competion racing
 

I am a local club racer and am just starting to be able to turn flat 9 sec laps and have just won my first A main at my track where there are some pretty competitve onroad racing classes, before this weekend I have really worked on my setups and had lots of practice and worked with the pros at the track to really learn more about the style and geometry of the car. I found my setup that picked up 6 laps(this was on my own). I went from running consistent 25-56 to Tq with 31 and never ran fewer than 28. I know there are some things that I could be over looking and was wondering if anyone could maybe be able to point me in the right direction and some more things to drop my lap times and maybe some info on amature racing events around OKlahoma. I also run nitro EDm in the summer but maybe not for long if I could find somewhere to run onroad during the summer it is dead here by the way. We run on mewdium to high traction carpet

sorry so long;)

There are many things that can help to bring your lap times down by 0.1-0.5 seconds per lap...

Its going to be hard for ppl to suggest something when they dont know what track you're running on, what motor, what chassis, what your current setup is (chassis settings, tyres etc), any issues your currently having and what you'd like your car to be able to do better.

It might help to think of your car's performance in 3 different zones on the track, being the following...

1. Corner Entry - off power
2. Corner Exit - on power
3. Mid Corner - transitioning between previous 2

If you can say "I'd like my car to turn sharper coming out of the corner" then you're talking about on power corner exit setup changes and people are going to be able to help you. There are many more examples that can be made of this sort of wish statement so I wont run through more, but hopefully you get the idea.

It does sound like you're car is handling ok for your track however, so I'd be looking for areas of improvement (the wish list of handling you'd like) rather than look at issues. I think you need to tweak rather than radically alter your setups, drive them for a few races and understand what it did to your car. From here can make small changes and repeat until you get your car dialed the way you like it.

-Mark

I run practice two to three times a week and am there for five or six hour maybe more, have setups sheets and inch tall, belive me I have made no drastics changes what so ever and have run plenty of laps with every one.
one big change though was switching to Jaco blues from greens

I found this worked great
TC3 rtr chasis nothing stock
novak 13,5 SS geared at 5.0
integy 4000 lipo
green rear w/ trinity 35 (thinner than ASC)
front blue w/ ASc 50
2 deg, camber all the way around
ofna ob4 VCS style shocks

one thing I would like to chang is corner exit. its seems to roll to far out before i can corner sometimes. If that makes sense:lol: well i geuss tha would be mid corner

would you mind posting a picture of your tc3 =X i run a more stock version of a tc3 would like to see your upgraded tc3

less front droop - this stops weight transitioning to the rear on power (corner exit) and allows the front wheels to steer better due to the increased traction of having less weight lift off them. This however, does reduce rear traction on power and if you find your rear is more taily after making the change, you can try soften up your rear shocks/suspension somewhat (lighter oil, more piston holes, light spring, shock layed down more, remove rear stabiliser or lighten it).

shorter wheelbase - this allows the car to pivot or transition left/right more and can help increase the mid corner steering (but also does it everywhere else on the track too, so keep this in mind).

Many more options, but those are 2 that I would look into first. Negative side effects of these changes can be tuned out as well.

-Mark

If you feel that the car is down on power and you can handle more, i'd look at the motor and cells.

Even a speed controller with a different drive frequency can help, in stock i'd suggest the lowest setting you can get away with unless wheelspin is an issue (Shouldnt be unless its a cold, low grip track).

Obviously, also the weight of the car/electrics can affect how quick the car will spool up. When I raced a tc3 I milled out the centre strengthening brace of the chassis, this allowed the cells to sit a few more mm towards the middle of the car, giving the car a better C of G, and also shaved a bit of weight off. It didnt seem to affect the strength of the chassis either.

If I remember rightly, a few of the AE team guys in that era also did this modification.

If you're only racing stock and you dont tap the boards (doesnt sound like you do with your results!) Switch over to the composite driveshafts if you want to shave some weight.

IRS also make lightweight shafts for the gearbox pinion gear assemblys if you want to save a bit more weight over the stock items, might be tricky to find now though.

I'd probably keep the original carbon propshaft in too, over an alloy one (if you can find one) if you really want to keep the weight down.

Even plastic shocks off the RTR kits might save a few grams too over the alloy ones, but may not be as durable.

Use alloy hex's on the end of the stub axles though, or it can be too easy to bind up the hex to the wheel/axle when the wheel nut is done up.

As for a screw set, swap out the kit version for titanium, stronger than alloy but probably the same weight or less. I made the mistake of putting alloy screws on the gearbox covers, bad move!

I used the team version of the car since its release in about 2000 for quite a few seasons racing, then moved onto the Tamiya ta05 as it was a lot more durable for me, maybe I just board tapped it too much or I didnt have it setup quite right lol, but it won a fair few club races and won an A final once or twice.

Weight is the killer in stock, the quicker you can get the car to spool up and keep its speed through the corners, the better your laptimes will be if you're not help up in back markers.

Hope that helps :)

Thanks for the suggestions I will for sure check those out and really look into the wheel base setting I have never messed with it before,anyways here are a few pics of my set up.http://http://i37.tinypic.com/2wlrrdy.jpg

Try changing your front top shock posts more inward to one to two holes in. If you still have understeer problems, change to silver springs for the front shocks, or stiffer for the rear shocks.

I would start with getting a Mazda Speed 6 body, that's a foam tire DNA body and would have less overall downforce than a body intended for rubber tire racing.

yes I know its a foam didnt at the time of purchase though. lol(newb) so are you saying to lay the shocks down more?

Yeah, I did this with my TC4. It makes spring tension softer and more responsive.

if you like the DNA body style then i suggest the DNA2, that one is meant for rubber tire racing.

nice shocks haha. I had an ofna Ob4 international for a long time, handled great. Sold it on ebay not too long ago. The pillow ball suspension was great, havnt seen it on any other electric TC at all.