SlowerOne

And the race length has gone to 6 minutes! I thought Scotty Ernst was the GT supremo...

shanedc

I will say that I do agree on the wings providing stability.I first tried running my HPI Firebird with the gm factory style wing for the procuction look, but the car was too loose at higher speeds.Now......HPI had the fore thought to include a rather scale race looking wing for the rear.It grabs huge amounts of air and really put the car into the ground.To the point where the body scrapes at high speeds.The point here I am making is that the body producers CAN make scale looking bodies of easily identifiable cars THAT WORK!Check out the Camaro that HPI makes.THey make a great pair of Lamborghini bodies that are pretty fast too.

robk

iTrader: (22)

I think Bruce Carbone came up with the original rules, and then revised them with a group of other people(?), including Scotty. The WGT web site does show Bruce as owner if you do a whois.

HarryN

iTrader: (2)

Well gang, I did a good 3 hours of practice (on and off) with the Sophia GT and I must say that I am impressed to a certain degree. At high speeds, the car is great and light. On corners, oooohhh boy. Made wish going back to the Protoform Corvette C6-R. I am not too happy with the Sophia GT body as I have to change my setup now.

Where my Corvette did well all around, the Sophia GT is making me change my setup. I cannot keep the car on the ground on turns. The Corvette body did well. No driving style was changed, no setups were changed.

Guess tomorrow I will try some stiffer springs and see what happens. Otherwise, scale realism gains a point. Doorstop gains a point in straightaway stability and that is about it. I do not have enough front grip. I even increased the camber to -2 and it is not working too well.

I will be fair and say this is also my fault too. I may need to learn this body.

Sabin

iTrader: (1)

If you have to increase your camber to over 2.5 with the sophia body, that's going to lead to problems. mainly unequal wear.

HarryN

iTrader: (2)

Well, I am trying to give doorstop bodies a chance here and I want to be as fair as possible.

Nobody loves an argument where both sides were not discussed in order to reach a conclusion. If the setup change does not work, I am going to side with my original point and with several others here about real bodies being left alone for this class.

NiMo

I can voucher for the rear wing thing.
Ran my NSX bodied Gen-X10 today and it walk wandering at high speed whilst losing traction in the slow corners, so I tried a trick I done with the Tamiya F103 of adding weight to the rear pod, first it was 10g and car felt better but was still not as planted as the RC10R5 my closest rival was running, so I went to 15g (placed just below the axle) and the rear felt much more planted, but I still had this wandering on the straight, so replaced the slim HPI rear with with a Touring rear wing, Now I have a stable car with understeer so now I can dial back on some camber (currently at 0º).
This is outdoors with Lilacs (track pictured below).

Sabin

iTrader: (1)

track conditions? track temperature?

HarryN

iTrader: (2)

Well guys, a quick report. The setup changes did not work. In anger, I tossed the body to another person for him to have. I went back to my Corvette body. My steering, control, and driveability came back. I was a happy clam. However, from the setup changes I made for the Sophia, I may have to revert back.

Scale realism remains the victor. Protoform did a great job on the Corvette body.

And Nimo, I may try that as well. I thought about adding weights to the rear.

dodgeguy

iTrader: (208)

Now do not take this the wrong way. I value your opinion in trying the Sophia body. But what is your driving and setup level? I mean if your a in the middle of the pack guy at a National event then those that also are at that driving level, your info is helpful. But if you are a A main contender than those that are also at that level, would be interested in listening to your opinion on the driving performance. Just because the body does not work well for you and your setup at your track does not mean the body does not work else where for someone else who may be a better driver and can set up a car.

But thanks for the insight. Also what size tires were you running? How much front traction compound? It seems WGT front tire size is a big factor on the handling of the car. Also the track width is a factor on how the car handles. What was your width?

HarryN

iTrader: (2)

Hey dodgeguy, nothing wrong taken.

What do you mean by setup level? My driving is roughly B-main (club level). I am not that great and I still need to work on tightening on the corners. But on a national level, I would be a C-main or D-main.

Another thing that was tossed out was that maybe I am overpowered. I am also running a 17.5 + LiPo setup with a rollout of 66. We tossed the idea of going to 21.5 and LiPo. I don't think that a 13.5 4-cell can keep up on the straight.

Tire sizes are 2.2 rear and 2.1 front (inches). I coat the entire front tires. And I am at 200 mm width.

And to get further, I am running green CRC springs in the rear (x-firm) and red springs (firm) in the front when I was using the Sophia GT body. The dampening fluid used was what came with the kit. I coated all the notches. The suspension fluid used was what came with the kit. It has 100% rebound. Front caster is 5 degrees. Ride height is 5 mm to meet club rules.

Let me know if you need any more information bud.

NiMo

Ooer!!
I went Purple front and Red rear, and don't coat the front tyres.
61mm front, 64mm rear.
2 shims front, 1 shim rear for castor with 5º block, 0º camber
(gives quicker turn in and stops pulling the rear round out of corner)

Hyper_Mike

iTrader: (8)

Hi all,

I had an interesting experience this weekend I thought I'd share. We've been running a demonstration class of WGT in our Western Canadian Indoor Championship Series (WCICS) this year.

In the previous race I ran a Sophia and ended up 2nd overall (in an admittedly small field of 9-10 cars). Almost everyone ran the Sophia body in this race.

This weekend I decided that I'd try my HPI TVR Tuscan Speed Six body (I know it's not on the official list for WGT but as a demonstration class we are being somewhat lenient!). I expected it to be decidedly poorer than the Sophia. To my great surprise I found it was at least as good as my Sophia and perhaps a touch better! It seemed to be better balanced front to rear than the Sophia which I've always found to have a touch too much turn-in for my taste. I ended up qualifying 4th and finishing 3rd in a field of mostly Sophia bodies. I should note that there were absolutely NO changes in setup between the 2 races and the setup I'm using is the box-stock setup for the 10R5.

Based on MY experience thus far, it seems to me that it isn't necessarily a one-or-the-other proposition between scale realism and performance.

Cheers,
Mike

HarryN

iTrader: (2)

Hah! I know what I did wrong now. I went BACKWARDS on my setup. I should have gone purple front red rear!! I had too much steering. However, the only problem thereafter was the torque steering. My car would flip over. And this was with a -2 degree camber.

Now when you say 2 shims front and 1 shim rear... what do you mean? I have an idea, but I want to make sure.

Skiddins

The track was around 20degC, slightly slippery in the morning but dried out nicely.

Forgot to ask what camber's were being used yesterday while there.
Was 0.3s off the guys on home turf using full size new lilacs (64mm) which meant my ride height was around 8mm Using this body;