Category: Racing Platforms

MegaG+ 1.7 Modified Class: New Rules and Build Guidance

The earliest version of this car class had very limited rules, allowing only the super-light photo-paper body and aftermarket rear axles, tires, and rims. The new rules allow for much more performance enhancements, transforming this rig into a true “builder” class platform.

Because of the “can” motor construction, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to put together a competitive car. The basic, easiest mods are relatively cheap to procure and easy to install.

This guide will provide you with links for sourcing the parts and components needed to transform any MegaG+ 1.7 rolling chassis into a speedster racing platform.

The first thing to focus on is what type of body you want to run. Smart money says the photo-paper body will likely be the best choice for raw speed and handling. However, you can choose any snap-on plastic, resin, or 3D-printed hardbody to get started in this class. Right now, the rules call for a Whelen-style body similar to the above paper bodies. F1/Indy bodies are not allowed.

Here is a 3D-printed body we’ve used at Stewart Raceway on IROC sets.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285415821110?_skw=sk&itmmeta=01KVHNDBQYGH1F0V4CRPWCJC59&hash=item42741bcf36:g:-5UAAOSwIwlgEEQI

Right now, the only sources for photo-paper bodies are through Stewart Raceway or Webster Motorsports (Kevin). Kevin’s body is probably a bit heavier than the Stewart Raceway design, but might be a bit more durable.

Right-click and open in a new tab for a larger image.

Stewart Raceway will provide a pre-designed body upon request for any regular participant at Stewart Raceway. If you’d like custom graphics, please email them to me, and I’ll see what I can do. I’m also thinking about creating a Lexan Whelen-style body. We’ll see where that goes.

The next important upgrade is an aftermarket rear axle assembly. You can do multiple options here. I suggest just purchasing one or two complete Viper rear ends. I think you can purchase without tires also.

This mod gives you a significant performance boost and lets you run any Viper Narrow PST Slip-On tire set.

Both 25-tooth and 23-tooth gearing are allowed. No metal gears! The lower tooth count provides higher speeds on larger tracks.

https://viperscaleracing.com/product/mega-g-g-pro-rear-end-setup/

The next upgrade would be an independent front-end assembly. This component provides for smoother corner entry and exits, which means better handling and faster lap times.

Brass, Delrin, or Alloy hubs are allowed.

 

The jury is out on which setup will work best and which courses, but my thinking is that the heavier (brass) material will allow a heavier pickup shoe spring tension. In theory, this will provide a bit more speed and keep the front end planted better.

This setup also allows a wide range of tire circumferences, giving you more tuning options to dial in your car for any track or course layout.

https://viperscaleracing.com/product/mega-g-brass-390-independent-front-end-setup/

 

Up next would be a motor upgrade. There are several options available here.

This is a motor and electronics board available from either Jag Hobbies or Viper. Viper also makes their own replacement motor assembly, which should be available on their site soon.

There are various motor options out there. The original MG+ motor had a green endbell. Newer cars have a red or orange endbell. The Jag and Viper assemblies appear to have black endbells as shown here.  Some are faster than others, but any of these motors can outperform another at times.

https://viperscaleracing.com/product/jag-replacement-motor-assembly-mega-g/

https://jaghobbies.com/ho_slot_cars/parts_tomy.htm

In any case, aftermarket motor assemblies with stripped electrical boards are, at a minimum, lighter in weight. If you’re running a brass independent front, this can help the car come off the start line and through the corners a little faster.

I don’t want to get into the weeds with the details here. The above parts and components will get your MegaG+ 1.7 chassis in the ballpark and competitive at Stewart Raceway.

Of course, there are many other ways to improve this platform’s performance. From front and rear axle shimming to replacing or otherwise changing pickup shoe spring tensions, this class provides builders with a very flexible, highly tunable racing platform.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment below or email any Master division driver. We’re hoping to start racing these new cars as soon as we have enough drivers with race-ready cars.

