Derby Talk

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These were our cars for the year. They were fair performers but nowhere near our standard the last few years. Upon examining them post race I think many issues were due to alignment.

Not seeing any pics?

Lookin very sharp. Great looking cars.
thanks for sharing.

The Nellie style. I here needs a lot more drift. Then you would ever think off.

Sporty

(I can see the pics now!)

Whoo, the Nellie Faye and the Sporty Spoon! Two great classics!

Are those drilled-out wheels that I see? Outlaw car?

What's your alignment process like?

Our cars are drilled using the bullet with neg. canted rears and a [junk]. canted DFW. I ran out of time to get the alignment perfect.... and yes that was the killer factor for why these aren't as good as the past years. I've managed to get 3-5" of drift in 4 ft. as a result of my drill process in the past, but this year they were turning the wrong way from the drill. Normally I'd start over, but I was out of town most of the last month due to family illness and didn't have time for that. The result is that we had to axel bend... which is not my strength.

The Nellie Faye style car does require a ton of drift. The white one was much better than the black, but had serious wiggles in the flat. If they let us run it at districts it will have much more drift in it than it currently does and should be ok.

On the spoons my sons over shaped the area over the DFW's and the holes were weakened. We're going to scrap the black spoon and build a new on for the district race.

The dots on the wheels are just to number them and keep the wheel with the location on the car it matches.

Very cool cars!

Interesting that the Nellie Fayes would be so temperamental. Wonder why that is? Something to do with the airflow?

Topspin.D,

Very cool car line up!
In the first photo the red car seen to the far left..
Is that a 1977 or a 1980's Ketchup bottle car that I'm seeing in the photo also.

Now That's Classic!

Yep that's a car I built in the early 80's with my father. They had a vintage car class this year. I should've guessed that the guy who suggested it had a good car he wanted to pull out... his car was scream'n fast... his son's car... not so much.

My sons are ticked-off at me for giving my den so much help and information. They were all screaming fast... most using blocks I drilled, all using axel/wheel polishing materials we provided, and half with bodies cut in our workshop.

I was trying to show them that you should freely help others and enjoy competing with good competition...not just a walk over.

Unfortunately, we just didn't do as well ourselves. The winning car was completely built in our shop a few days before the race... which is unusually when we refine/test our cars. Oh well...

Topspin.D wrote:My sons are ticked-off at me for giving my den so much help and information. They were all screaming fast... most using blocks I drilled, all using axel/wheel polishing materials we provided, and half with bodies cut in our workshop.

I was trying to show them that you should freely help others and enjoy competing with good competition...not just a walk over.

Unfortunately, we just didn't do as well ourselves. The winning car was completely built in our shop a few days before the race... which is unusually when we refine/test our cars. Oh well...

I salute you, sir, for your willingness to level the field like that. Hope your boys forgive you!

I held a "speed seminar" after our Pack race (mainly for the benefit of those attending Districts), but I am considering doing it again next year /before/ our Pack races.

How do you feel about the spoon cars ? The design and shape.

You pleasedo with them ?

It's been a few years now. Since me and the kids did that style. I still found two years ago at mid America with 2nd place. It still was good.

But would enjoy your thoughts and comments.

Recently I found some jabs at my son's car and my car. Design.

Dave,
Those are great looking cars from the fenders to the flames. I think it's hard to add those little details and stick with the other details like tuning. My kids have all flat out rejected fenders. I have tried last two years and been beaten by them. Amazing story about your den doing so well. They boys will get over it.
Are those 1.4 gm wheels? We are gearing up for districts in mid April and the mid-America.
Seth

sporty wrote:How do you feel about the spoon cars ? The design and shape.

You pleasedo with them ?

Sporty the spoon is awesome. I think that once you understand the key design principles of PWD cars you can make any shape/style reasonably fast... but the spoon is something that is very achievable with minimal tooling (drill/rasp/file/sandpaper) and produces very solid outcomes.

Seth, these are full weight 2.6 g wheels. I tried to pick the best ones out of my stash of wheels (which wasn't very good .003 runout). I didn't even put them on my unimat lathe to true them up. After 3 years of pack wins, I didn't want any question about doing anything shady... These cars are pure out of the box (except the balsa for fenders).

Lol, my kids asked who's cars those were. Have you been sneaking into our house to take your pictures? Black stool and all. I thought that was funny. They looked at the picture and looked at the kitchen counter... Double take.