Recent content by Cooper

We had an incident with the red car and couldn't race it (hit the floor on the way out the door). Luckily we built a sister car that was pretty much exactly the same, but ran slightly slower on our track. He still placed first in Districts, with a new track record . Craziest track I've ever...

Clear waterslide inkjet sticker paper. He found a graphic he liked online, then we modified in photoshop a bit so it would work on the car. We usually print out 5 copies on one sheet of paper, then burn through a few before we get it right.

Our entry for my son's first District race tomorrow

I'd love to try oil, but it specifically says, dry lube only, no wet lube allowed. Some may say oil, if done correctly is dry at race time, but I'd feel dishonest doing it. My son and I did just groove some axles, something we have not done before because his pack forbids it. We got some faster...

Thanks for the responses all.. I'll prep another set and see what happens.. For those who don't mind wheels with dips, are any using graphite? I'm thinking oil may be ok, but graphite is getting caught & slowing us down a little.

I know in my bag of bad wheels, there are more 12s than anything. That's just based on spinning them and tossing if they wobble.

But it's only bowed out on about half the bore circumference. Something bad goes on when these are used, at least with graphite. My tests have always been slower with these types of wheels, I have a stack of them that we use for NDFWs. We aren't allowed to groove axles in our pack race, so...

I've grown tired of sorting through wheels looking for decent ones. We've got pretty strict rules, so I ordered 4 sets of unmodified "dynasty BASX tall" wheels from DD4H. We have Districts this weekend, so I was hoping to use them. They all arrived yesterday. 16 wheels, all #3 molds and all 16...

Hmm.. Rules say "must use axles from the box" and "they may be modified by polishing". It doesn't say they can't be grooved. Maybe we'll try grooving a set & see how it does on the test track. I almost want to stop now though.. It's already the fastest car we've built by almost .01 (based on...

Our district rules say we must use stock axles (Revell is not an option). What would be the best way to deal with the crimp marks? The burrs at the top are easy enough to file away, but the 3 crimp marks a little further down the shaft are another story. Removing them completely significantly...

Well, if I get an email back saying canted wheels are allowed, we'll scrap this car and build another. If the rule stands and wheel treads must be parallel to the track, 1.5 degrees is the most I can get while keeping the wheels flat. A quick run down the test track (with unprepped...

I did email asking for clarification, waiting to hear back. We ended up drilling anyway. Drilled the rears at 1.5 degrees, and the FD straight. The rear wheels sit flat and move to the heads when slow rolled, so I think we're good there. Still working on bending the front to get just the right...

So, my son ended up first in pack (2nd year in a row). 2nd place was an average speed of .13 sec behind him. This using stock wheels & axles and graphite only. We're thinking about entering districts this year for a little more competition. I'm thinking we'll need to build a new car because...

We cover the front weight pocket and hollowed out sections with one piece of foil tape, the rear weight pocket with another. I leave the axle slots open, only because our rules say BSA axles must be used in the slots (just in case they want to inspect). A pencil eraser works great to flatten...

We used clear Inkjet Waterslide Decal Paper with a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum Crystal clear enamel after they were applied. It's a little tricky to work with, but once we figured it out, they came out really nice.