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Old 12-14-2003, 11:28 PM
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Default Speed Merchant REV 3 Info

Hi guys.I have purchased a couple of these cars for some Indoor Carpet racing.
Very Smooth Carpet track on top of pavement.
Any Setup help or a clue on gearing would be appreciated.
Looks like a killer car.
Anyone with experience with this car Please Help.lol
I have raced outdoor 1/12th scale with a 12L3 and have never ran on carpet.I have some experience in driving alot of offroad and some onroad but ONLY on pavement.
Any tips or help with this car or 1/12th scale period would be appreciated.
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Old 12-15-2003, 05:26 AM
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Default Re: Speed Merchant REV 3 Info

Originally posted by TexRacer
Hi guys.I have purchased a couple of these cars for some Indoor Carpet racing.
Very Smooth Carpet track on top of pavement.
Any Setup help or a clue on gearing would be appreciated.
Looks like a killer car.
Anyone with experience with this car Please Help.lol
I have raced outdoor 1/12th scale with a 12L3 and have never ran on carpet.I have some experience in driving alot of offroad and some onroad but ONLY on pavement.
Any tips or help with this car or 1/12th scale period would be appreciated.
TexRacer: Here's what I generqlly start with:

Rear: Blue side springs (no pre-load), Med. Losi Hydra drive fluid in the tubes, 80 wt. oil and Speedmerchant Black spring on the shock, .5 mm rear pod droop (sag) when off the bench, lower pod plate parallel with chassis at ride height.

Front-end: "Old Skool" (non-dynamic strut) front-end. .020 springs, one 2 degree AE caster shim under the arm. toe set straight.

Tires: Purple fronts, Grey Rears.

Gearing is Track Size/Motor Dependent, give me a bit more info and I'll try to give you a starting point.

Ian Ruggles
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Old 12-15-2003, 06:36 AM
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what about tire sizes there jerkie? what do you start with?
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Old 12-15-2003, 06:47 AM
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Thanks Ian and sup Greg.
The track is 100x60 and decent tight.
Track pics are at www.mikeshobbyshop.com
What tire sizes are also good to start with.Carpet and Foam are NEW to me.
I need stock gearing and then how many teeth over the wind you usually start with in mod.
Stock gearing would be for a P2k or a GM3.
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Old 12-15-2003, 06:51 AM
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I do roll-out in inches, and on a track that size I'd probably be between a 1.95 and a 2.0.

Mods I usually start at 10 teeth over and adjust from there according to tire size and layout.

On my Rev. 3, I usually start my rears about 1.90' and fronts around 1.80"
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:03 AM
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That rollout for stock is figured with 4 cells, not 6 Texracer. Since you still run 6 cell stock in Texas you'll want to gear lower to avoid dumping. Track looks good. Glad to see Mike finally decided to put carpet in. The layout could be tighter though. Those are some pretty wide lanes. Do Ron and Joor come up much?
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:06 AM
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Thanks Ian for all the info.
Now the tricky part.lol.
What is the difference in the springs and so on?
The car I have right now has the 2 side springs that are white.
I heard if the track is smooth that white's are better.
Notice I said HEARD>lol
What is the difference in the springs for the car.
I like the 80wt in the big one,that spring and the medium in the tubes.
The OLD SKOOL front end looks nice.Less weight and less slop.
I didnt know it had a spring though.I will look at it.
Thanks again for all the info.Looks like quite the car.
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:08 AM
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Well I have been correcting the 6 cell crap.It's now 4 cell.
David,Ron,and Toastie keep coming up about every other weekend.Quincy Hughes and Kyle Skidmore are very fast as well.
Kyle will be down this weekend I think.
Thanks for the info guys.I will soak up whatever is said.
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:10 AM
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Originally posted by JonnySocko
That rollout for stock is figured with 4 cells, not 6 Texracer. Since you still run 6 cell stock in Texas you'll want to gear lower to avoid dumping. Track looks good. Glad to see Mike finally decided to put carpet in. The layout could be tighter though. Those are some pretty wide lanes. Do Ron and Joor come up much?
What up Socko? If Tex is running a Rev. 3 he's more than likely running 4-cell. Either that or he needs to send me pics of his battery layout!
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:20 AM
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Very true on the battery layout. I'm glad that Texas is finally coming out of the stone age and getting rid of 6 cell stock. I could never understand why they still ran it while I was down there. Guess they just like to buy tires more often? Good to hear that Ron, Joor and Toastie are running there. If you can keep up with them, you're doing well.

