Video: SLCC Round 1 Aldershot 17.5 A Final Leg 2
(Watch in High-Definition, click the little HD button above and then go fullscreen.)
I’m the blue and white car on grid point 6, I think I came in 5th. That big moment at the chicane didn’t really help!
Commentator is Nick Adams from Demon Power Products.
Written by simon.
SLCC Round 1: Aldershot
Today saw the 1st round of the Southern League Clubman’s Cup at Aldershot.
I was feeling particularly lazy, so I drove up this morning and did a handful of laps in practice. The car was okay, not enough turn in, and a bit twitchy.
The recommendations in the pits from Saturday’s practice was to shorten all the top links, to flatten the car out, and make it more stable. So I tried that, and also removed the front anti-dive.
Round 1 was a bit lairy, really twitchy, but I realised I’d not reset droop, and my diff was slipping. I corrected droop, changed ackerman, but forgot to tighten diff for Round 2.
I got it together in Round 3, the car was stable, decent turn in, speed was okay. I put in a reasonable run, about 10 seconds off TQ, so qualified 6th.
Finals went okay, a 4-into-1-chicane incident left me on my roof, entirely my fault I think – I was a little overexuberant! 2nd final was cleaner.
The racing was great fun though, the cars were so even on pace and setup, so it was all down to driving, nice lines and racecraft. Very enjoyable.
The rest of the rcLazy team had fun, they didn’t have much luck in the finals including letting the magic smoke out of a 10.5 with a nice big burning smell.
A great day out, it flew by.
Written by simon.
Differential Drama Day
The diff on my Tamiya TRF415-msxx was a bit gritty today whilst racing, so I swapped it out after race 2 today. I put in a unknown 2nd hand diff I’d picked up, it felt okay, so went with it.
I cleaned and rebuilt the other diff, and it felt okay, so put it back in the car, but a run later and it was very notchy again, so the spare diff went back in Unfortunately, the spare diff managed to loosen itself, the nyloc nut was worn.
So I fiddled with the other diff some more, and got it smooth again, and back in it went.
Yes, you read all that correctly, I swapped diffs after every run. And in the last run, the diff failed again, notchy once more.
This evening once I got home, and messed about with all the diff parts I’ve got, and ended up chucking out 2 sets of ceramic balls (notchy, flat spots I guess), 3 pairs of plates (both sides pitted and used), 2 nyloc nuts.
I was left with a complete diff with ceramic balls and thrust, and a good enough nyloc, and it’s very nice now.
Spares didn’t quite go to a spare diff, I was a nyloc nut short of making up a spare steel ball / steel thrust diff.
I’ve ordered up some spares: a JAAD ceramic thrust, some EDIT ceramic balls, some Tamiya plates, some HPI nyloc nuts, some Tamiya sticky covers. ie Enough to make a spare ceramic diff and some other spares left over. That should get me through a good few months I think.
(And I won’t even talk about the front driveshafts… or the end result…)
Written by simon.
HPI, Losi, Futaba: a Hattrick!
Three brands, three breakages…
I went racing today, touring cars, outdoors at SHMCC. My aim of the day was to play with the set up of the Tamiya TRF415MSXX, I have removed the roll bars, and wanted to try it without.
I stiffened up the springs a little, and it generated a lot more grip than with the rollbars, much more stable. A little too stable, I was struggling to get it to turn in, but some fiddling with springs, droop and roll centres and I think I sorted that.
But, the day was marred by breakages. I seem to have damaged my Losi Xcelorin 17.5 brushless motor, it ‘went soft’ the last time I used it. But first run today and it was great, strong, fast, everything seemed fine. But 2nd, 3rd and 4th runs were ruined. A solder connection came off in run 2. Run 3 I thought it was a sensor lead. Run 4, it confirmed that it was the motor, it would do 5 laps, then come off the track too hot and no longer working. That’s dead then.
I borrowed an identical motor for run 5 (final 1) and that ran fine, so the speedo was okay, thankfully. I borrowed another brand of motor too, a Trinity DUO 17.5, and that was very strong indeed in run 6 (final 2), and had a great race, popped in a 19 lapper, no mistakes and a nice close race with someone using an identical motor.
The final run of the day I did half a lap and it stopped. Closer examination and it looks like the Futaba receiver isn’t working.
And then, I took my HPI E-Savage, and a friend broke the rear differential! It’s supposed to be a weak point, so I’m surprised it’s not broken before now.
Still, I had a good day!
Written by simon.
Tamiya Touring Car Racing Today
After a break of a couple of months, I raced touring car today, outside at SHMCC.
I’ve got a 2nd hand Tamiya TRF415-MSXX, and it took a few months last year to get it working well, mainly down to ensuring good preparation, and suspension setup.
I went well today, I put in a Top Quaifier time in round 3, only to be pipped into 2nd place in the fourth qualifier, I fell off on the first lap so didn’t improve.
The finals were troublesome though, the tyres I were using went off, so I swapped them for a better set in the final round of finals, then a solder joint needed re-doing just before the start, and then the car went slow near the end, as if it had dumped. The lipo wasn’t 100% charged, and the solder connection wasn’t pefect.
But, all in all a good day, the car performed well, the setup was still there, the rebuilt diff took a while to settled down though, I think a new nyloc nut is needed in it, I’ll have to get hold of a few.
I drove okay, not amazingly, but alright, and I noticed the difference between just going through the motions and pushing hard, pushing hard was faster, thankfully!
