New user looking for no-mag car recommendation

[Wobble]

JeremyC, the Scaleauto Homeseries Viper might be worth a look and falls into most aspects you've listed and would look the part taking out a Ford GT and C7R.

[Slotspeed]

Some interesting points of view in this thread.

Out of the box, my wife's Sideways Hurracan (no magnet from factory) just went quick out of the box and handled perfectly and predictably. All I needed was to true the tyres. But that does not help you since you are wanting to spend only $50. It also does have a little bit of magnetic downforce due to the magnets in the motor but not much actually.

I have set up Carrera cars for running without magnet, one was a breeze, but one in particular took a bit of work getting the centre of gravity right. All cars are going to be different and have their own quirks so unless you get lucky, you may have to read a decent tutorial or watch a few videos on non magnet car set up. There are a few short guides out there.

I have only just bought my first slot.it car, having read mostly good things about them, there are some good value for money models, and a lot of people have reported good results after removing the magnet and adding a little weight. Expect to have to try different amounts of weight and trying it in different parts of the chassis in order to get the handling just right.

Few things that I have found that come to mind:

Weight in the right place
true wheels if plastic
Definately true the tyres
I love NSR super grips and ultra grips, less noise on the Carrera track than Urethanes but great grip and similar lap times to Urethanes, runs slightly smoother on the surface. But Urethanes are also good, just not my preference.
lubrication of rotating bushes with appropriate oil, suitable grease on gears (slot.it grease is what I use)
"no grip" treatment to front tyres can alleviate a lot of other problems and prevent deslotting and handling issues though not always necessary
Careful experimentation with brushes as this can affect front end handling but you also want good conductivity
Careful filing and some minor cutting of chassis and/or body to give some body float can help with handling.
Sometimes you need to glue the motor in place, nothing too crazy as you may need to remove it again one day.

Hope thats not too much information.

Cheers.

[lancelotalove]

Not sure what ""silvercan" box-stock type racing" is. Alot of the fun of racing is to have equal cars.
The Carrera DTM cars are pretty close to being even between Audi, Mercedes, and BMW. the cars are tough, durable and low cost, so you can get more cars for the $. They can be upgraded with better motors and some better wheels/tires.

Scalextric are good cars, can be made to run with other stock type cars, most easily upgradeable.
Slot it cars are great. run great out of the box, easily upgradeable, parts usually in slot car hobby shops.

the phrase "competitive chassis/body for "silvercan" box-stock type racing" sounds like a club or commercial raceway term and you would have to see what other rules there are. Many clubs have several different classes of cars going on at the same time to keep it intresting.

A popular class, Clubs sometimes have a "slot It Group C" race, where everyone has a slot it group C car and can use that car/chassis and make some changes like tires, motor, gearing. like i said before on slot it, easily upgradeable, many parts, many tuning possibilities.
Nascar maybe a class also, popular in the east USA.

As for looking right running with a C7R, I have seen GT races that have Lambo Huricans, Audi R8, Bently, Ferraris.

[JeremyC]

Wow - thanks for all the feedback! Its fun to find people so interested in this hobby!

My plan is to keep the two Carrera cars configured identically so that we can have fair racing with those two cars. And the 3rd car for my solo hot-lapping I'm going to get one of the less expensive slot.it cars. After hearing from everyone it just seems in-line with where my interests are.

I don't know which model yet, but an LMP might fit right in with the GT cars I have.

But before I can submit the order; what kind of weight should I buy? Any recommended tires for Carrera Evolution track?

[scatman]

Just go to a plumbing store and buy some lead flashing. Bought some 10 years ago, and still have plenty left. Also, wash your hands after use.

LMP/GT; I run LMP with LMP. Because of the low center of gravity, I find it hard to find a GT car that can keep up without some serious modification. Plus, I like to run cars from the same class.

[BRS Hobbies]

[bobbyraz49]

Our slot car club in Buffalo runs 3 different series of slot.it cars... LMP/C-class/Can-Am. They are some of the smoothest cars I have ever owned. We race on 2 different MDF routed tracks in Buffalo and we have a blast with these cars.

[lancelotalove]

There might be some one near you or others with same intrest to run with.
Where do you live? you dont need exact address. something line Denver Colorado, or central Texas.
There might be a club near you.

[slothead]

Now that you've heard all sorts of feedback from folks at HRW, and settled on a Slot.It car, it looks like you're all set. As noted previously, LEB Hobbies has 30% off some Slot.It cars bringing their price down to about $40.

I have a few Slot.It cars for racing on my wood road course (non-magnetic) and the only upgrade needed was tires. I use Paul Gage tires on all my road course cars, but maybe silicone tires would be better for plastic track. At the sale price you could get a pair of each from LEB and find out for yourself.

Happy racing!

[Slotspeed]

Hi Jeremy,

you asked about tyres so here is my opinion.

Paul Gage tyres (yes, his Urethanes are great on Carrera track) have a reference available of recommended tyres for various car models, if you can find your car make and model then it makes tyre choice easy. For most other makes of tyre you will most often have to measure your wheels and original tyre dimensions to select something suitable. This is a bit of an art due to dimensioning convensions but can be done with a little patience. As mentioned earlier, my own preference for Carrera plastic with no mag is for NSR Supergrips or Ultragrips. The supergrips go a little longer before you need to clean them as they are less sticky and so attract less dust and marbles from the track. But obviously they have slightly less grip. I tried a couple of slot.it compounds but went back to the NSR. The big disadvantage of NSR rubber was that it didn't suit the stock wheels on my cars. So either replacing the stock wheels and axle (starting to get expensive now) or machining down the original wheels was required. Maybe just try whatever will fit on your stock rims first.

As for weight, the Carrera cars that I have tuned went best with about 2grams (0.07 ounce). The small amount of weight helped with grip and lap times, and in the right place helped with handling and car balance, but of course its going to vary for different cars and tracks and track surfaces. And of course sometimes you may not need it at all as others have mentioned.

Steve.

This post was edited because of a typo.