THUNDER SLOT DISCUSSION

THUNDERSLOT Parts Analysis
-- All chassis and body screws have a Torx-T6 head.
-- Wheel grubs are 4-40 with a head for a 0.05-inch (1.3mm) hex driver (same as NSRs and common on 1/24 cars). Axle adjustment screws are also 4-40 - but Randy's research says they are not the same as the wheel/crown screws! (different thread spacing?)
-- OEM Tires are quite soft, seem like a 30-shore or maybe 25. The tread is easily trued off. Rated size is D:21mm x W:10mm //Diam (20.40mm), Width (9.90mm)
-- Rear wheels look good but are plastic.
-- The front-end is very light and wheelies are possible if your braids are not groomed tight to the guide shoe. OEM Braids are reasonable but may benefit from replacement by softer Slot.It copper braid.
-- OEM guide looks reasonable, may be beneficial to replace with Slot.It deep-wood guide.
-- Adding 3gm in the triangle of the pod, or 1~2 tungsten 'magnet' slugs in the chassis may prevent "Porposing" in the green-lane at the button-mans hairpin.
-- Interior is Lexan with hard-plastic driver and hard-plastic windows.
-- OEM Sidewinder motor is can-drive, rated equal to the Slot.It Orange (21.5k-RPM, 175qm-cm-TRQ) but seems to have more torque than rated.
-- Triangle pod is similar to the NSR delta pod, including plastic 'nuts' for the pod screws.
*OEM = original equipment from manufacturer

DIBS: Mark/Spyder; #52 White/Dana-LugunaSeca 1967 Peter Revson (Number changed to #21)
PR ETs on Jan 13 2018 - @ 11volts: 3.953, 3.964, 3.973, 3.990, 4.072
(PR=personal result as in running; ET=elapsed time)

AVAILABLE MODELS
#2-Red-coupe Surtees/Hobbs-BOAC500 Brands Hatch 1967 (CA00101S/W)
#2-Yellow-coupe Bonnier/Axelsson-BOAC500 Brands Hatch 1968 (CA00102S/W)
#8-Blue-coupe Leslie/Motschenbacher-Daytona 24Hrs 1969 (CA00103S/W)
#30-Blue-spyder Gurney CANAM Bridgehampton 1966 (CA00201S/W)
#52-White-spyder Revson CANAM Laguna Seca 1967 (CA00202S/W)
White-kit Coupe (CA001KS/W)
White-kit Spyder/CanAm (CA002KS/W)

I don't believe the Slot.it wood guide to be necessary on these cars.  I'm with Russell on keeping these as stock as possible.

More thoughts on the Thunderslot series:

The “white kit” comes with enough parts to build several versions of the Lola T70 Spyder:

There are two windshields, two dashboards, two driver heads, four roll bars and three engine options.  There is a Chevy engine with vertical intakes, a cross-ram block as run by Donahue/Penske, and a Ford Indy dual overhead cam engine with bundle-of-snakes exhaust over the rear deck.  Note that the engine supplied with the Gurney #30 car is incorrect as it has Chevrolet valve covers rather than the Gurney-Weslake heads on a small block Ford engine.  Right now I am thinking that I am going to race a Spyder, set up as the #21 car with the  Ford dual overhead cam engine as raced by Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti.  Presumably, this car, as well as others, will as some point be available from Thunderslot.

In comparing the coupes and spyders, my red coupe weighs 63.1 grams and the #30 Gurney spyder weighs 58.5 grams.  The front/rear weight distribution between the two cars is within one percentage point.  It remains to be seen how the two cars compare on the track.  The spyder is a good bit lighter but the coupe may have a slightly higher center of gravity which may help weight transfer to the outside wheel for more cornering grip.

Preliminary Thunderslot Series Rules

Guys, I apologize because I have been so busy that I have not had time to post rules for the Thunderslot series.  Mark has taken the time to produce a set of rules and I have discussed them with him.  I will post these preliminary rules shortly, with the goal of having final rules by Feb. 1.  That will give everyone a couple of months to get their cars ready for the series.

My thoughts are to keep the cars as stock as possible, with two goals in mind: a level playing field and to keep the costs down.  Any changes from stock that make the cars faster, as, say, independent front axles, will mean everyone will need to make the changes to be competitive.  Rule changes from stock would primarily be due to a problem with stock parts–erratic behavior, failures, etc.–and not just to make the cars faster.  To that end I propose stock chassis, stock anglewinder motor pod, stock guide, stock front wheels, stock motor, gears, axles, etc.  The low grip front tires may be OK and either the trued original treaded rear tires or the optional slicks would be allowed.  Probably, the optional larger diameter rear wheels may be allowed, due to concern that worn tires on the original wheels may mean that the chassis bottoms out on the track.  Personally, I will try the original wheels to see if the tires will last.

