Friday 3 May 2013

May 2013


Apologies for the lack of updates recently! Work is making me loath computers so I keep away from them as much as possible!!

So whats been happening recently?

Well first things first Protoforms new Gianna WGT shell. I must admit when I first saw the press pictures I wasn't too keen on it. Once I got my hands on it thought it was a different story. A very quick spray job somewhat resembling my usual colours and I love it. It looks mean. Handling-wise it give move initial turn in than the Sophia. A bit like the Parma DB9 but more stable and looks better.

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Tried to go racing as much as possible but only managed a few clubs meetings recently. Had a short meeting at Chesterfield where I broke a steering block. Unfortunately I didn't have any spare and no one at the club had any. Now anyone who has bought one of the early kits will have a manual which shows the wrong part number for the steering blocks. The part number is listed as 4626 which is correct for the caster blocks but you need part number 8521 for the steering blocks. While I was waiting for those to be delivered I found some old CRC steering blocks which fit the front end so I used those. They also gave me the option to change the ackerman position.

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Also redid the wiring to cut it down and make it neater. photo null_zps19d19b3f.jpg

Also looked at some titanium screws to try and get the weight down. I got 8 m3 5 mm screws just to see what sorts of gains I could expect. As you can see below it was just less than a gramme. Which isn't massive but if I did the rest of the car it would add up to quite a bit. Unfortunately due to the wife's big car dying and having to buy another I won't be going all titanium any time soon!

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Went racing at the new South Yorkshire raceway. This is what Stockbridge club have become. Have to say very nice venue. Big track, very well run and a bloody good laugh.
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Had a great day racing, ran two heats blinky and the rest boosted. Stuck with Josh Cyruls setup for blinky, 35degrees timing on the motor and 75mmpr. Boosted setup was the same as I have posted previously. I changed the Ackerman to extra position to give more aggressive steering and it worked. Car was amazing and combined with the shell it was amazing to drive.

Qualifying ended up as below, viper speedos powering the top 3 drivers.
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Had a bit of a scare at the start of the final as I diffed out on the line but managed to lead into the first corner and never looked back.

Got the chesterfield shoot outs coming up soon. A very healthy entry for gt which is good to see. Going to be some strong competition should make for an interesting few meetings!!






Wednesday 6 March 2013

New Car First and Second Impressions

First thing I had to do with the new car is to sort the issue with the diff, the early kits came with the wrong diff cone. This meant that you didn't get much purchase with the diff number. A quick email to associated and they got a replacement sent out very quickly. Here are pics of the two cones side by side, the silver one is the correct one:
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The car had its first outing at Chesterfield last month and I was very impressed with it straight out of the box. No major issues with the car, ran it in blinky and was FTQ at the club, mainly down to the handling. Didn't make any changes on the setup apart from running with 12500wt diff fluid in the dampers.

Second outing was at Stockbridge RCC. Had never been to that club before but had heard good things. Pitted with Vince Formosa, he had the RC10R5.1 for a while now so good to compare notes with. Myself and David Underwood got RC10r5.1s at the same times so are still getting to grips with them but David is going very well.

Ran boosted at this track as it was quite large, the majority of a large sports hall was covered in carpet. Round one and the car was handling ok, but understeery but it was the first round, I put in a 26 lapper. The car started to feel very sluggish about half way through the race. I thought it was just my cells going off as I am DESPERATELY in need of some cells! But about the 5 and a half minute mark there was a distinct smell of motor in the air. Finished the race and checked the motor. 96degrees C. OOPS!! After I marshalled I started to wind the timing back on the speedo and thought about changing the gearing. I then noticed that I had forgot to put the Static timing on the motor can back down to its lowest mark after previously running it in blinking. DOH! School boy error there. So changed that and went out for next run. Came off at 65degrees C and went three laps quicker, much better. Round three I managed a 30 lap Run.

For the fourth round I changed the side springs to CRC Whites, which are much softer than the AE Golds. I had the car setup with about a turn and a half of preload on the gold sprints. The CRC springs were slightly shorter so when I put them on there was very little preload if any at all. Left like that so it would be easy to change back. Everyone seems to be going softer with the setup so I was interested to see how I would like it. The car certainly felt easier to drive and I went 8 seconds quicker overall. Getting my hands on softer center spring and will see how that goes.

