Our race is tomorrow morning...
Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:37 pm
Tomorrow will be our 3rd CMB race.
Our CMB District race has the following characteristics:
1. inspection measures nothing, just a glance to see there is a seatbelt and brake handle…
2. the starting system is volunteers (Army) holding the cars by the rear axle
3. the timing system is more volunteers with stopwatches, I have observed a fellow missing a car and when asked for time he said “woops… uhhhhh… 13.2”
4. cars no longer run side/side due to the number of wrecks and collisions preventing a timely running of the race…
5. cars get together when run together as there is no separator between lanes
6. there is no functional test of steering or brakes (I have observed seatbelts consisting of rope tied together and brakes make of broom handle with no friction material added… just wood on asphalt)
We have easily won the speed category the last 2 years. But last year a couple of cars that are from our Pack caught up some with degreased and WD-40’d bearings in the wheels.
So this year we too have purchased “race” wheels… we’ll keep the other worn wheels for neighborhood tooling around (with grease seals and grease)…
the race wheels were ordered with the bearings not yet installed, seals removed, grease flushed and will be given re-lubes between runs.
This year’s car has baby smooth linkage ratio’d foot steering (adjust easily for a more maneuverable setting for tooling around the neighborhood which still is quite easy to steer).
Our brake is last year’s “twin hockey puck” brake and works like a champ.
Seatbelt is a lap/shoulder belt from a mid-80’s Celica.
We did a before and after roll test during the wheel swapout and the new wheels show significant improvement…
just letting the car roll along, it rolls much more easily and continues to gain speed quickly even on a shallow incline whereas prior it seemed to kinda find a “top speed” (in our driveway).
Anything could happen but I think if nothing breaks and the race goes off as usual, my son should collect another trophy
One thing other to point out: The last 2 years my son has been given 1st for Wolf then last year for Bear… the Wolf trophy says Bear (they gave us the wrong one!)… and the Bear trophy has 2005 written on it…
(laughing!)
As you can tell, what this all boils down to is the event is really more for fun and not very competitive.
It is relatively informal and much more relaxed than Pinewood for sure.
I am actually glad we don’t have a seriously competitive CMB race.
-Terry
Our CMB District race has the following characteristics:
1. inspection measures nothing, just a glance to see there is a seatbelt and brake handle…
2. the starting system is volunteers (Army) holding the cars by the rear axle
3. the timing system is more volunteers with stopwatches, I have observed a fellow missing a car and when asked for time he said “woops… uhhhhh… 13.2”
4. cars no longer run side/side due to the number of wrecks and collisions preventing a timely running of the race…
5. cars get together when run together as there is no separator between lanes
6. there is no functional test of steering or brakes (I have observed seatbelts consisting of rope tied together and brakes make of broom handle with no friction material added… just wood on asphalt)
We have easily won the speed category the last 2 years. But last year a couple of cars that are from our Pack caught up some with degreased and WD-40’d bearings in the wheels.
So this year we too have purchased “race” wheels… we’ll keep the other worn wheels for neighborhood tooling around (with grease seals and grease)…
the race wheels were ordered with the bearings not yet installed, seals removed, grease flushed and will be given re-lubes between runs.
This year’s car has baby smooth linkage ratio’d foot steering (adjust easily for a more maneuverable setting for tooling around the neighborhood which still is quite easy to steer).
Our brake is last year’s “twin hockey puck” brake and works like a champ.
Seatbelt is a lap/shoulder belt from a mid-80’s Celica.
We did a before and after roll test during the wheel swapout and the new wheels show significant improvement…
just letting the car roll along, it rolls much more easily and continues to gain speed quickly even on a shallow incline whereas prior it seemed to kinda find a “top speed” (in our driveway).
Anything could happen but I think if nothing breaks and the race goes off as usual, my son should collect another trophy
One thing other to point out: The last 2 years my son has been given 1st for Wolf then last year for Bear… the Wolf trophy says Bear (they gave us the wrong one!)… and the Bear trophy has 2005 written on it…
(laughing!)
As you can tell, what this all boils down to is the event is really more for fun and not very competitive.
It is relatively informal and much more relaxed than Pinewood for sure.
I am actually glad we don’t have a seriously competitive CMB race.
-Terry