Post by superslab on Jan 3, 2010 20:55:48 GMT -8
Strangely enough, for someone as enamoured with cars as myself, I only recently got to hear of Greenwood Corvettes. I have to admit that this probably has much to do with the fact that, as an engineering-inclined youth and as a graduate engineer, I was probably somewhat technically snobbish and always gravitated towards more sophisticated (European?) cars and forms of racing. This in spite of the fact that in the sixties my parents were generous enough to buy me subscriptions to Car & Driver and Road & Track: magazines that were not otherwise available in the South Africa of my youth.
Be that as it may and for whatever reason: I only recently became aware of the Greenwood Corvettes. Part of the reason for this recent visibility is that Corvettes seem to be popular both in 1:1 historics racing and in 1/32 proxy racing. Taking a look at the proportions of almost all ages of ‘Vettes gives a clue for the reasons for this: these cars fit what I think is a very good “footprint” for a fast 1:1 and slot cars.
In reading a bit about these iconic cars, some things stood out:
* The 1976 car was apparently one of the few (or the only one ever?) cars that were paid to visit Le Mans. Apparently the French were quite enamoured with this piece of Americana, but I have some doubts about this: the French are not renowned to be easily enamoured with anything non-French, so maybe this is a bit of literary licence from an over-enthusiastic PR copywriter?
* It clocked over 215 mph on Mulsanne straight. I have done an indicated 265km/h (165mph) both in a car (BMW M3) and on my bike (Suzuki GSX-R750) and that did not scare me particularly. Doing 210+mph lap after lap in a Corvette? I must admit that sounds rather intimidating…
* Early models were successful on essentially street BF Goodrich tyres!
What attracted me to the Revell-Monogram model of this car is the very wide rear track and the comments that I had read elsewhere that the weight distribution is far better than normal for a front engined car. This is probably due to the cockpit being set back quite far and all the material required to create the bulges and flares around the rear wheels. So for this and other reasons: I ordered one from Rick and it was delivered just in time for Christmas.
Initial appearance-related impressions once I got the car: really good paint job, really good tampo: a pretty (in a manly sort of way, you understand!) car. The wheels really fill the arches, minimal play on both front and rear axles. Note that in spite of the front engine, the front has a full axle: big plus. Wheels are round and handsome, rear tyres are huge.
Gear mesh is great: I have not seen or felt better.
Driver is well modelled and looks petrified: I believe he was modelled after a photograph taken at 200+mph at Le Mans.
Time for race prep:
* Took off the standard tyres and put on Ninco F1-sized urethanes. Like on the wheels on the RevMon Lola T70, these fit very well indeed except that the wheels have a more pronounced central rib, so the tyres “crown” in the centre. You have to do quite a bit of sanding to get them nice & flat.
* Glued the drive shaft bushing.
* The guide has a lot of up-down play but is well located laterally/fore & aft. Shimmed it a bit with a spacer to get the front wheels just touching the track. Worked out well: shimming it the right amount to get the wheels in the right position coincidentally removed all the up/down play!
* Trimmed around the chassis to get clearance to the body.
· Ground off the “cups” on the chassis mounting positions for the body: these locate the body mountings and interfere with good body movement.
* Slightly enlarged the holes in the chassis for the body mounting screws.
* Added 7g of weight to the newly-vacated magnet position.
* Lubed everything.
* Off to the track (Luf’s Targa: wood, no mag, 10V)
The results? All I can say is: WOW!
This car is whisper-quiet (testimony to the good gear mesh) and extremely smooth. The handling is also just about as good as it gets: not tippy at all, just the right amount of movement on the fat rear tyres, guide firmly stuck to the slot.
After a bit of running I ended up with a best lap time of 8.224 seconds. How good or bad is this? This is almost an identical time that I ran with my RevMon Lola T70, which is a lovely car on the Targa. It is almost 1/10th of a second faster than a well prepared and braced Ninco ProRace Lambo. It is 3/10ths of a second faster than my Scaley Camaro, which is a pretty fast car for a TransAm, and TransAms generally do well on this track. This is comparable to times achieved with my Fly Viper and Capri, both with Fly Racing FK130 motors and lots and lots of work to get them to work well. I am not sure any other front engined car has gotten under an 8.5 second lap on the Targa: it is that good.
