In about a week I'm planning on ordering the Spirit Dallara kit from Brian at BSR and I was looking for someone who may have already ordered one for feedback. This will be my first 1/32nd scale kit, and while I'm a whizz at putting HO cars together I've never done anything in this scale.

I have a total of 9 cars, some I picked up used off of the 'bay, most have been raced by anyone that happens to come over and wants to run laps. The Dallara will be MINE, DeWALT TOOLS sponsored and will be my primary series car. So I'll be picking up a decent selection of gears as well from Brian (who I hope has some in stock!).

The series allows silicone tires, and I'm interested in which ones would be best suited for a car like this. Tracks vary from a tight, technical 4 lane of about 100' per lap to a super routed 6-lane track of almost 225' and with a 40' main straight. The car will be allowed its traction magnet since the real world version has aero-generated downforce but it must be a ceramic magnet only, not a neo. The car comes with 3.0:1 gearing, going with 8/29 gearing (3.625:1) offers me the most power, the 11/24 brings serious speed (2.18:1). Brian offers a pinion selection package with the 9T through 11T, I just need a speed crown gear, something in the 25T range I think.

One of the things I can't see is if this car comes with a driver figure, if it doesn't I'll need to make one per the rules of the series (street cars must have a helmeted driver too). The assembled kit on the BSR page shows one so can I assume it does? The other question was about the wheels. I know some Spirit cars come with machined aluminum wheels, I really prefer plastic, something a bit more realistic looking for that car. Exchanges available?

I'll do a write up on the car as it progresses, I'll be placing the order this coming Friday, hopefully to be in my hands the middle of the following week. First race of the CSRA winter series is November 10th.

i dont have any feedback on this kit (only have a few 1/32 i dont run much) but i wanted to say its really cool to see you with a controller in your hand again, despite some tough times!

Race on!

mike

Mike, the times are still tough, I'm counting pennies and eating mac and cheese most of the time. The cars I have are either from the 'bay or trades I've been able to manage along the way. I'm still trying to trace the Rally box for more stuff, nobody seems to be that interested. I did finally get paid for the sale of some personal property, divorce attorneys held up the check while they decided how much she was to get. In then end it was as it should have been all along....not a dime.

The Dallara will be "my" car for a hobby shop series that I was lucky enough to become a co-promoter of. All those years of promoting HO events finally paid off. I've been picking Brian's brain over the last couple of days as to which tires to use and the like. Two hobby shops and one private owner will be involved and I'm hoping to have my track done in time to maybe launch my own small sub-series around Thanksgiving. The 5 guys that showed up over the weekend had fun but we're back down to 3 of us being dedicated to this team project. When you consider the car, Patto's decals, silicone tires, gears and a nice aluminum case it comes close to $100. This is a car project I have to make count. Maybe if I make a good enough showing I can get a real sponsor.

Hey Pete,

First, I'm sorry to hear about your misfortunes and "adventures" in divorce. Never a good thing to go through and never any good out of it. I hope things smooth out for you soon enough.

Second, I don't have the Dallara kit, but I do have one of the Sport RTR's. These are the kits that come already decked out with aluminum wheels, the S3x motor, and all the other goodies. From all the reports I'm getting, the RTR's and excellent in both the Sport and non-Sport form and I think this even includes the kit.

From my personal experience, which may or may not be worth a hill of beans, but, I usually like to take the car and run it first to see what it is and is not doing and then begin tuning the car from there. If you have access to the specific place you will be racing, take the car up there one Saturday afternoon and beging running it on that track and tune the car to that track's condition and your driving style. What I have noticed and personally learned, one person's setup will get you close to where you need to be, but will never get you what you personally need till you tune the car for you. And when I say tuning, it covers all sorts of things, from tire gluing and truing to body seating and the like. Just take your time and you will notice the things you do that add time to you laps vs. removes that time. Just keep going until you have a consistent car for your racing and driving style.

Not sure that really helps ya out, but just my little suggestion from me to you bro.

Again, sorry to hear about the bad time you are having, but its definitely nice to get away from all of that and have this hobby to focus on from time to time.

PD2:thumbsup:

PD2 thanks. We won't be allowed to glue the tires but we may run silicones.

There's been a development in the rules committee decision regarding advancement through classes. While I was intending on campaigning a prototype class car with the Dallara I can't compete in that class until I have 3 podiums in a lesser class such as GT3 first. For their classes they consider GT3 cars to be the Ford FR500 Mustang (Grand AM with a wing), Porsche GT2/3, Corvette C5/6R and Dodge Viper. The Porsches come from a number of different manufacturers already painted and a street version would be permitted so long as the driver has a helmet. The Viper isn't as common although Scalextric offers one in white for easier painting. I'm not a fan of the Corvette but they do handle well, and the Mustang in my experience is way too top heavy for a non-magnet class car.

I lobbied for the inclusion of my beloved Ferraris but to no avail. Same with the TVR's. Pretty much it's down to those 4 choices. I'm disappointed that I won't be doing the Dallara just yet but I will document whatever the project will become between now and Friday when I place the order. I need to look over BSR's website again....and again. The only thing set in stone at this point will be the DeWALT Tools sponsor as those decals are already ordered.

