“Graphite-Coated PRO Super Speed Grooved Axles” = slower times??
- Thread starter mp3fcs
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Holy crap. Man I wish I would have seen this 3 days ago. I have all kinds of graphite including dd4h. I ended up using a knock off brand just because of the needle tip which made it easier to apply. Damn it man I could have potentially picked up a few hundredths which would have been huge in our district race; diffence between 2-4th spots were separated by .030. Live and learn. #graphiteisntcreatedequal
I'm not sure you're going to gain .03 just from switching from one graphite to another. My opinion is, you would be better off to perfect your graphite process overall, not just the actual graphite.
That said, our fastest cars have always run Derby Dad graphite. Definitely use whatever is the fastest, but I don't think it's the be-all, end-all of solutions.
What you do to the wheel bore and the axles before whatever kind of lube you put on matters... A lot
You most definitely will gain that much. My graphite and Hob E lube if you don't have mine are the only options. STEER CLEAR of Tub O Lube and DURBYDUST. They will tank your car for sure.
I’m sure there could be some improvement on my process. But I feel like my axle polishing and wheel bore polishing process is pretty solid. I use the recommended stuff from John and do a pretty intense inspection of both when complete. Just didn’t realize the kind of graphite had that much of a difference. Thanks for the input and testing you went through to share with us.
Yes your graphite choice can make a significant difference. Using DD4H's graphite we posted solid times in the District open here.
There were 16 runs on each car. This was on a rougher Scout 42' Best track using BSA axles, Wheels, and graphite. This was also a lead weighted wedge shaped car. Times were all in the very low 3.01x with a single run of 2.996. The lanes varied by just over 0.01x. This was confirmed by a second pass in that same lane.
The impressive part were not the times, as they can vary from track to track, but the standard deviation was 0.004561. While this number is not that great for the Pro's running oil on a well prepped track, it is not bad for graphite on a Scout track, with 16 passes and no cleaning of the wheels or adding additional graphite.
Yes, the correct prep process along with the correct graphite does make a difference!!! The difference can be both in speed and longevity.
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