MAGracing Forum

I've been trying experiments with different lane change setups. On my first two tracks, the lane changes had exactly 2mm between the exit wires. The lane changes work well, but not every time. I found that making the gap closer to 1mm makes the lane change work every time. What are the drawbacks?

I would have thought the drawback would be inconsistent lane changing but if
it works Jim, thats all that matters
One thing I have realised of late, whilst building the new oval track, is that
it is very important for the cars to be running perfectly straight when entering the l/c.
I had a problem with the heavier saloon cars, running at high speeds, 'shimmying or fishtailing' at the lane change point which affected reliability. I eventually solved this by upgrading the wire to .036", which is what we had in the early Linford One road circuit. This is just on the straight but it did eliminate 'fishtailing' and lane changing is now 100%.
Lane changing is affected by speed of course and generally speaking the faster the
l/c position in the track, you either need a longer l/c plate or increased wire gaps
into or out of it, or, as Jim has done, reduce the gap between the outgoing wires.
I also had a close look at our Linford 2 circuit main straight and decided that the wire
was, in some places, not flush with the track surface. I spent some time sanding down the surface with a flat block until the wire showed through the paint. Despite this being a card filled section of track, and the card being slightly thinner than the wire, the wire was, in some places definately below the track surface. The end result was complete elimination of any fishtailing and well worth the effort.

Sanding the track with flat block just wider than a car.