Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Topics not relating to derbies, regattas or cubmobile races.
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chromegsx
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Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by chromegsx »

Wondering what thoughts are on what to modify on a hot wheels car to make it faster.

Is graphite to big particle for such small axles? Any value in derby oils used in this small cars? How about weight would be too much? Any thoughts or theories?
rpcarpe
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by rpcarpe »

What kind of race are you thinking of?

Most importantly, don't let the axles get bent.

Check weight of the car and their performance, might find a correlation between ideal weight and speed??
My wife started a new support group... Widows of the Pinewood Derby.
chromegsx
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by chromegsx »

Well I took one apart by drilling the rivets out to check out what was inside and see what could be done. This one had severly rusted axles but was faster than many other cars we checked... but not the fastest one as I didn't want to ruin that one. I also liked the bigger wheels it had to navigate over the track joints. They run on a pwd track in between the track guides. I attempted polishing the axles but the "head" on each end of the axle made it difficult to polish. I did however see an improvement from that but the steering was really messed up then. These cars have all been played with and I don't think one of them has a straight axle. So I got this one nearly as fast as our "choosen" car. but didn't want to risk messing up the alignment on it so I just used technique to get a fine grade graphite packed into the wheels using the axle "heads" and then ran it by hand with some pressure to give the graphite some "breathing" room. I saw a nice gain from that. We'll see what happens this wed. night.

I wonder about the best weight for these things too. I'm thinking more weight would help but don't know where to start. The one I have is about 1.2oz., I think. Might try some testing with weight and stop watch on my 7' tuning board tonight. See if I can't notice any differences.
TedBull
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by TedBull »

This sounds fun. I would love to see some pics and video. Is Hot wheels racing a regular thing around the country?
chromegsx
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by chromegsx »

I don't think its a regular thing but I also don't think its and original idea for our area. Basically you take the race track and just use a board to hold the cars at the starting gate and then the human lane judges call the winner. Its for the younger kids to get in on the racing action. At our Awana program they start at 3rd grade for the typical kit car construction. The hot wheels starts in 1st grade I think.

Mod'ing the hot wheels is something I'm not sure anyone does in our area. The derby bug has bit me a little bit, so my wheels got turning in my head....hmmm... "I wonder what I could do to make this car faster since it didn't win last year and its still the fastest hot wheels car we have."

I'll see if I can't get some pics/vid. I don't think I remembered the cameras last year.
chromegsx
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by chromegsx »

I ended up adding an ounce of weight totaling about 2.3oz and taping over the windows to keep the weight in. Regraphited with maxV after running and testing on fine graphite powder and tested again and gained 18 mph easy running about 310mph+ (was 292) on my 7' board elevated about 6-8". I estimate I was already up 100 mph from last year with out weight. So we're gonna call it good and see what happens. When I added weight it helped the car go straighter than with out but I could not determine if it was much faster with more weight. I had about 20 pennies taped to the top but couldn't tell if it was better than 10. Hopefully the track joints don't kill us with the small wheels and causing the car to wreck. Hoping it will be so fast it will just glide right over the joints :pray:

The speeds are from a Hot Wheels scaled output radar gun that I bought a long time ago for another purpose that didn't work out. Works good for hot wheels though. :D I don't think the resolution is very good though, I think its about 18mph.
rpcarpe
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by rpcarpe »

I've wondered about getting the Hot Wheels radar gun! Sounds like you're on the right track, keep us all posted.
My wife started a new support group... Widows of the Pinewood Derby.
chromegsx
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by chromegsx »

Actually we won last night by maybe 1/4" on the last race. His first race he won by about 10'+ :O My wife leaned over and said I hope they aren't all like that. :lol: She doesn't like to stand out too much. I got video and pictures. But just a bit busy to get them posted right now. Hopefully this weekend or early next week.
chromegsx
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Re: Racing Hot Wheels Mods

Post by chromegsx »

Here's some pics and a short video of the the first and last race. Great event for the younger kids. Gotta keep it movin' though as they get rowdy.

Getting staged...
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The race is on....

https://youtu.be/
The winner!!
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The kids also to a shoebox car construction for design judging. My son's is the cat in the middle.
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3rd place on shoe box design.
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The GODS truck on the end was 1st place and well deserved I thought. Stood for "God's Outstanding Delivery Services"
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