I qualified on pole by about 8 seconds. The final got off to a scary start, my car diffed out on the line and Vince, who was in second, was very quick minded not to hit me. I managed to keep the lead but we were side by side for a few corners. I got into a rhythm and disappeared at the front. Until I clipped a corner and got stuck on a barrier. This wouldn't have been a problem if the corner marshal was there instead of chatting to his mate. Ended up down in 5th I think. Managed to get back to second quickly and set off chasing Vince down. Unfortunately for Vin he hadn't noticed going past me so started to back off about 4 laps from the end. I managed to nip inside on the last corner but took us both in the process going across the line. It was a comedy moment but I gave the win to Vin as he had earned it and it was a naughty move.

Had a very good day overall. Very happy with the setup of the car. Need to sort some new cells out though. Only down side of the day was missing a good friend Don Hopes. Unfortunately Don passed away a couple of weeks ago on holiday. Utterly gutted to lose a friend like him. He was a real good laugh at race meetings and a top bloke overall.

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Here are a few pics I snapped from the race meeting.

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Monday 4 February 2013

New Chassis Time

As I said last time I was looking replacing my CRC, well I managed to get my hands on a RC10R5.1 kit.
Quick delivery MB models (www.rccarshop.co.uk) and a nice looking box was set on my desk.
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Lots of nice shiney parts and nice clear manual. Quick sort through the parts and a toilet break it was time to get sorted (must say apologies to the wife, we were off work this week and I spent a full day doing this). 

First up was the shock. Now I have previously owned a RC12R5.1 and I hated the shocks on these cars. Unfortunately I they haven't really changed so I still hate them, took me a few attempted to get a smooth bubble free action (not a great start hey!)
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Next up it was turnbuckles and damper, both nice quality 
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Then it was time for carbon fibre prepping!
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A lot of good quality carbon, very nicely machined. I sealed the edged with CA of the main chassis and pod plate, took long enough to do those so didn't fancy the rest!

The RC10R5.1 incorporates chassis rails to help keep the chassis stiff. Smart looking with special nuts that sink into the carbon to secure them.
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Next was the pivot and side link to attach the pod to the chassis, I always like this part of a build start to look like a chassis no if you know what I mean. The side links were a bit stiff on the pivot balls so I spread the ends slightly just free them up a bit. Hopefully they will loosen more after use

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Added the rear pod side plates and rear brace as well as chassis rails. They are held off the chassis with 2mm spacers. 
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Next was adding the side plates which hold the side springs, body posts and damper tube mounts. Threading the side spring set screw through the carbon can be a bit of a pain to get clean and straight. Handily, associated have included a large side spring retainer which you can adjust with your thumb. So I used that as a flat edge to be able to screw the set screw in straight.

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Worked really well and the screws were perfectly straight. Next was just mounting up the rest of the pod parts/dampers/front braces. 
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Whilst I was happy as larry doing this I think my dog was very bored!
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Front suspension time now. Associated have put together a solid front end, some of the parts occasionally need a bit of work to get them even side to side.
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The car axles are pretty simple, only one ackerman position on the arm and they are trailing axles. I set my CRC up with in line axles and more ackerman for more sharper steering. I will be looking at the inline axles in the future. 
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The rest of the front end goes together very easy, everything was nice and free. 
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Got them mounted to the front end of the chassis, starting to look like a car now!

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Next up was the diff build. Swapped the kit spur for an 88t and used ceramic balls in the diff. 
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After that I added the shock mount and shock. Voila one completed chassis. 
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It is a very nice bit of kit I have to say. 
I did make my own bumper for it. I used nylon 66 2mm sheet again for it. It allowed me to use the same front mounting holes on my shells as before and it will also be more durable than carbon fibre. 
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Now I have put my electronics in the car, one of my most unclean installs I have to say. Will be redoing it when I get time. 
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I will get to run it this week at chesterfield and I can't wait see how it goes. Will report back with my first impressions of how it goes on track.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Autosport International GT Race

Long time update again, apologies!
Only one new thing concerning the car, Viper motor:
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Viper RC were very kind and offered me a team driver role for 2013! Many thanks to them, their products are amazing.