Parts List:

Front Axle Spacer .010″ (10 pcs) $2.95
NEW COLORS V2 Aluminum Independent Front End Setup – Black $8.95
V2 Independent CNC Retainers 3 pr. (Delrin) $4.50
Independent Front Tires – .326 $2.50
Independent Front Tires – .336 $2.50
MG+ Lexan Body Clip (Fits Viper Pin out) $3.99
JAG Replacement Motor Assembly Mega G+ $9.95
Brass Pinion Stopper .025″ (10 pcs) $3.95
Polypro Mega G 23T Crown Gear $3.95
Mega G+ Pro Rear end setup .250 NDFR $13.95

MegaG+ “Modified” Class Review

This simple class has proven to be a great success. Its rules are simple, the paper body transforms the car’s handling, it has faster lap times, and it is generally an enjoyable car to drive.

I know the paper body is only available from Stewart Raceway, but I’m sure others could figure out how to make one. In fact, Webster Motosports makes a slightly different style of body, which seems to work pretty well, too.

Our current MG+ Modified class is not all that “modified,” which begs the question: should we allow more mods in this class?

There are quite a few additional modifications that could be made:

      • Independent Front Ends from Viper
      • Aftermarket Rear Axle Assembly from Viper
      • Aftermarket Front and Rear Tires from Viper
      • 22T Crown Gears and Gear Bosses from Viper
      • Aftermarket Replacement FF-N20 Motor and/or Shoe Hanger Assembly from Jag Hobbies
      • Neodymium 45 or 52 Traction Magnets from Harden Creek

I’m sure there are other hop-up parts out there, but the point is that this car could be much more “modified” than we’re currently running it.

I recently tested the replacement motor assembly from Jag Hobbies and found it pretty slick, easy to install, and a nice upgrade to the stock motor. The chassis I used to test it was doing laps in the 5.8 range with its factory motor. After replacing it with the new Jag motor and hanger assembly, lap times dropped into the 5.4 range. It’s not a tremendous upgrade, but knowing there are alternatives is nice. There are also “hotter” motors out there that could be allowed.

To be clear, I am not pushing changes to our current rules for this car. I think a heavier and independent front end would be a simple but effective performance upgrade. Another modification we could allow is the high-downforce configuration using the stock N30 traction magnets. This rapid mod involves flipping one traction magnet to go from low to high downforce, which results in an additional 2 to 4 grams of downforce.

Again, I’m not advocating changes; I’m happy with the current rules. However, if enough teams/drivers want to change the rules, it isn’t out of the question.

Feel free to chime in via a comment below.

2024 Summer 50/50 Series, Round 1, July 6, 2024

That’s right, we’re going racing again on July 6. More details on the new series and the first event are here.

If you haven’t already secured your place on the starting grid, you can do that via the Google Calendar page here.

This will be a five (5) round series. You can miss one complete race day, best points total out of four events.

I’d also like to introduce at least one new car class in this series. I’m thinking of any of the following cool platforms:

I’m bullish on the Jag Hobbies platforms but open to anything the group considers a good choice. Please review the links above and let me know what platforms you’d be okay adding to the mix by completing the following survey.

New Platform Survey
Looking to add a new car class to our program soon. We currently run two predominant classes: the MG+ 1.7 "Lites" and "Modified" classes and the Viper V-SPEC "SPEC STOCK" Lexan class. I'm proposing one of the following platforms be added to our racing program.

Please review the choices below and select any platform that you feel might be a fun car to add to the mix.

Other than the Viper V-SPEC chassis at ~$50.00, all the others are relatively cheap. The Jag Hobbies TR-3, for example, is only $25.00 for a complete rolling chassis. In any case, expect to invest roughly $50 to $75 to procure any of these platforms with the appropriate body.

Jag Hobbies Platform Info

2023 50/50 Xtreme Series “Modified” Cars and Drivers

Introducing the MegaG+ 1.7 “Modified” class of 2023.

Below are shots of all the Round 2  bodies, which were picked from a batch prepared by Hammerschlagen Fabrication for the new Xtreme series. Drivers picked their bodies based on qualifying order in Round 2.

Most of these shots were taken with the bodies just sitting on a random chassis, not taped. (Right-click on image and open in a new browser tab to see full-res image)

Qualified 1st: Jerry Pearson, #69
Qualified 2nd: Aaron Castro, #7
Qualified 3rd: Kevin Webster, #47
Qualified 4th: Shaylin Maddox
Qualified 5th: Eric “Fast” Lane, #4
Qualified 6th: Grace Maddox, #6
DNS: Abe Maddox, #3

2023 50/50 Xtreme Series: Round 1 – Short but sweet!

