# T-Dash Generation 2 Testing



## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

I have been testing a T-Dash Generation 2 chassis, those have been difficult to come by because they are made in batches and tend to sell out quickly. You have to go to the website and see when the next batch will be available, if you order within a day of that time you might be in luck. The cars cost $13 plus shipping, there is a discount if you buy five.
For a start all of the Dash parts are interchangeable with the original Aurora Thunderjet parts. The car was supplied with the shoes and shoe springs in a separate bag as were the tires and guide pin. The complete rolling chassis with a guide pin weighs 16.5 grams. I checked the shoe spring pressure and that was about ideal at 3.0 grams. The shoes did not have to be adjusted to ride flat on my track rails. The car has very nice looking American Racing style chromed wheels, the front wheels are 0.253 inches in diameter and the rear wheels are 0.275 inches in diameter. The tires have very good grip, the fronts are 0.385 inches in diameter and the rears are 0.400 inches in diameter.
The front track is 1.025 inches and the rear track is 1.146 inches. The magnets read 746 gauss for the white magnet and 729 gauss for the blue magnet, Dash magnets that I measured several years ago were 850 gauss. The 16-3 armature measured 18.0 ohms on all three poles at 77°F (25°C). The motor brushes are flat on top and have notches on the bottom.
I glued the guide pin to the chassis and found a resin Plymouth Superbird body that was a perfect fit.
After I oiled the car I ran some laps on my MaxTrax 4X16 foot oval using the 35 foot red lane. The track voltage was set at 18.5. The fastest lap was 3.936 seconds, the gears were a little noisy but the car ran smoothly. The idler gear was a perfect fit on its post, the gears were not bottomed out, the axles were not loose in the axle holes, but the armature shaft hole and cluster gear shaft holes in the gear plate were a little loose.
As a comparison I ran four of my 1st generation T-Dash cars around the track. I use those cars for IROC style racing, they have Wizzard weighted front ends, CNC crown gears, drill blank axles, CNC wheels and Pro Series silicone Super Tires. All of the cars had their gears lapped and they had either a '70 Chevelle or Olds 442 body. Those cars are lower and wider than the test car, so they corner better. The best lap times were 3.375, 3.369, 3.148 and 3.215 seconds. The 1st generation cars had 14 ohm 3 lamination armatures.
I tightened up on the gear plate holes and lapped the gears for a total of 45 minutes. The gears resisted lapping and they still sounded a little rough, but the car was a bit faster down the straights. The lap time dropped to 3.661 seconds and I needed to use a fair amount of brake. The limiting factor was mostly the lower cornering speed compared to the IROC cars. Finally I switched to a pair of magnets that were matched at 862 gauss and that got the time down to 3.501 seconds, I still needed brakes. I may configure the car closer to Fray/T-Jet SS trim in the future.
These cars are a real bargain, they can be run right out of the box with little tweaking being necessary to get a decent runner.


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

DANG !!, Rich !!

Who would have Thought Rocket-Science, would ever apply to Our Slots (??)
I'm still in the Early-To-Late 1960's (Scientifically speaking.) 
But, it's GREAT!! to Know; "How, & Why" these little motorized-wheels do what they "Do".... "When" they Do "IT"... (Trouble-Shooting @ its Core..)

I'm Saying this in PRAISE, of ALL Your Efforts in this Hobby... !!
A lot of this is WAY; "Over-My-Head" @ times ...

But I "Take-Notes", & have others "Translate" it, into a way My Senility can grasp ;-)

Thank You!!!
On-Behalf of ALL of US in the Hobby ;-)

Bubba (The Senile-1) 123 ;-)


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

Glad that you liked the review! I try to be thorough, in fact I am a retired rocket scientist. I worked on a project to develop an improved solid propellant for tactical rockets. We developed an improved ingredient that the government really liked, so we got a million dollar contract to make enough stuff for larger scale testing that went well.


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## signal (May 19, 2018)

Nice and thorough review! Made me want to buy some.  I sent out an email to Dash Motorsports to see if I could buy some before he closes up shop. I only have Mega G+ cars so I wanted to add about 8 of these to my collection. Haven't heard back yet so who knows if I will ever get any.

I was considering the autoworld cars, but read some complaints too, so I will try to get these first. The fact that you said they run nicely out of the box sounds good with the room to upgrade the parts.

Stupid question: Mega G+ cars are fun, but I thought something like this will add more challenge to my racetrack? Do these use magnets to stay on the track? I have seen some videos on utube where the cars look like they do not use magnets and look more challenging to drive. Sorry I am new and am trying to research what to buy.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

These cars are essentially clones of the original Aurora Thunderjet cars that came out in 1963. About 30 million of those were made and new old stock rolling chassis were readily available until recently. Cars of this sort have minimal magnetic downforce. The downforce can be increased somewhat by using smaller diameter wheels and tires, that gets the motor magnets closer to the track rails and will increase cornering speeds. Modern high downforce HO cars, especially the aftermarket ones from BSRT, Slottech, Viper Scale Racing and Wizzard are blindingly fast, considerably faster than a Mega G+. Many people prefer to run cars that you can actually see and corner more like a 1:1 car. For people that are looking for a pancake style car with more downforce there are the original Aurora Magnatraction and Auto World X-Traction cars, those have taller motor magnets that are closer to the track rails. Auto World also has both Thunderjet and X-Traction cars with an added neodymium traction magnet. In my opinion those cars are better suited for kids, but if you get one you can always remove the extra magnet. I have one example of the Auto World Thunderjet car with a traction magnet and that ran just fine out of the box.


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## signal (May 19, 2018)

Thanks, Rich. Now hopefully I can buy some soon. : )


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

I just checked the Dash website and it seems like the cars will no longer be available to the general public. Sales will be to Dash Customer Group members only. The group is on Facebook, I do not know who the members of the group are but I would assume that it includes past customers. People that might be in the group, but that do not use Facebook should contact Dan Cashmer to get on a mailing list for notices of upcoming sales.


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## A/FX Nut (May 28, 2004)

Rich Dumas said:


> I just checked the Dash website and it seems like the cars will no longer be available to the general public. Sales will be to Dash Customer Group members only. The group is on Facebook, I do not know who the members of the group are but I would assume that it includes past customers. People that might be in the group, but that do not use Facebook should contact Dan Cashmer to get on a mailing list for notices of upcoming sales.


I noticed his Facebook page too. He isn't accepting any new members either. You have to email him at the address provided. He said chassis sales will stop either late this year or next year. That's too bad because in my opinion these are great chassis.
Randy.


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