Do you race open wheeled hard body slot cars? Are you sick of those lovely little front wings getting broken off? Here's an ultra easy modification you can make your open wheeled car's front ends a little tougher while still looking great.

I'll bet you have a few blister packages laying around from your recent slot car purchases.
(See BlisterPack.jpg).

These packages have a curved outside edge that makes extracting the car a pain, but instead of plastic pain we can make this plastic work for us. Use a pair of scissors cut some strips out of the blister pack so the curved part is as wide as your slot car. This forms a little "ski" or "snowboard" piece of plastic.
(See FirstCut.jpg)

Next, attach this ski to the underside of your car's front wing so it protrudes in front of the nose and in front of the wings. I used some thin double-sided foam tape in the recessed area and superglue gel along the bottom edge of the wings. Other alternatives (that I will try next) are clear RTV silicone in the recessed area so the ski has some more flexi-give to it. Either trim it to width and length ahead of time or after attachment.
(See BottomShot.jpg, TopShot.jpg, and SideShot.jpg)

The Wing saver does a couple of things. It reinforces the wings and it helps dissipate the force from a blow across a wider area, making it less likely that a wreck will ruin a wing. For my fellow hockey players, it's basically a mouth guard for your slot car.

The beauty of this ultra simple and cost effective modification is that it looks great too. I'll post a couple of on-track pictures to give you a look at the final result. I hope this saves a few wings out there.

Enjoy.

Here's some pictures of what the Wing Saver looks like on the track.

Not too shabby.

Looks great.. hate to mention that I think you posted in the wrong forum. :p

-Robbie

I thought this would be most relevant to racers, since most collectors are not going to be gluing anything to their cars. We'll see...:)

Open to suggestions for a more appropriate forum. I'm sure Hank can move more than just mountains.

I think that would mess up aerodynamics and front wing downforce.

AfxToo, I'd like to thank you for the post, good idea. Another way to skin that cat is super glue a thin piece of carbon fiber to the underside and dremel to fit. Have a great raceday. Tuckmaster.

tight off, are you THE Tuckmaster?

I had the pleasure to try the Steely and I was most impressed. Smooth cannot describe the essence of that track.

About the wing saver, the basic idea came to me and I was rummaging around the man cave looking for exactly the kind of thing you are talking about. The blister pack caught my eye and it worked out pretty well. It works even better with clear RTV as the adhesive. Yeah, carbon fiber would be the bomb, but I didn't have any laying around. I'm doing up some Tycos now.

Thanks!

Yeah it's me. When and where did you run the Steely. Also how far from Ravenna OH are you located. I currently have the track at www.freddieshobbies.com and I will pay your entry if you can make a race. Thankyou for your compliment on my track. We are running stock 440x2 open wheel, full body, hard rubber .460 minimum. The only upgrade is a pro pin. I believe it takes an hour or two to get the hang of racing on steel. We race on wed. at 6:00. Started three weeks ago, 1st. race 58, 2nd. race 67, 3rd. race 75 I think you can see my point. You can stay up on the program by going to "Slots at Freddies" on this thread. As always, have a great raceday. Tuckmaster

Send me an email.

AfxToo, did you get my email?

Yes, just got back from a race. I'll be in touch.