Past Due Updating

Sorry, I know much hasn't been happening here on the blog but I have had two trees hit the house since April (I guess I was a logger in a past life and now the trees are exacting their revenge) and have been mainly consumed with trying to fix that, deal with the evil that is insurance, and otherwise get everything back to normal. Not to mention I feel like I am throwing money down a hole at this problem as fast as I can make it.

While this is most likely going to prevent me from going to the straight line event this year the project is still going forward. I just got my speed control back from Castle as they were trying to figure out what issue I have been having (actually they just sent a new unit back, thanks Castle). I am also working out some details on the stretched chassis, I figured if I can't go this year that I would really try to be ready to throw down next year.

On an good note I just did my first offroad race since the mid-nineties and came in second. I haven't had a lot of luck finding an oval track that consistently has EDM cars showing up so since I was given a Associated RC10B4 for my birthday I figured I would slap it together real fast and run it at one of the local tracks this past weekend at Cullman RC in Cullman Alabama.

Cullman RC

They run a 1/10th scale Open ( or "Outlaw" as some may call it) class that is pretty much run what you brung. So I slapped in a Traxxas Velinion motor and esc and had at it. The first heat was ruff as I was trying too hard and crashing a lot but the second heat and the main I dropped my lap times a lot with the "slow = fast" method and just taking it easy and trying to be consistent. I think after I get the suspension sorted and some practice I should be able to actually race for the win.

I had a blast though and remembered how fun offroad can be, so I will definitely be doing some more of it.

Gettin' Dirty

Well I have been working on making an EDM car out of an old RC10T2 to get doing some dirt oval racing in the name of sharpening my skills and I just finished trimming up and painting a body. BSR foams and lowering it just a bit are also done I just need to get a 10.5 motor to run and go get sideways. I am a pretty big mx fan so I decided to do a Rockstar Makita theme to the paint. It came out alright, I am still having an issue with the paint wanting to stick to McAllister bodies (the paint tries to peel up with the paintmask as you remove it) and I am cleaning the body first and have tried removing the mask when the paint is dry and wet. The masking is high quality stuff (3M) that I cut on a plotter and apply, I don't know what is up as I never have this problem with HPI bodies or some of the others. If anyone has any tips drop me a line.

Chris

VIDEOS!!!

Here is a video of my practice run , thanks RCMits for the videos!

At least it is a decent crash

And here is a link to more of his videos from the race.

RCMITS VIDEOS

Nic Case's Record Run

Here is a video of Nic's smoking fast run, just listen to the sound the car makes especially as it claws it way through the turns.

83.66 mph!!!

ISC Video

Here is a video with a bit of race action and some Southwest Tour action that I ran across on youtube.

'09 Speed Run

Encino Event Results

ENCINO '09 PRESS RELEASE

ENCINO '09 RESULTS

I told you I did bad, I have been practicing (not on a velodrome though I don't have one of those available) but I think it might be time to get back into some form of course racing to try and get better faster as competition seems to accelerate it. I feel like towards the end of Saturday that even though the car was still not completely cooperating that I should have been able to drive through the problems better and at least be a little more competitive.

I am thinking about dirt oval, it teaches good reflexes.

Crashing On The Other Coast

This weekend was my first ISC event and it was at the Encino velodrome....and it was hard. Despite tons of help from Nic Case and others (thanks Tim Smith, Shawn Palmer (of Schumacher USA), Gary O'Conner, and others I am forgetting at the moment) I could not get the car to handle very well and just wasn't good enough to drive through the problems so I spent most of the weekend crashing into the retainer walls. It was all good though and I think the experience gained will be highly beneficial for the next closed course event as this was my first time to ever even see a velo track much less drive on one (and I am not exactly the best setup guy, I need LOTS of practice normally with something new to find what works).

So I performed awful but it really didn't sour the event for me, it was so much fun attempting to run, meeting cool people, and I felt the race just turned out so well in general that I am very happy I went. I think the word got out some more about speed racing too and hopefully the next event will have even more people.

It was a very cool experience for me as there was magazine coverage, industry members in attendance, and happy people enjoying seeing things like Nic ripping off some super fast laps, not to mention it was great watching the Southwest Tour guys run too (some of those guys were super impressive). Hey I even got to meet Dan from Dan's RC Stuff and he gave me some of of his Speed Clean Plastic Cleaner (great product by the way) which was cool as I have been buying his products for years and you just don't meet rc industry people in Alabama.

