oldernoob

iTrader: (1)

SRS was great, i was on travel and took my buggy-just in case! It was plenty worth it. ~especially to see Kinwald blazing the track up. I finally (nearly) got the hang of the jumps just before i left. I would love to go back again.

Mopar

I started a FB page for the car, listed as Schumacher Cougar KF2 SE Nation. Primarily for us US drivers that race on dirt. Thanks guys!

Bob Barry

iTrader: (22)

Took my KF2 SE out yesterday for the first time. I built the car in MM position with the shocks on the rear, front arms flipped and a ball diff. Rest was kit setup. I was running on a medium to high grip clay track, flat with wood jumps. My car was amazing. Coming from the B5M, it was way more aggressive in every way, which tbh hurt me. It’s going to take me a little bit of time to get used to it. So for now I’m actually working on taming the front end down until I get comfortable with the car. Then I’ll dial it back in.

Changes I made so far:
Raised the inner rear camber link 1mm
Moved the ackerman to the back hole
Added the brass skid plate to the front
Lowered ride height from 24mm to 22mm

One other thing that I noticed is that this car seems to be LESS sensitive to drag brake. It could just be in my head, but I actually dialed in more drag brake (close to 20%) than my B5M (closer to 15%) and it felt like I had less. I didn’t have less overall braking, just drag brakes.

I think I’m going to run the car the next couple weeks in 17.5 just to get used to the different handling characteristics. Plus if I run it in 17.5 and Mod with the same car, I’ll double my track time.

For reference:
Novak Pulse V2
Novak Vulcan 8.5
Geared 24-76
JConcepts Silver Dirt Webs (worn in)
SMC 4300 shorty
Savox 1268 HV servo
Futaba 4PX with the wireless receiver
Car weighed a tad over 1600 grams before I added the brass in the front. Keep in mind I did nothing to make it lighter and my ESC is on the large side.

MelKF2

I noticed the same thing with the drag brake effects! I believe its do to the belt drive, I used the drag brake for a few months to just so I could concentrate on driving tight lines instead of doing both until I got back into driving smooth again after 25 years of retirement of Competition Racing I needed it. Just watch out for to much DB it will cause nose down attitude off jumps off throttle! I didn't use more than 25 after that I noticed the attitude of the nosie went down more. You also might try narrower rear hexs U4860 (5.5mm)factory team used it at the Reedy Race.

Bob Barry

iTrader: (22)

cool thanks. I'm going to give it another weekend to see if I can adapt to it before I start making bigger tuning changes.

Mopar

When you say 'tame down the front end', are you trying to reduce 'on throttle' or 'off throttle' steering? The first thing I'd do is get rid of the brass front skid plate. And go from there.

The best APP I've found for car set-ups is Martin Crisp's "Learn Set-ups" @ http://app.learnsetup.com/app/Login.html

DiscountRCStore

+1 on Martins app ... great info there


..p

Bob Barry

iTrader: (22)

basically this car reacts super fast compared to my prior cars. Putting the weight up front slowed it down some. It's a band-aid, but it did work.

I think I'm going to go up a bit in oil and use less aggressive front tires. I basically want to just slow the reaction down some until I catch up with it. Make the car just a tad easier to drive for old guys like me

Even if I do nothing, the car was pretty locked in right out of the box.

Mopar

I still think the front weight adds to the aggressiveness. Tires will help you though. I'm running worn out JC Barflys, just about slicks really, and the car works very good. The difference I feel with this car, is that it seems to rotate on the motor location instead of the rear axle.

Badger5

Bob, is the front camber links on the inner or outer holes on the front hubs? If the inner hole try the outer hole as it will calm the front end down. You could also reverse the front wishbones as this makes the wheelbase slightly longer and again calms down the steering. Shimming up the steering rack softens the steering around neutral.

JsK

iTrader: (10)

The dirt cheap b5 plastic rear hexes work fine, they are about 1mm narrrower per side and are so cheap there a good thing to have in your parts box.

Bob Barry

iTrader: (22)

I don't have the car in front of me so I can't tell you for certain. I built it with the kit setup on it though and I haven't changed the front links at all.

Edit - I forgot, I did put the front arms flipped around.

Bob Barry

iTrader: (22)

Adding weight to the front end of any car SHOULD slow down how it reacts. I can only speak from personal experience, but that's what I also felt with this car too. Adding that brass slowed down the response and made it a little easier to drive.

I will agree that the car seems to 'steer from the center' of the car more.

Saturn V

Thanks! A couple of the washers were pretty flat. The diff has now made it through two race days and an hour of practice with no issues! It's amazing how much better I run when my car doesn't self-destruct. Right there with the pros.

Mopar

So, had my third race day with the car, and it was great. We had 9 cars for sportsman stock. Bad, in my opinion, first round, had me in 4th spot. Better second round, by a lap, put me 3rd on the grid. The top four three of us had a good battle going on, all clean racing, got to second on the third lap, and took the lead on lap 5. Second win with the car. After the main my B5m went on sale. The young man who is buying it will get it next week when he has the money. Oh, and by the way, all the top four places were taken by the 50+ crowd, all the 'kids', finished behind us. A friend is building a KF2se too, so there will be a second 'kitty' at our track. Who knows, maybe more in awhile.