Herminator

OK, again, the Speedway PAL Drive System is an optional motor mount/ drive shaft assembly that has an extra bearing to hold the shaft near the spur gear to keep it more aligned, lessening the risk of ruining spur gears. It does add a tiny bit of drag and some weight to the drive train though, there is a carbon shaft for it out soon though. It's very advisable to use it, especially if you run mod motors.
I'm currently doing ok without it, I'm mostly running 19T though and I do have an alloy shaft holder at the rear to help a little, I'm debating weather or not to get it.

Placement of the cells isn't a huge deal, the car suffers from no noticable torque steer either way round. You may want the cells on one side if you run on an oval or have predominantly one sided turns, so the cells are on the inside, it would be a minute difference though.

I've not broken anything on my cuda yet, it's very strong. It's still always advisable to have the normal things spare, just in case, first on the list would be c-hubs, these have been broken in big crashes. Then you may want spare rear hubs and steering hubs, I don't see you being able to break the suspension arms but a pair will fit either side so it's not a lot of money for some peace of mind. It would be a good idea to get some spare bevel gears, you probably won't strip them but I've had a small stone get stuck between two teeth and then dent the other gear all around.

JDM_DOHC_SiR

iTrader: (31)

Well if you need a full set of Pink Alloy hubs and knuckles just hit me up... I did a complete color change on 1 of my Cuda's.... ..

-Dave

JDM_DOHC_SiR

iTrader: (31)

OTAY

-Dave

highwayman

iTrader: (2)

herminator / ko racer, thanks...

Ko Racer

not a problem ask anything we might know it and if not im sure someone will out there

Fatboy Joe

JDM_DOHC_SiR / KO Racer / Herminator: Hi,may I ask what cars you used to drive before you made a big switch to the R2? i am currently driving a LOSI but recently took out my TC3 and set it up for carpet racing - I know the R2 and TC3 are different cars but I want to get the feel of shaft drive cars again in preparation for my R2. May I know the noticable differences between your old cars and the R2? The PROs and Cons....How does it fair out against a LOSI or Yoke SD? Alot of guys in our area run LOSIs and the new YOK SD...Any infor will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Herminator

I used to drive an RC Lab 7.6 which was a nice car but I could never get the back end to stick indoors on a wooden floor. The cuda was a massive improvement with just a stock setup. Now we've moved outdoors for the summer I'm running a 19T and the shaft drive with a very free drivetrain, after cleaning out the bearings, gives me great acceleration and no lack of top end either. I was embarrising other 19T guys at an SMTCA event last month, I the car was much faster than most through the infield, I could of geared up slightly to get a bit more top end, as it was I was gaining at the start of the straight but then holding position by the end, this was to a range of cars. Some slight understeer and my reluctance to change anything since things were going so well meant I took second place overall, behind a Losi the losi was well dialed in though and some perfect driving was what kept him ahead, I had the faster car. I like the Losi a lot, it has one major problem though, it's far too heavy in standard form, infact the guy with the Losi that beat me has since bought a graphite version and some new electronics so I do have so much of a basic speed advantage, my cuda is 15g over the minimum limit when using 3300's if I put 3000's in I have to add weight, and I could easily save weight with some titanium screws and other bits and a shell painted with an airbrush instead of cans, since the shell is certainly not light atm.
There are very few TC3's around here, I think it has to do with the big popularity of HPI a few years ago, most people had a Pro2 and it some still don't see the need to change, although getting parts is harder now. Lots have changed and most searched for something new, when the TC3 had been out a little while, plenty went for X-Ray's, quite a few went for RC Lab's because of the great support of the UK distributer and there are plenty of Losi's around too, people tried the Pro3 but now it seems most kits have been sold to younger racers. I started with a Sport2, then had a Pro3 which I spent a fortune on, then picked up an RC Lab at a bargain price, now I'm more happy than I've been with any other car since I now have my Cuda. I have only heard of one other person in the UK that runs one, someone way down south in London, I'm the only one in Scotland I think although I've stirred up some serious interest. The new Yoke is getting quite a few people to try it too, and some Evo3's are around down south.

Fatboy Joe

Herminator: thanks for the information Can't wait for the CUDA.

Oasis

iTrader: (38)

I'll let you know what i think of the R2 also,I have not raced mine yet,I also race a G Plus and a SD,i also have an x ray,mr4tc ssg.Not that i know what i'm doing i just have a few cars to compare with.

Herminator

Raced again tonight, car setup was not right at all. The rear was very unstable when off power so I went up a spring on the front and tried a few different angles for the rear shocks by changing the lower mount position, in one from stock was good on the sweeper but on tighter corners it was making the rear bounce a little. It wasn't a very good track for the one way and I didn't have time to change to a normal diff, almost all corners were hairpins My driving was a little poor too, I ended up qualifying 6th in the A and after a couple of incredibly stupid mistakes on the opening two laps I was last and almost a whole lap down, infact another small mistake and I had been lapped by the lead car who was flying. I stopped making mistakes and started to gain positions, actually staying close to the leader who had just lapped me, the car was handling the best it had all night. Worked my way up to 5th easily enough, 3rd and 4th were tussling with each other all race long, they tangled and I got past them both then my car started handling worse, the rear end getting loose again so I went down to 5th by the end of the race. I need to investigate tomorrow, I think half the problem was the track though, the tarmac wasn't giving great grip and some areas had dirt on them. Glad were aren't doing our SMTCA event there and hopefully the track will be better laid out too, I hate hairpins

SpeedTech

iTrader: (5)

Hi Guys,

Sorry I haven't been on here for awhile, but if you haven't already heard, Dave Berger just won the KO Grand Prix over the weekend in Pro Stock class at SoCal raceway. Proving once again the Cuda is the car to have in stock/spec type racing. Great job Berger!

Both Berger and I were working on possible setups with no sway bars and we'll both post the setup sheet online as soon as possible on www.alexracingusa.com Berger worked on setup for the long-span arms, while I worked on the mid-arms.

Fatboy Joe,

A lot of the racers we know switched to the Alex Racing R2 because of the incredibly efficient drivetrain of the car, which provide more punch/acceleration and more runtime. Plus the car is very durable (I had some very bad "take outs" handed to me this weekend, and the car came away with out a tweak! ) and it is very well designed, everything fit nicely.

We got some of the spare parts back in stock today (mainly the bevel gear 16T) and car kits should be arriving tomorrow or Wed.

Steve Wang

SuPerDraGon

iTrader: (1)

Hi,

I would like to check if anyone have a technical carpet track setup for rubber type for R2.
Thanks in advance..

Aku-Man

Steve,

Why you didn't carry any red and pink parts for R2?

JohnA

I would be interested in red parts too. Anyone know of any aftermarket red alloy shock caps?

itchynads

Can't get enough shiny red parts eh?