Mini-Z Ozite ...oh so close, but no cigar

[lornecherry]

I thought I 'd share some of my observations of Mini-Z Ozite now that I've somewhat dismissed it for dNano use. (this is a less fibrous version of Ozite racing carpet that was specially made for me when I sold hand-made tracks back a few years ago.)

The good:

1) The traction is just perfect, with a little bit of 'give' (throttle-induced oversteer) on full-speed cornering...and at 100% throttle ..I can run a 12' x 6' oval. With mild corner banking, this should evolve into a NASCAR-like racing experience. Throttle-on response out of a corner, reminds me of my days in shifter karts.

2) The Kyosho lap timer works perfectly and hides under the carpet.

3) If you upgrade to the ball diff and loosen up the front suspension (polish the king pins, add bearings, lubricate with DRY graphite), the chatter mostly goes away. The stock diff is garbage, the ball diff is much smoother.

4) Rails attach instantly and anywhere on the track with male Velcro.

5) Carpet is very light and deploys/rolls up in a few seconds.

6) Stock tires work fine, although Atomic 25s up front and 20s in the rear is a little tighter.

Now the bad:

1) Any carpet from the bottom half of the 125' roll that came from the Ozite factory, has small wave-like ripples that cannot be stretched out unless I used my very large Mini-Z rails. Carpet from the front of the roll is much better, but still has a ripple or two. At $800 a roll, using 1/2 the roll to make tracks is not very economical. Any surface must lay perfectly flat, and the weight per sq. ft. may need to be increased to overcome that problem.

2) Although this surface is mostly immune to carpet fibers shedding, the bearings did need to be cleaned out after 100 laps or so. The fibers are so thin that they do not impact the bearing like a human hair; still I deem this unacceptable for racers. And it's a Catch 22, if I get rid of all the fibers by rubberizing the track, I'll lose the ability of the Ozite to accept the "Quick Attach" rails without adding Velcro to the racing surface.

3) The surface is so good and so fast, that you really need a big track to let these cars strut their stuff. 12-16 feet of main straight is ideal. Road courses need to be at least 14 -20 feet long and 8-10 feet wide, only a little smaller than a Z track. If you are stuck for space, nothing beats "Good 'ol Boys" style NASCAR racing on a banked oval. For that reason, I also think the Kyosho "plastic" road-course track is simply too small.

So what's next:

There still may be an ideal roll-up surface, but this not an easy task, even given the fact that at one point back in '03 I worked with Ozite's factory chemists to make Ozite better for the Mini-Z scale class.

I built over 400 of the older (both carpet and EVA foam mini-z tracks back in 03-04) and learned a lot about various surfaces. My school racing leagues that will run next year in Toronto need very fast deployment and roll-up convenience, so my quest continues. I will be experimenting with some Regupol later this month and also speaking to a carpet "chemist" to see if we can develop a) a roll-up surface to lay perfectly flat after it is rolled and re-rolled and b) get rid of any fibers. At least, I've got the traction co-efficient near perfect.

I have also developed some interesting mods to the cars and the transmitter that really protect the cars and allow you to dial in the exact throttle travel on-the-fly without having to use the ICS, which is ideal when you want to let an 8 year-old drive and don't want that annoying "training mode" blinking light - Lorne