by DManley » Tue Mar 15, 2016 11:11 am
Thanks for the advice. My Patriotic Mustang and Vette might be a bit different because they have the rear magnets removed. (Back in the day, we ran a class for the old Carrera vintage NASCAR models with the rear magnets removed. It made for some really intense driving and close racing. We also ran the american muscle cars with the rear bar magnet removed for one season.) The funny thing is my Mustang must be a ringer and/or my Corvette must be a dud, because I just dug out a printout from my old layout and saw this. Fastest lap, Yellow Lane Mustang; 6.07 Corvette 6.06 White lane... Mustang; 5.91 Corvette 5.88 Blue lane Mustang 5.97 Corvette 5.99 Red Lane Mustang 6.13 Corvette 6.18. The cars were run for three or five minute segments in each lane and six sessions were run, so each car had 24 minutes per lane to tally up fast laps. I remember the 'Vette really didn't like going through the second hairpin in the red lane. The Mustang just flicked out its tail and shot off in the other direction, where the 'Vette wanted to rock and deslot a bit. I sure wish I could drive that consistently now! Both cars were box stock with stock motors and gears. Wheels were sanded, trued and aligned on the axle. Axles were straight, bushings were aligned and polished. Gears were broken in (Especially by the final segments! Tires were glued and trued on the axle, and the fronts were also coated with nail polish. Axles were installed with shims and the guides were adjusted with shims. It looks like I had to sand the guide post on both cars just a very little bit. (Flash?) The Mustang does have the tires sanded down a bit more than the Corvette, which may explain why their times were closer.
I am about to pull the trigger on a pair of Cobras, and a pair of Cheetahs, so I might grab the black Corvette to go with the Cobras. I see there is another Mustang available, so if I do Mustangs, I will get a pair of new ones. If I buy two of the black Corvettes, can I swap the body on one of them with my Patriotic version, or did they make changes to the mounts? This way, I could keep my old one running, but have two matched new ones with different colors. (Nothing worse than trying to race two identically painted cars against each other!)
Thanks again for your input on these cars. I am glad to see the Corvettes and Cobras are a nice out of the box match for each other.