by BARC 1 » Sat Nov 04, 2017 3:43 pm
I would like to thank you guys for taking the time to send in cars for me to race. I believe the cars entered are really showcasing what some of us are up to in 1/43 scale.
I have some notes in front of me and I will try to give some feedback on the cars
First off Cars 1 through 5 all drove extremely well.
1.Rolands DTM was smooth and quick. It ran the course at the lowest voltage setting of the group. Well balanced it was comfortable to drive fast.
2.The BARC Lexus was at the opposite end of the voltage setting and had one of the highest settings. It needed all the voltage to get the Minebeas S can running fast enough to challenge the chassis. This car is smooth and easy to drive as well. I will ship this to Peter for his Proxy. However if it can't see 13+ volts it will be rather easy to drive.
3.Randy's 962 was smooth and fast. The top 3 had less then a second between them after 50 laps. That tells you that the order between them could easily be shuffled.
4&5 Rolands's Camaro and Peters Cuda were solid and handled the track well. In hindsight perhaps they could have been run at more then 12 volts as they never presented any problems on the track,but over 50 laps were just slower then the cars ahead of them. An extra volt might have put them under the same blanket as the top 3. However a deslot pretty much ends your chances
6 The Barc Cayman was smooth and seemed to be on its edge, it just wasn't fast enough.
7 Aki's Ferrari surprised me. I did not think it would finish ahead of his Porsche, but it did. Fast car that feels a little "heavy" when driving it Had one deslot with a front end push where it just hopped out of the slot
8. Randy's Lancia was not as smooth and it seemed to bind or lose some electrical conductivity at places on the track. It did this throughout testing, and I could not put my finger on what was causing it. I played with the brushes trying to find a sweet spot, but in the race the problem resurfaced. It had a Deslot on lap 47
9. Aki Porsche was a good enough car, smooth and quiet but I think the high side wings just presented too much top weight in the back end. It was a real tail wagger, and on one occasion deslotted.
10. The BARC Camaro never had enough speed with gearing that just wasn't working. Smooth enough but it desloted twice on the same corner. Just pushed and the front end desloted.
11 Lloyd's Lancia. Had some front end hop on acceleration, and this probably lead to the Deslot where the front end just pushed out of the slot.
12 Peters Rambler. Fast and quick, but the chassis has some track interference. This together with its low weight hampered it's times. It was the only car that had insufficient clearance on my Carrera track. Had three deslots
13. Lloyd's little Porsche is a fine car, but suffered because of its size and narrow tires. I had three crashes with it, and these were outright barrel rolls. The only car that had a little magnetic help because of the motor, but maybe just enough to give the driver a false sense of security. These barrel rolls all occurred going through the ess after going under the bridge.
14. The PDRT Porsche 917, just could not hook up at the track. Lightweight and poor traction lead to many spins where the car did not de-slot, but just got its nose pointing in the wrong direction for forward movement. I was running this at lower voltage to try and get the most out of it, and still have some speed. This driver could not get it under control though.
I did my best to get the best times out of each car. The varying voltage choices does add some complexity, but it makes driving them fun. Not only do you have to drive them well, but you need to find the right voltage for each car as well. So this is great for the driver, but it does put one more variable in the outcome. Did I get it wrong on a couple of the cars? As I mentioned earlier the only cars that have me second guessing my choice were Roland's Camaro and Peter's Cuda. An extra volt might have made them a little quicker to top speed, and could have improved their laptimes. The cars were solid and well planted throughout the race, and just came up short at the end of 50 laps. Aki's Ferrari may be in this group as well, but it did have a deslot with a front end push indicating to me the chassis was taxed at the power level it was run at.
Only my Camero deslotted on the inside lane. All the other deslots occurred when the cars were driven on the outside lane.
My observation is that on my track the lighter cars did not fair as well. The downhill grade into the hairpin caught out the lighter cars. When videoing and taking pictures I noticed some sheen on this portion of the track. Maybe I will repaint the entire track, to try and get a more consistent surface. Perhaps this is a track hazard as much as anything. It was the same for all entries though, and some chassis just seemed to handle it better.
Again thank you all for sending in cars. It was a pleasure to drive them, and as a builder it is really good to see what others are up to.