over to see what you did. If you win by a lot, we take it apart and put it back together. We haven't had one racer object yet, which shows we have a good bunch of hobbyists.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking anyone is cheating. We're a tight race group plus we're running Carrera 124. Not much you can really do there. Tuning is tuning, meaning no money was spent on extra parts outside the tire truer. We run the stock axles, trued up a little of course, stock motors, no mag, sillies and stock gears. I just find it interesting that they come up with these little tweaks here and there. I would have never thought of 1/2 of them. OK, none of them! lol

Maybe a new race event is needed to gently remind folks about the fun. Instead of the Land Speed Record...maybe a "Cincyslots Digital Derby".

Fill the second level of your "little" shop with a track and bring back the fun :)

Have it catered by Skyline.

I tried to race after hours at a local slot car store. I grew tired after realizing the winners were the shop owners, all of the shop owner's family, and then, lastly, the newbies to the track. And there was, in my view, little chance of moving up since the top cars were "tweaked" by the owner with the rules of stock not to mention the practice time on the track. It was race to win at all costs and the final heats were simply the family racing each other. Don't get me wrong, they are nice people, but the racing format was pointless. The only hope was throwing money at track rental during the day to hope to get close. And, for me, the days of paying for track time disappeared in the 1960s.

By contrast, I show up at Luf's in Burnaby on a single night when I am up visiting family and instantly feel welcomed and the competition was tight. This is with the same car I ran with years earlier at the place I just mentioned. On top of that, the whole concept of a breakout time was used at Luf's and it was great. You could dial in any voltage you wanted for your lane, decide the lap time that you will not break, and you suddenly have very competitive and fun racing. I am sorry I no longer live up in Luf's area (moved down here in 1996) - they are a great group of racers and got the formula perfect. It's all about the beer. :) Can't wait to make a return trip to race, I mean, to see family! LOL.