In all now I am just more excited about competing and hopefully next time I can bring the speed! If will excuse me I need to go fix my car and practice some more as I am not real crazy about losing.

Chris

ISC Encino Pictures

Some of the sights and people of the race from this past weekend.

About to be on my way

The car made it to Cali in one piece and my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon, next stop... Encino Velodrome!

So wish me luck and hopefully I will go fast and keep the car in one piece. Also wish me luck in that my flight is not too miserable or late.

I did a new body for the race but left it at the office so pics will have to wait until later (but before I run so that I have pics of it in one piece).

Chris

New Aero Package

First off, as promised here as some pictures of the car post crash. It come out pretty good considering I am even going to keep using the rear shock tower for now as it seems to be fine from the shock mounting points in.



I am rocked, reeling a bit, but I ain't down yet... time for round two. I made some big 'ole vertical stabilizers and added them on this evening and I also revamped the front lip spoilers with some small stabilizers, hopefully this we get it in line. I think I got them about as straight and true as you can possible hope to get lexan fins attached to a lexan body. I am not real happy about the weight they added as it is quite a bit of lexan and I may be a little overkill using 6-32 screws and lock nuts but I was worried about something smaller like 4-40's pulling out under what I think will be a fair amount of force and I didn't want to deal with that.

Hopefully the design will not compromise turning any on the velodrome, I am going to go do some straightline testing this weekend hopefully (velodrome testing will not get to happen until race weekend) and with any luck I will come back a happier person.

The fins can be a bit hard to see as they are clear but I think you guys can make them out.


I also made a nifty rotating car stand as I am entirely too cheap to go buy one. Anyway it was made from some scrap aluminum and the only thing I bought was a $5 lazy susan so I think I did ok.

Ouch, not so stellar test experience

So I tried to get some testing in Sunday so after finding a decent place to run I got to it only to run into handling issues. The car was doing a big back and forth weave (not a wiggle like an over aggressive gyro can cause though) and it eventually ended up causing a crash, don't worry I will get crash damage pics up later. I was lucky though and it didn't seem to hurt any electronics or the central core of the car.

It really felt like I had to much rear downforce and that the car could not get enough load on the front to track straight. I am going to make some changes to the setup on my gyro though as it is possible it was acting up but I am not sure yet.

So I am going to stop using a rear wing and switch to just big upright vertical stabilizers as I think they will make enough downforce with drag to keep the back down but not so much that I have handling problems. The big decision is how big should I go, a very large side mounted stabilizer (dark gray) or a smaller rear deck mounted one (light gray). I am thinking I should go big as I can always trim it down easier than add to. Given enough time I will try both but I still have many other things to try to work out to match a given wing setup so I have a good overall package.

On an upside I think I have found a better place to run as I have gotten permission to use a closed airstrip that is supposed to be in decent shape (I will check it out this weekend to see for myself). Hopefully it will work out.

Pretty pictures and some testing

Finally got some runs in this weekend and so far so good for the most part. I put in a 28 tooth pinion and went out and found the largest parking lot I could find (which still wasn't big enough) and started out doing some runs on 2s first and it handled great and was actually pretty tame. This was good since the parking lot was actually to rough, my buddy Scott's TC4 which has an undertray (and less ground clearance) and less downforce was having trouble staying on the ground and was really giving him fits at times (mainly from loose pebbles and whatnot on the asphalt).

After a bit I put the second battery in and did a few slow runs and nothing smoked itself so I looked over at Scott and told him I was going to nail it, we both agreed it was a bad idea given the surface and I did it anyway. I have to tell you I was very surprised at the stability, now I didn't get to stay in it for real long because of room but it was amazing for the time it lasted. I have never driven something so brutally fast and the spring pollen on the ground that rose up from underneath it made it look just like a landspeed racer blasting across the Bonneville Salt Flats. I know I need to go buy some sort of speed measuring device to see where I am at speed wise but at the moment I am really more worried about stability and reliability.

The only real bummer was after a couple of 4s full throttle jaunts the spur gear let go. Now I felt pretty good about the mesh (it looked good after running 2s) so I am not sure if it picked up a rock, couldn't handle 4s power, I need to change the mesh for 4s power, or even if maybe I got onto the throttle too fast. With some more testing I hope to straighten it out and with any luck my contact at a local small airport will come through and I will get a chance to really stretch it out on the strip.

Anyway I borrowed a decent camera to get some nice shots in case I destroyed the car testing. I really flubbed the paint job and had to strip it and repaint it so the paint job is not the best but I will hopefully have a prettier one for the first race.