The weather was a bit iffy in the morning after a couple of days of heavy rain, but as the day progressed everything dried out and racing was on. It almost wasn't as a lot of people were very "late" to front - 4pm is supposed to be setup time and most didn't arrive much before 5pm. With winter getting closer and the track in a very exposed and cold location, I hope people might consider starting a bit earlier, but we'll see. The track was also surprisingly dirty in a few places due to dried puddles depositing lots of little stones etc.
I decided to leave the F1 on the bench this week and do something a little different. I had put back together the faithful M03 but at the last minute I decided to buy the extra bits to make it an FF02. This tourer sized version of the M03 chassis is a bit unloved and some of the TL01 parts required to make one up are getting a bit rare but, for me, its a bit of a toe in the water to see if I want to go the FWD tourer path. I've said since QLD Titles last year that I am done with 4WD tourers but the reality is that, given how (understandably given the current RC market etc) tourer-centric most clubs are, if you don't have something that fits into a 190mm tourer shell then you really don't have many options to race.
With track laid out and everything in place I took the car out and was immediately struck by just how much steering it had and how much pace it could maintain through the corners. We only run 21.5 now as our main class so even as a FWD it isn't going to be overwhelmed by horsepower. Gearing is a bit limited - despite fitting a 3Racing speed gear set - so straight line speed is a little down and certainly would be massively underwhelming on a long straight like at Logan, but on our dual tennis court straight it didn't lose too much.
The reality was that in the heat of racing the FF02 was pretty unstable in the rear. I had been aware this was a possibility given the layout (high CoG etc) and reading other people's experiences with them. It took me a couple of races to find a reasonable solution. When I had built it I didn't really have an idea of what sort of setup to start with so it was sort of a mix of proven M03 ideas and a couple of assumptions. I had given the front more up travel than I would with an M03, mostly because of the larger tyres. That was a mistake and when I took that away it became much better. The rear seemed to hang on much better (still don't really understand why) and if it did start to slide a bit of throttle and the FWD pulled it back into line. It also seemed the Ride 32 tyres liked the conditions better than Sorex 32's.
In the final I held onto 2nd place (about 1 lap down) for most of the race against a couple of regulars and their XRays until the borrowed battery (I only had one stick packed that still worked) dumped with about a minute to go and I made a mistake trying not lose any speed, pulling the body clips out on a track barrier.
I've already made one, and have planned a few more, modifications for the next time I race -
1) Modified the battery area to allow regular sized LiPo's to fit rather than be stuck with stick packs - basically lots of filing. This will also raise the weight but it was miles under the 1380g limit anyway before the lead supplies came out.
2) Swap some plastic parts for alloy - mostly in the front - M05 knuckles replace the old style M03 which required a special long and sometimes, fragile, ball stud. M05 knuckles have a different steering arm position. Will also replace the C hub and a few other bits. In the rear will switch to M05 uprights and try to get rid of some of the slop in the rear arm mounts.
3) Swap the old SP 1.1 ESC for my Tekin RS.
4) Hope its not too cold by the start of June (it probably will be).
Or I just may buy a 3Racing Sakura FF2014... or but a CRC F1... or take up spelunking... or...
Sunday, 10 May 2015
Sunday, 26 April 2015
2015 Interclub Round 1
Its been a while since I posted anything here but with some actual racing to go to I decided to blather on a bit. An alignment of the stars meant that there was a meeting at Trackside (1/12) on Friday night and the interclub round (F1) at Logan on Saturday. The other half said go and stop complaining about the lack of local racing. So with accommodation booked and a bunch of of old cars to race I packed the Renault (the Chev currently a smoking POS) and headed down the range.
Friday night was good but nothing special as far as results are concerned. It was the first time in almost 12 months that I had put the RM-01 on a proper track and it showed. Setup was all over the place and getting to Brisbane a couple of hours later than I planned meant I had little practice time to really do anything with. I stripped some servo gears early on and that required a servo change and as I could only tape it to the chassis I think this introduced a "vagueness" I couldn't really get on top of in the time I had. I didn't bother with trying traction sauce until after racing was finished and I will say straight out I didn't see the point - it certainly didn't transform the car in anyway that would justify the extra cost and mess. In fact, the set up change that brought about the biggest change in car behaviour was lowering the front ride height.
