Ardent Winter Series Round 6

After a few weeks from the last time I raced it was time for the Ardent Winter Series. Early start on Sunday morning as the clocks went forward losing me an hour of precious sleep!! Tim Ward and I set off to Ardent hoping for a good day! I am trying to use up my random compounds of RC4less tyres and use only CRC control tyres from now on so I put White rears on and Pink fronts for the first round of qualifying. Whites are super soft and normally used on outdoor tracks but they worked fine in here, won't last long though.

Went out for a few mins of practice to check the car was solid and had a bit of a mishap! The screws from the sensor plate on my Trinity D3 worked themselves loose. Only one remained when I looked at the car. With it being a weird size I couldn't get a replacement so I wedged some 4-40 counter sunk ones in there. Think it is time to invest in a new motor. Can anyone recommend me a very quick 10.5 motor that is good in boosted GT?

Car went reasonably well in the first round, set a solid 31 lap time. The track layout had remained the same as the last round and I only managed a 30 lap time there so a 1 lap improvement! Jason Butterfield was on another planet though. 2 laps quicker than the Mark, Chris Taylor and myself on 31 laps!

Second round of qualifying was a right off as I spun after overtaking a back marker who then hit my car bending a front axle. Got a new personal fastest lap of 11.19 though. 

Onto round three and I changed by to my trusty CRC Control Tyres as it was a bit too safe with the white rears on. Problem being is that the because of the change in temperature the carpet has expanded and lots of bumps were appearing. There also seemed to be a dramatic loss of steering that everyone suffered from so the car wasn't perfect but I improved my time and ended up 4th in the A Final. Good to see another good turn out, 22 GT drivers. 

First final went pretty well, a few bad crashes by other drivers meant I was second at one point but got caught by Mark Simpson so finished 3rd. Second final went to pot though, I made too many unforced mistakes and ended up 5ths. Overall result for the meeting was 4th which I am very happy with as the car showed it was competitive it was just my thumbs that threw it away! Congrats to Tim who won another C final on his second time out with the car, hes determined to get in the B Final next time! Roll of the next round in a couple of weeks. Here are a few pics of some other cars at the meetings and a video of the second final. 

Small Update to the car

Well time to update some the last remains original bits on the car. It started out as an original GENX10 but as I have show the majority is now LE parts. Decided to replace the rear bodypost/spring mounts up to the wider LE version. Also go the aluminium 1/2 standoffs to replace my tired plastic ones. Makes the rear much more solid.






You may notice that the motor is missing in those pics. At my last club night at chesterfield I went far too wide on a corner and smacked the barrier pretty hard, this killed the sensor board in my car. Unfortunately finding a sensor board for a 10.5 Trinity D3 in the UK is like finding rocking horse poop!! Fortunately I got one from the USA from Phils Hobby Shop. MASSIVE thanks to them and the USPS as it arrived here in 3 days!!!

Next race is on the 25th at Ardent Raceway Winter Series, can't wait!

Ardent Winter Series Round 5

Well after nearly a month since I last raced at Chesterfield Ardent Winter series came round. I really look forward to going racing as I can only go twice a month at most. When I ran at chesterfield last I used CRC Control tyres instead of the RC4less ones I have been using for the past 6 months. I forgot how planted and consistent they are. I have decided to use the CRC tyres exclusively now as I know they will work everywhere! Ordered a new set of those from Wim at Action Model Centre and got them trued up. Granted I cocked up and instead of truing them to 54.5 they ended up at 53mm. Bit smaller than I like but they ran great! Also had the new Tekin 222 software on my RS Pro. Great to see so many GT racers turning up. Started off using an old set just to get feel for the car, first round ended up with a non finish due a broken steering block after being hit whilst stationary. Car felt great before that though. Second round and everything was going great but after about 2 minutes I felt I had lost a fair chunk of steering. Still managed to put a decent time in. When I got back to the pits I found out why I had lost some steering:

Yeah that set of tyres is done!
Put the new set on the for the last qualifier. 

Had a really good run with a couple of mistakes but ended up with a good time and ended up 6th in the A Final. The competition is really good, times are very close. 

Unfortunately didn't have a good finals. First final had a almost decent start but then after a car got launched onto main straight I panicked slightly, missed the car but then hit first corner. This deformed my bodyshell so I had to get marshalled. Put my down to 7th. Second final had a really messy start and had to fight from the back. Finished 7th but ended up 8th overall after the two finals. Here is a video of the first final, thanks to Tim for filming:
 

Overall had a good day, had a real good laugh. My friend Tim Ward got a GT after much nagging from me! I think he had a good day judging by the massive smile he had on his face each time he came off the track. Lessons learnt from this meeting, need to do more racing!! Car is going great but I need to get more consistent. Heres a couple of other pics I took and  video of Tim in the C final.

Happy new year etc

A bit late I know and its been a while since the last post but happy new year to all.
Well racing has been hit and miss recently. I raced in the Ardent Winter series and the European Pan Series last month with not great results. Car has been going good but either my thumbs or outside influences stopped any decent results.

The car has changed a bit recently. First got some new cells:

Orion 6400mah 90C 1 cell Lipos. Thanks to Markus Mobers from Germany, selling them for a fantastic price. They are brilliant cells, loads of punch and they stay really strong for the full 6 minutes.

I have raised the the front suspension slightly to bring the steering arms more level, still not perfect but the car is handling great so will be leaving it!

Got to say many thanks to my good friend Tim Ward for getting me a brilliant Christmas present!

Customised rear cross brace from Mckune Design http://www.mckunedesign.com/
Looks the puppies privates and it really good quality!

The car layout has also changed. Finally got some proper CRC cell locators (after ordering things from Wim at action models for the last 4 months and always forgetting! Cheers to Wim for adding them to my last order after I forgot again!). I have moved the receiver to where the servo was to bring everything in line. This has allowed me to move my transponder further forward and attach it to the back of the servo. I had to make a new aerial mount though as the length of the receiver aerials was only just long enough. The new one was made out of a cut down bodypost and some heatshrink.




Car is currently coming in at 938gms so I am going to not going to bother hunting for more weight saving for the time being.

Thought I would start the new year off with a new shell, same design as before but sprayed better!


Also had a look for some name stickers and came across a company called Graphics Bat http://www.graphicsbat.co.uk/

Love the look of these and they are bargain too. He can do loads of different designs.


Next race is on the 22nd at the Ardent Winter Series. Haven't been racing since last year so can't wait!!

Car update

Hi everyone,
Well time for an update on the car. Had a miserable second round of the Ardent Winter Series. Big shunt in the second round of qualifying and it killed the sensor board on my motor, day kinda went downhill from there. Qualified second in the B final and won the first final, second in the next so a B Final win overall. Gutted as the car was handling fantastic before the shunt! Ho Hum roll on next weekend. 
Now I had the choice of replacing the sensor board or getting a new motor. I opted for the latter as the GM was second hand when I got it and it was getting on a bit. So I came across a bargain Trinity D3 that had only been ran twice. Weighed it before I put it in the car and as you can see its 6.8grams heavier. Was hoping not to add any more weight to the car but this can't be helped!!

Once that was fitted I turned my attentions to the new front end parts from CRC:

The new front lower and upper braces including servo mounts. Now this is how the car looked at the start:

One of the first things I noticed about the new lower plate was it was quite thick carbon fibre. I ran the suspension mounting plates as well as the carbon riser plates. I decided to still use the riser plates as I have a lot of new tyres and don't want to true them right down. 

Now I thought I would put the servo on before I mounted the plate to the car. I put the servo mounts on and noticed that the holes are different spaces from side to side. With the mounts fitted as below it didn't allow for my futaba S9602. I am guessing they for JR or KO servos?

Swapped the mounts round and it fit my servo fine. 

Mounted the plate to the car with the riser plates underneath. 

Reattached the front suspension, mounted the servo saver and sorted out the links. 

Now I had the front brace to fit. I had previous run with a raised roll centre, this was done by raising the castor pin with another plastic holder. With this kit the screws that you get with it don't allow for that so I have had to remove that extra plastic part to get it fitted. The mount is fantastic though Really stiffens up the front end. 

Well I have to say I am massively impressed with the quality of these new parts. Top notch like the rest of CRC products. Thanks to John at CRC for getting me them sent out. Can't wait to try them at round three of the Ardent Winter Series this weekend. Weighed the completed car after all this and the weight had gone from 945 to 950gms so there is a weight saving with the new front end parts, shame the motor was so heavy! Going to be a interesting first few laps though, new motor and new front end parts. Hoping for good things!

Car Update

Hi all,

Been a while since I posted stuff about my car. It has been running really well the past few meetings, problem seems to be the guy behind the sticks at the minute!!

Recent upgrades are 12th kingpins and springs to the front:




This has helped make the car smoother.

I have been trying to get the weight of the car down to the 930gms limit (or as close as I can) but have been struggling. One problem I always suffered with is the size of the futaba receiver. I love futaba radio gear, bought an original 3VC with my life saving when I was 16 and used it for 10 years (its still being used by the guy that bought it off me as far as I am aware) and the only reason I upgraded was I got a bargin 3VCS 2.4ghz off ebay. The Futaba FASST system is brilliant and I never suffer from interferance problems with it. The only gripe I have is the size of the receiver for the stick handsets. Now I know there is a smaller R614 receiver but that doesn't work with the 3VC line of handsets.  I thought I was stuck with the rather large R603FS receivers but I happened to come across an article that mentioned another manufacturer that makes FASST compatible receivers. A quick bit of googling and I found a receiver that should work in a glider model shop! Next day it turns up and I have to say it is tiny! Its made by a manufacturer called FrSky and the its the TR4 model:

Granted it has two ariels coming out rather than 1 external and 1 internal but look at the size of it! Now this is the main thing which made me buy it........... IT WEIGHS BUGGER ALL!!

That is a 8.2gms weight saving, happy days! Dead easy to set up and I must say I was a bit dubious about using it because I hate interference problems but I used it Chesterfield club night and it was fine. It was a complete bargain as well. The normal Futaba R603FS is about £90 to buy. The FrSky TR4 was £24 plus shipping! Many thanks to Richard from http://www.t9hobbysport.com/ who got this to me next day! They have a great website with live stock levels, nice guys to deal with an quick shipping!

The BRCA AGM was held on Sunday, low turn out but I think things got changed for the better, GT10wise 2s cars need to be 1150gms minimum which should hopefully even things out. There is hopefully going to be 4 nationals next year as well. 

Well I won't be racing for a couple of weeks now :( but will post any changes I make to the car. 

Cheers

Brca AGM reminder

Just a little reminder that the brca agm is on this Sunday and there will be a fair amount of discussion surrounding the gt10 series.
It's in Stoke on Trent, details on the brca website

Www.brca.org