Pete,

What kind of track does the club race on?

Best regards,
Brian

Brian, two are plastic, unknown to me what brand but both are really slick with very little texture, and one is a routed rubberized surface. What they call GT3 is actually closer to SCCA Street Tuner. The Viper, FR500, Vette and GT2/3 are now joined by BWM's. Whatever I get I'm going to have to repaint so it won't matter to me. I like the AutoArt Porsches, that's the way I'm leaning. GT3 allows silicone tires but I have to run 8/25 gearing and a 16,000 max rpm motor. And no magnet. They don't allow tire doping at all but any compount of silicone is fine. Other than paint and the possible addition of the driver head I cannot make any changes to the body such as lowering, etc. I will be allowed to add up to 1 oz of weight so that allows me some tuning. As you can see as in real racing these guys are being pretty technical. My involvement is to basically run the program portion, while I have a vote in the rules I'm usually out voted. But, it's a $5 a race entry fee that pays a 50/50 out over an 8 race series so if I do well I can afford that Dallara once I win a few podiums.

Just found my email with the allowed cars/classes:

GT3 - No magnets, 8/25 gearing, no body mods, 1 oz accessory weight.
Ford Mustang FR500
Porsche 911 GT3R
BMW M3
Corvette C5/6R
Dodge Viper R

GT2 - No magnets, OEM gearing, limited body mods, 2 oz accessory weight.
Any DTM or ADAC series car
Jaguar T/A
TVR T400R
Maserati Coupe
Ferrari 360/430/550/575
Aston Martin

GT1 - Non-neo magnet only in OEM location, limited body mods, no accessory weight.
Mosler
McLaren F1 GTR
Diablo GTR
Ascari
Maserati MC12
Marcos
Porsche GT-1 EVO
Panoz
Lister Storm
Saleen S7
Mercedes CLK GTR

GTP Prototype - No more than 2 magents, limited body mods, no accessory weight.
Audi R9/R10
Porsche Spyder RS
Dallara
Dome Judd
Lola B2K
Reynard
BMW V12 LMR

No restriction on gearing or tires unless otherwise noted. All drivers must have a helmet although there is no mention of a roll cage. Noticably absent are any Japanese Series race cars.

Advancement: 3 podiums from GT3/GT2 to GT1, 2 more podiums to GTP. There is no mention of the podiums needing to be "in class", just a total of 5 to advance to GTP. I have GT2 cars already, so I'm going to build the two GT3 cars and go after both classes since they'll be run at different dates.

Pete, sorry to hear about your troubles. Been there!

For the GT3 class, I would choose the Carrera Corvette.
For GT2, I would choose the NINCO Ferrari 360.
For GT1, either the Mosler or Ascari, either one (if they'll let you run it, the NSR Mosler is great).
For GTP Prototype, either the Spirit Reynard or Spirit Dallara.

I've run all of these cars, and the ones I recommended are in my opinion the fastest of each group. The Spirits take a little bit more tuning than some other cars, but it's well worth the time and effort.

Do you mean they won't let you glue the tires to the rims? Silicons really need gluing to the rims. They will expand and slip during a race, causing wheel hop, and eventually causing the tires to become out of round, if you don't glue them to the wheel. I understand not allowing traction glue, but I don't understand not allowing competitors to glue the tires to the wheels. I always true my wheels and then glue the tires to them and then true the tires. :thumbsup:

Tom

Tom, I think the gluing means they don't allow a traction compound applied to the track, not a "bead lock" as it were for attaching silicones to rims. I agree with the Carrera Corvette, the SCX Corvettes are pretty good too. For GT2 I have several to choose from already in the form of SCX Ferrari 360 and a poorer handling but much faster SCX Ferrari 550. I also have an Aston Martin but right now it's in pieces. GT1, I really like the Mosler as well but have driven the Marcos and found it a nice handling car. GTP will be the Dallara to be sure, but I need to get to a points position before I spend the money on one.

But I think for the first 8 race series I'm going to take the advice of my pal Martin and just concentrate on the classes I have covered, instead of spending money on more cars get parts for the ones I have...except I bid on two TVR T400R's earlier this week. I should win them both and if I do they'll wear the DeWALT decals I have on the way from Patto's. I wanted the Scalextric version but it's been out of production for a bit, at least this way I can build both the #91 and #92 cars for GT2 and save my Ferrari's for later.

I want to stress that this is a hobby shop series, and like any hobby shop they pretty much write the rules to sell their products available in the shop. In the beginning they even specificed the brand as well as type of car but those of us participating in the series changed that. Still there are cars not included that I have spent a lot of time with, like my SCX Focus WRC, that cannot compete and that's too bad. My series will start early in 2008 with some of the same rules but a much narrowed car selection.

