tuning for reduced speed? :O

[W&K Creations]

Hey all

Ive been reading thru much of the forums and just want to say what a great source of help and advice this is for those of us trying to get into racing or at least wanting to help our kids be more competative in their own pack races.

But seeing that most of the questions all of you experienced racers have to answer is always "what do I do about this or that" I thought id ask a different type of related question....

Setting the tone is that our last pack race, the fastest scout car was 3.07 sec on 42' best track, the fastest adult "outlaw" car was 3.04 sec.

Looking at the posts here and DD4H site, there are cars that many of you can create that are well within the rules for my pack races, but easily approach 3.0 sec...maybe even just under...which I think would equate to smoking everyone by 2 or even 3 car lengths /images/boards/smilies/redface.gif...

With that in mind, LOL has anyone, who obviously ran or is running cars with their kids at pack races, ever purposely dialed a car "back" or slower....to either perhaps not win by as much or even come in 2nd or third or not place at all....just so others wouldnt feel so bad LOL...I know it should be the opposite....if you followed the rules and won by a landslide its everyone else that should take the time and learn and ask questions to catch up, not you going backward,....and ive read posts that many of you have been doing that for awhile....this forum is a good example....

I like reading tips on building cars, but like reading good stories even more haha...

Anyway thanks again for all you all do to help us rookies out!

WK

 

[W&K Creations]

opps just to clarify...5th paragraph..."many of you have been doing that for awhile" thats supposed to mean that many of you have been helping others in their pack or here online to build better and faster cars to be more competative....lol didnt want anyone misinterpreting anything!

 

[renegade]

Interesting, well I have dialed my car back before when running against my own daughter in open races but never against anyone else. I put a lot of hours in to get fast and if the competition wants to beat me they need to do the same.

 

[DerbyDad4Hire]

Petal to the metal for me. Full throttle, wide open.

 

[5KidsRacing]

Never, always full out, I never have seen any other kid purposely fumble the football towards my kid. There are winners and losers in life, kids learn way more from their loses then they do from their victories... being PC is overrated.

 

[Quicktimederby]

+1,000,000 PC is killing the country!!!

being PC is overrated.

 

[Spirit Racing]

There's no dialing back in my make-up, as DD4H says FULL THROTTLE or nothing. I think that goes for all us racing here at NPWDRL. And it's fun to hand out some good butt-whippings but yet it's done in a very sportsmanship like way, cause we know we will get smoked at any time and in any race around here!!!!!!.....SPIRIT........

 

[Chief]

AMEN!!!

Never, always full out, I never have seen any other kid purposely fumble the football towards my kid. There are winners and losers in life, kids learn way more from their loses then they do from their victories... being PC is overrated.

 

[SoGone]

Have I dialed back... Yes and no.. At a pro race never, full throttle but at scouts yes that is in the open or outlaw divisions. My sons and I have been pack champions since we joined scouts 6 years ago. The first year I raced outlaw I came in 4th but vowed that would never happen again. Next year with some Pro time under my belt I started building full out pro cars and cleaned house. It caught on with some of the more serious dads and they started buying lighten wheels pro axles anything to try and give me some competition or take me out. Let me say that so far they have failed. So I started "dialing it back" to see if I could still dominate against there so-called all out cars. I run cars with full weight wheels "no rear cant" , scout wheel base "no extended" no pro axles. Gave out many tips on how to make there cars faster. I am still undefeated but at least it makes it more entertaining. It all comes from a solid building foundation I learned by trail and error and racing league. Now you can come here and cut through the boloney and learn quick, and after that just build a ton and race, race, race. Have a good one

 

[jator359]

QT and 5K--THANK YOU!!! And don't EVEN get me started about the pending decision at BSA. Sorry, I know this belongs in another forum but I had to vent.

+1,000,000 PC is killing the country!!!

being PC is overrated.

 

[Aden]

Amen. PC is the cause of many issues.

 

[txchemist]

I have held different opinions of this over the years. For my Grand kids- full speed ahead, except last year my Webelos racer who had won by quite a bit in earlier years, wanted to have a more "race car like" design even though it was slower. It was still fast enough to win pack and district and to set the track record at district. His younger brother now wants to beat that record with a fast car no matter what it looks like. They all race in a different district than my neighborhood, and I help every year with the races at our local pack. A long time ago I decided against drilling all the axle holes, grinding off the flash etc. for every boy because there was no learning or effort from the individual Cubs. I did it two years and stopped. One or two boys would show some interest and start to ask questions, but the rest of the Den was just running all over the place making so much noise I could not use the time effectively. I did get the "craft project" of all cars getting built by various adults doing all the work except painting the cars stopped, and back to the boy and parent doing the car. I want to see as many adults working one on one to teach and mentor as possible. I keep close tabs on single parent situations, or very limited time or tools problems and help out. I want a Cub to have an adult treat him like a real person and build the car with the boy. I pass out info that all are welcome to use my tools, test on the track, ask for advice etc. I help those most that have no dad. My goal is to try to get a glimmer of the idea of doing an experiment to get a clue about how to do something better. How to have self confidence to use a power tool or a microscope. How to try to measure improvement. Note: some young boys can not use a ruler to measure something. I had had a good discussion about when you hold your hand out the window in a moving car, what position is the least force on your hand?. Most boys know that no angle is the best.[ if they have no clue, it is a fast 5 min. test to go for a spin around the block and collect data] But some will at least think that it might be different on the track. I bring out a test car with three settings. Slightly negative , even, and slightly positive angle.. Just looking at the car, you can not tell, so let's measure the distance with a little ruler. Not going to happen with some kids. I go get a stack of dimes and let the boy slowly run the car into the stack to see how many dimes stay under the back, and then repeat on the front. Now after we have our measurements, we go run the cars and get times. You get the idea- get the boy involved with the process. Now, back to the question of dialing back or not. I dial the daylights back and still every car built with the bullet has beat every other car for many years. But when I have 4 or 5 boys I am helping, I let the effort and interest shown by each determine how fast the car goes. I show any Wolf I help how to do a good 4 on the floor graphite ( no canting std wheels). Bears I show how to do oil on a 3 wheeler with built in steer (canting, std wheels). Webelos do full steering 3 wheeler. ( If the boy has worked very hard and never won 1st and is up against boys that have won in the past, I do toss in a set of better wheels). I let them grind smooth a std axle and look at it with a microscope. I then give them some DD4H axles and let them polish good axles. In general, these cars could get beat by someone else with a little knowledge, and that would be just fine with me- but they will never be beat by an out of the box Revell kit.

 

[ZZ Racing]

this will be the last month for my sons pack until they have the decision from BSA and if it happens we will not have a local pack anymore. the leaders and community said they will not support a group that allows this. i hate it for the boys they are the ones to suffer.

QT and 5K--THANK YOU!!! And don't EVEN get me started about the pending decision at BSA. Sorry, I know this belongs in another forum but I had to vent.

+1,000,000 PC is killing the country!!!

being PC is overrated.