Post by Andrew Rowland on Mar 2, 2016 0:58:19 GMT -5
I thought now the Policar Lotus 72 has been out for a while and I’ve released a few Policar compatible chassis for various manufacturer’s bodies it might be worth doing some back to back testing to understand better the performance.
Clearly, outright performance of one car over another will depend on many things and most importantly in my view on the track type and material.
The other important items in my view are tyres and motor rpm.
In order to try to get some parity I used different tyres on different models in order to assess first the performance advantages (or disadvantages) offered, on my track by the different compounds, widths and weights.
The test was carried out on an MDF track with copper tape at 12.0V.
The list of cars which entered the test were:
1. Fly Williams FW07, Standard spec.
2. Fly Williams FW07, Policar gearbox, 3D printed chassis and Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
3. SRC Ferrari 312T4, Policar gearbox, 3D printed chassis and Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
4. Fly Lotus 78, Policar gearbox, 3D printed chassis and Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
5. Fly March 761, Standard spec.
6. Fly March 761, Standard except Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
7. Fly March 761, Standard except Policar Lotus 72 rear tyres/wheels
8. Policar Lotus 72, new, out of box but with aluminium rear wheels and F22 tyres
9. Policar Lotus 72, fettled with lead weight and aluminium rear wheels and F22 tyres
A few notes / assumptions:
a) I saw no reason to run the Policar Lotus 72 with the C1 tyres it comes with so why run any of the other cars with standard tyres? Reason: because those manufacturers don’t, to the best of my knowledge, offer ‘racing’ alternatives.
b) Why not run any of the SRC cars in standard trim? Obvious.
c) The Policar tyres are ‘wrong’ for the March 761 but this car was run as a ‘control’ to understand how much if anything was being gained from the Policar tyre over the Ostorero tyre.
d) I had intended to include some Scalextric cars (Ferrari 312T and Mclaren M23) in the test but without magnets and with standard tyres they just don’t run around my track, causing a lot of frustration. This is largely due to tyres but with the knurled axles I couldn’t try any other tyre/wheel combinations on them.
The test was run in random order with 4 minutes for each car. Any ‘off’s’ were seen as part of the test as confidence and consistency are clearly fundamental qualities of any race car. Clearly no absolutely objective test can be done however, as driver mistakes do creep in…..
Results:
Policar Lotus 72, with weight and run in.
youtu.be/s3XB8DeEobQ
Standard Fly Williams FW07
youtu.be/lkr-gpjvGTw
Ferrari 312T4, policar gearbox and compatible 3D printed chassis
youtu.be/4JbW1l0MY5k
March 761 all standard
youtu.be/ik1V43Wx4Mc
It is interesting to see that the well fettled and run-in Policar Lotus 72 has almost the same performance as the Ferrari 312T4 and Lotus 78 (if it hadn’t been off the track) despite the latter two cars having significantly wider track and tyres.
I found it interesting to put the Policar tyre/wheel combination on the March 761 t understand whether that tyre combination might work better than the quite different Ostorero set. In fact the Policar wheel/tyre set up didn’t create advantage as I had thought it might. I had imagined that the lightness of the wheel/tyre combination would have aided acceleration significantly but it appears that is not the case.
It should also be noted that the Standard Fly tyres although wide in themselves have a quite narrow contact patch as they have a curved profile.
It would interesting to see some testing with other tyre types, Urethanes as many people seem to be using them.
It would also be interesting to see what effect motor rpm has on the different cars. As standard all the Policar driven cars have 25,000rpm motors and I believe the Fly cars are lower spec’d. It would be good to hear form people who have upgraded the power to see whether the cars handled better or indeed worse.
Finally:
It should be noted that other people are very likely to come up with different results due to track / driving style / gearing / motors etc. Do please join in with your test!!
Clearly, outright performance of one car over another will depend on many things and most importantly in my view on the track type and material.
The other important items in my view are tyres and motor rpm.
In order to try to get some parity I used different tyres on different models in order to assess first the performance advantages (or disadvantages) offered, on my track by the different compounds, widths and weights.
The test was carried out on an MDF track with copper tape at 12.0V.
The list of cars which entered the test were:
1. Fly Williams FW07, Standard spec.
2. Fly Williams FW07, Policar gearbox, 3D printed chassis and Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
3. SRC Ferrari 312T4, Policar gearbox, 3D printed chassis and Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
4. Fly Lotus 78, Policar gearbox, 3D printed chassis and Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
5. Fly March 761, Standard spec.
6. Fly March 761, Standard except Ostorero Lotus 79 rear tyres/wheels
7. Fly March 761, Standard except Policar Lotus 72 rear tyres/wheels
8. Policar Lotus 72, new, out of box but with aluminium rear wheels and F22 tyres
9. Policar Lotus 72, fettled with lead weight and aluminium rear wheels and F22 tyres
A few notes / assumptions:
a) I saw no reason to run the Policar Lotus 72 with the C1 tyres it comes with so why run any of the other cars with standard tyres? Reason: because those manufacturers don’t, to the best of my knowledge, offer ‘racing’ alternatives.
b) Why not run any of the SRC cars in standard trim? Obvious.
c) The Policar tyres are ‘wrong’ for the March 761 but this car was run as a ‘control’ to understand how much if anything was being gained from the Policar tyre over the Ostorero tyre.
d) I had intended to include some Scalextric cars (Ferrari 312T and Mclaren M23) in the test but without magnets and with standard tyres they just don’t run around my track, causing a lot of frustration. This is largely due to tyres but with the knurled axles I couldn’t try any other tyre/wheel combinations on them.
The test was run in random order with 4 minutes for each car. Any ‘off’s’ were seen as part of the test as confidence and consistency are clearly fundamental qualities of any race car. Clearly no absolutely objective test can be done however, as driver mistakes do creep in…..
Results:
Policar Lotus 72, with weight and run in.
youtu.be/s3XB8DeEobQ
Standard Fly Williams FW07
youtu.be/lkr-gpjvGTw
Ferrari 312T4, policar gearbox and compatible 3D printed chassis
youtu.be/4JbW1l0MY5k
March 761 all standard
youtu.be/ik1V43Wx4Mc
It is interesting to see that the well fettled and run-in Policar Lotus 72 has almost the same performance as the Ferrari 312T4 and Lotus 78 (if it hadn’t been off the track) despite the latter two cars having significantly wider track and tyres.
I found it interesting to put the Policar tyre/wheel combination on the March 761 t understand whether that tyre combination might work better than the quite different Ostorero set. In fact the Policar wheel/tyre set up didn’t create advantage as I had thought it might. I had imagined that the lightness of the wheel/tyre combination would have aided acceleration significantly but it appears that is not the case.
It should also be noted that the Standard Fly tyres although wide in themselves have a quite narrow contact patch as they have a curved profile.
It would interesting to see some testing with other tyre types, Urethanes as many people seem to be using them.
It would also be interesting to see what effect motor rpm has on the different cars. As standard all the Policar driven cars have 25,000rpm motors and I believe the Fly cars are lower spec’d. It would be good to hear form people who have upgraded the power to see whether the cars handled better or indeed worse.
Finally:
It should be noted that other people are very likely to come up with different results due to track / driving style / gearing / motors etc. Do please join in with your test!!
