All right, this is what I came up with: 

1.  Driving Techniques
–  Holding the controller  (just like golf, tennis and women – what’s the best grip?)

No secrets here: whichever way suits you better, just don’t drop it.

–  How much throttle/trigger, and when.  e.g. do you punch it out of a turn or ease into the trigger?
–  Braking;  when; and full-off or coast or feather?
–  Controller settings – how do we setup the Brake knob for various car characteristics – what behaviors do we look for, and then how do we adjust the brake control based on those behaviors?    Throttle sensitivity – same question.

Controller settings first (assuming your controller has both sensitivity and brake adjustments. Although the sensitivity adjustment is basically a personal preference and it varies from car to car, I would suggest the following:  1. turn the sensitivity knob to the lowest setting; 2. place your car on the track; 3. looking at your controller’s wiper blade, move it to the first contact bar of your controller (slowest); 4. adjust the sensitivity knob so that the cars moves as slow as possible without stopping (depending on your controller you will notice that even at the lowest sensitivity, the car is going too fast – probably because your controller was not made for what you are running; an example being a 1/32 car on a 1/24 (wing) controller. If you try to run a Group 12 car with a controller made for 1/32 scale racing , you will probably burn the controller).

 For brake adjustment I suggest a minimal coast (around 6 inches): 1. place your car at the beginning of a straight (you will need some room for this setting); 2. accelerate and let the car reach maximum speed; 3. Let go of the throttle (full brake) and check the car’s behavior:  If the car jerked to a side (be sure not to stop on a turn) or if it hopped, you have too much brakes; if it coasted more than 6 inches, you need more brakes.

Your question regarding how much throttle is impossible to answer (throttle on turns that is … we all know how much you need at a straight), all you need to do is practice with each of your cars, understand their limits or make adjustments to extract more from them.

Breaking point, again a suggestion, and totally based on the controller settings I just described: 1. from a straight to a turn: you want to start breaking on the straight, always before the turn, letting the car coast past the beginning of that turn – you can practice this one and it is easy to tell if you are doing it wrong – assuming your car coasts 6 inches from full speed to a full stop, you need to  practice coming to a full stop around 1 or 2 inches inside the turn (on the club track, use the “straight” that leads to the carousel turn); 2. breaking/accelerating on a sinuous track section: practice.

2.  Motor Types and Mounting options
–  Advantages and challenges of boxers and other high-torque motors

If you are just starting to discover 1/32 slot replica cars (not talking about womp-womps here), please avoid all high torque motors (boxers/FK180). The 1/32 cars we race have plastic chassis and are simply not heavy enough for ~300gm of torque; the chassis flexes under acceleration, with the flexing of the chassis you get wheel hop and the weight distribution is off (too heavy in the rear; a good distribution of weight will place 50% to 60% in the rear axle). Just don’t use it! Also avoid buying cars with those motors.

–  Anglewinders, besides allowing a boxer/fk130 to be used, and accomodating some body styles, what are the Pros/cons?

Again, for 1/32 slot replica cars, in my opinion, there are absolutely no advantages running an angle-winder setup; NONE! Sure, you can use a smaller diameter spur gear but I don’t know of any model that can only run angle-winder motor orientation and the list of cons in doing so is too lengthy.

The only reason angle-winder substituted sidewinder was to allow bigger, “torquier” motors – but that was done for 1/24 scale racing. With 1/32 replica  slot cars, what you really get with an angle-winder setup is a much flimsier chassis – the chassis need to accommodate the larger motor and it’s sides are normally very thin, allowing the chassis to flex even more (compared to its sidewinder or inline versions); if you combine a FK180 motor with a chassis that flexes you get a terrible combination.  Slot.it has been producing the Flat-6 line of motors, a milder/flatter version of the FK180, these motors don’t produce as much torque but unfortunately the angle-winder chassis still needs to accommodate its size/length and are flimsy. The Flat-6 motors can be good when used with inline motor pods – but get used to the old FC130 (orange endbell, etc) motors first.

BTW, FK130 is not a boxer. The FK130 motors are used with 1/32 replica slot cars but it is not common.

–  Sidewinders;  Pros/Cons compared to inlines and anglewinders.

Aside from allowing a larger motor to be installed, some say that the angle-winder setup will produce better magnetic down-force than a sidewinder setup (for the magnet racing guys – I cannot verify or deny it, what I can say it that more often than not, if you try to run an angle-winder boxer setup you will go past the club’s maximum down-force limit of 30 grams).

Now, the main advantages of a sidewinder car are less gearing friction and the fact that when the motor turns, its torque direction is forward (not to the side as inline setups). The disadvantage of a sidewinder orientation is the size of the gears.

The sidewinder setup is the quieter of them all when done properly (something I like). Something else to notice is that because you have less gearing friction, you will not have as much brakes as you would with an inline setup (assuming, same car, motor, and gear ratio).

–  Inlines allow FK130s and other large motors, but also impart torque that can lift the left rear wheels.  They also have more range in gearing options as compared to AWs and SWs.  What are the other Pros/Cons?

Inline setups allow all motors. The torque is lateral and can be a disadvantage if you use a motor with too much torque or if the chassis construction is poor (same issue described above with angle-winder setups). The use of smaller diameter gears is probably the reason so many manufactures/racers use inline configurations.

–  Other than increased wear, whats the risk of using a SW spur for an AW setup (assuming thats the only spur type I can get with the tooth-count and pitch, until my order comes in from a WWW vendor?)

Just don’t use angle-winder gears on sidewinder setups and vice-versa; please – the pitch cannot, ever, be right. I understand what a PITA it is ordering parts online and spending shipping fees but you are wasting money just the same by damaging parts not made for a particular setup.

3.  Guides, Braids, Wires
–  Eyelets -vs- grub-screws

With 1/32 replica slot cars? Eyelets always. I don’t know who was the genius at Slot.it (I believe they were the first to use screws to replace eyelets) who came-up with the grub-screw idea but that fella should be fired. As you install the grub-screw you always fray the wire – terrible idea.

–  How long and deep is your love?  Other than using Slot.It wood guides, are there any other guidelines we can use?

Have your guide/braid make full contact with the track. In other terms, make sure your front wheels do NOT contact the track before the guide does.

–  Is soldering the bare wire that goes into the guide (as an alternate to eyelets) a good idea or trouble?

It is a bad idea. After some use, the wire breaks were the soldering ends (been there, done that).

–  Using wires to make a natural “centering-spring”

You should try to accomplish what you just described with ALL of your cars.

4.  Optimum RPMs
–  I hear some people suggest 7000rpm is the optimum rear wheel speed, but in some races I can swear that the leaders are not limiting their cars to 7k ….. whats the real sweet-spot …by car style, torque, motor-type, tires, weight, etc.   Why does my car thats tuned to 7500rpm get left in the dust by others who (in theory) are also tuning to 7-8k?

No RPM suggestion will ever be the optimum value! The rear wheel RPM values I suggested on some of my videos/articles were starting points for a specific car/wheels size/etc., based on previous experiences. The idea behind suggesting a RPM value was that, while at home, away from the track,  someone could install a gear ratio that would not be too far from optimum – that’s all relative to the car, wheels size, track, etc..

There is a sweet spot but you will only see it/find it after a lot of practice.

For someone who’s just starting I would suggest picking-up a Slot.it McLaren F1 GTR or the Porsche 962 high tail and setup the car following the club’s Slot.it tuning video tutorials (beware the video is for a Mclaren F1 GTR, not the Porsche 962 – you will use Slot.it F30 tires for traction on the Porsche and there might be other discrepancies). After the car has been properly setup, install a moderate gear ratio – something that is easy to control but may bite; if you are alone at the track, turn the voltage down – and run that car until you need to replace the tires or if you just turned 100 laps without a de-slot. When you are ready to use a smaller gear ratio or to increase the voltage, do the process all over  – another  100 laps without a de-slot. Keep doing it until all your laps are under 4 seconds. BTW, unless you really do something really wrong while setting the car up, the two models I just suggested are perfectly capable of sub-four-seconds laps, all that is needed is practice; if in doubt grab one of the senior members and ask him to take a lap with your car. After you are done learning how to drive fast on the track you will be able to judge how your next car is performing, then you can start to mess with motors, adding weight, buying a vintage Pink-Kar (don’t), etc..

5.   The Pods are coming
–  Whats the deal with off-set motor pods?  I know they are necessary with certain spur/pinion combinations, but what are the guidelines?  The vendors dont seem to offer any clear docs on what to use when….

–  Inline mounts – why do they need an offset mount (to accomodate shallower motor bodies on some of the boxer motors?) 

Slot.it ships several cars with offset pods installed, probably because they determined they were the most suitable for that particular model.

Offset pods are used to raise the rear axle in relation the motor shaft; it is normally done to accommodate larger wheels and have a more realistic appearance. The need for different inline gears/pitch is simply the result of that offset . By using an offset motor pod you are also lowering the center of gravity of the car (by raising the axle you lower the chassis/body; review last video of the tutorial series to understand when you would want to lower/raise CG).  

Offset inline gears should only be used in conjunction with 1.0mm offset motor pods. Guidelines can be found here:  https://www.slot.it/INGLESE/KitPart/Technique/TecPinions.html.

–  End-bell drive vs bushing drive.   What are the Pos/Cons?

No pros/cons. Some motors are wound/timed to rotate clockwise, others counter-clockwise. If your motor performs better clockwise (assuming the track is wired with positive polarity –  our case) you will want to use an end-bell pod; a bushing drive pod otherwise.

–  On a sidewinder, why are some cars driven on the drivers side and others on the right side?   Doesnt left side drive force the tire downward and counteract the natural tendency for right fishtails …isn’t this beneficial and therefor what Pros are there for right side SW configurations?

“ Doesnt left side drive force the tire downward and counteract the natural tendency for right fishtails” WHAT??!!??

Same reason as above…

–  Motor screws, tape, glue, straps?   whats the best per chassis type, motor type etc.

Forget straps. Just make sure the motor doesn’t move in any direction. As far as glue goes, be careful with CA around the shaft/moving parts of the motor.

6.  Brands
– Is NSR any better than Slot.It?   What about the other “premium” brands?

NSR and Slot.it are equal in performance to me … but Slot.it is far more affordable and we have a small supply of parts at Kings. Premium brands normally make very pretty cars that don’t perform well, there are exceptions: Racer is the one that comes to mind as far as premium/raceable.

7.  Bodies
–  Scaleys and Carerras have great bodies, but poor tech.  What are the best ways to marry a high detail, high mass body from these vendors to a Slot.it or generic chassis?

Assuming a GT model (or similar in width): use  the Carrera or Scalextric body of choice with an HRS2 chassis kit (for reasons already described, avoid the angle-winder/boxer  kit). You need to spend some time sizing the chassis and attaching it properly to the body; the rest of the setup goes back to the same routine (tutorial videos).

Assuming a narrow car: … after a LOT of work you can get something that runs decently using MRRC or PCS universal chassis;  again, a LOT of work.

–  Scaleys and Carerras have high centers of gravity, whats the best way to counteract the imbalance, without making a lead-sled?  Do we need to use geared-down high torque FK130s to move these beasts at competitive speeds?

Not all their bodies have a high CG, but…

IMO, forget using Carrera mechanics – all of it. For Scalextric you can use the chassis and dump all the rest – at which point you realize that buying a HRS kit from Slot.it will cost you less than upgrading all the other parts.  

Anyway, in the list of things I have done to remove weight from Scalextric/Carrera bodies: 1. If the car windows are all in one piece, cut as much as the center area (below the roof) as possible; 2. Look for anything that can be sanded to reduce weight, including the body; 3. Replace the entire interior with a vacuum formed alternative.

You will use a FC130, 25K motor (Slot.it yellow end-bell or similar alternative) , geared accordingly, if, even after reducing weight on the body, your car needed 20+ grams of weight in the chassis to stop it from flipping over. – Forget using boxer motors (FK180); you might be able to use one of the flat-6 motors but I couldn’t tell you which.

______________

I hope it helps.

I didn’t know that Ary had already replied to your questions.  I have answered them as well in case you want to compare our notes.  Anyone else can chime in as well.

