Color0's Micro RC Blog -- A technical brain dump from the mind of yours truly...
Late Report: Tekin 1/28 Setup
Dear readers,
My apologies for dropping the ball the last couple months -- it's been another helluva school term and things are only winding down just now!
So, the next couple weeks are going to be a little bit of recapping of things so you can see where I've been (Mini-Z wise) and where we're going towards as the summer season approaches. And to start that off, I kept some pictures from the Tekin race in March that may prove helpful for those new to Mod racing on low-traction tracks.
Here's my pit! Nice and clean. My pit setup is finally converging on something efficient I think, I've got my parts boxes on one side, tools on the other, chargers up front and radio in my lap.
My Mod setup is also starting to come together as of AFTER the Tekin race, lol... so count these as "before" pictures.
At the Tekin race I definitely ran into some problems with grip... the PN X15's kinda glazed over on the Inside Line track and the reverse kingpin keeps them cool, unlike the double A-arm suspension which warms up tires (sometimes to the point of overheating). Going to Orange springs in the front improved front grip at the expense of rear grip, and I ended up tucking into the inside rail many more times than would be ideal.
And *that* problem should be solved by not using the older-style PN 98mm V4 LCG motor mount (pictured here on race day), which frees up the rear end and makes it slide. The looseness helps on entry steering, true, but there's no stability for mid-corner corrections and no corner exit speed when I drive with this motor mount because the car's not 100% hooked up. It's 95% of the way there, maybe, but not 100%, and it was killing my performance on the fast, flowy layout when I was already way down on power compared to everyone else. So to get more grip, recently I've gone back (again!) to the carbon fiber "reconfigurable" motor mount, as I can definitely feel that the rear end is more hooked up with that mount. I think that for me, this is going to be the way forward and I can even personalize the rear end behavior to my needs by cutting custom lower plates for the motor mount.
So there it is -- my half-baked setup from March. The biggest problem with this car during the B Main was that I had grooved the front X15 tires and they REALLY didn't like that. Now that I understand that better, as well as the practical limitations of my Stock-based setup, my Mod performance has been getting better and I think I can start aiming for the A Main at big races.
Next post, I'll go over the new Mosler body that I put together for this race (which is good, unlike the chassis setup) and detail out the quintessential modifications that should be done to extract the best out of the body.
My apologies for dropping the ball the last couple months -- it's been another helluva school term and things are only winding down just now!
So, the next couple weeks are going to be a little bit of recapping of things so you can see where I've been (Mini-Z wise) and where we're going towards as the summer season approaches. And to start that off, I kept some pictures from the Tekin race in March that may prove helpful for those new to Mod racing on low-traction tracks.
Here's my pit! Nice and clean. My pit setup is finally converging on something efficient I think, I've got my parts boxes on one side, tools on the other, chargers up front and radio in my lap.
My Mod setup is also starting to come together as of AFTER the Tekin race, lol... so count these as "before" pictures.
At the Tekin race I definitely ran into some problems with grip... the PN X15's kinda glazed over on the Inside Line track and the reverse kingpin keeps them cool, unlike the double A-arm suspension which warms up tires (sometimes to the point of overheating). Going to Orange springs in the front improved front grip at the expense of rear grip, and I ended up tucking into the inside rail many more times than would be ideal.
And *that* problem should be solved by not using the older-style PN 98mm V4 LCG motor mount (pictured here on race day), which frees up the rear end and makes it slide. The looseness helps on entry steering, true, but there's no stability for mid-corner corrections and no corner exit speed when I drive with this motor mount because the car's not 100% hooked up. It's 95% of the way there, maybe, but not 100%, and it was killing my performance on the fast, flowy layout when I was already way down on power compared to everyone else. So to get more grip, recently I've gone back (again!) to the carbon fiber "reconfigurable" motor mount, as I can definitely feel that the rear end is more hooked up with that mount. I think that for me, this is going to be the way forward and I can even personalize the rear end behavior to my needs by cutting custom lower plates for the motor mount.
So there it is -- my half-baked setup from March. The biggest problem with this car during the B Main was that I had grooved the front X15 tires and they REALLY didn't like that. Now that I understand that better, as well as the practical limitations of my Stock-based setup, my Mod performance has been getting better and I think I can start aiming for the A Main at big races.
Next post, I'll go over the new Mosler body that I put together for this race (which is good, unlike the chassis setup) and detail out the quintessential modifications that should be done to extract the best out of the body.
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