3 A.M. thoughts

[AceMontana]

Let me start by saying forgive the randomness of my late night thought process...ive not been aware of this forum for very long at all and dont mean this to seem like an insult of any kind...more as a few pondering questions or poll if you will...

1) when did the pwd change from "may the best craftsmanship win" to may whomever buys the most high performance wheels and axles and most speciality wood win" .....now that being said before i get pummeled...im aware tuning is a big part of it buuut its still only PART of it.

2) yes i know thin flat planks are fast....but arent these pwd CARS ? (Looking at pictures only) of cars at this level they all look the same exept for paint and decals ( and i know im new and niave ) but to me alot of the fun is shaping a car from a square block.... these still look like like blocks...very thin...very fast blocks.....most of wich if not all will make it to the finish line long before my entry...first of wich will be in February ( i learned of the schedule way too late for a January entry)

So at the closing end of my rant ill shove my foot in my mouth (and reserve the right to eat my words later ) ...i will see y'all (by proxy) atop the hill with my home polished axles, inside my home trued wheels (from the kit) stuck into my hand carved body that looks like nobody elses on the hill....and ill see y'all at the finish line when i catch up....im really looking forward to this....and hoping i did not offend anyone...its really nice to have other derby freaks to play with.

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

I'm not offended at all. But there is a big difference between Scout racing and League racing. You are still free to carve a car with great lines and details. Your odds of winning are not good. Ok, ok, you'll probably get smoked! LOL. Then you'll have to make the decision, are you satisfied getting smoked or do you want to be competitive?

Now, it doesn't take specialty wood. I have won with cars cut from scout kit blocks. Buying the most high performance parts will not get you a win. Tuning and prep is a HUGE part of league racing. I remember a racer being irate at the 2015 nationals when he bought all the best parts and still finished last.

I hope you join in and I look forward to seeing your cars on the track. I'd be interested in your thoughts after you have run a couple league races.

Good Luck!

 

[Skywalker Racing]

See a lot of difference between the cars at NASCAR, Le Mans, INDY, NHRA? Competitive racing is all about maximizing performance under a given set of rules. The cars will naturally evolve to near peak performance, and all other racers will mimick what’s working, and innovate from there, or get left behind.

With PWD, like those motor sports, I think a lot of the ingenuity lies is what you DONT see - chassis construction, weighting configs, wheel and axle prep, and what’s between the racers’ ears.

If beauty contests are what you’re into (as am I), I hold a Showstopper competition each month to reward craftsmanship and originality.

My post wasn’t meant to offend either. You’re new and will learn very quickly that a LOT goes into making these league cars competitive. We spend as much, probably way more, time on our vendor wheels and axles as you would on kit parts. You can’t simply buy your way to the top or expect to stay there without honing and perfecting your craft.

 

[Darkside]

I was right there with you a year ago. I liked making cool looking cars with nice paint jobs. But then I made my first thin tungsten weighted car. That car, after tuning, ran 30 thousandths of a second faster than the best time I had ran before and I was hooked. Now it's all about the details, axle prep, wheel prep, alignment, etc. Anything to get a few more thousandths of a second. And when it all comes together and you see your time come down, you'll be way more satisfied with that than you ever were about how the car looked.

Be careful though. Once you're hooked all of a sudden things like test tracks and mini lathes will start to seem like reasonable expenses to you. Just a warning.

 

[TRE]

I was right there with you a year ago. I liked making cool looking cars with nice paint jobs. But then I made my first thin tungsten weighted car. That car, after tuning, ran 30 thousandths of a second faster than the best time I had ran before and I was hooked. Now it's all about the details, axle prep, wheel prep, alignment, etc. Anything to get a few more thousandths of a second. And when it all comes together and you see your time come down, you'll be way more satisfied with that than you ever were about how the car looked.

Be careful though. Once you're hooked all of a sudden things like test tracks and mini lathes will start to seem like reasonable expenses to you. Just a warning.

