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There are a lot of opinions on the necessity of the front wheels of a slot car having to touch the track surface. I race 1/43 scale and honestly, the cars go fast enough where I can’t tell if the front wheels are touching or not when they are in motion. Of course, I’m older and my eyesight has diminished over the years, LOL.!! For those of you that feel strongly about the front wheels touching, here are some things to consider.

If you are running a one-piece front axle, your front wheels will naturally spin at the same speed. This is not good when your car enters a turn. Why? Physical law dictates that the tire tracking the inside of the turn wants to spin slower that the tire tracking the outside of the turn. As the car goes through the turn, this causes drag as the front tires are fighting each other at different speeds. So what do you do?

Independent front wheel kits are good solution as they allow each of the front wheels to spin freely of one-another. Therefore, no conflict, no drag.

Ranch Design has kits that can adapt to various brands of 1/43 slot cars and scratch-build kits. Check it out.

Kihm

I personally feel it's faster for them not to touch (in 1/43), BUT I like for them to touch under hard cornering to act as sort of an outrigger to stabilize the car, in this situation it is not relevent whether there is a hard axle or not, because in most ciases the front inside wheel will not be touching the track anyway. This even applies to most cars whose front wheels do normally touch, the front inside wheel will lift! ;)

i like all 4 wheels touching the track, the fronts even supporting some weight. Stabilizes the cars in high speed turns and adds to the straight line speed. Cornering gets a tick easier.

But it´s absolutely necessary that the front are sealed or independent for this setup, so the ranch-kit helps.

Reminds me of a Cramps song!

I loved those first generation GTI's! Came VERY close to buying one!

With you on that one,masmojo.

Like so many other cars, it gets buggered-about-with every few years to create obsolescence;but every time they fiddle with it,it's worse,not better.

Look at BMW 3-series saloons; Minis; Ford Escorts; Renault 5's.

None of the makers seem to know when to leave a good thing alone.

David.

Independent fronts may be way overblown. A few points to consider:

The more grip you have in your tires, the more important it is for the inner tire to slip. At the front end of your car, you're already setting the car up with next to no grip at all. With zero friction, the fronts will slip as much as you want, and will have no adverse effect at all.

At the back end of the car, where you want the most grip, a well set up car has no trouble. Otherwise, we'd really need a differential back there. If we don't need a differential to make the grippy back end drive smoothly, do we need independent rotation to make the non-grippy front end work properly?

The need for independent rotation (or a differential) increases as the car's track width increases. The smoothest and fastest 1:32 and 1:24 cars don't need independent rotation at the rear with all that grip, or at the front (with almost no grip), and have track widths much wider than 1:43 cars.

So I suspect that the effect from independent fronts is negligible.

Want to be fast? Take the weight off the guide -- trade sliding friction for rolling friction, and make sure your fronts are as close to zero friction as possible.

YMMV, void where prohibited. Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate.

Interesting assertions El & nh and not disputing any of that, it totally sounds resonable, BUT the thing with the car tipping is not really a theory, I have and do see it happening even at very low speeds. Of course it will depend somewhat on car set up, but I typically set my cars up so that the tires just barely touch or almost touch the track. the narrowness of the typical 1/43 car relative to the size of a bladed guide really comes into play quite allot here. If you set your car up to the point that the tires are "planted" then it may not be an issue and no good comparing it to 1:1, because as you say as much rubber on the ground the better in real life. But many of my 1/43 cars and quite a few of my 1/32's would lift the inside wheel in a turn. Not really saying if it's desirable or not, just happens and in that case it will negate the need for the front tires to rotate at different speeds (not that that is critical anywayz)

Also, another thing to conside is the track, mine is routed with copper tape and the contact area is very smooth, were I running sectional track I would be more dilligent about my tires touching, cuts down on the clickity-clicking as the gruide hits the joints! ;-)

Personal opinion: Independent front wheels are best. Solid axle is #2. The guide is a huge creator of friction if it is allowed to rub the bottom of the slot, and friction is our enemy.

Now I have got 2 typs of I/43 Carrera GO!! with independent front wheel the dune buggy an the F1 note I think they do run better with Independent front wheels QUOTE Cjent Personal opinion: Independent front wheels are best. Solid axle is #2. The guide is a huge creator of friction if it is allowed to rub the bottom of the slot, and friction is our enemy.

:lol: Now notice the track I run lots of slot cars :lol: