In 2015 we had the itch to try a F1 style race again and chose the AllSlot formula GP chassis as our platform. Under ideal conditions these cars ran very fast and had good handling, however their chassis was a soft plastic that was easy to break at the guide boss, motor mount and front strut. The problem was exacerbated by their tendency to literally fly off the track under certain conditions! We had enough fun to try it again this time using a chassis Ary found from a Spanish craftsman (SVQ-Slot), who offers chassis with stainless steel rear-halves and carbon-fibre fronts. In testing they proved much better than the old chassis; we also determined we needed to run them at 12v to overcome their weight penalty. The results did not disappoint! The old guard again confirmed their dominance, but some new members really showed their stuff as you can see from the stats! In particular, Alex (i.e. Alejandro) posted some 3.7 laps! Concours goes to Stephen for a very accurate Marlboro livery and Alejandro’s tiger-striped LucheLibre. Russ almost did not run, but Ary sat out and gave him a ride in one of his cars; Russ repaid him with a bronze finish.
As you can see from the inspection log (below), most of the cars are very close in their setup, the exception being a few people have 5g more downforce than others, perhaps either lucky with a motor with strong magnets, or perhaps a low hanging motor pod.
NOTE: The 1st heat was accidentally left out of the video.
Some of the latest heats were the most exciting with Stephen and Marty posting 230+ lap totals and in the end five out of eight racers had ETs of less than 3.7sec! Heat 2 fielded the father-son team of Dave and Jordan (welcome back dude) and Alex. It was a tight race but with not too much drama. Early on Alex broke 3.9s to Daves and Jordans consistent 4.0 and 4.1s. Close to the 60 sec mark Dave broke 3.9, The finish was Alex, Jordan, Dave.
Heat 3 rolled out el LecheLibre and rolled in Mark. Everyone had a few spectactular deslots including a situation where we yellowed with Dave and Son even at the nose, in the hair-pin (near button man). Good thing Rich was button-man b/c he had his Ferrari kit on and was legal to fix Jordans Santador. At 1 minute in we were fairly close in laps and times were Dave 3.9, with Jordan and Mark in the 4.0s. At half-race Dave broke 3.9s, and at 50 sec we were stil neck-and-neck with Dave at 60 laps and Jordan and Mark tied at 59. We finished with Jordan, Dave, and Mark. Jordan I think you need to give your mechanic a *bonus since he may be playing by ‘team-rules’ and letting you win! (just kidding – it looked like Dave was giving all he got, he just had some setup issues).
Heat 4 let Jordan enjoy the spoils of leading as Steve polled-in to make sure we understood our place. Very early on the smoke was pouring out of the Marlboro car – or I should say Steve was smoking us with early 3.7s. Dave countered with some 3.9s while Mark leisurely cruised at 4.0s. Not too many delslots happened and Steve consistently posted 3.7 and 3.8 ETs. The finish had impressive lap counts with Steve at 77 and Dave at 73.
