scoyle

I ran my Photon EX for the first time over the weekend at my local track, Ballymoney, here in Northern Ireland;



We run two track layouts at Ballymoney the second of which is a bit more technical so I went with that as the tighter corners would be a bit closer to indoors which is were I will mainly be racing over the next few months...

After making sure that the car tracked straight and the turning circle left and right were the same I took the EX for it’s first run and it felt really good – easy to drive and was not breaking away too much although at some of the tight turns I could get it to break away a bit by trying to go through the corner too fast. I had 1000wt oil in the rear diff – first change was to take this down to 725wt. I cannot be 100% certain that this made much of a difference (my driving is just not that good!) but the car did feel like it had a bit more rear grip. Next up was the shell and I changed from my traditional LTCR and tried a Mazda Speed 6 – this was a surprise as I have pretty much always ran an LTCR indoors and outdoors as I always feel that it makes the car feel more stable. The Mazda Speed 6, on the Photon EX, for whatever reason, made the car feel faster and the times on my lap counter were agreeing with the feeling on the track.

On to the suspension and I went to a slightly heavier spring than kit in the front up to an 18.1lb spring and this helped with the steering in the front as the car was not diving as much under braking and when slowing into the corner. My final change of the day was to lean the shocks in one more hole front and rear – all these changes over the course of the day gave me a car that felt easy to drive and I could push it without worrying that it was going to break away in the corners. I could also hold a good line coming onto the straight, which is important at our track, as it means you can hold full power for longer. I should have mentioned that I was also testing the new HPI Flux Pro speed controller and it, along with my GM 10.5 motor provided plenty of power and I have not even had a chance to play with the new settings on the speedo.

My best run of the day was 25 laps in 307 odd seconds which was only 4 seconds of my best time which I set during a previous race day using a brand new set of tyres for that run. Unfortunately I did not have a brand new set of Ride 32 tyres (control tyre at our track) to try and beat my previous best time and I ended up picking the four best tyres from three sets of well used ones in what I had left so I was pleased with my time.

A good day at the track and the TOP Photon EX definitely feels good to me… roll on the indoor season...