I do not see a need for tire diameter specs in this series.  With the adjustable front axle height, it is not necessary on the front, and the rears are self-limiting, due to low clearance below the chassis.  Track would be limited by not exceeding the width of the body.

Added weight, above the chassis would be allowed.  I think installing grub screws in the provided chassis holes on the edge, to control float to the body, would be OK.

Dibs should  be called on car liveries. For duplicate liveries, car numbers must be changed.  As I was the first to buy one of these cars, I would like to call dibs on the red Lola coupe #2.  However, if I decide to run a roadster, this car livery would be available.  If more cars become available, they would also be allowed, pending any production changes, different from the original cars.  If anyone notices any changes between any of the existing or upcoming cars, such as width, motor, wheels, weight, etc., please bring it to my attention as soon as possible.

I am also considering running the series at 12 volts.  I did some brief running with my cars on Saturday, while running the Revo Slot car, and the cars were controllable and very quick.  I would like to hear what everyone thinks about this.

If anyone has input as to the rules, please post to this forum.  Reasonable rules changes would be considered.

Thanks

Russell

I'm calling dibs on the 30 roadster of Dan Gurney.  Dan Gurney died this week.

I will be running the Jo Bonnier yellow Lola #2 that competed in the BOAC 500 (6 hour race) at Brands Hatch in 1968 where is finished in 6th place.  We will see how the coupe runs against the spyder.

Has anyone trued the low profile front tires?  I have ruined two pairs.  They have the worst extrusion divot I have ever seen.  I tried to true them and the rubber balled up and the tire is not even true yet.  Can we sub NSR zero grip front tires?  They are at least decent tires.  Russell?

Do the NSRs fit the wheels OK?  What is the part number?  If the Thunderslot hard tires are so bad, it looks like it it will either be the NSRs or the stock treaded tires.  Anyone else tried the optional tires?

I will extend the date for final Thunderslot rules to this weekend.

This is the car that I will be running:

I trued the front stock tires on the stock plastic wheels like Marty suggested.  Slow and light touch.  They are round now but they have differing amounts of tread in patches around the tire.  If I followed the regular club practice of truing tires until all of the tread is gone, I might have problems, but so far so good.  The read slicks that came in the box are OK, but they lost a little chunk where the grub screw driver passes against the sidewall of the tire.

I'll have the car long Saturday if you want to check it out.

The NSR front tires seem to work fine on the plastic front wheels as the dimensions are very similar to the NSR wheels.  The tires are 18x8 size and are part number 5226.  I have trued one and it came out nice and I will true the other one this evening and let you know how it goes.

I could true the stock tires but I was afraid they would gum up when I went to true them down as much as I need to.  Thoughts?

OK, I take back what I said in my last post.  The NSR tires are ever sol slightly too big and move around on the ThurderSlot front wheels.  I also tried some Slot It front tires but had the same issue.  I then moved to the stock tires and tried to true them to the point where they didn't have any tread and in doing so melted the rubber because the tires are too soft.  I am trying to clean them up and see if I can get them to work.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

ThunderSlot just announced their new cars for 2018.  Here is the one we need now!

http://www.slotcar-today.com/en/notices/2018/02/thunderslot-2018-7025.php

Marty

I have trued both the stock, treaded rear tires and the standard slick rear tires with no issue.  I was surprised to hear that you had trouble with the stock fronts.  In my cars, the stock fronts were already pretty round and I have not noticed any issue or bouncing of the front end.  I have not yet tried truing the stock fronts.

The Thunderslot McLarens would be welcome in the series, pending a check of the cars for differences.  If there is a difference in width, we would need to have a track spec.  I was hoping to get by without one, just using the rule about extending past the body.  I have noticed that the roadster Lola body may be slightly narrower in the rear than the coupe.  In my swapping of chassis between the coupe and the roadster, I did not adjust the chassis when I went back and forth.  The roadster was just slightly faster, a factor that may be mitigated if it can has a slightly narrower rear track.

I just trued two sets of the original treaded front tires and did not have a problem.  I took it slow, did not use any lighter fluid.  It is not necessary to completely erase the tread; you only need to true until the tire is round.  My preference is to run these tires, but we can vote by Saturday about allowing the Slot.it 15X8 standard aluminum front wheel with Slot.it Zero Grips as options.  Please vote either in this forum or at the race on Saturday.

Also, I believe that Thunderslot no longer uses the #4-40 sets screw and instead uses the M2.5X3 grub screws for everything.  Care must be taken with rear wheels to see which screw the wheels take.  My earlier ones were #4-40 but my white kit came with all M2.5X3 screws, which fit the wheels that came with the kit.

