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John’s Ukraine car is just screaming for a “Russian Warship, Go F**k Yourself” sticker on the back bumper.
Marty
The official rules have been posted to the rotator on the home page. Please review.
The series will be for the most part stock. Here are some highlights of the rules:
- Changes to gear ratios are allowed as long as the gears are NSR and made from the same material as the stock versions.
- The updated chassis with triangular motor pod is allowed.
- Motor orientation is open. Sidewinder is the stock set up but you could run inline or sidewinder if you prefer.
- Tires are open choice as long as they are NSR.
- Motors are open choice as long as they are NSR.
The problems with my McLaren
In getting a car ready for the clubs upcoming CanAm series I looked to my tried and true Slot.it McLaren M8D’s that I ran in the clubs Slot.it McLaren CanAm series back in 2019. During that series I had one car that was running quick with best laps in the 3.7 range. I had another McLaren I was using as a mule to try set up changes looking for any possible improvement. I used this car as a starting point for the updated CanAm series rules.
This CanAm series would run rules similar to the 1:1 CanAm series with almost unlimited rules. This means racers would be able to use any tire, wheel, guide, weight or most anything else in order to get the car to run as fast as possible.
In working on my test McLaren M8D I discovered a few issues that would make this car a little more difficult to modify than I had anticipated. Here is a list of the issues and what I was able to do to work through them.
Interior
Issue – The interior weight is 2.8 grams and although it’s not much it is still located high in the body and can upset the handling of the car.
The first thing I had planned on doing was to replace the plastic interior with a lightweight Lexan version. I thought it would be easy to find a Slot.it Lexan replacement interior but was unable to find one or one that looked like it would work. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a suitable replacement and had to run the stock interior.
Front Wheels and Chassis Height
Issue – The stock 15” front wheels with narrow 8mm front tires work fine but the chassis height set-up is not ideal.
The 15” wheels fit inside the wheel wells of the body with no problem but I was unable to get the wheel height adjusted to get the correct chassis height without the tires contacting the body in the wheel wells. To allow me to get the chassis lower and not have the wheels to fit inside the wheel wells without rubbing I used Slot.it 14” front wheels. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the 14” wheels low enough to touch the track even the front axle in its lowest position. The axle was rubbing on the lower grub screw holders. To fix this I ground down the two front axle grub screw holders on the chassis. This allowed the axle to go lower and get the smaller front wheels to contact the track and give them enough clearance within the wheel wells.
Now that I have the wheels, chassis and body working together I needed to grind down the McLaren wheel inserts to fit inside the smaller 14” wheels. Once done it was time to paint them and get them installed.
Rear Wheels
Issue – The small lip on the bodies rear wheel wells limits the rear track to around 59.5mm
Since this series is for the most part unlimited, I had plans to use a wider wheel and/or tire combination on the McLaren for better traction. I tried multiple options including NSR wheels and tires and various Slot.it wheels and tires but none would allow me to get a good fit within the 59.5mm width limitation. These limitations also limited me from using a lighter magnesium Slot.it wheel or a superlight drilled NSR wheel. In this case I had to stick with the stock super short hub aluminum wheel and a Slot.it F30 tire in the 10mm width and 20mm diameter. So much for lighter or wider rear wheels.
Axles
Issue – No issue, just wanted to run a lighter axle and reduce the rotating weight.
I replaced the solid 48mm axles with 54mm hollow axles that were cut down to the 48mm width.
Guide Wire Clearance
Issue – The guide screw and motor wires on the top of the guide make contact with the body and impede the free movement of the guide.
The front of the car is so low the motor wires coming out of guide make contact with the front of the McLaren body. I looked at grinding down the front of the guide to give additional space between the guide and the body. By griding down the front of the guide there was not enough room for the brass eyelets. In light of this, I used a grub screw to hold the motor wire to the guide. The final thing I did was to use the thinner and more flexible NSR motor wires. All three of these changes together gave the space for the guide to move freely.
Motor Wire Clearance
Issue – The top of the motor and the motor wires come in contact with the interior and the body.
With the interior out of the car I was able to see that the top of the motor and the motor wires were contacting the body of the car. Unfortunately, there are no other motor configuration options for this model so it has to run with a short can motor in the sidewinder configuration.
