Voltage

Ill try to give you a reasonable answer..........as there is no single correct voltage.

T jets were designed to run at 18 volts and that became a standard for the industry more or less. Drag guys have long used 24-27 volts (24 volts nominal) for more speed. Youare correct about the light bulb but the short runs don't affect motor life as much as you would think. Excess voltage is excess heat and the filament in the light bulb burns away. I ran some cars at 60 volts for a time. (demented, yes) Last years SS nationals were run on a 1000 foot length so running at lower voltage made sense. Lower voltages mean slower but closer races. (closer in terms of inches that is) The cars are more visible. Dr Hoe runs one of the most radical Drag programs in the country (world?) and has recently backed off from the 24-27 volts he had been using because he was cutting up tires at an expensive rate. I think most HO 'ers run 24 volts for dragging, but it is by no means standard.

Now what can really affect motor life is running 24 volts with a very low impedance armature, say 1 ohm. The lowered resistance at the same voltage results in a higher amperage flowing through the electrics of a slot car. Burned pickups, burned commutator plates are all side affects. The principal danger of high voltage is throwing windings due to extreme rpm. these extreme rpms can occur when 'free running' (no load) a high performance motor.

On my own strip (planning stages) id like to have a voltage selector for different experiments, as well a more than omne set of finish lights to accomodate 1/8 mile, 1000 foot and 1/4 mile racing

One other interesting tidbit. I recall 1/24 sl;ot draggers in the 1960's running diffrent voltages for different classes. Stock and Superstock for instance ran at 12 volts, altereds and modifieds ran something like 18 volts etc etc ..and top fuel cars ran at 36 volts.......three times the design voltage for these motors.

yes the first Aurora cars were Vibrators. They are not raced due to slow speeds rarity and difficulty keeping them running well. The Aurora Thunderjet came next and is the platform for many years after that. I am working on an article as we speak, that more or less outlines in brief the history of the Thunderjets and its offspring.

Just ran a stock jet at 27VDC... Didn't do anything to it... while I dont recommend it, this effort was to prove a point... you can put a lot more voltage into a DC motor that they are rated... or else you would burn one up as soon as you had a power spike... Also, I have an old power supply that came with the AFX stuff way back when...... it was 22VDC.

Road racing them might be a different story...

Your mileage may vary.. ;D ;D ;D

Cheers Dan