Tasman Cup. General Discussion

[Stubbo]

Here we go.

 

This is the place to discuss anything you want about the Tasman Series.

[lenny broke]

Thanks for setting up this thread Alan. I was thinking along these lines this morning. You should be able to transfer all that guff over here via your moderator control panel. I don't have moderator rights in this sub forum otherwise i could have done it.

[Terry]

Thanks Stubbo, this is a good idea.

 

 

Now, is it me or have other rivet counters noticed a lack of detail in this years cars?

 

Alarmingly it seems that fewer cars are fitted with shock absorbers and springs and some cars are appearing with skeletal like drivers.

 

Surprisingly these cosmetic add ons do not affect car speed and performance, and I'm sure that if we can all go that extra bit of effort it would enhance the overall appearance of the field.

 

Just a little observation.

[Terry]

Sorry, but I've been thinking about my above post and would like to add a bit more............

 

Could this be considered?

 

To promote the need to "smarten up" our cars why can't we incorporate a "Concours" element to future series?

 

Something like judging the cars at the start of the series,

 

Possibly judging cars on all aspects of presentation such as , mirrors, paint schemes and proper numbers, detailing of drivers, suspension detail, appropriate wheel inserts and general overall stance and appearance,

 

The Concours need only to be judged at the beginning of the series, thus ensuring the cars are at their best, whatever points are awarded to your car would be added to the point score at the completion of the series,

 

Be interesting to hear what others may be thinking

[Big Mick2]

Terry

 

"The Concours need only to be judged at the beginning of the series, thus ensuring the cars are at their best, whatever points are awarded to your car would be added to the point score at the completion of the series,

 

Be interesting to hear what others may be thinking"

 

Plafit have been doing that for a long time with the classic class, points system for detail then lap score for a combined total seems to work for them if the dreaded super tuners want their "kudos" they will need to add such things going forwards to be competitive

 

Regards

 

Big Mick

Edited June 19, 2019 by Big Mick2

[Peter Gunn]

Never been a rivet counter but do like to turn out a reasonably good looking car , which i think looking at most of the cars others do as well, but not sure about concours , from my experiance with that i found some great cars detail and finish was fantastic even down to buttons on top pockets that sort of thing , but they never got raced in anger as they would have suffered in the normal cut and thrust of racing .

I suppose the answer might be a half way house , looking over the rules they seem to cover most of what's being said or though , so perhaps just using the rules might help to improve things Terry.

Now in the chassis department we have anything from great looking chassis to heath robinson designs which is fair enough in my book , i only get to see pictures of other cars never seen a video of them racing as a bunch to see what the overall effect is , but from the pictures most look fine , did not notice about springs and things as i wasn't looking for that detail, but fair point Terry now i have looked can see some have and some haven't , there are a couple of cars i really do like suspension detail wise.

One thing i think we all have to think about though is a series like the Tasman carrying on into the fiture , can the Tasman afford to start loosing entrants through details , what do we have this year round about 20 plus ,it,s mostly stalwarts who have been doing it a few years, can the series start taking losses say of 5 or 6 cars , so in my opinion it,s a compromise, like most things in slot car racing or life , now where's my bacon sarnie.

[Stubbo]

Slo1quick and I have discussed some of these topics on and off for a few years.

 

"Concourse". I have never been that keen to have concourse points count in the main game. I think that should just be for the racing. So maybe an award for the "best in show" or "Directors Choice" or similar prior to the start of racing. A similar type of thing to the "FPR Chassis award". If concourse was to count in the result it may well turn some people off. I feel that may have contributed in some way to the decline of the VRAA.

 

Control motors. Not on the agenda. Some motors come and go, some are not available at all times so a choice is always going to give everyone a chance to enter. Again I look at the VRAA where it was almost impossible at a point in time to get BWA motors. So people just didn't enter.

 

Regarding chassis'. For way too long I was using chassis' built by slo1quick. I never really thought I could make them myself. But this year I did make my own and I was surprised at how much fun I had doing it, I was able to fashion some shockers for it and I thought it went sort of OK (I did cock up on the tyres). So now I am already looking at doing better next year. So I can see a time where Lenny's customers will start building their own. It is inevitable.

[charlesx]

Hi all.

 

As I said in an earlier post on R5 thread I believe newcomers are given a little leeway with the finer details with their earlier efforts. I fully support this initiative. Such cars would I imagine only have to provide basic suspension detail - minimum say basic/single suspension arms, mirrors, driver, windscreen, air intakes and exhaust if visible.

 

After the first year or perhaps two however I would expect to see a fair representation of major suspension components including springs. No sure about concours. I think Terry's suggestion of a halfway house or my fair representation would be a very satisfactory level and not discourage any person interested in running in such an event.

 

Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx)

 

PS. Like what Stubbo has said.

Edited June 19, 2019 by charlesx

[John FPR7]

From one who put detail ahead of speed ( like high exhaust on the Elfin ) I do vote for some form of concours award - but not counting to the speed section of the proxy. I will hope to continue the FPR constructors award . For this award the whole package is taken into account

appearance, innovation and good performance .

I will announce the winner for this year on Saturday .

[Brumos RSR]

Sorry Gentelmen, my suspension pieces broke in transit but I will attempt to rebuild and add more detail next year

[David Micham]

Hi Alan

 

As you might expect I'd support a concours but separate from the racing.

 

I think its quite difficult for 'overseas' entrants to be competitive as we have no experience of Australian track conditions and what works and what doesn't. My cars are usually quick on UK tracks and have done well in proxies here. I have no problem with being un-competitive and try to learn from each event so my car is better next time. It would be good though to have an added incentive such as a concours. Yes I'm a bit of a rivet counter and proud of it!!

 

Best Regards

 

David

[charlesx]

Hi all. Sorry to hear about your breakages Brumos. Better packing next time perhaps or did you strike rough handling/package damage. All I know is I have been sending cars away for last 7-8 years and have never had a breakage. A couple of mirrors on track perhaps but not in transit. This includes to Greece, Aussy, Canada and the USA.

 

While I am not a great fan of concours I like your approach John. Perhaps more aimed at the effort made rather than pure modelling skills as few us can aspire to David Micham's level.

 

Regards Chas Le Breton

Edited June 19, 2019 by charlesx

[Slotspeed]

Hi all. As I said in an earlier post on R5 thread I believe newcomers are given a little leeway with the finer details with their earlier efforts. I fully support this initiative. Such cars would I imagine only have to provide basic suspension detail - minimum say basic/single suspension arms, mirrors, driver, windscreen, air intakes and exhaust if visible. After the first year or perhaps two however I would expect to see a fair representation of major suspension components including springs. No sure about concours. I think Terry's suggestion of a halfway house or my fair representation would be a very satisfactory level and not discourage any person interested in running in such an event. Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx) PS. Like what Stubbo has said.

 

I am interested in building a car for entry and this kind of comment makes me feel a bit better about building my first car. I have no modelling experience apart from glueing plastic kits together and fixing RC models and slot cars as a kid but have lots of mechanical experience so mechanical things are no problem, just learning what modelling and engineering concepts work and what drivetrain components to use might be the challenge. I already have an ebay FF050 motor that I think has the same markings as what is accepted (mabuchi with 170 turns windings etc) I have zero budget (have only bought one slot car in the last year) so this is a good project for me I think! The first thing that comes to mind as an outsider is that the wishbones, trailing arms and springs and exhaust should be represented somehow, I suppose mirrors and head would be useful! Hoping to re-use an old Scaley body from the late 60's that is floating around here somewhere, assuming it is of a type that appeared in the Tasman series, I will know when I find it (can't even remember but it was a red F1 I think, might have been a lotus but can't remember for sure)

 

I may not ever get the car built but the intention to do so is there so I guess that intention may prove to be useless, time will tell!

 

Cheers,

Steve, Sydney NSW.

 

Edit: Just realised being red that shell I was talking about was probably not a lotus!

Edited June 19, 2019 by Slotspeed

[charlesx]

Would be great to welcome you aboard Slotspeed. Suspension detail depends quite a bit on prototype. I do not think the rules and their general interpretation are too onerous and new entrants as stated are usually given a bit more leeway.

