Well, had a good day today. Was only running the car in 10.5/LiPo (Carbon 36's for thoose interested ;) ),

Started off with what I finished with last night (see setup1 below), and was good. Not the fastest, but easy to drive. Suffering again from a slight lack of mid corner steering, and yet on some corners the rear was breaking free too quickly...:confused: Still put in a good time to take an early TQ.

Next run I dropped the rear oil down too 500, and that was better, with the rear of the car more settled. For the last run, I went even further down to 450 oil in the rear shocks, and dialed in more drag brake on the speedo, worked very well. I guess that part of the car being unsettled was me trying too take too much speed into the turns, simply as I'm still not used to having to use brakes more often. Also moved the front shocks back into hole two on the arm, and that seemed to give a little more front end into the corner.
Suprisingly, I didn't improve my times over my first round, but I think that was mostly to using shagged VTec27's for rounds 2 & 3, instead of the 30's I used in round one. Went back to the 30's for the finals, and the times improved :)

For the finals, I thought sod it, I'll try the arm sweep, so bolted C/B onto the front of the car. To compensate a little for the reduced track width, used 1.5mm worth of shims on the front. So much better, finally had some mid corner steering, and I gained 3/10ths of a second on my best lap :eek: Still binding a little bit on entry, so for the last final I raised the rear roll centre a smidge by going to 2.5mm under the outer rear link (had been running 2mm). Car was improved again, and from having been doing 10.1s laps I put in 6 sub10's :sneaky: and won the final by over a lap :D

So, seems the trick is too get some front arm sweep on the go with a spool. I'm going to leave the car as is for next weekend (apart from raising roll centres up high as per my last stock setup.) And I'm also going to try the D/C combo as soon as the parts arrive, and reduce the axle shims.

Overall a good day... and the car is just getting better all the time :)

Setups attached... #1 is the starting setup, #2 is the final setup, changes highlighted in red :)

Cheers
Ed

http://www.robspics.com/postimages/norcal2008/1/07.jpg

http://www.robspics.com/postimages/norcal2008/1/05.jpg

WOW!!!

I picked up my new toy yesterday about 3pm. Even with helping a few people here and there at the track, I finished at midnight. Got a few laps in, and this thing is good. I ran the stock set up, even though many said not to. Motor needs some work, but that will come quickly. I think I need to run a little more to wake up the batts too. Taking a few months off felt good.

I was very impressed with the fit on this car. Much better that any previous tamiya TRF car. I have built many, and this is by far the best engineered in a long time, maybe since 414x time. I kept finding little things that just make sense. Only fault I find, WTF us up with this upper motor screw, thats just dumb. But, if that is the only complaint, then I say great job TAMIYA.

We concluded our carpet season today. The 416 has served me amazingly well, and I look forward to picking things up on the asphalt in a few weeks. I've never really raced outdoors, so I suppose there's some learning to do.

I'm really impressed with how easy the car is to drive. I could probably make the setup more edgy, but it's so smooth and flowing how it is now, I don't want to change a thing.

Before I went with Tamiya, I had some misgiving about it all. I knew parts would be a bit tricky to get in the states, I knew it was a new design with some unknowns, and I knew "factory" support was limited. I turns out, none of those things have mattered. This car is such a great fit for my style, I can't believe I went all this time driving anything else.

So... it's a few weeks off... maybe some off-road, and then back with the lovely 416 on a whole new surface. Sweet!

Sweet!! There's my ride. The car with the yellow and purple paint. 403Forbidden, thanks for posting that! Super clean photo.

not tempted to go back to the type R then... :sneaky:

I just ordered a kit from RC Market and it took ..... wait for it 3days .... just EMS ... super fast !

Thanks to RC Market, excellent service

Have to agree to excellent service and comms from Rc Market. Great Guys
Mark

Thankyou !!
we'll keep again !!:nod:

Hey Ed, question for ya. Steering ackermann. More steering. Where do you move the ball stud on the steering knuckle, front or back? More steering on the steering rack... front or back? Just looking for your opinion to see if I'm getting it right on this car. It seems to be alittle opposite maybe from when I had an XRay.

RCMarket, I may have to get those Square knuckles. Play with the different ackermann hole on there.

+1 for RC Market. Great service and FAST shipping!

If you put the ball stud in the front on the knuckle, the steering will become faster. I used 2mm spacers(replace the smaller ones) for the ball ends on the steering rack, and the car seemed better on the infield (more ackerman).

I hate saying anything bad about the R, because a lot of people love that car, and it's actually done quite well on carpet/rubber tire here in the US lately. But it was the hardest, most unpredictable car I've ever driven. It's way too twitchy and weird for me. The improvement with the 416 was instant for me, after spending many months struggling with the R. I really think it's just a matter of style, or lack thereof.

So, I guess I need to learn how to setup a car for the asphalt. Is it pretty much a given that you run a spool outside? We're going to race on prepared parking lots. How different should I make things from, say, low/medium traction carpet? I guess I'm going to strap in a 10.5 for the first time in forever and give it a go.

Also, for you LiPo guys, the trick of warming your batteries is no joke. I use a reptile heating pad to get them to 110-120F and the difference is very real. It was enough that I had to gear down my motor to account for the increased voltage. No ill-effects, either. Most of the cell manufacturers say it's fine, and won't affect the battery at all.

I agree, RCMARKET is a pleasure to order from. I just have to make sure it's a big order, shipping to the states isn't cheap!

Do these Square knuckles allow you to use foam tires like the stock 416 knuckles? The shape seems different.

I really hope for some rear uprights next, I've had trouble with the ballstud coming loose with any minor side impact.

Concluded my first race meeting yesterday on a prepped asphalt surface. The car was awesome...

Ran the car in 10.5 (19T) and 13.5 (Stock) classes. I had to file off a little bit of the top deck (inner) to fit a larger pinon for stock, but other than that it was a pretty smooth day. One funny quirk, though, is that i had remove the four screws that mount the back of the top plate so I could access the pinion grub.

Ran the car with Sorex 32's and a one way in both classes. Amazing corner speed!! Reduced the rear toe to about 2deg and the car was just the perfect balance of sidebite through corners but free at the same time (I like a little bit of a looser feeling for the car, especially in the lower hp classes).

I stripped out the rear uprights though with a small side hit. Simple fix - running the inner holes until I find spares/buy the Square ones that will probably come out.

The car is amazing. I'm a believer...