The “packing” of the track is making good progress. Putting plywood and old carpet for about a week onto the track creates a nice compaction of the soil. Think of it as snow being packed down by a snow cat.  We had several rain showers which aided the process. Due to the fact that I have only a limited supply of plywood and old carpet I cannot pack the whole track at once, which puts the completion date around Christmas of 2009 as planned. The car came in the mail and I will start the building and painting process. Stay tuned for pics and details at the vehicle page.

Here is my tentative Schedule:

November-December 24th : Track compaction and detailing

November 19-24rd : Body cutting, painting and decals

November 24-28th : Build Timing Gate consisting of Photo transistor, Gameport to USB adapter and a Laser. I also need to figure out an easy to set up & portable mounting solution for the laser on one site of the track and the photo transistor and support electronics on the other side of the track.

December 1-6th : Develop dust and splash cover for Servo, ESC (electronic speed controller) and Receiver. Ideally I will build a removable cover out of thick monofilm or lexan. I will also look into a solution to build a splash protection for the motor as I am not planning on using Tamiya’s relatively cheap stock motor but rather a more performance oriented aftermarket motor and esc.

December 6-23rd : Build car, tune car, test timing device on track

December 24th : Race Day!

Race Day in: