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Hi All,

I've been lucky enough to inherit a few AFX sets from a friend, only one car running (Valvoline Nascar) the rest in pieces but not enough to build another car.
Loving the Le Mans 1960's to 1970's cars, I'll be purchasing GT40's, Daytona Cobra's, Ferrari 512's and Porsche 917's.
I'll be setting up a track on the back of an old door with scenery as well.
I want to run them NO Mag but don't want them crawling around the track either.
What are some of the Tips and Tricks I can do to really enjoy some fast but not ultra fast racing?
If this topic has already been tackles, please point me in the direction of the previous posts.

Thanks
Nimrod

I have recently jumped back into HO myself, quite heavy too I must say. Being in a local HO racing club as a pre teen in the 70s. I was fortunate to be in the era b4 mag attraction with the standard AFX when new, and into the introduction of the Super II. We did a lot of experimenting b4 the Super II, and had some fairly fast cars, some sporting full brass pans, some with partial brass pans and floating side weights, with scissor cut Phosphorus Bronze pickups. We even traveled to other states to compete. Anyway, I`ve been building some super II style cars with the standard style old school AFX chassis.(not AW X-Traction). Using a gold wire arm with the blue yellow magnets. Using floating side weights and a front end counter weight with hard body Porsche and Ferrari bodys. I`m very happy with the feel of the cars, much like I remember. Actually they run very well with really the only difference from back then, is I`m using Silicone Super Tires, rather than the foam TCP gooped up tires we used then.
Good luck and have fun !

If you like Aurora A/FX cars I have written an article on tuning Magnatraction and X-Traction cars that has a lot of info that also applies to those. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzLR42 ... sp=sharing
If the cars have sponge tires those really need to be treated with traction compound to run well. The tires tend to harden up with time and the traction compound will not be effective for very long. Most people avoid that problem by using slip-on silicone tires that work very well if the track is clean. The quick way to clean a track that is slightly dusty is to run around a car that has gooped sponge tires.
Aurora Magnatraction and first generation Johnny Lightning/Auto World X-Traction cars take the same bodies as A/FX cars and have a modest amount of magnetic downforce, you might try one to see how you like it. The latest X-Traction cars have an added neodymium traction magnet, in my opinion those are mostly for kids. In any case the extra magnet can easily be removed.
A/FX cars have been out of production since about 1974, you have to scour swap meets and ebay to find even used examples. New old stock T-Jets are still available, but that is not the case with A/FX cars, however you can build a NOS car using parts from places like JAG hobbies. Another alternative is to remove the tall magnets from a Magnatraction or X-Traction car and replace them with A/FX, Johnny Lightning or Dash magnets with shims under them.
You might also be interested in Gravity type cars, those do not rely on magnetic downforce, they are raced on both railed and braided tracks and tend to be much more sophisticated than the Super II type cars. There are several other slot BBs that cover the subject of Gravity cars, if you drop me a PM I can give you some links.

I have had good results running the TOMY AFX Turbo without the traction magnet using silicone rear tires at a track voltage of 12 volts. The car is a lot of fun to drive and slides some in the corners. The Life Like M chassis has some down-force from the motor magnets but doesn't have any traction magnets and is a great to run with the stock tires at 12 volts.

Best regards,
Brian

The Life Like M chassis only has motor magnets, but the flux collector helps to focus the magnetic fields, so the cars have at least as much magnetic downforce as other modern set type inline cars. We did try replacing the traction magnets in Tyco cars with brass weights. The cars also had weighted front ends and were run at 12 volts, they were not as fast or easy to drive as G-Jets.