review

By Michi Günther

My years with RC Cars

It seemed that the memory of my active participation in car races (most recently Formula Vee in the 70s) slowly faded, when an event came into my life in 1995 that still concerns me today.

One day an employee of the company where I worked as a mechanical engineer dragged me to the Hoolmorring of MC Munster in Munster. There was a race on a scale of 1: 5 after the Gröschl Cup. The driving pattern of these cars fascinated me, and the idea of doing it grew, only with the small difference that I wanted to build such a car myself. Since I've always been a formula fan, the first car should be a Formula 1.

Since I didn't have a 3D system at home back then, the good old drawing board in the attic had to be activated again. And so I started building a formula. The first problem was figuring out what wheelbase to use. The outside width over the wheels was not a problem, the F1s at that time were 2 meters wide. I had determined the wheelbase of 3100mm through several image evaluations, so my formula should have a wheelbase of 620mm. This was followed by the next question: what kind of wheels / tires came into question. The widest tires at that time were the S1 tires, which were intended for the sports cars of the time. So these S or S1 tires were the only ones that fit the scale to some extent. The rims at that time did not match the formula optically at all, on top of that I didn't like the whole gluing process, so I designed a 3-part aluminum rim. The insert was pushed over a thin ring, now the tire was put over it. The whole thing was now screwed with an inner and outer horn, so that a clamping took place that prevented the tire from pulling out of the rim.

Since I had my own ideas for all relevant components, B. a rack and pinion steering, a double floor plate made of 2 superimposed 3mm aluminum plates for use. (What an effort). As a drive I had used a converted 30 cc hedge trimmer motor that did not pull a peg off the plate. After drilling out the carburetor, the thing actually ran as fast as a Gröschl truck that was to be bought at the time. The primary translation I chose was an 8mm chain. Then I designed the differential and the shock absorbers in all possible variants, sometimes with a compensating chamber, sometimes with a continuous piston rod. For the rear wheel drive I chose the bones used at the time, whereby the cross pin loosened and flew away from time to time. A protective cap over it prevented it from flying away. Later I rebuilt the drive so that I could install the Gröschl ball drive shafts that were now available, which were already fully functional back then and are still used today. The next design package was the brakes with wheel carriers. Right from the start I designed hydraulic brakes in the same way as on normal cars as floating caliper brakes. These still work today in my self-made formula and in the 510 self-made. Smaller features were added over time, such as the mounting of the upper wishbones at the front, which I detached from the brackets and stored in sliding longitudinal bars so that I could continuously adjust the caster. I came up with the most adventurous constructions for the stabilizers, but these turned out to be too expensive. I actually copied the ball stick from the 1: 8s. When the chassis was finally ready came the big moment to get the finished chassis to drive.

Next came the formula car. It wasn't until 2000 that Gröschl came out with his formula. Then there were the formula cars that I liked best to buy and there were also the right bikes. But none of that existed in 1995/96. Making checks yourself was the order of the day. I formed them from 0.5 mm aluminum sheet, always with the Ferrari in mind. The sheet metal was bent and folded as much as it could. Then there was a thin layer of filler that had to be sanded afterwards. Painting was then a breeze.

Since I had never driven a remote-controlled model car before, when I was almost 50 I made my first practice drives in a large parking lot, which was somehow too small, so that I had my first crash experiences with the front wheels sheared off. But my enthusiasm persisted, and so I made the other practice drives on the Hoolmorring in Munster. However, I came to the realization that driving model cars and driving a real racing car are two pairs of shoes. The popometer is simply missing. Of course you know that there is an ideal line, but the feeling for cornering speed results from driving a lot, optimal setup and experience where I miss about 20-30 years.

In 1999 I then built the 2nd formula with the knowledge from the test drives of the 1st formula. I then installed the 23cc racing engines in both cars. It was a solo and a tech engine. Who still knows them today? For this I constructed the appropriate ones

Transmission.

In 2000 I bought the first Makrolon formula car and the first formula bikes. Equipped like this, I took part in races sporadically until 2004.

In 2001 I built a touring car chassis with relevant parts from the first formula, which then no longer existed. I also took part in races with it from time to time, which was a lot of fun. The disadvantage of taking part in races with the self-made ones was the procurement of spare parts which I had to produce myself again and again. There was then no time for this.

In 2011, the end of the self-built races. For this I bought a used Lauterbacher, the chassis of which I shortened to the length 510mm in order to use a Porsche Karo. From 2012, I took part in the Porsche Cup series, which was great fun for me.

Then came a Harm Chassis. In 2017, a Mecatech with a 510mm chassis for the Porsche Karo was added. In 2019 I converted this chassis with a longer base plate so that I could take part in the new GT series with the corresponding bodies. Today in the Corona time we are sitting at home and hope that we will be able to race again in 2021.

MG