As for the side springs, it works like this. The softer the side spring, the harder the car will rotate. This does increase your chances of traction rolling though. I ran orange side springs and 80 wt with a copper Assoc. spring at Cleveland. Light losi hydra in the tubes. You have to adjust the tubes to match the side springs. Use light with orange and blue and medium with whites, red, or greens. You usually run reds or softer though. The old school front end uses different springs than the 10th scale dynamic front end. You want the 41** part numbers for the old school springs. The 84** springs are too long. Another thing with that front end is to use the kingpins for the 12th dynamic front end and put a setscrew in the steering block to hold the kingpin. This gets rid of the eclips on the old kingpin and makes spring changes mucho easier. You'll need to cut the "ear" off the front of the steering block to drilll the hole for the setscrew. Grind a flat spot on the kingpin too so it doesn't slide.


What up Ian? How's the kiddo? You going to the Novak race?
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:21 AM
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lmao.Right.Well I have a 3 cell pyramid on each side and a bigger rubber.lol.MAGNUM.
Any hopups this car like's or needs?
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:26 AM
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Originally posted by TexRacer
Thanks Ian for all the info.
Now the tricky part.lol.
What is the difference in the springs and so on?
The car I have right now has the 2 side springs that are white.
I heard if the track is smooth that white's are better.
Notice I said HEARD>lol
What is the difference in the springs for the car.
I like the 80wt in the big one,that spring and the medium in the tubes.
The OLD SKOOL front end looks nice.Less weight and less slop.
I didnt know it had a spring though.I will look at it.
Thanks again for all the info.Looks like quite the car.
Side springs: Hmmmmm, this can be tricky. If the track is SMOOTH whites can be a good choice if traction is pretty high. Generally the stiffer you go on side springs, the more "cut" the car will have going into the corner. If the bite is SUPER HIGH, or if the track is bumpy or ripples make it "choppy", you can over spring the car, and it will roll over, or it can get tossed around by the bumps.

At Cleveland, I actually ended up with a slightly softer center spring and dampening combo (CRC copper and 60 wt.), with Blue sides, and .024 front springs to take the edginess outta the car so it would carry corner speed rather than corkscrew itself into the middle of the corner. It all kinda depends on the track conditions as they come up.
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:31 AM
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Originally posted by JonnySocko
Very true on the battery layout. I'm glad that Texas is finally coming out of the stone age and getting rid of 6 cell stock. I could never understand why they still ran it while I was down there. Guess they just like to buy tires more often? Good to hear that Ron, Joor and Toastie are running there. If you can keep up with them, you're doing well.

As for the side springs, it works like this. The softer the side spring, the harder the car will rotate. This does increase your chances of traction rolling though. I ran orange side springs and 80 wt with a copper Assoc. spring at Cleveland. Light losi hydra in the tubes. You have to adjust the tubes to match the side springs. Use light with orange and blue and medium with whites, red, or greens. You usually run reds or softer though. The old school front end uses different springs than the 10th scale dynamic front end. You want the 41** part numbers for the old school springs. The 84** springs are too long. Another thing with that front end is to use the kingpins for the 12th dynamic front end and put a setscrew in the steering block to hold the kingpin. This gets rid of the eclips on the old kingpin and makes spring changes mucho easier. You'll need to cut the "ear" off the front of the steering block to drilll the hole for the setscrew. Grind a flat spot on the kingpin too so it doesn't slide.


What up Ian? How's the kiddo? You going to the Novak race?
Colin is wonderful, thanks for asking. I assume all is well in your neck of the woods? No novak race for me. If I saw all that carpet, and no 12th scalers I think I 'd die of a broken heart! LOL!! And good call on the front-end, I don't do that of course, but good call. I wouldn't want to make my life too easy.
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Old 12-15-2003, 07:36 AM
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Originally posted by TexRacer
lmao.Right.Well I have a 3 cell pyramid on each side and a bigger rubber.lol.MAGNUM.
Any hopups this car like's or needs?
Other than the front-end trick the only thing I'd even consider would be lowered pod plates.
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Old 12-15-2003, 08:37 AM
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If you really want to spend more money, lol, I would suggest getting the IRS 12 ball diff, it lasts longer between rebuilds, which is nice, but as long as you keep your diff in good shape it doesnt make a difference.

Also one thing that you can do if you didnt shoe-goo your servo in is to get the alloy servo mounts. They dont strip out as easily as the plastic ones, although they do mount a mini 12th scale servo kinda high off the chassis (a mm. or two) so if you want you can shave them down.

The car is otherwise really dialed out of the box, Alex Lopez's car that he won the nats last March was box stock minus a dress kit (i think) for looks, lol.

Also if you do the mod to the front end I would almost suggest making new kingpins, because the shims can sometimes catch on the grooves on the stock hingepins and make it tricky to remove. All I did was take some AE offroad hingepins cut em down and grind a flat spot on em and they work great.

Also if your track allows it, pick up a EPIC binary stock. They are generally worth around lap or more, as long as you gear them and set them up right. For 12th scale run two reds or a red and green and around 2-3 teeth lower than a monster.
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