240Z

iTrader: (6)

Looking at the F103GT I see that the offset is built into the front suspension out of the box. (option #53258)

BP SHADOW

iTrader: (24)

havent posted on here for a while, but been reading through the last few posts, so here goes nothin'
As far as the carbon axle goes, I have run the Tamiya ones forever, I have broken 2 or 3, but thats over the course of 15+ years of running 102's and 103's. They are more money, but they are very strong, the ones that broke were 2-3 years old and had alot of indoor running on them
The pivot ball controversy, well there are people that swear up and down on one or the other.
I really want to do some back to back testing to see which is quicker. I never liked the Oring set up because as the orings collapse, it changes the handling. The pivot ball is tricky to set up, but once you get it set up, I think it is more consistent, but thats just my opinion.
The offset blocks are an option, but they are not as bulletproof as the stock uprights. The screws that hold the axles in the uprights bend real easy and ruin the upright. I think those were developed to run out doors with no boards.
The thrust bearing issue is a 2 parter, one it needs to be cleaned spotless, and then the AW grease needs to be applied, although I have run high quality bearing lube on the thrust bearing and gotten a smooth diff out of it, but I dont think the diff action was as good

Dan the Man

iTrader: (41)

Is there a serious difference in performance between the R and the RM, or is a case of a lot of Tamiya bling for not much extra perfromance?

Don't get me wrong, I love my blue bling, but for the difference in price I could get another lipo.

rccartips

iTrader: (3)

hi, the price of the r over the rm is worth it. the stiff chassis and a-arms makes a difference.

anyways love the blue bling bling

BP SHADOW

iTrader: (24)

Remember, the R is a limited edition commemorative deal. The thing with these 103's is they are competitive in pretty much any level of trim. I have seen guys take almost bone stock chassis and beat up on fully hopped up cars. Even after 15 years of running this chassis, the closer I look, there are many very small details that can make a huge difference in the performance of the car.But I dont think the R has any significant advantage over the RM. I would say that the parts that come with the R are of higher quality than the RM , and everything is in one box instead of hopping up one part at a time. If you look at the cost of an RM , and then add a few hopups to the price of that kit, the R is a pretty good deal for what you can get it for on the street.
I am picking mine up tonight.

liljohn1064

iTrader: (17)

You got that right! It expensive. I wish I'd waited for the R myself.

240Z

iTrader: (6)

Just curious, how did you get it to work out?

padailey

iTrader: (11)

Well I just got an RM and a fellow racer just got an R. My maiden voyage and his second we ran together and his handled a little better than mine. But he is a better driver and knows how to set pan cars up much better than I do. So that being said my RM was not that far off of his, so even though his is prettier there really wasn't that much difference in performance. If you've got the dough get the R.. if you are a little more budgeted get the RM and upgrade a few things as you go.

Ben.C

Hi, any tips on setting up the pivot ball suspension.

I tried that and I didn't liked it (most probably that I don't know how to set it up).

Could you shed some light. thks

BP SHADOW

iTrader: (24)

Im not going to give specifics, because im still working on my setup.
But I will tell you this.
Back when we ran the rubber tires in TCS I was running alot of roll with the pivot balls. I was running tweak screws, but I did not have them locked down like a 1/12th scale car.
With that said, on foams it is a different game. foams make so much grip that you need to minimize the movement. To me the oring setup creates a kind of binding effect on the t plate. I polish the pivot balls with simichrome polish and a dremel to make sure that the movement is as smooth as possible. I run the tweaks screws set up like a 12th scale, that is locked at the front , free in the rear.
To me the whole secret to hooking these 103's up is to control the motion of the rear pod. In doing this you have 2 functions, the damper and shock. Both essentially dampen, but they control different aspects. The damper post and plates control the side to side motion, and the shock the fore and aft motion.
The object of the game is to keep the tires in contact with the road. Since there is not much compression that occurs with the shock, the rebound is the important motion of the shock. In other words the faster the tires get back in contact with the track, the more control you have. Now there are plenty of guides out there on shock setup, so I wont bore you any more with that. the other thing you can do is control the amount of compression that does occur with the shock. This would generally require a thicker shock oil or minimal openings in the shock piston( also referred to as valving) here is where the balance comes in. Getting the shock to react quickly but still provide good dampening is tricky because they are opposite of each other in behavior.Spring is going to depend on the surface you are running on, but I would stay in the neighborhood of a medium spring, too soft and the chassis will sag and bottom, too stiff and the chassis will buck and bounce. Try to run as little preload on the spring as possible as I believe that preload jacks the weight bias of the chassis to the front wheels and makes the rear end loose. As far as the damper goes, you have 2 aspects there. First is pressure. As far as Tamiya parts go, you have 2 options for damper springs. Again, there is a balance to achieve here, you want to control the side to side motion, but you still need the reaction to get the chassis to rotate. I run the gold springs, and from there I play with the tension on the damper post. Most of the time it is run fairly tight. This starts to limit the amount of side to side motion in conjunction with the tweak screws. The grease you run will keep the damper from binding, but also controls the reaction time of the damper, thinner= faster thicker=slower. That is a personal preference, I tend to fall somewhere in the middle.
The only other settings to work with are front springs and toe.
I would run the stiffest spring (Tamiya black) because it keeps the front end from rolling over on itself, as well as minimizing the wight transfer to the front end. You can get some of the twitchiness out of the car by running 0- a touch of toe in on the front end.
Hope this helps, this is just my way of doing things, someone else could have a setup that is the exact opposite from what I just said, it all depends on how you like to drive.

robk

iTrader: (22)

To add to what BP said, I find that adding screws to the rear pivot as motion stops works well on carpet. I had originally tried a bushing on the dampener post, between the dampener plates to limit the roll, but I guess that it is illegal. The screws work fine, and they are not too hard to set. I actually set them with the bushing still in place as a guide.

For carpet, I have also found that the car should have the washers between the t plate and the pivot ball removed. This will raise the t bar and give better rotation.

For the shock, I use the blue mini car spring, and 30 wt oil. The mini car springs give more adjustment range. Blue helps keep the car turning on power. I don't think you need to be too heavy with the shock setup, since a lot of dampening goes on at the dampener plates. Also remember that the shock length will set your pod droop, which affects rear end traction and weight transfer. More droop = more traction, and weight transfer.

I have also noticed that the 15th Anniv. dampener plates give better dampening action that the stock RM stuff. I went from 30k on the RM plates to 20K on the 15th setup. YMMV I like to go heavier to keep the car flatter.

I also like the gold springs on the front since they help the car turn. Running some diff oil like 15k or 20k on the kingpins will slow the reaction a bit. The gold springs like some preload to keep from rolling the weight back to the rear of the car. You can use a shim, or if this isn't kosher, use the grub screw in the steering arm to set preload. Just use a caliper to keep it even side to side. A little goes a long way, you just want to keep the spring loaded up.

Ffejdat

iTrader: (5)

BP and Robk- What are the part numbers on the different front springs, or where do you get those, are they part of a front end kit? Thanks!

RC MARKET

iTrader: (12)

TRG
Hard Front Suspension Arm arrived !

bakaguyjean

iTrader: (1)

SP-395 will get you a full set of uprights with all three springs for the front.
SP-509 all three springs for the front.

inconceivable

iTrader: (3)

What color spring equals what spring rate (soft, med, hard). I believe an earlier post referred to the black as firm, however what is the gold and silver rated at ? Thanks.