Trans Am Parity

[WB2]

Fooling around on a rainy day here.
Running a Pioneer Mustang notchback against Scalextric ‘70 Camaros and a Challenger.
All cars have trued urethane rear tires and ScaleAuto guides. Pioneer has metal bushings all around while Scaleys have the oversize nylon. Non-mag on Carrera track.
Pioneer car runs much stronger, at least 0.15 second quicker per lap. Much smoother, also.
Is the Pioneer motor that much stronger than Scalextric’s?
Any idea how to even the cars up?

[dungeonracer]

Check the gear ratios. Last I knew, Pioneer had a lower gear ratio which gave it more speed.
And yeah, I believe the Pioneer motor has more torque than the Scaley motor.

[Aptosc6]

Pioneer uses stronger motor mags. They are outlawed in our TransAm series because of this.
the Scaley Camaro is the car to beat. The others have a high CG and spend much of their time doing the MC Hammer thing on their roof : )

[docdoom]

The 1970 camaro

[Aptosc6]

The 1970 Camaro is the best. Long wheel base, low CG. Same general weight as most other TA cars. Just works better.
That said, I'm now playing with a 1969 Camaro which is almost as good as my 70.

[Aptosc6]

OK, a little more info. It is a lot of work to get any of these cars to work. You need to resection the body work so it is all part of the main body. We run no magnets so adding weight is requisite. NSR rear rubber, reinforce the front uprights after removing the front axle to allow truing. The list goes on and on. Check your rules before you dive in...

[Mitch58]

In the Portland our Trans-am class uses the same "Black Stripe" motor that Scalextric and Fly uses as we found the Pioneer motor was stronger and giving the pioneer cars a decided advantage.

[slothead]

I have 50 RTR Trans Am cars - 40 Scalextric, 9 Pioneer, and 1 SCX (AAR 'Cuda). I solo race them against each other using recorded lap times. For qualifying I use lap averages, usually for 10 lap or longer sessions. The top qualifier varies, but the usual suspects are Pioneer '68 Camaro, '70 Scalextric Camaro, Pioneer '68 Mustang notchback, and Scalextric '69 Mustang. A surprising result from 40 - 100 laps racing has been a few victories by the SCX AAR 'Cuda, which has a reputation for having a slower motor but really suits my driving style on my road course where it's more stable stance allows it to be driven harder in some corners.

The Scalextric AMC Javelins can be good runners too as seen by a solid 2nd place finish in a recent race. [Top 3 cars left to right: Scalextric Camaro, Scalextric Javelin, Pioneer Mustang}

[Redlynr]

The scaley inlines have different gearing 3:1 vs the sidewinders 3.27:1, which can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on track. Some of the SCX cudas came with updated motors which are better than the old typically slow motors. I think the Pioneers came with an extra pinion gear, a 12t, which can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on track. SO there are definitely some variables among the cars...

[PetesLightKits]

I have 50 RTR Trans Am cars - 40 Scalextric, 9 Pioneer, and 1 SCX (AAR 'Cuda). I solo race them against each other using recorded lap times. For qualifying I use lap averages, usually for 10 lap or longer sessions. The top qualifier varies, but the usual suspects are Pioneer '68 Camaro, '70 Scalextric Camaro, Pioneer '68 Mustang notchback, and Scalextric '69 Mustang. A surprising result from 40 - 100 laps racing has been a few victories by the SCX AAR 'Cuda, which has a reputation for having a slower motor but really suits my driving style on my road course where it's more stable stance allows it to be driven harder in some corners.

The Scalextric AMC Javelins can be good runners too as seen by a solid 2nd place finish in a recent race. [Top 3 cars left to right: Scalextric Camaro, Scalextric Javelin, Pioneer Mustang}

Slothead,
The Javelin is inline with 9:27 gearing (3:1) and the Camaro and Mustang are sidewinder with 11:36 (3.27:1) ratio. Do you guys do anything to the cars to compensate for this small advantage in gearing for the Javelin?

Peter

[slothead]

I'm a solo racer and the answer is no, all these cars are box stock except for PG rear tires. In a few cases very slight modifications were done to create body float when indicated. In my experience, even though the Pioneer cars felt faster, that was not always consistently demonstrated by lap times. Another example of this is with my Scalextric Cougars. I have 4 of them and generally speaking they are slower than my other Trans Am cars, but The black #14 Dave Tatum Cougar can turn in very competitive lap times as can the yellow #79 Mark Waco Cougar.

If I average lap times together by manufacturer and type of car some are better performers overall, BUT if I assess the lap time info on a car-by-car basis individual differences vary. I assume this is due to small but meaningful differences in the car components that cumulatively account for performance.

[chrisguyw]

Check the gear ratios. Last I knew, Pioneer had a lower gear ratio which gave it more speed.
And yeah, I believe the Pioneer motor has more torque than the Scaley motor.

Dickie is correct,...........the Scaley sidewinders use an 11T pinion, with a 36T Spur,...........Pioneer use a 12T pinion with a 36T Spur.

As most of our local area club guys used Scaleys in the Trans Am classes, the Pioneer guys had to switch to an 11T pinion.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[waaytoomuchintothis]

And, as always, the fastest car isn't the winner, usually. I proved it on my track with a guy who raced in the huge Ninco races in Europe who was visiting at my place. I took my best car out, and handed him a box-stock Scaley. On my track, his first time, he clobbered me using one of my guest controllers.

[WB2]

Regarding Aptosc6’s comment #3.4 - how many people go through the trouble to remove the front and rear pans from the chassis on Scalextric cars?

[4424ever]

I’ve done 1 for a proxy build and have approximately 50 stock

[chrisguyw]

All of our local club members that run Scaleys in TransAm (probably 25 to 30 racers) cut them from the chassis and attach to the body.

[Aptosc6]

Every competitive TA car has had extensive resectioning as well as work to get body float. As I said, there is a lot of work to get these cars into the winner circle (which is where my Camaro is most of the time).

[RichD]

Try using the Superglue trick to tighten up those oversized Scalextric rear axle bearings. The later Scalextric "18K" motors were only good for 20K, older ones could turn as much as 23K. You might try switching to 18K Predator motors.

[WB2]

I ditched the superglue trick years ago.
I make a diagonal cut through the bushing with a razor saw, then place cut in bottom of opening. This effectively decreases the ID of the bushing.