Revival 2021: Review

[Mad Ax 9295]

In all, I took almost 900 photos across the weekend and sifted through them to find the best ones.  I won't post them here because it'll take all night but they are uploaded on my TCPhotos account if anyone wants to look through them.

Here's the album for 2wd day:

http://tcphotos.net/album/ROx9

And 4wd day:

http://tcphotos.net/album/RIaa

[Sir Crashalot 234]

Some great photos, cheers.

Is the sand on the astro for extra grip?

[Mad Ax 9295]

If I understand correctly, the sand is laid under the astro to provide a formable, quick-draining layer that the track can then be formed over.  Over time the sand comes up through the astro and gets all over everything.

BMR is a fairly new track so the sand is clean.  In some places the sand comes out green and foul-smelling - I guess bacteria thrive in that hot, damp environment under the astro.

[Mechanic AH 581]

@Mad Ax Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading the review and pictures. Made me feel the ambience of weather and the meal with the beer. Congrats on wining the Lunchbox/raffle.

[Yalson 514]

On 8/17/2021 at 8:42 PM, Mad Ax said:

Revival is a great place to do some deals, and the esteemed Mr Fox was selling a motor lathe.  He kindly agreed to include a lathe training session in the asking price.  We dismantled my poorly Acto Pink and found that I hadn't fitted new brushes after all.  We marked the comm, and started the slow but therapeutic process of skimming it back to the copper.

Ooh, I bought one of those last year and haven't got around to using it yet. Was it difficult?

[Mad Ax 9295]

On 8/23/2021 at 2:17 AM, Yalson said:

Ooh, I bought one of those last year and haven't got around to using it yet. Was it difficult?

Not really, it just needed a bit of patience.  First we marked the comm with a felt tip pen, then put the rotor into the lathe.  A bit of bearing oil helps it spin freely.  We made sure the blade was pulled all the way out and fully to the right, then connected the lathe motor to a 1S LiPo.

The hardest part I guess was winding the blade into the comm, that required patience and precision as you don't want to wind it in too hard, it will damage the blade.  Then we very slowly wound the blade across the comm.  If there's a high spot on the comm we might have to wind it out a little but as the highest spot will normally be on the outside where the brushes don't touch, we were OK.  The next tricky part is not winding across too far, if the blade hits the uneven section at the end of the comm it will break.  Again, patience is key - it's all about mechanical sympathy.  Don't labour the lathe motor or work the blade too hard, we're only trying to take off tiny shavings.

Once we've done a single full path then we wind it all the way to the right, and wind it in about half a mark on the dial.  Then do another pass from right to left.  We can see where the blade has cut the comm because it goes from black (felt tip pen) to shiny copper.

After that, we keep going until there's no black left.  That might take a few passes if the motor is in good condition, my Acto Pink has been in my possession for at least 10 years and I have no idea how it was used before that, it's been used a lot in various cars and never serviced, so it wasn't in great shape.  It was bad enough that it simply stopped working on track.  It took about an hour to cut the entire comm down to the copper.

The final thing was to use the nib of a ball-point pen to round off the corners of the channels between the pickups.  Hard to explain without a pic but if you look at a comm you should see what I mean.

[Collin 1956]

Really nice article. I enjoyed reading and specially the phots a lot.

Its so sad that vintage events are so rare, especially in Austria there is nothing going on. I had a chat with one of the guys running the buggytrack here in Vienna. They announced one event, 10 signed in and 2 came to the race.

Enjoy it guys!

 

[Mad Ax 9295]

On 8/24/2021 at 11:08 PM, Collin said:

Really nice article. I enjoyed reading and specially the phots a lot.

Its so sad that vintage events are so rare, especially in Austria there is nothing going on. I had a chat with one of the guys running the buggytrack here in Vienna. They announced one event, 10 signed in and 2 came to the race.

Enjoy it guys!

 

It's got to be well-promoted.  When Revival first started (back in 2014 I think) it was a quiet affair with not many entrants.  Most people ran old cars they'd been collecting for years, or re-releases.  The first one I went to was in 2015, I didn't even have any entry, I just drove 3 hours and asked if there was space for me to run a HotShot, and they said yes.

In recent years, people have had to be turned away.  Booking opens for one weekend around Feb / March, in a two-day window there are more entrants than there are spaces.  In 2021 there were so many entrants the organiser decided to run two events - the original one in July at BMR, and a second one in September at Broxtowe.  I think partly this was people returning to the hobby for something to do during the pandemic, and also people who hadn't been able to race for a year being desperate to get out on track again.

IIRC there is a vintage race meet that takes place indoors in the Netherlands, people travel from all over Europe to go there.  The main man behind Iconic RC usually sends over a contingent.

I would say these things take time - you've got to be prepared to run it for a couple of years until word gets out that it's worth visiting.  And promote it on all the vintage Facebook pages.  IconicRC on Facebook has lots of members from Western Europe.

[catman79 346]

great work as always alex, really interesting read. ive finally made a start on my first revival car for next years event, that should of been for this year! couple that with a 2wd to restore / rebuild and a 415 for next years iconic cup i need of serious tlc, i have my work cut out, but time is on my side lol. hopefully see you at one of these events next year!

[Yalson 514]

On 8/24/2021 at 11:09 AM, Mad Ax said:

Not really, it just needed a bit of patience.  First we marked the comm with a felt tip pen, then put the rotor into the lathe.  A bit of bearing oil helps it spin freely.  We made sure the blade was pulled all the way out and fully to the right, then connected the lathe motor to a 1S LiPo.

The hardest part I guess was winding the blade into the comm, that required patience and precision as you don't want to wind it in too hard, it will damage the blade.  Then we very slowly wound the blade across the comm.  If there's a high spot on the comm we might have to wind it out a little but as the highest spot will normally be on the outside where the brushes don't touch, we were OK.  The next tricky part is not winding across too far, if the blade hits the uneven section at the end of the comm it will break.  Again, patience is key - it's all about mechanical sympathy.  Don't labour the lathe motor or work the blade too hard, we're only trying to take off tiny shavings.

Once we've done a single full path then we wind it all the way to the right, and wind it in about half a mark on the dial.  Then do another pass from right to left.  We can see where the blade has cut the comm because it goes from black (felt tip pen) to shiny copper.

After that, we keep going until there's no black left.  That might take a few passes if the motor is in good condition, my Acto Pink has been in my possession for at least 10 years and I have no idea how it was used before that, it's been used a lot in various cars and never serviced, so it wasn't in great shape.  It was bad enough that it simply stopped working on track.  It took about an hour to cut the entire comm down to the copper.

The final thing was to use the nib of a ball-point pen to round off the corners of the channels between the pickups.  Hard to explain without a pic but if you look at a comm you should see what I mean.

Splendid. Thanks for the advice. When I finally get around to trying mine I will be very careful and take it slow.