Derby Talk

Our wood track looks identical to a Fast Track in design. We rail ride and I have no doubt the rail is not pefectly straight all the way down the long straight away. I believe it also has a lane or two that are a little wavey due to warping. There's a noticable time difference between lanes, sometim...

I've heard that aluminum tracks are faster than wood. I'm curious though, how much faster?? We have a 49" wood track in fair condition and were thinking of getting an aluminum one next year (same length). For example the fastest car in pack was my son's and he came in at 3.9 secs. How much fast...

Hey there, I haven't been online in a while. Just wanted to let you know what we did and what happened. I left the DFW at 1/8th. I pulled out the rear wheel a little extra so that it wouldn't touch the rail. It first seemed like a lot of gap but...we won fastest in pack with a track record. Thanks t...

I saw an ad in the back of BSA mag. Below is a link to the website. Sounds like some sort of coating. Does anyone have any experience with this? What's your opinion on it?

http://pinewoodderbycoach.com/Secret_Derby_Lube.html" target="_blank

OK, alot of to think about hear. Can someone be clear on why exactly 1/8th will slow the car down that much? Based on my car configuration (see past info on this post) and 49" wood track (semi-rough) what would potentially happen during a race? My biggest concern has always been lsoing speed on...

Thanks FatSebastian. Lots of great info. I'm curious, do you use neg or [junk] camber on the DFW? What experiences with these setups have you had, including RR and shaving off a little wood on the DFW side? I appreciate your advise.

Yes I agree that normally the DFW would tend to migrate toward the body but as it steers into the rail it (the rail) would push it back toward the nail head, or am I wrong?

We use positive camber. The wheel hub on the DFW shouldn't touch the body because we made the front (ahead of the slots) narrow enough. Do you think increasing the gap between wheel & body would be a good solution? I know the other post mentions glueing a 1/16th piece of bass wood but I would ra...

We cut the car and it looks great. BUT we may have a problem. I wanted to shave 1/16th off the DFW side and we took off too much, 2/16th! Do you think this will be a problem? If so is there anything we can do to compensate? Maybe less steer? We were going with 2" in 4'. Our intention was to kee...

DE, do you just place the wheels in the alchohol? For how long? Thnx!

I've been experimenting with diffferent plastic polishes in the wheel bore. After using the polishes with a pipe cleaner I rinse the wheel off and run a new/clean pipe cleaner in the bore. Then I wipe the whole wheel down again but still see some residue and film in there. Also in the little crevice...

FS, we want to build a railrider with canted rear wheels. I was also considering shaving a little off the DFW side so that the rea wheels stay off the rail. Our COM is usually 3/4" from rear axles and out track is a 42' wood. My son wants to try the "talon" shape this year because he'...

Thanks for your responses to my last post. Piggy-backing on that I'm wondering if I should even use a "talon" car. We have to use slots and no extended wheelbase. My son and I have noticed that there are very few cars with the talon design anymore. Most are wings or just thin designs. Is t...

My son and I are considering whether we should build a talon shaped car this year. We are not allowed to have an extended wheelbase. So we wanted to take off as much weight as possible from the front end by making it very narrow ahead of the front slots. I'm worried that it may not trip the finish l...

Great post. I am wondering if the rear wheel cant enters into the equation with such a long track. Also, how much steer in 4' would you say is safe with a long track like the one described? Thanks again!