Wow, and I thought our track rules were strict - those rules are definitely interesting in that they are telling you which cars to buy. With our local track, while we do have a GT2 and GT1, LeMans, NASCAR, and F1/IRL classes, our shop lists all of the car body styles that could qualify for each of those classes, and then, for the GT's, specifies which manufacturer, since we run box stock motors (no motor changes allowed). Similarly, we also must make "X" amount of races and place in the top 5 consistently as well as race in the bump up consistently, before we can come out of the Beginner's Race or what they call B League. The committe also has the right to bump you back down to B League if you have been away from the track for a long time (like me, right now) and then have you redeem yourself back to the Intermediate race or A League. The Master's League is above that and is for those guys that are die-hard slot racers that also scratch build and do Group C racing and things like that. These are the best of the best at the shop and they get to compete against one another. I think the layout is great and definitely places people where they need to be.

As for the cars, I totally agree with Ragnar on the selections. Those cars should definitely do you well if you spend the time to set them up correctly. I have a NINCO Ferrari 360 and after building that kit that car was hooked up almost straight out of the box. I sanded the wheels to smooth them out and then the tires a little and the car just runs! A little loud, like most NINCO's, but that is that anglewinder setup. Great car for sure!

And yes, as you race in these races you will notice your collection of cars becoming more focused per the classes that you run. Mine has definitely turned that way. Doesn't mean your favorite cars go away - just means, they take an extended shelf life. HA!

Hope that continues to help you out and encourage you! Good luck and have fun bro!

PD2:thumbsup:

When one hobby shop controls the racing, yeah the selection can be limited. It's not as bad as when I went to a model car contest and you must have bought the entered kit at that shop. This is a short series though, my involvement is to essentially steal racers for my series. Hey, I'm not proud but whatever it takes. ;)

I'd like to have an Artin series myself, sort of a Late Model Sportsman SPEC race since the Artin model is based on the Taurus. I could even get my old dealership to sponsor it possibly. Since my series includes a banked oval it would be pretty nice. Brian's been pretty helpful on ideas.

But I think for the first 8 race series I'm going to take the advice of my pal Martin and just concentrate on the classes I have covered, instead of spending money on more cars get parts for the ones I have...except I bid on two TVR T400R's earlier this week.

I think this is where you're going with the TVR's...

http://forum.rscnet.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=393593&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1159399470

That's from a PC gaming forum, very nice graphics but that's both the cars on the Patto's decal sheet.

My opinion is that you do the Dewalt TVR's, maybe even get the Synergy TVR's too, build two teams and forget the SCX cars. You're going to be able to do more for less with the Scalextric cars and once you get past how they drive (i.e. no brakes) then you'll do a lot better. Stick in GT3, forget about the higher classes even though they pay out more. You'll spend less, not be as frustrated, have a single common car for a team and not have to buy spares for two or three different makes. Just my opinion.

Yeah, that's the one alright. I wanted the Scalextric version but oh well, so I'll do my own. So far so good, I'm winning the auction with 16 hours left.

We had another "meeting" tonight and after some other rules revisions I decided to withdraw. Sort of pee'd some people off, especially since I took my laptop with all of the programming they needed with me. But ruling by committee, at least THAT committee, wasn't working. So where do I go from here? Do I build my Dallara anyway? Yes, but not right now. The funny thing is of the 8 or so behind the planning of that series 3 of them now want to plan a series with me.

So for now at least the Dallara is on hold. It will be built and before the end of the year once my series shows some promise. I have some experience to gain by racing in around the this area and at my own track.

That sucks to hear Pete! As they always say, it takes people to screw up a good thing. Well, take the time to learn your car(s) and work on what you said - potentially building your own racing series that does not have those restrictive rules. These things should be fun, not politics ridden.


Good luck!
PD2:thumbsup:

We had some pizza and Corona's last night after we departed and just with our car selections we're all on the same page. I mean, just by taking what was GT3 and GT2 gives you at least 20 car types. We were splitting hairs on some cars, like taking the Alfa 156 but not the 147, taking the Opel Vectra but not the Astra, taking the C5/6R but not the Callaway...that sort of thing. In the end I'm sure we'll finally let them in, but it shows that at least the four of use think a bit more alike.

The Dallara is still a spectacular car, I got to see one this morning and I want to build it now more than ever. Calvin's car was painted in pearl white and light pearl purple, and was sponsored by his motorcycle painting business. There was not a decal on his car, I need to get a picture of it so you guys can see it. He has a 26,000 rpm motor, silicone tires and all silicone wiring inside. There was a lot of extra work that went into this car, and other than a couple of scratches from actual racing it could be a show car.

We had some pizza and Corona's last night after we departed and just with our car selections we're all on the same page. I mean, just by taking what was GT3 and GT2 gives you at least 20 car types. We were splitting hairs on some cars, like taking the Alfa 156 but not the 147, taking the Opel Vectra but not the Astra, taking the C5/6R but not the Callaway...that sort of thing. In the end I'm sure we'll finally let them in, but it shows that at least the four of use think a bit more alike.

One of the things that our local shop did was to basically figure out are the cars that they group together all geared similarly as well as with the same motors or similar motors, straight from the box. They would allow some and if one was faster/hotter than the other, then that one got to move to another class like LeMans or GT1. So it wasn't so much body style as grouping them by performance, if you will. Just another idea.

PD2:thumbsup: