Poll question

[Noskills]

Do you think test runs on a track are required when building a rail rider?

Yes, Strongly agree
Tes, Agree
Neutral
No, Disagree
No, Strongly disagree

Thanks,
Noskills

[PWD]

You will get benefit rail riding without a track. But you could get more benefit with a track and the ability to tweak. You will get the most benefit if you have access to the actual track you will be competing on. We have never had the last benefit.

It is possible to have a track, optimize through tweaking and end up slower on the end track compared to someone who tweaked without a track.

[slipperyfrog]

We have done pretty good on our kitchen table and no track to practice on.

11th>4th>1st>1st. Did not understand rail riding the first year. Worked on it the next three years. My younger son looks forward to try starting where his brother left off.

[Shawn Stebleton]

My older son won 1st in pack, 2nd in district as a Webelos II (competing against Wolves through Webelos II's) 3 years ago with a rail rider that had no practice time whatsoever.

My younger son won 1st in pack, 1st in district as a Tiger 2 (competing against only Tigers) 2 years ago with a rail rider with no practice time. The only time the cars ran down a track prior to districts were during the pack races.

My younger son came in 2nd in pack and 2nd in districts (to john4840's son) as a Wolf (competing against Wolves through Webelos II's) the next year with a car that had no practice time.

It's tough, but it can be done.

I would prefer to have a test track available. The one day we could make use of one (Piantedosi wooden) is when I am donating my time routing weight pockets for others at our Fun Day and my son usually breaks whatever car we are working on, so we have to start from scratch without a test track available. We've never been able to have one of the type the district has raced on the last three years (Best Track).

[john4840]

You do not need a track to build a rail rider. However you do need a track to adjust the rail riding car for its best performance.

John

[BallBoy]

In motorsports most of the major tuning of a car is done in the garage, oftentimes hundreds or thousands of miles away from the track. Sure, there is some fine tuning after some laps on the track, but a good race team that knows how to set up a car can exit the garage with a fast, competitive car. The same is true for pinewood derbies. If you have access to a track, don't pass up the opportunity to do the fine tuning, but you can produce a fast car without it.

[idpwdnut]

With the child/parent teams that I have helped build RR, we have usually not tested. Most of those cars, won their dens and Packs and placed very well at Districts. We have just made sure the wheels tracked out forward and back, used a testing board to measure drift, and straight edge to make sure the wheel behind the DFW stayed off the guide strip.

Testing on a track has usually shaves time from the car and optimizes it. But I have seen a car tuned on a track and then ran on the exact same track set up in a different location and that optimization is gone. Car is still fast, but not like it was.

Bottom line, a track is a luxury but not a necessity.

[rpcarpe]

Because of the relatively small pack sizes I dealt with, every cub got a practice run. But that was after they spent time on the Tune Table.

[Aron]

I would say a test track is not needed as my youngest has won pack 2 years in a row with a RR with no testing at all. Although we have had alot of help from several people on here

A would agree that having a test track would be very benificial