What is MagRacing anywho?

Mag Racing is a new and revolutionary type of slotless car racing that for now, seems to be a European Import.

The reason I created this category is because some of our forum mwmbers are expressing some interest in the concept and I thought it might be a good idea to have this place to see what further interest there may be.

So fire away... good, bad or otherwise... let the discussion begin!

Regards
Paul (admin)


An Excerpt from http://www.magracing.co.uk

MAGracing is a new and patented system of scale model car racing using radio controlled cars racing on small indoor tracks suitable for home, garage, basement, etc.

The system was developed by Wes Raynor after a lifetime of slot racing and r/c car design and manufacture, because existing systems of small scale indoor racing have shortcomings.
Slot racing has unrealistic tracks with slots and pick up tapes, speeds are excessive and driving skills are limited to speed control or pressing a button to change lanes. Free running radio controlled cars, in small scales such as 1/32, cannot be controlled accurately enough to enable cars to follow the racing line through corners or to overtake without serious risk of hitting the other car or leaving the track. Videos on you- tube such as 'Mini z outdoor oval' will show what we mean.

MAGracing cars can be steered to follow a perfect racing line, can be driven at high speed in close proximity to other cars and can overtake without fear of hitting the other car.

The track width is around 7” (18cms) and the track area can be as small as 39” (1mtr) by 120” (3mtrs). Up to 16 cars can be raced using easily switchable frequencies and cars are steered to racing lines and lane changes with a steering wheel on the transmitter pistol.

Car and radio power is by a single low cost AAA lithium ion battery. Run times are in excess of 20 minutes, car battery change in a pit stop takes 4 seconds and re-charge time is approx. 30 min.

Paul, I thought that I would add a few pictures to the mix an a description of how I understand the system to work

The Car
a) Body
Wes's entire car selection uses the same chassis. The body styles
are Can Am and Interseries type mid engine roadsters Here is a pic
of my McLaren M8.

The bodies are vacuformed plastic of low detail and questionable
scale fidelity. I chose the McLaren as the choice of the two cars
that I own because I felt the McLaren is the best of the bunch as
far as appearance is concerned. If your group is primarily interest
in oval type cars, the bodies as Wes produces them is of little
concern to you.

Magsteer

1) MagTiller
The heart of the magsteer system is the mag tiller.

The tiller follows the guide wire and transfers the directional
inputs of the wire to the Ackerman steering. This steering is done
passively with no input from the driver. The car steers through
tire adhesion alone. The mag tiller does not tether the car as the
guide in slot does with slot cars.

2) Steering Coil
The steering coil operates the active side of the magsteer system.
It is purposely designed to be subservient to the tiller steering so
that steering inputs can only be done in the designated lane
change areas of the track. The active steering is not proportional.
Because the active steering is only used to shunt the car right or
left so that the passive mag tiller steering can again take over,
proportional steering isn't necessary in Wes's racing scheme.


At the center of this photo, you can see two permanent button
magnets. These are affixed to the tie rod. To the left of of the
button magnets is the steering coil. This coil is creates a
magnetic field whose poles can be changed by reversing current
flow through the coil. This pushes the permanent magnets on
the tie rod either right or left thus steering the tires in the
desired direction. There is no mechanical connection between
the tie rod and the active steering system which means there is
no mechanical drag or friction on the passive steering while
driving passively on the wire. Zero friction helps to enable the
mag tiller to do its job.


The Track
a) Wire
The system as developed by Wes uses .028" music wire to steer
the car around the track. Wes sells the wire in sticks on his
website or it can also be found in a roll on ebay, which is how I
purchased the wire.


Wes says that the size of wire is calibrated to match the weight
and speeds of his cars and that varying the wire size will effect
how the cars drive.

b) Lane change plates.
The lane changing areas of the track use small plates in place of
the wire.
These plates are about 3/16" wide by 1" long and are similar in
thickness to the wire used. The car, when running in the passive
mode (no steering inputs) and no wire to guide it, has no control
to keep the tires pointed straight and will launch in any direction.
The active steering system is a weak system that is so weak as to
make it subservient to the wire. Steering inputs when on the wire
will have no effect on the direction of the car. To make the car
steerable to the crossover wires, change plates are installed
immediately before the crossovers. Because the magnetic
attraction is the same across the entire surface of the plate, the
weak active steering is enabled to steer the car to the right or left
so that it can engage the crossing wire to the other lane (line).

[list][*]

Nor Cal Mike wrote:Paul, I thought that I would add a few pictures to the mix an a description of how I understand the system to work

Excellent post Mike!

Regards
Paul