We had a race this past weekend with a class including Scalextric GT40s, Ferrari 330s and a lone Scalextric Chapparrall.

To make things fun, we draw for which car each driver will race. Of course, this asumes that all cars are equal to an acceptable degree.

This was our 5th year in doing this and the first time we had a "stock" car with such an unfair advantage. Scalextric's newly released Gulf GT40, yellow Ferrari 330, blue and orange Gulf GT40 #9, and a red Ferrari 330 were the cars that made the field.

We do a scored race where you run 10 heat races in each of four lanes. The winner of each heat race is scored a "1", second a "2", and so on. The goal is to keep your score the lowest. In this class, the spread between 2nd and 4th place was only 7 points. The spread between 1st (yellow Ferrari) and 2nd (Gulf #9) was 51 (FIFTY ONE!) points!

Needless to say, this really took the enjoyment out of the race. Has anyone else had similar experiences? These cars were same manufacturer, same motor configuration and chassis and what we all assumed were relatively equal magnets. Boy were we wrong!

For next year's race, we have bought one of those fantastic Magnet Marshall electronic devices which measures downforce. It would have saved a lot of enjoyment this year!

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

I'm not sure if its the magnetic downforce as its the car's motor and stock setup when it comes out of the box. A good way to tell is to yank the magnets and run the cars again and see if there is that much variance.

I've seen something similar happen at our track, but most times its kind of the "luck of the draw" on what you pull out of the box. We have to pull the magnet and the only other things we can do are glue the tires to the wheels, glue in the motor, true the tires, and lube the gears and bushings/bearings. Other than that, no replacement of any parts. What we have seen are certain cars having better motors or more balanced/round wheels or smoother guides than others.

We have to remember that these cars are plastic and punched out of templates on plastic molding machines. The first copy of a vehicle will not always be 100% the same as the last copy - mainly because, well, its a copy.

I'd say your best thing to do is pull the magnets and run them again and see what happens. If that car is still more than 5 points ahead of the 2nd car, then its not the magnets.

PD2:thumbsup:

I have a good for instance. The scalextric Porshe Spyder

http://www.cincyslots.com/ImageSlots/SCALECARS/C2812.JPG

and the Scalextri Audi R10

http://www.cincyslots.com/ImageSlots/SCALECARS/c2809.JPG

Two cars look the same. Has the same motor, magnet, gearing, tires sanded and oiled. The Audi R10 doesn't have a prayer against the Spyder. If racing on a windy course with short straights the R10 can hang but stretch there legs a little and it just keeps crawling backwards.

Me and my brother have found this out also, same car/magnet/setup blah blah blah........should be a tight race, and one of them BLOWS the other out the water. It has to be something in the motor windings.

In an update to the original post of a month ago:

The yellow #11 Scalextric Ferrari 330 with the "unfair avantage" tested in on the Magnet Marshall at 280 grams of downforce.

The hard fought second place Scalextric GT-40 #9 tested in on the Magnet Marshall at 198 grams of downforce.

Its no wonder the Ferrari wiped up the field with such a powerful magnet.

We did test newer releases of Scalectric Ferraris, GT40s and the Chapparral. Each tested higher than the GT40s of 5 or so years ago (255-280 vs. 185-198) despite the same chassis/magnet configuration. Is this coincidence or is Scalextric finding stronger magnets for the cars?

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

. . . Is this coincidence or is Scalextric finding stronger magnets for the cars?

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

Maybe just yank the magnets out -- problems solved. :confused:

In an update to the original post of a month ago:

The yellow #11 Scalextric Ferrari 330 with the "unfair avantage" tested in on the Magnet Marshall at 280 grams of downforce.

The hard fought second place Scalextric GT-40 #9 tested in on the Magnet Marshall at 198 grams of downforce.

Its no wonder the Ferrari wiped up the field with such a powerful magnet.

We did test newer releases of Scalectric Ferraris, GT40s and the Chapparral. Each tested higher than the GT40s of 5 or so years ago (255-280 vs. 185-198) despite the same chassis/magnet configuration. Is this coincidence or is Scalextric finding stronger magnets for the cars?

Jim Norton
Huntsville, Alabama

Jim,

I would not doubt that Scalextric is looking for stronger magnets. I have a pair of LM's cars and the magnets in them compared to the F1's that I recently purchased are like that too. I think they are trying to sell first to home-set, younger kids that don't race these cars in non-magnet format first and the one thing that particular bracket of consumers wants is faster and sticking to the track more so that they can run WOT without crashing.

As 'doba mentioned, if it is dicey on what magnets are in what car, just start replacing all of them with the same brand and downforce rating to even things out. Either that or do what we have done - no magnet racing.

PD2:thumbsup: