Most of you probably know about bearing speed in relation to building horsepower in gasoline engines. I wonder if it's possible to gain advantages in a slotcar by doing the same. Like turning or replacing the armature shaft with a smaller one. I wonder if that's what lifelike was thinking with that tiny shaft in the T chassis motor. Some 1/32 spring steel and .062 brass tube could make for some trick axles and bushings. Less rotating mass too. What do you guys think? Might even work on them pancake cars too.

Wouln't be too hard to try, but probably not worth the effort.

I looked into this many years ago when I was doing 1/24th drag racing semi-seriously. The Machinery's Handbook has a bunch of guidelines for bearing design. Turns out the cars were waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy overspeeding and overloading the bearings as it was, even with full width bearings. But since the races are so extremely short, no damage was done. Seems like I calculated rediculous bearing pressures too, like in the many thousands of pounds per square inch.......

A brass shimmed bearing might actually live, but I have my doubts about the life of a 1/32" axle in plastic, and a magnet car and long heats.........

My application would be for drag racing and everything would be 1/32 steel with brass bushings, no actual ball bearings.

All my stuff was plain bearing.....i.e. bushing. Sorry if I implied ball bearing..

If it's for drag racing, go for it.. Can't hurt, unless the small axle shaft is flexing or whipping excessively.

Let us know how it goes.