The "Brushless + Lipo" Effect...
 

Hello people, i just wanted to share with you the events of today.

Today I had the most fun I have had in TC racing for a loooong time. For the end of year meeting we deceided to run an enduro. Enduros are nothing new, but this was my first. Teams of two drivers. Qualifying by means of a "one lap dash", followed by 60 min race.

For the first time my combination of GTB, 13.5t and 4800 lipo were well and truly in their element. :sneaky:

bla bla bla ... cut to the chase...

I ran 25 min at race speed on the one battery... 25 Minutes! :D

Geared the motor down two teeth for better battery life, motor got warm, but not hot (no heat sink).

For this race, everything was open, but as alway in an enduro situation consistancy is the key. Some people were running 540/silver can, some ran 19t, some ran stock, everyone had their own strategy, everybody had a blast!

This race was sooooo much fun, getting paired up with another driver who I didnt know to well was good for the "getting to know other people" aspect of racing. Tag team driving. Planning battery changes. Repairs on thefly.

we were fortunate to not have any breakages, no radio interference, no mechanical problems and and all changeovers went smoothly. we just kept on going. In the end, me and my team mate turned out 144 laps to win by a margin of 18 laps.

All in all...

gotta love the enduro... :nod:

Sounds fun. I have always been thinking it would be fun to participate in a 24 hour rc race. Racing through the night on a light up track, teams of 3-4 drivers with just one car allowed, if something breaks it have to be repared not allowed to change car. Just like classics like Lemans 24 h, Nurnburgring 24 h and Spa 24 h. With 2.4GHz radio systems maybe 25 teams could race at the same time on a big track

check pictures from Le mans 24h 2006 here

or here http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans...photos_fr.html

How does the changeover work? 1 car, 2 cars, and transponders?

We ran one 5 October this year and it was a blast. Teams of 8 drivers, race started @11am and finished 11am. Teams included all kinds of MFG support from Novak, Tamiya, Peak, Brood, Speedmind, Speedmerchant, Hacker and others. Final mileage was 383 miles and was recognised by Guiness. The fianl gap was 27laps or 2 miles at the end of 24hrs.

Talk to your local club and aks to see if you can help it took us about 4 months of planning, mainly from the teams side.

We also allowed open chassis, drive config and batteries. The winning combo was Speedmerchant pan, hacker brushless and a mix or 4200's and 8k Li-Po.

If you look at Xtreme this month Derek was up for the race and covered it.

I would post a link but the thread was merged with our regular club thread. If you want to look anyway here is a link, look around the August thru October time periods. This will take you to the finish of the race for a starting point.

http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthre...page=394&pp=30

we were using an old AMB20 system, so no PTs. It was 2 drivers per team, each driving own car, with the same number on the club t'ponder, eg one driver with red #2, one with yellow#2,

car comming in must enter pit before next car goes out. If car cannot complete lap under its own power it must be brought in by a marshal, "do not pass go, do not collect one lap"

Lipos and brushless open up entirely new possibilites for electric R/C racing. I would love to see some quick change TC chassis similar to thosed used in oval pan car racing. This is a complete possibility and could really revolutionize electric racing.

I can see something like the bottom loading setup in the JRX-S with the plugs for the Orion battery semi-hard mounted to the upper deck so that the battery would literally plug in to the car. Lipo has been great for us offroaders, it just takes batteries out of the equation. The fastest guys using 6 cells still have just as much rip so it does not create an advantage for those using it. It's offroad though, much easier to be over powered.

Yeah, this was such an eye opener. It was sooo much fun and soooo different to the famnilier 5 min dash for the line.
There are heaps of threads on "fix TC racing" etc, and most focus on different rules/classes/restrictions/less traction/smaller batteries/slow the cars down /get more racers/make it cheaper etc. whereas by going the other way ie make it a 15 min race, many of theses issues are resolved, because the car now has to go the distance, and driving needs to be smooth and consistant.

if we did have longer races, it would bring more racers in becuase the fun increases. (at one club I race at, depending on the number of drivers, we only get 13 min of race time. 2x4 min heats and a 5 min final. to me 13 min is not worth the effort.

at the enduro, I got 41 min of track time, with only 2 batts (my 3800nimh lasted 16 min, the 4800lipo lasted 25 min).

It hard to beat.

Bring back the fun, make the races much longer (15 min +)