This last weekend I ran what was probably my last needle car race. I suppose it is bittersweet, there used to be competition from great racers like Carolina Gravity, DaPine, BSB, DD4H, BnB, Jewkes and others, but now the competition is long gone and so are the divisions. Honestly I seem to be a division killer. Besides BSB, I have never told anybody how I run needles. BSB taught me how to make acrylic razors and inserts and I expanded that knowledge into running needles and making acrylic stockers. From the start I never liked running Teflon inserts, but I knew from my experience with BSA wheeled cars that I needed a Teflon type product in the equation. I have forever been pained by having to reprep wheel bores and to be quite honest I just didn’t want to do in anymore. After an unsuccessful attempt to make it into the PWDR limited finals in the first part of 2011 I took some time off and started working on making wheels and axles. I knew that the combination of Teflon, a boundary layer lubricant (Blue can/Jig) and Krytox made for a fast car. I also knew that Teflon inserts with stainless axles ran well. I never liked the softness of virgin Teflon, but I ran it well, in fact my first two needle cars ran this combination. My first Teflon insert Pro-Stock car won at the 2011 PWDR finals (BloodShot).
When I was making my second pro-modified car, Cupcake, and my first HR66 car, Coddy Coupe, I wanted to try something new. By the way does anybody know why that car is called Cupcake? Maybe John does. Anyway… I was trying to eliminate any waxing from the pwd equation. I tried sleeving Virgin Teflon to an axle pin and then lathe cutting the Teflon to get my final axle size… .084, .091, whatever…. This worked very well. I essentially had a Virgin Teflon coated axle. I looked super sweet and was very polished and slick, but didn’t run very well with BSA or acrylic wheels. By the way Teflon on Teflon doesn’t run very good at all… Teflon inserts on Teflon axles seem to be a good thing, but in practice they don’t work. You need one part Slick (Teflon) and the other part to hold the oil (boundary layer side). So after this failure, my gut told me that the Teflon was just too soft. I searched and found Teflon coated wire and thought I would give that a try. That would be harder than the virgin Teflon and maybe would work. I found a supplier that would send me samples for free. I started with .024” diameter and .085” diameter coated wire. I cut off ¾” long pieces of the wire and used them for axles. I did nothing else to them… just cut off a piece and used it as an axle. No polishing, no coating, no nothing…. When I went to make the wheels and inserts I knew that I needed something other than Teflon. I bought at least 20 different types on insert material to try…. I found standard white Delrin worked the best. I also tried several different bore sizes before I found a combination that worked. I found that if I drilled the bores to .025” that gave me the fastest car. Once again I did nothing else to the bores besides drilling them. I drilled them and then washed them with alcohol and blew them out with compressed air….. nothing else…. no coatings, no reaming, no polishing, no nothing. I did the same with my big axle HR66. It has always ran Teflon coated axles with Delrin inserts. Since then I have made several cars with Teflon coated axles: Pro-Stock Easy Money, Stocker Raucous, Pro-Stock OSM4, many ProMods, many Mods. This system is so easy…when I reprepped for the PWDR finals a week ago I only had to pull the retainers clean the axles and bores with alcohol and compressed air. Re-sprayed bores, re-oiled and re-assembled…. As a bonus it seems every time I clean the wheels/axles the cars run faster. Running the car must naturally polish the Teflon axle , Delrin insert or both…. I don’t know. This last weekend my Pro-Stocker set the 6 run and single run record and my pro-mod set the track record and ran times comparable to the bearing cars (ask Quadad).
I have ran Teflon coated wire from .006” to .085” in diameter…. I have only paid for one piece on McMaster-Carr. All the rest were given to me as samples. I stretched .006” wire across the rear of the car and drilled the bores to .0065”…. this car is as fast as my fastest pro-mod, but not faster. This car was a tough build.
Here is what I learned from needle cars:
- Teflon coated needle axles are faster
- For needles I run best with .024” axles
- Tighter bore is faster and all drill bits are not equal… same size bits are never the same exact size and it effects performance. I run .025” bores on .024” axles… Larger bores are sloppy and lead to wobble and slower cars.
