OK, my cars arrive back home from the first MOTM event. My car Dragon II had a disastrous outing and I couldn't understand why, it has ran so good in the past. Laying down some good times at the April races: with a four run average time of 2.9331. Also ran great at Nationals, with the exception of the one bad run that constantly plagues me at each event. That's racing!
Anyhow, upon receiving my cars back I decided to inspect Dragon II and give it a roll. Based on previous steer it was in the ball park, but was just not running as smooth as when it left. Something happened! Wheels gaps were checked and were still were I set them. I had the guys there tweak the steer on the car some because poor Dragon II did not know what to do going down the track. She danced all the way down the track until she got tired and finally straightened out. All I can say is thank goodness for the center rail or else she would have caused a wreck.
I've been reviewing the video of the race many times over to try and figure out what could have happened. What I noticed in the video was the car wanted to steer badly to the right (left as you watch it from the camera perspective) and I know the car was steering to the left before I shipped it. Very puzzled at this point. Well, with car in hand I began to look over the car for obvious faults. The problem stood out like a sore thumb, all I could say was SHI......pping!
Looking at the car from the rear I could see an obvious issue with the wheel camber, cant in terms of pinewood lingo. The left rear wheel was sitting good with the usual camber, but the right rear wheel was not sitting like the left. It had a more "positive" negative camber appearance. So, to relate this alignment concern to a full size vehicle. The excess "positive" camber creates a pull even though the wheel still sits in a negative camber plane, but less of it, in comparison to the left side. The alignment will pull to the more positive camber. With the right rear wheel sitting at a more positive camber angle than the left an alignment pull took place. That was a mouthful and likely messed some minds out there.
I'm not really sure what happened to cause this but I'm not sure I can save the car. The axle is not bent. I haven't inspected the wheel bore yet. The drilled axle hole has a slight oval feature to it, I don't recall it being that way. I hate to retire this car, but it is what it is if I can't figure something out. I may give her once last hoorah next month. Still perplexed as to what could have happened, my other cars survived well and maybe a bump helped them out. Haha.....
Anyhow, upon receiving my cars back I decided to inspect Dragon II and give it a roll. Based on previous steer it was in the ball park, but was just not running as smooth as when it left. Something happened! Wheels gaps were checked and were still were I set them. I had the guys there tweak the steer on the car some because poor Dragon II did not know what to do going down the track. She danced all the way down the track until she got tired and finally straightened out. All I can say is thank goodness for the center rail or else she would have caused a wreck.
I've been reviewing the video of the race many times over to try and figure out what could have happened. What I noticed in the video was the car wanted to steer badly to the right (left as you watch it from the camera perspective) and I know the car was steering to the left before I shipped it. Very puzzled at this point. Well, with car in hand I began to look over the car for obvious faults. The problem stood out like a sore thumb, all I could say was SHI......pping!
Looking at the car from the rear I could see an obvious issue with the wheel camber, cant in terms of pinewood lingo. The left rear wheel was sitting good with the usual camber, but the right rear wheel was not sitting like the left. It had a more "positive" negative camber appearance. So, to relate this alignment concern to a full size vehicle. The excess "positive" camber creates a pull even though the wheel still sits in a negative camber plane, but less of it, in comparison to the left side. The alignment will pull to the more positive camber. With the right rear wheel sitting at a more positive camber angle than the left an alignment pull took place. That was a mouthful and likely messed some minds out there.
I'm not really sure what happened to cause this but I'm not sure I can save the car. The axle is not bent. I haven't inspected the wheel bore yet. The drilled axle hole has a slight oval feature to it, I don't recall it being that way. I hate to retire this car, but it is what it is if I can't figure something out. I may give her once last hoorah next month. Still perplexed as to what could have happened, my other cars survived well and maybe a bump helped them out. Haha.....
