Time and re-prep, track length?

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Hey all,

A few quick questions (and a side story for amusement /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif...

We had our pack race today and my two sons finished 1st and 2nd overall in the pack...by a large margin. Believe we have a 35 ft aluminum track with a trigger type starter and a Champ timer.

Story first. We had the check-in/weigh in and tuning last night and the cars were locked up till morning. I weighed the cars and they were a little heavy so I had to drill out a little bit and they passed at 5.0. Showed up this morning and we run all the cars to determine who goes to finals. My sons cars were running 2.49-2.51 between the two of them. The next closest car was at about 2.56. I was helping run the race and computer by the way. So we finish the first batch and I look over from the computer and the cubmaster and a couple dads were re-weighing all the cars while we were setting up the computer for the finals. They come over and tell me there are two cars that are too heavy and now weighing 5.1. They were both my sons cars...the ones kicking their butts. So I was concerned and one dad wanted to DQ and the others said it was fine at check in so just race the cars. I ended up drilling them out and was concerned we were going to look bad if the cars were a lot slower now. Well, we raced the finals and both cars actually ran FASTER by quite a bit than they did previously!! At this point they had about 12 runs on them since initial prep so were probably just getting broke in? So I thanked the disgruntled dad for making me drill out the 0.1 oz on the cars. One of the cars ran 2.48x's in the last heats. lol

Now the questions...

Council is next week, do I touch the cars, or just leave them? Pull apart and re-polish bores and axles? One of the boys cars is faster than the other, and seems to have been getting faster.

The slower of the two cars had a small wobble in the rear due to a slightly misaligned axle I noticed. Pull this one apart and try to re-drill the rears? Try to bend it? Tighten the gaps?

Also, I know all tracks run different, but can you confirm this was a 35' track by these times? I couldn't measure and no one knew for sure, I would like to do some comparisons if possible. Again, this had the starting arm trigger switch and Champ timer.

Also, I ran sailkote on the axles since I couldn't get anything else in time for this race. If I could get jig or 3M before next week, is it worth it to change it out?

Thx in advance for the help on this.../images/boards/smilies/smile.gif
 
Council is next week, do I touch the cars, or just leave them? Pull apart and re-polish bores and axles? One of the boys cars is faster than the other, and seems to have been getting faster. I personally would not reprep. The chances of getting the cars to run exactly like they are now are very slim unless you have a test track. Even if you do decide to reprep, I wouldnt repolish axles.

The slower of the two cars had a small wobble in the rear due to a slightly misaligned axle I noticed. Pull this one apart and try to re-drill the rears? Try to bend it? Tighten the gaps? What do you mean by "misaligned"? Tighter gaps are always better than loose gaps.

Also, I know all tracks run different, but can you confirm this was a 35' track by these times? I couldn't measure and no one knew for sure, I would like to do some comparisons if possible. Again, this had the starting arm trigger switch and Champ timer. All tracks are different so it's hard to compair times. Not to mention Best Track compaired to a Fast Track are different. Tracks are also ran at different angles. But yes, judging by your times it appears to be a 35' track.

Also, I ran sailkote on the axles since I couldn't get anything else in time for this race. If I could get jig or 3M before next week, is it worth it to change it out? Yes, but then again as stated before, you run the risk of your cars not being tuned the same. But if you have your own test track youre good to go!
 
Obsessedderbydad said:
Council is next week, do I touch the cars, or just leave them? Pull apart and re-polish bores and axles? One of the boys cars is faster than the other, and seems to have been getting faster. I personally would not reprep. The chances of getting the cars to run exactly like they are now are very slim unless you have a test track. Even if you do decide to reprep, I wouldnt repolish axles.

The slower of the two cars had a small wobble in the rear due to a slightly misaligned axle I noticed. Pull this one apart and try to re-drill the rears? Try to bend it? Tighten the gaps? What do you mean by "misaligned"? Tighter gaps are always better than loose gaps.

Also, I know all tracks run different, but can you confirm this was a 35' track by these times? I couldn't measure and no one knew for sure, I would like to do some comparisons if possible. Again, this had the starting arm trigger switch and Champ timer. All tracks are different so it's hard to compair times. Not to mention Best Track compaired to a Fast Track are different. Tracks are also ran at different angles. But yes, judging by your times it appears to be a 35' track.