 

More than happy to send you photos of some of my efforts - not that I am particularly skilled but I do try. I am one of those people who have the best of intentions but usually fall a bit short quality wise. Please PM me if I can be of any further help. If you look first at one of the Tasman Cup build or technical threads you should see plenty of good photos.

 

Motor wise I am not sure about your purchase as there are a great variety of FF050's out there. The ones we use are at the lower end 16000 - 18000rpm. This year we were allowed to use the SRP16000, SRP18000 or what has become know as the Tasman 1790. I believe Phil K has a ready supply of the latter. The SRP16000 is no longer available but the SRP18000 is usually from the MRRC supplier. These motors are usually very cheap - $10-12.

 

See you live in Sydney. There may also be a local entrant who could show you the ropes. Scalextric produced cars in all kinds of colours so I would not let that sway you. Remember though that it is 1961 to 1965 so the Lotus 16 would not be eligible. Another option is the resin bodies that are available from the likes of Phil K in Tasmania.

 

Best of luck with your endeavours. See you on the grid next year. Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx)

[Terry]

Sorry but I didn't know where to put this.....

 

Does anyone have a copy of the 2018 results from Masonite Mountain?

 

Which I think was round 7 last year

 

Thanks for any help

 

Terry

[sdeamon]

hi terry there was no results just over all what you see on the forum was it

[Stubbo]

There were results put up. I just looked back and they were there but the image hosting site no longer shows them.

 

Terry, I have just redone them via Imagur so grab a copy while you can. I have also edited the race 7 post from last year.

 

[sdeamon]

thanks stubbo at second look this came up on the page

[Terry]

Thanks Alan,

 

Got it now

[Pauls Slots]

Seems my little BRM did not fair well at Alan's.

May be she needs some repairs any chance to have a look and get back to us Al.

 

Paul

[lenny broke]

Hi Paul,

Sorry the cars have already left for Melbourne. I don't think there's anything wrong with the car mechanically. The boys didn't make any mention of a problem to me. I think they may have had some issues with the cars handling as the track gripped up. There's a fair bit of clearance underneath so maybe the GOG is a bit high. One of the drivers may be able to comment further.

[Big Mick2]

It was a strange day for racing that is for sure.

 

Some cars felt way better than they did the week before at FPR some way worse

 

Cars I felt fell of a cliff after traveling from Lockleys to Semaphore Park

 

Brumos 22

Lenny Broke 4

Paul slots

BigMick2 to a lesser degree just felt sluggish to me

And If I did not know better I would say the John Batich car 88 had completely different tyres was way lose in most corners after being so direct the week before and the series looking at results

 

Cars that seemed to get a new level of grip at Spitfire

 

Mondeo41 was the best car on track on red lane IMHO

PDaniels

And Peter Gunn had much better handling on the "sweeper" type corners so prevalent at Spitfire more than at FPR

 

Confused me I am still scratching my head, As for my own car this was the track I expected it to be a world beater at with the long legs but struggled to get that power down for me despite a quite good result,

I have never subscribed to that it is cold and raining thing affecting slot cars before but now

 

Hope it is a nice warm day at Masonite Mountain

 

Regards

Big Mick

[Stubbo]

Mick, Welcome to the land of confusion.

 

Over the years I have seen many things that seem to have no rational explanation. That is the joy of a proxy series. You don't know what you will get from one round to the next.

 

By the way. A warm day in Victoria in July? Yeah right!

[Big Mick2]

By the way. A warm day in Victoria in July? Yeah right!

 

​Wishful

thinking

[Peter Gunn]

I can remember when i was racing at club level and we did inter club meetings , a lot depended on the weather and if a club was using a tyre treatment or not , most tyre treatments in my day were fairly universal but all left a slight coating on wood tracks ( even thought it was not visible in some cases ) which certain weather conditions like heat the impregnated wood would allow the treatment to seap to the surface .

It was not always visible as well but you could tell by the behaviour of the cars especially in quali which was earlier in the day and the racing that tended to be later in the day.

Now i have no idea what people use in their general racing on these tracks but these are the sort of things that we found out in the past, and i,m just wondering if something similar affected the cars between quali and racing .

If memory serves me i qualied in 17th but in the race finished 8th, just my thoughts from past experiance but model slot cars tend to react to a warm enviroment and a rubbered up track just like real cars do.