BRM/TTS Camber

[WB2]

I’ve never really understood the obsession with camber on the mini cars.
I only have one Escort but wonder why the front camber. I saw guys running Frankenslot tapered front tires at a European shop. While the whole tread didn’t contact the track surface, it wasn’t the knife edge like the stock cars. The edge that met the track surface was also on the outer edge, not inner as stock.
Has anyone replaced the cambered front axle mounts with regular axle mounts?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Its only tangential to your subject, but I thought I would add that when I did a dirt track '57 Fairlane years ago, I cambered the front end and ground the tires to the angle to look like cars I saw on track years ago, and it actually made the car corner like crazy. Strange looking, but full contact for the front end tires was actually a huge asset. If there was drag, it was certainly erased by the cornering like it was on rails. Just sayin'.

[Ragtopman]

I only recently got the BRM Alfa and it has the front camber as well. The car handles quite well with it and it looks really cool as well like a real life Alfa! The negative camber obviously helps the real cars but slot cars? Not sure yet. Interesting about the Frankenslot version, might give more stable cornering than the stock “knife edge” as you said. Really impressive car though. How do you like the Escort? I am itching to buy the Alan Mann version...

[WB2]

Fun little car but I don’t know of anyone in the area that has a mini car.
Seen sitting on my monster track:

[Lou E]

I don’t know if it helps or hurts performance but it looks pretty cool, and it’s different, so I like it. I think the camber helped them get “coverage” which never hurts sales so maybe that was the point all along.

[Lou E]

Fun little car but I don’t know of anyone in the area that has a mini car.
Seen sitting on my monster track:

Very cool track!!

[WB2]

Moving to the back of the cars, specifically the early cars with cambered rear ends - I recall reading that BRM showed up in Tacoma with taper ground rear sponge tires. Racers loved them since they put the entire width of the tire on the track.
No camber would mean all of the rubber on the road, plus that universal joint has to use up some power.
Just wondering.

[ZackM]

I actually think there could be some small gains from having camber in the front of the car, I think of it like a zero grip tire or something similar. As long as the car is not rolling up onto the full surface of the tire you have effectively cut the drag of those tires substantially. All while adding a good bit of scale realism as you would likely find pretty significant negative camber on a race car.

The rear camber made for way more problems than the front, and again this is all just my speculation.

Zack

[Rastas]

I have put sponge tires on the back of my Castrol Escort and bigger motor and I found that on my scaly sports track it definitely helps turning in on a tight track , but would go straight ahead with the rubber tires with less grip. Using a 4 om controller. LOL. I was bored and full of ideas that night! But that's what happened.