GTR XU-1 Posted June 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 Kirk and I had a bit of a test night of sorts on Saturday night. We finished up some scenery touch ups here and there and redid some of the copper taping at the crossovers where I didnt do a very good job (which makes them now work about 95% of the time...which I think is pretty good). We both had a sting in the mustangs and camaros with the magnets. the cars have been tuned so the magnet is immediately behind the guide and sitting about an extra 1-2mm off the chasis - the overall effect is that they are very taily but sit in the slot well - particularky for the lane change mechanism. Having said that it is a bit of a fine line when pushing hard. We probably had about 2 hours of continuous testing - the track is great. No surprises but we were finding ourselves typically running in the middle two lanes as they are the safest in terms of not really any tight radii. The middle two lanes are pretty even in terms of lap times at around 7.10 seconds (the cars could be tuned to go faster though). The lap times of teh outer two lanes are on average about 0.5 secs off the pace but we did occasionally fluke a 7.2s. Overall it was good close racing between the two of us particularly when we were both in the same lane. We also tested that since we are racing crash and burn for our big nights that 5 - 10 lap races were achievable without crashing. Our first big noght is July 11 with close family and friends (more or less to test it rigorously). Will then have a follow up night with the guys at work and then another night is booked with the XU-1 club. Following that will just be regular nights (say once a month) for the more dedicated and purist racers that would be interested in mini championships etc. The only classes I will be running at the moment is teh Hystoric muscle camaros and mustangs. I have 8 fly capris but just cant seem to get them to run well at the moment. I will also need to devise an open class strictly for speed. Am getting excited and will hopefully be able to post videos of racing in anger of our first couple of nights with 8 cars!!! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 The flat bed truck arrived. It came with some authenticity certificate... for $15 and made in china how authentic can it be? I was impressed with the detail... The bonnet opens old school in parts and folds up (like gull wings that fold up)... anyway... It didn't take too long for my authentic P.O.S. truck to age a little. Before 2 hrs after opening the box... All weathering done with acrylic paints and a paint brush. I thought I'd have a bit of a crack at it with what I had at home before I messed around with weathering kits. Worst case - just order another one off ebay. I think it aged a little more than Dave was anticipating (he hasn't seen it yet)... but ultimately I found it easier to age it like bastard, than to subtly age it... so tough Dave... :strain: Kirk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver rocket Posted July 4, 2009 Report Share Posted July 4, 2009 Kirk and I had a bit of a test night of sorts on Saturday night. We finished up some scenery touch ups here and there and redid some of the copper taping at the crossovers where I didnt do a very good job (which makes them now work about 95% of the time...which I think is pretty good). We both had a sting in the mustangs and camaros with the magnets. the cars have been tuned so the magnet is immediately behind the guide and sitting about an extra 1-2mm off the chasis - the overall effect is that they are very taily but sit in the slot well - particularky for the lane change mechanism. Having said that it is a bit of a fine line when pushing hard. We probably had about 2 hours of continuous testing - the track is great. No surprises but we were finding ourselves typically running in the middle two lanes as they are the safest in terms of not really any tight radii. The middle two lanes are pretty even in terms of lap times at around 7.10 seconds (the cars could be tuned to go faster though). The lap times of teh outer two lanes are on average about 0.5 secs off the pace but we did occasionally fluke a 7.2s. Overall it was good close racing between the two of us particularly when we were both in the same lane. We also tested that since we are racing crash and burn for our big nights that 5 - 10 lap races were achievable without crashing. Our first big noght is July 11 with close family and friends (more or less to test it rigorously). Will then have a follow up night with the guys at work and then another night is booked with the XU-1 club. Following that will just be regular nights (say once a month) for the more dedicated and purist racers that would be interested in mini championships etc. The only classes I will be running at the moment is teh Hystoric muscle camaros and mustangs. I have 8 fly capris but just cant seem to get them to run well at the moment. I will also need to devise an open class strictly for speed. Am getting excited and will hopefully be able to post videos of racing in anger of our first couple of nights with 8 cars!!! Dave Hey Dave, thanks for the update, like I said before it's nice to read about other WA tracks especially digital. Digital racing really interests me & I see it as the way to go for slot cars. When the time comes myself & two other mates would