Wooden track

[BlewBYu]

My son has not been able to beat this one scout for three years. To make matters worse, the scout's father likes to let everyone know how fast their car is. You know the type I am talking about. After the second year of losing to this guy, I thought I had a pretty good car for this year. We had the weight back, the wheels spun very well, and we seemed to be fast. We ran 3.16 average, but lost once again to a 3.08 car by the father/ son duo that I am speaking. Now, I realize 3.16 is not very fast compared to you guys, but it is fast enough for second place in our pack. I decided that the best ally I have for 2016 is time, so I decided to make 2 major changes to try to beat this guy for next year:

1- I decided to build a 4 lane wooden track to have the ability to race the cars that I build over the next year to see if I am getting faster or not. I completed the track 2 weeks ago, and I am happy with the way it runs. It is pretty smooth for a wooden track, but it is certainly not aluminum. At least I have a way of gauging whether I am getting faster or not. Unfortunately, the Pack races are run on a 42 foot aluminum best track. For the money I have in the wooden one, I could almost have bought a Best Track without a timer and had the same amount invested.

2. I have absolutely immersed myself in this forum and some of the people have suggested that I join the racing league. I like the idea, because it will give me and my son a reason to keep working on getting faster.

If we do plan to get heavily involved in this racing league, have I wasted my time and money by building this track? Could some of you give me some tips on how I could use this track to help us get prepared for the PWDRL. Am I ultimately going to have to buy an aluminum track, or will this work for us?

I should add that this is just short of 38 feet in length.

 

[Crash Enburn]

If you have a way of testing that gives you consistent results, then you have a definite leg up. Build car. Tune car. Learn. Build new car...

 

[B_Regal Racing]

If you have a way of testing that gives you consistent results, then you have a definite leg up. Build car. Tune car. Learn. Build new car...

+1

You can read endlessly here, but until you begin to build cars and race them, you never be able to get faster. You need to apply what you read.

As far as testing goes, a homemade track will help a bit. I did it this way as well. But what started out for me as " I want to get faster to help my cub" ultimately turned into "I want to get faster and race against others" and so I started racing here.

The more I learned and the faster I got necessitated me to seek out a quality track. There is no one near me who races, so I purchased my own track and timer. Its the only way I could improve. There are some here who do it without a track, but I am sure that that will handicap the speed in which you can progress. Look around in your area; there maybe someone close by who already has one.

I would not buy a track unless you are going to take this up as a hobby. I might spend an hour a night playing with cars; sometimes more, and I spend a bit more time on the weekends. If you are only racing cubs, I'm sure a home-made track will tell you everything you need to know.

Good luck with whatever you do, but I hope to race against you. I'm far from challenging the pros here today, but tomorrow, who knows what will happen.

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

First off, never assume your times are bad because each track runs different. You cant say because you ran a 3.16 average on a 42' Best Track that it wouldn't run a 2.97 on John's. There's no way of knowing unless they set it up exactly like John does. Second, I'd invite the "NASA Engineer" to race with you in the NPWDRL. Then we'll see how fast he really is. Third, you dont have to have a track to be fast. Kinser doesnt have a track, and look at all his trophies. Sure it helps a lot, but you dont have to. I would use that wooden track for testing different lubes, aero designs and things like that to see if it helps or not. You wont really be able to tune off a wooden track to race on Johns aluminum. Dont worry about the wooden track and if you've wasted time or not. The tracks built, so use it to your advantage. As far as getting into the league, your best bet is to send in a car to get a baseline and go from there. You'll learn a lot along the way. Heck just reading through all the threads on here you'll probably pickup 0.3 seconds of speed. I know I did from my first car I ever built to now. These guys have this down to a science, and what's scary is they're all Doctor's of PWD racing and I'm still in grade school. I dont say that to scare you. It's more of a head's up that they didn't get there over night. The process you're about to embark on takes time... years to be frank. So, as you start this process into "the club" dont be afraid to ask questions, get involved, send in multiple cars, BUT don't be ashamed, scared, or embarrassed by anything that runs down the track and shows a time. By the time your time is recorded, you've already surpassed "NASA" boy as far as guts. From there you'll just get faster /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif

 

[OPARENNEN]

For a home testing track, I guess if you have a boy(s) Cub Scout age, it's nice to have a multilane track. But IMHO, a single lane track (aluminum) with a timer is all you really need. Then, test your car on your track 4 times, get the average speed. Then send it in to one of our events (NPWDRL) and find out what the time is there. Take a ratio between your own track times vs. the NPWDRL times, and from that point on, your will always know what your times really are compared to the best of the best. Keep building, testing, and entering the SSAM class for the rest of the year. By the time of your next year's Pack race, I can grarantee you will smoke all your competition with a sub-3 car. As far as building your car, concentrate first on (1) properly drilled axle holes; (2) Axle prep; (3) Wheel Bore prep. E.g. I have an SS car called "School Bus" that is a full size BSA block, hollowed out, with only the nose angled. With the above prep, it turns 2.999.
LOL.

 

[BlewBYu]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

 

[B_Regal Racing]

I have an SS car called "School Bus" that is a full size BSA block, hollowed out, with only the nose angled. With the above prep, it turns 2.999.
LOL.

I saw that car run (in the last series???). Given the size, it was pretty darn fast. Funny to see it run in a league race.

 

[Vitamin K]

I have an SS car called "School Bus" that is a full size BSA block, hollowed out, with only the nose angled. With the above prep, it turns 2.999.
LOL.

I saw that car run (in the last series???). Given the size, it was pretty darn fast. Funny to see it run in a league race.

I think I'd like to see that. Anybody have link to video?

 

[B_Regal Racing]

1:00 min mark

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgaC9uiU4Kc[/video]

 

[Vitamin K]

1:00 min mark

Thanks! What length of track is that to get runtimes like that?

 

[Crash Enburn]

That was the 60-footer. Crazy race, that.

 

[Kinser Racing]

63ft

 

[Vitamin K]

That was the 60-footer. Crazy race, that.

Really puts a nice spread between the finishers!

 

[OPARENNEN]

I have an SS car called "School Bus" that is a full size BSA block, hollowed out, with only the nose angled. With the above prep, it turns 2.999.
LOL.

I saw that car run (in the last series???). Given the size, it was pretty darn fast. Funny to see it run in a league race.

I think I'd like to see that. Anybody have link to video?

I ran it twice, I know one race was the one in St. George when we had an extra long track.
I think the other might have been the following NPWDRL race.

BTW, I have an identical one (body) with bearings, I built for my son's outlaw race. It cooked everyone.
I also ran it in an NPWDRL unlimited class race. It ran in the very low 2.9's AND was not in last place.