Changing the motor pod from a 0.5mm offset to a 1mm offset helped the issue but the clearance is still very tight. The other change made was to resolder the motor wires under or level with the motor wire tabs using a lighter and thinner NSR motor wire. This thin and highly flexible motor wire also helped to free up the guide a little more. I also used some hot glue to hold the motor wires in place so they would make as little contact with the body and the interior as possible.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the changes I was able to make to the McLaren M8D. My goal was to make a more competitive car and get one that would run quicker than my other McLaren that ran fast laps of 3.7 seconds. I have not had the car on the track yet so let’s see how it goes. Update to follow.
Does this include hollow axles, lighter gears, lighter wheels, wider tires, etc.?
If so, this is not really a stock series as there are numerous things someone can change to make their car perform better. It might be easier to limit the number of things that can be changed/upgraded. This will also keep the cost down and make it more of a driver’s series.
Marty
I have a rules question – It was my understanding that the series was to be run as a stock series. Does that go for the chassis as well or can we upgrade the chassis for a stiffer version – white or green?
OMG! It’s alive. I don’t know that I ever remember the software with the scale. I only remember the scale and the fact you could measure each corner. I absolutely love it. How difficult is it to adjust the scale for different wheelbases and widths?
Marty
Not to cause more confusion but it looks like I have to retract my earlier post about the Porsche 908/3 not racing in a CanAm race. The fact is, it actually did race in the 1972 Watkins Glen CanAm race. It qualified 20th and finished in 12th place with Reinhold Joest running the #42, Porsche 908/3 #008. The car did stick around and run the Watkins Glen 6 Hour race the following day and started 8th and finished in 5th place.
This car is the same one that NSR makes.
If approved, this is the car I will be running in the CanAm series.
Happy to have discovered the car actually did run in CanAm.
Can you confirm that the 908/3 will be allowed? I am looking at using one of my Targa Florio NSR 908/3 cars if they will be allowed. Very excited about the series.
Marty
The original 908 was very much like the Fly car Randy shows above. The more flat version was the evolution of the 908/2 nicknamed Flunder (flat fish) by the Porsche mechanics as it resembled the flat side of a flounder fish. This version did not run in any of the CanAm races but did run in the 1969 6 hours at Watkins Glen.
It might be interesting to open up the entries to the cars that also ran in the Watkins Glen 6 hour race. This would include these 908/2 flunders (Fly with 3D chassis), Porsche 917K’s (NSR, Fly with 3D chassis), Ferrari 512 (Fly with 3D chassis and soon to be Slot.it), Ford GT40 (Slot.it, NSR, and Fly), Ferrari 312pb (Slot.it, Policar), and Matra MS670 (Slot.it).
Thoughts?
Let me add – if we are not going to be allowed to use Thunderslots I think we should be allowed to use the 908/3’s from NSR. This will give members a pre-built option for a car to run. Without this many will choose to run the Slot.it McLaren and it might be boring to have a field of Slot.it McLarens and one Chaparral.
Mark,
The Mid-America balancer shown in Brian’s post is adjustable. The magnets on each end move in or out as needed to get the proper adjustment for the axle to move freely. Once in the correct place, they are held in place with set screws. The pointed end is highly critical for the tool to work properly. Having the point in the absolute center of the axle is the trick for the tool to work correctly. If the points are off the tool will not work.
I own two of these tools – one from TWP/Mid-America and the other from Kolhoza. The Kolhoza is the better of the two. I have not used it to set up wheels or gears yet. I will be using it for the CanAm series later this year where wheel RPM will be 7K-9K. I will be writing a report to detail how it works and if it’s worth the time and money.
Two Things – I wanted to confirm that the club has decided to ban Thunderslot cars from the upcoming CanAm series.
Will we be sticking strictly to the list of CanAm cars that Brian put together? If so, I don’t see any Porsche 908/3’s on the list. That could rule out this great NSR car from the series. Can you confirm if this is the case or if the 908/3 will be allowed. I know that Tony Dean raced a 908/2 but the 908/3 never ran in CanAm that I can find. Let me know as I am looking at preparing this car for the series.
It would be good to have the Thunderslots run but they are so much faster. I don’t know what amount of weight you would have to add to them to keep them in check with the Slot.it’s or others. but here is what the weights look like.
Carrera CanAm slot cars – 88 grams to 92 grams
Thunderslot cars – 63 grams
Slot.it McLaren – 63 grams