be keen for some racing. Our cars aren't digital ready yet but that can soon be fixed. We are pretty cruisy down to earth guys who just love slot cars & all things racing. One mate drives a new FG F6 & my the other one drives an VE R8 Clubsport, I'm also a holden man so it keeps the rivarly going good. We also grew up in the 70's so we love all the old muscle cars as well. I don't have that many right now but that can also be soon fixed I have plans to build a wooden routed 3 lane digital in the next 6-12 months. Just gotta sell a car to make room in the shed, it's nearly ready to sell & once winter is over I'll be into it & I'll also be looking for some keen guys to come round for some good days racing. Also if you are interested I know of one or two other tracks around Perth & a few being built & we have been talking about having a suburban series maybe with a round at each persons place etc. Digital racing with pitstops where avalible, a mixture of long & sprint races, a few classes, Historic touring cars, modern day V8's, maybe rally cars & a GT or open class. Anyway keep the updates coming & like I said when you are ready I'd be keen to see your awesome track in real life. Cheers Quote I Miss Brocky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted July 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2009 Silver Rocket, Yeah, Kirk and I will be up for a bit of racing down the track. Because the track we have built is almost to a commercial level, I would like to set up an unofficial WA digital slot car club that is basically just a group of guys that want to go digital racing. No bullsh#t meetings or anything though. Just rock up and race...maybe with the social drink!!! Ultimately I want to go Scorpius or Oxigen but at the moment with a 1 yr old baby and a second one on the way it is difficult to justify spending $$$ to the boss. But the Ninco system seems to work well with a few mods (except for the damn lap timing on lanes 3 & 4...which is working again at the moment!). Dont know what type of system you were looking at? ....Even more ultimately though and further down the track, I would like to set up a commercial digital centre but that is a llloooooonnnngggg way off and needs to be done right for it to survive anyway. Anyway, We have quite a few of our mates that are keen to get into the racing. I have nearly 30 chipped camaros and mustangs so in the short term every one will just race my cars (oh gawd!). Heads will roll though if anyone is reckless with them!!! After I have this trial race night (expecting 20 odd racers) next weekend and make any required mods we can possibly sort something out. I will PM you a later on to organise something. By the way Kirk - the truck came out good.....Maybe its even more rust than my over the top rusty windmill that you used to bag out!!!! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver rocket Posted July 6, 2009 Report Share Posted July 6, 2009 Hey Dave, yeah I'm pretty much in the same position as you, got one two yeatr old & #2 will be along shortley. I'd like to get a good system & while I can afford it I just can't justify the cost so ill prolly be running a ninco or scaly-scx system with some mods untill I get the hang of digital... Quote I Miss Brocky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knoath Posted July 6, 2009 Report Share Posted July 6, 2009 The old truck turned out a ripper Kirk! You're a lucky bloke to have a brother like that Dave... A great partnership... when's Kirk gunna start a track? Dick Quote Cheers, Dick SCMR build thread Woodbrook Valley build thread "A Man's home is his castle, but his garage is his sanctuary!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted July 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2009 (edited) Whens Kirk gonna have a slot car track.......Kirks a lucky bloke to have a brother like me!!!! He would be shot by the war office he reports to! But backing up what you said, Kirk does have a pretty good eye for detail and has made the track look better than I would have on my own. Its funny that even though we are identical twins, I just dont have quite the finesse that he does (but not that far off!). Anyhow, my boss is sleeping so I thought I would just sneek out and take a few photos of the shed ready for its first big run on Saturday night. We have 21 confirmed racers at the moment. Enjoy. The Shed..... (pics of the old mans racing speedway days.....mid 70s) (newly purchased table) The Rules.... The Cars and Officials Table......... The Score Board And Random Qualifying Cards......... Because there are a few people coming, I have made up some qualifying cards that are randomly distributed to all racers for each round. A round consists of a series of heats. At the end of the night, the points from the rounds are tallied and we go into a sprintcar style C B and A main where the bottom scorers are in the C, The mid scorers are in the B and The top scorers are in the A mains. The C main is run first and the first two finishers move to the B. the B is run and the first two finishers move to the A. Finally the A is run and first second third are decided for the night (You can see the huge trophies that get awarded for the night on the car table!!!!). The good thing is if you play your cards right you can still come back from the C Main to win the night (but you would have to race well