resullivan wrote:1) I think there are more advantages to using a more dense material than COM. In other words, I still think using tungsten will give you an advantage.
This is true when racing on straight-ramp tracks with tight transitions, e.g. BestTrack. On curve-ramp tracks, e.g. Cub Scout Leader's HOW TO Book, Piantedosi, and Freedom, the difference gets lost in the noise.
resullivan wrote:2) I don't know what it takes to be competitive in your district, but in ours the $20 of tungsten is the least of our costs.
WOW! What else do your district's best performers buy?
resullivan wrote:3) I am not sure if your intent is to save the people that currently buy tungsten money, or to attempt to make the people that don't use it more competitive. If it is the later, I don't think this rule will help. The people that win with your current rules will win with your new one.
Quite likely, but not because they used tungsten as ballast!
Speedster wrote:
I suspect Stan's rule would change nothing. Once a District allows other than a 4 3/8" wheelbase, using slots, a whole lot changes.
I think that it changes the thought process leading up to building. And it changes the "up front" costs for first time racers. It "pulls them into the hobby" more gradually, and makes their entry more about knowledge and less about $.
Speedster wrote:Four ounces of 1/4" tungsten cubes would cost a racer $4.88 per year and that includes shipping. If the racer joined with 4 friends he would get free shipping and it would cost him $3.59 per year. That's a little less then a penny a day. Is it really cost or perhaps disinterest?
First, the cost is "up front". Second, I don't like to sacrifice my car from last year in order to build my car for this year.
Speedster wrote:There was one wafer car in our District races this year and it appeared in the Tiger class. Yes, he won. All the other cars, other then the cars of my 2 scouts, had lots of wood. No matter what was used for weight they were limited on the amount that could be added. My scouts had an advantage before the pin dropped - OK, except for the one little Hot Rod that beat us since we all raced the Bear class.
That advantage was partly due to knowledge and effort put into the build (Yay!) and partly due to buying high density (Boo!).
Speedster wrote:Is there really a scout District that allows lathed wheels?
What? The 2.x and 1.x gram wheels that a lot of folks purchase are prepared on a lathe! The "Wheel Shaver" used to true wheels operates on the fundamentals of a lathe. Spinning a wheel using a hand-held drill and holding a block of sandpaper against the tread is a lathe process. All legal in most districts. The results are the same; just the details of how they got that way are changed.
Or are you talking about some of the "fancy tread profiles" that are possible on a lathe?