Unlike regular slot cars, mechanically there is very little you can do to modify slotless cars. In fact the first thing regular slot car racers do is to change the rear tires to silicone tires for traction. Unfortunately, adding too much rear grip actually makes it harder for the front tires to steer the car from lane to lane! Aside from water dipping the brushes, re-arching the pick up shoes, lapping the gears, and other tricks you'll find described by Dan at www.tycotcrracing.com, the cars run very well as they are! Certainly as fast as you'll need on a normal sized race track! They are a pretty well engineered cars, considering the manufacturing and cost targets which had to be met. If you DO need rear tires because yours are dry rotted or hardened and crumbling, Slot Car Central carries a supply of spares. Otherwise the rear tires for Auto World X-Traction cars are the same width and diameter as Aurora AFX and Speedsteer and a tad smaller in diameter but will work to replace Tyco TCR tires. Beside fitting, they are new and soft. If you need front tires, replacements can be had from www.slotcarcentral.com or plain old rubber plumbing or automotive "O-rings" of the right diameter will work okay.
The photo above is my body modification of a badly scarred and chipped T-Bird body to make it look like a short track "Late Model" Stock Car. A"Rub Rail" has been added to the rocker panel (the area between the wheel openings below the doors) and a "low nose" has been made to fit below the front bumper of the 90's era Thunderbird body. The Lower Nose area has had layers of card stock curved and glued to the body below the bumper. This gives a cushoning effect in frontal impacts as the card is softer than the plastic body. The Rub Rails protect the body sides and are the only point behind the front chassis bumper that touch the walls, therefore reducing "drag" or friction. The spolier is for a wild appearance, since aerodynamics is totally ineffective in HO race cars. (Compared to real race cars, HO slot cars have so much power that they easily overcome what tiny aerodynamic drag the little cars provide.) The spoiler has since been cut down to more believable height.
The chassis of this car had yellow wheels. The tires were removed and the wheels were painted silver. Once dry, the tires had "Good Year" spelled out on their sidewalls with a toothpick and yellow paint. (Don't get out your magnifying glass, those are not actually letters, just dots of paint!) If this were a "dirt track" car, I might have lettered "Hoosier" tires in purple!
The chassis of this car had yellow wheels. The tires were removed and the wheels were painted silver. Once dry, the tires had "Good Year" spelled out on their sidewalls with a toothpick and yellow paint. (Don't get out your magnifying glass, those are not actually letters, just dots of paint!) If this were a "dirt track" car, I might have lettered "Hoosier" tires in purple!
Since not all the excitement needs to be racing, why not a Police Car? This body started out as a badly battered NASCAR Chevy which needed a LOT of spot putty to smooth up. The spoiler was filed off the trunk, and during repainting, I added headlights and tail lights. The roof light was cut off a junker Jam Car body (they have two, side by side so I can do another police car someday) and the "POLICE" lettering is made from clear address label.
During the body work for this project, I considered moving the center roof post and making this a "four door sedan" as most police cars are four doors. But I decided to go ahead as is because during crashes the weak center post might get broken off.
During the body work for this project, I considered moving the center roof post and making this a "four door sedan" as most police cars are four doors. But I decided to go ahead as is because during crashes the weak center post might get broken off.
Here's a Tyco TCR chassis which has been modified to steer left all the time. The steering sleave was worn out so that at best, this chassis "wandered" from lane to lane, and then crashed into the central lane wall on the next curve. It went into the parts bin to be stripped, but was saved for an experiment.
I removed the steering sleave from the motor shaft and glued a tiny piece of strip wood to the chassis and "tie rod" which links the two front wheels. The little tan colored item is the wood. This chassis was then "marked" by painting the ends of the front bumper and the wheels white.
By "locking" the steering, you make a "Super Jammer" out of what was otherwise going to be a "parts" chassis. I explain the reasons to do this on another page.
MODIFYING AURORA SPEEDSTEER CARS FOR USE ON TYCO TCR TRACK
Since the Tyco TCR equipment is still relatively available because it was made ten years later, most slotless racers have the Tyco track. However, a lot of slotless fans are not aware that Aurora Speedsteer cars are compatable with the later Tyco system by adding a little width to the front bumper of the Aurora cars! Adding just 1/16 of an inch to each side of the front bumper allows the Speedsteer chassis to run on the wider track.