as we are planning to run 5 lap races crash and burn style). By the way, I seem to have sorted out all reliability issues by having a really good close look at all the dead strips. They were being shorted out by very minute bits of copper braid that were causing them not to work. Seems to all be 100% now which is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dave Edited July 9, 2009 by GTR XU-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knoath Posted July 9, 2009 Report Share Posted July 9, 2009 Dave, you are too organised to be a slotter!!!! Really... you must be a librarian or something!!!! The shed looks fantastic, the track is sparkling and I am blinded by the bling of the trophies!!! Hope all goes well on Saturday night, pity I can't get there myself!!! Looks like a ripper night. Cheers, Dick Quote Cheers, Dick SCMR build thread Woodbrook Valley build thread "A Man's home is his castle, but his garage is his sanctuary!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ember Posted July 10, 2009 Report Share Posted July 10, 2009 Good luck for the launch guys. It's looking brilliant. Have a great night. Going to be a lot of shiny, smiley faces I think. Quote Computers. They'll never catch on. Tiny Tyers Targa - The build saga continues - Aging wood - A recipe for staining wood - Don't take a fence - Step by step paling fence - An old shed for my new cars - Wooden garage under construction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver rocket Posted July 10, 2009 Report Share Posted July 10, 2009 Awesome job! You are raising the bar for sure! & are giving me something to aim for when I build my track. I hope your launch goes off be sure to post up some pics or vid of the racing. Good luck! Quote I Miss Brocky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussieslotter Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 Wooooah! Nice, nice, nice work. Quote 3 stooges, 2 apologists and 1 deep endless mess. www.scorpiuswireless.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haystack Posted July 11, 2009 Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 Whens Kirk gonna have a slot car track.......Kirks a lucky bloke to have a brother like me!!!! He would be shot by the war office he reports to! But backing up what you said, Kirk does have a pretty good eye for detail and has made the track look better than I would have on my own. Its funny that even though we are identical twins, I just dont have quite the finesse that he does (but not that far off!). Anyhow, my boss is sleeping so I thought I would just sneek out and take a few photos of the shed ready for its first big run on Saturday night. We have 21 confirmed racers at the moment. Enjoy. The Shed..... (pics of the old mans racing speedway days.....mid 70s) (newly purchased table) The Rules.... The Cars and Officials Table......... The Score Board And Random Qualifying Cards......... Because there are a few people coming, I have made up some qualifying cards that are randomly distributed to all racers for each round. A round consists of a series of heats. At the end of the night, the points from the rounds are tallied and we go into a sprintcar style C B and A main where the bottom scorers are in the C, The mid scorers are in the B and The top scorers are in the A mains. The C main is run first and the first two finishers move to the B. the B is run and the first two finishers move to the A. Finally the A is run and first second third are decided for the night (You can see the huge trophies that get awarded for the night on the car table!!!!). The good thing is if you play your cards right you can still come back from the C Main to win the night (but you would have to race well as we are planning to run 5 lap races crash and burn style). By the way, I seem to have sorted out all reliability issues by having a really good close look at all the dead strips. They were being shorted out by very minute bits of copper braid that were causing them not to work. Seems to all be 100% now which is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dave Interesting that the First Quals have F..d logos, and 2nd have CHEVY..>>> BUT SERIOUSLY , WISH i WAS THERE TO SEE IT GO DOWN!!! Quote Chris H.M.C.C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted July 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2009 Cheers guys. Kirk and I have a 1080HD handycam each that we will have set up on tripods so we should be able to get some good vids of the night for y'all with a mixture of angles for each race. We just need to figure out how to play around with the recordings on the computer. By the way Haystack, it is most likely that the fords would qualify first....the mustangs are quicker than the camaros. The difference is about 0.3s per lap. If it is too noticable then we will change the camaro set up and give them a bit more down force for the next night we have. But that is kind of the point of this first run - sort out any shortfalls. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted July 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2009 (edited) The night was simply awsome with some high intensity racing! The overall winner for the night was my old man driving a camaro (was sure that a mustang was going to win it because they hand;e a bit better). Actually 1st, 2nd and 3rd were all camaros. We ended up with 18 racers. A father and son had to bail due to both being sick and one driver just didnt turn up. So we did heats with 6 drivers (which was chaotic in it self then had the C, B and A finals with 8 drivers in each. It was funny because in the C main final all drivers (including myself) hadnt scored a single point which meant that we hadnt finished ANY heat race....embarrassing!) Damage wise everyone was excelent. You may find this hard to believe but with 3.5 hours racing with 18 novice racers, I had a camaro that lost a headlight and two camaros where the bumpers fell off...and that was it! All the guests behaved themselves excellently and will be invited back! I did learn though that I need to set the camaros and mustangs up with a little more down force than I have done. I had put a plastic shim between the magnet and the body but will take that out....the racing will be cleaner that way. Videos to follow shortly. Dave Edited July 12, 2009 by GTR XU-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knoath Posted July 12, 2009 Report Share Posted July 12, 2009 That's excellent Dave! A very successfull night! Dick Quote Cheers, Dick SCMR build thread Woodbrook Valley build thread "A Man's home is his castle, but his garage is his sanctuary!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haystack Posted July 13, 2009 Report Share Posted July 13, 2009 The night was simply awsome with some high intensity racing! The overall winner for the night was my old man driving a camaro (was sure that a mustang was going to win it because they hand;e a bit better). Actually 1st, 2nd and 3rd were all camaros. I had a camaro that lost a headlight and two camaros where the bumpers fell off...and that was it! All the guests behaved themselves excellently and will be invited back! I did learn though that I need to set the camaros and mustangs up with a little more down force than I have done. I had put a plastic shim between the magnet and the body but will take that out....the racing will be cleaner that way. Videos to follow shortly. Dave See ...it all makes sense in the Finish :coffee: Quote Chris H.M.C.C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Grab your popcorn, it's time for a movie. Racing was mostly by first timers so some of it is fairly ordinary in the video (jerky and erratic) and the lane changers aren't being utilised as much as they would if guys with a bit more confidence were racing. I've chopped and edited footage to try to eliminate the parts where our punters ran out of talent. Anyway, enjoy. I know I can insert the youtube video, but our work server is playing up and the link is the quickest way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sealevel Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 The simple H is a great thing Dave..You neednt have sent it to Rich to get him to install it though, must have cost a fortune in postage!Its a simple 5 min operation only 3 wires to solder onto the board and one resistor to remove..Anyone you know with some soldering skill..say down at the local electronics repairs place..could do it for you in minutes.. Phil Is the Simple H really that easy? I looked at the instructions on www.slotforum.com/forums and it also involves the Simple H board (abt. USD 90) so that will add to the cost. Am I missing something? Is there another set of instructions for the Simple H mod? Cheers! :nice: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sealevel Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 BTW, the layout is awesome. I can only hope to come close to it in design and decoration. The Garage is great looking as well. Cheers! :nice: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted July 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) Sealevel, The Simple H probably is that easy and now that I have had a look back at it and with a bit of soldering practice I probably could do the damn thing myself...but hey, oh well. Thoughly recommend it though if you are having more than 3 cars!!! You will see that I commented on a lifting system for your track on slot forum......go to somewhere like bullivants if it is in your area and if those guys are any good they will help you out. Dont be too worried about wire rope strength....it is as strong in tension as anything...even the thin stuff can hold about two tonne!!! Just make sure you have good quality puuleys and look at tit from this perspective (albeit somewhat simple), if you need your wire rope to make a turn somewhere...then you need a pulley there Dave ...by the way double clamp all your wire rope connections in case of slip Edited July 16, 2009 by GTR XU-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzyneil Posted August 7, 2009 Report Share Posted August 7, 2009 Hi GTR, Ive just registered here and introduced myself and absolutely love your track, fantastic job, im spewin i missed out on your race night which i would like to come to if you have another one. Im particularly interested in your hoisting system as im still contemplating the garage versus the outdoor patio area. My only problem with the garage is the wife wanting to park her car in there and it would end up being an issue in the end, I can see me having to park the car in there everynight at midnight. Ive tried to convince her to just park outside but no luck yet! Anyway wicked setup you have , i hope i can check it out one