Thunderslot set up tips...........

[Fast Co.]

Excellent tips and well written and illustrated. Thanks much for taking the time to do this.
Steve

[Duke7777]

Dave - this is an excellent write-up, full of great tips for speed and reliability.

Something I find interesting is that I would consider this set-up to be relatively tight: stiff pod, pod screws snug, weight on the front wheels, minimal play in the front axle. I think this is to be expected when only rubber tires are allowed and the tracks should be clean and rubbered-in. The grip from well-prepared tires should be excellent, so the set-up should be relatively tight. However, one would expect the same sort of set-up to work well for the Group 5 proxy, which even allows tire treatment. I've driven in the past two Group 5 proxies here in Vancouver, and the top cars are amazing - the fastest I've driven. But from what I recall from my quick inspections of the top cars in those proxies, I would say the set-up is typically somewhat looser than what Dave has described: loose pods with fibreglass tape, loose bodies, more float in the front axle. So there seems to be an inconsistency, or am I missing something?

Brian/Duke7777

[DRW21]

Here's another 10 cents worth -
Chassis like the Thunderslot are very flexible, because of that they work more like an old wire style chassis as apposed to a chassis like a Slot-it chassis.
I have a few Thunderslot cars set up like this and they all perform great, I do have spring kits in them and the pod screws are set at 2 full turns loose from where they seat.
This setting plus the flexible plastic allows for way more movement than I get out from a Slot-it chassis with all the screws loose and the car performs much better in the corners.
All rubber tires do need a clean track to work best as mentioned in the write up.
This set up is just a good starting point really, the chassis can be 'tuned' to suit other factors like driving style, track layout and conditions to some degree.
It is very possible that you may get a better result by playing around with different lead and screw settings but for the simple exercise of using what parts that came with the car this creates a great runner with not a lot done to what comes in the box.
Thanks again Guys.

[Duke7777]

OK, if I understand correctly, the snug pod screw position was just for the purpose of setting up the front axle. The final tune involves backing off the pod screws two turns to allow the pod to move under the control of the springs. This makes sense to me, as I couldn't understand the purpose of the spring kit if the pod screws were snug. It also largely resolves what seemed to be an inconsistency with the way I recalled the top Group 5 cars being set up.

Brian/Duke7777

[DRW21]

That's correct Duke7777, I set the pod screws that way to enable accurate set up of the front axle limits and then loosen the pod till the car suits the track and grip levels.
I'm not sure how the Group 5 cars are set up.