Laugh? He Fell Off His Chair! (at TORCH)
I was having a crisis about the Tamiya 511, so I wanted to do some TORCH astro and try and get it sorted. Oh, and I wanted to try Bob’s Cat, just in case my crazy idea of buying one happened…
It was a stupendously hot day, Kat and I got too hot just on the drive over at 7am, and by 9am it was a scorcher.
I flung the 511 around, and it seemed okay, the Hupo setup seemed to work, perhaps a bit twitchy though. Later in the day I ran Bob’s Cat, and between us we faffed about with tyres, and they both ended up good.
Thankfully I loved the 511, it was ace, and had some very nice runs with it. The final was the best run of the day for me, coming in 2nd behind a far too quick Steve Brown, ie I won, cos he doesn’t count. Yay!
Comedy incident of the day: Bob falling out of his chair backwards, without letting go of his staggered ribs.
Here’s a bunch of pics Kat took, including of course pictures of flowers and weeds.
The TORCH track is looking a little unkempt, but don’t worry, new astro has half arrived and soon the whole lot will be re-laid with new astro! Awesome, then a changeable track layout with more features will be created.
So it’s a bit of a work in progress right now!
Roll on next week when TORCH is hosting an all-day meeting (they usually finish at 1pm), and fingers crossed some chaps from EPR will be coming down to challenge Steve’s track records… Even Ellis “hero” Stafford was checking his calendar…
Ghea Tapered Pistons for Schumacher Big Bores
Ghea tapered pistons for the Schumacher Big Bore shocks.
They result in a much smooth shock than the stock kit square piston.
( I’ve no idea why my microphone goes mental when I start talking and then calms down… )
Schumacher Cougar SV Trish Bits Weight Kit
Got my Cougar weight bits from Trish, shiny and nice.
One long bar goes in front of the motor, and another smaller piece under the servo.
I’ll test it with just that weighting and see how it feels, my LiPos are quite light, so may choose to add a little more if necessary.
UPDATE: Tested it today and the weight kit is ace, nciely balanced, the car is more ‘chuckable’, and more controllable in the air. I’m not adding any more weight anywhere.
Mendip TC National 2010
Are TC Nationals more fun than Buggy Nationals?
Saturday started bright and early at 5:30 for the trip to Mendip on the west coast nr Weston-supermare and although a grey start the forcast was for a good day but rain on Sunday.
On arrival it appeared that nearly everyone had got there several hours before us so the only pit/camping spot was right near the main entry a good walk away from the track, but I like a walk and it was less hecktic.
Practice was great fun my car was nice to drive and fast with no issues that I considered worrying about. So after a few redbull’s to start the morning I figured it was time for a beer and drivers briefing, lots of drivers 80 prostock and 45 ish mod which is good to see in these times.
Round One – Nice and steady after afew sketchy first laps. 16 laps done.
Round Two – After a chat in the pits I decided I needed more speed so switched to a Tekin 10.5 car felt faster after a few sketchy laps but stopped on the last lap. Oh no I’ve killed the motor I thought but on in inspection the pinion had come loose, easy fix.
Round Three – Why are the cars so sketchy on the first laps? Not cleaning off the additive after cooking. Doh, clean tyres worked so much better. Flying run then the car stops about two laps from the end… hmmm too hot maybe… no time to check now beer/ pear cider and burgers to consume now. I was 50th at his point with stu 56th
Sunday started really far too early for me with the first spots of rain at 6 so I stumbled around in cold daze for a few hours drinking tea and eating bacon. The first pain of the day started as Stu attempted to start the rented Genni and broke the pull start, great no power.
First practice and Round Four was missed, far too wet for my dry only car.
The job of ‘fixing that’ was handed to me by Stu who waved the I’m an accountant banner so I started disassembly of the genni, 20 odd screws later the thing was apart and cord re-attached, great get it together and were off. It actually started first or second pull, happy days but then Stu moved it round the back of the car and it cut out, never to start again…. Bloody pile of rented #@?! Plan B swung into action and stu’s car became the charge station.
