How do I test run a car with no track
- Thread starter Herbie33
- Start date
Thanks for the tip! I will definitely try this if I cannot get access to a track. how long is the board that you use for this?
Please don't thank me- I learned that from the guys at APR. cash, king and mid Atlantic racing. Those guys have forgotten more than I'll ever know about these little cars.
I’ve been racing two years now without a track & only using a tuning board & monthly races to figure things out. The bounce back method sounds like a good idea but if you have time after finishing your cars, send them in to a league race. You can watch the rerun in slow motion & see what your cars are doing. A little fine tune & Bammm! Off to the races!
Unfortunately we will not have time to send them in for a league race. We just got our car and the pack race is in 1 month. I have never given it a thought to send a car to a league race until recently. However, I can see that being in our near future. Thanks for the response!
Depends what you mean by "test." You can check steer, alignment, and wheel prep on a glass tuning board. The bounce back method is somewhat helpful in determining whether a car will be fast but it is somewhat subjective and takes time to learn your tuning board.
A piece of track is a valuable tool for testing clearance and alignment as well.
A piece of track is a valuable tool for testing clearance and alignment as well.
That is sick. I guess I have to bone up on my excuses (I do have a track)
I was never a fan of the bounce-back method. Like Sky said, a glass tuning board will tell you volumes of information. FWIW, noisy cars have traditionally been slow for me, but you must have raced prior to define which cars are fast and which are slow so you can equate noise to each.
That is amazing Ballistic, that gives hope to guys like myself who dont always have access to a track. I have never ran on a 42' track, we race on a 50' best track. I only know what is fast on our track but never knew what our times would be on a league track. We are working on a few cars for our next club race in march. I would like to take our fastest cars from march and send them in for a league race to see what they actually run on a standard length track.
I am not sure if this is good news or bad news????
I do know that I am IMPRESSED! I guess it does show that with patience, skill, and determination that you can accomplish an awful lot without having a track!
I am TRULY impressed ...keep up the good work Ballistic!
I have been thinking ..... and am curious, the noise/sound that you refer to when identifying a "slow car". Is it more of a rotational sound from the wheels and axle interaction (I would guess this to be somewhat rhythmic) or is it a more of a sliding (more constant /consistent) than the rotational sound from a possible alignment/tracking issue? In other words, are the wheels sliding on the glass making noise or is the glass amplifying an axle bore/hub issue?
A glass tuning board is on my to do list.
I know ...I am thinking again and that can be dangerous.
If your car is sliding on the tuning board, you probably have too great a degree of slope. 1-1 1/2 degrees is about all you need, just enough for the car to start rolling on its own.
There are a few different noises you could here, the tread bumps most obvious, a nick or imperfection on the inner hub of the DFW, a nick on the inner tread on the rear wheels & DFW if no tread bumps are present, & dirty wheels. Although I have heard that the noisy tread bumps don’t effect speed, in my opinion quiet= speed
There are a few different noises you could here, the tread bumps most obvious, a nick or imperfection on the inner hub of the DFW, a nick on the inner tread on the rear wheels & DFW if no tread bumps are present, & dirty wheels. Although I have heard that the noisy tread bumps don’t effect speed, in my opinion quiet= speed
THANKS for those thoughts! These are things I will remember (or look up) once I have a glass tuning board. Thank you very much for that insight!
Just for clarification, when I referenced the sliding, I was thinking about the wheels not tracking perfectly and making a different sound. Thanks for the tip on the incline for the tuning board!
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Where is there a league I can sign up for to test cars my sons make. We want to make some cars May-Dec 2019 and see if we are getting any better at it.
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