- Your hub width doesn’t need to be longer than .110”
- Blue Teflon works better than Jig on my set-up
- Standard Delrin inserts works better than the other 20 different insert materials I have tried
- I run John’s oil on all my cars
- My HR66 that won last weekend has a Teflon coated front axle
- My second fastest stocker, Raucous, that I ran last year at the PWDR and was my second fastest car at the Mid-American has always ran Teflon axles
- My Pro-Stocker, Easy Money, and Pro-Mod, Cupcake, have Teflon axles and they have never been beat
I can’t tell you how to make razor wheels or inserts, that is BSB’s area and it is not for me to tell. I will say that I don’t do it exactly the same as BSB.
Maybe if some of you have an adult outlaw race at your local Scout derby you can give needles a try. I hope some of this is helpful…..
Good luck…
When I was making my second pro-modified car, Cupcake, and my first HR66 car, Coddy Coupe, I wanted to try something new. By the way does anybody know why that car is called Cupcake? Maybe John does. Anyway… I was trying to eliminate any waxing from the pwd equation. I tried sleeving Virgin Teflon to an axle pin and then lathe cutting the Teflon to get my final axle size… .084, .091, whatever…. This worked very well. I essentially had a Virgin Teflon coated axle. I looked super sweet and was very polished and slick, but didn’t run very well with BSA or acrylic wheels. By the way Teflon on Teflon doesn’t run very good at all… Teflon inserts on Teflon axles seem to be a good thing, but in practice they don’t work. You need one part Slick (Teflon) and the other part to hold the oil (boundary layer side). So after this failure, my gut told me that the Teflon was just too soft. I searched and found Teflon coated wire and thought I would give that a try. That would be harder than the virgin Teflon and maybe would work. I found a supplier that would send me samples for free. I started with .024” diameter and .085” diameter coated wire. I cut off ¾” long pieces of the wire and used them for axles. I did nothing else to them… just cut off a piece and used it as an axle. No polishing, no coating, no nothing…. When I went to make the wheels and inserts I knew that I needed something other than Teflon. I bought at least 20 different types on insert material to try…. I found standard white Delrin worked the best. I also tried several different bore sizes before I found a combination that worked. I found that if I drilled the bores to .025” that gave me the fastest car. Once again I did nothing else to the bores besides drilling them. I drilled them and then washed them with alcohol and blew them out with compressed air….. nothing else…. no coatings, no reaming, no polishing, no nothing. I did the same with my big axle HR66. It has always ran Teflon coated axles with Delrin inserts. Since then I have made several cars with Teflon coated axles: Pro-Stock Easy Money, Stocker Raucous, Pro-Stock OSM4, many ProMods, many Mods. This system is so easy…when I reprepped for the PWDR finals a week ago I only had to pull the retainers clean the axles and bores with alcohol and compressed air. Re-sprayed bores, re-oiled and re-assembled…. As a bonus it seems every time I clean the wheels/axles the cars run faster. Running the car must naturally polish the Teflon axle , Delrin insert or both…. I don’t know. This last weekend my Pro-Stocker set the 6 run and single run record and my pro-mod set the track record and ran times comparable to the bearing cars (ask Quadad).
I have ran Teflon coated wire from .006” to .085” in diameter…. I have only paid for one piece on McMaster-Carr. All the rest were given to me as samples. I stretched .006” wire across the rear of the car and drilled the bores to .0065”…. this car is as fast as my fastest pro-mod, but not faster. This car was a tough build.
Here is what I learned from needle cars:
- Teflon coated needle axles are faster
- For needles I run best with .024” axles
- Tighter bore is faster and all drill bits are not equal… same size bits are never the same exact size and it effects performance. I run .025” bores on .024” axles… Larger bores are sloppy and lead to wobble and slower cars.
- Your hub width doesn’t need to be longer than .110”
- Blue Teflon works better than Jig on my set-up
- Standard Delrin inserts works better than the other 20 different insert materials I have tried
- I run John’s oil on all my cars
- My HR66 that won last weekend has a Teflon coated front axle
- My second fastest stocker, Raucous, that I ran last year at the PWDR and was my second fastest car at the Mid-American has always ran Teflon axles
- My Pro-Stocker, Easy Money, and Pro-Mod, Cupcake, have Teflon axles and they have never been beat
I can’t tell you how to make razor wheels or inserts, that is BSB’s area and it is not for me to tell. I will say that I don’t do it exactly the same as BSB.
Maybe if some of you have an adult outlaw race at your local Scout derby you can give needles a try. I hope some of this is helpful…..
Good luck…
