HO Scale Slot Car Racing.

WEIGHTS. Optional, but easy.

Keeping the guide pin in the slot is the most important thing in slot car racing, even more than speed. Early on in the hobby, the cars were made with little precision, but they also weren't that fast and with their thin tires, were more likely to spin out once they achieved racing speeds starting in 1963 with the introduction of motorized chassis. Earlier chassis were slow, and driven by a vibrating reed! Those early cars were tiny and a good match in both scale speed and size to HO scale train layouts.

At first, it was the hobbyists that began altering and experimenting with the cars. As they made them faster, they realized that wobbly wheels, increased speed, and high centers of gravity all contributed to de-slotting. The early controllers were something less than responsive, so after skill trailed off, improving the cars was the next step. What they discovered early on was that lowering the car, and/or adding weight to the lower part of the chassis improved the center of gravity, which not only keep the guide pin in the slot, but could improve handling by simple inertia. Soon, aftermarket brass pans, add on weights, and brass panned cars became available.
These add on parts are now scarce and can cost as much or more than an entire car, and in some cases, as much as several cars. They also throw the cars into a different performance league and people without one won't want to race you.

By 1966 or so, the manufacturers had improved the cars with better armatures and magnets, taller gearing, wider wheels, and somewhat better quality control. With improved speed, the weighted pans sold like crazy.

In 1971, Aurora released the A/FX, an evolution of the Thunderjet 500 with a wider and much lower stance, and more precision engineering. However, the new chassis was so low, that a brass pan could not be used underneath. Front and side weight sets were produced with some success, and Sears even offered their rebranded A/FX cars with a standard lead weight in front and labeled them "Super Traction," although the weight was in the front and really only contributed to handling. These weights do show up from time to time but command a good price.

Virtually any early non-magnet assisted car benefits from a bit of weight added to the front, especially Tyco-Pro cars. Pictured below is a simple, but effective weight I came up with one day. It's attached to he chassis with a piece of rubber band super glued to the nut and the chassis. Super glue loves rubber and Gorilla brand super glue is doped with rubber to add flexibility.
Actually, almost ANY slot car up to about 1983 can benefit from a bit of weight in the front, and you can use little lead fishing line weights in the front of the pan held in place with some 5 minute epoxy. The epoxy will hold tight, but can be removed later by simply prying the lump of it out with no damage to the chassis.
In this case, it's not much weight, but makes a noticeable difference. I like the way it looks, but am sure lead weights a little lower, or even in addition, below the nut, would help further.
I don't race this style of car competitively, but I do like to pull the dozen or so of them I have out and run them. They are a real challenge compared to more modern cars. For fans of drifting, this is the chassis you want. Still cheap, plentiful, and easy to tune. Millions produced.

Early add-on weight pans.
1. Early Thunderjet brass weight pan. 2. Rare A/FX weight pan for the unreleased Super III. 3. A/FX chassis for comparison.



Early A/FX with simple brass nut added for weight.
Could have the corresponding screw installed for additional weight, or lead shot glued in below or instead of.

Did some clean-up to this thread per request.

I used to race on this leviathan until the local club refused to try to raise money and could no longer afford the rent. It's the largest HO scale race track in the world. The Katz-Spa-Ring, or KSR.
11' x 32'. Four lanes, hand routed. Elevation changes 22".

That track is so sweet Kyle. Man I wish I could have tried it out.

It was/is sweet.
It was also a challenge. Lots of dips and hairpin turns. Completely different than even the best plastic home track.

Yeah, that is a cool track. Nothing better than a hand made track.. those are the best

PICK UP SHOES.
This is a long topic but contains valuable information.

The following topic generally excludes the 1970-74 era Tyco-Pro cars.
Early examples with bent-leaf brass pick ups were modeled after larger cars and ran great, but the pick ups were very thin, fragile. They wore quickly and were easily mangled. Replacing required soldering and for many kids, the cars were quickly useless. These ware replaced by a spring and button set up which was clumsy and killed off the already stunted Tyco-Pro line's popularity. True to form, the next generation, the Curvehugger, had an improved shoe but they tended to ride low and wear quickly. They can be taken off and turned around to align fresh surface to the rail, but spares for all of these Tyco cars are scarce and expensive. Holes in the Curvehugger shoes can be soldered up. Replacements would actually be a good cottage industry. These shortcomings ruined four otherwise well designed chassis.


Your car is powered by electricity, so it's important to maintain the flow of current to motor for two reasons. Primarily, to keep the motor running, and running smoothly, but also (surprise) to maintain the magnetic field and additional downforce generated by the electrical flux around the motor, casing, and magnets.

