This time HO scale. My friend & I have been working on a nice layout in his ba*****t. Last night we got the lap counter working & I just had to spread the news. The layout: 4 lane HO on a 16'x8' table, with 108.6 ft. of track, with two 1/4 circle 45 degree banked turns & one half circle 45 degree banked turn. Electronic computer-run lap counter from hoslotcarracing.com (free software - kicks ***! - works with any scale). With the stock-bodied AFX cars we could turn just under 8 seconds. My best lap with a clear bodied AFX was 7.110. I have a Patriot that turned 6.820, & my friend has a *hot* Super G3 that I set the record with at 6.500. BTW one lap at 6.950 showed 718.44 *average* scale MPH. ;^D (didn't notice the MPH on the record lap) To keep this on-topic for the HAMB - I have a '36 Ford coupe body that I'll be mounting soon & will post pics when I do. Just can't decide what color to paint it: It has to be a bright color to be able to see it at these speeds, so black is out. It's a full-fendered car so I was thinking tan for the body & brown fenders, or white with flames, or.... I'll post better pics of the track & some cars soon as well as a screen shot of the software. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Easy on the Giggle Cream!
I raced a few years ago (8 or 9) and a local guy had a 120' 4 lane track in his ba*****t. I had (actually still have) several modified cars as well as a few stockers. I went to a buddies house thinking I was going to clean up with the modifieds. The real hot one wouldn't run on a stock powerpack track. 1 The magnets that keep it on the track were too strong to move it. 2 There wasn't enough power to make it move.
If you still have it & want to run it you can pull the track magnets & it will still run & handle great. My friend had one like that too. BTW we're running 22 volt Tyco power packs (one on each lane, of course). ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" "James Lewis - get away from that wheelbarrow; you know you don't know nothin' about machinery!"
Im 56, and I still remember my HO racing days in High School....we use to buy Atlas 36 ford bodies and cut them down to look like dirt modified coups at the local tracks.....I still got one.....lots of good memories and I still have some of the guys as friends......stan
I'm 52. I raced "NCC group racing" (HO scale) one year when I was 18 with a hand built anglewinder Superbird. Came in 4th - just two points away from a 3rd place trophy. Always won concourse with the 'bird with it's hand painted detailed dash & STP "stickers" (in all three colors). I still have my old cars too. I've built a lot of bodies with a "Vac-u-form" toy using Hot Wheels, but they are a little thin & get pretty busted up after racing a couple months. I now have several cool comercialy made bodies to work with. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Why do they call it reckless driving if it causes wrecks?
Nice setup, my son and I got a few of HO cars but we got a bunch of 1/24th scale stuff we raced on the circuit a couple of years ago. If I ever get moved to my new place (hopefully next year) I plan on building a small track I can run my 1/32 and 1/24th cars on.
Here is a pic of my track. 46'-7" track length. Built by Brad Bowman. With Patriots we can lap it in about 3 seconds. Also threw in a pic of the T-jets and the power supply.
Thumper: My friend has the larger scale shtuff too. He had a 1/32 track on this table but it wasn't near as much fun as the HO - plus we have 4 lanes. Takes up a LOT of space for a 4 lane setup in 1/24th. Onefish: Very nice track. How are the Patriots working out for you? The one I have was a dog untill I discovered that the magnets were rubbing: I squeezed a little tape into the top to hold the magnets down in place & finally got some quick lap times. The little clip that holds the magnets in place is a joke. It still dosen't have ceramic magnets or a rewound armature yet, & after running around 50 laps or so it's slowed quite a bit (even with new pickup shoes). Wish I had a way to take good pics; I have several cars that I'm sure folks would like to see. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing.
Hey just noticed you're not too far from my friend's. He's just up I-85 towards the swap meet. You gonna be there tomorrow? ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver"
I was planning on going...........but I busted up my bad knee Thursday and I'm kinda outa commission right now . Yeah, I'm right around the corner from some of the guys.
Factory Porsche driver from the 2003 ALMS season, Sasha M***an, regularly competes in races with other drivers. He told me about a 24hr race they did to commemorate LeMan's. Said it was a blast! Too Bad we can't have ba*****ts in Florida. JT
Here's the kind of slot car tracks that really got me going in the 60's. Hope to see it here again someday like it is Brazil. These tracks happen to be in NY. There is much more in Brazil and Venezuela... I suppose with all the F1 fans down there it makes sense. But really it's much more fun for the kids and adults than all this X box PS2 stuff...
Of course; all us old farts drove on those. But they're kinda hard to fit in most folks' ba*****ts, & cost too much too. The great thing about PS2 & X-Box (& the others), is that they don't take up much space. Ever ran fast cars in Gran Turismo with good compe***ors using a windshield view? Hard to get the adreneline up much higher than that! ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" You talkin' dirty or hep?
i used to work at a hobby store that sold stock HO cars....there were about 10 older (older to me back when I was 15) fellas that would come in and place orders of well over 1k for arms, contacts, neo magnets, etc., etc.... I alway heard that they had a mega track in their garage........i think it was their drinking escape.... anyway, i used to have tons of track and cars.....when people would return them to the store after Christmas, i would buy them from the owner of the store when he received credit from the companies...... well, i sold it all to the fellas that the big setup....they always invited me to come but i always heard the law usually got called and my dad wouldn't appreciate bailing me out at 2am..... where do you guys get the banked track? does it have the same connector the tyco, afc, etc, has? it has been a long time since i've raced HO car... just remember the other ho experience... we used to live in an old 2 story house, every winter when it was too cold to go outside and ride my minibike, dad would setup the old Matchbox HO set in our unheated upstairs. he used a kerosene heater to warms the place. the matchbox didn't have magnets to hold them to the track and you could slide around the corners. i remember that it ran off of 6 volts and dad would use an old battery charger to power the track, ironically, Stompers had the same armatures the 6v cars did, but the stomper's arms were for 1.5volts....they would screeeeem on 6v and just once in a while dad, when i was getting ready to hit the straights, would click 12v for just a second and man, oh man.....I thought i was setting speed records... of course i wanted to run on 12v all the time but they would fry the arms in just a second or so.......
You guys don't know what you're missing! You need to get some T-jets! We have a 16x5 four laner in our ba*****t. While we do have some very mean magnet cars, we almost exclusively race Thunderjets. It's my other vintage car hobby. If you've never run a race prepped 'jet before you have got to give it a try. They are plenty fast, and you cant beat the tail-sliding action. I also race in the Vintage HO Racing Series (VHORS) when possible. Just a bunch of guys racing tjets at a number of local tracks. It's a blast.
Flathead Youngin'; We used tyco 9" banked turns & AFX 12" banked turns (on the outside). We couldn't find adaptors from tyco to afx so we made or own; cutting straights & gluing them together. BuickinaBucket; None of my T-Jets run anymore. I have some full-bore ones too with br*** belly pans, silver pickups & motor brushes, rewound armatures, stronger magnets, clear bodies, threaded axle aluminum wheels w/silicone tires, etc. I also have the other non-magnet cars like riggen & my homebuilts. They haven't run in decades. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" You braggin' or complainin'?
I had a small 5'x12' ovel in my garage for 1/32 and 1/24 last winter. Some of my budys and I had a blast with it. Another friend has a 65' track in his basment and there is a slot car track in Fremount Nebr were we go to alot and race. I sold my small track and built a 47' L shaped 8 or lazy 8 as they are called. I got busy and havent got my new track painted and braided yet. but it will be done this summer. I have a computer for the new track to run races it should be a blast. Here is my old track and some of my cars on the new track
The Jalopy Journal
