Body Tech 101

There have been a lot of questions regarding body lengths and heights. The dimensions of the body will vary a great deal depending on a number of factors including

Variables:

Body Length:

Body height

  • If you get to a Gerding King, for some of the classes you can be lower the body by 2mm. I heard that one racer used one of my Hurricanes at BP for a G-27 race, cut to 25mm.


Body Cutting

  • For high-speed tracks, like Port Jeff and above, many of the bodies can benefit from a different cut. Traditionally, slot car bodies are cut in the front. Some bodies, in particular, the Out-I-site Vipor and Proformance Z-28 will give you better bank speed if you run them full in the front and trim them to length by trimming the back. This will loosen the car up and make you drive it more. Of course you must be careful not to trim to close to the rib. The Hi-Speed Hurricane body must be trimmed that way regardless. On the ProMounts I supply to the raceways, I call this the "speedway cut". One well-known raceway wants ALL their Vipors trimmed this way.

Chassis lengths.

  • On the high-speed tracks, shorter is faster, but will you make more laps with it? The best way for me to explain this comment is to tell you a true story. I went to a race and watched a guy practice with very short cars. His lap times were slow and the cars looked terrible. I tried the cars and they were terrific. Very smooth and fast. This racer was finishing in the bottom half of all the races he ran. I suggested he try a longer car. He did and won, if I remember correctly, 3 in a row with the long car (4.45 if I remember). Unless you are running with the big dogs, don't worry to much about ultimate lap times. Get the car running good. Get it to run smooth and stable, but be careful not to lock the car down. Remember that the track will change with 7 other cars out there. The glue will build, you will not have as much power available etc. You will be more stuck, so free the car up more than you think. I know we all try to make the car quite on the straight, but listen to the really fast guys. Their cars are quite in the turns as well.
Spoilers:
  • Keep the spoiler relaxed and laid well back. I like to make the next to last segment 90 degrees to the track surface and the top segment tipped forward. The biggest mistake I see is standing the spoiler up to high. I see a lot of racers bending their spoilers up in an attempt to make their cars handle. Wrong!!! Normally one of two things will happen. One, yes the car will handle better because you slowed it down by putting more spoiler in the car. More often, I see the car start to tilt. I lay my spoiler back more and re-bend those last two segments. Another way to tune the spoiler is to stiffen the back of the body. I only tape ¼ inch of the spoiler to the back of the body. Try mounting a spoiler with a ½ inch segment taped to the body

Spoilers, part 2:

  • As the track builds up many racers will punch holes in their spoilers. A better way is to cut the spoiler into a trapezoid. You have to sure on this because if you are wrong there is no fixing it like you can with the hole punch method.

Spoilers, part 3:

Body Cutting Dimensions
Chassis Length
Body
Inch
mm
std mm
cut to
short deck
cut to
long deck
cut to
4.3
109.22
134.22
135
131.22
132
137.22
138
4.35
110.49
135.49
136
132.49
133
138.49
139
4.4
111.76
136.76
137
133.76
134
139.76
140
4.45
113.03
138.03
138
135.03
135
141.03
141
4.5
114.30
139.30
140
136.30
137
142.30
143
4.55
115.57
140.57
141
137.57
138
143.57
144
4.6
116.84
141.84
142
138.84
139
144.84
145
4.65
118.11
143.11
143
140.11
140
146.11
146
4.7
119.38
144.38
144
141.38
141
147.38
147
4.75
120.65
145.65
146
142.65
143
148.65
149
4.8
121.92
146.92
147
143.92
144
149.92
150
4.85
123.19
148.19
148
145.19
145
151.19
151