John Ford has been a leading authority on slot car racing since 1965.

B

B.S.C.R.A. - A long running group of slot racers in England. Stands for British Slot Car Racing Association. 1/32 scale cars is the choice to race.

B.S.R.T. - A manufacturer of H.O. related equipment. Located in Washing state. Owned by Gary Beedle.

BZ - A company which made ready to run cars and equipment during the 60's. If anyone knows the name of the person who started this company and its original location, please email me and I will add that piece of information here.

Bad air - Something you should never release at the drivers panel. Also, when several cars are running in a pack, turbulance occurrs between the cars. You should never approach and try to overtake a group of cars in the bank. The result is that your car will become unstable in the turbulance coming from the other cars, and most likely, your car will wind up going straight up the bank, over the side, and down to the floor.

Back chute - Same as Back straight.

Backlash - The amount of "slop" in your gears. See "slop".

Back straight - This term referres to any long straight on the back side of a slot car track. On the King track, the back straight is located after the bank and before the deadman.

Balance - A balanced armature will perform much better than an unbalanced arm. Vibrations rob power. The Wasp and Group 12 and Group 15 armatures originally came only in unbalanced versions, and eventually, the balanced versions were allowed in all phazes of compeition. Now, balanced arms are used in all classes with the exception of Group 10.

Ballistic - Synonomous with "Beauford". Any racer who goes very fast, with very fast equipment. Ballistic can refer to either the driver or the equipment, or both.

Balloon - A commutator failure where the segments "balloon" out under intense heat. Thanks to MG Brown for this.

Bands - The graduated "steps" in a controller that allow increases or decreases of power from full-brake to full-power. Most often found on external resistor and transistor controllers. On standard resistors , each segment of the wire wound resistor is a "Band:".

Bank - While there may be more than one bank on your track, the one usually referred to as the "bank" is the biggest one.

Banked track - In reality, there are only two types of slot tracks. Flat tracks, and those with banked turns. A banked track is much faster, and easier to drive.

Barrels - A term used in H.O. racing. The barrel holds the motor brushes on many brands of H.O. motors.

Bat pans - Not what bats cook their guano soup in. See Pans.

Battery - Located under the track to power your slot cars. Located in your stop watch to tell you how fast you went. In the 60's, one was located in a special box connected to the controller to ad additional braking to the car. In some cases, the car would actually back up when coming to a fully stopped position.

B-can - The original Mabuchi motor used in slot racing was the 16-D. It was never called the A-can, but when a new design with a lower center of gravity came out, it was naturally called the B-can. It was a totally new design, and did not have any of the features of the 16D with the exception that a 16D sized armature was used. The B-can acheived success in competition, but never got fully in production before the "C" can came out. See C-can.

Bearings - If you are a slot car racer, you probably have lost your bearings. At least a time or two. Bearings are used in the motor when allowed, and on the axle when allowed. The term "bearings" usually referres to "ball" bearings. Bushings, or Oilites are also bearings, bronze being the favorite material used in their manufacturer, but nylon and teflon bearings are also available from some sources.

Belt drive - Most people give credit to the belt drive to Parma's Whisperjet. While this car is the most known belt drive car, there were other belt drive cars used back in the 60's. It is most commonly used in rental cars to keep from stripping out gears with beginner drivers.

Bite Bar - (Thanks to Jim Allen for reminding me of this one. He is a regular at scratchbuilt.com.)  The bite bar is what connects the two pans together towards the rear of the chassis. Moving the pans forward or backward on stamped steel chassis will move the point at which "air" weight is applied to the main chassis. On scratch built chassis, the bite bar is usually an 047 or 055 piece of piano wire which can itself be moved forward or backward, leaving the pans intact. The bite bar is an often overlooked tool for making a car handle. Move the bite bar forward to add less "air" weight to the rear wheels, and backward to add more. 

Black - Also known as the gutter lane. Counting down from red, the black lane is the #8 lane.

Black ball - This is a term used to describe a condition of banishment. Such as when a racer has acted in a manner to be asked to leave the raceway. Things that will get you black balled from the raceway on the first offence would be fighting and stealing. Other infractions of the rules such as running, climbing on the track, cussing, acting unsportsmanlike, and in general being disrespectful of other peoples property or feelings will get you black balled after a few occurances.

