Chrisguyw

Hello Mark,.....If you are looking to add some stiffness to the rear uprights of any plastic chassis (sidewinder/anglewinder), and can't find a Sloting plus tube,.....you can always fabricate a piano wire brace and use some rubberized CA to hold it in place,.......done this many many times !! Cheers Chris Walker This one has the bushing flanges on the outside of the uprights, but, you could certainly mount these inboard I am sure you already know this, but, always temporarily install your motor before aligning/gluing bushings and or braces.

Hello Mark, I have not (yet) built an axle tube, in the fashion you describe ,..........it would certainly involve using some sort of jig to align the tube and both bushings while soldering,......and to be honest, I have not yet found a situation where this "extra narrowness" would be required. Cheers Chris Walker

You mean like this...?? I always remove the "fingers" from both Slot-it and Scalauto pods and glue single flanged oilites in place,...this is done primarily to remove the self aligning (and therefore self "un aligning") of the bushings. and to remove the tiny bit of movement between the plastic bushing cup and the bushing itself. As a by product, this generally saves a tiny bit of room width wise, and if I need more placing the flanges inboard ias seen below. Try to always use a spacer(s) between any rotating and non rotating surface eg. spur gears/axle uprights,.....this will reduce both friction and wear. Here is a standard Slot-it pod with the "fingers" cut off and single flanged oilites installed. And the same on a Scaleauto pod........ Cheers Chris Walker

The rear axle tube is nothing special,........a single piece of brass tubing with single flanged oilites soldered in. Tubing that holds the rear bushings (and prevents independent flexing ) first showed up among the California pros in the late 60's, and has been used since. The Sloting Plus tube borrows that idea, and while they were originally created to remedy "Ninco hop", they are a godsend on any plastic chassis that will accept them

Strombecker Chaparral 2D build/rebuild... Today, 09:03 AM Growing up. I never really bothered with the cars from Strombecker, as there were plenty more cars that performed much better,....however they did produce some very nice bodies, ones that with a bit of work could be made to look very nice indeed. Over the last few years, I have built several that have turned out very nicely, and their Chaparral 2D is the one I am tackling next. Out of the box, it sits much too high, and the stamped aluminum/plastic chassis leaves a lot to be desired,.....coupled with the fact that mine is red, which is just not the appealing to me in any way. Here is the starting point,....nice shape, but, still a ton to be improved upon..........too high, inaccurate wheelbase, poor shut lines etc. etc., not to mention the chassis I will be building the version that ran at the 1966 Nurburgring, as this one ran with "painted" headlight covers,.....and I am not attempting to cut out the existing headlight covers, and make some clear ones, so the attached pic. is the one I am doing. I have built the chassis,...a single rail (.047 wire) chassis, that will offer good torsional flex, and should make the little car handle quite well. It will be powered by a 20K "050" motor in a sidewinder configuration, and this required some very tight packaging. Not much yet done on the body,...it has been stripped, sanded/filled/primed, shut lines cleaned up. and a few of the vents cut open. I will post updates as progress continues. Cheers Chris Walker

Which lotus 19 bodyshell do you have ?????,...........this is an old Strombecker, with some body modifications, built to resemble Moss's 19 that he drove in the Players 200 at Mosport in 1961. The chassis was also built to represent what was running around the club slot tracks in the early 60s' Cheers Chris Walker My attempt................

The (regular) Classic "ASP" was powered by an FT16D, the "Competition ASP" was powered by a 26D......obviously different motor brackets, and a few other minor differences. cheers Chris Walker

Hello Keith, While the foam inserts will certainly help (more so on wood tracks), truing all 4 tyres will improve things much more, especially the tyres from NSR, as they are notoriously far from round. (Foam inserts should be glued to the wheels with a soft flexible glue (Lepages 100), and then trued/dia. reduced so that when the tyres are mounted, there is no "crowning" or "cupping" of the tyre,.......this will reduce the amount of tyre to be removed in the truing process. As an aside,....On tracks with large(r) radius corners, the Formula 22 cars do OK, but on typical plastic/home wood club tracks (with tighter radius turns) the longer guide lead of the F22 cars (vs. the NSR 86/89) is a disadvantage. Most of the quicker folks running the NSR cars (both F22 and 86/89) have had more success using only the single front and 2 rear pod mounting lugs. Cheers Chris Walker

