Why a rail runner
- Thread starter Mustang1
- Start date
because not matter how hard you try the car will not go straight it will wiggle somewhere going donw the track..rail runner go straight down the rail
- Nov 24, 2011
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if you do try and make the car go perfectly straight you will still hit the rail at some point in the run which will cause the car to change direction as it bounces off the rail like a ping pong ball, it will hit the next rail and so on until the run is over. Each time it blasts into the rail you slow down more then if the car is tuned to slightly stay one one rail the whole run. You may have a car perfect and straight but what if it's staged wrong, or the track is slightly off, or the turbulence from the car in the next lane causes the chain reaction of the death wiggle which will bring the top racer to his knees. Best way to find out is build one of each and on race day you'll be singing the praises of the rail lover!
Great answer Bulldog. The tracks at the scout level can be very rough. So plan for the inevitable
If you run a perfectly spherical pinball down the track, you would expect a nice tight range of times. You would be wrong. You get an unbelievably wide range of times. Only 5% of the time will the pinball make it all the way without hitting a rail and starting a ping-pong path and going much slower. That is on a perfect track.
Here is the underside of what might have been the first car to use tungsten, and the first drift adjustment car. No way to know, but no one has ever sent me earlier information.
Drift adjustment used in our 1980 2nd place in Texas at the State Scout-o-rama
Here is the underside of what might have been the first car to use tungsten, and the first drift adjustment car. No way to know, but no one has ever sent me earlier information.
Drift adjustment used in our 1980 2nd place in Texas at the State Scout-o-rama
V
Vitamin K
Guest
txchemist said:If you run a perfectly spherical pinball down the track, you would expect a nice tight range of times. You would be wrong. You get an unbelievably wide range of times. Only 5% of the time will the pinball make it all the way without hitting a rail and starting a ping-pong path and going much slower. That is on a perfect track.
Here is the underside of what might have been the first car to use tungsten, and the first drift adjustment car. No way to know, but no one has ever sent me earlier information.
Drift adjustment used in our 1980 2nd place in Texas at the State Scout-o-rama
Hey, I was three years old when that car ran! /images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif
I would love to hear your recollections from the history of pinewood derby technology, txchemist!
