When I first started racing my slot cars, and I mean racing, not just doing laps, I thought the non magnet guys were crazy. How in the world could you race one of these rockets without magnets in them. Now I race non magnet and wonder how did I ever race with magnets in the car. Good video again Dave. This is the kind of information I wish I had access to when I first hit into the hobby.
We have been magnet-free for about 5 years and loving it. Who doesn't like to drift a slot car through a radius 4 Scalextric corner? For the first 6 months after I bought my first digital set, my kids and I were breaking cars and breaking wings with regularity. I didn't even know the magnets were removable until one my my kid's cars crashed so hard that the magnet broke free from the chassis! Do yourself a favor: pull the magnets, add some track borders to your layout, add some lead weight to your cars, and swap your tires for silicone or urethane. That can take as little as 10 minutes per car or you can go crazy and tune away for hours. You will get that 10 minutes back by not having to glue the rear wings back on your cars.
It’s definitely more rewarding driving without 🧲 Found that out by accident when I bought some old Scalextric Pontiac Firebirds that don’t have any magnets So much fun plus the car tells you when you are over driving it Great video 👍
I agree, I don't like racing with magnets. Scalextric rely on magnets these days to make their cars run. There is little skill with magnets, I race custom built cars at home and they are as fast as magnet Scalextric cars but you can actually drive them on their limits which makes for some great recoveries and racing. It is also worth mentioning that motors also give magnetic effect.
Hi Dave. The club track I race on is a routed wooden one, with no magnetic effect. I tend to leave the magnets in the cars, as I make wooden plinths with a small section of sheet metal inlaid below where the magnet sits. This setup is then screwed into a plastic lidded container, and the magnet in the chassis holds the car to the plinth, with it's tyres not touching anything. I have now purchased a carrera track system, so I will take the magnets out, allowing me to tune the cars for the wood track without magnets, and fit them into the plinths, and put a small amount of sheet metal into the chassis of the car to achieve the same result.
Great video. Our club gave up on traction magnets for championship nights about 20 years back. We've never gone back. But we do use them in a few classes in our midweek informal/novice nights. Using traction magnets does allow you to run some cars/classes that don't work so well even with ballast and better tyres etc. More specifically 1) Bar magnets (the less downforce the better) also provide a bit more leeway and driving realism than button magnets, i.e. bar magnets are less binary - less 'on or off'. 2) With some cars, there's not much space for weight (that Scalextric Cooper in the video is a good example) so a light magnet can be used in conjunction with weight and better tyres to 'share the load'. 3) All magnets can be tamed to a point by using shims to re-position them further away from the track rails. 4) If you've (say) a big Scalextric track with some tight corners and relatively narrow run-off strips (borders) traction magnets work to compensate for the disadvantage of running in lanes 1 and 4 - i.e. the two outer lanes nearest the borders. The two middle lanes (2 and 3) generally have less sharp corners and, of course, more room to slide. 5) I've found light 'fridge magnets' (brown bar) and very thin button magnets are a quick way of tuning/matching the performance of cars for a teams/endurance race night. We run a lot of these and mostly the cars stay in the same lane over all the heats and the drivers move from lane to lane. One of these events is considered a success if all cars finish within a lap or two of each other. Magnets can be especially helpful where the cars being prepared have quite big gaps in their raw performance levels (usually because they are from different manufacturers). If your aim is encourage close racing across each of the lanes (and in each heat) even though the lanes themselves may be different lengths, traction magnets will save you a lot of preparation time in bringing the performance of the cars closer together. That's a big help if you (as host) are supplying the bulk of the cars for an event and have multiple cars to set up and match to the track conditions. But otherwise, magnets encourage over-driving and lazy driving, the crashes are more damaging and they can cause the motors to overheat because of the extra drag.
A year late as I just found your channel but I'm a non magnet guy. They didn't have them in the 1960's growing up but they did have front wheel steering! Not only did they oversteer but they had opposite lock....which never got old! I definitely found them to be better handling compared to a solid front axle, probably because there is weight on all four wheels and not teetering on the guide.(plus the wheels not trying to understeer off into the wide blue yonder.
Love to race without magnets, magnets are the work of the devil 😈. If a car is undriveable without magnets I'd rsther not drive it at all 🤷 thanks for posting Dave 👍
Hi, I randomly came across this when looking up things today and remembered you'd said you didnt have one anymore, took me a while to find which video youd mentioned it Tech Racing Products make a new version ever since 2012.