Also, I ran sailkote on the axles since I couldn't get anything else in time for this race. If I could get jig or 3M before next week, is it worth it to change it out? Yes, but then again as stated before, you run the risk of your cars not being tuned the same. But if you have your own test track youre good to go!
Click to expand...

+1 and I would also put them in a zip lock bag to keep any dust off my car...
Great story by the way!! I love that kind of stuff
clap
 
ODD,

I do not have a test track, do not know what brand that track was, even though I put it together this year. lol I would bet the angle is higher than 27.1 deg as I just slid the upper ramp support arm up until the first set of legs were touching the ground.

On the wobble, I could tell one side had a slide toe in from a fast roll test and one wheel was trying to slide to the body. I have room to tighten the gap up a bit so that would probably be the only adjustment should make to that car. As you stated, I will probably not get them tuned back to where it is now if I touch it for any reason... good point, probably not worth the risk.

From the tuning the night before, to the actual racing, it seemed like the break-in started over with times getting faster again. Was just wondering if it sits for a week and goes straight to the track, will it be like its breaking in again during the council race?

Thanks for a clear look on this, was just hungry for more speed over the next week. I have messed up cars in the past doing this now that you remind me. hehe /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif

Thanks!
 
Yes, good thought on the ziplocks! heard that before but forgot about it, The kids and I are still on a high from the races today and maybe not thinking straight. lol Had to get on here and share the experience since you all helped create it!

Thx again!
 
We lost district by.006 seconds in each race (4 races total); however, the third place car was almost .2 seconds behind in each race. If you look back about two weeks ago, I had a similar problem, an ever so slight wiggle in the rear. If was primarily due to my rear wheel gap (was set to a credit card width), but I also though the rear might be silghtly misaligned.

We just could not accept the loss. I gave the kid the option and the risks involved - he said tear it apart and fix it. I'm leaving the rear as is (not bending the axles to fix - probably would make things worse), but I am switching to oil and doing a full re-prep.

(shhhhhhh!, watching the dvd now.)
 
From what I gathered here about using oil you should be able to get 100 runs. Maybe slightly less if you're not following DD4H's process 100%.
 
aksnowfun- I made the mistake last year when I found this site after our Pack race and thought I could get more speed so I attempted to "fix" things and ended up making my sons car slower is why I say leave it like it is.

B Regal- IMO, which I'm only a Novice, a credit card gap is WAY too much gap.

ngyoung- I've talked to racers that haven't re-prep'd their car in over a year.
 
Good to hear some other thoughts on it. I was just out looking at the car and tightened up the gaps. I was able get pretty tight and still have some wiggle room and not have the top of the wheel touching the body, the design my son chose has the back end at about the same height as the top of the wheel. Could ask him if he wants to shave it down on the sides if looks like a problem after further inspection.

I followed the DVD closely I thought, but that was my concern, if it got dirty somehow or if I didn't follow close enough! I think I will leave it all alone except for gaps. I just will try not to think about bending that axle during the next week and mess up a decent car. /images/boards/smilies/nono.gif

The other thought on the re-prep, I wont have a chance to get tuning runs or, as slipped in on the DVD, the number of runs John suggests for break-in.
 
ODD, thx for comments and support in that direction, makes me feel much better about not trying to "fix" it.

But its sooo hard...that's what I do, how I am....tinker....fix....tinker! lol With these cars, I cant even wait for paint to dry, have to repaint after I mess it up! lol
 
Half the process is learning from your mistakes. I've been told by a few on here and I've kept to their advise: "If you try too many things all at once, how will you know if you're fixing something or making something worse. Not to mention which change made it better or worse."

It's a process and it takes time. Rome wasnt built in a day and many racers on here werent top racers after 1 race. It takes time. Take notes, learn from your mistakes, read a lot on here and fix it for next time.
 
Thanks all. Will put on the on the piece of laminated shelving I call a tuning board and check it out again!

After the council race, considering sending one in to get put in my place and start my spanking, uh, I mean learning! I don't think taking my kids out of the equation is enough gain to step out of the scout sandbox, but its one of those itches that needs scratched.
 
I'm curious to know what possessed the Cubmaster and others to start re-weighing cars that had already been weighed previously?
 
I agree with Pack Fan. How can a car be re-inspected when it was already deemed to be legal?!
Our pack says that all protests must originate from the cubs themselves. It's really obvious where the complaint is coming from when the cub cannot explain what or why he feels another car is illegal.
 
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