Hi folks,

yes, I know that this topic would better belong into the "Races & Events" category, but as that part of the board seems to get not very much attention I hope you don´t mind me posting here...!?

I need your helping thoughts on the following "problem": I´m invited to set up a track (already borrowed quite a huge 4-laner from a friend) at a local vintage VW bug meeting this weekend (taking place at the famous Norisring - BTW: Did anybody see last Sunday´s DTM race? :-))).

Besides some relaxed fun racing I want to let people smell some racing atmosphere. And of course it´s a real must to provide mainly "aircooled slotcars" there! :-)

So my first thought was to to allocate some of my T-Jet engined VW bugs and 411´s but although these aren´t fragile the painted details would be quickly worn off.

Therefore I decided to switch over to magnet cars instead. A resin casting friend of mine is currently doing a more than nice repro of the vintage Tyco pro VW drag bug that I already picked up a couple from him. I finished them in lane code colors (green instead of white) last weekend, put them on 4 equal X-2 pan chassis and already thought I was prepared quite well:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/hk_4bugs_04.jpg

Now yesterday I did some test laps together with my 7-year old son and it didn´t take more than 5 minutes until the first exhaust pipes were broken off (of course I knew that would happen and that the bugs wouldn´t be still "mint" after the next weekend...).

Next I mounted them onto HP-7 chassis (equipped with slip-on silicones) and they´re still handling more than well. Shall read: I think they´re still too fast for non-slotheads!!!

Made me thinking about slot car rookies and racing...!

So here´s my question to you: What do you think is the way to go???

I want the people to have fun but I don´t want to pick up the pieces of my beetle fleet from the concrete after a 1/4 hour!

Should I stick with the X-2 chassis (I think they´re more durable than the HP-7´s!?) and reduce voltage to let´s say 9 V? Should I use the HP-7 chassis and of course also don´t run them on more than about 10 V)? Should I put on stock rubber tires so they´re simply spinning out instead of flying across the table???

I attended a couple of races but never was organizing such an event myself before, so any helping thoughts and advice is highly appreciated!

There´ll be about 150 vintage cars and therefore a minimum of the same number of people. Although I don´t think that everyone will be attracted by a slot track I fear that it will still be more than I can handle (even with the assistance of a friend...). *Geez*: Only 3 more days for organizing all...!!! :-P

Thanks in advance for your "mental" assistance!!!

Best regards and greetings from Germany,

Claus

www.c-jet500.de.vu

Claus, :thumbsup: The cars look great and a big :thumbsup: to what you are doing to "expose the hobby". If it were me, I would reduce the voltage to the track, and explain that you did this because of the number of "racers" and the possibility of even the most experianced driver is know to kiss a wall or floor while racing.


Wish I was there... :)

Jeff

I second the voltage drop....

Your best bet would be to find some VW lexan bodies and mount them on your magnet car chassis of choice using double sided foam tape. But short of that, all you can do is reduce the voltage and hope for the best. Even at a reduced voltage the cars will bang around. Other things to try if you have a chance (in addition to the things you've already mentioned):

- Remove one traction magnet from each 440X2 chassis. Removing both makes the car too squirrelly.
- Use sponge rear tires (AJs sponge donuts).
- Install additional padding on the crash walls.

Although I'm new to all this, I think what you're doing is definately cool. I agree with the drop on the voltage so not only will your cars run longer, they'll stay on track better. This is exacly what newer people need to get excited about the sport. Good luck with your event and you should give a report on how it went so If some of us want tot do something similar in the future, we'll know what to expect.

Here is another vote for reduced voltage. 12 volts will allow the cars to run pretty well
but when they wreck it will be with much less force...
Scott

Get four Artin pan chassis and use those, not sure how much work that would be but the fitting system and wheelbase is the same as Tyco. These chassis stick like glue.

And then tinker with the voltage....

Guys,

thanks a lot for your precious thoughts, comments and hints!

I didn´t have time to do much more than trying my X-2 as well as the HP-7 chassis with reduced voltage over the last 2 nights. Both chassis types run surprisingly well at 12 V or even 10 V!

