Building up a ScaleAuto HSV on an RT4 chassis without a clue

[SlotsNZ]

I ordered a bare chassis and a flexible rear wing for a ScaleAuto Honda HSV-010 model. The NZ distributor had these but no bodies.
Pendle had a white kit body and the lightweight interior and lightweight “glass”, they are somewhere in the sky.
I had already built up a Slot.it Sidewinder pod unit to fit in it …… Oh. The RT4 isn’t compatible with Slot.it pods ….. I have an idea … or NSR … nope …. Oh, nor Sideways. …..
RT4 Pod with spherical bushings [there is also a ball race version] ordered from Hobbies Plus, came overnight Monday …… hmmm no idea how to assemble the large bag of bits supplied. Checked the ScaleAuto site, the CricCrac site (their retail outlet), nothing.
Googled, all I could find was a video in Spanish - I’ve forgotten much of what I learned.
There are six short things called chassis clips shown in the middle here, I gather they are to stiffen the chassis… I’ll get back to those. 

So I did a very basic assembly, adding the yellow soft Ninco springs to the rear mount points, as there were only 3 medium in the packet. 
Stock Slot.it Flat-6 fitted - it comes with the height adapter for these - geared at 13:26. - Slotting Plus 7.5mm pinion and Slot.it GA26 spur. I might pull that back to 13:28 or more later, as the bigger diameter wheels give it a fairly high final drive ratio.

Hmmmmmm The rear mount points are tight on the screw thread, which doesn’t allow for spring action, and is at odds with the video I watched. I don’t want to bore those out before I learn more about setting up these pods.
So I didn’t have very high expectations for the unit at this point, and I haven’t done any fine tuning, but threw it on the track. Surprisingly smooth and quiet. But after some tyre polishing, I got the rolling, unweighted chassis under 5 seconds on my track, which is showing good promise for a mid powered car. 
Work in progress. 
Would be glad to learn about tuning these from others 

[rosco01]

Nice write up, Slotz.

I converted many of my Slot-It GT40's to the full suspension set up.

I took the Alan Manz red/gold stripe car to Stubbo to show him using his track.... he had a stock identical car, that had been tuned.... and sadly, my suspension conversion car (him driving both) couldn't get near his times.... that was the last time I did a suspension conversion.

However, I might make mention here - Stubbo's track is a routed wooden track which has been very well made.... I run on a number of my own Scalextric layouts that vary depending on whim...... and the suspension GT40's return much faster times...

I guess, what I'm saying is that for a routed track - a firm rear with just a little float probably is what I would suggest... but, for a track with uneven or imperfections - suspension models give me the impression they keep track/tyre contact beyond that of models not fitted with it.

frats,

Rosco

[Chrisguyw]

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.

[SlotsNZ]

Thanks Rosco01 and Chris for taking time with your input.

I have myself always thought exactly the same about the advantage of suspensions for bumpy plastic tracks, versus a smooth wood track where there would be little potential for gain with a well set up car.

I have however, been lured into the dark, murky world of springs-‘n-things at this moment, because I have been getting my derrier kicked recently by some dudes at club who have been using them.

Plus, I am curious as to how the RT4 system stacks up against other offerings in our club’s GT3 class, which allows a range of mid power motors and pod setups up to about 13 watts, - we basically designed the class rules so we could opt for ScaleAuto, NSR, Slot.it, Sideways brand cars, without the car needing a pod change, or in most cases, a motor change.
We have a good mix of all the brands running at present, including my original, 7 year old ScaleAuto Mercedes with an earlier R series chassis and Slot.it sidewinder orange-bell setup. 

The body for this chassis is a few days away in a big bird from the UK, then will need assembly, paint and decals. I will experiment a little in the coming weeks, mainly using springs on the side mounts to the pod, and my usual soft washers at the front mount point & two rear points of the main tri-pod of this setup.
I won’t play around with adding weight until I both have the body in hand for with/without running, and feel I have the chassis about as good as I can get it with everything else except COG and balance.

Chris - nice shiny front feet - Superglue or nail varnish? - I assume you re-true after coating. Do you use water ?
I generally glue, true, apply 2 coats of superglue, then re-true while dripping water onto the tyre - I have a Hudy that really only gets used for this - and other brutal tasks 
Again, that hasn’t been done for the chassis above. So far I just threw unglued low profile Slot.it Z0 onto the rims to get it rolling

 

[SlotsNZ]

Turned out that the body was from the 10 year old release, the chassis is new, and now has the grille and the end plates which were originally fitted to the body - moulded into the chassis.

The original release featured some really nice liveries. So look forward to when the new cars actually come out. Weird that they have the new chassis out, before any new liveries. 

The fix ended up being quite simple. I sawed the moulded front grille off the chassis, so that the body sat in place fine. I trimmed 2mm off the sides of the rear underbody plate which is now a part of the chassis, to ensure clearance from the bottom side edges of the body, and now have good float all round. Decals done Wednesday, clear coat yesterday, and ready to race.
Sadly, one front headlight glass was missing from the packet &@#)$# and dash, darn 

It is silky smooth and easy to drive, and is pushing out 5.0 - 5.1 lap times on my track. That’s as fast as any GT3 I have set up

[Kevan]

What tyres are on the back of that, they look pretty good and what did you treat them with?

[SlotsNZ]

Hi Kevan - they are Slot.it 1172 N22 (that’s the 11x20 size) - I have quite a lot of packs remaining)

Once trued, I hold a cloth or soft foam pad against the outside edges while still on the tyre lathe, with say WD40, CRC226, turps or NSR tyre oil on it, (any will do the job), to ensure a consistent round chamfer, then toss the car on a rolling road with a foam pad that has the tyre oil on it - say 3 volts for at least an hour - also helps to bed in the brushes to the comm.

At the end I give it a rev up on a skid pad with soft pad and tyre oil, just to ensure a nice polished surface 

[Kevan]

I've not tried those and they're not available at Pendle anyway.

Your track looks like it's coated with something as it's so shiny, what did you use?  We painted one of our Rally tracks with polyurethane which left a shiny grippy surface.

[SlotsNZ]

The Slot.it N series are deleted. If you go through page one of ChrisGuyW’s recent “GT3 Racer” thread, there is some discussion on the deleted tyre ranges from Slot.it, NSR and Sideways.
There was definitely a connection between the three. Let’s call it “a raw material deficiency” 

Yes, my track is coated with a clear urethane for wooden floors, over a water based/acrylic grey.

Grippy for soft rubber smooth tyres compared to a textured surface or plastic, but we since have discovered over the years that a high gloss spirit based paint can achieve even higher grip. 

[SlotsNZ]

The ScaleAuto Honda had its first run in anger last night.

I was pipped for fastest lap on 2 of the 3 lanes by the track owner - but it was close, and I was driving well within limits - I think I only had one de-slot in the 7 1/2 minutes on track. So by running a safe 31 laps on each lane, it came out on top

Very happy with the result with their new RT4 chassis. 

[trophy]

And that was it's first run, wait till you get it tuned, well done Mark