Russell

Let's cut to the chase and use Slot.It 15X8 alloys (SIW15808215A) with SIPT-15 17x10 Zero Grips

Proposal:

Allow Slot.It 15X8 alloys (SIW15808215A) with SIPT-15 17×10 Zero Grips in addition to stock plastic wheels and treaded tires or optional THTYR003FR X8 zero grips.  Magnesium wheels not allowed.  Tires can be trued and edges rounded.

For

Against

Russsell - I think I broke some rules in setting up my Thunderslot car but wanted to run it by you.  I didn't have any Slot It 15" alloy short hub wheels so I used the Slot It 15" plastic front wheels that come stock on all Slot It cars.  Will these be allowed since the wheels that came off of the Thunderslot are basically the same thing?

I also did not have any Slot It guides and installed a Scaleauto one in its place.  We have always allowed either a Scaleauto or Slot It guide so I didn't know if this would be allowed.  I would just run the stock guide but one of the screws holding the wire was striped and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

Thoughts?

What times are everyone running?  Are the spyders running any faster than the coupes?

Marty

Detailing the interior of the Thunderslot Lola T70

I detailed the interior of the Thunderslot Lola T70 Spyder white kit.  The back panel of the interior should be body color, so I masked the interior and painted it with the same DupliColor paint as the body.  Then I painted the rest of the interior with Model Master Non-buffing Aluminum Metalizer.  The restored Gurney car was dual black seat inserts but most of the cars in period only had a driver's seat and the other side was left bare aluminum.  I painted the driver's side flat black.  The filler covers on the top of the side fuel tanks are just blobs on the vacuum interior, so I cut some .002" Stainless sheet to the oval shape, dimpling around the edges to simulate the bolts, and using a hole punch in the middle where the filler cap is.  The stainless was a little too shiny so I brushed a coat of flat clear on top and then glued the covers in place.  The "dash" cross member is painted in some of the Lolas; in others it is left in aluminum, so I painted it with the metalizer.  I painted the instrument panel flat black, then used a #11 blade to scrape the paint off of the instrument bezels and the numeral bumps inside.  I topped it off with some red detail paint and a drop of canopy glue for the dial lenses.  After painting the driver figure, I decided to make some seat belts.  I put a length of blue masking tape on a piece of glass, cut it into narrow strips, and blackened it with a Sharpie.  I cut small pieces of the stainless sheet and bent it around the tape, and putting a drop of black in the middle with a Sharpie.  The strips are glued to the back side of the bottom of the driver's torso, run up over the chest, and into holes in the back panel of the interior.  None of the roll bars in the kit were correct for the #21 car, so I used a bent paper clip.  Finally, I added some wiring to the front of the instrument panel, using some wire from an old wired "mouse".

RULES CHANGE:  THE THUNDERSLOT SERIES WILL BE RUN AT 12 VOLTS

After the RevoSlot race today we tested the Thunderslot cars with multiple drivers at both 11 volts and 12 volts.  The cars were stable and driveable at 12 volts and the decision was made to run the series at 12 volts.

I was able to run a lap of 3.740 seconds at twelve volts in my #21 spyder.  I took the chassis out of that car and put it in my coupe body and ran a lap of 3.744 seconds.  It was slightly more difficult to run regular laps as fast in the coupe.  Regular laps were 2 to 4 hundredths slower in the coupe.  Try to measure .04 seconds with a stopwatch!  David ran a lap of 3.798 seconds but had not yet added weight to the front.

My chassis has the original, treaded front tires which had been trued on the original plastic wheels, with tread still visible.  The optional, slick rear tires had been trued on the original rear wheels.  I adjusted the front axle height, installed grub screws on the edges of the chassis to adjust chassis to body clearance, and added a small weight between the front axle and the guide post.  With the testing, it appears the spyder and coupe were very close in time.  A little tweaking of the chassis to the coupe body may have helped.  The coupe body is slightly wider at the rear, which would allow a rear track 1 or 2 mm wider.  Driver skill should make more of a difference than choosing between the coupe and spyder.  Speeds on the various cars running were close.

Expectations are that this will be a fun series to run.  If you have not purchased your car yet, there is still time!

Russell,

I noticed on Thunderslot's home page that they are running a spec series with rules very similar to ours.  The one thing of note was the following:

8) is allowed the shimming of the front columns of the coach of the Lola T 70 CAN AM (Spyder) with spacers / shims up to a maximum of 1.5 mm.

Has anyone noticed anything about the spyder where it needs a 1.5mm shim under the front body mounts?

Russell,

in light of the rear being slightly wider on the rear of the spyder will those cars have to run a narrower track that matches that of the coupe?