But the rental track will be a bit different from my home track so I´ll have to jump into the water and see.

I´m heading on to pick up the trailer for my friend´s track now.

Tomorrow night I still have to install the LDR´s and light bridge - please keep your fingers crossed for me to get it to work in time! :drunk: Otherwise I´ll have to recruite 4 lurkers and let them use some stopwatches... :rolleyes:

Anyway: I´ll keep you updated and will try to take some pics over the weekend and post them afterwards! I´m really curious how (and how many of) these "non-slotheads" will behave...!? :D

Best regards and greetings from Germany,

Claus

www.c-jet500.de.vu

Hi folks,

now that this event lies more then a week in the past, my mood is a lot better now and I´m therefore (hopefully) able to write these lines without too much sentimental influences - so here´s a little personal report of my experiences:

After all the preparations I made over the weeks before (organizing a trailer as well as picking up the track from a friend, building and prepping some cars until 2.30 AM) I arrived at the "Steintribuene" at the Norisring in permanent and heavy rain last Saturday morning. Fortunately the ambulance tent already was set up for another event at the same Saturday´s night, so I could simply push the trailer inside the tent and set up the track on some "beer tent tables" making the installation of the track´s iron pipe legs obsolete.

At the beginnning quite a lot of VW folks came in and were looking quite interested at what my buddy and me were doing. While having some nice conversations about VW´s in either scale I got the track up and running.

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/w_steintribuene2005_H0.jpg

BTW: The guy with the golden hair isn´t me but my friend who was willing to help me to set up the track (I was taking the pic).

After about 2 hours the rain stopped and the sun came out for the rest of the day:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/w_steintribuene2005.jpg

Inside the tent it got hotter and hotter and less and less VW folks came in - I ended up mostly sitting the not really small crowd of kids that were attending the VW meeting together with their parents (great proof for the good old bug still being a great family car!). Nothing wrong with all that so far - I felt quite good introducing kids to our hobby. They had fun and a couple of them were showing real talent, too!

The thing that was "bugging" me was the fact that my little donation jar (I put a sign on it à la "Even the maintenance of small cars isn´t for free") was (almost) strictly ignored! At the end of the day (i.e. after 9 hours) there was a giant total of 7 EUR inside my "cash box"...

But don´t think that money was given by any of the parents that were able to do some relaxing small talk knowing their breed was under someone elses control -nope! 5 EUR were donated by an elder wife who´s hubby I was talking to, explaining him the difference between all kinds of H0 cars and finally giving him a set of pickup shoes for his vintage Faller VW bus he has on a shelf at home. I don´t know who smuggled the additional 2 EUR into my jar, but it probably wasn´t one of the abovwe mentioned parents either...

Sorry if I still sound somehow frustrated, but I really felt so when leaving the place with the track and stuff back on my trailer that night! I wasn´t expecting any great monetary profit from that event, but I was hoping to get at least enough money to refurbish my cars. Yet another proof of the bonmot that things aren´t worth anything unless they cost real MONEY!

O.K. - to be honest, most of the cars were working just great over that whole "endurance test day". I put my resin bugs away after the exhaust pipes were broken off and it became apparent that those adults simply weren´t too enthusiastic about slot cars and put a couple of already played with NASCARs on the table.

Especially my LifeLike T-Birds proofed to be really tough! Every kind of beating abuse incl. fly-offs from the table onto the asphalt were ignored by them! No loose bodies (main problem with Tyco NASCARs that I removed after a burnt arm...), no significant wear of pickup shoes as well as of the gears (some Tyco gears were quite "carious" in the early afternoon)! These cars are much more durable than I could imagine before!

So far for my experiences with "rental" cars. One never stops learning! If I ever do something like this again I will put up a sign "2 EUR for 15 minutes of track time"...

Thank you all for your precious input and tips and have a nice rest of the weekend!

Best regards and greetings from Germany from

Claus (who´s going to reglue all these bugs´exhaust pipes now...)

www.c-jet500.de.vu