D124 Mag Racing- Are 917's and 512's Cheater Cars?
Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 12:02 pmThis is a question for those guys who run stock Carrera D124 cars with magnets. (of which there may be only a handful who frequent these parts, but I figured I'd give it a shot)
I've noticed in the group that I race with that pretty much all of our cars run around the same times. On the track that we cruise, that time comes to around 7.5 seconds- sometimes better, sometimes worse, but always north of the 7 second mark. The cars are a mix of modern GT and 60's classics. We want all of our cars to run around the same times so that there is parity among the various makes, ensuring that driver skill is the only determining factor in race outcomes.
Enter the Porsche 917 and suddenly the lap times are dropping to 6.8 or better. Worse, the car takes virtually no skill to drive as one can hold the plunger down for almost the entire course. I retired my 917 from racing because of this.
Enter the Ferrari 512 S, and the same thing happened. I set the car on the track for the first time last night and again, plunger down and never up. Wouldn't you know it, the car turned the fastest lap of the race, besting a 917 by a mere hundredth of a second, but beating the next fastest car by over half a second.
In my mind, a car that effectively drives itself- that is a car that you can press the plunger all the way down and not worry about it deslotting- is effectively the same as a model train locomotive. You just turn on the power and watch the car go around and around, with the only danger of deslotting coming if someone changes lanes next to you and pushes the car off. Is that fun? I think not.
:?: Have others out there run in to the same thing? If so, what steps did you take to remedy the situation?
My thinking is that the magnets need to be shimmed away from the rails in order to eliminate the excessive downforce that permits the 917 and 512 to run at top speed with abandon.
Someone posted a video of a demonstration of a 1:1 917 a year or so ago, and while that car showed tremendous power, it was also evident that it was always on the edge of control, almost wanting to spin around in the curves. I think that shimming those magnets will simulate this. The car will have amazing straight away speed, but you'd have to slow dramatically in the curves to keep from loosing it.
Any thoughts from those who race these cars in the same way that we do? :think: Thanks.
I've noticed in the group that I race with that pretty much all of our cars run around the same times. On the track that we cruise, that time comes to around 7.5 seconds- sometimes better, sometimes worse, but always north of the 7 second mark. The cars are a mix of modern GT and 60's classics. We want all of our cars to run around the same times so that there is parity among the various makes, ensuring that driver skill is the only determining factor in race outcomes.
Enter the Porsche 917 and suddenly the lap times are dropping to 6.8 or better. Worse, the car takes virtually no skill to drive as one can hold the plunger down for almost the entire course. I retired my 917 from racing because of this.
Enter the Ferrari 512 S, and the same thing happened. I set the car on the track for the first time last night and again, plunger down and never up. Wouldn't you know it, the car turned the fastest lap of the race, besting a 917 by a mere hundredth of a second, but beating the next fastest car by over half a second.
In my mind, a car that effectively drives itself- that is a car that you can press the plunger all the way down and not worry about it deslotting- is effectively the same as a model train locomotive. You just turn on the power and watch the car go around and around, with the only danger of deslotting coming if someone changes lanes next to you and pushes the car off. Is that fun? I think not.
:?: Have others out there run in to the same thing? If so, what steps did you take to remedy the situation?
My thinking is that the magnets need to be shimmed away from the rails in order to eliminate the excessive downforce that permits the 917 and 512 to run at top speed with abandon.
Someone posted a video of a demonstration of a 1:1 917 a year or so ago, and while that car showed tremendous power, it was also evident that it was always on the edge of control, almost wanting to spin around in the curves. I think that shimming those magnets will simulate this. The car will have amazing straight away speed, but you'd have to slow dramatically in the curves to keep from loosing it.
Any thoughts from those who race these cars in the same way that we do? :think: Thanks.