Pick-up shoes on HO scale slot cars tend to be solid brass or silver plated. Silver has slightly better electrical properties, but the difference is minimal in otherwise unmodified cars in this scale. By getting as much contact with the rails as possible, the difference in materials is essentially nonexistent.

We like to use the word "adjust" a lot in this hobby. It's often a nice way of saying "bend."
Right out of the box, slot car pick up shoes can vary wildly in their (lack of) adjustment. Most chassis will show a line on each shoe confirming that the chassis was run for a test lap or two to check for proper operation of the car. This proves one thing: that the shoes must be at least reasonably well adjusted to ensure that the car runs properly. They want kids to enjoy them without any trouble. That's swell.

Another flashback.
We used 1970s A/FX track which had deep slots, but awful transitions between sections. This caused premature wear through of the shoes at the fronts. Since this is where the shoes were wearing, we assumed this was the intended point of contact, and that too much contact was friction and would not be beneficial.
How wrong we were.
Therefore, we always adjusted our shoes so that the very front tips were in contact with the rails. This was also a natural effect of replacing the shoes, by bending the front out to attach them to the chassis.
This lead to:
1. Initially good performance since there was a good amount of downforce furthest from the pivot (attachment) point of the shoe.
2. Grooving of the shoe, eventually diminishing performance.
3. Holes in the shoe, which we assumed meant they were now useless since they would run erratically.
4. Shoe replacement, which meant writing to Aurora in Canada and waiting several weeks for shoes to arrive. They would send them free, but only a couple pairs at a time.

After re-discovering the hobby 5 years or so ago, the interwebs and local club provided a wealth of information.

All this set up story for a simple tip: Adjust your shoes so that the contact surface, be it the whole shoe, or a "step," glides evenly along the rail for it's maximum length.
This greatly increases contact and greatly reduces wear - and believe it or not, reduces friction, by distributing the downforce evenly on the rail. This will also help keep your car in the slot.

First, your "macro" adjustment." Photos follow.
This can be done two ways, and a combination is best.
You can estimate this adjustment by turning the car over and depressing the shoes. Visually estimate what you need to do to make the shoe run flat against the rails, which is virtually parallel to the bottom of the car.
Place the car on a lose track section and simply look at the shoe. If you can see a gap along the contact point, adjust the shoe. This can often be done on the car with one of your little screwdrivers of with just a finger and thumb, but don't accidentally pop the shoe off and lose the spring. Keep a finger on it.

In this photo, a stepped shoe is being used. The step should lay flat on the rail.


Now for your micro adjustment. Take a Sharpie marker and color in the pick up shoes. Run a couple laps around at medium speed. Observe the clear spaces on the shoes. Adjust, ink, run, and check again until you get a nice even removal of the ink. It may be slightly triangular, especially if the shoes are already a bit worn.
That's fine. You're just looking for the best you can get them.
Two clean points on the same shoe indicate a high spot. Adjust slightly to get the contact point flat.

You WILL be amazed at the difference this makes. It's the least expensive (free) and second most effective performance issue you can address. My old A/FX cars were all MUCH better performers after I did this to them.
I could have kicked so much ass when I was 12 if I'd have known...

The height of the front of the car may affect the shoe position, and this will take us into our next topic: Tires.

Photo guide.
Stepped shoe.
Paint the shoe with a red or blue permanent marker. Avoid black, as the carbon that often builds on the shoe is black.


Run some laps in each lane; set a track up with turns both left and right. The shoe in the upper part of the picture has a spot worn in the ink at the front and rear of the step, indicating that the step needs to be adjusted a bit lower in the center. This is best done on the car in this case to avoid messing up an otherwise well adjusted shoe. Put the shaft of a small screwdriver or toothpick under the middle of the step and push down slightly on the front and rear of the stepped portion.
The shoe in the lower right part of the photo is showing heavier wear a bit towards the back of the step, so put your screwdriver behind the bend that makes the step and pull the front of the shoe away from the chassis a bit. Sometimes best done with the body off. Re-ink and run some laps.


Both shoes now showing very even wear through the ink along the steps. A good adjustment! Don't expect a geometrically perfect pattern. This will do nicely, and you'll notice a BIG improvement in speed and trigger response as well as extremely extended shoe life.



"Ski" shoe, or shoes without steps.
Ski shoes are shoes without a step. Great for low profile front tire/wheel combinations. Some cars come with them, and most chassis have an available ski shoe to replace stepped shoes.
With a ski shoe, the goal is to get as much of the shoe on the rail without an obvious bend or bow.
Ink the shoes. Run a few laps.


