The Axle Dilemma: A study in Fixed vs Loose axles
Good to see some testing results, and thanks for sharing. I'm in the loose axle camp, but will also secure axles with silicone or RTV. I think anything that helps mitigate vibration will keep you rolling faster. Wheel sanding also falls in that category.
Great food for thought! Building true and straight applies tonall hobbies I participate in! The rest is tweaking a good design and some personal preference. So many factors contribute to a cars performance that it is difficult to pick up a car, run it and then fool with it and then look at those results to see if that changed its performance. But over the long haul and many races you can see some trends. Makes me more and more certain that I need a single lane test track to assess performance.
FredD
F'D Racing
I have found something similar with some of my customs, but I'm never sure if something leaked along the axle that I can't see, and it's that that caused the slow down or if it is specifically the fixing of the axle.
The one thing I do like about fixing the axle is that I find cars don't vary down the track as much as unfixed axles. In the Outlaws for instance, a car can be incredibly fast but if the axle is slightly moved then it bounces off the side walls too much or vary between each race. If they are fixed (presuming they are actually straight) then they seem to be more consistent overall.