Black set - In order to save time during major races, a type of consi racing system can be used where the racer gets to run only on four lanes. The choice of lane to start on depends on the competitor's qualifying time. The black set of four lanes consists of black, yellow, orange, and white, and the rotational pattern follows in that order. See red set.

Blue - The lane that used to be the favorite qualifying lane on the King tracks of the '60's. Today the favorite lane is the Orange lane. This shift in preference is probably caused by two factors. The increased speed of today's cars, and the fact that with the new 42 inch wide tracks, the position on the track is different now on every lane. Counting down from red, the blue lane is the #5 lane.

Blueprint - What you would do to an item to make it perfect. Most commonly used term with motors which have been taken from their stock state and blueprinted. To do this one would perform alignment procedures on the armature and motor brushes. Adding shunt wires and spring insulation when allowable. Also see bullitproof.

Blue spring steel - A material used in the construction of top of the line slot car chassis. Their origin came from scratch builders who would buy a plate of spring steel and cut the chassis out using a dremel. Some still do it this way.

Body block - A common move used in the Street Fighter video game.... oh, that's another dictionary. For slot racing, this term referres to a wooden block three inches wide. These are different than set-up blocks in that they are 1 inch norrower. The narrow block allows easier mounting of bodies to chassis. The uncut body can slide down over the edge of the block. It is a good idea to mount the body while it is clear, cut it down, and then paint it. Then, you don't have to look through the paint for the holes!

Body clip - A pre-bent wire used to hold on slot car bodies. Originally developed by Jim Russell and used on Russkit cars in the '60's. Used mostly in the stamped production chassis used in Group 10 racing. The same body clip is also used by the Parma Womp, and the Champion Thumper.

Body pin - A straight pin used to hold on slot car bodies. Four required. The best pin is a "silk" pin, and can be obtained from your local raceway, or the local cloth outlet.

Bondo - Of course it is used to fill dents in smashed up cars, but relating to slot cars, it is simply known as that goopy stuff used by most track builders to fill in areas which need filling. Personally I love the way it smells. While Bondo is used by many people, it is tough to take apart a track that has had the seams filled with it. Spackle is much easier to use, and better for the job. See Spackle.

Boots - Usually comes in three colors. Red, White, and Black. Made of rubber and go on over your alligator clips. See alligator clips.

Box - The original wooden slot car box was made by Hoffman's of California, and though it seemed to be specially constructed for slot cars, its true purpose was to have a floating fishing tackle box. Then, along came plastic. Although plastic tackle boxes can be bought anywhere, the wooden box is still the status symbol of the true slot racer, and many different craftsmen make them in many different styles and sizes. They can be purchased at your local raceway.

Box plaques - An item given at some races. Sometimes as an award for winning a certain place, or sometimes just free to all participating racers. They are usually displayed in the inside of the box lid, but sometimes stuck to the outside of the box.

Box stock - A lost class. It used to refer to the class run by the rank beginner. No modifications are allowed to the car. It must be run just as it comes out of the box. Am/Slot is one of only a small group of racers still running box stock classes.

Box stock 15 - Something that no longer exists in its intended form. There are some groups that run a Box Stock 15 class, but so many changes are allowed that the term is meaningless.

Brace - This term is used to describe a piece of wire bent to form a connection between the chassis and the motor. In this way, the motor will not move and the chassis will also be strengthened at the point where the brace is applied. A brace could re-inforce a chassis as well, especially when the chassis has been weakened through crashing during a race.

Bracket - That part of a frame used to connect items together. Also a term meant to define a specific group of racing. For example, the lower bracket slot car chassis use a motor bracket to hold the motor to the frame.

Bracket race - Refers to a race specifically designed for a particular type of car. Meaning that car fits a specific "bracket". Also in drag racing, a bracket racer uses a system called "dial in" to determine the car's handicap, thus allowing cars with unequal power to compete at an equal level.

Braid - This term is used in three places in slot car racing. One is the braid on the track, referring to the electrical pick-ups phisically located on each side of the slot. Two is on the guide or pick-up on the car, one connected to each motor lead wire. Believe it or not, the largest manufacturer of slot car braid is Associated. They had the first braid machine, and kept it in production, even though they moved out of the slot racing field into the R/C market. Can you think of the third? Don't peek....Aw, you looked. The third braid used is on some shunt wires. Though it is not the most commonly used, there are brands of shunt wire that is braided.