Check the shoe. Adjustments must be made carefully to avoid putting a kink in the shoe. Since there's no step, your adjustments will be made by gently flexing the shoe, usually best done on the car as replacing the shoe also requires bending and can nullify your adjustment. Contact may trail off near the back of the shoe where it's attached to the chassis. That's normal.
Well adjusted long ski shoes, particularly the one lower right.




Poorly adjusted shoes.
In this photo I snagged from eBay, you see a seriously maladjusted shoe at the top of the photo (This is a Tomy AFX Turbo chassis). The shoe is bent too low in the front and has consequently worn through. It could be readjusted and some life gotten out of it. The other shoe, while worn, is worn fairly uniformly. The deep grooves indicate that this car was raced on older track, or Life-Like brand track, with high rails or poor transitions, or with front tires that were too small.


Last thing on this long topic.
If a car seems to be riding on the shoes, but the front tires don't seem too tall, check the front of the shoe. The upward travel of the shoe may be restricted from "bottoming out" on the mounting tab, and this is especially true of newer X-Traction wide stepped pick up shoes. In this case, try using a Dremel and buzzing the lower part of the front opening out with a thin wheel. A tiny file/emery board would work, too. If the top front edge of the shoe is hanging up on the chassis or body, adjust it accordingly.

I hope you're enjoying the conversational style of these topics.
I think it sticks better if you hear the logic and stories behind the issues.

At first, I almost considered not giving away my secrets and just kicking everyone's ass if we ever do this, but there's still the skill, and really, the tuning up is as much or more fun than the racing because it's often a duo or group effort.

Watching some jittery old car or even a jerky semi modern one come back to life better than ever is really fun. It's the smallest pleasures in life that often mean the most.
The memories of childhood and even the memories of playing with your own kids being renewed is priceless.

TIRES.

Obviously, your car won't do squat without tires, and the tires available now are better than ever. This is one department where we're moving into the aftermarket. No magnet can make up for poor or old tires.
Many slot cars are still supplied new with natural rubber tires, which are fine - for about 3 months.

By about 1971, manufacturers wised up and realized a better tire offering would sell cars. Tyco eventually offered a very soft synthetic rubber in white, of all colors. These tires are STILL good performers 40 years later. Aurora opted for a sponge tire, which offered great traction and bump absorption until they dried out and shrank or wore down. AJ's, an aftermarket and hop-up part supplier, offered a sticky fluid that could be applied to them that really made them perform well and extended their life.
Due to their short life expectancy, Aurora went back to rubber on the A/FX Magna-Traction in 1975, but put an improved higher density sponge material bonded to the wheel on the more expensive high performance G-Plus cars.

The fronts.
Less important than the rears for sure, but not completely to be ignored.
Often original rubber fronts are thin and have dried out and become hard. However, as long as they are still round and supporting the front of the car, they can be left in place. A/FX cars had the GoodYear name and logo on them in miniature and it's nice to see them still on a car.
Front tires should be tall enough to support most or all of the front of the car. They should roll consistently when the car is gently pushed. Cars riding on their pick up shoes, no matter how well adjusted, are (or soon will be) being slowed by friction and wearing the shoes prematurely. To test, take the body off, and put a finger each on the front tires and roll them. If the chassis is pulled along, the tires are touching enough. If not, they're too short. Replace.

Front tires are easy to get for most chassis, but there is also an "o" ring that works on almost every HO slot car made that's a reasonably low profile, and due to being narrow, causes little drag on the track. I have a couple hundred of them, so don't worry about it if you've lost a front tire.

In general, lower is better, but on the front, sometimes allowing for a bit of pick up travel is actually preferable.

The rears.
Your original rubber rear tires may look fine, but are hardened and will start to crack if you put them back into service. Hard, old tires give poor traction and harden unevenly, going out of round.

Don't bother trying to save them. Ditch the stock tires and find appropriate silicone or gel tires for your cars. They make a tire for everything. There will often be a couple of different height tires available for any given chassis. Including shipping, at about $2.00 a set, you can buy a few of the stock height tires, always prudent, and maybe some a notch lower. Too low, and your magnets will grip too hard and overheat your armature, causing increased electrical resistance and slower operation, or the chassis will drag - or both.

Strangely enough, that's all you need to know about the all-important rear tires.

