Loose vs Fixed axles in the turns
First off, Happy Easter to all!
Just wondering what the thoughts or experiences of the hive here when it comes to the typical loose axles on a stock casting vs aligned and fixed axles on a road course style track?
While testing the track I’m currently building which consists of two lanes,
no open track, 46.5ft long, 5 banked turns, a flat sweeper, a couple other mild flat turns and a crossover I’ve noticed that my modified cars that have proven to be fast on my straight tracks are only so-so on the road course. Most all of the fast mod cars track straight with aligned and fixed axles, while many fresh out of the blister castings are smoking hot. It appears that the fast stock castings simply rocket through the banked turns faster than the mod cars. So I’m wondering if the looseness of the axles might be an advantage in the turns?
Thoughts?
Discussion
There are a lot of variables at play here. Including weight distribution. Are your drag track mods rear weight biased? Common lore is that rear bias is better for drag, 50/50 is better for open track. Don't think I've ever seen laned curves specifically discussed.
Do you have a timer for your road course? Take some stock cars, drill em and screw em, put em back together and time em. Then open em back up and make no other changes at all except gluing the axles. See what happens.
I don't have a track or timer and have been following this debate for years so I'd be seriously interested in hearing what you discover. Even at that what works on your track might be irrelevant on another. Still be interesting though.
- Also, are your corners fixed down? Just watched Bolo’s Six Track Challenge video that dropped today and he concluded that lighter cars were doing better than heavier ones because the heavy ones were jolting the track in the corners. His corners were just sitting on his pool deck, not firmly attached. — Ruckus_Racing
- The straight track has timers while the road course does not yet, although it has a starting gate so the cars are launched simultaneously. — ChiefWopahoo
Regarding the fixed corners, yes, everything is anchored securely and there is no track movement from the cars.
Regsrding weight placement in my mod cars I've always tried to keep any weighting as low and centered as possible.
This is the road course track www.redlinederby.com/topic/mobile-road-course-in-the-works/6765?
and the straight track
www.redlinederby.com/topic/build-journal-buckeye-mountain-raceway-track-for-live-racing/5624
I have a fairly long 2 lane road course "Haywood Valley Raceway" and run cars and races constantly. Between mods and stocks, fixed and loose axels, the times are all over the place. I feel the loose axels may have a slight advantage because they can minimally absorb track bumps and imperfections without the wheels tending to "pop up" as much as a fixed axel would. It makes sense that on a straight drag track, everything should be tight, fixed, and centered. But, the road course seems to lean a little more towards the cars being looser and having more flexability of movement around the track.
That being said, I just had a 60g car with fixed axels absolutely destroy the track record by a jaw dropping amount.... so who knows! A well built car has a lot to do with it all.
I have wondered similar
as a thought, what about gluing the axles with something frexible,
like red auto silicon sealent?
ridgid with some give
like spy dude said, the loose axle are a rude suspension
the silicon may "square it" at static, but still let the axles deflect under loads
drill a small hole under the axle and just put a dab in there, (no need to drill the rivets)
then set it on the jig
dr
Subscribing/Commenting to get updates on the thread. Always a treat to learn from real racers
I leave the axel free as I find they do better on the open track sections. I don't do a lot of Drag racing as my track was a 75ft road course. I did fix the axel on a few cars and they did not preform as good as the free axel cars in the turns. They win in the straighs, but the corners kill them.
- hhhmmmm... — dr_dodge
- Is your track open or laned? Or both? — ChiefWopahoo
- Both, starts off 2 lane and then goes to open track. You can see my Build Journal in the site here. — JBlotner42
Reading the comments at least it doesn’t seem that it's all my imagination. And Dr. D you have a very interesting idea. Gonna have to give that a try. Axles fixed with a semi-rigid goop could be great for an all-around setup.
Just me, but I rarely glue my axles down. I work the wheels and flip the axles over and over, testing the car each time to get it to run more or less straight. Once I have the car set up so it runs straight, then I add the weights and paint it. After that, it's glued together with E6000, lubed, and sent off to the races.
I think the slight advantage of the axles being able to float gives a rudimentary suspension for the cars, including being able to shift slightly back and forth as well as up and down. Now, being that your hot cars are fast on the straights/drag tracks, that doesn't necessarily convert over to "they're going to be fast on the road course, too." Of course, this all has to do with how the car is set up in the first place ....
TL,DR:
Drag track: "right and tight"
Road course: "Loose as a goose"