day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted August 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 (edited) Ozzyneil - PM sent By the way, I just tested a 30,000 rpm motor (pretty sure it was ninco but need to confirm) ...they are damn quick!!!! Smashed the track record. The quickest time I had done previously was 5.2sec, did it in 4.5 sec and that was only with around 20 laps...probably could go quicker. The mootor got hot after about 10mins but we dont run races that long anyway. I have added another scenery item...A corregated iron water tank for the windmill. Pics soonish (when I get around to it). Only thing is the rust colour looks way more realistic that the windmill and now I want to go back and repaint the windmill. To any of the moderators etc....is it possible to change the topic title of a thread.....Wouldnt mind changing it to 'Copper Mill Raceway' If it can be done - Cheers Edited August 9, 2009 by GTR XU-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted August 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2009 (edited) The stage is set yet again. The champ (my old man) is returning to defend the title and will be battling against at least another 32 talented (mostly never raced before rookies) drivers from around the world (that are all coincidentally located in the Perth metro area of Western Australia). Copper Mill Raceway is hosting night 2 of the transam series (camaro and mustang) with guest appearances from Silver Rocker, Ozzyneil, Captain and many more. We should be able to get some more video and the racing should be better. Previously I had put a 1mm shim under the magnet to give less down force - the rookies didnt take to it too well and there were quite a few crashes. The shim has been removed and the magnets are still positioned to the front of the car so the back end of the car is still loose and interesting - making it still challenging to drive. Last night I also fitted a 15 amp table mounted switch between the H-mod and the track that allows the power to the track to be stopped by the race steward to correct any deslotted cars with out the computer being switched off. The cars stop automatically in their position on the track, the deslotted car is restored (with slight handicap) and racing resumes. B-E-A-utiful!....another advantage of the H-mod (cheers again Richard Girling) The shed is pretty much at max capacity though. I think it is 8m x 6m with a 2.5m x 5m table in the middle of it.......plus a beer fridge! We will be racing pretty much continuously 5 lap heats from 7:00pm with C, B and A main finals at around 10:30pm. Will let you know how the racing goes. Dave Edited August 17, 2009 by GTR XU-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR XU-1 Posted August 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 What an absolute nighmare!!! Just finished the nights racing and it went not very well. Half the workmates rocked up half tanked and it was downhill from there. The racing format was totally abandoned and essentially we tried to run where just those interested in slot cars were racing. On a positive note - Silverrocket and friend (James) were absolute gentlemen as with Ozzyneil. I sort of feel that I should apologise as it went nowhere nearly as smoothly as the first night or what I intended. Oh well - you live and learn. In hindsight, Its not so much the quantity of peopl that were the problem, just the sobriety of people that cant handle thier grog and would have preferred to just have the handful of people with the qualities of the likes Of Silver rocket, James and Neil there (amongst others). All in all though, of the 30 oddd people racing, at least there was the odd dozen that were interested in good clean racing.....it will probably be the last night I do like that tough. .....I have a BIG repair bill to the cars. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Posted August 23, 2009 Report Share Posted August 23, 2009 David, I'll try to be as polite and respectful about this as possible. I don't know your work mates, but I'm not even sure that alcohol was the issue - more the calibre of the individuals - but then, I don't know them. It is still all a learning curve for us, but I think that I would only ever invite your more enthusiast types - just for the sake of having a decent race and an organised night. Another note that Silver rocket made last night was when you have non enthusiasts (and lots of them), you are better off with 8 different coloured damage resistant cars and just use the same 8 all night - where you don't have to worry about damage or programming them in before every race, or restarts - If there is a deslot just put them back on the track and play on. But as I said, all learning experiences. It's different when guys bring their own cars as you can assign controllers to drivers and dial all their cars to their controller at the start of the night. As discussed on the phone that should be the last of the "big nights" to try to get guys interested - the racing we have from down on should just be about guys wanting to race, not wanting to attend another party to get blind. It's just a bit of a shame that the guys from this forum had to come to a night that was a bit average, when our first night was so smooth. Kirk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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