You can order Super Tires direct from Frank the racer (Click here). If you mention that Kyle Sund sent you, he often will throw in an extra pair, or a pair in a fun color or configuration he thinks you might want to try (such as Compound "B," a harder formula). They run $1.50 a pair (black). You want Compound "A" for unmodified cars.
When mounting, the dished side faces in.
I have these on virtually all of my 150+ cars and all are true, unstretched, and show NO signs of wear whatsoever going on 4 years. Likely the last tires you will buy.

That said, I'm going to be trying a few sets of Jel Claws. They are soft, don't pick up dirt like silicone, but were previously only available for a few styles. I'll report back after they arrive hopefully by next week.
UPDATE: These tires perform extremely well and I have several sets available for $1.50 per set.

Cleaning.
All tires pick up dirt, especially silicone, but can be quickly cleaned by rubbing with your fingertip, or running on a folded back roll of tape. Even so, Super Tires dirty will perform better than rubber tires due to their incredible perfect roundness and soft surface give.

Roundness of the wheel/s.
The best tires will perform like crap on a wobbly wheel. Ocasionally the wheels are not 100% true, or an axle will be bent. It's fairly obvious as the car will have a distinct fluttering sound as it goes by and you may even see it quickly undulating up and down.
To check, remove the tires and spin the back wheels under power. If they seem to vibrate a lot, you have an out of round wheel (they're toys, after all).
If they're not too bad, you can power the car, and gently try to sand them into round, being careful not to remove too much material. Put a fingernail on them while spinning and you'll be able to feel the fluctuation. Just getting them close to round will help immeasurably.
If that doesn't do it, you have a poorly drilled wheel center, or a bent axle. Most rear end assemblies are available or can be pieced together with new parts from eBay or junk chassis lots.

One last note on fit. Although lower is usually better, too wide is usually not. It's not worth putting the wrong tire on a car if it doesn't fit the rim well. If they stick out too far, they can get hung up, or go out of round overhanging the rim. Additionally, a tire that's too small to fit can often be forced on, but the tension created serves to make the tire taut (hard) and that's also a detriment.

I have a variety of tires on hand usually and we can test fit a few. In most cases, just order what's recommended as stock, and maybe a few one notch down. Lower tires than that will hang the chassis up on home tracks and are made for professional tracks.

Tracks (Modern).
Tyco/Mattel quick lock and modern Tomy/AFX/Auto World track are both excellent.
Avoid Life-Like Track at all costs. The transitions are tough on shoes and they have the highest rails of any made today. Life-Like track will quickly eat up your pick up shoes and is just not fun to use.
Old Lock-and-Joiner tracks and pre-Tomy Aurora A/FX and Tyco-Pro track also have hard transitions and will eat up shoes.
Whatever you go with, it's worth picking up a used second terminal track and power supply on eBay so each lane has independent power. Surges from the other lane deslot opponents making for too many crashes and frustrating racing.

CHASSIS HEIGHT.

A low center of gravity and/or magnetic force keeps the car in the slot. Keeping the car in the slot wins races and is more fun than chasing down de-slotted cars.

This is an easy topic. Related to tires.

Place your car with new tires on a loose short section of straight track. Hold it up and look down along the slot from the rear. The chassis pan should clear the track and rails. Simple enough. Note also the guide pin. It should not touch the bottom of the slot.
Adjust the height of your car by changing the diameter of tires.
This is most effective in the rear on most cars, as this is also where the traction magnets are, but the front is also important. Some older chassis run better with a stock height tall-ish front tire, notably A/FX Magna-Traction/Johnny Lightning/Auto World X-Traction, but even this changes on a chassis-by-chassis basis. (Say THAT 5 times fast!)

Different wheel and axle combinations are often available, especially for the front of many chassis, but there's no reason you can't get a good result with the stock set up. Any amount of money can be spent on these cars for precision upgrades, but these tutorials are about getting the most out of them as-is.

Note also that a car with very powerful traction magnets will sometimes suffer from being too low if the downforce is too great. Magnetic downforce is increased as the motor speed increases in most modern in-line motored cars. A good clearance is around 1mm to 1.5mm static.

A chassis that drags will suffer from friction, overheating, poor traction, even gear wear, and is subject to interference from track bumps and transitions.

This is a lot of valuable information. Thanks for posting it Kyle.

I'm hoping that if we ever do this, people show up with, or can quickly make up, a few little ass-kickers.
Someone just gave me a huge Tomy/AFX slot car set with two Super G Plus cars.

I was able to find this thumbnail of the same set on line.
This will facilitate the conversion of you from that Life-Like track I gave you which is murder on pick up shoes, to this, or to my huge collection of Tyco track.

Alright. Sounds good to me.

