jokerkd

iTrader: (1)

i would have thought direct, shaft driven would be more reliable and responsive,

i dont know much so if someone could explain i'd appreciate it

the only advantage i see is its more slimline, i dont even know if thats a good thing

mangoman

iTrader: (11)

Belt drives better, shaft drive tend to push in corners.
In mod you get torque steer.

If you run a spool or one-way you generally tend to smash front bevel gears in a lot of shaft drive cars.

jokerkd

iTrader: (1)

what do you mean by "push in corners"?

MadRacer

iTrader: (33)

You have a lot more rotational mass and most of the time more power loss with shaft drive.
With todays extreme power of motors and batteries you get more gyro effect of shaft cars (twisting forces) which affects the handling.
I may be wrong as im not a expert, is just what i have read..

jokerkd

iTrader: (1)

thanks mate

poorbie:(

iTrader: (10)

hmm. time to make some friends


i got a tc3, which is ancient and also shaft drive. i run a reedy 3 star motor in it on 7.2v. on hard acelleration, yes it slightly torque steers, but its almost not noticeable, and it becomes natural to turn thte other way without even realising that your doing it. for bashing id say definately shaft. for racing on a clean track in mod, belts are obviously taking/taken over, so unless they have paid many people and convinced us all that its better (happens sometimes) then belt may be better. the other thing is, belts and their gears wear out, whereas shaft drive (race once a week for about 2 hours) for 3 years still hasnt got any warps or signs of wear, id like to see a belt last that long with rocks and stones in the chassis!!

just some ideas of mine.

ryan

ray_munday

iTrader: (4)

jokerkd,

I dont run Touring Car anymore but the change to beltdrive has happened mainly due to the high hp from modern batteries. Shaft drive is more efficient and more responsive, but as mentioned has a gyro effect from the shafts and motor spinning along the centre line of the car. When you rev the car in the air, you will feel it trying to rotate one way (usually to the right). When ou have a huge amount of horsepower, this makes the car want to turn one way.

Shaft drive became popular around the late 90s when battery capacity was not as high as today. Less hp was available so torque steer wasnt as big an issue and efficeincy was important.

With modern hp, belt drive has a little more 'give' in the transmission which helps to absorb some hp (better traction) and it doesnt create torque steer (if you rev the car in the air it will pitch fore/aft instead). The slight loss of efficiency isnt an issue.

Most tc tracks now are also proper well groomed race surfaces, so the issues of rocks etc in the belts arent an issue.

Hope this helps.

Being an offroader, belts used to be very popular but it has gone the reverse and now a lot of 4wds use shaft drive. Durability of belts has been a problem (rocks and also stretching) and direct throttle response from shafts seems to be a good thing on modern med/high grip surfaces. As we have wider cars and less hp, the torque steer effect is negligible.

Ray

the fos

do shaft driven stuff rear diffs because i heard that it does in 4wd 0ff road

chrisk

iTrader: (32)

pushing in the corner means that you are going to hit the wall first in the front
"loose in the corner means your going to hit the wall with the rear first.

road racing termes more are
understeer= push
oversteer= loose

pushing and loose are general terms more to speedway and oval racing

here are a couple of pics

Dadaman

iTrader: (20)

when I first started, I drove a FT TC4. It wasn't until Xray released the T2 and I had a drive of a mates, that I could feel the difference. in TC's, belt is easier to drive than shaft. There is a noticable difference.

ant0276

iTrader: (2)

My rule of thumb is the follows:

At extremely low power, belt is more efficient, as you can run with very low tensions, and use the face of the teeth to transmit power. For this reason, I find my on road MSX has much lower rolling friction that my old TC4 in 540pro (it's also metric, and therefore faster - my enginnering opinion)

As the motor power exceeds the efficient transmission point in a tooth belt, the belt must act as a traditional friction belt (flat belt) as well as a toothed belt. otherwise, it slips and chews teeth.

Now before you all jump up and down at that comment, the flat belt part of the comment refers to the tension required to overcome the centripital forces of the belts across the pulleys that want to lift the teeth from their lands the belt goes around the corner that is the pulley. The bigger the pulley, the higher this force. Long and short of it, at medium power - small pulleys=better transmission. The trade off, is that small pulleys have a tighter radius, and therefore require more tension (which means more friction). You can see the problem. The sweet relationship b/w pulley size and power in hard to find, so I have moved away from my belt driven 501X in stock for a zx5. (501 has been retired to modified).

At high power, there is sufficient HP to overcome the tension and pulley size see saw, as the larger centripital forces associated with bigger pulleys can be easily driven through, and the larger pulleys with more teeth contacts can accommodate more power.

The great thing about the belt, is that it is less likely to have a catastrophic failure without warning. it will usually slip and carry on for a bit, rather than simply snap, or strip without warning.

Anyway, that's my power transmission lesson for the day, and my advice when trying to choose......

The factory employs designers to work this stuff out, whether it be on the first or the subsequent release of a car.

Take this stuff under advisement, but choose a car that you like. You'll always drive a car that you like better than one you don't regardless of the drive system.

I love my cheap RTR 2wd's, and drive them better than my Factory team B4.