Small test drag strip
After some time away from the hobby, I'm back and I'm very happy to see that it's still going strong.
I'm building a small straight track with two lanes so we can compare and see which car is the fastest. Below is a link to a video I made showing a rudimentary invention to automate the start.
Greetings, and I'm very happy to be back in the hobby. Please excuse my English from the translator.
youtu.be/D1PDX6Pnx70?si=bHY5LzJZrcIi6eQx
Discussion
It's a typical homemade start gate, but made my way. The pins are held up by a magnet, and with a small push they fall down. Then I added a slot car motor, a button, and a 9-volt battery. On the motor, I added a clothespin that acts as a lever to hit and lower the start gate.
Hello everyone, and thanks to all of you. I’m really enjoying the hobby, and my daughter and my nephews are loving it as well.
After doing some test runs, I’ve noticed something and wanted to ask: even though both lanes appear to be identical, one of them seems consistently faster or to have some kind of advantage.
Is that normal, or could I be missing something?
Thanks in advance, and best regards.
- There will always be a faster lane no matter what you try. Best you can do is keep making adjustments until that the time difference is as small as possible. — redlinederby
I noticed that some of the track joints had sharp or slightly bent edges. I’m working on fixing those and getting both lanes as balanced as possible.
I also have a question that came up while testing. I have two cars that are very evenly matched, so I’m trying to find a fair way to run them. Right now, I usually do two races so each car runs in both lanes. But when both races end in a tie, whichever car ends up in the “better” lane on the next run will usually break the tie, and that doesn’t feel very fair.
Maybe I need a timer to record the runs and use the times to break ties?
Thanks and best regards.
- If you enjoy the do-it-yourself stuff, there is this option: https://www.dfgtec.com/pdt-construction. I built my track’s timer based off of this project and it works very well! — X2Whiskey
- I do enjoy making things by hand, but I’m really not good with electronics. Still, I’ll take a look at it. Thanks a lot. — riditz
Shy of a timer, you might just have to run more heats. Have you thought about running 5 heats with Car A in Lane 1 and see how many races it wins. Then switch so that Car A now has to race in Lane 2. See how many races it wins.
By default you will have 10 races, did either car win 6 heats out of the 10 leaving only 4 heats won by the other? If so, you have your faster car. If not, do it again. :-) At some point, if you really can't tell, they are equal until a proven timer can put them to the test.
Nice! That's a neat way to do the drop pins.