___________________________________________

Mark, you ask a great many questions.  I will try my best to answer them but would welcome feedback and input from anyone else.

The first thing I will say is the most important – there is usually more than one way to do something and the way that works best for you might not work well for someone else.  Michael Schumacher was a brilliant driver but the Ferrari’s he drove were designed around his style and were difficult for anyone else to drive at even a similar pace.  Its all about what you find that works best for you.

1.  Driving Techniques – Holding the Controller
–  Holding the controller  (just like golf, tennis and women – what’s the best grip?)
–  How much throttle/trigger, and when.  e.g. do you punch it out of a turn or ease into the trigger?
–  Braking;  when; and full-off or coast or feather?
–  Controller settings – how do we setup the Brake knob for various car characteristics – what behaviors do we look for, and then how do we adjust the brake control based on those behaviors?    Throttle sensitivity – same question.

Answer

Yes, always make sure you hold the controller.  There is no right or wrong way there is only the way that works best for you.  I would suggest not holding on with a death grip as to fatigue your hand and don’t hold it so loose that it can fall out.  In cycling they say you should hold the handlebars as if you are holding a dove.  You don’t want it to get away but you don’t want to squish it either.

As far as settings go, its personal preference.  The brake setting varies more depending on the car and the lane where the sensitivity is not moved that much once you find your comfort zone.  The brakes need to be increased with a heavier car or in a lane (green) that has a very specific and tight bread zone.

2.  Motor Types and Mounting options
–  Advantages and challenges of boxers and other high-torque motors
–  Anglewinders, besides allowing a boxer/fk130 to be used, and accomodating some body styles, what are the Pros/cons?
–  Sidewinders;  Pros/Cons compared to inlines and anglewinders.
–  Inlines allow FK130s and other large motors, but also impart torque that can lift the left rear wheels.  They also have more range in gearing options as compared to AWs and SWs.  What are the other Pros/Cons?
–  Other than increased wear, whats the risk of using a SW spur for an AW setup (assuming thats the only spur type I can get with the tooth-count and pitch, until my order comes in from a WWW vendor?)

Answer

High torque motors have not really been that effective on the ASCC track.  The ones that have been effective have been run in the in-line configuration.  In order to get a motor in some cars you have to run a boxer motor but they are very difficult to get to work properly.

Anglewinder set ups are the same as boxer motors as far as the ASCC track is concerned – very few people have ever got them to work properly.

In-line set up’s seem to be the best for our track followed by sidewinder, both with a s-can motor like a Slot It orange end bell.  You can find a few high torque FK130’s but you don’t necessarily need that much torque with a normal car.  If you are loading it up with lead you can use that torque or better yet, you will need that torque to get the car out of the turn quickly.

SW spur (crown) on an AW set up?  I don’t think that’s even possible.

3.  Guides, Braids, Wires

–  Eyelets -vs- grub-screws
–  How long and deep is your love?  Other than using Slot.It wood guides, are there any other guidelines we can use?
–  Is soldering the bare wire that goes into the guide (as an alternate to eyelets) a good idea or trouble?
–  Using wires to make a natural “centering-spring”

Answer

Eyelets vs. grub screws – whatever works best for you.  I still use eyelets and have had no issues with them and see no reason to change.  One of the big issues with the grub screws is how they frey the ends of the guide wire making it almost unusable in the future.

Braid is simple, buy Slot It or NSR copper braid.  Both of these brands have thin copper braid that is very supple and will be easy to work with and allow you to keep the guide as deep in the slot as possible.  A thick braid will act like a spring and not allow the guide to ride as low as possible in the slot.

Guides are easy.  The Slot It wood guide works great on our track.  There is really no need to run anything different unless you are modifying a car that has specific guide requirements that cannot be met by the Slot It.  You can also use the ScaleAuto universal guide as well.  They produce it with two different shaft diameters depending on what car you are using it in.  They work very well.  Professor Motor also has their own guide that looks very similar to the ScaleAuto.  Some club members have had issues with these guides so at this time I would not recommend them.

Wires are easy as well.  The Slot It wires are good and transmit very well.  NSR and Slot Car Corner also produce guide wires that are both very thin and very flexible.  Both work well.

