Arrrrrrrg! Why do we do it!

[3 Cub Dad]

Ok, I know I'm not the only one who's done this, because I've done it more than once!

Car was running great. Won pack. Getting ready for District.

Figured I could "tweak" the alignment just a little bit to pick up a little more speed

Ran it down the track for a baseline speed.

Tweak one wheel...

Oooops, that added .2 sec.

Change it back!

Oh no, now it just added ANOTHER .1 sec, but I didn't change anything else!

Change it back to before the change it back.

Dropped .2 sec, but still slower than original by .1 sec

and on

and on

and on

and on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ummmmmmmm, 3 hours later, now it's .2 sec faster than original

don't know why

don't care

I'm going to bed!


3 Cub Dad

[tkp]

Hilarious..!!
(were laughing with you...not at you)

Thanks goodness we don't have a track or this would be us.

TKP

[Stan Pope]

Been there, done that!
(Got the tshirt, don't need another!)

[macd]

Hilarious..!!
Thanks goodness we don't have a track or this would be us.
TKP

+1

[drathbun]

If I had a basement, I would have a track... but it's hard to have a basement in Texas.

[rpcarpe]

When I get a track, this WILL be me!

[pgosselin]

I feel your pain. That's happened to me, too.

[tkp]

However to your question- why do we do it....

For the .2 why else!

TKP

[chromegsx]

Why?

Because of the reaction you get from your son/daughter when they win... fist pump, big eyes, smile, skip in their step, etc. Because of the social interaction among your son/daughter with their peers that wouldn't normally happen... high fives, casual glances with a smile, the macho nod that says "Way to go!", etc. And for the chance they will remember how much time you put into their chance of success AND remember to tell you how much they apprieciate it. But even if they don't... the first two reasons are enough.

HOWEVER, If your son or daughter is not the one racing then, all that gets thrown out the window and I default to tkp's response.

I'm thinking about building a track in our basement for the kids to play with. Yeah that's what it's for... Honest. The wife would even like me to do it... But I fear I may come down with a fever that has no known cure. Maybe I don't want to build one after all. I might be...

[mebetree]

Our pack track is stored in my house. It is SO tempting to set it up a month ahead of time and use it for testing and tuning. So far I have resisted the urge. I did make two runs on a shortened track the night before check-in just to make sure it wasn't going to hop off the track in the transition but I didn't hook up the timers or run the full length.

[PeterT]

Our pack track is stored in my house. It is SO tempting to set it up a month ahead of time and use it for testing and tuning. So far I have resisted the urge.

This is why I am quite happy that our pack track is stored at our sponsoring organizations facility. EXCEPT all of the electronics are at my house (to keep them safe since the storage is not locked). I won't even move the track on my own... we always have 2-3 adults around when it is setup to reduce any appearance - perceived or real - of taking advantage and testing on the real track. Our pack rules prohibit any current cars from running on the pack track prior to the local derby.

One advantage of keeping the timer is that no one can "go rogue" and use the track to fine tune a car beyond what they can observe visually. Without a timer I cannot imagine many people can tell if they just added or removed a second.

Oh - and I won't have a full track at home. I'd turn into the guy from that down'n'derby movie.

[PWD]

I can not tell you how many times we have been there. But usually after we get some time back we start an entire new cycle trying to understand why is it better. It is a mind set that is helpful throughout life, or can be a curse. Something I would like my boys to pick up. This is especially true for my boys that will go on to be engineers or similar professions. Well I would also like my girls to but they don't do PWD.

Thank god we have my wife that comes down and tells us to put it away.

[jacksdad]

My thing is the paint. We have the car looking great and I decide to do one last thing the night before the race. Two years in a row I've messed it up to the point that I've have to almost redo the whole thing before he gets up on race day and sees what Dad did to his beautiful paint job. The first year I decided our truck needed black frames around the painted on silver windows and I tried a sharpie. The ink immediately bled into the paint and started to spread out before my eyes. A quick wipe with thinner only succeeded in taking a big patch of the lacquer AND paint off, and I spent the next few hours sanding, painting and drying it over the stove. The next year it was all done and my son went to bed and I decided I'd wet sand a couple of rough spots and add another coat of lacquer. Didn't check the can so I didn't realize it was water based, and it immediately came off down to the paint. Another frantic few hours painting and drying it over the stove again.
Live and learn - not doing anything extra this year. It is what it is, and I'm not "fixing" anything that doesn't need it.