To do this, I cut a strip of 1/16 inch thick plastic sheet 5/16 wide and 1 3/8" long, and then filed this to shape to fit under the Aurora bumper and allow clearance at the back of the bumper for the pick up shoes to work. I beveled the forward edge of this "add on bumper" in case it got so low that it might hit a rough track joint. The "add on bumper" was then glued on with regular styrene cement. Actually, this is very similar to the "Splitter" on today's NASCAR cars that keep air from getting under the car! Could this be "low tech" pretending to be "high tech?"
The reason for the similarities and differences when comparing Aurora Speedsteer and Tyco TCR cars are part of HO electric car racing history. Tyco slotless racing used a Jam Car that was guided by a groove or slot along the walls of the track, which required a wider track. Aurora and Ideal used a Jam or Road Blocker car which locked the steering of these cars so that they were guided like a regular slotless race car.
When Aurora went out of the slot car business in the mid 1980's, Tyco ended up with the slotless technology of Aurora. When Tyco came out with their 1990's TCR slotless racing (the TCR name came from the failing Ideal Toy Company) they updated their Command Control track, and produced their own version of the Aurora Speedsteer cars. Other than body mounting and replacing the worm gear steering with a silicone wrapped sleave steering system, the old Speedsteer cars and the Tyco TCR cars are almost the same. In fact, putting the better Tyco TCR pick up shoes and springs under the Speedsteer cars is a performance and durability upgrade. For more about this, I direct you to www.tycotcrracing.com .
I removed the steering sleave from the motor shaft and glued a tiny piece of strip wood to the chassis and "tie rod" which links the two front wheels. The little tan colored item is the wood. This chassis was then "marked" by painting the ends of the front bumper and the wheels white.
By "locking" the steering, you make a "Super Jammer" out of what was otherwise going to be a "parts" chassis. I explain the reasons to do this on another page.
MODIFYING AURORA SPEEDSTEER CARS FOR USE ON TYCO TCR TRACK
Since the Tyco TCR equipment is still relatively available because it was made ten years later, most slotless racers have the Tyco track. However, a lot of slotless fans are not aware that Aurora Speedsteer cars are compatable with the later Tyco system by adding a little width to the front bumper of the Aurora cars! Adding just 1/16 of an inch to each side of the front bumper allows the Speedsteer chassis to run on the wider track.
To do this, I cut a strip of 1/16 inch thick plastic sheet 5/16 wide and 1 3/8" long, and then filed this to shape to fit under the Aurora bumper and allow clearance at the back of the bumper for the pick up shoes to work. I beveled the forward edge of this "add on bumper" in case it got so low that it might hit a rough track joint. The "add on bumper" was then glued on with regular styrene cement. Actually, this is very similar to the "Splitter" on today's NASCAR cars that keep air from getting under the car! Could this be "low tech" pretending to be "high tech?"
The reason for the similarities and differences when comparing Aurora Speedsteer and Tyco TCR cars are part of HO electric car racing history. Tyco slotless racing used a Jam Car that was guided by a groove or slot along the walls of the track, which required a wider track. Aurora and Ideal used a Jam or Road Blocker car which locked the steering of these cars so that they were guided like a regular slotless race car.
When Aurora went out of the slot car business in the mid 1980's, Tyco ended up with the slotless technology of Aurora. When Tyco came out with their 1990's TCR slotless racing (the TCR name came from the failing Ideal Toy Company) they updated their Command Control track, and produced their own version of the Aurora Speedsteer cars. Other than body mounting and replacing the worm gear steering with a silicone wrapped sleave steering system, the old Speedsteer cars and the Tyco TCR cars are almost the same. In fact, putting the better Tyco TCR pick up shoes and springs under the Speedsteer cars is a performance and durability upgrade. For more about this, I direct you to www.tycotcrracing.com .
Aurora made some popular sets featuring semi trucks. While the Speedsteer cars handle like the Tyco TCR cars, the trucks are a whole different animal! In their original configuration, they came with "box" trailers which are rather top heavy.