Don’t solder the end of the guide wire.  The solder will break up and make the wire difficult to use after that.

All your cars should be set up so the guide moves free and can be auto-centered by the guide wires.  You want to make sure the guide wires are long enough that they don’t bind as the car slides sideways.  In chassis that don’t have a guide wire holder built in you can hot glue them down so they don’t more around or interfere with the front axle.

4.  Optimum RPMs

–  I hear some people suggest 7000rpm is the optimum rear wheel speed, but in some races I can swear that the leaders are not limiting their cars to 7k ….. whats the real sweet-spot …by car style, torque, motor-type, tires, weight, etc.   Why does my car thats tuned to 7500rpm get left in the dust by others who (in theory) are also tuning to 7-8k?

Answer

Somewhere between 7K and 8K but no more.  This off course depends on how stable your car is to start with.  Have a car that bucks like a bronco and you will find that even 7K will case you some control problems.  The key here is to focus on building/setting up a stable car and then work on getting the wheel RPM up.

There is more to having a fast car than just a 7K wheel RPM number.  Your competition could be leaving you behind on the straights for many other reasons than the wheel RPM.  Your front axle could be too tight due to the motor wires rubbing on it or the front wheels binding on the chassis.  Your rear axle could be binding due to the motor moving in the holder, the bushings moving in their holders, the axle being bent or the bushings not being well lubricated.  The gear mesh could

5.   The Pods are coming

–  What’s the deal with off-set motor pods?  I know they are necessary with certain spur/pinion combinations, but what are the guidelines?  The vendors dont seem to offer any clear docs on what to use when….
–  Inline mounts – why do they need an offset mount (to accommodate shallower motor bodies on some of the boxer motors?)
–  End-bell drive vs bushing drive.   What are the Pos/Cons?
–  On a sidewinder, why are some cars driven on the drivers side and others on the right side?   Doesn’t left side drive force the tire downward and counteract the natural tendency for right fishtails …isn’t this beneficial and therefore what Pros are there for right side SW configurations?
–  Motor screws, tape, glue, straps?   what’s the best per chassis type, motor type etc.

Answer

Off-set motor pods allow the driver to adjust the center of gravity and change the way the car behaves in the turns.  To my knowledge there is no chart on what motor pod to use for a specific set up.  I have tried different ones depending on the car and have used each and everyone.  Thursday night test and tune sessions are great for this.

Slot It makes inline boxer motor mounts in both zero offset and 1mm offset.  I have seen both used but once again the boxer motor is tricky to get set up correctly.  If you are going to use one the inline mount is the best one to use.

End-bell drive vs bushing drive on a motor – ?  No idea what the pro’s or con’s are for this one.

6.  Brands

– Is NSR any better than Slot.It?   What about the other “premium” brands?

Answer

Slot It is the best bang for the dollar.  The cars are designed in Italy but are manufactured in China.  NSR makes some nice cars that are based more on performance than scale accuracy or ascetics.  All NSR cars are designed and built in Italy and cost more than a Slot It as a result.  NSR cars work best on plastic track.  We have not been able to make them beat a Slot It car on our track.  Those that have had any success have modified the cars with almost all Slot It parts and a stiffer chassis.

There are other brands on the market that cost more than Slot It and most are made more for show than real racing.  These would be LeMans Minatures, Racer, Proto Slot and others.  Most of the bodies used on those cars are made of resin and weigh significantly more than a plastic car.  They are fun to look at and run occasionally but they are not the best for racing.

7.  Bodies

–  Scaleys and Carerras have great bodies, but poor tech.  What are the best ways to marry a high detail, high mass body from these vendors to a Slot.it or generic chassis?
–  Scaleys and Carerras have high centers of gravity, whats the best way to counteract the imbalance, without making a lead-sled?  Do we need to use geared-down high torque FK130s to move these beasts at competitive speeds

Answer

The most common way to do this is with a Slot It HRS2 chassis conversion.  This is also one of the best ways I know you can convert a Scalextric body to run well.  For Carrera cars/bodies there are a couple of options – there is an Italian company, PRS, that produces an aluminum chassis for a selection of the Carrera cars or you can purchase a Slot It designed and Shapeways 3D printed chassis for a select group of Carrera DTM cars.  These chassis will allow you to use all Slot It parts with a Carrera DTM body.

