A Newbie's Guide To Bottlenecks

[rssjib]

Yep, that's the one...I saw the track once when I was buying some Deans connectors there...but I didn't ask how much or anything. They aren't exactly customer service oriented, it seems...

[Horshu]

Yeah, I didn't even know they *had* Dean's connectors. That's how bad their customer service is. When I asked about Mini-Z tires for my TopCad rims, the answer was "Uhh, you can check mini-Z racer."
Now that I think about it, with the exception of Hobby Island (where I buy my paint) and RadioShack, every place that I've been to do XMODS stuff has had kinda rude staff (Electronics Parts Outlet is another common destination, and they don't exactly make me feel welcome there when I buy stuff, either)

And oh, yes, my chassis instruction manual will include suppliers and my personal experiences with them, which are usually positive (although I got ripped off by RCButlers and have absolutely terrible luck getting adequate parts at walk-in stores)

[rssjib]

Well, they were not the correct Deans connectors, but I decided to give them a go...

I found a place online to get them for $1.40 per pair...quite a bargain...I bought 10 pair for about $15 shipped.

You must be from the Houston area...I live out in Sugar Land. Where is there to go run the cars? Are there restrictions on running with Li-Ion, etc? I have no clue what the rules are...I just build them to chase my kids and for a hobby.

[Horshu]

I don't race in any formal races. I saw the different divisions and restrictions, whereas I believe that whatever you can fit in the "XMODS form factor" is OK. Therefore, I've been racing on garage floors (dad, brother, and friend all have them), but I just got a couple of RCP tracks, so I can race in my apt (tight fit) or on better surfaces *in* garages where I don't have to worry about running into foreign objects.

[Horshu]

Quick update on the instruction manual. It's currently weighing in at 80 pages (I'm anticipating it hitting 150). The sections on painting, building a custom handle, the turbo assembly, and ESC mods are all completely written. There are a few diagrams in there, but not many (need to clean up and insert pictures from a tons of areas). The table of weights for every part of a modded and unmodded vehicle are about 70% complete, including a bunch of wheel weights; I'll finish it once I break my ride down to clean it. Once I do that, I'm also going to do the price breakdown, which is pretty easy, as those GPM parts are sold for consistently the same price. Majority of the work left is optimization tweaks and tricks, getting the turbo heatsink built so I can photo the full car, doing the writeup on XMODS basics, and getting performance notes and numbers for all my motors running with all suspension/steering options on as many types of surfaces as possible (basically look at it as an attempt at writing a complete guide to XMODS customization within limits of running under an unmodded mid-length body; and when I say complete, I mean I cover every little nuance I've ever hit building and racing this thing). Performance stuff is going to be deferred for a while, as there are so many different things to analyze, but the rest of the thing should be done in a month or so.