GET OUT THE DRILL (and other performance and trouble shooting tips).

Early slot cars lacked traction magnets and often had a fairly high weight to power ratio. Many Aurora Thunderjets are found today with holes drilled in their sides. This lightened the chassis and also provided the armature with additional cooling air. These issues were acknowledged and addressed in the later Aurora A/FX chassis.
The Thunderjet chassis is not rare by any means, so don't give this modification a second thought, especially if it runs hot. Makes other than Aurora should probably be left alone unless they run very hot, as across the board, they are harder to find.

Another performance enhancing trick is to remove the magnets (Thunderjet and early A/FX) and drill through the chassis bottom, being sure not to destroy the electrical connections. This exposes the magnet/s to the rails and makes for a crude, but mildly effective performance upgrade. Careful X-acto knifing can allow you to lower the magnets enhancing the effect, and lowering the center of gravity.
You can also purchase small neodynium magnets and install them with epoxy into a drilled recess, or sometimes the sides of a chassis, just forward of the rear axle.

Photos forthcoming.

Before you do any of this, keep in mind that reproduction chassis for Aurora and Tyco cars are available for $10 or less, and some come with additional traction magnets. Aurora reproductions are sold under the Johnny Lightning and Auto World names and you can pick them up as singles or in groups of 1-10. The more you buy, the cheaper the lot, and you can re-sell any you don't need.
All early Tyco and most other screw on bodies will fit an Aurora/reproduction chassis. Later snap on Tyco bodies will fit the new Tyco/Mattel 440X2 wide pan, and HP7. These are fast, modern magnet chassis and will give your 1970s Tyco body a new lease on life.
For sentimental reasons, I don't like to cut up my old cars' chassis.


Weirdly sluggish or dead cars and Ketchup/Catsup.
So your shoes are flat, your tires are new, you've checked all the springs and motor brushes, and everything seems to move freely, but your car is still sluggish or barely registers life. Check that your pick up shoe springs are correct, one not stronger than the other...
Get out the ketchup. Your old slot car's electrical part have probably tarnished, and any time two dis-similar metals touch, a process called electrolysis happens and a thin layer of corrosion can build up between them. It can be quite invisible, but an effective insulator.

Without even disassembling the chassis, you can slather the bottom and/or other electrical parts in ketchup, using an old toothbrush to gently work some under the pick up shoes into the spring area. Leave it on the counter from 30 minutes to an hour or even over night and then use the toothbrush to gently scrub the bottom. Carefully rinse under a gentle stream (and a pot in case you lose a spring) being sure to work the pick up shoes to get the ketchup out. The electrical parts should look much better. The acid in the tomato juice is a safe and effective cleaner. Blow out as much water as you can and re-lubricate the car. Apply some power and spin the wheels to help spin the rest of the water out and you should be rolling.

I did this with a chassis from a junk lot and it's one of the best I have. A gem under the grunge.

Not exactly HO, but here is our track. It is set up for 1/24 cars, but we can do some 1/32 cars too.

Whoa!

That's cool!

I wonder if they have a scale Ghia slot car???

That is da bomb.!! 1/24 scale rule. Lot's of fun. I use to race them myself.

Nice track.. your basement?

Admin wrote:

That is da bomb.!! 1/24 scale rule. Lot's of fun. I use to race them myself.

Nice track.. your basement?

Thanks, no it's not the basement. It is one quater of the garage! The garage is 2400 sq. ft. That used to be the parts room, but hubby decided to get out of the VW business and go to work for the tow company he worked for years ago. This was back when the internet was just getting going and there was no ebay. If we would have know then what we know now, we would have kept all those parts!! Live and learn.

Well very cool! So when is race day. My dad has a whole set of controllers and cars that he is giving me.. we can tear it up!

Oh.. I will bring the beer

justcruzin wrote:

Not exactly HO, but here is our track. It is set up for 1/24 cars, but we can do some 1/32 cars too.

My slot car box sits on the shelf for over eight years with no action, so I sell it two months ago. My timing SUCKS!

Sounds like you have my luck, Jeff!!

Thats why i don't sell anything.
I hate it.
I am pretty good at not buying things I don't need.

Low Class wrote:

justcruzin wrote:

Not exactly HO, but here is our track. It is set up for 1/24 cars, but we can do some 1/32 cars too.

My slot car box sits on the shelf for over eight years with no action, so I sell it two months ago. My timing SUCKS!

Yah,it does suck! We are currently getting the track and the room back up to par so we can host a meet and greet at our place. We will have cars for people to use though, so you can always use one of ours.