Hi Matt, You really need to toss those wheels ,...they ruin what is otherwise a very pretty car,. I do appreciate the "keeping them original" thing, but, the Atlas cars came with very nice looking wheels with very nice inserts. .......any 5/40 wheels from Monogram, Atlas, Revell will work, and Colin at RSSlotracing has some Brabham inserts that will fit nicely. Cheers Chris Walker

This is one of two that have been built for an Aussie customer. They will both be raced in his local area clubs' and have been built to their class specs. Cheers Chris Walker A fantasy livery, with decals from the parts box, and a Lexan interior. His local rules limit the motor to 25K, rubber tires (Slot-it G25's used, on air wheels with foam inserts), Koford axles, independent front wheels, geared 12 x 35, and silicone washers between the pod /chassis and between the body/chassis. Finished it weighs 82gms.

I/we have trued well over 100 pr. at the shop with no issues,.....good grip on Policar (for which they were created) and also on wood,........ your mileage may vary, and clearly does I very recently sent a few pr of glued/trued/treated G25's on air wheels with foam, to an Aussie racer (will get the mane of his club), who races on wood, and, he reported back that the tires were very good,....he won and set a track record with them. Cheers Chris Walker

Hi Mark, (et al) Have you tried the Slot-it G25's ???,..........we have been using them as a "spec" tire for a year now with good results, both on our large Policar track, and on many of our local wood tracks, ..they seem to perform somewhere between the original NSR super and ultras, with better wear characteristics. They certainly work best on "air" hubs with foam inserts installed, trued up and treated.,...and come in 2 sizes (so far),...19.5 x 10, and, 20.0 x 11/3,............my best results have been with the 19.5 x 10. Cheers Chris Walker

Mark, next time you make/install a chassis brace, consider (strongly) using piano wire instead of brass,...........brass has virtually no memory, and poor flex characteristics, so , it does tend to bend and stay bent....not good. The wire has very good memory/flex, and really replaced brass for use in chassis rails in the late 60's..for both performance and durability reasons. The correct torsional flex(and chassis do need to flex this way) in any chassis improves both its bite/grip, and its transitional response cheers Chris Walker

Hello Keith,........I am happy to let you know, and the simple answer is that "THEY ARE TREATED"...........but treated in accordance with the rules, ( I know that makes little sense, but, most play silly bugger with the interpretation of "treating", and rather than argue,................ The rules indicate that one should not "oil soak" their tyres, (or use any other potions/lotions) as a tire prep, but, it is apparent that using lighter fluid on the tires during the truing process (to "cool"?? the tires) is perfectly fine. ???? While lighter fluid is petroleum based (and is inherently oil), and therefore should not be permitted for use on the tires, it is used by many/most,........and does make a significant difference,...........so,.........when in Rome !!. My tires get there shine from a few applications of lighter fluid (with a Q tip while running on the Hudy) during and just post truing. Cheers Chris Walker PS. unless you are using Titanium axles from Koford (very expensive),.........a good quality drill blank, is a far (far) better choice than the titanium? stuff from the well known plastic car manufacturers.

Hi Mark,.....if running on plastic track (irregular surface with lots of bumps/yumps, and less grip than wood) the suspension kits have generally proved to be beneficial, however, on wood tracks, you will be hard pressed to find any of the quicker cars utilizing a spring suspension. You may want to try using some of the MRSlotcar red silicone washers both below and above the pod lugs (sandwich the pod lugs). This provides dampening for the pod, but at a stiffer level than with springs,..and the higher grip on wood tracks does favour a stiffer torsional flex,.....still enough torsional flex to allow the tyres to load progressively, but stiff enough to eliminate the "Chatter" that is often found with a "spring" suspension. Cheers Chris Walker This is obviously a different chassis/pod, but, I have used the silicone washers both above and below the pod lugs,......you may need to slightly trim the bottom of the pod lugs to achieve the original ride pod ride height when the washers are installed,......for what it is worth, this car won a recent major proxy event, held on a variety of wood tracks.