Why do this review? Have you ever had a slot car that should have been great, but wasn't and the reason why wasn't obvious? If you have had such a car then you were faced with a very frustrating situation. In this position you have had several options on what to do other than return it. The first is to strip it of usable parts and make it a shelf queen, but then only if it is cool looking or famous. It can given to a slotting friend for Christmas, but he might stop being your friend or you just might get it back on your birthday. Sort of like aunt Louise's fruitcake that made its rounds. The final option is to fix it, but that requires that you figure out what is wrong.
Harry sent me this car that just wouldn't respond to non-magnetic tuning. With magnets it ran well, but without them it was a pig. I hold to the school of thought that espouses the idea that one debugs a problem car by removing the magnets. Magnets mask many problems. Once the problems are fixed then the magnets may be put back if they are wanted. The car in question here is the "racing version" of the Spirit Reynard. It comes with a lightweight body, hollow axles, lightweight aluminum wheels, and a SlotIt style crown gear. Potentially a great packgage, but it was only an average performer when the magnet was removed. At least this example was. The principles laid down here are applicable to any car and not just this example.
STAGE ONE:
TEAR
IT
APART
AND PUT
IT
BACK
TOGETHER
This is a simple repair technique for many things in life. What you do is take the thing apart and reassemble it to find out how it works and to see if there are any obvious problems. I have kept a microwave running for over twenty-three years using this method. All you do in this case is take the slot car apart and put it together carefully making sure everything was straight, aligned, lubed, and not rubbing.
Problem #1: a wheel was stuck on one of the hollow axles and in removal the axle was ruined. I don't think the hollow axles are worth it on home tracks and so it was removed and replaced with a polished steel machined steel axle from my secret source.
Problem #2: The guide blade did not reach into the slot as far as I would like on deep slot tracks. I did not change this.
Problem #3: The tire were lumpy and so were sanded.
The car ran only marginally better after reassembly on my home track.
STAGE 2: START
REPLACING
PARTS
AND MAKING
MODIFICATIONS ONE
AT
ATIME
There are two ways of finding the problem and that is to make modifications one at a time until a major problem is uncovered. or the car runs well. If there is no major jump in performance but only steady improvement then the problem was a composite problem, which in some ways are the worst as they can not be easily identified.
Weight: The most obvious problem without a magnet was that the front end was lifting out of the slot. This was cured with a half ounce of lead behind the guide.Chassis: Sometimes a plastic chassis is warped and the whole car is thrown off. I have a TSRF chassis that has to have the plastic section straightened because of this problem. To test for this problem you put the chassis on a very smooth surface like a piece of glass and look to see if all four tires touch or take the wheels off and put the plastic down on the glass. One reason you use glass is if it is bent you can look underneath and see where the problem is. This chassis was perfect.
Body: The body was loosened a half screw turn and there was a little improvement.
Wheels: One of the wheels had a flat spot on it and so a drop of Gorilla Glue was placed on the spot and a file was held to it until it was round. In over a thousand laps of running the glue never came undone. In the following picture the glue is almost invisible but the wheel is round. Note also that the chassis is cut away to allow for tire growth on the top end of the straight.
Tires: Five types were tried. On Ninco track the best were the Ninco rubber tires from the Ninco CART Lola on BWA rims. They were cut down to fit the wheel wells. On Carrera track the PPR Super Tire worked very well as did the new compound Indy Grips.
Axles: The rear hollow axle was bent in removal of a wheel so the BWA wheel could be used for the Ninco tires and was replaced by a polished steel one. No improvement or degradation of performance, but one tough axle is in the rear.
Drivetrain: The stock motor was fizzling on my really long straight at 12 volts and so was replaced by an MRRC red motor with heavy lead wires. To be safe the motor was hot glued in the engine bracket. This motor ran like one scalded cat and had too many RPMs for the straight and so it needed stiffer gears. SlotIt gears were used, not because the stock gears were bad, but they were installed to tune the ratio for the motor and track. The ratio I wanted was in the parts bin.
Guide: This is the culprit for two reasons. The first is that the guide is too short and under acceleration can rise in the slot. Luckily the SlotIt deep slot guide for wooden tracks fits perfectly. After putting the guide in I shortened it as it was too long and caused binding on tight turns and drag on the straight. Once shortened the car gained over a half second a lap. This guide has to be removed for Scalextric Sport and Ninco tracks and replaced with one that has been trimmed slightly more. For classic track you have to return to the stock guide.
The second problem with the guide was harder to find. The plastic collar that holds the guide had a hairline crack in it. I can't tell how much this contributed to the problem but the car now has a brass collar holding the guide in place securely.
Balance: I fiddled with putting clay at the rear until it was balanced better. It is not perfect yet, but much more stable.
This is a great car once all the little niggling things are fixed. The lap times on the 118' Carrera track dropped from a 15.87 to a 12.39. The best I ever turned with any non-magnet car was an 11.92. The car is now only a hair slower than my ProSlot Toyota GT-1 which I have worked on endlessly. Two of the guys at the track drove it and loved it. I hated this car at one time, but now it is my development car for testing parts and tires.
FUTURE MODIDIFICATIONS:
1. Ortmann tires: These are all the rage and need to be tested on this car.
2. Stiffer gears: This may not be necessary if the Ortmanns give the car a higher turn speed.
3. Sidewinder Engine Mount: If I can get a spare chassis, I want to hack in a SlotIt sidewinder engine bay.
4. Brass Plate: There is enough space to put brass plate under the chassis to lower the center of gravity even more.
Caveat Emptor (Let the buyer beware!)
The views expressed are solely those of Daniel J. Dyke
Dan can be reached at dan.dyke@goodnews.net.