The Carrera and Scalextric cars high center of gravity can never fully be overcome but you can load up the chassis with weight to help counter the effects of it.  You will need to run a higher RPM motor to help overcome the additional weight you have just loaded into the car.  The more weight you add the higher the wear rate is on the tires.  This is something to consider when running our current Trans Am series where the BRM Shore 30 tires can wear out quickly due to the additional weight of the cars.

QUESTIONS FROM E-MAIL

—  Gearing for Anglewinder and Sidewinders.

Gearing depends on the motor.  Even the same motors will exhibit very different RPM and torque characteristics.  The weight of the car and how stable the car is will also play big roles in determining the final gearing you choose.

—  What are the specifics about Offset of motor pods? Why needed?  What gear combos work best?  What is the difference between a 0.5 and 1.0 offset – what are the situations (motor and chassis combo) when they should be used?

Offset motor pods allow you to adjust the center of gravity in any Slot It chassis.  Some cars, depending on many factors, work better with zero offset while others will work better with a .5mm or 1.0mm offset.  Depending on the car I will try different pods to see what works the best.  Thursday evening track nights are great for this type of testing.

Gear combo is relative to the motor more than anything.  You can have two of the same motors and both may exhibit very different RPM and torque charteristics.  In order to compensate for those variances and still have a car that is quick AND stable you can use gearing to find the perfect mix.  Having said that, there are some gears combinations that should not be used due to their poor mesh quality in the in-line configuration.  See Ary or me for more information on this point.  These limitations do not exist in an anglewinder set up but there are other issues with the anglewinder set up that make it less desirable.   

—  Anglewinders and boxxer-type high torque motors – advantages and disadvantages (for the ASCC track).

For our track there does not seem to be an advantage to the anglewinder set up.  They are used a lot in Europe on plastic track with the hope that putting the motor across the rails of a track will increase the downforce of the car. 

Boxer motors are a choice of motor you can use if you cannot use an S-Can motor like the Slot It orange end bell motor.  I have had little to no luck with these motors and have found the only people that have had any luck with them are using them in an in-line configuration. 

—  Weight guidelines;   front/back 40/60 distribution;  how much over stock weight is ok w/o affecting acceleration;

Majority of racers will run either a 40/60 split or a 50/50 split or somewhere in between but rarely outside of those guidelines.

—  Is there any guidelines on how much Torque is needed per Grams of car?

Can too much torque be bad (too much fishtailed out of corners as acceleration is added?)

There is not a calculation that I am aware of.  Too much torque will make a lighter car difficult to handle because it will have too much brake and will be hard to handle under acceleration.

—  Magnetic or sprint suspension – are they worth it?

Neither.  Suspension was designed for plastic track that had seams between every section.  Suspensions do not work on a smooth club track like ours.  All they do is add weight and a level of complexity that you don’t need.

—  What is the ‘real’ story on rear-wheel RPM?  Your setup video mentions 8,000rpm (which it seems like some of the leaders are tuned to) and yet I keep hearing advice that 7000rpm is the optimum speed.   My cars tuned to 7250 -7500 get passed in the straights, but my cars turning 8500+ (cars I dont race yet) are hard to control.

The answer to this question lives in the information below under Optimum RPM.

—  If I have a boxer (long can) motor turning 20,000 – 22,000 (7-8000 rear wheel rpm) with 300gm+ of torque, is that useful on the ASCC track?  Is a slot.it short can orange-bell with 170gm torque still the optimum motor for cars with a stock weight less than 90gm?

300 grams of torque is too much for our track with a 90 gram car.  A stock orange end bell motor works great for a car with that weight. 

—  NSR – are they worth the additional cost as compared to Slot.It?  What other brands are worth looking at – AND legal for ASCC?

NSR cars are not necessarily worth the extra money over a Slot It unless you want a car that is 100% manufactured in Italy.  NSR cars are legal for ASCC.