Our club uses magnets on most of our classes. We do use the Magnet Marshall. It would appear that , the Cooper has a lot of magnet, we have a limit and it varies on each class. We believe that they should help, but you still have to drive the car.
Magnets vary hugely. I have a 41 Willys that had almost no magnetic pull when I pulled it away from track, some other carrera cars have a really strong mag pull..........and its kinda boring driving them they just stick to the track...........with out magnets they spin all the way down the straights pretty much and slide for days.
I feel the same, I prefer to run with no magnet help. It is funnier and I like drifting and sliding. I have to say it's not easy to learn how to tune a car. Tuning wheels and tires is proving quite challenging for me, but I can definitely see the improvements.
I grew up with 1/32 non magnetic analog wood track racing. I'm looking to rebuild a new wood track but would like to be able to make the new track digital with the ability to do all the functions there in. Do I have to go to the plastic track and hear the constant train clicking? Or is there a way to integrate the lane change systems into a wood track?
So there are plenty of people that have made digital lane changes that work for wood tracks. I'm not the person who can help you with ideas about how to do it, but 100% I've seen this online from time to time.
Google “Scorpius” for that sort of routed, digital combo. He’s got the digital side worked out in terms of flipper pieces etc. Although, you can do fuel etc without the lane changing with Race Coordinator (freeware) timing system.
I personally think the magnets as supplied are getting too strong; modern cars are like picking up a housebrick off the track. I run a mix of old and new and I also find when one with a magnet has no magnet it's like driving on ice; the older cars relied on their tyres and are so much easier to drive without the magnets by comparison. I noticed this yesterday even with one of the early magnatraction cars; a Porsche 956 which slid quite badly without the magnet when it came off. Compare that to my old Porsche 911's without them and they run pretty well with just some decent grippy tyres.
Your example of the new Scalextric Mustang GT4 rolling over (going turtle) is attributable to the cars' design. it's got a high center of gravity and with or without magnets this car rolls over. I've added weight without magnets and run these trying to tune them as non-magnet car and I've tuned it with more magnet. Including tires etc. It's just a car that will roll over like a well trained dog.
Stock tires need long sanding sessions.....it seems like once the outer layer is sanded off they actually start to work a little bit...........more sanding than you would think.......I have Ortmann tires on one car and once sanded they really work and slide predictably.......problem being the shipping from Germany. $$
Im a beginner and I dont like how magnetized my new Mega G+ HO cars are. They're almost glued to the track, im going to mess with reducing or removing them.
I agree I don't like that kinda racing. Also it's kinda fun to get the cars to slide with the tail out when you're racing without a magnet. Thanks for watching willkilla, I appreciate it!
May you help me I’m going I motion physics experiment My Carrea cars fly off the track very frustrating I need maximum speed and maximum magnets Should I switch to scalextrex ? And what type? Thanks
I suppose my carrera RSR Porsche needs more tuning. I have quick slicks on it and a better guide...........I took the magnet out and its really fun to drive but it goes sideways at half speed at best,and fishtails at every chance and slides and slides and slides...............just part throttle is enough to send it drifting all over the place...it basically is a drift car now.............the quick slicks take a shiny polish,you cant sand them any........so Im learning.
on my plastic track cars i reposition magnets forward and tune them so they handle like nonmag cars only faster overall i mean it is racing after all and you can dice rub and bump at speed more and not hit the floor plastic nomag is slow frustrating and boring for me as i have raced everything upto group 7 open class on commercial tracks in the past they are scary believe me hey when is someone going to do Millens imsa 300 zx sick of waiting lol i have a 91 fairlady 300zx slicktop japanese import so am a Zedfanman lol cheers Dave
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When I first started racing my slot cars, and I mean racing, not just doing laps, I thought the non magnet guys were crazy. How in the world could you race one of these rockets without magnets in them. Now I race non magnet and wonder how did I ever race with magnets in the car.
Good video again Dave. This is the kind of information I wish I had access to when I first hit into the hobby.
We have been magnet-free for about 5 years and loving it. Who doesn't like to drift a slot car through a radius 4 Scalextric corner? For the first 6 months after I bought my first digital set, my kids and I were breaking cars and breaking wings with regularity. I didn't even know the magnets were removable until one my my kid's cars crashed so hard that the magnet broke free from the chassis! Do yourself a favor: pull the magnets, add some track borders to your layout, add some lead weight to your cars, and swap your tires for silicone or urethane. That can take as little as 10 minutes per car or you can go crazy and tune away for hours. You will get that 10 minutes back by not having to glue the rear wings back on your cars.
