Tasman Cup 2012 - Work In Progress

[chenglaw]

Since things are pretty quiet at the moment, I spent the last couple of days working on my Tasman Cup entry and here's where I am now:

 

 

Still quite a bit more to go - number decals, suspension details(?), wheel inserts, track testing and final setup, but I'll get there eventually. One thing I learnt during this build - do not try to press a tight fitting pinion onto the shaft of a Solarbotics motor - they're not as hard as the standard Mabuchi units. Man am I glad Slo1quick sent me 2 of the motors - otherwise I'll still be trying to figure out how to straighten out the bent shaft on the inside of the motor without actually opening it up!

 

Hope I'll get better results with it than my Lotus 18 in the VRAA.

Edited February 25, 2012 by chenglaw

[Slo]

Coming along nicely Lim !

I pre to use a clearance fit pinion on the solarbotic and glue it with loctite rather than the press fit pinions, as the shaft does not extend past the back of the motor.

[chenglaw]

Right, Stu, that's what I did with the second motor, drilled out the pinion hole so that it's a sliding fit and loctited it to the shaft and it's running OK now.

[munter]

Nice Lim.

Your chassis shows one main rail?

 

I have to confess to muntering a few ff motors that way myself.

[chenglaw]

Yes John, I see you've noticed. Just an experiment - will know if it works when I test drive it later today. If it doesn't, there's still time to make changes.

[munter]

But Lim....its not down the centre of the chassis.

[chenglaw]

Yup, I know. I wanted to see what effect it will have on the handling in the right and left turns and whether it will offset torque steer. That's why we experiment, isn't it?

Edited February 26, 2012 by chenglaw

[Slo]

Yup, I know. I wanted to see what effect it will have on the handling in the right and left turns and whether it will offset torque steer. That's why we experiment, isn't it?

 

So... how does it work or is that 'classified information' ?

[munter]

Yes Lim we do experiment and push the boundaries.....when I first saw a mototrcycle with a single swingarm I thought "no way"

but I am happy to be wrong.

[chenglaw]

Yup, I know. I wanted to see what effect it will have on the handling in the right and left turns and whether it will offset torque steer. That's why we experiment, isn't it?

 

So... how does it work or is that 'classified information' ?

No Stu, no secrets, after all we're here to learn. I was a little disappointed and surprised - the BRM behaved and handled like a normal chassised car. I had expected some slewing to one side in the corners, but no it stayed in the slot with all 4 wheels on the track. The surprise was at the speed of the Solarbotics - I tried to keep the weight of the BRM down as much as I can and with Solarbotics powering it, it was like a rocket out of the corners and even held its own against a Scaley 18-k FF powered Renault F1 down the track's 6-metre straight! In fact, if the straight was another metre or so longer, I dare say the BRM with its 2.6:1 gearing would have passed the Renault with its standard Scaley 3:1 gearing. Track power was 12v, 3 amps per lane - pretty standard fare. Arising out of this test, I am undecided whether to enter the car with this chassis or try another one with some changes to the connecting rail as there's still plenty of time to experiment. A pity I crocked the other Solarbotics as it would be easy to just build another chassis and put in the spare motor and run back to back comparisons without mucking around with motor changes.

Edited February 27, 2012 by chenglaw

[Stubbo]

I am unashamedly stealing this idea from SlotsNZ.

 

“All entrants are to send an “above shot” picture of their entry with the body off, so everyone may see the chassis setup. This is to reduce the temptation for people to remove your body to see how you built it.”

 

Here is a sample of what we mean.

 

 

We think it is a really good idea and would like to embrace it for the Tasman Series. More so for all the participants to see how the more experienced guys build their chassis and hopefully that can lead to closer racing and give people a chance to improve their skills over time.

 

The proposal is that once all the entries have been received and prior to the first race we will post all the above shots in the builds thread for everyone to see.

[chenglaw]

No objections from me on this move, Alan. I think Munter was the first one to post pics of his Lotus (or was it a Brabham?) in the Entries thread and I just thought it would be a good idea to show others what I was doing and not just sitting down idly on my **s. I'm hoping this would get people moving a little more quickly and get their cars built and not leave it to the last moment, then hit problems and miss the deadline with a no-show. In fact, if we could follow the lead of the old WPR series organised by Phil and popularised in "the other forum" where most entrants posted pics of their cars in various stages of construction, it would be really great! A good deal of info and tips could be picked up by just looking at what was done.

