Newsletters from Wes

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Keld
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Newsletters from Wes

Post by Keld »

Hi All,
Further to our race meeting last week, we decided to modify the track outer lines where possible to encourage the use of the racing line and also to add overtaking possibilities.
Photos show work in progress and final results.
Jan 13 mods and tyres 002.JPG
Jan 13 mods and tyres 002.JPG (266.18 KiB) Viewed 23615 times
As you can see, if car 4 overshoots and runs wide, it will loose time and car
5 may overtake.
Jan 13 mods and tyres 009.JPG
Jan 13 mods and tyres 009.JPG (241.83 KiB) Viewed 23615 times
Jan 13 mods and tyres 010.JPG
Jan 13 mods and tyres 010.JPG (232.46 KiB) Viewed 23615 times
All cars were running with pvc tape tyres and there was some debate afterwards
which led to experimentation and a possible solution which provides perhaps 20% more
grip combined with low cost, simplicity and most importantly consistency.
This surprisingly is paper masking tape! This is easy to apply and the crepe
type finish provides more than enough grip.
Jan 13 mods and tyres 015.JPG
Jan 13 mods and tyres 015.JPG (235.08 KiB) Viewed 23615 times
The usual cream colour seemed a bit of a problem but a black felt tip sorted this without affecting the surface grip.
The 2 cars tested so far have run about 30 minutes without any obvious loss of grip. When they run down to the adhesive, the grip may even increase!
The downside of faster cornering speeds is that the benefits of the racing line
tend to diminish and the possibilites of overtaking through a turn as previously
described become more difficult so we suspect that grip wise this is definately
as far as we would recommend. More racing tomorrow night will hopefully confirm this.

Bye for now Wes R
/Keld
oldslotracer
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Joined: Sat 22. Dec 2012 18:29

Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by oldslotracer »

All 6 of my cars lap our track in about 12 seconds right now. I tried a couple with the masking tape on the rear tires and it knocked about 1 second off the lap time. I think I'll run half the cars with the masking and half without, because the faster cars are trickier to drive. We'll find out on Friday night, I guess.
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Keld
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Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Keld »

yes day for test, I have 8 cars with electrical tape,we could try masking tape on some of them later today.
/Keld
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Lasp
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Location: Helsingborg, Sweden

Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Lasp »

Very good tip.
This is Wath I want from a forum, tip and inspiration.
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Keld
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Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Keld »

One more newsletter fron wes
Greetings all, Attached is a photo showing mods. to Linford 1 circuit. The
baseboard nearest the camera was extended some 4 inches (100mm) to enable
the default outer lane to be pushed further out into the 'sand'. Car 1 is just
leaving the pit lane, car 3 has overshot through the sand and car 4 is on the
racing line. The pit exit does in fact cross the outer lane wire. No problem
providing the angle is not too acute, say 30 degree minimum. There is a gap
of approx. 4mm in the pit lane wire each side of the outer lane wire which
was not cut and this seems fine unless you run very slowly when the car
will switch to follow the outer lane. A small section cut out of the outer
lane wire would cure this.
Re arrows on the track, we know where the lane change points are but we
have many visiting drivers who of course would not know if the arrows
were not there.
We have had a cold winter here in the U.K. and the cars are usually left
in the track room which is detached and unheated and frequently cars
would not run after a cold night. A few hours indoors and all would work
but we now take them inside at night. Must be condensation of some sort
my electronics guru says.
Re bodyshells, longer chassis, etc., this project was funded from my
retirement savings and everything had to be designed for the lowest
possible cost. If the hobby continues to flourish, many improvements
can be made but we had to start somewhere . And maybe I will be able
to afford that new car I've put off for 5 years! The chassis length is correct for the fairly small 1970's sports cars and
it was considered important to get everything into the shortest wheelbase
first so that longer wheelbases would be relatively easy.
Enjoy your racing, Wes R
image.jpg
image.jpg (453.41 KiB) Viewed 23550 times
/Keld
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Double Naught
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Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Double Naught »

Hi All, We tried the masking tape as recommended by Wes last night. I put some of the 3M green tape I use for spray painting on the tires and the performance was about the same as the electrical tape, no real change. Then I colored the tape with a Sharpie and almost doubled the traction! After 10 minutes of running the traction would start to go away and if you re coated the tape with the Sharpie the traction would come back. We noticed the the ink was being transferred to the track surface.

Any ideas about what the ink does to the tape?

Paul
Raudi1
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Location: Covington, Washington , USA

Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Raudi1 »

Hmmm... Apparently the hot setup for qualifying ... Frog tape and a sharpe... Wonder if orange ink would give even better traction.
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Keld
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Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Keld »

Wes sent out another newsletter, as always I just post it here for him:
Hi Magracers,

The big news today is the introduction of reverse for Magracers.
We initially discounted reverse believing it would add considerably to the costs.
We recently discovered that we could have had reverse for no extra cost!

