my Spec-r S1 experience
I just bought a spec-r S1 and thought I would share my experience too.
My goal was to put together the best low cost racing package I could while being able to challenge the higher end xray's and tamiya's.
I am an experienced racer in other scales of indoor and outdoor racing, but this is my first venture into 1/10 TC.
I ran a S1 with the setup right from the manual.
I was very picky putting it together to make sure all pieces were put together properly.
I added the following upgrades:
- Aluminum center servo holder
- aluminum steering rack
- sway bar kit from the R1 using the 1.4 front, 1.2 rear (as per the R1 manual)
- 3Racing ssk (double cvd) drives for the front.
- Geared 64 pitch - kimborough 96 tooth spur, 43 tooth pinion for a FDR of 4.24
Others:
- Sweep spec Green rubber tires
- Mazda 6 'protoform' style body from rcMart
- Turnigy nano-tec 6.6mah lipo
- turnigy 17.5 brushless
- hobbyking 120A brushless ESC (hobbywing clone)
- bluebird servo from hobbyking
- orange RX spektrum dsm2
(lots of spare parts like arms and c-blocks from tqrcracing.com as well)
Complete cost under $450
Race Review:
I raced it for the first time in a club 17.5 blinky race.
I had only run the car enough before this race night to make sure the steering trim was straight and then 5 minutes of running.
Having never raced this car before, I put full compound(niftec) rear and the inside 1/2 compound front.
The car is very neutral, so with a 1/2 compound front it had a managable on power push. Enough push that it was noticed by some other racers watching.
Throughout my heat races I added more and more compound on the front until I was running full compound front and rear. The car still has a very mild on power push(understeer) but is very drivable. The rear of the car never once felt loose or tried to come around the whole race night.
I had a collision with another car on the straight, where the other car had come to a dead stop after hitting the boards. I ran into the car at about 25-30mph. Nothing broke on my car BUT I think the ball cup moved down the tie rod. It now has a few degrees of toe out which seems to give the car a bit more steering so I left this new found 'adjustment'.
Results:
TQ and 1st in my 'spec stock' 17.5 class.
Looking at the board the lap count would have been good enough for 2nd place in the next level 'pro-stock' 17.5 class. It would not have been fast enough to challenge the winner of that class as it was a couple laps off the pace.
Conclusion:
For me this car worked perfectly its first race. The setup from the manual is very drivable and will tend to understeer which is easy to drive for beginners to 1/10 touring car. The best part, the other racers could not believe an $85 dollar car on its first outing with a box stock setup could work so well. I'm very impressed with the drivability of this car.