? on Rail Riding

[greenhorn]

I just found the Derby Talk forum today. LOTS of stuff there. I ran across the alignment and 3-wheelers thread that talks about rail riding. I understand it (surprised even myself ).

We have nearly finished our new car for WIRL. It is painted, wheels on and aligned (3 wheeler aligned to go straight).

Here are my questions. Should we realign to ride the rail?

Is 2" in 5' a good starting point or what should we strive for?

How can we get the talked about 1/16" narrower on the touching front wheel to that rear wheel (presumably so the rear wheel does not rub also). Is it that important? Should we toe out the rear wheel(s) or what should we do? I suppose we could notch into the car body and touch up the paint if we have to, but if there is a good alternative I would like that much better.

I read until my eyeballs started to fall out and didn't really find any suggestions on what we should do now that our car is basically built.

Just when we thought we were getting there

[JOKER]

GREENHORN,

IT CAN PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS IF DONE RIGHT. ALTHOUGH THE WIRL TRACK WE RACE ON IS VERY GOOD......THE SUCCESS OF YOUR CARS RUN BECOMES MUCH MORE DEPENDENT ON THE RAILS AND THE JOINTS OF THE TRACK. PAST RACES I PARTICIPATED IN ALSO ALLOWED RESHAPING OF THE EXTERIOR WHEELS / MINIMIZATION OF TREAD CONTACT WAS OK.

WITH THAT BEING SAID - NARROWING THE WHEELS WOULD VIOLATE STOCK RULE S4: Wheels may be lightly polished to remove surface imperfections, but must not be rounded, grooved, or reshaped in any way in an attempt to minimize tread contact.

I MIGHT FOLLOW PAST ADVICE IN THIS COLUMN AND USE THE RULE - "IF IT AIN'T BROKE / DON'T FIX IT" FOR THIS PARTICULAR CAR. DO SOME EXPERIMENTING WITH OTHER CARS WITH BOTH TYPES OF ALIGNMENTS TO SEE WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU. HOPE THIS ADVICE HELPS.

[greenhorn]

I believe that to be sound advice. Especially while we're still learning we should probably stick to the basics and progress a step at a time. For now we're going to take your advice and leave our current car(s) alone. They aren't broke so we're not fixing it. (Except for the one that is broken, but with help from this board, the Green Menace may ride again.)

We like building cars so much, I'm sure there will be more cars in the future. So we can build a another car designed as a 'Rail Hugger' and see how it goes.

I know the stock wheel rule, I probably worded that part poorly. I meant we could narrow the front end of the car body, not the wheels.

As usual, the members of this forum have been great to us. Thanks so much, Joker.