Having already had a few Auto World semis in HO slot car racing (AW body tooling is almost the same as the old Aurora trucks and cars) and I knew this would happen. I found the best solution to be to remove the "box" part of the trailer.
When I did this to a pair of Speedsteer trucks I got in a trade, to my happy surprise, under the plastic box parts was a pretty nice looking flatbed trailer deck!
Getting the Aurora box parts off the trailers was an excersize in frustration. One was well glued to the trailer deck and took a LOT of careful prying with a small screwdriver and some cutting with a small saw. The other trailer's box popped off with very little effort!
Having already had a few Auto World semis in HO slot car racing (AW body tooling is almost the same as the old Aurora trucks and cars) and I knew this would happen. I found the best solution to be to remove the "box" part of the trailer.
When I did this to a pair of Speedsteer trucks I got in a trade, to my happy surprise, under the plastic box parts was a pretty nice looking flatbed trailer deck!
Getting the Aurora box parts off the trailers was an excersize in frustration. One was well glued to the trailer deck and took a LOT of careful prying with a small screwdriver and some cutting with a small saw. The other trailer's box popped off with very little effort!
Before moving on to painting the trailers, I did a test run with the semis and ran into an immediate and puzzling problem! The trucks would run down the straight and then crash specatcularly in the turns! Careful examination of what was happening revealed that the "mudflaps" on the rear of the tractors and the trailers were catching on the center walls of the TCR curved track. This was easily fixed by filing the mudflaps about 1/8" or a little more so that the rear tires came in contact with the inner and outer walls instead. If you look closely at the photo at the left you can see this. The trucks now run smoothly and handle better than in their box configuation.
I filled the box body "pin" holes with putty, sanded the trailers and painted them. The underbody is black, the trailer color is either red or blue to match the different tractors' colors, yet each be different, and the "wooden decking" is painted a light gray.
I filled the box body "pin" holes with putty, sanded the trailers and painted them. The underbody is black, the trailer color is either red or blue to match the different tractors' colors, yet each be different, and the "wooden decking" is painted a light gray.
With all the chassis swapping around, I ended up with an extra truck tractor body. I was not wild with the color scheme, but it was in nice shape. I decided to make a "straight" truck instead of a semi tractor out of it. I wanted to stay with the better handling flatbed arrangement and decided to make a "heavy duty" car hauler truck.
The bed would have to be overly long, so I removed the "sleeper box" from behind the cab. This required only cutting the squashed plastic of the mounting pins away on the underside of the "frame" and the sleeper fell off. I may yet cut the airfoil off the top of the cab and remove one exhaust stack to make the car hauler a little different from the regular tractor bodies.
The flat bed is made of a few pieces of 3/32x 1/5" strip wood on a sheet of scribed balsa. The bed is glued on with Walther's Goo so that it can be pried back off if I want to return this truck to semi tractor use.
I don't race the hauler with a car on it of course. As it is, truck racing is unique as the tractors are still more top heavy than the race cars. It calls for a real adjustment in driving style.
One more thing that I want to try is to scratch build a "low boy" heavy equipment hauling trailer. The deck of this type of truck would be quite close to the road which would be even better for a low center of gravity. I might even add a little sheet lead weight under the forward end of the deck to help hold the tractor down more as well.
The bed would have to be overly long, so I removed the "sleeper box" from behind the cab. This required only cutting the squashed plastic of the mounting pins away on the underside of the "frame" and the sleeper fell off. I may yet cut the airfoil off the top of the cab and remove one exhaust stack to make the car hauler a little different from the regular tractor bodies.
The flat bed is made of a few pieces of 3/32x 1/5" strip wood on a sheet of scribed balsa. The bed is glued on with Walther's Goo so that it can be pried back off if I want to return this truck to semi tractor use.
I don't race the hauler with a car on it of course. As it is, truck racing is unique as the tractors are still more top heavy than the race cars. It calls for a real adjustment in driving style.
One more thing that I want to try is to scratch build a "low boy" heavy equipment hauling trailer. The deck of this type of truck would be quite close to the road which would be even better for a low center of gravity. I might even add a little sheet lead weight under the forward end of the deck to help hold the tractor down more as well.