Thursday, September 28, 2006

Post mortem on my Proxy Maserati


So finally the Maser I entered in the Race Across America gave up the ghost. I entered a car I knew was incompletely tested...and it performed that way.

The Scalex Maserati is a car that many have said they just can't get to work the way they'd like... Originally I thought that I'd over power this car, thinking that the large body could "aborb" the extra power of the Scale Auto "Red Can". A few laps on the East New York Raceway quickly showed me I was wrong. So a Slot It 25k seemed like a good way to go. The motor has been glued in...and I'm not sure that I remember that I did that.

I put in large diameter Slot It wheels, Ortmann tires, hollow rear axle and 30 toother red crown Slot It. One account, given by none other than Alan Smith himself was that the car hopped so badly it was nearly undriveable. I'm thinking a poor choice of gearing is to blame for this. And speaking of gearing, there is lots of wear on the pinion here...

But the dampening or should I say sticker on the bottom may help that hopping since it would retard the motor pod tilting.

Nothing much going on inside the body though...lots of Ortmann dust caked inside!

In the end it was these wires crossing, causing a short that made me pull the plug.

But in the end I'm laying the blame squarely on Wet Coast Racer for not heeding the instructions on the bottom of the chassis for a poor showing in his stage of the RAA...

...ok, not really.

DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News & Proxy Racing Nutball!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was there, that may have been the problem during Paul's leg of the race. Of course, he had the shiny side down so he could see your instructions more clearly.

Not sure about this hopping business, was nice and smooth at Paul's.

Robert Livingston said...

The car hopped on braking at East New York, where the "developmental" testing took place. Sometimes it hopped so bad when braking that it jumped out of the slot. I found that if I tightened up the brass screw at the rear of the motor pod, the hopping was decreased.

I think the red 30t gear may have been good with the 28k Red Can, but the Slot.It 25k would have been better off with a 24t or something to give about a 3:1 ratio. I think it has an 8 tooth pinion, which usually wear in the pattern shown in the photo.