Well, I did race nearly every week up through the end of March (which is when Larry's Friday nights died off). A quick summation in Billy Joel-esque sequence : I tested a LiPo and continuously traction-rolled, I won a B main, I crashed and burned the week after (almost literally), I built a new version of my Kawada, I qualified for the A main twice where I proceeded to go out on the first lap each time, Larry's dumpster literally DID burn, I built a third Kawada for street racing, I found a new track, and I rebuilt the first Kawada as a VTA car... That actually brings me current, but I want to describe the updated cars.
At the beginning of February, I acquired nearly two cars worth of parts, including some of the performance hop-ups I didn't even know existed. I set out building this new racer alongside the car I was still competing with. It would utilize the narrow Kawada chasis, All new stainless fasteners, lightened bulkheads, Yokomo ys-1sss-7 shocks, aluminum C-carriers and rear hubs, and aluminum VOLT uprights. I did some theorizing on set-up, reading as much as I could about roll center & suspension setup as I could find. I slightly over-compensated initially when I built this car, but the setup has been adjusted and settled into a groove with only very minor changes happening now. This car is pretty much the slowest car at the new track, but it's also the only car that is running either NiMH or a brushed motor - everyone is Lipo with brushless. This puts my car at a pretty hefty weight of 1,640 grams, 140 over the minimum for the class, and as such is a lot harder to handle in the turns than it could be if I switched to LiPo. The IB 4200 saddle pack comes in at 256 grams, my NiMH pack comes in at 402, for a difference of 146 - almost exactly the amount I'm overweight by. It's a fun car still, and I'm now pretty much an expert at moving over for people. I'm running a donated body that is a little closer to what the fast bodies are these days - I'm not a huge fan of green on a race car, but it gets the job done.
The other car is for my new favorite class - Vintage Trans Am! I took the original car I started running back in january with the wide chasis, and rebuilt everything using the tuning I learned for chasis #2. Ceramic diff balls, rebuilt shocks (shorter & softer, but still the Kawada shocks), all new stainless hardware, a new 27 turn motor, one of my new NiMh's that fried a cell had another cell removed to become a great 4-cell pack, with a couple of NiCd 2000 packs to round out the power options. Oh, and all new gears - the final drive ratio for this class is insane!
I also experimented with this chasis - I wanted to see if I could move the steering servo to the left side of the chasis, opening up the right side to allow a stick lipo to be fitted a-la every new TC car that's out there. Scouring through car manuals and pictures, it seemed like the TC5 steering centerpost would be the easiest implementation, and I'll be damned if it wasn't! I put one shim under the post, and one above it, and it fit in perfect - what's even better is that all the linkage to control the steering is pretty damn close to level at the proper ride height. This car wasn't originally going to be a VTA car, so I'm running with just the 4 cell packs, and the handling is outstanding. I haven't done an official comparison running the same gear in both chasis' yet, but after the first day of racing with it, I feel really good about how it works. The one downside as I see it now is that the balance is slightly left on the chasis now while running 4 cell saddle packs - the receiver could be moved to the speed control side, but that's a bit too close to all that voltage IMO, and the slight balance gain could be negated by a glitching car... I have scales coming soon to see how off it really is. A couple pics to show off this mean fighting machine!
I love the stance of this car - it just looks mean and fast coming at you and showing it's taillights to the competition
Note the location and direction of the steering servo - it is NOT in the stock location!
Level arms is good! If I've down my drawings right, the Roll Center is just about the top of the CF lower deck.
This car did OUTSTANDING its first time out this past Sunday, taking the fight to the guys running 2s/21.5 and turning the fastest lap in the main and backing it up by being within .1 of that lap a number of times! I only finished second, about 4 seconds (less than half a lap) back from the leader - to say I had trouble with traffic is an understatement. The weight without transponder is 1445 grams, so it should be legal when running with a transponder (forgot to weigh it with it in).
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