1/24 4wd Porsche 961 project

[viejoronnie]

Not so much a scratchbuild project, but perhaps an adaptation to test.

While I was recuperating from a long hospital stay prior to the holiday season, I wandered over to another forum and spent some time over there discussing various antique slot car hobby/esoterica with Don in France and PDL in Cali.

I posted a topic regarding the use of differentials in slot cars since Tradeship branded bits were sold to scratchbuilders in the '60s; and 1/24 Tamiya Tamtech rc cars were equipped with a gear differentials in the early '90s and Kyosho Mini Z's were equipped with ball differentials more recently, and even some high speed far east mini 4wd cars had them. Of course ball differentials are the norm for competition large scale RC cars.

The general opinion was that differentials in small scale slot cars had little positive effect on performance, compared to cars with a solid axle.

While I am not one to buck my more knowlegable peers, I thought it would be fun to do a little R&D project using a what I had in my parts box: a 1/32 Fujima mini 4wd chassis, and mini 4wd "differential" clutch hubs with silicone slicks.


The chassis shown below will be cut in half and lengthened/reinforced using square brass tube to fit under a Tamiya 1/24 Porsche 961 shell since the hubs and tires are more like 1/24 scale. New longer drive axles will be cut for the appropriate 1/24 track width. The rear to front transfer shaft will be lengthened. A slot guide will be added. A stock Artin 130 or similar motor will replace the high speed dash 130 motor and wired to the guide. Tests will include rear wheel drive only both with and without the clutch hubs with similar size wheels and compound tires; and 4wd both with and without the clutch hubs and similar size wheels and compound tires.

A 5 foot diameter skid pad with borders made from Artin 1/32 track will be used for testing; measuring lap time over multiple laps for all drive configurations.

To Be Continued15487020461462001293276.jpg