Running MR4TC BD this week with Lipo and Yokomo T6 10x2 motor. Final gear ratio at ~7.45 and the comm is still in good shape (color) after 3 packs - each around 8-9 min run time.

I only added around 40g on the batt side to balance the chassis, with room to add more for better balancing. Speed of the T6 is not bad with very good sounds when running full speed on the long straight, this is something we missed in the brushless world.

The long-lasting Tamiya B4 2.0 body shell is still working good but not in good shape - it serves a few chassis in the past 3 years, SD SSG, Cyclone, and now BD. Time to change.

The setup of the chassis is pretty stock out of the box, and there is room to improve in in-field handling. More work to do next weekend. 

Pan car fever ?

Took my TRF103LM to track last week and ran with other F103RM, F1 ... etc. I was not able to keep up with my peers when running the Tamiya black can, 4000mah Lipo and Futaba MC230. I changed to VFS1 and used a very agressive profile - can now run with the rest ! Not bad, a pack of 4000mah Lipo can last me at least 20 minutes of run time, I am impressed on the control and consistency.

Serpent S400

Bought this kit in HK during the past Chinese new year.

Just built and test run for couple of weekends - material is solid but the chassis is not very flat compared to my other graphite chassis. Having said that, the control and ride quality seems unaffected ...

Tested run the chassis with 5cell (SHO 4200EU cells), VFS1 and Orion V2 8x1 motor, almost original setting from the box with front solid spool and mid lock shaft. In hot day, running Sorex 40R + Hara 2.0 hard insert will give the car good control without the feeling of understeering. Not bad !

I need to keep running these old motors for some more time in order to clean up the inventory - I imagine it will be harder and harder to find these brushes in the future

TA05R -> IFS

After "talking about" the plan for few months and finally I got sometime to convert my Ta05R to IFS, just change to the inboard suspension system in the front without changing the internal transmission and suspension ... a simple way to convert to IFS. Also change to the graphite composite tube chassis at the same time.

Test run on the past Sat with Lipo and Yokomo ST - my last 23T in the inventory.

Overall steering is a lot better than the original TA05R - the time/money for conversion is not wasted ! However, I loose out to couple of racers running Brushless 10.5R - not lost in long straight but the in-fields. I found that my Keyence ESC might not be setup correctly and will adjust the setting and try again next week. The final gear ratio is about 5.44 with Yokomo ST - can last for 2 runs (8 mins each) before comm service.

Clear some old RC chassis and equipments ...

Recently sold my Cyclone SE, Xray 007 and both of my 415MSX ... along with my beloved 3PK and EX1 2000R. Just use my M8 with Spektrum at the moment.

Time to start building and running new kits.

Just finished the basic of my CC01 and should be able to install the electronics and prepare the body shell in the next few weeks time ...

Active Hobby A210SS

Yet another toy I have been building and testing lately - the A210SS.I tested run the kit with Orion 3800mah Lipo and a eZRun 35A/3000kv combination.

The chassis can run for 20mins !!

I added a few hopups in my car - alloy shocks body, alloy steering rack holder, Ti tierods and alloy lower a-arm brace.

I rebuilt both ball diff and tuned it to harder in front and softer in rear. The car is running as fast as the 1/10 fast 23T ;) Will need a bit more corners - I will have to fine tune it in the next few runs as I have no time to do it yet - so fun to run the car 20 mins non-stop !

 

Test run E4

I was running my Cyclone SE for most of the time in 2008 and finally sold it away. Need something new to balance my mind ;)

I picked up the E4 (the most original version) as the quality of the material, packaging and instruction manual are top of the line !

I tested run the car yesterday with SHO4200EU 5cell packs and Novak GTB 4.5R (the combination used to be on my Tamiya 415MSX), with the good looking Team Atlas EB110 R2 body shell (it is not cheap as a body shell).

Result was great - so far I only made a few changes to the setup :

(1) Use Tamiya white spring in front and blue spring in rear

(2) -1 degree camber all around

(3) 1mm shim between the wheel hex and the rims

(4) flat the rear camber link (remove the 2mm spacers in the rear bearing hub)

(5) 5cell pack towards front of the battery slot

The chassis is responsive and I will spend more time with E4 from now.

Running Cyclone lately, it is equipped with a Tamiya 11x2 motor (very old model, a free gift from a track owner many years ago) and a newly painted Protoform M6 body. With the IB4600 6cell packs, it gave run time over 9 mins and allowed me to "fright" with the brushless folks (of course not the fast one lile 3.5R and 4.5R).

However, there is a issue when I use front one-way, mid lock shaft and standard rear ball diff. I was wondering why I the car tended to be a bit unstable in in-field during acceleration, ie, the rear end was a bit loose and tended to oversteering while exiting corners. Finally, the solution is to increase to rear camber to make it about 1 degree more than the front camber. Now I am running -0.5 degree camber in front and -1.5 degree camber in rear. The oversteer problem has gone !

I am still working on a better setup with Tamiya 11x2 (6cell) and Orion V2 OJ 8x1 (5cell). Overall, Cyclone is a chassis senstive to minor change of setup and is very suitable for technical layout.

Run my T2 007' today again, with IB4200WC (1 year old) 5cell packs, still the same Nosram TC-Spec ESC and SpeedPassion 3.5R motor. Increae 1T on the pinion (20/112T) and make the final gear ration to 1:9.52, with front spool setting. Change to Tamiya yellow springs all around and use more ackerman angle on steering setup. I also remove most of the additional screws on upper and lower deck and remove all the side posts - to allow the max "flex" on my chassis (out door track).
Performance is good - I like it better than original setup with one-way and front harder / rear softer springs. Car is much faster with this gear ratio and the ESC does not encounter any overheat shutdown ... yet.
It was a very good and enjoyable weekend for RC here in Singapore.

Running my T2 007' in the past few weekends. Running front spool with 5cell, Nosram Brushless ESC (same as LRP TC Spec) and a SpeedPassion 3.5R motor. Gear ratio at around 1:10.02. My first chassis to use Spektrum rx. I have to remove a lot of screws (including all the side stands) from upper and lower deck to allow more flex on the chassis - better on handling with the "soft" chassis setup.