Northwest True Scale 1/24 racing...brilliant.

[ZackM]

Some of have undoubtedly seen my posts about the 1/24 racing I am doing here in the NW. We have three pretty active clubs, but the one that resonates the most with me is what we call "true scale".

I think this is a great blend between the speeds and technicality we love about 1/24 racing, but the cars still look......well like cars! Big wheels, model car hardbodies, and reasonable ride heights.

It really strikes a great balance between super high performance, and the desire in many of us to have good looking realistic cars. Something 1/32 has certainly built a huge following in doing. The 962's we are racing are Lexan bodies, but they are well made .030" bodies and most are modeled with wheel inserts and great finishing touches.

This seems to be something unique to our area, and has a good and growing following!

[dungeonracer]

While it may never happen, if I ever make it to the north west, I would certainly stop in and check out your club.
You have some great looking cars

[ZackM]

You are welcome anytime!

Zack

[mattb]

Great. I like that you sacrifice max speed for good looking cars. bottom line is that equal cars make good racing and the faster you go, the more you stop to put a car back on. Faster you go the harder it is to keep cars racing equal. I wish our race group was made up of builders and finish was as important as speed. I do try to keep the cars slow enough so we have good racing.


Like I always say, at least I have a group that likes to race every week.

[ZackM]

You got it better than many do!

I agree, the heavier bodies, tall tires, and scale looks do slow the cars down a little. I think that is part of the fun, they are a little edgy and hard to drive. Most of our classes are quite closely matched. We also run pretty long races, which really adds to the excitement!

Zack

[Bill from NH]

Zack, what is your club running for motors? Chinese 16D's or some of the FK cans? If Dickie ever makes it to the Northwest, you'll find out what a tough driver he is. He will race anything with wheels & a motor, even lawnmowers.

[ZackM]

All of classes use Pro-slot S16d's or Hawk 7 motors. We run the 16d's in the heavier stuff, can am and such is hawk 7.

They have lots of chooch!

Zack

[lance]

Those cars look cool. what are the chassis? is it the Protrack, or H & R, Or is it something custom built? That is where 1/24 is lacking. 1/24 modle car kits with all types of cars and classes, but only 2 manufactured chassis for road cars. many 1/24 drag car chassis.
Can we see chassis on some of your cars? LAnce

[chrisguyw]

Those cars look cool. what are the chassis? is it the Protrack, or H & R, Or is it something custom built? That is where 1/24 is lacking. 1/24 modle car kits with all types of cars and classes, but only 2 manufactured chassis for road cars. many 1/24 drag car chassis.
Can we see chassis on some of your cars? LAnce

Lance, You may want to do a bit of research/homework.........lots of 1/24 (manufactured) chassis are available.....Scaleauto, Plafit, Protrack, MSC, H&R, Schoeler, Champion, just to name a few, with the Protrack and the H&R being the least advanced of the bunch.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[HomeRacingWorld]

Yes indeed. Good looking cars, and a good balance of speed/appearance.

If Dickie makes it...I'll hitch a ride. You need me to BBQ.

[mattb]

If you can cut and solder, the old Parma FCR's work fine. Not a big deal to cut up a Parma Womp and make it fit your car. Easiest of all is the 1/32 LVJ. Brass, $13-$14 and you make it fit what you want, solder some brass underneath and it handles as well as any sold frames, is cheap and easy.

[Mitch58]

Most of these classes have heavy scratch built brass chassis. In the last couple of years we've added some Schoeler, Scaleauto, and a couple of other bolt together chassis to accommodate those who don't have the chassis building experience of the more seasoned racers. I've notices several racers are going for modified Flexi chassis for the Can-Am class with uses Lexan type bodies. Most of the other classes use model car kits for bodies.

[ZackM]

We rely heavily on the Sloting plus and Scholer chassis in our club. Because they can be configured many different ways, we have 4 or 5 classes that and individual can race in with a single chassis.

If you allow people to build a nose and side pans they are very competitive even with some of the high end scratch built stuff, as least on bigger tires.

Pictured is my Spec 962. It is a sloting plus steel chassis, with custom side pans and nose plate.

[ZackM]

We had a cool club event on Saturday. Truescale Can Am is our points class for the second half of the season. With a lot of new guys coming we decided to do a chassis build day.

Luckily one of our club member Bill was able to provide a large number of Flexi chassis and scale Can Am bodies. We had around 10 "student" and 4 or 5 veterans helping out with the builds.

We use much bigger scale wheels and tires, so the hardest part is getting the axle heights fixed. We made some simple L brackets and soldered the axles at the right height. Then the car owners could build their own permanent mounts. These are are great for this class, they are simple, cheap and fast. Most guys spent less than 50 bucks on parts and left with a full roller, motor, gears, and a body! I soldered axles in at least 7 cars, plus many more motors and such.

1/24 can be difficult because all of the cars are custom built in some way, this was a great ice breaker for a lot of new folks!

[Nikolai Teslot]

You guys ever consider a 1/24 hardbody class ? Maybe modified Carrera or older hardbodies ?