As the inventor of the G-Plus and Magnatraction for Aurora, these cars lowered returns by more than 50%. That got more people staying in the hobby
they sure did.
Magnatraction cars were the first slot cars my dad would let me drive. Everything else ended up smashed into the wall.
Interesting take on magnets. I know I loved my G-Plus cars and would have never have gone back to the standard AFX cars.
It’s definitely more rewarding driving without 🧲 Found that out by accident when I bought some old Scalextric Pontiac Firebirds that don’t have any magnets So much fun plus the car tells you when you are over driving it
Great video 👍
I agree, I don't like racing with magnets. Scalextric rely on magnets these days to make their cars run. There is little skill with magnets, I race custom built cars at home and they are as fast as magnet Scalextric cars but you can actually drive them on their limits which makes for some great recoveries and racing. It is also worth mentioning that motors also give magnetic effect.
Hi Dave. The club track I race on is a routed wooden one, with no magnetic effect. I tend to leave the magnets in the cars, as I make wooden plinths with a small section of sheet metal inlaid below where the magnet sits. This setup is then screwed into a plastic lidded container, and the magnet in the chassis holds the car to the plinth, with it's tyres not touching anything. I have now purchased a carrera track system, so I will take the magnets out, allowing me to tune the cars for the wood track without magnets, and fit them into the plinths, and put a small amount of sheet metal into the chassis of the car to achieve the same result.
Sounds like you're having fun with this. Very cool, thanks for checking out the video.
Great video. Our club gave up on traction magnets for championship nights about 20 years back. We've never gone back. But we do use them in a few classes in our midweek informal/novice nights. Using traction magnets does allow you to run some cars/classes that don't work so well even with ballast and better tyres etc.
More specifically
1) Bar magnets (the less downforce the better) also provide a bit more leeway and driving realism than button magnets, i.e. bar magnets are less binary - less 'on or off'.
2) With some cars, there's not much space for weight (that Scalextric Cooper in the video is a good example) so a light magnet can be used in conjunction with weight and better tyres to 'share the load'.
3) All magnets can be tamed to a point by using shims to re-position them further away from the track rails.
4) If you've (say) a big Scalextric track with some tight corners and relatively narrow run-off strips (borders) traction magnets work to compensate for the disadvantage of running in lanes 1 and 4 - i.e. the two outer lanes nearest the borders. The two middle lanes (2 and 3) generally have less sharp corners and, of course, more room to slide.
5) I've found light 'fridge magnets' (brown bar) and very thin button magnets are a quick way of tuning/matching the performance of cars for a teams/endurance race night. We run a lot of these and mostly the cars stay in the same lane over all the heats and the drivers move from lane to lane. One of these events is considered a success if all cars finish within a lap or two of each other. Magnets can be especially helpful where the cars being prepared have quite big gaps in their raw performance levels (usually because they are from different manufacturers). If your aim is encourage close racing across each of the lanes (and in each heat) even though the lanes themselves may be different lengths, traction magnets will save you a lot of preparation time in bringing the performance of the cars closer together. That's a big help if you (as host) are supplying the bulk of the cars for an event and have multiple cars to set up and match to the track conditions.
But otherwise, magnets encourage over-driving and lazy driving, the crashes are more damaging and they can cause the motors to overheat because of the extra drag.
Looks like you have quite a collection of refrigerator magnets!
Good stuff Dave 👍
Great video Dave. Right on point. Thanks for being brave enough to put this out there. Not as charged as politics or religion but very close.
A year late as I just found your channel but I'm a non magnet guy. They didn't have them in the 1960's growing up but they did have front wheel steering!
Not only did they oversteer but they had opposite lock....which never got old! I definitely found them to be better handling compared to a solid front axle, probably because there is weight on all four wheels and not teetering on the guide.(plus the wheels not trying to understeer off into the wide blue yonder.
Love to race without magnets, magnets are the work of the devil 😈. If a car is undriveable without magnets I'd rsther not drive it at all 🤷 thanks for posting Dave 👍
Hi,
I randomly came across this when looking up things today and remembered you'd said you didnt have one anymore, took me a while to find which video youd mentioned it
Tech Racing Products make a new version ever since 2012.
It would be helpful to have a follow-up video for beginners, or new set owners, of how to set up a new car for non-magnet, home racing.
My series about tuning the Slot It Maserati is here already
I love the intro
Our club uses magnets on most of our classes. We do use the Magnet Marshall. It would appear that , the Cooper has a lot of magnet, we have a limit and it varies on each class. We believe that they should help, but you still have to drive the car.