I've always been of the opinion that traction compounds and treatments should be banned and nothing has change my mind in this area. IMO it simply adds a level of "voodoo" to car set up and tyre choice that the sport just doesn't need.
I was up early Saturday and arrived at Logan at 9:30am to find the track buzzing with people practicing etc. I'll admit I was a little surprised given the entry form said practice didn't start until 9:30, but it was what it was and I set up and got myself organised. A couple of quick practices had me focusing on gearing to maximise Logan's new longer straight and dealing with general under-steer. I was told that the track grip would be consistent as the day changed from day to night so I wasn't worried to much about that aspect.
Qualifier 1
Not bad but not great. With Corey Broadstock running an XRay F1, the goal posts have moved a bit and he really is in a class of his own. Even so I was 3 seconds per lap slower and I was having to wait so long for the car to turn into the apex I could've stopped for a drink.
Qualifier 2
Ride tyres are noted to induce under-steer in a lot of situations. I had some Sweep tyres in my parts bag so I decided to try them. The car was more consistent but even slower. They were Extra Hard compound so not a surprise.
Qualifier 3
I perused through some setup guides and decided to make some camber changes and it was at this point I realised I'd dropped the ball quite badly. When I measured the camber I found 4 degrees on one side and 0.5 degrees on the other. When I had fitted the Exotek arms, I had forgotten to adjust them correctly thinking I would do it at the next club day, which didn't happen due to the weather. I set them both to 2.5 degrees, also made sure the ride heights were set correctly and refitted the Ride fronts. The result was a car that was a full 2 laps faster than the previous 2 qualifiers, but still 1-2 laps off the race pace.
Final
A 15 minute final and a long wait as the event cycled through other class finals and a 20 minute gas final. Just a quick aside - it was great to see a field of gas runners and they do add a certain ambiance to an event, but the 20 minute final was, for me and I stress that bit, a bit boring with the noise of the cars drowning out the race announcements so there was no idea of who was leading etc.
As for the F1 race - I did briefly consider changing the gearing again but I felt I had the diff settings perfect and changing the spur gear upsets this so I left alone. I didn't change anything else either and so the race started and I immediately found that my car was almost impossible to see under the lights. I did the best I could but by the 10 minute mark the lack of blinking and sweating hands from the concentration level led to a few mistakes and possibly cost me another lap overall. 6th was the result. Surprisingly I had the slowest fastest lap but 4th best consistency.
There wasn't much to take away from the weekend. The racing at Trackside/XRay raceway was good and they guys there were friendly. Racing indoors is always a challenge.
Saturday I had a look at an Exotek F1R2 chassis and they are just as nice in the flesh as pictures, and the combination of t-bar and side links seems to becoming a trend given the limited information about the upcoming Tamiya TRF102. The XRay dominated pace wise, but that could be as much the quality of the driver as an any chassis advantage. I do think the rules at the moment provide a very even racing class. For example I was using a 6 or 7 year old chassis design with the car itself heading for 5 years old, a SP motor of similar vintage (no timing etc) and with only minor upgrades to a F104 front and with a couple of repeat visits and maybe an upgrade to a slightly better motor I don't see any reason why it couldn't be in the mix, results wise. Could it win? Unlikely but I doubt I have the consistency in my driving any more to win regardless of what I had for equipment.
Now its a couple of week wait for club racing and I am hoping to get to Logan again before the truely cold weather sets in. I've decided, after last year, that racing at night in winter is just stupid and so I will sit this winter out.
So till next time....
Friday night was good but nothing special as far as results are concerned. It was the first time in almost 12 months that I had put the RM-01 on a proper track and it showed. Setup was all over the place and getting to Brisbane a couple of hours later than I planned meant I had little practice time to really do anything with. I stripped some servo gears early on and that required a servo change and as I could only tape it to the chassis I think this introduced a "vagueness" I couldn't really get on top of in the time I had. I didn't bother with trying traction sauce until after racing was finished and I will say straight out I didn't see the point - it certainly didn't transform the car in anyway that would justify the extra cost and mess. In fact, the set up change that brought about the biggest change in car behaviour was lowering the front ride height.
I've always been of the opinion that traction compounds and treatments should be banned and nothing has change my mind in this area. IMO it simply adds a level of "voodoo" to car set up and tyre choice that the sport just doesn't need.
I was up early Saturday and arrived at Logan at 9:30am to find the track buzzing with people practicing etc. I'll admit I was a little surprised given the entry form said practice didn't start until 9:30, but it was what it was and I set up and got myself organised. A couple of quick practices had me focusing on gearing to maximise Logan's new longer straight and dealing with general under-steer. I was told that the track grip would be consistent as the day changed from day to night so I wasn't worried to much about that aspect.
Qualifier 1
Not bad but not great. With Corey Broadstock running an XRay F1, the goal posts have moved a bit and he really is in a class of his own. Even so I was 3 seconds per lap slower and I was having to wait so long for the car to turn into the apex I could've stopped for a drink.
Qualifier 2
Ride tyres are noted to induce under-steer in a lot of situations. I had some Sweep tyres in my parts bag so I decided to try them. The car was more consistent but even slower. They were Extra Hard compound so not a surprise.
Qualifier 3
I perused through some setup guides and decided to make some camber changes and it was at this point I realised I'd dropped the ball quite badly. When I measured the camber I found 4 degrees on one side and 0.5 degrees on the other. When I had fitted the Exotek arms, I had forgotten to adjust them correctly thinking I would do it at the next club day, which didn't happen due to the weather. I set them both to 2.5 degrees, also made sure the ride heights were set correctly and refitted the Ride fronts. The result was a car that was a full 2 laps faster than the previous 2 qualifiers, but still 1-2 laps off the race pace.
Final
A 15 minute final and a long wait as the event cycled through other class finals and a 20 minute gas final. Just a quick aside - it was great to see a field of gas runners and they do add a certain ambiance to an event, but the 20 minute final was, for me and I stress that bit, a bit boring with the noise of the cars drowning out the race announcements so there was no idea of who was leading etc.
As for the F1 race - I did briefly consider changing the gearing again but I felt I had the diff settings perfect and changing the spur gear upsets this so I left alone. I didn't change anything else either and so the race started and I immediately found that my car was almost impossible to see under the lights. I did the best I could but by the 10 minute mark the lack of blinking and sweating hands from the concentration level led to a few mistakes and possibly cost me another lap overall. 6th was the result. Surprisingly I had the slowest fastest lap but 4th best consistency.
There wasn't much to take away from the weekend. The racing at Trackside/XRay raceway was good and they guys there were friendly. Racing indoors is always a challenge.
Saturday I had a look at an Exotek F1R2 chassis and they are just as nice in the flesh as pictures, and the combination of t-bar and side links seems to becoming a trend given the limited information about the upcoming Tamiya TRF102. The XRay dominated pace wise, but that could be as much the quality of the driver as an any chassis advantage. I do think the rules at the moment provide a very even racing class. For example I was using a 6 or 7 year old chassis design with the car itself heading for 5 years old, a SP motor of similar vintage (no timing etc) and with only minor upgrades to a F104 front and with a couple of repeat visits and maybe an upgrade to a slightly better motor I don't see any reason why it couldn't be in the mix, results wise. Could it win? Unlikely but I doubt I have the consistency in my driving any more to win regardless of what I had for equipment.
Now its a couple of week wait for club racing and I am hoping to get to Logan again before the truely cold weather sets in. I've decided, after last year, that racing at night in winter is just stupid and so I will sit this winter out.
So till next time....
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Bloggers Guilt
After posting my last post I had posters guilt that this is all a bit negative - Really bugs me I come across like that, because I don't think I am like that generally. I certainly don't try to be but this blog writing stuff seems to bring it out of me. Feel free to ignore any of what you read below as the ravings of a nutter if that works.
I also came across a new price for the XRay F1 - not $400 but still over $300+freight
I also came across a new price for the XRay F1 - not $400 but still over $300+freight
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)