Round Five – So with about 2 mins of car prep I slung my slick tyred car out and slithered around the final round, I was actually really enjoying drifting round the sweepers but I was getting lapped by the wet tyre shod cars.12 laps oh dear.
So final positions Me pole in the G and Stu 9th in the D, it clearly paid to risk the wet runs.
Final 1 – So the sun was out and the track nice and dry i slowly drove out towards the start line another keen racer decided I was far too slow and smashed me out the way thanks! My car now crabbed round to the start with a badly tweaked chassis and sure enough as the sounder went off my car slewed sideways round the first bend I was last last by turn three on the last lap the car cut out again but I still managed 5th.
In the pits the Tekin motor was being very touchy and would sort of work then stop so back to the Novak and a quick read of the instructions revealed a very handy feature of the new SXX speedo a temp check! And sure enough the motor was showing the full 10 max temp reached Oops, speedo only on 4 tho. A quick rebuild of the rear shocks but no time for the fronts..
Final 2 – Proper cooked and cleaned tyres the speedo boost and feel turned down abit and the car was going well bit down on top end but good enough for 2nd this time. Ricky Copsy (Xray) was leading the way and very nearly lapped me, what was he doing the G final!?
Final 3 – Right then last run, rebuilt shocks, boost back up, have it. I lead away from the start and held on for a few laps but ran out of talent and Ricky drove past but then rolled afew laps later so I nipped through but he was having none of that and passed again. 2nd with an overall of 2nd in the G. woop woop..
Stu geared up afew teeth for the last run and suddenly looked right on the pace, and put in a fine run to finish 6th with an overall of 6th in the D, good work. Ed Clark had clearly gone crazy with the boost for the last run and his Losi jrxs-r (what not blue!) car looked like a missile for three laps until it popped! Chris Granger won Mod in dominant style with his car clocked at 72mph down the straight.
So is TC more fun than buggies…. well no, it’s abit too much like hard work for this RClazy racer, or maybe less redbull next time.
Setup: Tamiya TRF511 – Lee Martin
I somehow ended up with a bit of paper with Lee Martin’s Tamiya 511 setup at the Robin Hood Raceway (RHR) national…
I tried the setup, and the car was much easier to drive. There was a lot of grip that day, and the weird hard-at-the-rear idea worked well to calm down the grip roll. I didn’t have the skillz to make the setup quick though.
And check out the weird oils – harder at the rear than at the front!?
Setup: Schumacher Cat SX – Tom Cockerill
Tom Cockerill’s May 2010 Schumacher Cat SX setup from Robin Hood Raceway (RHR). He did alright with this setup, umm, A final!
Setup: Schumacher Cougar SV – Tom Cockerill
Tom Cockerill’s May 2010 Schumacher Cougar SV setup for Eden Park Raceway (EPR) from test sessions.
11-5-10 2wd EPR Test – Oils Should Be 40 – 35
Tom Cockerill’s May 2010 Schumacher Cougar SV setup for Robin Hood Raceway (RHR) from BRCA National (win!).
Robin Hood Raceway: 2010 BRCA National Series
Round 2 of the BRCA 1/10th Off-Road Nationals at Robin Hood Raceway came round very quickly after Talywain, three whole weeks afterwards.
I was on the reserve list, and I didn’t get the call until a couple of days before, and Crazy Bob didn’t get the call until I was half way up on Friday!
Friday
I took all day to get here, and coming off the A1, I could see the cicus tent in the distance, but somehow got lost with Sat Nav so it was another 20 minutes before I saw it again.
Ralphy put us along the back hedge, behind the marquee, perfecto. I was laying down towels on sunlougers 5 minutes after I arrived.
The track was looking superb, all freshly painted and hoovered (yes, really…)
Weather was forecast to rain overnight and be dry on Saturday, fingers crossed, it’s blowing a gale out there.
