Here's a quick after-race report for Friday night, the first time out with the Switchblade 2002. Sorry it's so late in coming, but it was around 983 degrees at the track, and we were there from 5 in the afternoon til almost 3AM, I think I slept straight thru Saturday...
THe only mod motor I had at my disposal was a big-wire Trinity P94 9 double. The motor barely makes 5 minutes in a touring car, so I wasn't expecting to make 8, but I narrowed the brush faces and went down from purple to green brush springs. Timing around 10 degrees. For cells I'm running year-old Panasonic Stock Metals, I ran them through the Turbomatchers to rematch them into 4 cell packs, and found them to be 95-100 seconds down on runtime from when they were new.
In the first round, I easily drove away from the other cars, by three minutes I had a lap on everyone but second place. I drove easy, trying to milk all I could from the batteries. The car started to feel a bit soft at 6 and a half minutes, by 7 and a half I was 2 seconds a lap off the pace. I finished, but second place got by me to take TQ by 2 seconds.
Second round I went up 2 teeth on the pinion and tried to drive with a lighter trigger finger. Lap times were a bit slower through the run, but the car finished stronger. The run was two seconds slower than the first round.
I put a Green Machine 3 in for the third round, way overgeared. Kept up with the mods for about three minutes, then I think the arm shorted. Speed fell way off, and the car dumped hard at 7 minutes.
Put the mod back in for the main, but Losi/Trinity driver Dave Graboski asked if he could try the car. About half the field had gone home before the mains due to the late hour, so I started the main, drove for about a minute, then turned the car over to Dave for the remainder of the run. I don't think he was driving to conserve, he just started ripping on it. He dumped hard right before 7 minutes. He definitely liked the way the car was working.
I'm pretty happy with the car, it'll be better when I get the corredt front suspension brace in there. Also, I ran with the thin Tbar from the kit, but I'm putting in an .075 for next time. The car had a bit of a lazy feel to it that I think the thicker Tbar will eliminate.
I ran the Parma Speed8 (lightweight version) but I think I'll try a Protoform Nissan next week. The Pama is very swoopy, but I just can't come to grips with the looks.
BIG thanks to darnold for the advice/tips during the build...
Trips