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Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 7:22 am
by AaronS
Let's say you have a car set up to railride assuming it's set up properly with drift, dfw, can't and 1/16" inset on dfw. When the car is positioned at the starting gate pin, would it be advantageous to offset it ever so slightly, so that it doesn't railride until the first 2' or 3' of the ramp portion of track? Will this give extra speed at beginning to allow more momentum and potential energy release in the race? Has anyone tested this? Thank U.

Re: Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:09 am
by Vitamin K
Good question, and I don't have a good answer. This might be a good one for some of the league racers who stage 100's of cars a day for a race.

Re: Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:29 am
by whodathunkit
That is a good question!
If you car has a raised wheel you wouldn't want to stage it up against the rail.
As it has to spin up scrubbing off speed.

I think by having your car staged with the DFW off the rail that there is less..
Rolling resistance to get it moving.


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Re: Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:01 pm
by AaronS
I'm thinking we're on the same page whodathunkit. I'm under the impression that starting the race with no rail contact for a few ft is more of a gain even if the path is a little longer to get back to the rail. I think the gain of less resistance and more speed through the ramp section is more advantageous. Unless there is a league racer out there, as Vitamin K suggested, that could please shed some light on this topic?!

Re: Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:47 pm
by Speedster
Sorry Gentlemen, you don't have a choice. A car set up to rail ride will go to the rail almost instantly. If you cut a piece of duct tape to 1 5/8" and stretch it down your wife's beautiful, smooth dining room table -- let me back up here -- stretch it down your test board, you will see how far the car travels before the dfw touches the tape. You want it to go to the rail but don't start it on the rail.

Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:03 pm
by whodathunkit
Check out Max V's news letter
Vol 15 issue 2 about bad staging.
There is some really good info about this!


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Re: Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 5:14 pm
by AaronS
Ok, thank U to both Speedster and whodathunkit!

Re: Starting position for rail riding.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:06 am
by Speedster
I enjoy the tests Randy does. I think everyone does. They are very informational.
I have 2 questions simply to consider.
1. Would the results have been the same had Maximum Velocity's graphite been used ? Not the Elapsed time but the closeness of one time to another.
2. Would the results been the same if the rear wheels had Negative cant?
The importance of staging is critical. I experienced this year in our Cub Scout Pack "Donor" race where the 1st place car should not have received 1st place. This was proven by racing the 2 cars after the race where staging was done accurately. The 2nd place car beat the 1st place car 2 out of the 3 races they ran.
My advice to adult scout helpers is to teach your scout how to stage the car. You will get more time to spend with your scout one on one and know you gave the car all that you could after all that hard work building it.
Best,
Speedster