New Sept Wirl W.I.P.

[builderjim]

Hi All.

Latest Work In Progress from the Blue Streak Racing group.




Jim

[parrish]

Jim,

One word...AWESOME!!!

The lines in the body make it look like it is ready to attack.

Great Job!

Take care.

[Smokinjoesracing]

What can I say...I love flames.

[builderjim]

Thanks Guys. I also am one who like flames. I thought that with this one I would keep with the theme of my racing name and go blue.
The car is all hand cut with using nothing but a coping saw and shaped using wood files and a rasp. Oh and lots of sand paper. It was pretty hard getting the middle hole section cut so that it was even.


I had thought about adding a windshield made of plastic but after 3 unsuccessful attempts and makeing one fit the way I had planned I have given up on that idea.
Just got to think of a name for the car now and get the wheels and axles prepped and aligned. No problem 3 weeks left. ;D

[patmanruls]

I like the name "turret". The original definition of a turret is a small tower that projects from the wall of a building, such as a medieval castle. That is what the top reminds me of....

[patmanruls]

Oh, and I think we can tell where most of the weight is.. hehe.... I love it.. Makes me jealous... I got no skills..

[builderjim]

I knew I was forgetting something! j/k

J

[Panzer]

Fine work BuilderJim
Looks like it could break the the 3s just sitting still.
How do you do your flame work?

[builderjim]

Thanks Panzer.
The flames were done by spraying a base of silver, then clear coating that. Then I hand draw the design I am looking for on a piece of green painter masking tape (found at auto part shops) and cut using a new sharp xacto blade and put that over the silver that I want to stay. then I spray the top color. Blue in this case and clear coat the whole thing after removing the tape. I usually have to clean up the edges of the flames because of some of the paint bleed. But with using the clear coat over the silver that makes it pretty easy cause you would be just sanding the edges of the blue and the clear coat and not the silver.

It's easier I found to lay down the flame color first and then keep the design/base colors where you would want them since I son't have an airbrush.... Yet....

Hope this helps someone. ;D

J

[woodenwonder]

Man, that car looks Bad Fast! Good Luck this month.

[warthog]

Great Looking Car!!! Looks like a fast one - can't wait to see it run.

[wheeler]

Jim good looking car , like the flames also. Looks like a little air foil action going on at front end. Hope it runs good. Happy racing.

[c0nclusi0n]

I would have to say WOW look at this car and many other car's here this is neat stuff
Nice job man !!!

[builderjim]

Well, that Idea didn't quite work out right. I set the rear axle plane higher than the front so that the weight would mostly be below the plane of the axle. I fear that I might have set it too low and the car was dragging on the bottom at the transition of the curve. hmmm...I seem to let the designer in me overcome the engineer.
Back to the drawing board. Literally for me.

Oh well, at least it looks pretty cool.

[slkrnsntracing]

Jim
You're not the only one with an idea that didn't work. I had several ideas and obviously none of them worked either.

I'm not too sure how bad it was because I did not race in August. Several builders have complained of their times slowing down the last couple of months, so who knows?

I don't have a track to test on, so I don't have anything to compare it to.

I do know that I really enjoy the races, and I think I'll go back to the drawing board and give it another try next month. I do have a lot more ideas that are probably as bad as this months ideas.

Congratulations Warp Speed, Buckeye, Panzer, and everyone else who competed.

Phil

[builderjim]

Thanks Slkrns,

One good thing about this car vs. the last one I sent in is that it can be reconfigured without too many problems. I can even move the weight around... low temp hot glue works wonders.

I'm going to start working on next years cars and just race this one till the end of the season.

[slkrnsntracing]

Jim
I can mess around with a couple of my cars, but the one that really did bad is just weights and wheels with a little wood and paint to hold them together. I had the COG at less than 1.25" from the back of the car. I'll probably scrap it.

I used a new type of lube and I think I have a lot to learn about it. I didn't have any runs on them when I sent them in, and I think that could have helped.


I need to improve on aligning them also. In July my car did a lot of wiggling around instead of running straight. I made a couple of changes this month that I'll have to wait til the videos come out to see if they helped.

That's the down side to making a beautiful car like Turret, it would be too hard to scrap it out. Turret is one of the sharpest cars I have seen.

Good luck next month.

Phil

[builderjim]

Thanks for the compliment!.
Was your COG calculated or just by doing the balance beam thing?...makes a difference.

The calculated COG for turrent was 1.5" or .95 oz on the front wheels and balace on rear. I think the weight placement could be a little more extreme but not that much, like a 1/8 oz or so more in the rear.
I also really need to find a better way to align my cars or just plain do a better job of it.

Funny thing happened with this one... my wife asked why it was named "turt", i thought she said "turd" the she clarified and said the the correct pronounciation for turret was turt. I might just have to rename it... maybe then it won't be such a "turd" ;D

[Smokinjoesracing]

Jim if you were like me you had "Tur-rets" syndrome when you saw how our turds ran. ;D My computer hasn't forgiven me yet.

[slkrnsntracing]

Jim

The COG was done by balancing it in a thin flat edge.

For a crude estimate on how much weight was on front and rear wheels. I used a deli scale that measures in 1/100 of a pound. 5 ozs would be .3125pounds. I had .03 on the front wheel and .28 on the rear wheels.

I thought it was a little radical before I sent it in, but I just had to do it.

The funny part about it was, its name was Crohn's Awareness. Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease which two of my children are currently suffering from. With this disease there is a lot of diarrhea. Well to say the least, my car made a mess all over the track.

Thats probably why nobody else could run right.

Phil