Slot.it McLaren M8D

[HomeRacingWorld]

No sor. The motor mount is formed for the endbell for starters and also no room to try and route the wires.

[Nor Cal Mike]

Finally got around to my McLaren today. I reported earlier that the front axle was bound up coming out of the box. I found that the bushing was misaligned. No problem I thought. There are set screws to screw in a little more to stop the movement.......... right? After there is an allen wrench included to do it with. So I stick the wrench down into the holes and............... Nuthin'? They must be in the package with the wrench and the wing. I check. Nuthin! What's up with that? They wouldn't purposefully sell a car without all the parts would they?

On the bright side, I put her on the track and she's a nice runner on my wood track. I added a spacer in the back to help the motor clearance issue. I added a little bit of lead between the front of the pod and the axle because she has a penchant for coming out of the slot in an area on my track with humps.

[Florida_Slotter]

Yeah baby! Something about the sound of an unmuffled 7 liter V-8 that gets the heart to beating just a bit faster!

When you have a group - more than one - running around a track like Watkins Glen - the sound is much more sweet to the ears of a gearhead than a philoharmonic concert does for the classic music afficiando.

[SuperSlab]

I got mine earlier in the week and finished preparing it for tomorrow evening's races:

1. Put on some soft NSR braid: I do not like the springy stuff Slot.it uses.
2. Put in setscrews and properly set up the front axle
3. Put on some 15" x 11mm SCC insert wheels and some F1-size urethanes, glued and trued. Well, actually more than trued: ground them down to the appropriate diameter.... truly!
4. Because of a lack of .... make that "a total absence of"... clearance, glued a spacer on the body post at the rear.
5. Trimmed the chassis to prevent binding when loosening the body for float.
6. Loosened the pod a touch.
7. Items 5 & 6 promptly absorbed the clearance obtained by item 4. In looking at it I decided against adding more space on the body post as the amount of space available for the rocking of the chassis would again have resulted in the tyres rubbing. So instead I resolved the problem by gluing small pieces of neoprene on the tabs/stops on the body that the chassis rests against. This pushed the chassis down just far enough to restore the space the pod play had taken up and prevented the rocking chassis and moving pod causing the tyres to rub.
8. Adjusted all the clearances to my liking and lubricated where appropriate.

I am really looking forward to running it tomorrow night. I am anticipating this to be a very, very quick car. How quick? Well, I will go out on a limb and estimate what lap time it will turn!

* Best lap time of all my cars at present: 7.24 seconds (Black Arrow Aston).
* Best Slot.it lap time: 7.339 seconds (modified GT40: NSR 22k Shark motor, NSR Supergrips)
* Best stock Slot.it lap time: 7.509 seconds (Chaparral 2E)

McLaren estimated lap time: 7.45 seconds!

I will report back on Saturday morning!

[SuperSlab]

...but no cigar!

Best time last night was.... 7.480 seconds. This is quite close and not a bad estimate I suppose (well, within 0.4% is not all bad) but begs the question: why slower than I thought? Couple of things:

* Straight line performance is great: fantastic acceleration, excellent top end. I find quite a bit of variability in Slot.it Orange endbell motors: I got a good one.
* The car is what could best be described as "twitchy" in corners. Yes, the lap time is pretty darn quick (within the top 11% of my cars for which I have recorded times) but it is not that easy to drive. Because of the squirrely handling and good straight line performance it is a bit of a "point and squirt" car.

In considering why the nervousness in corners I think it comes down to two things: even with a few grams of lead in it, it is still very light (69.2g) and secondly the normal behaviour of what is still a shortish car.

The shortness I can do nothing about. The weight I can.

Because I have found my Chaparral so smooth and easy to drive after some recent tweaks I just did a weight comparison: the Chappy comes in at 74.6g. Ergo: the next steps would be to judiciously add a few more grams of weight to see what that does.

Interestingly enough, the Chappy's wheelbase is a few millimeters longer but the guide lead (which from its behaviour I thought was a big part of the McLaren's problem) is very nearly the same.

Interesting times: maybe a 7.3 second lap is not impossible with this one!

[ElSecundo]

SS, what happens if you shift the weight rearward a bit (if that's even possible)?

[SuperSlab]

[ElSecundo]

[Florida_Slotter]

HRW Harry,

I would like to second your comment about the Slot.It McLaren for SCOTY.

My reasoning is simple; it is going to have a lot of impact on Can-Am style racing. The "White Kit" provides some additional bit that will permit all sorts of private or fantasy liveries.

Hey, here's something I did. I did a search on "McLaren M8". Lots of varieties. I'm sure with basic modeling skills, one could come up with viable versions of the M8, M8A, M8B, M8C, M8D, M8E & M8F. Got lots of ideas.

Knowing how you also like Proxy Events, perhaps we can hold an online "Rattlecan Proxy". You build your favorite version of the Slot.It "White Kit" and send in a set of TBD photos.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Good to have you chiming in Marty.

That is an idea to certainly think about.

I just might grab one and try my hand.

[Florida_Slotter]

I have heard rumors that some modler by the name of Bob has already gotten a headstart.

Lots of choices.

[JML]

Another wheel & tire option is to use CBDesigns insert wheels, 15x8 in the front (with the OEM tires) and 15x10 in the rear. They're hubless. The 15x10 is as wide as you can go, with .05" tiny plastic or brass spacers on the outside of the spherical bushings. The widest tire I could fit was the SuperTire 1403RC or RY (the 12xx series hits the fender). The 1403 series looks great from the outside, but is a bit short on the inside.

I also used no.10 black nylon washers behind the inserts. I trimmed the tube behind the insert to adjust the depth, but the washer keeps the insert straight. Secured them with some cyanoacrylate on the hub.