DAW Users With ADD

Anyone else watching F1 this season? Interesting opening race with a resurgent Ferrari setting the pace.

Lots of work to be done at Milton Keynes this week after Red Bull had 2 DNFs, plus one of the Alphatauris going up in smoke. Not a good start for them.
 
TalismanRich said:
Anyone else watching F1 this season? Interesting opening race with a resurgent Ferrari setting the pace.

Lots of work to be done at Milton Keynes this week after Red Bull had 2 DNFs, plus one of the Alphatauris going up in smoke. Not a good start for them.
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Not me. Personally not a car racing fan. Mostly just the 3 major sports for me, and even there basketball is more just a passing fancy.
 
I'm obstinate in that I'm old school when it comes to racing. Many new rules and changes to driver-car interfaces just seem to further alienate me. Such as Nascar races broken into stages, and electronic shifting in F1, etc. I don't mind all the electronics incorporated into steering wheels, but I firmly believe eliminating manual shifting via stickshifts and clutch pedals strips an essential part of the sport, removing yet more driver interaction. Pretty soon, they'll do away with in-car drivers altogether and it'll become little more than a huge slot car sport.
 
Good to hear Paul.

I've put my life back together after a horrible stretch. I'm playing out in bars here and there, dating old ladies and living life in general. You've got to keep on keeping on as they say.
 
My son is the racing fan. I don't mind going to a road track, but you can keep NASCAR, driving in circles does nothing for me at all.
 
spantini said:
I'm obstinate in that I'm old school when it comes to racing. Many new rules and changes to driver-car interfaces just seem to further alienate me. Such as Nascar races broken into stages, and electronic shifting in F1, etc. I don't mind all the electronics incorporated into steering wheels, but I firmly believe eliminating manual shifting via stickshifts and clutch pedals strips an essential part of the sport, removing yet more driver interaction. Pretty soon, they'll do away with in-car drivers altogether and it'll become little more than a huge slot car sport.
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Actually, you still have to drive those danged slot cars, as my daughter found out years ago when she squeezed the controller, and the car hit the wall.... about 6 ft behind the edge of the track. Man, that frame was MAJORLY bent up.

I've been watching racing since my dad took me to the Figure 8 and Late Model races at the local quarter mile track. I was about 7 or 8 at the time. 60 years later, I still get a rush watching them. I understand the finer points now, rather than just waiting for the wreck to happen at the intersection!
 
Some of those slot tracks use magnetic attraction to hold the cars on high speed curves. They came about after I dropped out of the sport. I assumed the track in your video is one of them as I can't see how they can speed through those curves without it. I'm just guessing about that track.

I got started going to Figure 8 and local stock cars on short tracks at the age of 16. I was sort of an unofficial team member, mechanic and pit crew guy on some weekends. Spent a lot of late late nights in home garages tuning and tweaking until the early hours - the neighbors loved straight exhaust revving at 3 AM :listeningmusic:
 
I never fooled with the magnetic deals, I think that was mostly for HO racing, I built brass and wire frames for the winged Group 15 and 24 cars I raced, and ran the stamped cars in 1/32 and 1/24 scale. I still have a few of them, although much was ruined when the basement flooded. It's way too expensive these days anyway. A basic motor these days run from $30 for a basic low class motor to $500 for a top line pro level motor. I would rather buy microphones and guitars.

Here are a couple of the cars that I last raced, at least 20 years ago. They were quick in their day, but today they would be SLOW! The wings keep the cars glued to the track, if done correctly. Chassis today are stamped spring steel and even aluminum, some are even laser cut. Very light weight. Today's motors turn in excess of 100,000 RPM.

Slot Cars.jpg
 
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I raced 1:24s - I no longer have these, but I understand they're selling for several hundred dollars each these days. Damn! Those and my old comic book collection would net me a new Fender Jazz bass today :laughings::facepalm: [whooieee]

cheetah kit.JPGcox_cheetah24rtr_3.jpgchassis2.jpg4.jpgchassis.jpgasp.jpgchap24.jpg
 
My first car (other than our HO set at home) was a Cox 1/32 Ford GT. It looked really nice, but those hard rubber tires were complete rubbish.

s-l300.jpg

My brother had the 1/24 Cox Chaparral. I found my lime green Cox La Cucaracha some time back. It still has the silicone coated sponge tires that my brother and I were making. Chuck the axle in a drill, start spinning it on slow speed and spread a few thin layers of GE silicone on them. Man, they really provided the grip!

LaCuc.jpg

I built a few frames like that brass inline one. Almost all the 1/32 scale cars were inline, but I built a bunch of frames that were anglewinders, just enough of an angle for the motor to clear the tires. They were really fast, but could be squirrely to drive. I actually sold about a dozen to other racers.

That pointy green one you showed looks like the Classic Asp. They were decent cars (around 1968-69 I think) with a little bit of work, new tires. tweak the motor and add a touch of lead weight in the right place.
 
That Asp was fast as hell right out of the box. I sold it to my best friend and bought a second Cox hand control - I tried a trigger style but my fingers didn't have the smooth movement my thumb had developed.

control.jpg
 
I started with an MRC controller, but moved quickly to the Ruskit style. My last controllers were like this, with different ohms for the "stock" type motors and pro style motors.
This one is 2 ohm, but the one for Gp27 and Gp7 is 3/4 ohm.

The new hot controllers are fully electronic, with MOSFETs to control the speed. They also run about $500.

controller.jpg
 
Wow, I found a picture of the MRC Variohm like I had! Says 1967. That would be about right. We moved to our new house when I was in 7th grade, which would have been 65. The slot car track opened the next year.

6b443fc23e889c115e004c415772646b.jpg
 
Here are Koford's controllers. https://www.koford.com/slot/picsControllers.html

You might be looking at stuff like Parma flexis or Womps. Koford sells some Ready To Run cars, They aren't exactly cheap.
If you want to run with the big boys, it's gonna cost ya!

RTR Hawk, FK, 12 & 20 CARS
NEW! M752 FK motor car with Koford EDM spring steel chassis and CR Neo ball bearing non replacable brush
motor. Features hardened solder on pinion, flatted axle, mag rim tires, etc. $153.94 ea.

NEW! M713 Hawk 12 car with Koford EDM spring steel chassis and M647 Hawk 12 motor. Features hardened
solder on pinion, flatted axle, mag rim tires, etc. $204.67 ea.

M457A Box Stock 12 car with the Koford spring steel chassis and the Nat’s winning Gp12 motor with can BB.
Koford quality and technology comes to RTR Box Stock cars. Features hardened solder on pinion, flatted axle, etc. $228.24 ea.

M342-2 G20 RTR car. Koford spring steel chassis and high performance Pro components including high
performance tires, can BB, precision 64 pitch polymer spur, ultralight rubber fronts, graphite guide, ultraflex
silicone lead wire, ultra precision plated tool steel axle, and many other components of a high quality level not
usually associated with ready to runs. $234.61 ea.

M352-27L Premium G27 light car with Nat's winning M610 chassis, CNC can, 27L magnets, and WX+ tires. $562.20 ea.
 
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Thanks. That did it :) I was also checking out some of the cars.. man.. they're about half the size and ten times the price+ as back in the 60's. If I got into this now It's be like me falling into a swimming pool full of hungry sharks :p Aren't there any old geezer tracks around?
 
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