Edited February 27, 2012 by chenglaw

[chenglaw]

Having finished the building of my car for the Tasman, I was at a bit of a loose end, so went rummaging through my box of old bodyshells and I came across these 3:

The are all fibreglass shells, made by Classic Bodyshells (now Betta & Classic) and, I believe, still available together with a few others. It is rather unfortunate that these cars are from the 1966 onwards era which covered the 3-Litre formula and are thus not eligible for either the Tasman Cup or VRAA proxies even though they are of the slim bodyshell genre. These cars were built in the transition period from the slim-bodied F1's to the later wide-bodied fire-breathing projectiles which now proliferate the F1 racing world. There are quite a few examples of these attractive unique slim F1's (like Scalextric's Lotus 49 and Eagle Weslake) which could be built up in a similar fashion to the 1961 - 65 cars which we are now running in the VRAA and Tasman.

 

It is a shame that by a strange quirk of fate that they are left out of organised races because although slim enough to fall within the spirit of the concept of the VRAA and Tasman, they, very unfortunately, come from a period which, if races are organised based on year of eligibility, would also bring in the wide-bodied cars that the concept specifically seeks to exclude. I was just wondering if there was anyone enterprising enough to organise a proxy for these "cars that are in limbo" by regulating the eligibility issue so that no wide-bodies cars can enter. I think this can be done even if we want to mix the 1961 - 65 F1's with these later cars. Just list out those slim-bodied cars of the later period to be added to the early 60's period cars. I believe there are not that many to make the task unweildly or very difficult as I think the slim-bodied cars went out of fashion after 1968/9. Or it can be done by imposing a limit on body width. This would open up a whole new avenue of interesting cars for us to race in retro proxies. We just need someone brave enough to take up the challenge!

Edited March 12, 2012 by chenglaw

[kalbfellp]

Lim you mean Formula One cars that contested the World Championship in 1966 and 1967 as a basis for a series

With rules som thing like this:

 

Maximum width of 58mm.

Front wheels and tires: Minimum diameter 19mm, minimum width 6mm (Overall width)

• Rear wheels and tires: Minimum diameter 20mm, maximum width 10mm (Overall width)

• Front and rear wheels and tires should be period appropriate and representative of the prototype that is being modeled.

Rubber or Eurethane tyres only.

Any motor mounted inline.

 

These are extracted from an Invitational race that is being run later this year, so would make a good base for a very short series very early next year.

 

Just food for thought!

[chenglaw]

Yup Phil, that's exactly what I was thinking about! And it might be possible to take it a step further and include cars from 1968 - 1969 (that's when the cars gradually began to increase in girth with the addition of side panniers) by placing a max limit on body width (excluding wheels) of say 28 or 30mm to exclude the overly wide cars. Look here for list of F1 cars with specs and photos for those 2 years.

And if there's going to be a proxy race or series for these cars, I'd sure like to hear about it! I've had those bodyshells for about 45 years and have not had a chance to make use of them! It would also give those budding bodyshell sculptors the perfect opportunity to come up with shells which we have not seen in all these years of racing slots.

[SlotsNZ]

My final pics

 

This hides "the 39 steps of frustration"

 

 

And the car went on a last minute eating binge of tungston putty, and now weighs in at a hefty 68gms

 

 

Oops, I see a shock absorber touchup I need to do....

[Stubbo]

A little box from NZ munted its way into my office this morning.

 

Wonder what it could be????

[munter]

I guess that is my cue.....

 

The photos are as flattering as I could get to hide the crap suspension attempt.

[munter]

Double post sorry

Edited March 16, 2012 by munter

[chenglaw]

John, you didn't forget to put numbers on the sides, did you? :P

[munter]

Looks like I did.....

[munter]

Lim...You had me worried that I had broken some rule but after reading them I cant see where it is stated that I must have side numbers.

 

I also realise that I have shown these pics before.......I'm having a "dumb old man" day.

[chenglaw]

Yeah, John, quite right. The rules only state "Reasonable scale appearance and representation of authentic colour/number/driver schemes" that's all. So I don't think you've got anythng to worry about. I just made that observation since most F1 cars had numbers on the side. You did post these pics under the Tasman Cup Series thread and on SCI but I don't think anyone will have issues with seeing repeat pics of nice looking cars.

[Stubbo]

Two parcels arrived today.

 

One from Biedmatt and one from Lim.

[chenglaw]

Before I ask someone what could be a stupid question, can somebody please confirm that my eyes are not playing tricks on me and that there are indeed EIGHT air intakes on the bodyshell shown in this picture: