This year for the outlaw class I wanted to do something fun, so I ordered a ducted fan kit from one of the supporting vendors here. It took about 15 minutes to put together, and that's because I painted the base. The instructions were very clear and the car went together perfectly. I took some axle rejects that were already polished (but maybe not as perfect as some others) and slapped on some wheels and was ready to go. I tested all of the electronics, but could not test the car, so I had no idea how it would perform until race day.
On Wednesday night I made a super-thin wedge style car using one of Sporty's topics as a baseline for how to use the tungsten cubes. My block before weight was 0.8 ounces, the wheels (standard wheels and axles) added 0.48, and all of the rest of the weight was tungsten cubes crammed into the back, both in front of and behind the axle. I painted it black, with an overcoat of metallic silver, finished with a transparent purple. It looked okay, but considering the entire car - including all four coats of paint - was done in one night I wasn't complaining.
On race day I kept the fan car under wraps; very few people knew that I was doing it. My older son helped me decorate a shoe box with radioactive symbols and big danger signs, and we had a major unveiling when the car came up in a race in our outlaw division. The scouts thought it was great and even the parents were getting into it. A reall good time on our track is 2.28 or 2.27. Most scouts come in about 2.3, some of the faster parents who have been building cars for a while have hit 2.25. I think the track record is 2.24. The fan car hit 1.8! It was fantastic fun.
Ultimately my son (Web II) with the Texas Flag car took first in his den (by the slimmest of margins) and first overall in the pack (first time for our family) by an even slimmer margin. Our cars have almost always been competitive, but we've never done quite enough to get to the top of the pack. This year despite the late start and limited time to work, we did make it, and to be honest I believe the difference maker was some derby graphite from the same supporting vendor that I got the fan kit from. When we put the graphite on, I could tell immediately how much smoother it was than the hardware stuff stuff we've been using all of these years. As I watched my sons car race, it was clean coming down the slope, smooth through the transition (our pack has an older wooden track) and at the very end of the track (32') seemed to surge ahead by just a fraction. I believe that's because the graphite was allowing him to preserve that extra tiny bit of speed. It wasn't that his car was surging ahead, it was that the other cars were starting to fall off.
I think if we had a 40' track instead of 32' that his margin of victory would have been a bit wider, but as it was the races were extraordinarily exciting! I will go back and pull up some race times and post them to show how close.
Ultimately if you're on the fence between using local store-bought graphite or getting some of the "fancy" stuff from some of the supporting vendors, I now believe that the graphite does make a difference.
My "standard" outlaw car took first place in the outlaw division. Obviously the fan car was disqualified.
It was great fun to watch though. My purple wedge car was made to scout standards and that's what we ultimately used to qualify who won the race. Pictures to come...
