I have been running my Subaru now for 1 month on my Rally track in the backyard. Well to be precise I have been running it on the weekends so all in all 5-6 times.

Turns out that I completely under-estimated the amount of “damage” that the car does to the track.  I really thought I packed the dirt down enough… The weather sure does not help either. We have one of the driest winters in years. A little rain would probably help compacting the track. Plus I am itching to run the car in the rain and mud. Sort of like the old days of the Rally Great Britain.

The RC car is loosing paint, especially in the hood area and along the wheel cut outs. The result is that my laser pointer shines right through the body and triggers the phototransistor and timing software two or three times each time the car comes by. That is highly annoying to say the least…

As a result I decided to try out a mechanical timer, consisting of two metal plates that make contact when the car drives over them. Setup time was much faster compared to the Laser, however dirt, tiny tiny rocks and dust got in between the plates rather quickly. The result was that the plates no longer made contact and hence did not trigger the timing counter software; which made this setup obsolete as well.

I am currently testing a webcam as lap counting and timing input device.

Forecast is also looking better, there is a chance of rain – I’ll keep my fingers crossed!