Question for all the F1 slot racers

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OneHotDog	Question for all the F1 slot racers	Lead	[-]
Posts: 49 (07/01/09 12:55 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None What do you think of the Scalextric Monaco Twin Pack? My son (who is 4) loves what he calls "blade cars". Now if I buy this, he knows not to break slot cars (he's already been through that phase). But I would like to know if you F1 guys think Scalextric's F1 models are accurate and reliable (I don't wanna have to fix these cars. They seem fragile. Especially the front)? I've have never owned an F1 slot car since I'm a 60's GT kinda guy. Thanks for your input. 1hd
Da Vols		#1	[-]
Posts: 5325 (07/01/09 01:49 PM) HRW Moderator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	They seem fragile. Yes, they are up front...but then so are all the makes of F1 or open wheel cars. Da Vols - Bruce & Harriet & Kali
ra7c7er.sippl		#2	[-]
Posts: 48 (07/01/09 07:55 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I have yet to see a F1 car run for any length of time without breaking off the nose doesn't matter if it is driven by a 4 year old or a 40 year old one front end hit and your breaking something. http://scaleracing.blogspot.com/
RichD		#3	[-]
Posts: 1732 (07/02/09 05:27 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The trick is to remove the magnet and lower the voltage. We raced the IRL cars every week for several years without anything getting broken.
OneHotDog		#4	[-]
Posts: 50 (07/02/09 09:58 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	RichD wrote: The trick is to remove the magnet and lower the voltage. We raced the IRL cars every week for several years without anything getting broken. Rich, what voltage do you race at?
ra7c7er.sippl		#5	[-]
Posts: 54 (07/02/09 10:49 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Not everyone has the ability or want to remove the magnet and lower the voltage. No offense RichD but why is that everyone's answer all the time. Some cars have a pop off front clip. http://scaleracing.blogspot.com/
Robert Livingston		#6	[-]
Posts: 918 (07/02/09 11:08 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	ra7c7er wrote: Not everyone has the ability or want to remove the magnet and lower the voltage. No offense RichD but why is that everyone's answer all the time. Some cars have a pop off front clip. Lots of wood track racers use 10 volts (no mag), opposed to the 13-16 volts you get out of wall warts. The racing is more fun, and wheelspin and crash damage is reduced. You find that you can equal the lap times you made on the higher voltage (no mag). The cars look more realistic on lower voltage, less like insects zipping by. You do have to buy an adjustable voltage supply, or at least have the ability to solder a string of diodes together. Often times, the adjustable voltage supply, being a higher quality item, gives the added benefit of eliminating the voltage surge you see when one car goes off throigh driver error, and the other car is knocked off by a rise in voltage. If you are racing with magnets, the cars will self destruct, in time, as the crashes occur at higher speeds. You pays your money and you takes your choice. As for the pop-off clip, I ran a Scalex Renault for a while, and the wing broke off the nose, but the clip never detached itself in a crash. Not sure what purpose it was supposed to serve. I re-mounted the nose wing with a screw up through the bottom. Last Edited By: Robert Livingston 07/02/09 11:10 AM. Edited 1 times.
Da Vols		#7	[-]
Posts: 5329 (07/02/09 11:57 AM) HRW Moderator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Regardless of running with or without magnets and at whatever voltage, open-wheel cars have fragile front ends (Cartrix GP's excepted)...be it the body parts and/or the front axle assembly...and are more susceptible to damage than full body cars. Yes, running without the magnet and at a lower voltage reduces the risk of damage, but the risk still exists nevertheless. Da Vols - Bruce & Harriet & Kali
Chaparral 2D		#8	[-]
Posts: 1240 (07/11/09 10:41 PM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I have yet to seriously damage an SCX F1 car, then again, I'm usually running them at a low mag-downforce track. Until recently, they were using the lower rev motors and have a wider track, which is out of scale, but makes them a lot more forgiving. Personally, with a young person, they really need to be running a closed-wheel car. Dad knew what he was doing when I was your son's age and had me running sports cars. As for the lower the voltage-- the cars become more controllable for many people, and without the magnets, it's a different set of skills and demands. It also causes far, far less damage to cars. Limiting downforce can also result in less damage to a mag car as well. I don't think we had any serious damage to any IHSR GT-class mag car this season beyond some wheels coming off at speed. and a couple of wings popping off. I think one of our competitors just ran without his rear wing after awhile. (Care to guess what manufacturer has the wheels that like to shed?) You want to run a lot of volts and heavy magnets, be my guest. I was around enough of those individuals and had enough cars destroyed by idiots where I don't do it anymore, and won't in the future. P
Johnnyfly41	controlling, a four year old that is....	#9	[-]
Posts: 92 (07/12/09 06:12 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	My racing buddy is now 5, we began racing when he was three. We now race on our routed wood track. It's great to get your little buddies hooked on cars and racing. As such, they love the cars as much as we do and if he likes a certain car, he is going to want to race it. Hard to tell them no without discouraging their participation. So, if his little guy loves that F1 car, it's going to get driven. Truth is, my little guy drives fantastically, I probably do more damage to our cars than he does. During any given race session, he will usually try out about 10 different cars and have a dozen questions about each one he gets out. But, he is playing with dad, and I love that. Probably lucky for me, neither one of us are into open wheel cars. Sounds like you are a real F1 pit crew member now, and team owner who has to write the checks..... John Pretzel City Speedway www.pretzelcityspeedway.com
