Racing by yourself

[dreinecke]

Andre, While I like the idea of full digital, I've not been sold. I'm happy with my AC, just need to make it a little better for solo racing.

[bkrownd]

People would probably call my layout "rally". I just run it "against the clock". However, although it's fun to get a better time, what I'm really trying to achieve is the most "graceful" possible lap. (not always the same thing)

Nice trick you did, masking off sections of the power to prevent the cars getting too wild in spots.

[pgtr]

[pgtr]

[Modlerbob]

When I am at my track alone, which is most of the time, I spend a lot of time tuning on cars that for one reason or another aren't living up to potential or expectations. I have a record of every car I own on a computer spread sheet that came with the Lap Counter 2000 hardware. It is the only part of the package I am now using. The file for each car allows you to save all of the critical data about the car and an image of the car. One piece of data I have saved for each car is it's fastest lap, the date, the lane, and the track voltage that was set at the time. So after tuning on a car and/or changing a motor or a gear ratio or some other component I'll put the car on the track and at least try to match it's recorded fast lap. If I best the old record I enter the new data. This makes driving my slowest SCX GT car almost as interesting as driving my fastest slot.It group C or modern Lemans car. Some of the records were set over a year ago but many get updated on a monthly basis. This keeps my interest up during the time when I am alone with my cars and also helps me select which ones to race on race night when my friends show up to race.

[Fred Fries]

[sledge57]

[dreinecke]

Bob - I like how you do that!

I've been slowly improving in my driving, all the while improving my times on my track. With the vintage GP cars, I began with clean lap times in the 13.6 second range. A week later I have it down to 12.2.

More importantly, I'm having fun! Last night I set it up to run mu U2 cars - I used one of my Escorts and R/M Cortinas and ran my BMW and 510 against them. Had a blast!

[DAVE]

I guess I am not familiar enough with digital racing. Does the digital know when it can safely
pass another car? Can it outbrake another car into a corner? How does the digital system know
where the cars are on the track, other than by time/

[b.yingling]

[LAMing]

Yup, a ghost car can add a lot of fun. AND... if you add a second ghost car... now there's a possibility of a wreck happening in front of you that you will need to attempt to avoid! (With Carrera, a ghost car will randomly select lane changing. So, if one or both happen to change lanes at a crossover at the precise moment they are both there: Bam!)

Andre

[dreinecke]

I had an epiphany the other night and it didn't even hurt! This has been done before ...way before. Aurora has speed controllers for their early Vibe systems that were AC powered. Duh!

I picked 2 mint ones up off eBay and it works perfectly. I even stole their rear pin idea, and the ghost cars haul the mail now!

Ive got some things to do, some cleaning to do, and then I'll post a few pictures and explanation.

[Classiccar]

Hello David!

Good idea, I never thinking about but this is very good for me, specially because here in my country the slot car racing is in the very begining and some times is hard to bring people to my track for racing.

Have a good day!

Ernesto.

[dreinecke]

Ernesto - Welcome to HRW! Where are you located?

Racing by oneself can be fun as I've discovered.

As for the video, we'll see if I can do something soon.

[dreinecke]

I spent a few hours this morning running against my ghost cars. The open-wheel GP cars are really the most challenging since you can't bump them without risking deslotting yourself. Really enjoying this new challenge.