Magnets vary hugely. I have a 41 Willys that had almost no magnetic pull when I pulled it away from track, some other carrera cars have a really strong mag pull..........and its kinda boring driving them they just stick to the track...........with out magnets they spin all the way down the straights pretty much and slide for days.
I feel the same, I prefer to run with no magnet help. It is funnier and I like drifting and sliding. I have to say it's not easy to learn how to tune a car. Tuning wheels and tires is proving quite challenging for me, but I can definitely see the improvements.
Nice shirt Dave
I got it at the Michigan 24 Hour race a few years ago. I have a video about last year's race here on my channel.
Be nice if Scalex licensed the 3d model for wings.
I grew up with 1/32 non magnetic analog wood track racing.
I'm looking to rebuild a new wood track but would like to be able to make the new track digital with the ability to do all the functions there in. Do I have to go to the plastic track and hear the constant train clicking? Or is there a way to integrate the lane change systems into a wood track?
So there are plenty of people that have made digital lane changes that work for wood tracks. I'm not the person who can help you with ideas about how to do it, but 100% I've seen this online from time to time.
Here is a very detailed description of a homemade digital routed track build. www.rsen.eu/
Google “Scorpius” for that sort of routed, digital combo. He’s got the digital side worked out in terms of flipper pieces etc. Although, you can do fuel etc without the lane changing with Race Coordinator (freeware) timing system.
@@tommagliocco4723
Thank you for the info.
I personally think the magnets as supplied are getting too strong; modern cars are like picking up a housebrick off the track. I run a mix of old and new and I also find when one with a magnet has no magnet it's like driving on ice; the older cars relied on their tyres and are so much easier to drive without the magnets by comparison. I noticed this yesterday even with one of the early magnatraction cars; a Porsche 956 which slid quite badly without the magnet when it came off. Compare that to my old Porsche 911's without them and they run pretty well with just some decent grippy tyres.
Your example of the new Scalextric Mustang GT4 rolling over (going turtle) is attributable to the cars' design. it's got a high center of gravity and with or without magnets this car rolls over. I've added weight without magnets and run these trying to tune them as non-magnet car and I've tuned it with more magnet. Including tires etc. It's just a car that will roll over like a well trained dog.
As I mentioned in the video, I'm 100% sure that if a car is tuned for non-mag and then magnets added back in it will be faster than the other way.
BTW. You can build a Magnet Marshal for less than $20
Details please!?
I use magnets because stock tyres are getting worse. They go “off”within weeks/months.
Polyurethane Tyres are the way to go
Stock tires need long sanding sessions.....it seems like once the outer layer is sanded off they actually start to work a little bit...........more sanding than you would think.......I have Ortmann tires on one car and once sanded they really work and slide predictably.......problem being the shipping from Germany. $$
Im a beginner and I dont like how magnetized my new Mega G+ HO cars are. They're almost glued to the track, im going to mess with reducing or removing them.
I agree I don't like that kinda racing. Also it's kinda fun to get the cars to slide with the tail out when you're racing without a magnet. Thanks for watching willkilla, I appreciate it!
May you help me
I’m going I motion physics experiment
My Carrea cars fly off the track very frustrating
I need maximum speed and maximum magnets
Should I switch to scalextrex ? And what type?
Thanks
I suppose my carrera RSR Porsche needs more tuning. I have quick slicks on it and a better guide...........I took the magnet out and its really fun to drive but it goes sideways at half speed at best,and fishtails at every chance and slides and slides and slides...............just part throttle is enough to send it drifting all over the place...it basically is a drift car now.............the quick slicks take a shiny polish,you cant sand them any........so Im learning.
Even Carrera cars with out magnets? They drift down the straights,they drift at 1/2 throttle,they slide and slide and slide for days.
Not on Policar track.
Here's the new and improved Magnet Marshal 2 - www.132slotcar.us/product_info.php?cPath=3150&products_id=39305
I think you miss the most important point. Driving without magnets requires more skill and is simply much greater fun.
on my plastic track cars i reposition magnets forward and tune them so they handle like nonmag cars only faster overall i mean it is racing after all and you can dice rub and bump at speed more and not hit the floor plastic nomag is slow frustrating and boring for me as i have raced everything upto group 7 open class on commercial tracks in the past they are scary believe me hey when is someone going to do Millens imsa 300 zx sick of waiting lol i have a 91 fairlady 300zx slicktop japanese import so am a Zedfanman lol cheers Dave
Only real racers use magnets. You just can't handle the speed.
;)
yeah Mark im with you mate high speed racing is really where its at always