To all – I wanted to make one clarification to the Group C rules related to this item:

> Traction compounds prohibited <

Nail polish on the front tires will be allowed. Stephen tells me that this is commonly allowed with the club. And anyway – it is an ANTI-traction compound…but semantics-wise, it IS a traction compound so I wanted to make this clear. 🙂

Looking forward to this event next weekend, though I am woefully prepared…

Tires, Tires and more Tires

The first race in the Austin Slot Car Clubs 2019 calendar is this coming Saturday and although there is a limited number of things you can do to improve the handling of your Group C contender the one item that can have a huge effect are your car’s tires.  

Just like 1 to 1 racing, the tires you run can be the difference between finishing first or finishing somewhere else, and no one wants to finish somewhere else.  The catch to the tires is that there are multiple choices you can run.  Unlike the races held in the warmer months, the races in January and February can be down right frigid.  The unconditioned club room can have an ambient temperature of 40 degrees with track temps not much warmer.  This is a 50-degree swing from the temperatures in July and August.  These colder temps mean the tried and true Slot It F30 tires do not have the same grip they would have in the summer.  So the question is: what tires should I run?  How about some F22’s?  They have a lot more grip in the colder temps but don’t push them too hard accelerating out of the turns or they might start to blister.  If that is the case, how about some N22’s?  These have better durability than the F22’s but really need to be glued to the rim to hold them in place otherwise they can chatter during hard cornering.  Then you could just go with standard F30’s and hope everyone’s personal heaters warm up the room to a temperature they will find some grip.  What about some little tire warmers?  

The forecast for the start of the race on Saturday is 60 degrees.  Three choices of tires – F30’s, F22’s or N22’s.  What will your choice be for the first race of the season?  Let’s see who has chosen wisely. 

N22s -these are similar to some of the softer NSR tires in that gluing can be tricky. CA, even the rubber-infused type, can easily split the tread, esp. near the molding nipple and seam.

BarkingSpyder wrote:

Mark/DATTO
1. If you do Not have the adjustable chassis the replacement is: Slot.it SICS08T-60B Lancia LC2 Chassis EVO6, https://www.professormotor.com/product-p/sics08t-60b.htm<span class=”wpel-icon wpel-image wpel-icon-9″></span><span class=”wpel-icon wpel-image wpel-icon-9″></span>

2. F30s are easy to find and *if needed* buy some from a club member (I have some spares as do most members). In lieu of cash, trade them the ones you ordered when they arrive, no need to wait on the shipment. Ditto for other common parts such as the deep wood guide Slot.it SICH07 and braid.

Adjustable chassis: Check. Set screws: Check

Tires and guide have not shown up yet. Ordered from Scaleracing
http://132slotcar.us/store/

Eric,

You are allowed to make that modification.  The Mazda has only been tried once but it, like the other models with wings hanging off the back – Jaguar, Sauber Mercedes and the Nissan – don’t seem to work well on our track.  I would love to see you get the Mazda working as you did with the Sauber Mercedes.  Good luck.

Marc – I have everything you need.  Everything is in my box that is at the club.  Help yourself and let me know what you took.

FOR VIEWERS OF OUR FORUMS – here are common upgrade or spares for Slot.IT Series, esp. Group-C

SOFT REAR TIRES – SIPT28 > F30 … “normal” Shore-30 rear tires for 15mmD x 10mmW wheels (aka PT28)
No-Prep – we are a “dry” track
ZERO GRIP FRONT TIRES – SIPT07 > ZO // 10×18.8 (aka PT07) Nail polish is allowed in some series, prohibited in others. Truing the Zero-grips seems to work better than ‘glazing’. Front tires are flown 0.25 to 1mm off the track as measured on a setup block with a 0.10-15in braid recess.

‘WOOD’ GUIDE SICH-07 Routed-track Pickup-Shoe with fixing screw; 7mm Deep vs. OEM 5mm depth (aka CH07)
Eyelets/cups are used instead of OEM 2mm grubs to fix the motor wires to the pickup braids.

WHEELS (fit the F30s) // fixed to axle by 2mm Grub screws (uses 0.91~.95mm Allen wrench)
W17309715A **stock on many cars** – 17.3D x 9.75W mm rear Wheels; solid center nub/nib
W15810215AF 15.8D x 10.2W mm rear Wheels; double shoulder (open center nub), lightweight
*F30s fit wheels from 15 to 17mm Dia, 8 to 10mm Width wheels of any brand (common sizes 15.8×8, 16.5×8.2, 15.8×10, 17×8, 17×10) 14d x 11w are only allowed in Formula series.

CROWN DRIVE GEARS (for In-line pods usually with small-can Mabuchi FA130 aka S-Can motors)
SIGI23 .. Pink – 23 teeth aka 23z – fastest and hardest to tune
SIGI24 .. Green – 24z – very fast
SIGI25 .. Orange – 25z – fast – often a good choice for GP-C and other inline cars
SIGI26 .. Blue – 26z – faster than the stock OEM Black 27z
SIGI28 .. Yellow – 28z – slower than OEM black; use for a motor that is “too hot” (~ tached at over 20k RPM at 11 v)

COMMON SPEC MOTOR
SI MX-16 – 23k rpm 170g-TQ  FA130 aka S-Can (Short-can) Mabuchi style ‘D’ motor with plastic non-adjustable end-bell.  Smaller in size and less powerful than ‘long-can’  FK-180 ‘boxer’ style motors such as Hawk-7, Falcon, Phoenix, Eagle. These require a low-voltage burn-in (45min – 2 hrs @4-6v) and last 2-3 years as compared to a few months for the 1/24 motors.  Considered ‘sealed’ – magnets, brushes, armatures, bushings are not allowed to be upgraded, modified, or repaired.

PINIONS
For our track, often the best performance is from the OEM 9z pinion (Inline) and 11z (sidewinder and anglewinder)

VOLTAGE & Rear Wheel RPM
For our 55-foot lazy-8, mild hill-climb, most of our 1/32 RTR series handle best at 11 volts. For the larger 1/24 BRM and Scaleauto series, 12v is often used. In some 1/32 series with heavy cars or low-torque motors we may also use 12v.
RPM- best performance on our track seems to occur with tach’ed rear-wheel RPMs of 7,500 – 7,800; for some cars and some drivers up to 8k – 8.2k is manageable, but this is NOT common.
*These results are for plastic-chassis, ‘scale’ 1/32 ready-to-race (RTR) cars weighing on average between 60-80 grams.