Enzo dNaNo on RCP Mini-96 with PN's New Tires
 

I stopped by the PN shop yesterday and Philip set me up with some new tires he has coming out in a few weeks. I am running 15 deg rears and 50 deg wide fronts. I really like how the new tires perform. I have my steering at 90% and the car really handles through the turns quite well. With all the grip the tires and track provide, I have experienced no traction roll at the turns with the stock motor.

The pictures below show (1) complete mini-96 kit. The track is brand new. I grabbed it from the warehouse just for this test. The track is a perfect fit for the 1/43 scale dNaNo cars. Do to the speed of the car, it is best to run them on rubber surfaces. I will post up some video of the car on this track, shortly.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2027/dnanorcp2.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6457/dnanorcp.jpg

thanks for sharing the info and pictures :) any idea when pn will have them available?

regarding the mini-96, do you feel it's perfect the way it is or does the expansion kit offer a slightly better experience? would 3 tiles wide be too much room?

from above, it looks almost spot on proportionally to a mini-z and 50cm track.

have you tested the smooth rcp side? i must admit to having only run on the smooth side a hand full of times and i guess just soo used to the gripy side that i forget it has 2 surfaces to choose from.

the white pins do look good. still hoping i can buy some seperately.

per your previous post on the entry level track, i assume these tiles are cut the same as 50cm tracks meaning single tile type cuts at a time vs. the entire track at once. are the tile variations even less noticeable with the 30cm tiles than the 50cm tiles?

Philip said they would be available in two weeks. He will have a variety of deg's available. I am sure the shop will have them here, as soon as they are available.

For my driving level, the mini-96 is perfect as is for the dNaNo. A good addition would be to add some large radius inside turns, chicanes and 45's to your layout and your set. For the beginner RC driver, adding an expansion tile to the turns would be better, if you have the room. I will have some pictures soon of our new inside turn curbs. They also will be a great addition to the Mini-96 and multiple combinations.

Yes, the Mini-96 is very proportional to the Mini-z and 50cm tiles. A perfect fit.

Haven't tested the smooth side. I don't like it as much, since we cut the tiles from the rough side down, so the joints look much better on the rough side.

I will send you a PM on the white pins. I notice with the small dNaNo, you really don't need to screw the tops on. The car will not push the rails up. I tested the track with Pins in and out as you can see from the pictures.

Yes, this batch of mini-96 tracks are cut the same as the 50cm standard tracks. They are not cut all at once. I set this track up tonight and all the joints matched up perfectly. I didn't need to shim one single tile.

I have some video from todays runs that I will get posted up shorty. It will give you a great view on how the car performs with the track and PN tires.

all very good news!

good to hear the cars don't push the rails. i assume this means they do not get stuck under the rails similar to old mini-z f1 front wing bumper.

i would like to add your dnano focused rcp products to my dnano documentation on this site. when you can, please email me so i don't take up more of your time in this post on the subject.

Our new inside curbs incorporated a cool design that keep the Mini-z F1 from getting caught under the rail. They allow the inside corner rails and a portion of the striaght rail at the turn to recess down below the surface of the curb. They also keep the racing line away from the corners, which provides a much smoother race flow in the larger Mini-z racing events. The curbs add a more scale appearance to the dNaNo cars. I will post pictures of the curbs by the weekend, early next week at the latest.

I've been running my dNaNo on my mini96 track a good bit. It really does work fine without the expansion for solo practice, and maybe would be good for 2-3 cars on track at once. I think for any racing however you'll want to add blank tiles from the expansion to at least a few points for passing lanes. Of course my dNano is all stock, so with some better tires that might not be a problem, but as mine is it's a bit unpredictable in the corners for high speed passes on 2 tile widths.

Also just a note that the mini96 with expansion, set to 3 tile width, is almost the same lane width as the 50cm tiles setup 2 tiles wide. I think the 50cm setup is like 1.5" wider in actual lane width.

