Drag Race Program

[DixonJohn]

It's been a while since I posted anywhere on the board. New job and move has me quite busy. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to start a review and a log of a Parma Edge Drag Car. I want to aim this at the beginning drag racer in mind. If there is any interest in this idea please let me know. I really just want to show the beginner that they don't need all the expensive crazyness to be competitive and actually win a few races.

[BIG E]

A while back, a friend added a 1/24 drag strip to the building where we raced FCR hard bodies on an 8 lane tri-oval in weekly series.
I asked a friend who was a regular slot drag racer to construct me a typical "proper" piano wire chassis, which I assembled with the usual Hi Perf 16D, 64 pitch gears, ball bearing rear axle, ProTrack wheel and tire set, ect. I installed an AMT '67 Mustang fastback body.
I then took one of my Parma FCR 4 1/2" chassis, installed a rebuilt Parma Deathstar 16D motor (with an old MURA replacement arm!), steel pinion, standard 48 pitch crown gear, 3/8"x1" ProTrack rears, and an old pair of COX fronts. The body was an AMT '63 Ford Galaxie.

Then... I was offered a "new in box" Parma Edge RTR car in exchange for a vintage Aurora Thunderjet 500 HO car I had for sale.
That was good for me, and it had a blue '69 Mustang fastback lexan body, too.
Just like that, I had three distinctly different types of 1/25-24 scale FORD slot drag cars to play around with!
Other than changing to a steel pinion gear, and the rear tires to ProTracks, I ran the Edge car as is. (I did also solder the oilite bushings to the chassis and install a drill blank rear axle, but that's done to every car I race.) The car ran consistent low-mid "12s" (1.2 sec.) times
with very light "glue" on the 55 foot track. Cheap, dependable, fun drag racing. Like Parma's Flexi Kar for 1/24 commercial road course and oval tracks, the Edge is a good performer either stock out of the box, or with slight modifications as desired.
I would expect you to have similar results when you begin running your Edge car.

I was just drag racing to have fun, but many guys in the NY Metro area are serious slot drag racers only, and regularly run for big time $$$ in slot shops, warehouses, auto shops... where ever the tracks are set up. I would pay my entry fees (more like a donation to the eventual winner), go my few rounds of bracket racing (if I was lucky), and then either red light or just plain get beat! As I said before,
I was there for fun, and some of these guys were tellin' me to do this and that to the car. I would ask them if they'd like to go over to the tri-oval, I'd loan them my best circle track car and win all my money back!! :>)
The response was always... "I don't do roundy round." To each his own. I figured I was there anyway, and for a relatively small investment, I was blastin' down the quarter mile! Hope you have as much fun as I did. I do have about 50 HO drag cars that I run when I get the chance, even just to have heads up fun on one of Auto World's drag strip sets.

Lookin' forward to your results with Parma's RTR Edge slot drag racer. Enjoy... Ernie

[demether]

I think beginner articles are always interesting. I'm currently planning a HO dragstrip (not scale accurate, about 13' lenght), and I don't know anything about it, and finding infos is a bit difficult.

I know Parma edge is not HO, but I wanted to salute the initiative of sharing infos and knowledge.