Graphite break in

[Castoro Racing]

My son's first 2 runs after we graphite tend to be his slowest. I always spin the wheel by hand on the car to distribute the graphite, is there anything else I should be doing, or should I just spin for a certain amount of time? Could I be putting too much? Any advice is appreciated

We already burnish the bores and do not have access to a test track.

 

[AceMontana]

Ive had the same experiance and waiting with baited breath for a reply

 

[Thinkin'Bout Racin]

My son's first 2 runs after we graphite tend to be his slowest. I always spin the wheel by hand on the car to distribute the graphite, is there anything else I should be doing, or should I just spin for a certain amount of time? Could I be putting too much? Any advice is appreciated

We already burnish the bores and do not have access to a test track.

Ok, I'll take a shot at this. I agree with your observations, the car always seems faster on the 3rd-4th run after cleaning and regraphiting. Occasionally, the second run is the quickest, but that is when I perform what I call a light lube. I think this is because there is always some extra graphite in the bores that needs to be compressed and "moved around" and/or ejected from the bore. I don't know of any way to accomplish this to the same level that a couple of runs accomplishes. I have had limited success with lightly loading the wheels as they are turned to simulate the load they experience while running. I also will admit that I have experimented with a treadmill with some success. I am not recommending this, because there are WAY too many variables to account for when considering the benefit vs. drawbacks.

So , how to graphite ......I think it depends on what your race schedule is? Let me explain. If you are expecting to run a lot of races 8-10 or possibly more, AND you are confident that you can make the next round/finals, then the heavier graphite and not running the car may be the way to go. If you have only three or four runs, then lightly turning the wheels and/or running the car before actually racing it may be the best option.

Here, the kids run 8 races in the preliminaries and then another 8 races if they make the finals. We are more concerned about the later races and times dropping off after the first 8-10 runs.

So best of luck in whatever you decide!

 

[Bubblegum]

I had the same question so I tested to see how long graphite takes to break in and how many races I could get out of a prep without adding more. I wanted to figure out when and if the car would be the fastest during finals.

I cleaned and packed my car, aligned it, and ran it on my 35 foot best track. I logged times using the electric timer and an excel spreadsheet.

My first two runs were warm ups to break things in and I ran the car and recorded 20 heats. The times varied but my last several runs were the same times as the ones that were in the middle. I am sure there were differences with enough decimal places but at a scout race this would not have mattered place wise.

The car would have won at districts.

I have another that ran in the family race in 2016, came in second to our other car, and I have run it at home more than 50 times and it has only lost maybe .01 secs over this time. I bet if I pulled the wheels to clean and reprep them and axles it would get faster again.

So what makes a car slow when speaking about graphite only?
1. All the parents who while checking in are pouring more graphite on the wheels and giving them a spin thinking more is better.
2. Because of #1 my car picking up all that on the treads.
3. The track not being cleaned off between the prelims and finals.

At the cub scout worlds which you would think would have a clue they never cleaned the track between groups. If they did I missed it when being out of the room.

Sorry this was long.

 

[Castoro Racing]

I had the same question so I tested to see how long graphite takes to break in and how many races I could get out of a prep without adding more. I wanted to figure out when and if the car would be the fastest during finals.

I cleaned and packed my car, aligned it, and ran it on my 35 foot best track. I logged times using the electric timer and an excel spreadsheet.

My first two runs were warm ups to break things in and I ran the car and recorded 20 heats. The times varied but my last several runs were the same times as the ones that were in the middle. I am sure there were differences with enough decimal places but at a scout race this would not have mattered place wise.

The car would have won at districts.

I have another that ran in the family race in 2016, came in second to our other car, and I have run it at home more than 50 times and it has only lost maybe .01 secs over this time. I bet if I pulled the wheels to clean and reprep them and axles it would get faster again.

So what makes a car slow when speaking about graphite only?
1. All the parents who while checking in are pouring more graphite on the wheels and giving them a spin thinking more is better.
2. Because of #1 my car picking up all that on the treads.
3. The track not being cleaned off between the prelims and finals.

At the cub scout worlds which you would think would have a clue they never cleaned the track between groups. If they did I missed it when being out of the room.

Sorry this was long.

 

[Castoro Racing]

We have our districts today, I was able to get a hold of a track with no timer and break in my graphite last week. We will see how we do today.

I will hold back from adding more graphite before check in, even though my nerves make me want to.

 

[Bubblegum]

Good luck today. I think our pack mentality is more is better and more often is best. These cars haven't had time and probabaly why tracks are so dirty. Ever seen a scout car get faster?

If you are needing to do something, clean your wheels, check wheel gaps, and wheel roll outs.

 

[Eric]

We always break in our graphite for our Pack race. We usually graphite at home and then make two passes on our track at home, car gets put away and is not touched again until it is going thru inspection. Our race runs like this, each den races twice in each of the four lanes, so eight runs total to get the finishing order of each Den. The fastest two from each Den then move on to the Pack Finals, which is another race of twice in each of the four lanes to get the overall Pack Champion. After the complete sixteen runs our cars always average faster times in the last eight heats compared to the first eight.
Our Pack and District race also allow us to regraphite before the overall Championship race, we have found that this is not a good idea to do. But it has also provided an opportunity to teach my son about how people watch other people to see what they are doing so we always act like we are adding graphite when in fact all we really do is clean the wheels off.
Now our District Race is an entirely different animal. We pack the wheels full of graphite and do not break them in at home before the race. Our District race runs seven different tracks at the same time, Scouts will race their cars about every four min for an hour, they are just racing for position until they qualify the top fourteen per Den for the Den finals. They race eight heats for times to declare the finishing order with the winner moving on to the District overall race at the end of the day.

 

["The Fonze"]

My son’s cars have always been the fastest on the runs right after we apply graphite.