steelbrian		#10	[-]
Posts: 623 (07/12/09 08:06 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	O.k. one more option, with my three year old I just double stacked the magnet, and I have a variable power supply, so I have double the down force and I lower the voltage to the point where I can hold the trigger down at all points of the track without flying off, then I hand him the trigger and watch him go, and he still can go fast enough to see him smile! Now that does mean more money out but less destruction on the cars and as they get older and better skilled you change the cars and the voltage as I did with my older son. Last Edited By: steelbrian 07/12/09 08:08 AM. Edited 1 times.
waaytoomuchintothis		#11	[-]
Posts: 2290 (07/12/09 08:38 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I've had Carrera, Scalextric, SCX, and a couple of others (some big names, some not), in F-1. Of them all, the "others" are the most fragile. Stick with the big 3, and the toughest of all are the Scaley A-1 Gran Prix cars (the ones in world nations' colors), they are nearly indestructible compared to any others. Of the strictly F-1 cars, in terms of fragility, the Scaley is toughest and has the best snapoff system for the nose, and the SCX is very close second. The mention above is the first time I ever heard of a failure. Carrera looks more fragile but is surprisingly tough, in that most of the parts flex like crazy. I have no use for magnets, so they are gone as soon as the car is unwrapped. I always run F-1's at 9-10 volts, not only for control but also for realism. Its not something that I would quibble about for say, a scale 300mph, but a scale 600-900mph is just silly. Besides, my old eyes can't keep up with the car at that speed. My youngest and I are very much into F-1, for example, today's 3pm Eastern broadcast of the German Gran Prix from Nurburg. Straight from the box, at 12 volts, we didn't like them and all were going to get rid of them, but HRW folks advised 9v and a weight in place of the magnet. We have been getting them ever since, and we have a ball. There ain't no learnin' in the second kick of a mule...
ra7c7er.sippl		#12	[-]
Posts: 69 (07/12/09 09:01 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Robert Livingston wrote: ra7c7er wrote: Not everyone has the ability or want to remove the magnet and lower the voltage. No offense RichD but why is that everyone's answer all the time. Some cars have a pop off front clip. Lots of wood track racers use 10 volts (no mag), opposed to the 13-16 volts you get out of wall warts. The racing is more fun, and wheelspin and crash damage is reduced. You find that you can equal the lap times you made on the higher voltage (no mag). The cars look more realistic on lower voltage, less like insects zipping by. You do have to buy an adjustable voltage supply, or at least have the ability to solder a string of diodes together. Often times, the adjustable voltage supply, being a higher quality item, gives the added benefit of eliminating the voltage surge you see when one car goes off throigh driver error, and the other car is knocked off by a rise in voltage. If you are racing with magnets, the cars will self destruct, in time, as the crashes occur at higher speeds. You pays your money and you takes your choice. As for the pop-off clip, I ran a Scalex Renault for a while, and the wing broke off the nose, but the clip never detached itself in a crash. Not sure what purpose it was supposed to serve. I re-mounted the nose wing with a screw up through the bottom. I race no mag on wood track along with stock magnet on my home track. I know the difference. My home track doesn't surge because I bought a second wal wart and most home racers do. Saved me 100s over buying a power supply and wiring the track and needing new controllers. All I was trying to say in my post was that not every slot car racer is a wood track guy most of these guys run the cars OOTB in there spare rooms. And every time someone puts up a post like this someone has to say run no mag lower the voltage and build a wood track. For most of us thats not realistic nor helpful. http://scaleracing.blogspot.com/
ElSecundo		#13	[-]
Posts: 8090 (07/12/09 09:05 AM) Home Racing Guru! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Very true, Rob -- of all the open-wheel cars, the Scalextric A1GP cars are the toughest. If modern F1 is what you're looking for, the toughest F1 cars are the Carrera F1 cars. The newest Carrera F1 cars are also pretty quick, and can be a lot of fun to drive. Most importantly, they are actually designed so that the front is easy to fix after a crash. The Scalextric cars tend to break the front wing in a way that they can't easily be repaired. One of our guys has replaced the nose of his Scalextric Ferrari F1 car 10 times for a cost of 50 dollars. The Carrera cars are much tougher, and built in such a way that the worst thing that can happen is that the front wing twists off its mount, separating the entire wing from the nose (instead of shattering the wing). It is very easily repaired with a dab of ShoeGoo, and costs nothing to fix. Last week I helped my friend stay put. It's a lot easier than helping someone move. I just went over to his house and made sure that he did not start to load sh** into a truck. Mitch Hedberg
razersedge		#14	[-]
Posts: 152 (07/13/09 11:31 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	If your using the Scaley F1 cars, try sanding the ridge on all 3 sides where the nose attaches to the rest of the body. They're usually snapped on pretty tight which causes the damage during a crash. Just a little sanding here goes a long way toward replacement costs. Don't sand too much, or the nose will come off while it's running around the track. Measure twice, cut once works really well in this area. You can run pretty hard, mag or no mag and when there's a crash, the nose just falls off without being TORN off. Just my .02 cents worth. "In the end, there can be only one" ~ The Highlander

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Question for all the F1 slot racers

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