In short: this is an excellent, excellent time for a front engined car. Actually, this is a pretty good time for ANY car on this track: period.
All this for a car that can be bought for $34 right here at Onslot. All I can add is: why on earth do we not see more of these cars??!!
Thanks Rick: another treasure from Onslot!
Be that as it may and for whatever reason: I only recently became aware of the Greenwood Corvettes. Part of the reason for this recent visibility is that Corvettes seem to be popular both in 1:1 historics racing and in 1/32 proxy racing. Taking a look at the proportions of almost all ages of ‘Vettes gives a clue for the reasons for this: these cars fit what I think is a very good “footprint” for a fast 1:1 and slot cars.
In reading a bit about these iconic cars, some things stood out:
* The 1976 car was apparently one of the few (or the only one ever?) cars that were paid to visit Le Mans. Apparently the French were quite enamoured with this piece of Americana, but I have some doubts about this: the French are not renowned to be easily enamoured with anything non-French, so maybe this is a bit of literary licence from an over-enthusiastic PR copywriter?
* It clocked over 215 mph on Mulsanne straight. I have done an indicated 265km/h (165mph) both in a car (BMW M3) and on my bike (Suzuki GSX-R750) and that did not scare me particularly. Doing 210+mph lap after lap in a Corvette? I must admit that sounds rather intimidating…
* Early models were successful on essentially street BF Goodrich tyres!
What attracted me to the Revell-Monogram model of this car is the very wide rear track and the comments that I had read elsewhere that the weight distribution is far better than normal for a front engined car. This is probably due to the cockpit being set back quite far and all the material required to create the bulges and flares around the rear wheels. So for this and other reasons: I ordered one from Rick and it was delivered just in time for Christmas.
Initial appearance-related impressions once I got the car: really good paint job, really good tampo: a pretty (in a manly sort of way, you understand!) car. The wheels really fill the arches, minimal play on both front and rear axles. Note that in spite of the front engine, the front has a full axle: big plus. Wheels are round and handsome, rear tyres are huge.
Gear mesh is great: I have not seen or felt better.
Driver is well modelled and looks petrified: I believe he was modelled after a photograph taken at 200+mph at Le Mans.
Time for race prep:
* Took off the standard tyres and put on Ninco F1-sized urethanes. Like on the wheels on the RevMon Lola T70, these fit very well indeed except that the wheels have a more pronounced central rib, so the tyres “crown” in the centre. You have to do quite a bit of sanding to get them nice & flat.
* Glued the drive shaft bushing.
* The guide has a lot of up-down play but is well located laterally/fore & aft. Shimmed it a bit with a spacer to get the front wheels just touching the track. Worked out well: shimming it the right amount to get the wheels in the right position coincidentally removed all the up/down play!
* Trimmed around the chassis to get clearance to the body.
· Ground off the “cups” on the chassis mounting positions for the body: these locate the body mountings and interfere with good body movement.
* Slightly enlarged the holes in the chassis for the body mounting screws.
* Added 7g of weight to the newly-vacated magnet position.
* Lubed everything.
* Off to the track (Luf’s Targa: wood, no mag, 10V)
The results? All I can say is: WOW!
This car is whisper-quiet (testimony to the good gear mesh) and extremely smooth. The handling is also just about as good as it gets: not tippy at all, just the right amount of movement on the fat rear tyres, guide firmly stuck to the slot.
After a bit of running I ended up with a best lap time of 8.224 seconds. How good or bad is this? This is almost an identical time that I ran with my RevMon Lola T70, which is a lovely car on the Targa. It is almost 1/10th of a second faster than a well prepared and braced Ninco ProRace Lambo. It is 3/10ths of a second faster than my Scaley Camaro, which is a pretty fast car for a TransAm, and TransAms generally do well on this track. This is comparable to times achieved with my Fly Viper and Capri, both with Fly Racing FK130 motors and lots and lots of work to get them to work well. I am not sure any other front engined car has gotten under an 8.5 second lap on the Targa: it is that good.
In short: this is an excellent, excellent time for a front engined car. Actually, this is a pretty good time for ANY car on this track: period.
All this for a car that can be bought for $34 right here at Onslot. All I can add is: why on earth do we not see more of these cars??!!
Thanks Rick: another treasure from Onslot!
