Raw Speed - TC3 is faster..discuss
I've done some testing between the TC3 and the Losi XXXS. Prior to doing this test. I made the XXXS roll as free as possible. I took my XXXS and removed the pinion from the motor. I then set the car on our 120 foot straight at our track. I pushed it from one end of the track and the Losi coasted all the way to the other end until it was stopped by the end barrier. I thought to myself, If a car rolls like that, it should be of equal speed and punch of the TC3 at least. The belt is pretty loose but I did not modify the tensioner at all to make it any looser. I installed all the graphite pieces available and a few of the MF upgrades as well. The entire car (with the exception of just a few) has aluminum screws also. So the only difference between the cars were that the Losi had a brand new Novack TC2 Cyclone in it and the TC3 had the LRP Quantum. And the overall weight was within about 1 ounce of each other with the Losi being slightly heavier.
Running foam tires in stock, I made both cars corner fast and handle well. I used the same motor, identical batteries and the same final rollout on both vehicles for 3 rounds of racing each. The Losi's speed seemed to do well towards the middle and end of our long straight but the inital punch and even mid-speed power seems better in the TC3. On my laptimes when I looked at the average laptimes, the TC3 continued to show about .3 to .4 seconds advantage. And from how the car is driving, the loss of laptimes in this case seems more directly related to loss of motor accelleration than it does the cornering speed.
I think part of this has to do with belt slack. If you set the Losi's belt loose to roll free, I've noticed that upon load, there's quite a bit of tension that has to be taken up from the belt. I think this eats up the motor's efficiency. Eliminating the belt slack seems to make the transmission less free on the workbench but I did not try it in these tests up to this point. These are just my thoughts up to this point and I'm looking for more peoples opinions on this. Remember that I'm trying to exclude handling from this discussion.