Claydoh

We had our first outdoor meet today. The F1's were in full force. Tire-wise people were all over the place. I started with Pit softs (since they were all I had, my order hadn't come yet) I wore them out badly but they held on. The track layout made it a toss up between the stock gears or the high speed gear set. I opted for the high speed. I spent a lot of time trying to whoa that thing down.

At our track, F1 is the single biggest class. Racing 2 cars is a lot of work ...if I drop a class, it'll be sedan. They just aren't as fun.

Hope you'all had as good a race day as I did. It felt great to get off that frickin carpet and do some real racing!

TheNige

How many guys did you get in the F1 class?

Claydoh

There were 8 and this was just a test and tune weekend. 7 more are expected for sure. We'll get up 20 in no time. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but RC racing is really dying off here in Omaha. We only had 8 or so for stock sedan. And a couple said they might drop sedan and just race F1.

TheNige

That's great news. We've actually been getting more people for F1 lately also. Had 9 the last race and should have a few more in the coming weeks.

Claydoh

You guys have been racing F1 in HI for a long time, right? Those old 103's are a handful even with kit motors. Do you get good exposure to the public? Whats your track surface like?

We race in a strip mall parking lot of the LHS. Lots of traffic and lots of looky-loo's. We setup a pretty good track. The asphalt is grey but fairly smooth. Lots of grip when it's cleaned up a bit. Still some salt stains from winter. Not sure what the right tire is yet. My pit meds are in route. I know now they are gonna be too soft unless it gets cold. The softs I ran indoors are trashed now. Got way too warm for them, 80deg. But boy was I hooked up ; ) Saw a bunch of fairly new kit tires worn down to nothing in one day. Man, those kit tires should be marked "for display purposes only".

psycho

Claydoh

I race in Northern CA and during the summer, track temps exceed 140 degrees F. The Pit mediums last well. even under those conditions. I raced a set all last year and mine looke like they were just scrubbed in with a few laps of track time. With the kit tires, the grooves are nearly worn away in one 6 monute heat.

Claydoh

Thats good to hear. I doubt our track temps would ever get much higher than that.

Any of you non-TCS racers tried the Tech or Kose one-ways?

psycho

I have the Kose, but haven't raced with it yet. Damn rain!

TheNige

I used the Tech one last season. It worked well but I've switched back to the diff for better braking control.

chiplouie

Hi Nige,

I agree, the ability to use maximum braking is essential for a good line to me. I think one-ways were a cure for the early TC's when wide tires were the norm and the TC chassis racing at the time were not responsive to tuning like they are now. I was there and hated having to use a one-way because they make the car skid and scrub through the turns.

IMO one-ways are what's wrong with racing today's TC's, everyone relies on motors and batteries for cut and thrust driving and don't know how to carry speed through a corner.

In the F1RL rules one-ways are not allowed for just this reason. The racing is very clean and most of the drivers are trying to get the best speed all the way through the turns and need to use maximum brakes before hitting the turn. It also helps that nobody wants to get into the boards, hit or be hit by another car for fear of damaging a car and gatting a DNF in this point series race.


Cheers/Chip

gtypecanare

I wish Tamiya came out with a one-way for the 201, oh well. It's all about the lifting, brakes who needs brakes, hehehehehe:

psycho

Especially if the track flows nicely and you're running higher turn motors. I don't use brakes much at the tracks I race at. I think too many people use "no brakes because I'm running a one-way" as an excuse for bad driving. If you screw up and punt someone, say sorry, check up and continue racing.

Hmmm... now there's a good idea for a thread. Driving etiquette 101. Always turn marshall! Please return your transponder! Don't hog frequency clips! Don't race people in qualifying! I can go on for days...

Dan the Man

iTrader: (41)

Has anyone heard anything about whether Tamiya will improve those crappy A-arms of theirs. I could go out and buy a FPM set, but I want a solution for when TCS comes around again. Is there anyway of putting the issue to Tamiya???

psycho

Guys were running reinforced arms when TCS was here in Northern CA. I wrote an article on www.formula1-rc.com on how I did it, and there is at least one other article on another approach. I'm sure those will give you some ideas on how to legally make the arms stronger.

gtypecanare

Wow, that let the FPM arms slide through tech! Yeah, people use that excuse too much, "I got a one-way no brakes excuse". But lets face it when we drove f103's how much did we actually used the brakes. I had my brakes set so low, that at full throttle I could slam the brakes and the car would just coast. Get rid of the panic brake, get car unstable, end up backwards on straight, and end up being a launch ramp for a sedan. So I guess I'm in the lifting category of drivers. Just got to be careful and say sorry alot for punting someone.