I’d use the 1966 Hot Wheels Batmobile. That way, if you are losing you could fire off those little rockets in the back for extra thrust. And it had a flame that went in and out as it rolled, which would intimidate the other cars.
After Hot Wheels were introduced they put out a separate line of cars called Matchbox Superfast. The original line wasn’t really intended to be raced. They were intended to be accurately scaled models of real cars. My grandpa owned a bike and hobby shop and sold Matchbox cars, and my dad worked for him when he was in high school and a couple of years after (that’s how he met my mom) and until I was 9 or 10 he had one of every car Matchbox had ever made. I was 10 when the Superfast cars came out.
New poster, but thought I’d give some advice based only on my own experience.
I race 1/64’s in my basement together with my brothers a few times a year (we’re all in our late 30’s to early 40’s) and it’s honestly hard to compete with Hot Wheels. There are however a few(!) alternatives if you want a really good car that just goes straight and ISN’T Hot Wheels.
*Johnny Lightning’s Wacky Winners (in my experience less fragile than Hot Wheels, and on par with most of them in rolling)
*70-80’s Corgi or Matchbox in great condition. There’s a huge difference from car to car, but have a handful of both that can only be beat by my absolute best Hot Wheels. They last forever but it can be hard to find one in that perfect condition.
*Zuru! Fairly new brand from China. They feel like garbage when you hold it, but my best ones have outperformed all(!) my Hot Wheels. Problem: Long term quality, I have yet to have one that lasts more than 20-30 races at top level.
*Lintoy. I just add this one because I’ve been told by friends that they are equal or better than Matchbox if you can find a good one. This is just hearsay as I have yet to own one but they haven’t been around sine the 80’s so not sure what it will cost me.
Isn’t this the same question as to why weight matters among bobsled racers? The answer turns out to be that while nearly all the equations scale; gravitational force increases, but so does inertia, friction increases in proportion, one of the forces, namely air resistance depends only on the shape and doesn’t change. For a bobsled race on the moon, weight wouldn’t matter but on earth it does.
For sleds on icy materials, the friction doesn’t necessarily scale proportionately with weight. The familiar f = μN equation is just for dry friction, and it’s an approximation even there.
And air resistance does still depend on size, just not in the same way. It’s proportional to cross sectional area, and so scales with linear dimensions squared, as opposed to weight, which scales with the cube.
The bobsledders hunker down and the cross-section doesn’t increase. I don’t see why the same consideration doesn’t obtain here.
I wonder how the op and son did in the race …
dbl post