SPRITE SPX builds

[retro racer 44]

I'm going to officially change my handle to Mr. Frustrated. With one week of available prep time, I got my wheels and tires from DArt today and sat down to reassemble my SPX. My trusty Airfix wheel handy as a gauge, I put on the wheels and tires. Perfect fit. Not! The new urethane tires are at least 1/8 inch too big in diameter. The wheels are the right size, but of course, me and my big mouth came back to bite me with the added maximum wheel size. Not having a tire razor, I guess my Dremel and I have date.

[JT Previa]

Retro - Keep the faith! You'll get there in the end. (I've got two cars to finish, but the flu's got me too worn out to work on them!).

Leave a bit of extra tire, maybe one of those local Canucks up there could sneak in and do a final truing before the race?

JT

[retro racer 44]

I discovered that anything more than minimum Dremel speed made the tires grow like drag slicks. I have glued the tires and tomorrow will finally finish grinding them. It is actually good that the wheels are getting smaller as they were rubbing on the flares the way they were. I just need a guide flag and it should be good to hand over to VTECHFOUR next week.

[DrDiff]

My car moves. Some drive line bindage and something in the front end. I pray it will finish. My second home brew chassis. Several changes were made in the DiffBuilt-03 that is going to SLOP, compared to the DiffBuilt-02 going to SPRITE.

It will probably finish behind all the HP cars but for a first home brew going to war... I'll be happy to get it home and see how it loosens up.

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[BRAIN]

yeah..ah not a smooth completion of my 4WD buggy. I had to cut off the set screw hubs on my inline Slot-it crown gears....and then thought I could solder them to the axle, but the heat caused the metal hub to melt into the plastic and make it not concentric. So now I am attempting to machine my own crown gears. and...jt...I also got the flu!

Brian

[JT Previa]

Teething problems all around - no experimentation without a little pain! Diff, have you tried a bit of toothpaste to lap in the gears? Might loosen up your drivetrain.

Brian, good luck with the home made gearing, we all are awaiting the all-wheel drive Sprite! Hope you beat back the flu as well - its knocked me flat for about two weeks now (despite getting a flu shot this fall)!

JT

[DrDiff]

JT
The gears are becoming more and more free as the car gets laps. I am sure it will do fine. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Dean

Diff, have you tried a bit of toothpaste to lap in the gears? Might loosen up your drivetrain.

JT

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[JT Previa]

Finally, I can report some progress on the SPX front!

I received the final missing piece for my build in the mail today. Photos in the SPX build thead I started here:

http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/po...934#post712934



JT

[JT Previa]

The blizzard has stopped, only about 29" - practically Canadian weather. Heading out to do some testing at Cornerstone!





JT

[BRAIN]

nice

Oh, man saw JT's SPX car in person on Sunday. Really a great looking chassis and a smooth runner. He really has done an incredible job on building a great meshing anglewinder with 'floppy' pans.
My car was all rumble and rough in comparison (it is a 'rat rod') ...but I did add some bracing today and think I might have had one of the tires rubbing....a quick test on the skid pad tonight shows improvement. I am worried that a good wreck will torque the chassis. And wreck it might; this thing really has a lot of top end speed (final ratio around 2.5) so....ah guys....brake early on a long straight...until you get used to it
Hope to ship it tomorrow.
Last pic of the chassis without the body....at the end I added epoxy to several spots...one of my soldered bearings came loose...and I wanted to try to make it 'bullet proof'. Looks a little messy now....
Brian

[retro racer 44]

4WD Sprite

Can't wait to see it in person. It is an intriguing design. Well done!

[JT Previa]

Brian's car is so powerful and has so much traction, that the entire 7'x24' Cornerstone track table moved in the opposite direction several inches when he pullled his controller trigger and the car launched!

It was okay though, when he released the throttle at the end of the long straight, braking was so strong, it pushed the track/table back in place

This car is like a beltsander with a slot car body on top. What it will do on Luf's hillclimb should be amazing.

JT

[retro racer 44]

Brain's Beauty

Wow!
That is about the only way to describe Brain's entry into the SPR. I got to see it in person, and even drive it on Luf's Targa. It is an engineering marvel, and I was impressed to say the least, but what really blew me away was the body. The exhaust pipes, wing and especially the pin-striped number on the front hood were phenomenal. You must have really steady hands, Brian, to do work like that. If there is a Concourse d"Elegance award attached to this proxy, your car has my vote hands down.


Keith

[BRAIN]

Thanks for the compliments Keith. Yea, ah the rat rod look allows you to be a little sloppy. Though I do have steady hands....the 'pinstripes' are decals I made...took some pinstripe images, modified them in Photo shop to add the number. I know from the little time I did drive it, that those four wheels are fighting eachother to win the traction battle. I think I calculated the final drive to be 2.5:1 which should have calmed down that 25,000 rpm motor. But I used ball bearings throughout the drive train and that thing just wants to spin!

Brian