Annoying for us because it means some modification costs and annoying for customers who may wish to upgrade.
This is a major improvement however.
Given good track design, cars can now be driven back onto the track from any 'off' situation.
This means that marshals will no longer be needed for racing or practice and that tracks will not have to be designed with marshal access in mind.
Driving one's car back on to the track is more rewarding and much fairer than having to wait for a marshal.
It does require practice however in remembering which way to turn the steering wheel!
We are not sure yet what will be involved with upgrade kits but we will do our best to minimize the costs.
Production has been stopped whilst the necessary modifications are made and we hope to restart this week-end.


Following the mods. to Linford 1 Circuit, the chicane has been further modified and is now a much faster S bend.
The aim is to give drivers more work to do!.
Photos show work in progress and the finished track.
The important point to note is that, to achieve the racing line, cars must be steered left and quickly to
the right. This is challenging to the drivers.
The outer lane briefly joins the inner lane so both these moves are also lane changes.

Track features which require quick left and right steering are important on any circuit. Left, right and again left is even better!

Should have some video of reverse in action soon.

We have also attached a photo from our last letter but with the lane/wire lines arrowed in.
These 3 lines are all you need.
The overshoot line encourages drivers to drive properly or loose time but it also provides a 'run off' for cars entering the corner too fast and keeps them on the track and it is also useful for novice drivers to move out of the way of faster drivers coming up behind.

Enjoy your Magracing,

Wes R
Linford 1 mods 004 with text.jpg
Linford 1 mods 004 with text.jpg (416.62 KiB) Viewed 23468 times
Linford 1 mods 2 002.JPG
Linford 1 mods 2 002.JPG (130.19 KiB) Viewed 23468 times
Linford 1 mods 007.JPG
Linford 1 mods 007.JPG (291.96 KiB) Viewed 23468 times
/Keld
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Keld
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Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Keld »

Hi All, The introduction of reverse is keeping us busy! Almost
every page of the website has alterations needed to remove
references to track marshals! Also the auto power cut off in
the pistol TX has had to be removed so references to this need
altering. You will now need to remove the battery after use.
I have also been busy, whilst waiting for new parts, replacing
over 50 steel screws in our tracks with stainless ones. It was,
of course, possible before to get a car stuck occasionally on
a screw but now, with reverse, cars spend more time
being free steered on the 'grass' instead of being picked up
by marshals and, whilst getting stuck is still a rarity, it could
spoil your race!
Reverse is proving particularly useful for myself, as chief
tester!, because, as our tracks are quite large, an 'off' on the
far side of the track means quite a walk round the track. I do
spend quite some time testing new cars, new tyre treatments,
lap counter mods, etc.
I appreciate that most people's tracks are smaller so this
advantage is not so apparent but for larger tracks, the
ability for 2 or 3 people to race without marshals is a
major step forward.
I have spoken with our electronics engineer re. cost for
reverse and he wants 11euro ($15)per car for the mods to the rx and
reprogramming rx and tx and we need 6euro($9) for new tx mouldings'
springs, extra magnets in the car, etc. We will strip and
re-assemble and test for no charge. VAT must be added
for EU countries. Postage will be at cost, dependent on
the quantity.
We will need everything except bodies.
Our engineer needs at least 10 cars together to do the work
so it is difficult to give a turn round time.
It would probably be best if you mail us if you want these
mods. and I will advise you when to send the cars.
Regards from Magracing, Wes Raynor
/Keld
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Lasp
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Re: Newsletters from Wes

Post by Lasp »

I hop that the MailLetter from WesR reach you all!
Here is the latest from 15 april.

Hello Magracers, Firstly we have a new video, Racing Line Demo. (You Tube)
It's on the theme of the racing line again which I know we keep on about but
I do feel that this is perhaps the most significant improvement over
both digital slots and small r/cs as these also cannot be steered to
an accurate racing line. I appreciate that most
people do not have the space for tracks the size of our two tracks but I
would always recommend something with challenging left, right and
left turns and enforced racing line corners. These features have maintained
my enjoyment when racing alone and today I spent some 75mins and 350
laps testing tyres and batteries and still finished the session looking for
the perfect lap and fastest lap time.
The session was because we had not really tested the reverse/braking
electronics for battery consumption. I mention braking because the
cars now have a small degree of braking on the overrun and I wanted
to check that this was not using any current.
I need not have worried. The first run, with our Alfa No.4 ran for over
30 minuits and was still posting the same lap times when I decided
it was time for some tea! This car has the masking tape tyres and
has had at least one hour at race speeds with no decline in grip which
is quite amazing.
Whilst we feel that this tyre finish is exactly right, we appreciate
that some would like to see a perhaps more conventional tyre and
wheel and we have recently been looking again at a tyre which
we considered a year or so ago. This is a light but very firm black
synthetic foam called EVA. The grip is similar to masking tape
and we would be happy with this. We like the idea of supplying
cars ready to race instead of needing work to be done. The
downside is that we would need new rear wheels (these would
be made with the holes to match the fronts) and these and
seperate rear tyres would add to the car price.
We are working on production savings and have recently reduced
prices slightly so I guess a small increase could be born. We would
be interested to hear what you think. We will probably continue
this theme in the 'Forum' and any thoughts there would be
appreciated.
Photo of tyres attached and new battery. More of this in
'MAGracing Forum'
Happy Magracing! Wes R

___________
Lasp
Attachments
Rubber tyres=batt mod. (3).jpg
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