100 percent correct

 

[AceMontana]

Again i apologize for my 3 A.M. delirium...i raced real cars competitively every saturday night for years and always went against the grain there too...i believe to beat the competion youve got to do things just a little differently....ive already got a test track and mini lathe....(i got hooked that badly when my boy made his first tiger cub car)

 

[Charles Studer]

Welcome mainer! My family has a hand built home outside Robinson....get a tuning board and a test track. You can build all the pretty you like but if you want titles get in line and do what works. Im new to the table and getting hungrier each race. Thin to win is no joke and parts dont get you across the line any faster if you dont put them together right. It is a skill set and art. Hope to see you on the hill. Go ahead and start in the Am series....better to work up than get beat into tears everytime you got the latestest and greatest way to be slow.

 

[AceMontana]

Thanks for the welcome charles. I have a wooden test track and tuning board. To elaborate a bit more, my first experiance with this stuff was just under 1 year ago when my tiger made his first car....we researched the project and did the best we could....his car was undefeated in every head to head race up through regionals but his avearge time wasnt quite enough to win regionals....that day after rhe race as a teachable moment rather than wallow in the loss we begain construction on the track so we would be prepaird for 2019....weve learned alot through our races in the basement....in the last year we went from one car to now just short of 20...each one being faster than the last through trial and error...so im a bit hooked to say the least....and ive got lots of things ive read here to yet test....im currently prepairing a car for the BASX class and hoping to be complete for my first ass whoopin' come February.

 

[Charles Studer]

Well I hope to be one that welcomes you proper. See you on the hill. Dont hesitate to hit me up if you have any questions.

 

[mike-E]

I've been wanting to race a basx car professionally for a few years now, but I want to keep the build cost down to $10 minus the prep and still be somewhat competitive. Alas though, wheel weights aren't permitted. Maybe one day an old lead car with awana axles will be allowed.

 

[Charles Studer]

You can get a set of scout wheels and some axles for 3$ maybe some super glue and a thin cut of cutting board....a little wood filler and walla! Pm me.

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

I've been wanting to race a basx car professionally for a few years now, but I want to keep the build cost down to $10 minus the prep and still be somewhat competitive. Alas though, wheel weights aren't permitted. Maybe one day an old lead car with awana axles will be allowed.

Really the only class that has a chance of staying under $10 and being competitive is Box Stock.

 

[Charles Studer]

+1

 

[Briggs_Power]

Really the only class that has a chance of staying under $10 and being competitive is Box Stock.

Lol even that would be tough

 

[mike-E]

Really the only class that has a chance of staying under $10 and being competitive is Box Stock.

Well, I have built 2 sub-3 cars with lead and awana axles running on graphite and a not-so-good 42' besttrack that's set up at a local hardware store.
I would invest into wheel prep if I could run wheel weights. With three children to feed I just cant justify a little wooden car costing 75-100 dollars in supplies to build.
Of course now that solid tungsten plates are the norm, I would probably be left lagging anyway. If I were going to go tungsten, I would want custom sized plates. I would want them .230 thick, 1.68 long, and .545 wide.

 

[TRE]

Tungsten cubes work just fine.. i won the world championship with cubes

 

[Briggs_Power]

Well, I have built 2 sub-3 cars with lead and awana axles running on graphite and a not-so-good 42' besttrack that's set up at a local hardware store.
I would invest into wheel prep if I could run wheel weights. With three children to feed I just cant justify a little wooden car costing 75-100 dollars in supplies to build.
Of course now that solid tungsten plates are the norm, I would probably be left lagging anyway. If I were going to go tungsten, I would want custom sized plates. I would want them .230 thick, 1.68 long, and .545 wide.

You dont need wheel weights

 

[TRE]

You can build a basx car for 65 bucks in parts

 

[mike-E]

You dont need wheel weights

With lead I couldn't get the weight where I wanted it under .330 thick without wheel weights. With wheel weights I was able to get .275 thick.
I'm a machinist and was able to utilize my lunch hours to build two different thickness wheel molds, some slab molds, a wheel cutting tool with multiple inside/outside cutters, a drill jig with my own hardened bushings, and a few other items I can't remember off the top of my head because It's been a few years since my boys were racing.
I'll try to drag that stuff out and get some pics so ya'all don't think I'm b,sing.

 

[TRE]

wheel weights are illegal in basx anyway