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Old 04-25-2008, 12:26 AM
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harnois harnois is offline
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Central Virginia
Posts: 128
It is funny to me sometimes how what seems like a simple concept takes so many words to explain in writing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerve View Post
This may have been mentioned somewhere and I don't think I saw it listed on the webpage, but what kind of specs are those cars running? Are you guys running a stock class of micro? How many cells and what type?

Just curious because they seem to drive fairly smooth w/o getting "too fast" around the track like my micro does on carpet racing here.

We run in the basement of a Candian Legion, so we have a larger area in which to run and have the room for brushless.
Part of the goal of our “formula” is to create that smoothness that you are talking about. So it’s awesome to me that you made that comment.

The smoother handling cars enable the drivers to run much closer together, which is not only fun, but it keeps the action up-close in the camera. The smoothness of the cars also means smooth camera movement, which makes the on-board footage a lot easier to watch and actually understand what is going on.

The super tight track is another part of the formula that keeps things up-close in the camera. In order to keep it smooth on such a track, we need to keep the power down, among other things. So we run with 4 AA batteries and stock 180 motors. With that setup we get over 60 minutes of runtime.

Due to the narrow lanes, sharp turns, and low-traction, we still have to use the brakes 4 or 5 times per lap, so the cars are plenty fast relative to the environment. The brakes are audible in the preview if you listen carefully, especially in the “Close Racing” section. A short portion of the DVD is done with no music so you can enjoy the sound of the motor and braking… and impacts. For the next DVD we’re looking at having brake lights on all the cars so you can see when all the cars up ahead are braking for the turns.

If we ran on a bigger track with more traction and faster cars, we’d probably have just as much fun racing, but I don’t think it would work as a DVD. The competing cars would usually be too far away from the camera and each other, and everything would be too shaky and fast to see what is going on.

The tight track, smooth handling cars, and good drivers are what keep things action packed, up-close, and coherent. And as you can see from the preview, crashing is never ruled out!

As you can see we’ve really put a lot of thought into this DVD, so I hope you guys like it.

Most importantly, my response is shorter than Dave’s!
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Harnois Racing Formula DVD available at harnoishobby.com. 100% on-board 1/18th scale open-wheel racing action.
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