Friday night was a blur of Toffoc-in-Coffee, sculpted velour and gluing ballistic greens. At least Bob put his car together before midnight this time, on his knee in the passenger seat on the way up…
Saturday
Saturday morning and it’s all still outside, the birdies are tweeting, and it seems to have stopped raining, it rained pretty much all last night. Forecast is for more light rain…
The Marquee is full, practice is underway, back pockets are full of slipper spanners (even the girls).
Jimmy’s just been spotted receiving a Cougar (S1?) from Phil Booth…
The track is wet, but drying, mostly good grip on Ballistic greens, some of the astro is a bit slippery…
Round 1, car feeling good, enjoying it, clip a track marker and kaboom, snapped a front turnbuckle. So a quick trip to Schumacher and a “oh, you broke one of the cheese ones, we took those off, here you go”… Purple titanium is essential, then. Why are they not in the PRO kit?
So a whole three laps, but, result, I’m not bottom in round, someone did less! Ace!
Bob did okay though, his X6 was looking fine…
Round 2 was better, the car went okay, I drove a bit rubbish, but finished the heat, it felt a bit slow, though. It was a drying track, some people were going out on yellows.
So a 6.5 was strapped in and I had another go in Round 3, it was going well, but 5 laps in it just lost power. Steering was still there… I think the servo hanging out might have been the cause.
Round 3 was a dry round, tyres were the thing, the whole pits was smelling of dremelled staggered ribs and superglue.
Round 4 was dry too, and my best run of the day, I was starting to feel confidence in the car, and starting pushing on more, and it was nice. I managed to lop a couple of seconds off my fastest lap.
All this excitement meant I needed a little snooze.
Crazy Bob taught Crazy Steph to rebuild shock absorbers, she’s done all of them!
Wow, I’ve finished in my usual final, the bottom one, L-4. Griff’s reaction to this was “Were you always this shit in Touring Cars?”… Bob blames my lazy prep… I tend to agree “Yeah, I’ll rebuild that diff, sometime…”
The J final was very popular, Belsten, Bob, Wymish and Nancollis, that’ll be one to watch…
Sunday
4wd practice started out nice and sunny, and gosh after yesterday’s rain the track had loads of grip.
The early sounds in the pits were of side clippers – spikes were coming off of tires by the row full… There was only a little bit of dremelling…
I knew that there was plenty of grip, so being a bit tight I didn’t even glue up new tyres, I just ran some old ones, albeit my best worn set. And they were on yellow wheels…
My practice rounds the car seemed okay, if a little too grippy, it was fine.
Round 1 wasn’t so good, I was informed a few seconds in that my car wasn’t counting… I opted to continue running for the practice. The transponder? Oh, it was in the spare car… I’ll get that cloned, then…
Round 2 I was all set, practice laps the car felt okay, I heard a little crack on a bad landing on the step up, but it was still in one piece. It lasted about 3 laps, another bad landing and the wishbone exploded… Those damned skinny kit wishbones… Replaced with the chunkier 501X arms, I wish I’d done that sooner…
By this time Pidge was floating around talking of peculiar shock oil weights, and before you know it 511s were being fiddled a plenty…
Round 3 the car went okay, a little bit of grip roll, and too many mistakes, especially too much power at times… I decided to get less big air…
Before round 4 I changed the rest of my car to Pidge’s setup, and ooh, wow, it was nice, the car drove the best it ever has done… I’ve no idea if it’s a good base setup, or a RHR specific one, but whatever, I enjoyed the run, and knocked 2 seconds off my best lap time. Too many mistakes, and a bit of traffic though kept me near the bottom.
So no guesses I was in the L final again, I know my place…
I always seem to take about all day to get a car that’s feeling okay, I think it’s a lack of off-road experience, I need more track time…
Photos, already:
Buy Lazy Things !
We’re On eBay