I know you're a very busy man, and I'm sure I speak for all of us when I thank you for working so hard to help get products out to get the dNaNo up on it's feet in the US, but I was wondering if you still had the video from when you ran your dNaNo on the mini96. I'm trying to decide which RCP track to go with, and seeing how the car handled the joints on the track etc. would be very helpful. Thanks again.

i'll do my best to get some pictures and maybe video as well :) i also have a banked turn, elevation changes, etc. can't promise it will be today or tomorrow but soon.

No hurry. Just curious to see how the car behaves on RCP tiles. Thanks.

We have a bunch of video links available on our website at www.rcptracks.com. If you got to Youtube and type in dnano on RCP Track you will find a bunch of video's.

You can follow this link to the video page. http://rcptracks.com/rcpvideolinks.html

Here are a few links of the dNaNo on RCP. The below links are all youtube videos by customers and Kyosho.

This is a good one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bksP7...om=PL&index=21

Kyosho Dnano VS Mini-Z. Who is faster? Take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnB8h...eature=related

Dnano at Kyosho Japan Headquarters on RCP Tracks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21iBo...eature=related

I am having video issues here at home trying to get my videos uploaded. I should have them available shortly.

Ray I have some PN tires I want you to test out on RCP. I will get with Philip and have him send me a few more sets. I am running 15 deg rears and 50 deg wide fronts and the car is dialed.

i look forward to trying them out :)

here are some good scale comparisons on a 50cm rcp track.
from left to right:
carisma m14, 1:14
kyosho half eight, 1:16
xray m18, 1:18
kyosho mini-z, 1:28
crt racer, 1:32
epoch spec2, 1:43
bit char g, 1:64
http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery...m/IMG_3515.JPG

from top to bottom:
carisma m14, 1:14
kyosho half eight, 1:16
xray m18, 1:18
kyosho mini-z, 1:28
crt racer, 1:32
epoch spec2, 1:43
bit char g, 1:64
http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery...m/IMG_3514.JPG

Thanks RCP, I'll check out those videos.

i have a short video i'm trying to get uploaded...

in the mean time, here are some pictures of my gt-r on my mini-96.

here is some of the tile transitions in reference to the dnano scale. yes, they exist and on some tiles, larger than others. none of these caused the car any trouble.
http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery.../IMG_10721.JPG

http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery.../IMG_10731.JPG

here is the car at a 4 corners transition. nearly perfectly flat seems.
http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery.../IMG_10741.JPG

the rial height is a bit overkill for the dnano in height but your not going to get a car jumping the rails, thats for sure.
http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery.../IMG_10751.JPG

at the starting line, you get a real sense of scale for the texture
http://mini-zracer.com/mini-zgallery.../IMG_10761.JPG

i found any bumps to be mild at worst. nothing that would cause any concern at all. what the dnano does not handle well are curved surfaces. my track has bumps, banked turn, etc. and these made steering a bit tricky as it seemed to max out the suspension travel at times making the car a bit unpredictable at these locations. the 30cm tiles do not bank/curve as cleanly as the 50cm tiles due to the smaller size. the tension force between the tiles is greater than some of the connections can withstand. it's far less than the 50 cm tiles for sure. what you can do to ease the pulling force on the tiles is to underlay cardboard over any bumps/banks. it seems to spread the curvature out a bit more creating less tension on the tile connections.
one thing i've done before was duct tape the tiles together on an old 50cm offroad track course. this allowed me to bump/bank the tiles as much as i wanted. it's a bit extreme but it didn't bother me on the old 50cm offroad tiles. i'm not sure i would do it on a track i planned to reconfigure though.

Are you guys running on RCP experiencing any front or rear end chatter? I'm having a difficult time on my LHS's carpet track. I think it could be the track surface not being very smooth, but it's becoming quite difficult to deal with, especially with me pushing harder and trying to drive faster.