Hey people. What procedures are involved in a Pre-Race Tech Inspection? At our track we all know the rules and trust each other. We are not a large group. ( 4 to 12 people at a time) The cars are not torn down or the armatures ohmed. One of us has a magna-view and we've used it before. We really don't have time to do a through inspection. I was just wondering what are some of the steps that some of you do or experienced? And is there atleast some steps that should be done. Randy. :confused:

Randy,
I think you just answered your own question.
If you all trust each other, then God Bless You, and do not do anything to change that unless it becomes obvious someone is cheating hard.
You will never get over the initial accusations once the seroius teardowns begin.
If it is fun now, Leave it Alone.
This sport/hobby is most fun with the least rules.

Hope this helps,
Keith

I agree with Pomfish. If you guys are friends and all being straight with each other, then I wouldn't mess with it.

I was a part of a really good 1:24 group, (private club) and the only tech that we usually did was car width and ground clearance. The former was just to be sure everyone was staying in their lane, and the latter was for the sake of not damaging the track.

Car width was a simple template and clearance was just a piece of piano wire or a small screwdriver (I forget exactly)...if you could fit the piano wire under the chassis then it was good to go. Took less than 5 mins to tech 12 or so guys. There was 4 or 5 guys that rotated being the "tech guy"

Not sure how the ground clearance thing will relate to HO, but just thought it may help you.

Trev.

"Magna-View". Is that what I think it is? The film for seeing a magnetic field? :cool:

Sounds like you guys have it easy.

Keep it that way!
One item you might need is a tech block to check width.
You can slide a bunch of cars through a tech block fast...
That way to wide is obvious...

Scott

I race with AFXnut. We're all guilty of bending the rules a little, but I think we all know the difference between bent and broke :rolleyes: . We use a tech. block to check width. We have a lot of fun. We've had a few people that were blatently cheating, but it dosen't happen too much. If it would help you out maybe I could take over tech. duty since you setup the computer every week. I hate to say it, but I think we need to revise the rules to incorporate the new stuff or at least have a meeting about it. The new people occasionally complain about not being able to race the cars they just bought because we race 440x2 and old lifelike. Our hobby store only carrys lifelike T, Tomy and the new jl stuff. We do race the new jl stuff, but not the others.

Hey guys it works for me. When and where is the meeting? Tim :p

Is that what I think it is? The film for seeing a magnetic field? :cool:
Yes, a neat little tool. Sundance or Big Daddy had one. You could tell right away if a car had reverse zaps in it. I don't want to change the way we Tech. I don't see the need to right now. As MTYODER pointed out we use a Tech Block for width and look at each car before we race. That's it. I was wondering about some of you other racers out there. I'd like to see what you folks experience. It might give me some ideas if we need to add something. It's fun now and that's the way we intend to keep it. We average 5 to 7 racers a week, biweekly during the summer. We all know each other and there isn't a need for a tight prerace inspection. Thanks for your input so far. Randy.

A/FXNUT I think with MTYoder making his drag strip and my max portable we will start to pick up a few racers. As our numbers grow we will have to grow with our program as well. Good post to get things started and get some ideas where we can improve our program. Magna-view is what I use to check for rezapped magnets. I got mine from a local teaching supply house. Its was used to show flux lines produce by magnetic fields. See ya Thursday night . Oh by the way what are this weeks classes?
Tim :thumbsup:

Probably the same as last week. Although I'd like to run the JL-TO's.

Sounds like you've already got it covered. The only thing I would do in addition to what you are doing now is to put out a tech block so racers can check their car's total width when they are setting it up. An overly wide car simply interferes with the racing action for everyone. I've never seen anyone intentionally setup their car to be too wide, they just didn't have a gauge to check it themselves. You can make simple U-shaped width gauges out of metal or plastic or even wood. This is more an issue of eliminating a hazard rather than enforcing a rule.