Well, we didn’t have all of the usual suspects in the paddock but we clicked off three action packed races, all with the MegaG+ 1.7 platform.

George Peters, Abe Maddox, Jordan Walker

The first event was qualifying. We had hoped to do a new style/format for qualifying but it didn’t work so we just did an Indy-style format but with 10-laps to get the best average lap time.

Young gun, Abe Maddox, of Team Maddox fame knocked first-up qualifier, Kevin Webster, of Webster Motorsport fame off the leaderboard with a blistering 10-lap average of 6.072 putting Abe on the pole until the last qualifier, George Peters, put in another blistering 10-lap performance with an average lap time of 6.026 and an average speed of 546-mph. Neither driver appeared to have suffered a crash during their 10-lap pole setting efforts.

Qualifying
Track: SR3 Road Course Fast Esses (Chicane)
Date: Oct-21-2023 12:33
Class: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class “Lites”
Descr: 10-Lap Qualifying Session
Name Lap Time Speed (Mph) Place
George Peters 6.026 546 1
Abe Maddox 6.072 542 2
Kevin Webster 6.433 512 3
Jordan Walker 6.56 502 4
Shaylin Maddox 6.742 488 5
Steve Stewart 7.489 440 6
Grace Maddox 8.269 398 7
Race #1: MegaG+ “Lites” IROC (Paper Whelen Modifieds)
George Peters, Home Cook’n, Kevin Webster

These cars are fun but when you fit a super-light paper body on them, they get even more fun. The paper bodies are so light, the car handles like it doesn’t have a body at all.

George Peters pretty much dominated this event, but Team Maddox had one heat win and several second-place finishes with Shaylin Maddox winning the final segment handily while filling in for teammate, Grace Maddox. Shaylin completed all laps of the final segment and clicked of the best lap of the segment (5.954).

Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster, quietly bagged the final podium spot with one solid segment win and solid placings in his other segments. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 98 56 889.721
2 Steve Stewart 97 52 816.236
3 Kevin Webster 89 47 898.078
4 Jordan Walker 83 47 740.99
5 Grace Maddox 82 45 716.313
6 Abe Maddox 81 42 789.937
7 Shaylin Maddox 88 40 870.364
Race #2: MegaG+ 1.7 “Lites”
Home Cook’n, Kevin Webster, George Peters

These are our pretty much box-stock MegaG+ cars with very slight mods and hardbodies, typically F1/Indy or NASCAR stock car livery.

Kevin Webster very nearly won this event with outstanding driving, Kevin and Home Cook’n were neck and neck the whole event going into the final segment. Kevin would end up one lap down after a hard crash with just a few laps left in the final segment. The crash gave Home Cook’n a good gap and Kevin was unable to close it before the race ended.

The past, present, and future of slot car racing. Team Maddox rocks!


George Peters came on very strong in the final segment placing second and on the same lap as the leader but struggled during the other heats due to distraction from erratic driving by teammate, Jordan Walker. Jordan put in some amazing laps during the race but lost his focus and would abandon after the third segment. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 100 64 1446.079
2 Kevin Webster 99 50 1461.834
3 George Peters 92 46 1463.719
4 Jordan Walker 58 28 1472.685
Series Standings after Round 1
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 197 116 2262.315
2 George Peters 190 102 2353.44
3 Kevin Webster 188 97 2359.912
4 Jordan Walker 141 75 2213.675
5 Grace Maddox 82 45 716.313
6 Abe Maddox 81 42 789.937
7 Shaylin Maddox 88 40 870.364

So, there you have it. Round 1 of the 2023 50/50 Xtreme Series is in the books. As always, you can miss one race in any series and still be in the hunt for a series win.

The MegaG+ platform has been an amazingly competitive platform and appears to be a keeper at Stewart Raceway. With the addition of the new “paper” bodies, we’re considering adding a “Modified” version of this car using the superlight paper body and maybe an independent front-end, and possibly N42 or even N52 traction magnets. Personally, I think just the paper body addition is quite the performance improvement, but some folks like to go even faster.

Stay tuned for details on Round 2 and our next track day.

Okay, shut up and drive!