NSR Formula 86-89 – Setup Phase-1
Sat Dec 12 I unboxed my NSR F 86/89 to see what challenges may be in the setup process.
GUIDE – the OEM guide is snap-in and has a short blade. I took out the slop with two Teflon spacers; during testing the guide performed fine.
FRONT AXLE ASSEMBLY
Tires and Wheels: The good news, the tires are heavy enough that nose ballast does not appear to be needed. The bad news, they have the typical NSR molding blisters, which may not be able to be totally removed from truing. The NSR Wheels use a 2.37mm (2.9858/32 inch) axle and hence I could not fit them on the large $400 double-truer.
I took out the fore-aft slop using 3mm axle sleeves. At first I tried some Slot.IT spherical bushings; they had a groove to snap into, but had resistance sliding vertically and did not stay in the uprights consistently. Bad News: The axle uprights are noticeably angled in (negative camber) which may add some binding.
Axle Height:
The axle uprights use M2 allen/grubs for axle height. These are Not the typical 4-40/3mm grubs used in other NSR chassis. The shipped 2mm(L)x2mm(D) screws are tiny so I threw them into my collection of Slot.IT grubs. I used 7mm SlotCarCorner oval-head M2s for the bottom adjustment (5 or 6mm would also be Fine); and 4mm for the uppers. The fit is *tight and takes patience to get the screws deep enough.
On my setup block, in the 0.015 cut, I flew the tires 1/2mm over track-height. Since our track is not perfectly consistent I cross-checked the height with my 0.025 cut, and they flew appx 1/4mm above track-height.
NOTE: The holes are very tight and a 0.91m torque-wrench may ratchet before you reach the desired depth. I had to use my NSR solid-shaft 0.91. The axle height process took at least 15 minutes to reach Goldilocks status.
WINGS AND BODY PARTS ETC
I pro-actively bought the no-tear flexible parts kit. I can’t really see any difference between these and the OEM wings; so I left the wings alone. The body parts are “electronically welded” and appear very secure. Only problem, if they come off in a wreck the anchor posts will come off with the part.
Round Steering Wheel
As some have noticed, the steering wheel is disappointingly a spindly generic round version. Some people may want to scratch-build a steering wheel from styrene, or suitable static model rectangular parts.
I don’t think there are many cockpit part kits with modern F1 steering wheels – for Scalextric or Carerra. AllSlot used to have a cockpit parts kit; but these don’t seem to be available.
?? Maybe Russ or Marc can make some up? : )
GEARS
The OEM gears seem to have a good mesh and are noticeably quiet. The calculated rear-wheel-RPM is 21,400/(27/10) = 21,400/2.7 = 7,926 @12volts.
Other Gear Options: 25/9 = 2.78 = 7,698 24/9 = 2.67 = 8,015 25/10 = 2.5 = 8,560
REAR TIRES
Again these use smaller wheels (13mm Dia) than the ‘standard’ NSR F1 tires offered as replacements for other brands. Visually they still look very similar in size. Because of the smaller axle I could not true them (yet) – surprisingly they were relatively True out-of-the-box and handled very well.
Minor Issue: The sidewall brand letters flake off quickly.
PERFORMANCE
At 11 volts the car was very stable in the corners; but the speed felt “sedate”. With a calc’ed wheel RPM of 7,266 (7926 x (11/12)) the perception seems spot-on.
At 12 volts the car was still very stable; and it’s overall speed seemed moderately faster than at 11v, yet not as dramatic as would be expected with a jump from 7,263 to 7,923 RPM. Best laps were 4.3-4.2 but that should improve with trued tires and after everything else is “broke-in”.
"... get on your bad motor scooter and ride!"
Sammy with Montrose