I've been running the larger scale now for a few months and have learned a few things I can now pass on. I have a total of 14 cars, some I've run quite a bit, some have almost no time on them. Certain cars work better for reasons that are obvious like low CG, etc. But others defy reasoning as to why they hook up, they just do.

I recently made a 4 wheel balance using 4 digital postal scales. This measures the weight on each tire and allows a much more prescise set up that with just a front-to-back set up. I also have a Magnet Marshal, which at $100 is a great investment for tuning cars allowed weight and magnetic attractions.

In the real world a true 50/50 weight distribution is optimal, but since slot cars don't have to worry about the front tires hooking up, a 40/60 is better I've found. This can be changed by adding small amounts of lead weight in the chassis on either side of the motor. In finding the CG it has quite often been at the front end bell of the motor in online cars, and much further back in sidewinders and angle winders.

Very shortly I'm going to shoot some pictures of my weight rig so you guys can see what I'm talking about, but this works for me and I'm starting to win more and more using this type of set up. Even without massive amount of magnetic attraction giving a car proper weight distribution goes a long way to making it handle right.

Sounds really cool.

Man! I have not heard of anyone setting up their car like this since I was in onroad RC! That's the most proper way to setup an onroad RC car - everyone who is into some serious competition does it that way and then distributes the lead accordingly. That is awesome Pete!

In the 1/32 slot car world, I have only heard of guys taking it to the two scale mode and just setting the car up front-to-back. I have thought about doing it this way many times and just did not do it. I opted instead for doing equal and opposite setups, where if I added weight any place I would then add an equal amount on the opposite side and in the same place.

Sounds like what you are doing is really putting the car into balance! I like it! What scales are you using and where did you get them? They are not the USPS scales that USPS sales, right? I'd like to try this out to see if there are any cars that are just barely under performing that maybe doing a setup like this would get what I'm missing.

Great post Pete!
PD2:thumbsup:

I got them at a UPS shipping store for $14 each, the pad area is about 3" square so you could just get 2 and measure F/R. I need to make a base for them and mount them semi-permanently to make it easier. Right now even the slighest bump of the car and I have to re-zero everything and start over. With the IRL and NASCAR cars on the oval it works best because I want some L/R weight stagger, for most road courses it's F/R. After last night I'm not too sure how useful the information is but then I whipped them out and started scaling my cars everyone else wanted to as well. Once we start getting back to a reasonable mag weight it may play a more important role but with 500 grams it more than likely isn't.

I've seen the magnet marshals and they are very interesting. I'm trying to get info on building my own.Been trying to find strain gauges that will read down to the tenth of a gram, and are cheap enough to use 6 per unit.
The idea is to have a tool that tells you total wt. each tire wt. and downforce. Along with the option of a shoe tension meter.
Still toying with the idea.

Pete,
On a simpler scale, what you think of 1/32 as a whole compared to other scales you're experienced with. I'm a newbie and that was a big decision for me when I got started. I wound up going with 1/64, but sometimes wonder, what if?

Thanks.