Well one of the most exciting opportunities for RC racing has been and gone. The BRCA were offered space to put on a display at the Autosport International Exhibition at Birmingham's NEC Arena. I have been to this show a few time to look at the cars but the chance to actually race there was amazing. The only problem was that it was on the weekend of my wedding anniversary, got a lot of making up to do for that one but my lovely wife CJ let me go!

Everyone was hyped prior to the meeting, as well as the usual GT racers lots of teams were throwing their drivers at it, Olly Jefferies and Zak Smith were there for team associated and Serpent had a big turn out of drivers. The BRCA requested everyone try and do realistic looking bodyshells. The majority of people did put a lot of effort into their shells and they looked great going round. I got my hands on a Parma Aston Martin DB9 shell and the plan was to do in Beechdean Racing colours. I decided that it deserved more than my limited talent with a spray can so sent it off to Craig Mawson and he did a fantastic job. Here are some pics of the car (before it bounced of several barries) and I also got some pics of it next to the real thing.

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PhotobucketPhotobucketI took the Friday before and the Monday after off work as I knew it was going to be a long weekend (VERY glad I did). I offered myself and Tim Ward as helpers for the friday night to set the track up. I picked Tim up on Friday afternoon and headed down. We got the hotel, had a heart attack over the car park charges, checked quickly and headed back to the arena. Unfortunately we couldn't get in and start building till after the show closed and the engineering hall had been dismantled. So we went to the pub and had tea. Fortunately some of the BRCA guys joined us in pub so we didn't have to worry about finding anyone. Now the track was going to be massive, 9 Rolls of carpet wide, 28mx17m. Biggest I think I have ever raced on. Unfortunately the track build got off to a slow start as the stand that was there before us took an ages to dismantle. The track was finally built by midnight!!!! We left at quarter past but other guys stopped even later doing signage. Fair play to the BRCA guys they worked their asses off!

So day one of racing and after bugger all sleep we were back at the hall at 7am ready to get passes and in and setup. It was a impressive sight to be fair, a massive track surrounded by real life sports cars. Couldn't ask for better. The format was going to be Reedy race, I have always raced FTD with finals so this was going to be an interesting weekend. First race was just a practice race which had no grip as to be expected. Car was quick from the get go and had great potention. First race got off to a good start and was fighting for second position when I got took out by a back marker. Well the weekend kinda went down hill from there really! The car was very edgy when the grip come up and had a massive fight with grip roll. A mixture of driving errors from me, car failures and back markers left me 17th at the end of the weekend.

The car was great when it was going well, my god it had speed. Here is my setup for the Viper VTX1 and VST 10.5 motor.
Rollout: 56MMPR
Static Timing: 15 (lowest mark on the can)
Brakes:
strength 90%
freq 3200
curve: linear

Throttle
freq 6400
punch 100
curve linear
deadband narrow

Motor Power
Acceleration Boost
start rpm 3500
finish rpm 11500
max adv timing 45
Top Speed timing
slew rate 4
max adv timing 15

The motor was coming of about 70-80 degree C but it was bloody quick throughout the whole 6 minutes.

Wish I could have done better, the car definitely had it, my best race of the weekend was a 2nd place finish. Would have been my fastest time but I was fighting with Jason for 1st and just clipped his back wheel and put him on his roof. Waited for him to be flipped which left us 2nd and 3rd but we both got past Richard Norris for a good finish. Fastest lap was a 13.1. Congrats to Olly Jefferies for the win. The whole event was a success, loads of people came and had a go of the schumacher arrive and drive cars. The GT12 and F1 display guys did a great job of keeping the crowd entertained. We had lots of people wander round to see the pit area and ask lots of questions. The crowds were three people deep all the way round at peak times. It was really great to see, hopefully it will have drummed up a fair amount of interest and get some new people racing.

So not a great start to my racing this year but onward and upwards. Will be looking to upgrade batteries in the next couple of months. Tempted by a new chassis as well. My CRC started life as the original GENX10 and has slowly been upgraded. Its now fairly tired, I could replace the worn parts but it cost a fair bit. So what chassis to get next? Tempted by either the Associated RC10R5.1 or the Serpent S100 LT. Would be interested to hear peoples experiences with either of them.

Here are some more pics of the show, robbed a couple of my car going round from Chris Taylor and Martin Bollenbacher.
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