Under 2 Litre Groom Lake wrap-up and results

[Datto]

Under 2 Litre T/A Proxy at Groom Lake Circuit, May 18 and 19, 2013

First, thank you Peter and Lloyd for your entries. Aside from a couple years ago , and Masmojo brining some cars over on a visit, this is my first opportunity run anyone else’s builds. There’s a real variety of approaches represented here, from lloyd’s Brass Chassis, to Peters and my printed ones. Inline, sidewinders, angle winders, Lloyd entering all three types. There were non standard wheels and tires on the Mini and Imp, Mostly Boxer motors with a few Radio Shack type motors thrown in. A really interesting and varied grid from just a few participants. Really a cool thing to be a part of!

#13 Mini
Peter’s Mini Is such a little wonder! It’s tiny and tidy with gorgeous little wheel inserts, an interior and driver. It’s also light. So light, unfortunately that it had trouble getting power to the ground on the Groom Lake track. Pit crews carefully added 4g up high above the rear wheels which shaved .6 seconds off average lap times. I was hesitant to add weight to Peter’s car, knowing he strives for lightness, but wanted to make a good faith effort to get the best times out of every car. With weight on the roof, the mini was able to get traction and was less tail happy, and still very stable. It only rolled once on deceleration on an off-camber turn.

#23 Imp
Lloyd Represented Rootes Group with a neat little Hillman Imp. Broke a motor lead at the braid, but was easy to fix. Great fun to drive it loved to drift in the sweepers, but hard dry tires made grip an issue. New rubber would bring this car to life I think!

#24 Cortina
Lloyd told me upon his shipping the cars, that he had only older pre-raced tires at hand. His package got here so fast I had plenty of time to get 3 of the 4 cars re-shod, glued and trued with some 30 shore urethane tires. The rears, anyway, unfortunately I had nothing suitable for the fronts. The Cortina seemed to bog down a bit the first day on the clockwise laps, but ran cooler and faster the second day. Not sure why

#25 Escort
One of Lloyd’s sidewinders. With a light front end, and weight behind the rears, it wanted to lift out of the slot on acceleration. Pit crews added 6g low and in the middle to keep the guide in the slot. Again I was hesitant to add weight to another person’s car, but it was pretty much needed to keep the guide in the slot.

# Volvo Amazon
This anglewinder was much faster the second day than the first. Handled well once the guide fixing screw was loosened a bit.

#46 Datsun 510
This is my car, so all I’ll say it it’s a bit twitchy, could use shorter gearing

#68 Alfa GTV
Less twitchy than the Datsun but still twitchy

#94 Saab 96
I do enjoy this car. Very docile, a bit top heavy, and not very fast, but consistent. :)


After a few hours of stark panic Saturday morning when I couldn’t get my iPod lap timer app to work properly, Things settled down. One app update later we were up and running. Saturday each car ran 35 laps clockwise on the circuit, Sunday, each car ran 35 laps counter-clockwise. The 5 slowest laps (with the occasional anomalous .5 second lap time were thrown out and the results below are based on 60 total laps for each car.

I know I probably did not do any of the guest cars justice. I feel like I was just starting to get the knack of sone of them, and some , I could feel huge potential, but my skills were not up to the task. Ideally each car would have the identical amount of practice, and ideally a disinterested party would be doing the driving. It was a huge amount of fun (except for the timing panic) and I really want to thank Peter and Lloyd for sending their cars over to this nuclear wasteland we call Groom Lake Circuit!


RESULTS

Ist:
#46 Datsun 510 Best: 6.29 Avg:7.3

2nd: TIE!
#25 Escort Best: 6.67 Avg. 7.6
#68 Alfa Best: 6.87 Avg:7.4

3d:
#94 Saab 96 Best: 7.2 Avg: 7.5

4th:
#Volvo Amazon Best: 7.3 Avg: 7.8

5th:
#24 Ford Cortina Best: 7.54 Avg: 8.41

6th:
#13 Morris Mini Best: 8.25 Avg: 9.05

7th:
#23 Hillman Imp Best 8.58 Avg: 10.21

[LloydL]

Thanks for all your work Marc, especially in finishing my cars for me. I was very interested as to how they would work on Groom Lake as it is their first visit there. A great start to what has the makings of a great proxy series.

You have now got me thinking about also running a stage on my Little Monte track as well, all of these cars would look great going round there.

As all of the tracks in this proxy are so different, it gives us a lot to look forward to.

Regards, Lloyd

[pfuetze]

Thanks for your efforts, Marc!

It has been a great first leg on Groom Lake and i was very curious how the Mini will do. Maybe the combination of the strong motor and lightweight was not the best, but as this is a series, we will see how it will work on the next stage, where some little cars will be confronted with a long straight, too.

Lloyd, i would love to see the Mini on the Little Monte, i think that would be the better choice than some plastic track.

When the Bruno, the driver of the Mini comes home, i think the chief engineer of the puddle dude racing team needs to have a word with him, how to use the accelerator ;)

Congrats to the win of the first leg, Marc!
We need to see a pic of the winning car going over the finishing line :)

Thanks again for hosting and a great report,
Peter

[LloydL]

Peter, have you tried your mini on a plastic track?

Regards, Lloyd

[pfuetze]

Nope, not even tried to put it on the piece of Go!track that i have laying around for ground clearance checking ...
Maybe the Boxer motor with the small wheels creates even some real downforce ... looks like a chance for better lap times :rollin:

[LloydL]

Yes Peter, my Imp has a similar motor position and sticks to my GO track very well!

Regards, Lloyd

[Tsooko]

Congratulations Marc! All of you deserve an " At-a-boy!" Well done.
When and where is the next race? Can one still join in?
Cheers Ted

[Datto]

Peter, speaking of accelerator, it seemed like there was a very small fraction of the trigger's arc in my 45Ω controller where all the needed range was. Go past that little 1mm arc, and all the fyrebox motors would suddenly jump forward. The RS motors took a 60Ω and seemed more easily tamed on my setup. I'll get a podium pic today :) Thanks again!

[Datto]

Ted, Next race is at Peter's Desmo June 15. (I need to double-check the date) Don't see why you can't join in, just remember it seems to take awhile to get stuff through Austrian customs.

from there, cars go to Lloyd's track in the UK.

[masmojo]

I so wish I had time to get a car ready for your race Marc, because from what I've seen your builds are real similar to mine as far as handling and lap times and your track is similar to mine in construction and handling, so I feel your tight twisty track would have really suited my builds and I coulda been a contenda! Oh well, maybe next time!!

[Datto]

[LloydL]

Well done Marc, both for your excellent results and putting on an excellent first stage of this year's U2 proxy! Your cars look great as well.

Regards, Lloyd

[Datto]

Beulah wants to give you a big hug, but that usually results in a broken back and perforated kidneys :o :o

[LloydL]

And, of course, we must not forget 'Miss Groom Lake'!

Regards, Lloyd

[pfuetze]

Miss Groom Lake is awesome, where can we find more pictures of her? ;)
excellent pic, Marc!

p.s. we need to talk about entry fees, maybe by PM/eMail