John Ford has been a leading
authority on slot car racing since 1965.
MRC - Another slot racing company from the 60's.
They had the second most popular controller on the market. It
like the Cox controller was thumb activated. It worked well, and
had features that many people liked, but did not fit the hand
as well. It was common to take the best parts of a MRC controller
and put them in a Cox handle.
Magnatech - A name coined by Jim Honeycutt and Brian
Gailey of San Antonio. They were the two who invented magnetic
steel braid. Using magnetism for downforce has never really caught
on for the larger scale cars, but the steel braid has a positive
side effect. It lasts almost five times longer than the traditional
copper braid.
Magnet - Just one of the two needed to make your motor
work. Located inside the can and around the armature. One is south,
one is north. They have flux and gauss at the same time. While
they are permanent, they have been known to lose their strength.
They are made of powdered ferrious materials mixed with ceramic.
They can also be cobalt, and neo-dyndem. The latter of which is
only used in H.O. cars because it weakens quickly with heat. The
magnet is used to generate the field inside the motor. I could
go on but you are probably bored by now.
Magnet clip - This is the small piece of "U"
shaped piano wire that holds your magnets in place, and stops
them from clamping down on your arm.
Magnetron - Ralph Klose of Germany is the man behind
Magnetron. He has invented many useful tools for the high end
slot racer, including the original timing tool, and a digital
gauss meter.
Magnets - It takes two, a north and a south magnet inside
your motor to make the armature spin. The south magnet always
goes to the rear of the car. See poles.
Mail order - The notorious no-no of slot racing. Mail
order takes the money out of the local raceway owner's pocketts.
Your local raceway owner must pay the high rent to house the tracks,
and needs to keep all his sales coming fron his own counter to
be able to pay the bills. The only mail order you can find in
slot racing is at retail prices, from bonifide raceways, selling
to those who do not live near a commercial racing center.
Main chute - Same as Main straight.
Main straight - Usually the straight section holding
the drivers.
Marshal - The person located in each of the turns of
a track who'se job it is to replace deslotted cars. When you enter
into a race, you are promising to perform marshaling chores for
others who do the job for you during your race.
Mask - Used to cover up the windows of a slot car for
painting. Sometimes a liquid or gel, and sometimes tape.
Masking tape - Used to cover portions of a slot body
for painting. Vinyl tape is sometimes preferred over masking tape.
Merchandise certificates - A form of race prize handed
out to the winners in a racing event. The higher the total entry
fee's, the higher the prize payout in raceways who offer race
prizes as incentive for the racers. Usually 1/2 the total income
from the race entry fees is set aside as race prizes, and handed
out in the form of race bucks, or merchandise certificates. In
this manner, the raceway owner is rewarding the racer for doing
well, while not costing himself a single dime. The raceway owner
already has the total raceway entry fees in his register. He must
consider that half that amount can be rung in as track time, and
the other half as merchandise purchases. With this system, the
raceway owner makes 100% of half the entry fees, and 40% of the
other half. The raceway owner should consider this as simply pre-selling
his parts.
Mesh - This term referrs to the gears. The proper mesh
can be acheived by placing a normal piece of notebook paper between
the pinion and spur. Shove the spur tight against the pinion,
and solder or screw the motor in place. Then remove the paper.
It has been said that a proper gear mesh is tight but not tight,
and loose but not loose. Are we clear on this?
Micro - When used singlely like this, it usually is
referring to a controller containing micro switches. Such as "my
controller is a micro".
Mid mount - Many interesting motor mounting designs
came out of the 60's. Putting a motor in the middle of the chassis
and connecting the gears with the addition of an idler gear was
one concept. It was interesting and fun, but before any serious
study could be put to this design, the anglewinder design took
over, and exists as the choice today.
Micro switch - A small switch inside the controller
connected to the full on power and full off brake. Gives positive
contact, and eliminates the resistor from the circuit. A very
efficient way of handling power, even in the newer electronic
controllers.
Monarch - Also known as the "Orange". American
made a 100 foot track that was very popular due to its small footprint
and high speed racing. This track was most noted for its violent
esses just after crossing over the bridge and just before entering
the lead-on.
Monogram - A slot car ready to run and component manufacturer
back in the 60's. They abandoned the slot car market in the late
60's and today are known for their exceptional injection moulded
plastic kits.
Motor - Without this, you will have to tie a string
to your guide and pull your car around the track. Slot racing
is truely the world's fastest motor sport, since real race cars
no matter how fast use engines, not motors.
Motor bracket - That part of a frame which holds the
motor.
Motor tab - On some older Mabuchi motors, a small tab
was folded down into a recess of the endbell, holding the two
together. The tab often broke, making it necessary to drill and
screw the two together. Eventually, the tab was completely eliminated
for screws.
Mura - Originally started by Ron Mura, the famous U.S.
slot car motor factory is now owned by Woody Paisley, and located
in southern California.
Music wire - See piano wire.
Mush Button - Controller button that when held down,
temporarily sets the controller to minimum sensitivity. The use
of the mush button helps the car pull better through glue on restarts.
Thanks to MG Brown for this.
Mylar - Slot car bodies used to be vaccuum formed from
mylar clear plastic. This material was easy to paint with no special
paint needed, but their main drawback was that mylar is brittel
and was easily broken. Today nearly all slot bodies are made of
Lexan. Butrate was also used for slot bodies, but it had the same
bad properties of mylar. Mylar is used today for the side dams
and rear spoilers on the high speed wing cars.
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