Braid juice - You'll find this located in the fridge, right next to the grape and apple. Oh, wait that is another dictionary. Braid juice is an electrically conductive, lubricating liquid dropped on your car's braid between heats. In some cases, a couple of drops are applied to the track braid at the beginning of each straight. This gives a good electrical contact for the car in the critical time when it is exiting the turns.

Braid brush - A stiff wire brush used to comb out the guide braid. This process gives better electrical contact between the braid on the guide and the braid on the track.

Braid recess - That portion of the track that is cut away on each side of the slot. This allows the braid to sit down on a ledge and remain flush or slightly below the track surface. Sometimes called the braid sholder.

Braid sholder - See Braid recess.

Braid roller - A device used to flatten out braid which is either being applied for the first time, or being glued back down during normal repairs. There are commercial versions available, and also useable is a roller used for repairing screen doors.

Brakes - See Dynamic braking.

Brake pot - A variable resistor, or potentiometer, (pot for short) that will allow the competitor to adjust the amount of dynamic braking available to the car.

Brake switch - A switch connected to the brake wire allowing the competitor to turn the brakes on or off.

Brass - Formerly the favorite building material used in slot cars. There was a time when Parma released what they called the Brass Kar. There are still some of them around, and they worked well because they were heavy in all the right places. Steel later became the favorite metal to use in the center section, and brass was still used for the pans. Brass tubing both round and square is still used for hinges, and other similar uses.

Break - That part of a race where there is no racing. Also, if a part breaks on your car, there is no more racing.

Break out - A drag racing term used when the competitor goes faster than his dial in thus losing the race. Exception is when both cars break out. Then the competitor breaking out the least is determined the winner. (Additional definition) - Theoretical lap time that no competitor should be able to achieve. This enables certain computer-controlled race director systems to detect a "rider" and not count the additional lap.

Bridge - That portion of a slot car track which crosses over itself.

Brushes - There are lots of brushes used on a slot car. There is the motor brush, which provides the electrical contact to the commutator. There is the braid brush that is used to comb out the braid. In slot cars, braid ain't brushes. In H.O. cars pick-ups ain't brushes. Some people use a dust brush to clean up their pits, occasionally your car will brush the wall, if you nerf the guy beside you, there might be a brush with death, and that's all the brushes I can think of.

Brush hoods - Small brass components bent in a square u shape so when bolted down to the endbell, a square hole is created that holds the motor brushes in place. When properly aligned, the motor brushes should slide back in forth in the brush hoods easily and smoothly.

Brush tool - A small square precision machined device used to align the brush hoods so that the motor brushes will run at 90 degrees to the commutator. Another type of brush tool is designed to radius the proper curve on the commutator end of the motor brush allowing quicker break in of the motor.

Bucktrax - A brand of wood cnc routed H.O. tracks. Located in Oregon, and available through Scale Auto Mail Order.

Building block - See building jig.

Building jig - A special block, usually made of slate, which is used in the construction of a slot car chassis.

Building rent - That's what your raceway owner will not be able to pay if you continue to buy parts via mail order.

Bulletin - Paul's Meiers excellent magazine, known for covering mostly the high end of slot racing.

Bullet proof - This is the process of making your car stronger in its weakest places. This will keep the car from bending in a crash. For instance, a brace across the uprights on a stamped steel chassis will keep the axle from binding after taking a rear hit into the wall.

Burn out - This is accomplished with a slot car by holding the car while pulling the controller trigger. It can be performed on a drag strip or road course. This will create a lot of smoke, wear out your tires, burn out your motor, strip your gears, and generally cost you lots of money. I can't figure out any reason why a raceway owner would ban burn outs in his shop.

Bushing - See bearings.

Buss bar - Extensions on the motor electrical connections which put them in an area easier to get to. The lead wires are attached to the buss bars.

Butt joint - A type of slot car track construction. Called so because the two peices of track butt together and bolt together. Originally developed by American in the 60's, it is still used by some track builders today.

Butrate - Used by some to make slot car bodies. It is easy to paint with common enamel paints, but is brittel and easily broken in a crash. See Lexan & Mylar.

Buy back - The next round after the first round in drag racing where those who are in the half of the field who are losers, have an opportunity to pay an additional fee and get back into a round of racing, thereby possibly having a chance to go on and be the overall winner. There is only one chance to buy back in a drag race.

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