Contralube 770: A Wonder Stuff!

Early in my career I learned that 12 V DC systems in cars were very susceptible to dodgy connections. For one, it was before the era of StreetWires and then all those other cool connection systems. My biggest fuse was 35A. The fuse itself comprised two half cylinders like filled-in sections of gutter pipe, made of ceramic. A mediumly thick piece of metal foil was used both to hold them into a cylinder and to form the 35A element. The Sansui SM100 amplifier was quoted at 100 W meaning a true 32W RMS. Trouble is I was running three of them through the one wire attached to a bus bar
And all of it was going through this one fuse. In the boot. There was nothing from battery to boot, fuse wise.
One day I took a corner a bit hard and my bass suddenly stopped! When I pulled over to seek the cause, I saw what looked like a frozen dribble of metal, out of the side of the mostly melted and browned once-white fuse assembly. The damn thing had been running so hot, it was conducting electricity whilst a liquid and when I cornered hard, it simply flowed out sideways. How I never burned to death in an auto fire I will never know

But this was the least of it as far as connection problems went. And is the reason why we argue the toss about collett fixing or grub screw for our power wires. (For those who do not know, collett fixing is the type where a round item grips the entire conductor tighter and tighter as you do it up, whereas grub screw is a cylindrical hole with the conductor in and a very small hex headed bolt or ‘˜grub’ screw, used to tighten the conductor into the holder sideways.) The trouble is, these high power sound systems will insist on being in ‘˜moving part assemblies’ like say, bloody cars. And even though we gather in car parks and at shows to play them to each other while stationary, we still have to drive to get to them and go over bumps to do so. That vibration is bad for electrical contacts. Worst of all is that we dare to breathe in and out inside our cars. Have you any idea how much water vapour a fat bloke exhales in an hour? It’s not a good place for electrical connections.

So long ago that I do not expect any single reader to remember, I ran a news piece or two about this amazing material from Newgate Simms, called Contralube 770. I had been alerted of its existence and put in touch by a top Talk Audio toff. The 200 pixel square advert has run ever since, partly because I am a righteous soul or try to be and I had failed signally to deliver any meaningful editorial as I had bragged. For it is one thing to understand the materials science involved and the electro mechanics and physics even without being told of the petrochemical componentry, or in other words to ‘˜get’ the science, but it is quite another to press ‘˜go’ on a video camera and show it.
First, here is the original news item: Link

I have finally managed this.
Quite local to me is a small but very entertaining business called Pitstop Promotions. They have never needed to advertise but the owner drives a 6.3 litre Chrysler 300C. It is a thriving Scalextric„¢ slot race layout, used for parties, club events and all sorts of celebrations. Various kinds of cars are used and they keep careful track records, with tournaments and trophies every year as this is way upstream of mere Scalextric„¢.

The folks on the continent take slot racing way more seriously than us and their products became way more advanced than Hornby brothers ever created. Hilariously, over here, like ‘˜fridge’ ‘˜durex’, ‘˜hoover’ but no longer Xerox, (which gets its capital letter back as a proper non once more) Scalextric„¢ is the generic name for this flavour of slot car racing but Ninco and another outfit are the bosses of the best.

Scalextric„¢ has been around for decades. We saved up Green Shield stamps and got a small set when I was a little boy. Bizarre but true, it is still downstairs in a box in the playroom, for we did try it when Simon was a tiny tot. And of course it all runs on just a few volts of direct current.
But the rig in the garage with the nutters is eight lanes and over 130 feet long! It is individually computer-controlled and features what they call Dynamic Braking. This is when you completely release the handgrip and the track gets a dead short effectively reversing the little electric motor just like a holiday jet landing from Benidorm at Luton. These tiny cars stop like a brute as well as go like stench.
I find out about the total redecorate going on and how they are re-laying all of the track. My chum hooked me up with the owner and I went along to see it as a work in progress. The governor seemed impressed with what I had to tell him about ContraLube 770 and what it is and does and said he would try it out.
The first part of the video went very well and I got on with the boss. It was looking brighter than the old pictures with white being a major improvement upon Magnolia. I was told to come back on the Monday when the entire track would be reassembled and raced. I was so hoping it would be better.
What actually transpired was both hilarious and impressive. For of course these DC powered racetracks suffer losses with distance and despite an eight way computer-controlled switching system that the race master can even use to play God, there were slow bits of the track. When I got to that session what was happening was mayhem. Experienced racers, track record setters, were all falling off the slots like beginners. Track records fell once, twice, three times that night.
One bit even reminded me of my Max Power days. One of the tiny and venerable Ninco cars had had power delivered to it so much faster than normal that the dinky but meaty electric motor had sheared teeth off the main drive cog! It was like modified cars breaking different bits before they were balanced.
Here is the video.


You can find out more about Pitstop Promotions here: Link or you can telephone them on 020 8868 4478 and just tell them the Fat Man sent you.